Otto Theodor Thiel
And His descendants
Special Acknowledgement
I was extremely fortunate to visit Arthur Rolf Thiel, the fourth child of Otto Theodore Thiel on several occasions in Amanzimtoti. Every visit to this retired veterinary surgeon in his nineties was a wonderful experience as this true gentleman supplied me with a lot of information about his parents and his brothers and sisters. I was also fortunate to attend his 99th birthday celebrations where I met many of his relatives but unfortunately could not attend the big occasion a year later. He passed away shortly after that. I am indebted to him for the information and photographs of Otto Theodore Thiel and his descendants. Through him I met his half sister Zoe Maralette Tonkin (Thiel) who also assisted me generously.
Arthur in 1943 doing military service in Durban.
Arthur(99) at his son Justin’s home in Umkomaas.
Otto Theodor Thiel
31 Oct 1874 – 10 Sep 1943
Otto Theodore Thiel was born on 31 October 1874 in Barmen, Germany near Wuppertal. He was the second child of Gustav and Maria Thiel born after they returned from Jerusalem. He was only 9 years old when he travelled with his mother and the rest of the family to join his father in Kimberley. Little is known about his schooldays in Kimberley but on leaving school he joined the Post Office and moved to Cape Town where he met and married his first wife, Klara Egenes, in 1900. She was the daughter of Captain E.I. Egenes, a Norwegian, who started the Rosebank Match Factory having given up the command of his sailing vessel, the Berma, after the death of his wife. Otto Thiel stayed with his wife in the home of his father-in-law at Norsk Villa on the corner of Hope and Main Road in Rosebank, Cape Town, opposite Woolsack Road which led up to the summerhouse of Cecil John Rhodes. Norsk Villa was built by Captain Egenes in Main Road opposite his Match Factory.
Otto Thiel and his wife Klara continued to live in Norsk Villa after Captain Egenes died and all five of their children were born while they were living there.
Otto Theodore Thiel in 1938
Norsk Villa in 1910
The four eldest children of Otto Thiel and his first wife, Klara, in 1912. From the left are Edward, Arthur, Vera and Vollie.
In 1924 Norsk Villa together with the adjoining house, Veronga, were converted into a boarding house for students at the University of Cape Town. The Students Residence on the premises was later known as Rosebank Hall.
Rosebank Hall in December 1991
Early on in his career Otto Thiel transferred from the Post Office to the Excise Department where he stayed for many years and eventually became Superintendent of Excise for the whole of South Africa. In the course of his duties he travelled considerably and became well known to many people in South Africa. Shortly after the end of the First World War he went with his son, Valdemar (Vollie), to the Grand Parade in Cape Town to buy a horse and trap but returned with one of the first motor cars in Cape Town, a 1913 model Renault with registration number CA 26. At the age of 46 he left the Civil Service when the Departments of Excise and of Customs were merged and he would have had to transfer to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. In 1924 the boarding house on the site of Norsk Villa was exchanged at a value of £6000 for the farm Sunnyside on the Orange River near Norvalspont. At this stage the family was living in Fish Hoek and Otto bought an Estate Agency at Kalk Bay which he owned until he joined his sons, Edward and Vollie, on the farm, Sunnyside, at Norvalls Pont on the Orange River. Otto divorced his first wife, Klara.
Otto Thiel with three of his children and friends on the farm, Sunnyside, in 1927. Otto is on the far right with his youngest son, Ron, next to him and his daughter Vera third from the right. Arthur is second from the left.
From the farm, Sunnyside, Otto moved to the Western Transvaal. He married Nan Murison and lived on the farm, Preston Pans, in the vicinity of Welverdiend. His son Vollie married Nan Murison’s daughter, Clodagh, and they farmed on an adjoining farm.
Otto later moved to the farm Burnsleigh near Hartbeespoort Dam and was living there when his daughter, Zoe, was born.
Late in his life Otto moved to Nigel because of ill health, to stay with his son, Vollie, who was working on the mines. Here he passed away on 10 September 1943.
The house on the farm, Burnsleigh which Otto built with the aid of his helper, Sixpence.
The children
of Otto Theodore Thiel
5 Children from the first marriage to Klara
Born 21 October 1902 in Cape Town.
Died 1942 at Norvalls Pont, Cape Province.
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Born 20 January 1905 in Cape Town.
Died August 1976 in Springs, Transvaal.
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3. Vera Egenes Thiel
Born 18 August 1907 in Cape Town.
Died 5 July 1994 in Tzaneen, Northern Province.
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Born 22 October 1910 in Cape Town.
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Born 7 March 1914 in Cape Town.
Died 4 July 1988 in Eshowe, Natal.
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1 Child from the second marriage to Anna Christina Murison (born Kritzinger)
1. Zoë Maralette Thiel
Born 26 October 1931 in Pretoria, Transvaal
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All the boys from the first marriage attended the Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch, Cape Town while Vera, the only daughter from the first marriage, attended the Rustenburg Girls’ High School in Rondebosch, Cape Town.