Chris Diedericks

Chris Diedericks joined the staff of Kearsney College in the third term 1968, having taught previously in South West Africa (Namibia), Estcourt and Wartburg.

A man of formidable stature, he had earned his provincial colours as a forward in the South West African team. Keeping himself well-conditioned in the weights’ room he played for the Old Crocks against the Kearsney One-Stripe.

Chris taught Afrikaans at Kearsney for over twenty-five years and was the legendary Housemaster of Pembroke House from 1978 to 1987, a decade during which he ensured that the House dominated the tug o’ war.

He had a keen sense of humour and was a walking treasury of jokes and humorous stories which he enthusiastically shared with his pupils and colleagues. A great practical joker, he often caught teachers off their guard by submitting an examination script under the name of a boy who was absent from school on the day it was written. Needless to say, the answers were often creative and sometimes risqué.

Known to the boys as DD or Slomo, because of his laboured manner of walking, Chris kept an ear to the ground and was quick to discover smokers and their new dens, and to gain foreknowledge of parties which might encourage boys to bunk out.

On one occasion, such a “bunker” returned to his cube, worse for wear, in the early hours of a Sunday morning to find DD in his bed ready to apprehend him!