Spirit of Rotary artwork reunited with Coxswain John Fourie after newsletter article

It’s strange how often a coincidence leads to a circle being closed.

In the April newsletter, we carried the story of how ex-Station 18, Walvis Bay founding member and Coxswain John Fourie has unearthed some fascinating history on the station from the NSRI archives, ensuring that this extraordinary station is not forgotten.

Paul Sheldon, who used to volunteer at Bakoven, knew that his neighbour, Boet van der Merwe, was a volunteer at the original Station 18 in Walvis Bay, and he showed Boet the newsletter story.

“The NSRI network never fails,” laughs Paul. “I showed Boet the story, and the rest is history.”

The next day, Boet, who owned the local hotel and was chairman of Station 18, contacted the NSRI head office and was put in touch with John.

In our April story, we had a photograph of John and Captain Keith Burchell, who was station commander at Walvis Bay at the time, holding a painting of the Spirit of Rotary by Chris Binneman. When Boet left Walvis Bay in 1998, he was presented with another painting of Spirit of Rotary in the mist, also by Chris Binneman, as thanks for his service.

When he moved to Cape Town, Boet had left the painting in Ballito, but now, recognising John’s work at recording the station's history, he wanted to give it to John.

As luck would have it, the NSRI training department was working in Ballito, and a quick call to training manager Graeme Harding got the painting onto the training department bakkie and down to Cape Town. Not long afterward, John and Boet were reunited, and the painting was handed over to John. The circle was closed.

“This painting is a bit like a swallow that migrates from here to the UK, a journey of over 9,000 kilometres, and comes back to exactly the same spot,” laughs Boet. “It is now where it should be.”

- By Andrew Ingram