Sir Richard Edmonds Luyt & Lady Luyt
Richard Edmonds Luyt born on 8 November 1915 in Breda Street, Cape Town, South Africa, the second of the three children of Richard Robbins Luyt (1886-1967), broker, and his wife, Roberta Wilhemina Frances, née Edmonds (1891-1943). His forebears were Cape farmers.
He grew up to be an excellent cricketer and rugby player. He obtained a Rugby Blue at the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
During World War II he fought against the Italians in Ethiopia and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
He led Haile Selassie into Addis Ababa after it was liberated from the Italians.
After the war he joined the Colonial Service becoming a District Officer in Northern Rhodesia and subsequently senior labour officer in the Copper Belt. In 1953 he was transferred to Kenya as their labour commissioner, and thereafter was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Labour and Lands, and Secretary to the Cabinet. In 1962 he returned to Northern Rhodesia as Chief Secretary, and was for a while Acting Governor. He became a good friend of Kenneth Kaunda.
And then he was appointed outside of Africa - to be the Governor of the colony of British Guiana in 1964. He was to be the last governor.
Sir Richard Luyt, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and Lady Luyt - February 1966
Flag of the Governor of British Guiana
Flag of British Guiana
Badge of British Guiana
[Flag images from crwflags.com]
In 1964 Sir Richard installed Forbes Burnham of the People's National Congress (PNC) as premier of a coalition government with a small business-oriented conservative party. However, the People's Progressive Party (PPP) came first in the election. Deadly riots ensued when the PPP was not allowed to form the government.
Team captain Lenox Shuffler (left) introduces Governor of British Guiana Sir Richard Luyt to members of the national squad shortly before their encounter against Trinidad and Tobago in the 1964 Caribbean Championship for the Lighthouse Trophy at Queen’s College.
http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/07/05/a-rewarding-journey-from-the-ghetto/
His Holiness Srimat Swami Purnanandaji Maharaj with Sir Richard Luyt, then Governor of British Guiana, at Hindu College Ashram, Cove & John, on the occasion of Maha Shivatri and initiation of 13 Brahmacharies on 16th February 1966
http://www.pranavashram.com/pictures.php?pic_num=1
In February 1966, just before the colony’s independence, The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the territory at the start of a Caribbean tour.
An investiture was held in the ballroom of Government House, at which The Queen awarded Sir Richard the KCVO (Knight Commander of the Victorian Order). The following day HM received him privately in her sitting-room on board the royal yacht Britannia, and awarded him the KCMG (Grand Cross of St Michael & St George).
The Duke of Kent being introduced to Premier Forbes Burnham at the airport by Sir Richard Luyt [Facebook]
Sunday 22nd May 1966, Atkinson Airport. LFS Burnham, Duchess of Kent, Governor Of BG, Richard Luyt, Lady Luyt, Rondolph Cheeks, Jean Cheeks, Mary Bissember, Neville Bissember, Ruth Reid, Dr. Ptolemy Reid, Rahman B. Gajraj.
Midnight 25th May 1966. From left the Duchess of Kent, the Duke of Kent, Prime Minister Burnham and Sir Richard Luyt. [Facebook: Francis Canzius]
Guyana became an independent nation on Thursday, 26 May 1966. The independence celebrations began four days before, and continued until 29 May. Public buildings and business places were brightly decorated with streamers and bunting bearing the colours of the new flag of Guyana. On the evening of 25 May, a grand cultural performance took place at the Queen Elizabeth Park (later renamed the National Park). Dignitaries in the audience of thousands included the Duke and Duchess of Kent, representing Queen Elizabeth, and representatives of foreign governments. Then at midnight, the Union Jack, the symbol of British colonial rule for 163 years, was lowered and the new flag of Guyana was raised to the top of the mast. Just before the flag raising ceremony before a huge crowd, Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and Opposition Leader Cheddi Jagan publicly embraced each other, indicating their satisfaction that Guyana had finally won its political independence.
With the raising of the new flag, fireworks burst across the sky in various parts of the country.
Then around mid-morning, the State opening of the Parliament of Guyana took place. It was preceded by a military parade accompanied by much pomp and pageantry. A portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh decorating the wall of the Parliament chamber was removed and replaced with a portrait of Prime Minister Burnham. The meeting of Parliament was chaired by the Speaker. The Duke of Kent read a throne speech on behalf of the Queen, after which on behalf of the sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, he handed over to Prime Minister Burnham the constitutional instruments designating Guyana an independent nation. Immediately after, there were speeches by Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and Leader of the Opposition Cheddi Jagan.
In the Parliament Chambers, HRH the Duke of Kent presents a copy of the speech from the throne to the Speaker of the House [Facebook]
Later that afternoon, Sir Richard Luyt was sworn in by the Duke of Kent as Guyana's first Governor General at a ceremony in the ballroom of Guyana House, the official residence of the Governor General.
Flag of the Governor-General of Guyana
During the period of the independence celebrations, many public events were also held. These included carnival-style parties, exhibitions, float parades and public rallies addressed by Burnham and his Ministers.
On achieving independence, Guyana became the 23rd member of the Commonwealth.
Sir Richard held the position of Governor-General of Guyana until December the same year.
Having been born and educated in Cape Town, he returned there in 1968 as principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, a post which he held until 1980.
Because of his actions in British Guiana, his appointment was initially opposed by the student body but he soon won them over. During this period, at the height of the apartheid years in South Africa, academic freedom was under threat and Sir Richard was in the forefront of South African vice-chancellors who fought to protect these freedoms. He also vigorously objected against banning orders and detention without trial of students and staff who protested against apartheid.
In 1972 students held a protest meeting about apartheid education on the steps of St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town in the misguided belief that, because it was private property and a church, they would be safe. They were baton-charged. Fifty-one students were charged with breaking municipal regulations. Further protests in Cape Town city were banned under the Riotous Assemblies Act and a protest about the police action, again on St George's Cathedral steps, was dispersed with tear gas and rubber batons. A further protest, this time on the steps of Jameson Hall at the University of Cape Town was also dispersed by the police with rubber batons, dogs and tear-gas. The Council of UCT under the leadership of the principal and vice-chancellor, Sir Richard Luyt, obtained an interdict to prevent the police entering its private property.
Sir Richard Luyt gardening, 1982
On the walls of his home in Rosebank were huge signed portraits from Emperor Haile Selassie, HM The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh - and the small flags that had fluttered from his official car: Governor of British Guiana and Governor-General of Guyana.
Sir Richard heard about my collection of flags - for the last remaining British colonies and territories; and asked me to bring them along one day.
He was a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
Died February 12, 1994, Cape Town, Cape Province, South Africa (aged 78 years 96 days).
Lady Luyt (Betty) was his second wife, his first wife having died shortly after the birth of their first daughter Frances. Betty had trained as a nurse, and was a devoted wife and mother. She was much admired by all at the University of Cape Town, and continued to be an enthusiastic supporter of the university until her death in September 1999. Sir Richard's successor as vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Stuart Saunders, says "She was a woman of sterling quality, with that rare ability of taking a real interest in what you told her and making you feel you were doing something worthwhile."
Lady Luyt and I corresponded for some years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Luyt
http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanastory/chapter182.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_demonstrations_at_UCT
supplemented by
"Vice-chancellor on a Tightrope: A Personal Account of Climactic Years in South Africa" by Stuart Saunders
Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: David Philip, Publishers (August 31, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0864864582
ISBN-13: 978-0864864581
Sir Richard Luyt
obituary - The Times, 15 February 1994
Sir Richard Luyt, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, 1968-80, and Governor of British Guiana, 1964-66, died in Cape Town on February 12
aged 78. He was born there on November 8, 1915.
Richard Luyt came to the post of Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town in 1968 after a distinguished career in the British Overseas Colonial Service, crowned by
this time as Governor of British Guiana during its transition to independence. Thoughtful and quietly authoritative as Luyt’s style tended to be, he found himself in conflict with the South African authorities during
the 1970s when he vigorously protested against the detention without trial of students and staff engaged in anti-apartheid activities. Well into his sixties he could be found facing riot police at campus demonstrations.
Luyt‘s family on his father‘s side had lived in South Africa for over two centuries. Richard Edmonds Luyt was born in Cape Town. After leaving the Diocesan College, Rondebosch,
where he won a Rhodes scholarship, he went up to the University of Cape Town in 1933 to study economics and thence to Trinity College, Oxford, in 1937.
There Luyt was recruited into the Civil Service, but when war broke out he tried to volunteer instead for the Army, thinking he would be more useful fighting. The War Office disagreed,
and in July 1940 Luyt was sent out by the Colonial Service to Northern Rhodesia. It was at the discretion of the then governor of the territory, Sir John Mabin, as to how his men should be used and, ironically, Mabin wanted
Luyt in the armed forces. Luyt was posted as a sergeant to a 600-strong Ethiopian guerilla unit. Following the defeat of the Italian forces in Abyssinia in 1941, he spent the rest of the war training Ethiopian troops and putting
down insurrections in the region. He was awarded the DCM and was demobilised in 1945, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
In 1947 Luyt went back to Oxford, where he briefly studied trade unionism and industrial relations in Africa. On his return to Northern Rhodesia he spent six years in the Copperbelt
before being posted to Kenya in 1953. There he worked as Labour Commissioner, 1954–57, and then permanent secretary to various ministries until 1962.
He was sent later that year to Northern Rhodesia, where the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland – which had been formed with such high hopes – was breaking up. Once he accepted
that the dissolution was inevitable, Luyt, as Chief Secretary in Northern Rhodesia, worked to push matters through to a speedy conclusion and, in 1964, saw Zambia become an independent republic within the Commonwealth
Luyt was then posted, for the first time, out of Africa, when he was made Governor and Commander-in-Chief of British Guiana, during the country’s run-up to independence. He came
to a potentially explosive situation. There followed full months of arson, rape and murder between the East Indians, led by the colony’s Marxist Prime Minister Dr Cheddi Jagan, and the Africans, led by Forbes Burnham.
The violence culminated in the murder of a civil servant and seven of his children by a firebomb.
The resulting emergency meeting of the Privy Council in London in June 1964, gave Luyt authority to suspend British Guiana’s constitution and assume full emergency powers –
which included controlling the radio and press, imposing curfews and threatening those found in possession of dangerous weapons (anything from an axe to a stone) with 10 years imprisonment. Luyt left newly independent Guyana
in 1966, after six months as its Governor-General, claiming, with typical plegm, that his time there had been happy.
He took on his new post at the University of Cape Town in 1968 and remained in South Africa for the rest of his life. Outside his university duties, he was a staunch supporter of the
End Conscription Campaign, maintaining that it was wrong in the South African context to use an army of conscripts to enforce government policy. He also campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty
Having won a rugby blue and captained the Oxford cricket XI in 1940, Luyt – a small, solid man – remained an enthusiastic sportsman. He was on the staff cricket team at UCT,
president of the cricket club and patron of the rugby club. He kept up his old African friendships such as with President Kaunda, in retirement, and was invited to the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday party in 1980. He was
knighted in 1964.
Luyt’s first wife died in 1951. He is survived by his second wife Betty, a daughter and a son.
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Who’s Who c.1978
LUYT, Sir Richard (Edmonds), GCMG 1966 (KCMG 1964; CMG 1960); KCVO 1966; DCM 1942; Vice-Chancellor and Principal, University of Cape Town, 1968-80; b 8 Nov. 1915; m 1st, 1948, Jean Mary Wilder (d 1951); one d; 2nd, 1956, Eileen Betty Reid; two s. Educ: Diocesan Coll., Rondebosch, Cape, SA; Univ. of Cape Town (BA); Trinity Coll., Oxford (MA). Rhodes Scholar from S Africa, 1937. Entered Colonial Service and posted to N Rhodesia, 1940; War Service, 1940-45: with Mission 101, in Ethiopia, 1941; remained in Ethiopia with British Military Mission, for remainder of War. Returned to N Rhodesia, Colonial Service, 1945; transferred to Kenya, 1953; Labour Commissioner, Kenya, 1954-57; Permanent Secretary to various Ministries of the Kenya Government, 1957-60; Secretary to the Cabinet, 1960-61; Chief Secretary, Northern Rhodesia, 1962-64: Governor and C-in-C, British Guiana, 1964-66, until Guyana Independence; Governor-General of Guyana, May-Oct. 1966. Vice-Pres., South African Inst. of Race Relations, 1983-85; Nat. Pres., Friends of the Nat. Union of South African Students, 1980-; Governor, Africa Inst. of South Africa, 1968-; Patron, Civil Rights League, 1968-. Hon. LLD: Natal, 1972; Witwatersrand, 1980; Hon. DAdmin Univ. of South Africa, 1980; Hon. DLitt Cape Town, 1982. Recreations : gardening, sport,particularly Rugby (Oxford Blue, 1938) and cricket (Oxford Captain 1940) (also played for Kenya at cricket). Address: Allandale, 64 Alma Road, Rosebank, Cape, 7700, South Africa. T: 666765. Clubs: Royal Commonwealth Society; Nairobi (Kenya), City and Civil Service (Cape Town).
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UCT News, May 1994
In Memoriam
It is with regret that we record the deaths of the following members of the greater UCT family.
Our sympathy goes to relatives and friends.
Sir Richard’s style—quietly, with authority
Sir Richard Luyt, who died in Cape Town on February 12, 1994, led the University as it Vice-Chancellor from 1968 to 1980. Through the difficult decade of the 1970s he protested vigorously against the banning and detention without trial of staff and students for whom apartheid and the restrictive laws of the time were anathema. There were times when he placed himself between the riot police and students demonstrating on campus; and on many occasions he challenged the authorities in the name of academic freedom. All this he did quietly, with dignity and authority. That was his style.
Speaking to a full church at a memorial service in St Paul’s Church, Rondebosch on February 16, Dr Stuart Saunders described Sir Richard as ‘an extraordinary man—a man of great physical and moral courage, of integrity and of transparent honesty.’ Dr Saunders continued:
‘He was among that rare breed who could see injustice and wrong clearly and act against them when the view of the majority in the society around him was a contrary one. He actively protested against the death penalty; against detention without trial and banning and house-arrest, and was a steady supporter of the End Conscription Campaign.
‘A member of the 1982 SRC who was active in the ECC has told me that Sir Richard’s support, quietly given, had been a great source of strength for them.
‘Our political masters at the time found this particularly difficult to handle, given Sir Richard’s distinguished military career and his outstanding record as a Colonial Administrator, including the exercise of absolute rule as the Govermor of British Guiana during a state of emergency (something they also had experienced, but to which they had not applied Sir Richard’s high moral standards).
‘He will be remembered as a builder, as one who set great enterprises on the right course—the independence of Kenya, Zambia and Guyana—and here at home the leadership that he gave to the University of Cape Town through 13 turbulent years.
‘We owe an enormous debt to him at the University for his leadership and determination, for his honesty and for the quiet, dignified way in which he did things, and for his endless patience with staff and students. I am deeply in his debt for his help to me, for his example and for his friendship.
‘His undergraduate days at the University of Cape Town, his Rhodes Scholarship days at Oxford, his military and colonial service—the latter ending with high civil honours—are well known to you all. His prowess on the rugby and cricket fields and his love of sport, which lasted all his life, were part of Dick the extraordinary man.
‘After his retirement from UCT he did not spare himself, whether working for the South African Institute for Race Relations, particularly in the field of bursaries for students; for the South African Red Cross Society; for the Civil Rights League; as Chairman of the Friends of NUSAS and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Mauerberger Foundation. He was a formidable member of committees—always did his homework thoroughly and spoke forthrightly and with conviction.
‘We extend to Betty and to the entire family our sympathy and love, in the knowledge that they will take strength from a multitude of memories of this truly extraordinary man, who was so dear to them.
‘He was my Vice-Chancellor, he was my patient and he was my friend—I have never known a finer man!’
Stuart Saunders
Vice-Chancellor
Highlights of Sir Richard’s career
1915 Born in Cape Town, in a house which was subsequently sold by his grandfather
and became the original College House of SAC/UCT.
1931 Matriculated at Diocesan College
1936 Graduated BA (Economics and allied subjects) from UCT
1937 Diocesan College Rhodes Scholar
1939 Graduated MA (Modern History) from Trinity College, Oxford
1940 Passed First in final examination for admission to the British Overseas Colonial Service
1940-45 Military service in Ethiopia under Colonel Orde Wingate; awarded DCM, commissioned in the field and promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel District Commissioner in Northern Rhodesia with responsibility for reorganising local government structure in Barotseland
1957-53 Labour Officer, then Senior Labour Officer, in the Copperbelt
1953-61 In Kenya, as Deputy Labour Commissioner, then Labour Commissioner; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Labour and Lands; Secretary to the Cabinet
1962-64 Chief Secretary, Northern Rhodesia
1964-66 Governor, British Guiana and, after independence, Guyana’s first Governor General
1967 Appointed Principal-Designate of UCT to succeed Dr J.P. Duminy
1968 Installed as Principal and Vice-Chancellor
1980 Retired as UCT’s Vice-Chancellor
Honours
During the closing years of his British Colonial service, Sir Richard helped towards establishing the independence of several of the territories in which he had served, by taking part in conferences in London on the constitutional structures of Kenya, the East Africa High Commission, the Central African Federation, Northern Rhodesia and British Guiana. The following civil honours were conferred on him by the British government:
1960 CMG
1964 KCMG
1966 GCMG and KCVO
He received honorary degrees from the University of Natal (LLD, 1972); the University of South Africa (ID. Admin, 1980); University of the Witwatersrand (LLD, 1980) and UCT (D. Litt, 1982).
He is survived by his wife Betty, daughter Frances, son Martin, and three granddaughters.
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UCT RUGBY NEWSLETTER - APRIL 1994
SIR RICHARD LUYT
Sir Richard Luyt, a 1st XV stalwart in the thirties and later Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University, was Patron of the UCT Rugby Club for nearly three decades. He passed away on 12 February 1994. The deepest sympathies of all Varsity rugby men go out to Lady Betty (a great supporter of Ikey rugby) and her family. Club Life President MC Marais pays a personal tribute to Sir Richard:
I feel quite honoured and privileged to write something in connection with the wonderful and inspiring friendship I had with Sir Richard over the past 60 years. But before I do that, I should hike to express to Betty (his wife) and other members of the family, my deep and sincere sympathy in the passing of a husband, father and grandfather and friend of his calibre.
In silence he suffered
With patience he bore
Till God called him home
To suffer no more
God bless his soul.
Our friendship started in the UCT Rugby Club in 1933. I had just been promoted from the UCT U19 A team to the Ist XV and he and Louis Babrow played together in
the back-line of UCT U19A. And what a talented pair they were! I shall never forget the gem of a try Dick scored against the unbeaten Stellenbosch U19A team in the curtain-raiser at Newlands to the Southern Universities vs Wallabies game in 1933.
I was very honoured to have been selected for combined Southern Universities’ team (the only U20 player in the side), but the excitement of seeing the UCT U19 team
beat the powerful Maties really thrilled me. Stellenbosch were unbeaten at this stage and had no points scored against them! In this game UCT started a movement from behind their own goal-line and Dick, playing at centre, received the ball just beyond the Varsity 25’ and with a superb run evaded numerous Matie tacklers and eventually dotted down behind the Mattie posts - in one of the most sensational tries I have ever seen at Newlands!!
In 1934 he was also promoted to the UCT first team and on merit retained his place at centre/fly-half for the rest of his Varsity career.
In 1935, I was captain of UCT Ist XV and Dick Luyt was a very valued member of the team. He had, however, often trouble from a "wonky" knee that used to jump out of joint at times. It was not serious and other players usually assisted him with putting it back - and that was that! This type of injury did not always please Mr HA de Villiers, the old 1906 Springbok centre, who was our esteemed coach and normally reffered to with affection, as Oom Boy Bekkies (for obvious reasons!). It was during one of these spells, when we tried to pull back Dick’s knee into joint that Oom Boy, looking on, came forward with a remark (which has always fascinated me and frequently used by me during years of coaching) namely: "There is NO BLOOD, NO BONE sticking through the flesh, get up and play!!" With it all, Dick was also a brilliant student and finally ended his studies by obtaining further degrees at Oxford University. From Oxford he joined the British Colonial Civil Service and served in Northern Rhodesia and Kenya. When the Second World War broke out, he joined the "Kings African Rifles" Regiment of Kenya. It was here that he made a name for himself as a soldier of exceptional merit because he was the leader of a platoon, that at great risk to themselves, rescued Hailie Selassie President (sic - should be Emperor) of Abbyssinia, now Ethiopia, from being taken prisoner by the Italians - from all accounts no mean feat!
After the war, he was appointed Governor of British Guiana. In 1968, Sir Richard was appointed as Principal and Vice-Chancellor or his old Alma Mater, the University of Cape Town, where he rendered yeoman service for 13 years and it is here where our paths crossed once again.
He was surely one of our most outstanding principals, who served UCT in such a dedicated manner! I have always regarded itas a special privilege to have had such an outstanding man as one of my closest and most valued friends.
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Lady Luyt
A tribute to UCT’s modest champion
Betty Luyt died on September 5 1999, a few months short of her 81st birthday, after a long illness.
Betty the generous, Betty the hospitable, Betty the warm, in word and far more in deed - that's how Lady Luyt's many friends will remember her. Youthful! in spirit, Betty Luyt took a sincere and sympathetic interest in people, young and old, in all walks of life, with the result that she had friends of all ages. She also showed strength, courage and self-discipline through many adversities, including the death of her elder son, Richard, and of her husband, former Vice-Chancellor Sir Richard Luyt, and latterly her own failing health.
To her children she was a loyal and enthusiastic mother, equaily supportive of their successes and failures and deriving great pleasure from her four granddaughters. She loved UCT from the day she and Sir Richard and their family moved into Glenara, the official residence of UCT's Vice-Chancellors. And UCT loved her in return. Whether she was providing an impromptu meal for hungry students or was hostess at a formal dinner party for the highest in the land, Betty was always the same — modest, unassuming, and unfailingly interested in people, drawing them out to talk about themselves and their families.
The perfect hostess, she did her homework thoroughly; she, and Sir Richard, took the trouble to find out something about each guest, so that the introduction of one guest to another always included something about the person's interests which made starting a conversation with a complete stranger so much easier! In her quiet way, her contribution to Sir Richard's term of office was considerable.
Betty believed in doing things properly and paid great attention to detail. She remembered friends’ birthdays; she maintained contact with many former colonial service and UCT colleagues; she wrote letters; she earmarked newspaper and magazine cuttings that she believed friends would find of interest. And she kept meticulous and detailed scrapbooks recording Sir Richard's career during World War Il, the colonial service and subsequently at UCT. Perhaps she realised she was witnessing history in the making.
She was fiercely loyal to those organisations that espoused what she believed in, and it took a lot to modify that devotion. One such organisation was UCT. Though not an academic herself, she had a high and wholesome respect for the academic world at its best, and she believed this was to be found at UCT. A memory treasured by her family no Jess than Betty herself was the lunch party at Glenara to mark her 80th birthday, hosted by Dr Mamphela Ramphele in December 1998, when she was invited to plant a tree in the garden.
In the 13 years, from 1968 onwards, that she was chatelaine of Glenara, the house was a family home where her children’s schoo! friends were always welcome. And later, when those children became UCT students, their friends continued to be welcome. This warm hospitality continued at their Rosebank home after Sir Richard's retirement at the end of 1980, and after his death at Betty’s flat in Rondebosch.
Betty never missed a graduation ceremony during Sir Richard's term of office, and her interest in UCT did not flag even after his death. She seldom refused an invitation to a campus event, especially graduation ceremonies that she loved. It distressed her considerably when, in June this year, her failing strength forced her, for the first time, to turn down an invitation to a graduation ceremony.
Betty shared Sir Richard's love of sport; they were staunch supporters of all UCT sports teams and individuals, but undoubtedly rugby was their first love with cricket not far behind. In the rugby season Betty's Saturday afternoons were, more often than not, spent at Newlands for Western Province home games, or watching television if the team was playing away. They also shared a love for gardening - which, in Betty's case meant orchids, of which she had a large collection. She also supported many worthy causes and charities.
Elizabeth van Rijssen
Former Editor, UCT News
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