What is the secret sauce that holds a family together? What are the ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy? Never too late to get started or find the right time to start asking these questions. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.
One long-time Plett family who is often overlooked and has a rich culture and heritage in the area is the Dunn family. Patty Butterworth from Plett Tourism recently spent some time with family member Leigh Dunn to get their history.
Leigh Dunn, aged 2 years in front of the St Peters Anglican Church.
The history search of the family name yielded interesting facts. The name “Dunn” is from Scottish and Irish origin, and comes in the variations “Dunn”, “Dunne”, or “O’Dunn”. That is exactly where great-grandfather John Dunn hails from, and there most of the Dunns were famous poets, scholars, playwrights or statesmen. The first Dunns originated from John Dunn (born 1824 from Scottish parents and grew up in Port Natal, later known as Durban). John Dunn was survived by 23 Zulu wives and 79 children. The British rulers in Port Natal at that time named him “The White Chief of Zululand.” His children were scattered all over South Africa. One of his children was Michael Dunn, who accepted a railway job in Somerset West. He married Elizabeth King from Heidelberg in the Western Cape. They were married in Somerset West and had seven children; Charles, Michael William, Samuel, Ada, Edward James, Alfred and Richard. The only child who managed to be educated was their second eldest son Michael William Dunn, Leigh’s grandfather.
The St Peter’s Mission school was started by the Anglican Diocese in Plettenberg Bay in 1901. They required the services of a qualified school teacher, who had to be Anglican and who had to major in Theology. Leigh’s grandfather received his Theological and Teaching Certification in December 1911 at the Zonnebloem College in Cape Town, which made him perfectly suited for the position. He became not only the youngest school principal but also the first coloured school principal of the first multi-racial school in Plett, which was on Bull Street, next to the Old Rectory. Here he met the Harker family – the direct descendants of Captain Robert Charles Harker, who moved to Plett in 1823 from Ireland. The eldest great-granddaughter of Captain Robert Charles Harker was Bertha Dinah Harker, who married Michael William Dunn in 1934. In 1937 Michael William Dunn bought Plot number 12, Kloof Street Plett, where they built their family home “Victoria Cottage”. It is the plot behind the FNB Bank on Main Street and it became Plett’s very first Tourism and Publicity Bureau. Michael died on 11 April 1962 and the St. Peter’s Bell Arch was erected in his honour in 1964.
Bertha Dunn died on 28 June 1986. Both Michael and Bertha are buried above the new hall at the St. Peter’s Anglican Church on Church Street. Michael William Dunn had five brothers; Charles, Samuel, Edward James, Alfred, Richard, and one sister, Ada. All the brothers, except Charles, who immigrated to Ontario in Canada with his family, remained in Cape Town. Michael William Dunn and Bertha Dinah Harker married in the St. Chad’s Chapel in Harkerville on the 27th of June 1934 where they were the very first recorded wedding. Leigh is in possession of the original marriage certificate signed by The Reverend R Earp-Jones and Archdeacon R Thornley Jones from Knysna.
Bertha Dinah Harker, age 29 at the time of their marriage, was the headmistress of the St. Chad’s School at Harkerville. Michael William Dunn, age 42 at the time of their marriage, was the headmaster of the St Peter’s Mission School in Plett. That was the moment that the Harker and Dunn families of Plettenberg Bay became one. “I never knew my granddad, although people always tell me that I remind them so much of him. He died in 1962 so I never met him. But everyone who was taught by him, often remark what a lovely and open-hearted person he was. One of his students in the original school next to the Old Rectory Hotel in Bull Street, is Iris Dickson (age 85). She often tells me how much fun they had, going to school right next to the beach, and how they loved my grandfather. I was very close to my granny Bertha. She was a stately, strict and perfectionistic lady. I remember how she prepared and laid the table when our relatives from overseas would come and visit. I remember when I met my cousin Nathanael from England for the first time. He was about 12 and I was about 9 or 10. He wanted sardines on toast for breakfast. No porridge or cereals or anything else. So, my grandmother would go and prepare his specialty every morning”, says Leigh, brimming with nostalgia. Leigh’s grandparents had two sons, Leigh’s dad Mac and a younger brother Derrick. Mac was born on Kloof Street and has lived in Plett all his life.
Leigh remembers fondly how his daddy took him for beach walks, fishing trips, shell collecting, and he vividly remembers how fast his mom could run. They often had races on the sand and she always won. “I loved the beach, but never managed to swim properly, because I was always playing and having more fun than anything else”, remembers Leigh. “We are only two siblings. My sister Alicia is married in Stellenbosch and works at the Stellenbosch University.”
As with many other families, Leigh’s extended family saw Plett as the best place for a summer holiday, so all the cousins always came on holiday. “We had picnics on the beach, we played mostly outdoors. There was no Goose Valley. That was all open space and we went there to have picnics. There was no Forever Resort. Those were the places where we went and spent most of our holidays, having so much fun”, says Leigh.
All the Harker and Dunn families lived together and owned most of Kloof Street, Crescent Street and Church Street. The Nguni Restaurant and The White House, originally used to belong to Uncle Tommy Harker. Albergo Backpackers in Church Street was also a Harker family home, before the Group Areas Act of 1950 forced all coloured families to be relocated, without compensation. Leigh’s dad told him about the Bellhambra tree on their property in Kloof Street which was planted in 1884 when Plett was subdivided into plots, according to the research that was done on their plot at Victoria Cottage. The tree grew so huge, that the holiday makers in the apartments next door often complained and his dad had to trim the tree.
The owner of Victoria Cottage, Mr John Duncan, after Leigh’s family was forced to move as a result of to the Group Areas Act of 1950, was always very kind to his family. Mr Duncan always allowed them to go inside and to pick fruit from the trees that his grandfather planted on the property.
“I also remember when I was circumcised at age three, in the Knysna provincial hospital. I was very brave, and I had my little brown school case, with my dad’s telephone number written largely on the inside, and a few toys which I shared with the other children in the children’s ward. Everything went well, until my parents came to visit me. I remember running after my mom and screaming all the way down the long hospital corridors, so loudly that you could hear my voice echoing for miles. Since then I have a phobia for hospital corridors”, remarks Leigh with a grimace.
Leigh with his cousin Amy on a recent visit. Amy Kleinhans-Curd, Leigh’s cousin from the Harker side, was the very first Coloured Miss South Africa of our country – a proud Plett heritage indeed.
Leigh speaks fondly of his cousin Amy, who became Miss South Africa in 1992, as a very mischievous little girl. They were so naughty together and she was a real tomboy. She chased him with a needle and he ran to hide in a very small space between the wall and the refrigerator. “It just shows me that an ugly duckling can still change into the most beautiful swan. And it shows me what faith can do”, says Leigh. He remembers fondly his dad’s red Toyota Cortina with the red steering wheel and the white leather seats – CX 714 in the 1980’s.
Dunn family accolades or milestones? There are many. Leigh’s grandfather was the very first coloured school principal of the first multi-racial school in Plett. The Bell Arch at the St. Peter’s Anglican Church on Church Street is erected in his honour.
Leigh’s cousin, Natalie Dunn, suffers from muscular dystrophy and is wheelchair bound, but received her B.Com degree at RAU. His aunt Gwen Muller was invited to meet Queen Elizabeth the 2nd in 1979, because of her community work. His aunt Shirley Harker received various Lifetime Achievement Awards as well as a Rotary Award for her community work. Cousin Amy, from the Harker side, was crowned the very first non-white Miss South Africa in 1992. Leigh’s nomination in the Global Teaching Awards, as well as his Huisgenoot, YOU Magazine and DRUM national awards, were a few of his own greatest achievements and he dedicates it to his grandfather and his parents for being the best possible examples to him. His mother received her last degree at age 52 and Leigh honours her for that.
“My most recent proudest moment was when I was invited two months ago to be a delegate at the country’s very first National Social Justice Seminar, together with Advocate Thuli Madonsela, our previous Public Protector, and to share my story to encourage other victims of injustices, and that my thesis that I completed, as well as my educational research paper and personal life story, had been welcomed even by SABC and by companies abroad”, says Leigh.
Plett also has Dunns living here, but the other closest “Coloured” Dunns are in Cape Town, Johannesburg and abroad. If it was not for John Dunn and all his Zulu wives, there would not have been so many of them all over the world (on a lighter note!!!).
“What an honour to be invited by Plett Tourism to share this beautiful and rich family history – one that I am so proud of indeed. I am also grateful to the Van Plettenberg Historical Society for inviting me to share this and many other historical facts with them, and I appreciate that they will soon be unveiling a plaque, in which Victoria Cottage will be added to the historical sites of Plettenberg Bay”, beams Leigh proudly.
