The Life of Iris Vaughan 10: Iris registers at Rhodes University College I am hesitant to say too much about the origins of Rhodes University, as there are many people on this site far more knowledgeable than I. However, please allow me the minimal contextualising, so that Iris’ studies in Grahamstown make sense. From 1873-1918 there was only one university in South Africa: the University of the Cape of Good Hope based in Cape Town. It was purely an examining and certificate/degree-giving body, modelled on the University of London, and provided no teaching. The standardised School Elementary, School Higher and Matriculation exams that Iris had written and passed were all set by this University. From 1880-1884 – before Iris was born – Cecil Vaughan’s godfather, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, was its Chancellor. For a three-year BA or BSc degree, the first year was the most strenuous, with an examination at the end called the Intermediate. For this, a student had to take at least 5 subjects; 6 or 7 if s(he) wished to do really well. Once this hurdle was cleared, the student had two years of relative ease before taking the final exam. The teaching required to enable a candidate to grapple effectively with these exams was provided mainly by the South African College in Cape Town and the Victoria College in Stellenbosch. A smaller number of candidates came from the Diocesan College in Rondebosch (Bishops) and St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown. Rhodes University College grew out of St Andrews in 1904 under the Professors George Cory (Physics and Chemistry); Arthur Matthews (Mathematics); A Stanley Kidd (English; Greek; Latin; History & Philosophy and eventually just English) and GF Dingemans (modern languages). For the first few months classes were held at Hillside Cottage in Somerset St (picture 1; here with the girls of DSG). In November of 1904 the infant College moved into the old Drostdy buildings (the office and court of the magistrate; built between 1822 and 1826; pictures 2 & 3) at the end of High St that had previously been under the control of the British military. In 1871 the military had been moved to King William’s Town and from 1873 the barracks had been leased to the Grahamstown Public School (later Graeme College). However, after the Jameson Raid in 1895, the British military sought to strengthen its South African garrison, and immediately terminated the lease of the School (which then moved to new buildings in Beaufort St) and began building a rash of hideous red brick barrack bungalows under corrugated iron. Three years later, war broke out, the troops left for the front and once again the Drostdy buildings with their horrid recent additions were left unoccupied. Here the infant university found its temporary home and our Iris had her lectures. She wrote: “Anything less like a university campus to my mind was Rhodes when I first saw it. It consisted only of the main Drostdy Building in which the Library and Labs were situated, a dingy interior, judging by present day standards but, in our eyes even the most modern building can never rise to the same past heights. The lecture rooms, mostly converted wood and iron ramshackles which, so I was told, had once served as Boer War camps, were spaced out all over the grass-covered ground behind the Drostdy. Whatever they were they well served their purpose. When I first saw them I was horribly disappointed. In time I came to love them.” Okay, so she didn’t have the correct origin of the bungalows, but during the War there were some military tents pitched in front of the Drostdy; so she was not far wrong. Initially, Iris said about starting at Rhodes: “I am going when the year starts.” The academic year started in February, but for some reason, Iris only registered on 24 July 1910, according to the Rhodes University College Admissions Register (pictures 4 & 5). She registered for the Intermediate, thus intending to do either a BA or BSc. Her father had told her she could only have one year at Rhodes, and she was planning on completing her degree privately after that. The register erroneously records her having written Matric in 1905; we know it was 1906. I am not sure what Iris did in the preceding months from July 1909 until July 1910. What was the delay? Why did Iris not go to Rhodes in July 1909, when she left Cape Town? I am not sure and I’m really clutching at straws here: other than the obvious possible financial constraints on her father’s pocket, there was also the question of impending Union. There was a lot of talk about the proposed Parliamentary Act on Higher Education, especially the possibility of the creation of one federal teaching university. It is possible that Cecil Vaughan, who was quite clued up in these matters, being in the judiciary, wanted to wait until after Union (May 1910), to see whether Rhodes University College still had a future. And, as we know now, it certainly did. Next: Iris’ life as an ‘Inkie’
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:30:20 +0000
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