Elizabeth Neal had come out from England and stayed with us for a short while. She then found herself a secretarial job and moved to live in the Settlers� Club in Queen Victoria Street. She had come out under the auspices of the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women. We included her in all our activities, and she fitted in very well with all my friends.

At the Cape Times meanwhile storm clouds were gathering round B.K.�s head in a clash with the Board of Directors. I knew something was amiss, but didn�t at first realise what the problem was until I was told in confidence that BK. was resigning as Editor with immediate effect. After he left he wrote to me: See letter here

Shena had gone to England in January on a year�s exchange. She was teaching in Blyth in North Cumberland (and having difficulties with Geordie accents!) and Miss Farrar had come to Wynberg in her place. Mother was also overseas for some months.

While Mother was away I had to engage and train a new housemaid. I took on Doris, a pleasant girl from St Helena and did my best to train her, but Mother wasn�t impressed with that training when she got back. I don�t know when Anna Parker first came to us. She was a large strapping young woman, very light coloured, and was with us off and on over the years. In late 1989 (when she was about to have her 90th birthday) she told me that she had been house-parlourmaid at Aytoun - �And, Miss Shirley, nobody knows today what I mean by house-parlourmaid. But I was trained by Mrs Simpson Wells to be just that.� She also later was our cook, a post she certainly had in 1938 when our Jim was born. At some point she married one du Plooy, and off and on over the decades nursed many prominent Cape people. She gave us a hand with Mother at Whitehall Court when we needed her.