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was Pilkington’s father, C. A. Pilkington. So it was at Port Nolloth that Pilkington grew up
until he was sent to Bishops in Standard 6, probably aged 12 or 13, where he had his first,

and perhaps his only, drawing classes.

On 6 January 1904, Pilkington married Katie May Borcherd. They had three children:

William (universally called “Billy”), Joan, and Woodford, probably better known as
“Tinker”. The eldest son was “G. W.” after his father, Billy being George William but

being called “William”. Woodford was something of a “laat lammetjie”, being born about
12 years after Joan. Joan had one child, me,

Career in the Civil Service 1898 - 1923

Painting, and being an artist, was not the means by which G. W. Pilkington supported
himself and his family to start with. As a young man just out of school he joined the Cape

Civil Service in the Customs Department in 1898, and he worked for the Civil Service until

1923. (Fig. 4.1) He rose in the Civil Service to become the Private Secretary to J. W. Sauer
and later to Henry Burton.

He was not only a busy civil servant – he was an active member of the Royal Southern

Cross Yacht Club that became the Table Bay Yacht Club, and then the Royal Cape Yacht
Club. He served on committees and raced yachts and drew and painted yachting scenes, and

representations of the various yacht club buildings. Many of these early works are still at

the RCYC clubhouse in Cape Town. He was the third commodore of the Table Bay Yacht
Club and served from June 1909 to the 1911 AGM, when he declined re-nomination as

commodore but remained on the committee. He was an avid keeper of an album (which
seems to have been more a diary of yacht club business) and also was captain of the WP

Swimming Team in 1909, and the goal-keeper for the water polo team. I have a clock,
known in the family as “Agony”, after its chimes, which was presented to the newly-wed

Pilkingtons by the Green and Sea Point Water Polo Club.