22 July - One sunny Tuesday in 1924 a
precious blue eyed boy was born to proud parents, Thomas Farrer (who we know as
Clive) and Cinette Baynes. The young parents met in Pretoria at Savelcoles, a
factory that produced army clothing, where they both worked - Cinette being a
seamstress and Thomas a cutter. They fell in love, married and moved to
Pilgrim’s Rest, Mpumalanga, for Thomas to work in the reduction plant of the
TGME gold mine and to settle as a family. This is where their first born,
little Victor Clive Baynes was born and then baptised a month later at the Methodist Church in Pilgrims on the 7th of
September 1924.
Victors great grandfather Richard Baynes was the progenitor of our
family to South Africa in the 1850’s, along with his wife Mary Wilson from
Lancaster, UK. Great Grandpa Richard is listed as a pioneer of the Transvaal
Goldfields 1886. Richard and Mary had a son, Thomas Farrer Baynes who married
Mable Mathilda Dewrance at St Johns Pinetown on the 2nd of
April 1892. They were parents to Victors father, Thomas Farrer nickname
Sonny.
As a young man Victor completed his apprenticeship
in Pilgrims and started his first job in Pretoria at the PWD Post Office. He
then continued on in his adventures to the Cullinan Diamond Mine and then
owning a Saw Mill in Sabie and then to work with his father in
Roodepoort.
All these relocations finally led Victor to
Allenridge in the OVS, near Odendaalrus where he met and fell in love with our
beloved Betsy Baynes nee. Dietrich. (That story merits its own article on
another post.)
Other working highlights include being sent to the
UK in the November of 1964 – he took the whole family with - Betsy and the
kids. They stayed at Earls Court in London, which was organized by good friend
Chone Drezden. Chone went on to start the Overseas Visitors Club in London.
Before returning to SA, Vic took the family to Rome and Switzerland.
