Harold Cressy – First Principal

22 January 2022

As the  learners settle in  at the desks  this week at our  alma mater, let’s take a moment  to wish the old school a  happy birthday.

It was on January 22  way back in 1912 — two weeks after the founding of the ANC —  that  the institution first opened its doors to enable students of colour to further their education at secondary level.   That makes  Trafalgar High 110 years old today.

We were the first school and only school to do so for a good many years to give higher education opportunities to students of colour from the Cape Peninsula and surrounds as well as  from the other provinces and Namibia.

When Trafalgar opened its doors it had a mere 60 students in attendance receiving tuition from five teachers led by the first principal Harold Cressy. Now the staff numbers about 30 and the student body close to 700 under the stewardship of Salwa Southgate, our first female principal.

For 14 years, Trafalgar was the only high school to serve the disenfranchised  community.   Livingstone High opened in Claremont in 1926,  Athlone High followed in 1947, South Peninsula in 1950 and Harold Cressy and Alexander Sinton a year later.

There can be no doubt as to the school’s pre-eminence.  We were there first.

There is a big move afoot to have the school’s history  formally acknowledged.  The new Trafalgar Alumni Association, formed last year, has lodged an application with the authorities for the school to be granted  heritage status.

To any observer, that shouldn’t be a problem given that the District 6 area has been listed as a heritage area. District 6 is Trafalgar. Trafalgar is District 6. That’s synecdoche.

What is passing strange is that Harold Cressy High already has  heritage status (which they may well deserve).  If they have Heritage Status, then Trafalgar should be named a national treasure. That’s  sure to get up the noses of the Cressyites but, hey, I’ve been getting up  the noses of Cressyites (and a few from SP) for a mighty long time now. I’m inured to their barbs and slings.

In its 112-year existence Trafalgar has endured much  in its fight for  the greater good. From the get go, principal Harold Cressy had to fight  for better pay. Then, when the fight against apartheid  gained  moment, Trafalgar was the  breeding ground for  dissent against the oppressor.

Our school, with teachers like Ben Kies, Ernie Steenveld, Polly Slingers, Solly Edross, Ernie Lennert were  Teachers League of South Africa  (TLSA) stalwarts and  formed the core of the Unity Movement. They shaped  the  thinking of students who were to become leaders in the struggle. Many of them banned and had their teaching careers cut short.

Trafalgar was described  as a “hotbed” of political dissidence. In the Sixties some of their students were dragged out of their classes by the Security Police, tried for sabotage and jailed on Robben Island.

Through its long history, Trafalgar has produced some outstanding community icons  and people who were leaders in their fields . . . Hassan Howa fought the good fight on the sports front,  Judge Seraj Desai of the Western Cape Bench, internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Dulla Omar , the new South Africa’s first Minister of Justice and author Richard Rive who spread the word  when he  taught at SP.

Trafalgar has a lot to be proud of in terms of its place in the broader education community but particularly so with regard to its status in District 6.

Warren Ludski