Dawn Hattingh as young teacher. (Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media)
Dawn Hattingh was only 21 years old when the Johannesburg station was destroyed in a bomb explosion in 1964.
At that stage she was busy with a degree in English and Latin at Wits, and on the afternoon of 24 July 1964, Dawn and her friends were at the station shortly before. They had just returned from a shopping trip and were in their residence’s dining hall when the bomb exploded.
“Everyone immediately asked what had happened. I even joked and said that someone had blown up the train station. My words were barely cold, when someone ran into the dining hall with the news that a bomb had exploded in the station,” says Dawn.
“I can remember very clearly that I saw an elderly lady and a young girl sitting on a bench when we were there in the afternoon. We heard later that the little girl was injured in the explosion. The grandmother died.”
This grandmother was Ethel Rhys and the little girl her granddaughter, Glynnis Burleigh, who was 12 years old at the time.
Frederik John Harris, a teacher and prominent member of the African Resistance Movement (ARM), planted the bomb, a crime for which he was sentenced to death.
Dawn studied a degree in English and Latin at Wits. (Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media
“The girl’s face was badly injured in the attack. I heard years later that she went to live in London. When Nelson Mandela came to power, he wanted to personally apologize to her. I can no longer remember what the outcome was,” says Dawn.
Dawn was an English teacher all her life, but as a high school student she wanted to become a researcher in a medical field. Since her gr. For 11 years, she spent every holiday in a medical research center.
Dawn as ‘n baba. (Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media)
She worked hard to get a scholarship, because further studies were not something her parents could afford. Unfortunately, a letter rejecting her application was mistakenly sent to her. By the time the error was discovered and corrected, Dawn was already on her way to Wits to study teaching.
“My mother was a secretary at a high school at the time. She told the principal what had happened, and his response was: ‘Thank you! I always knew she should become a teacher.’ He arranged accommodation and a scholarship for me to study,” says Dawn.
“I realized that it was God’s way of sending me in the right direction. When I look back on my life, I realize that teaching was my calling. It also gave me a chance to spend more time with my family. If I had gone into medical research, I would have worked very difficult hours.”
(Photo: Cornelia Thirion/Maroela Media)
Dawn (83) is still very active in her community. She is at the helm of charity work at her church and takes care of several families with food parcels. She regularly writes stories and practices gardening as a hobby.
- “In the traces of memories” are those nostalgic stories that the older generation would share with a smile on their faces over a cup of coffee (or something stronger) – an anecdote about their growing up years, times on the border, or what they could buy at the time for five cents. These are stories that must be retold, lest they be lost. Do you know someone with such a story? Feel free to send it to (email protected) with the subject “In the tracks of memory”.