mtwebdev – Page 52 – Hermanus History Society

October 5, 2017

How I won the Victoria Cross – Story of Major William Hewitt

You can learn a lot by reading a description someone gives of the most important event in his or her life. This certainly applies to Major William Henry Hewitt who, almost exactly 100 years ago carried out an action during World War I that earned him the Victoria Cross, the […]

October 4, 2017

An Elephant Whisperer in Hermanus? The Story of Harold Langford-Browne

Another process of research, another unlikely link uncovered between Hermanus and events of world significance a long way away. This time it is the “Burma Campaign” that took place in the country we now call Myanmar between 1942 and 1945. It started with the Japanese invasion of Burma in preparation […]

September 28, 2017

Aberdeen Street in history – 1870 to 2017

On 24 September South Africa celebrated Heritage Day. But regrettably, Hermanus has consistently destroyed its heritage of domestic residential buildings, most of which were in the fisherman’s cottage style. Not one of the streets in central Hermanus looks at all as it did originally, but Aberdeen Street is one of […]

September 6, 2017

Hermanus in Spring: Wild Flowers, Whales Tourism and Our Economy

From the earliest accounts of Hermanus life, writers have never failed to praise life here in the spring. Fishing boats returned with larger catches in calmer seas. ‘Fountains’ flowed more freely after the winter rains. The ‘wild flowers’ bloomed in annual profusion, and the economy picked up after the winter, […]