A family file titled: Beadle Family and Relatives was recently acquired at a car boot sale in Johannesburg. The album, containing the Beadle family tree and many other family documents of significance was solely bought for the photographs contained therein. For some reason the seller was not negotiable on the rather exorbitant selling price. I budged and acquired the album at his selling price. Back home I accepted that the purchase price was fair in that the album contained rich family history – discarded family history.
One of the documents that immediately attracted my attention was the story of Lorna Edna Nattrass (Beadle), neatly typed on two pages. I cannot help but to wonder whether this life story was possibly put together by Lorna Nattrass for publication in a specialist interest group magazine, or whether it was simply meant for the inclusion in the Beadle family tree album. If her discarded story was not previously captured, the electronic capturing thereof becomes significant in that it contains rich family history and also briefly reflects, amongst others, on South Africa during the Second World War.
Lorna was clearly an energetic, positive individual. In her story she touches on the fact that she obtained a pilot’s license and that she was a volunteer during the Second World War. She also achieved as a tennis player, pianist, in needlework, a cookery show judge, and as instructor at ML Sultan Tech where her husband, Henry (Hal), was the first Principal. It is also recorded that...
