Anthony Alan Jamison (1940 – present)

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  1. His childhood

Anthony Alan “Tony” Jamison was born on 26 April 1940 at Chelaston, Derby, Derbyshire, England. He was the eldest of four children, the firstborn of Robin Ralph Jamison (1912 – 1991) and Hilda Watney Wilson (1912 – 2012). His siblings are Jean Alison, Robin Andrew and Shirley Ann.1-3

At the age of about eight years old in 1949, Tony came to South Africa with his family to visit his maternal grandfather George Hough Wilson (1875 – 1950) as well as other family members and some of his parents’ old friends.3-5 They came by flying boat via the leisurely Nile Route between the United Kingdom (Southampton) and South Africa (Vaaldam), serviced by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The small village of Deneysville was used by flying boats as a stop-over point.6,7

While staying at Hilda’s sister who lived on the outskirts of Johannesburg in Transvaal, all their cousins were going down with various illnesses including measles. The Jamison children were quarantined and prevented from returning home for six months. Their father, however, had to return to England to attend to his work responsibilities though, and did so after six weeks in South Africa.3,4

Tony completed his high school education at Clifton College in Bristol in 1958.3 Although his initial choice of career was archaeology, Tony’s father felt that it would not be a suitable and stable career choice with which one could support a family. Since his career choice first had to be finalised before he could enroll at university, Tony decided to join the Royal Navy in the meantime. He registered in the Fleet Air Arm of the navy and became a junior naval officer.4 By January 1961, Tony’s mind was made up and he left England at the age of 21 years to study B.Sc. Geology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.3,4,8 (Tony excelled as a career geologist, but archaeology and the history of ancient civilisations remained his hobbies throughout his life.) The new freedom as a student away from home was, according to Tony’s reasoning, a time to embrace and enjoy, with the result that studies did not always receive the attention it required. Dad Jamison responded by withdrawing financial support toward his studies (for the years he had to repeat) and Tony had to start paying his own way. Since money was often in short supply, he couldn’t afford accommodation near the university and ended up staying in a log cabin outside Montreal together with other students. The silver lining, however, was that his father’s decision led to a most adventurous time in Tony’s life. During summer holidays, Tony worked as a geological assistant for an exploratory geologist and they would disappear into the wild, uninhabited Canadian forests for months. Supplies were dropped off every now-and-then by a flying boat at designated meeting points. It turned out that gaining practical experience while still studying was an ideal combination for Tony, and he finally qualified in 1968. Soon thereafter he received two job offers; one at Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada and one at Chingola in Zambia in Central Africa.4

   2. His wife

Tony met his future South African wife, Pamela Jean Rowlinson “Pam” (*28 April 1941) through an arrangement by his parents. Pam and a friend were working at Guy’s Hospital in London and took every opportunity in between to tour England. When Pam left South Africa, her friend Irene MacFadzen asked her to drop off a tiger-eye ring at an old friend, Hilda Jamison, who resided at Bristol. The Jamisons liked Pam so much that they wanted their son, Tony to meet her. Playing Cupid, Tony’s mum and dad arranged for them to meet when Tony came for a quick visit from Canada in July 1967. When Tony returned to Canada, they continued to correspond with each other. Several months later Pam resigned her job, left for Canada, and as a trained midwife found work in Sudbury, Ontario, which lies 680 km west of Montreal. Love conquered all – even distance – and the couple met over weekends and during holidays. Soon after Tony obtained his degree, the couple married on 28 September 1968 at Christchurch (Anglican) Cathedral in Montreal.4,9,10Pam is the only daughter of William Gustave Rowlinson (1911 – 1998) and Isabella Plenderleith Smorenburg (1914 – 1993). She has a younger brother, Robert Anthony “Rob” Rowlinson (*12 June 1944).9 READ MORE on the Rowlinsons.

Pam was born in Johannesburg and at one month old, her parents moved to Krugersdorp, where her father later bought his own butchery and pig farm. After matriculating in 1959 at Krugersdorp, she received her three and a half year training in nursing at South Rand Hospital, Rosettenville, Johannesburg and qualified as a nursing sister. Thereafter she completed a six month training course in Midwifery at Pretoria Moedersbond (now Netcare Femina Hospital) in Arcadia, Pretoria. After completing the course, Pam started work at Johannesburg General Hospital (now Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital) in Parktown, Johannesburg. She also completed a six month course in District Nursing while working at the hospital. By ca 1966, Pam decided that she wanted to see the world and with a friend, left for England on the RMS Winsor Castle to take up a pre-arranged nursing position at Guy’s Hospital, Southwark, London, and eventually she and Tony met.9

For the next ten years after their marriage and move to Zambia, Pam remained at home focusing on raising their children. During this time, she also focused intensely on the speech-rehabilitation of their son who was born profoundly deaf. When their children were respectively ten and eight years old, Pam returned to the nursing profession, working at various hospitals and homes for the aged.9

After her retirement, Pam founded Carryou Ministry, a non-profit organisation that trains volunteers from the surrounding communities in and around Randfontein, Gauteng, to be care-givers to the sick and predominantly terminally-ill HIV/AIDS sufferers. The ministry expanded over time to also include care to destituted AIDS orphans and the poor, disadvantaged elderly, as well as the development of the Vleikop Farming Project that provides employment, training and food for many. In mid 2014, a stroke significantly impaired Pam’s physical abilities so much so that she had to withdraw from the management team. In spite of these difficulties, she remains involved by attending functions and reading stories to orphans who visit Carryou’s community centre.9,12,13

    3. His career

After receiving the two job offers when he completed his studies in Canada, the young married couple decided to rather take the Zambian option as this was closer to home for Pam, whose parents and extended family were residing in South Africa. They moved to Chingola in early 1969. Chingola lies within Copper Belt Province, the copper mining region in Zambia. Tony received an expatriate package when he was employed as a mining geologist working for the Zambian Government at Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines (NCCM). This package allowed them to have a large house in Chingola with a big garden, a V8 American car and the services of a live-in gardener and a domestic servant. Remuneration was adequate enough to allow for a holiday in Mauritius. It was there in Chingola that their two children were born.4,14-16

Tony took up a position as a mining geologist with Anglo American at Western Deep Levels Gold Mine near Carletonville, Transvaal (now Gauteng), South Africa and moved there in February 1973.4,17 Carletonville is one of the richest gold-producing areas in the world. The economy of this town is dominated by large gold mines surrounded the town and is also home to one of the world’s deepest mines, the Western Deep Levels.18

The move to South Africa was not an easy move. Since they came to Zambia as expatriates in the first place, they were not allowed to leave the country with anything more than what they could fit in their car. So when they arrived in Carletonville, they had start rebuilding their lives from scratch having had only their clothes in their suitcases and a few cooking utensils. Fortunately the mine company provided a mine house on the outskirts of the town that was equipped with ground movement detectors as the area was plagued with sinkholes.4

In 1977, Tony was transferred to Anglo-American’s President Brand Mine at Welkom, Orange Free State (now Free State). By the end of 1980, he was promoted to the Anglo-American Regional Exploration Office based in Klerksdorp. Here he became an expert in seismic exploration technology for the surveying of geological strata in possible mining regions. This technology was initially used for oil exploration, but Tony undergone training in Scotland and Norway, and adapted the technology for South African gold exploration conditions. He was, for example, the person who discovered the elusive gold deposits in the Potchefstroom gap. (Mining experts knew that there had to be gold around Potchefstroom, a town that lies on the gold-rich Witwatersrand range, but were unable for many years to locate such deposits.) He also was a member of the Klerksdorp Archeological Society and was familiar with all the historic sites pertaining to Bushman rock art and their prehistoric settlements as well as the ruins of Iron Age villages in the area. By 1994, the Exploration Office was moved to Carletonville while gold exploration was scaled down. The family settled at Randfontein, a small mining town 40 km north-east of Carletonville and Tony commuted to work. By 1995, however, Anglo-American ceased all gold exploration activities in South Africa and Tony was left with a choice: be transferred to an Anglo-American mine in Mali in West Africa or take early retirement. Tony opted for the latter. Although Tony was forced into early retirement at the age of 55 years, he continued working and consulting as a independent geological specialist. He did various surveys for new or existing mines and also became an expert in the strata of the mineral-rich Magaliesburg region in Gauteng.4 In 2012, Tony even appeared as an specialist advisor on the local South African Environmental TV-programme called 50/50, who at that time gave extensive coverage to the projected extended mining activities in the Magaliesburg region.19 He was visiting geology-lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg for several years. He also co-supervised M Sc Geology students who were enrolled at Wits. As a member of the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA), he was involved in the development of the Pilansburg Geological Trail, the Roodepoort Botanical Garden Geological Trail and the St Paulus Primary School Geotrail in Pretoria. Tony was also instrumental in the proclamation of the Cradle of Humankind, an area of mapped fossil-rich limestone caves near Sterkfontein, northwest of Krugersdorp, as a World Heritage Site. His exceptional work over the years has been recognised by the geological community when he was elected Fellow of the GSSA in xxxxx.4

Tony has also been serving the wider community. In the 1980s, during the apartheid era in South Africa under the then ruling National Party, forced removals of non-Whites into segregated undeveloped homelands were general practice. Tony worked with relief organisations in the homeland of Bophuthatshwana by providing guidance to the best sites for bore hole drilling, in an effort to provide running water to these unsettled and destituted people. In his later years, he also supported the Carryou Ministry founded by his wife, by serving as Financial Director. At the local Anglican Church in Randfontein, Tony has served for many years as deacon and church councilor.4,12

  4. His children

They have two children, Kevin and Wendy, both born at Chingola, Copper Belt, Zambia.4

4.1 Kevin Andrew

Kevin was born on 17 September 1970. After the discovery that he was born profoundly deaf, his parents moved to South Africa in 1973, since no advanced medical facilities or auditory interventions were available in Zambia.4 READ MORE on Kevin Jamison, my husband.

4.2 Wendy Ann

Wendy was born on 1 March 1972. She matriculated in 1989 at Milner High School at Klerksdorp, Transvaal (now North West Province). Thereafter Wendy trained as an Assistant Nurse at the West Transvaal Nursing College at Klerksdorp from 1990 to 1991, followed by further training at Ann Latsky Nursing College attached to Coronation Hospital (now Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital) in Johannesburg. She qualified in 1992 as Staff Nurse. Wendy practiced nursing in various places such as Krugersdorp, Mafikeng and Pretoria. From about 1998 onward, Wendy worked predominantly as a Home Nurse focusing on providing home-based care to sick, elderly or disabled patients in the Midrand and Randfontein areas. She currently also cares for her mother, after her serious stroke in 2014.4,11

Wendy married Pieter Bouman “Bouie” de Klerk (*2 September 1964) in 1992 at Klerksdorp. Their son Robin was born on 28 February 1995. The couple later divorced. Wendy married again on 7 August 2007 at Krugersdorp to life partner Maria Cornelia “Ria” Bezuidenhout. They separated three years ago and are now divorced.4,20

Wendy enjoys sewing, baking, painting and drawing, reading, music, walking and archery.11 Robin completed his B Sc (Information Technology) degree at North West University in Potchefstroom, North West Province, and is now working in the mining industry.4

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  1. Jamison Family Tree Website by Tony Jamison. https://myheritage.com/site-18982082/jamison-family-tree
  2. Jamison Family Tree Website by Rob Jamison. https://www.myheritage.com/site-family-tree-302515751/jamison
  3. Kevin Jamison’s Family Tree Album compiled by Jean Jamison. 2007. In possession of Kevin Jamison, Pretoria, South Africa.
  4. Personal interview with Kevin Jamison, son of Tony & Pam Jamison. 10 November 2017, Pretoria, South Africa.
  5. George Hough Wilson. http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/george-hough-wilson_68520515
  6. British Overseas Airways Corporation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Overseas_Airways_Corporation
  7. Deneysville. http://deneysville.co.za/downloads/Deneysville%20flyer%20ref%203.pdf
  8. Students coming to McGill. McGill: International students. https://www.mcgill.ca/students/international/students-coming-mcgill
  9. Personal interview with Pam Jamison, daughter of Willie and Pat Rowlinson, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa on 20 August 2017 and 25 December 2017
  10. Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Cathedral_(Montreal)s=197302
  11. Curriculum Vitae provided by Wendy de Klerk, daughter of Pam and Tony Jamison, on 25 December 2017
  12. Carryou founder honoured. 7 April 2014. Randfontein Herald Newspaper. https://randfonteinherald.co.za/153638/carryou-founder-honoured/
  13. Employment, training and food – the future in Vleikop. 24 July 2014. Randfontein Herald Newspaper. https://randfonteinherald.co.za/159445/employment-training-and-food-the-future-in-vleikop/
  14. Zambia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia
  15. Chingola. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chingola
  16. ZCCM Investments Holdings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZCCM_Investments_Holdings
  17. Immigration record of Tony Jamison. https://www.gendatabase.com/paid/
  18. Carletonville. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carletonville
  19. Magaliesburg mining applications continue unabated / The greed for gold remains. Environment news, articles & legislation. https://www.environment.co.za/mining-2/magaliesburg-mining-applications.html
  20. Marriage of Wendy Jamison to Ria Bezuidenhout. https://www.gendatabase.com/paid/

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