Jon Abbott (1951S) regularly visists the OD to attend talks at The Mitre.  He is 92!  Jon shared some of his experiences and Tim Richman the editor of The Old Diocesan suggested that we publish some of Jon's story here.  

Jon writes:  I was born in a house in Lower Houghton that is regarded as one of Johannesburg’s most expensive neighbourhoods. Those were the days when to be born at home was a lot more common for the well off than it is today. I was the eldest of three boys, Michael (1952S) and Anthony (1950S) being the younger ones. Like me they both went to Bishops. Sadly, I have outlived them both and neither of them was married. I made up for this by being married three times and I have also outlived all my wives. Tragically Gayle, my last wife died a few weeks short of our 50th wedding anniversary. We had one daughter Belinda who now has her own fashion house in Melbourne, Australia. My two children Simon and Samantha from my second wife Julianne died in particularly tragic and unusual circumstances. Simon was cyber bullied to death at the age of 47 by a BBC radio presenter on the Island of Jersey and Samantha, his sister was 41 when she jumped off a car park building shortly after giving birth to her first and only child. Neither of them was married but Samantha had been living with a criminal barrister with the picturesque name of Benjamin Squirrel.

 My Dad Cecil Abbott owned Markhams, the men’s clothing business that had its headquarters in Cape Town and a branch in Johannesburg when I came into the world and he wanted me to join him in the business, but he felt I should be trained elsewhere. So, he organised for me to be employed at the family business of Croft, Magill and Watson that has been dressing men for generations in Port Elizabeth and had no financial connection to my Dad. But I could not stick it for long. The job was too boring and so was the comfortable life my father had in mind for me eventually running Markhams (when it was taken over by the Foschini Group the name was inexplicably changed to Markham without the S). I must have been a terrible disappointment to him because as the oldest of his three boys a great deal was expected of me when I was sent to the Bishops as a boarder because that was where he became the 1924 Rhodes Scholar and went on to Oxford University. I didn’t even pass my matric examination. So, I decided to hitch-hike across Africa and make my way to England to become a journalist. People said I was mad and I soon found out how right they were. But when I look back on it now, I realised what a lucky life I’ve had from the time I was born into wealth until now, otherwise I would have never reached my nineties. In fact, I would not even have lived past that year in 1955 when I was pressing my luck time and again while travelling alone through wildest Africa. Today ebola is killing people in the Congo, which is one of the countries I went through and there is a civil war in the Sedan, which was another one.

Below are some of the interesting accounts with photographs supplied by Jon.

Photograph below: A close shave when Jon was almost run over … "this was what happened to the vehicle after it nearly ran me over in the car park of the Harbour Bay Mall near Simonstown".

Photograph below: "Incredibly this graze on my head was my only injury when the driver nearly ran me over in her car in the car park of the Harbour Bay Mall near Simonstown".

Photograph below: "I was born at home in Johannesburg and we subsequently moved to Cape Town where I became a border at Bishops. After leaving school and hitch-hiking across Africa to get to England I became I journalist there before I returned to South Africa to join The Star in Johannesburg. I then moved to the Sunday Times where I was a prize winning investigative journalist and I also wrote a hard hitting weekly column in the Business Section that took big business to task for all kinds of transgressions. The photo below is of Jon at 90!

The photograph below: "I was living in Devon in England and I was working as a journalist there when I bought this bubble car".

Photo below: "One of these two dugout canoes was my one that took me hundreds of miles down the Congo river. This made a change from hitch-hiking on my trip across Africa".

Image below: "This is my hitchhiking and canoeing trip that took me about a year to go through 13 African countries before I got a birth on a ship across the Mediterranean to the South of  France and from there I went on to Britain".

Photograph below: "This was the scene of one of my worst narrow escapes on my hitch-hiking trip across Africa in 1955. I got a lift with one of two guys who were each driving old M.G.s. I was in the car in front when we came to this flooded bridged in Rhodesia and my driver went straight into what looked like certain death. Miraculously my second life came to the rescue and we made it to the other side even though the water was running across the floor from one side to the other of the tiny car. (I can’t remember the name of the river).We had to wait two days for my driver’s friend because he did the sensible thing and only crossed when the flood water had gone down sufficiently to enable him to do so safely". 

To follow Jon you can go to his blogspot

http://dearjon-letter.blogspot.com

The ODU and Bishops wish Jon all the best for his future ventures and continue to look forward to seeing him at The Mitre.

Viva Jon!

Truly inspirational!