Chapter two · 1926
£5,000, a bicycle and a dream
The founding story the community has carried for a century — and what can and cannot yet be proved.
The story handed down is this: the money needed to secure the Institute — five thousand pounds, an enormous sum in 1926 — was raised and carried through Paarl, and a minister cycled to deliver the cheque that sealed the purchase. The names attached to the telling are Rev William Lloyd and Rev Paulus Joubert.
Both names are written into the town. A William Lloyd Primary School stands in Paarl today, and Paulus Joubert's name is carried by an institution nearby. That the community named its schools after these men says something about what they were understood to have done.
What we have not been able to do is find the cheque, the minute or the newspaper notice. Searches of public press and university archives turned up nothing that confirms the amount, the bicycle or the exact roles of the two ministers. The story is presented here as the community's own account, clearly marked, until the Trust's records or a family archive can settle it.
“A complete system of education — nothing less.”
Sources for this chapter
- aibprof — Who We Are, athlonebursaries.yolasite.com Read the source· to be verified by the Trust