Wynberg Boys' High School is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

English medium English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples that migrated to Britain after its Roman oc ...

boys high school situated in the suburb of Wynberg of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Founded in 1841, it is one of the best academic schools in Cape Town, it is believed by scholars and old boys to be the second-oldest school in South Africa, however, there are several schools that were established at earlier dates as far back as 1738.

History

In 1841, John McNaughton re-opened the doors of his school, the "Established School at Wynberg", in ''Glebe Cottage'' with 16 pupils enrolled. McNaughton's school shared the cottage with the Lady D'Urban School of Industry for young ladies. Initially a co-educational school, it limited enrollment to boys in 1853. The senior and junior schools operated as one school until 1943 when they separated. In 1845, the school moved to Bryndewyn Cottage. In 1863, the Government relegated the school to the status of "second class elementary school" and instructed the headmaster, Mr. MacNaughton to close on 27 February. Permission was granted to change Wynberg Boys to a private school on 2 March. A building was purchased from the Higgs estate in 1876, and in 1891, Sir Herbert Baker designed new buildings that opened in 1892. In 1980, the school moved to its current site on the Hawthornden Estate in Wynberg. Wynberg Boys High Entrance

The school has two museums. Two books have been written on Wynberg: ''The History of a School'' (1961) by English teacher Doug Thompson, and ''A School Reflects'' (1991) by Old Boy Roger Goodwin. The school's motto, ''Supera Moras'', can be translated from Latin as ''Overcome Difficulties''. There is an unofficial motto that is used frequently for marketing, "Brothers in an endless chain"

Sporting activities

Wynberg Boys' High School has a competitive sporting tradition. Students take part in sporting competitions, with schools from

and sometimes from other parts of South Africa, as well as occasional competitions with visiting international teams. Rivals include

Rondebosch Boys' High School Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in the country, having been established ...

Diocesan College The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established o ...

, and

Paul Roos Gymnasium Paul Roos Gymnasium is a leading public dual medium (Afrikaans & English) high school for boys in the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa, which opened on 1 March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. Described as South A ...

as well as

South African College Schools The South African College Schools (colloquially often known as “SACS”) is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands – part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape provinc ...

. The school offers sporting facilities such as an

astro turf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

area, a swimming pool, tennis and squash courts, four rugby fields, and the WBHS cricket field, which was renamed in 2010 as "The Jacques Kallis Oval" in honour of the World cricketer of the year and former Wynberg Boy.

Culture

The WBHS music department boasts a large collection of bands that play a range of music from jazz to classical. Choir and band members are offered professional training. WBHS has three fundamental school bands: the Concert Band, the Steel Band and the Jazz Band, however also has smaller ensembles for guitarists and string players. With a nod to the Scottish history of the school, Wynberg is one of only a handful of schools in the country that has a bagpipe band. The Wynberg Boys' and Girls' High bands come together every year to form the Combined Band, playing at many inter-school events. Every year Wynberg Boys' High School holds a memorial day celebrating the school's founding. The school pays tribute to Wynberg Old Boys who died fighting in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...

. In World War I, 42 Wynberg Old Boys were killed.

Notable alumni

Sport

Rugby

* Toskie Smith, Springbok forward (1891–96) * Doug Hopwood * Dave Stewart * Lionel Wilson, Springbok fullback (1960–65) * Rob Louw, Springbok flank (1980–84) * Franklin Bertolini, Namibian prop (2014) * Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Springbok flank (2018) *

Gary Gold Gary Gold (born 6 July 1967) is a South African rugby union coach who has coached at various levels of the game in England, Japan and South Africa. He was until December 2022 the head coach of the United States. Coaching career London Irish G ...

, Former Springbok, Western Province rugby coach, Current head coach at

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

Cricket

Jacques Kallis Jacques Henry Kallis Order of Ikhamanga, OIS (born 16 October 1975) is a South African cricket coach and former professional cricketer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and as one of the greatest all-rounders ever t ...

, South African cricketer *

Allan Lamb Allan Joseph Lamb (born 20 June 1954) is a South African-born former English cricketer, who played for the first-class teams of Western Province and Northamptonshire. Making his Test debut in 1982, he was a fixture in the Test and One-Day Inter ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

cricketer *

Garth Le Roux Garth Stirling Le Roux (born 4 September 1955 in Kenilworth, Cape Town) is a former South African first class cricketer. He went to Wynberg Boys' High School, graduating in 1973. Le Roux was a powerful fast bowler and big hitting tail-end batsm ...

, South African cricketer *

Charl Willoughby Charl Myles Willoughby (born 3 December 1974) is a retired South African cricketer who played two Tests and three One Day Internationals for South Africa between 2000 and 2003. He played for Boland and Western Province before spending two seas ...

, South African cricketer * Shadley van Schalkwyk, Chevrolet Knights cricketer * Dominic Telo,

Cape Cobras The Cape Cobras are a former franchise cricket team representing the Western Province, Boland, and South Western Districts regions in what was the South African domestic franchise era. The team's home venues were based between Newlands ...

and Derbyshire cricketer *

Richard Levi Richard Ernst Levi (born 14 January 1988) is an English-South African cricketer. He played in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. He currently plays for Western Province, Cape Cobras and Northamptonshire. He attended Wynberg Boys' High ...

, Cape Cobras cricketer and South African cricketer *

Kyle Verreynne Kyle Verreynne (born 12 May 1997) is a South African cricketer who plays for Western Province cricket team, Western Province. He made his international debut for the South Africa national cricket team, South Africa cricket team in February 2020 ...

Western Province cricket team World Sports Betting Western Province is a professional Western Cape First-class cricket, first-class cricket team which has been part of the Sotuth African domestic cricket structures since the 1890's. The team later restructured into the Cape ...

and South African cricketer *

David Bedingham David Guy Bedingham (born 22 April 1994) is a South African cricketer. He holds United Kingdom ancestry visa and qualified for English county cricket as a local player. Bedingham was a member of the South African team which won the 2025 ICC Wor ...

and South African cricketer *

Fritz Bing Fritz Bing (22 September 1934 – 24 September 2023) was a South African cricketer and businessman who became a leading cricket administrator. Life and career Bing was born in Cape Town and attended Wynberg Boys' High School, where he was hea ...

, Western Province cricketer and administrator

Hockey

* Wayne Denne, South African Hockey Team * Rhett Halkett, South Africa Hockey Captain 2013 * Lloyd Norris-Jones, South African Hockey Team * Ian Haley, South African Hockey Team

Politicians

Hendrik Verwoerd Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966), also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, scholar in applied psychology, philosophy, and sociology, and newspaper editor who was Prime Mini ...

(1901-1966), Former Prime Minister of South Africa. *

Andrew Feinstein Andrew Josef Feinstein (born 16 March 1964) is a South African former politician, activist, filmmaker, campaigner and author, now based in London, who specialises in the investigation of the arms trade and the corruption that accompanies it. He ...

(1964), South African politician ( ANC) & activist. * Grant Haskin (1968), South African politician ( ACDP) & city councilor. * Richard Friedlander (1923-2007), former mayor of Cape Town.

Other

* Vic Clapham (1886-1962), founder of the

Comrades Marathon The Comrades Marathon is an ultramarathon of approximately which is run annually in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon race. The dire ...

. * Charles Warburton Meredith (1896-1977), Air Vice-Marshal of Rhodesia. * Izak David du Plessis (1900-1981), author. * Michael Gelfand (1912 -1985), distinguished Professor of tropical medicine.

References

External links

Wynberg Boys' High official site
{{Authority control Schools in Cape Town Educational institutions established in 1841 Boarding schools in South Africa Boys' schools in South Africa 1841 establishments in the Cape Colony Wynberg, Cape Town Herbert Baker buildings and structures