 Birth Notes:
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9T43-PJX?i=409&wc=SFV8-ZJW%3A44975801%2C52325201%2C57036901%2C57113401%3Fcc%3D1468076&cc=1468076
Sources of information or noted events in her life were:
Obituary. http://phylbeaumontreception.blogspot.com/
Two Saturdays ago my mother sat Mike and I down, and instructed us that she did not wish any service or formal ceremony upon her death. She had, she told us, become disillusioned with church ceremonies in recent years. She specifically asked, however, that we tell you that she has an enormous belief and faith in a supreme entity which she found hard to define. This entity holds all the people of the world in his or her hand, and it was in this frame of mind that she passed away peacefully on Monday the first of September, which, co incidentally, was Spring day and a bright portent of new things to come.
At the outset, Mike and I need to thank a vast number of people who have stood by us in a difficult last few weeks. In particular, our skilled medical and nursing staff, Pinky, Yvonne and Monika, who were infinitely patient, compassionate and experienced. Our very special thanks go to Dr. Martie Landman (Mum's GP) for her dedication and endless support. Also to our cousin, Lynne Westcott, who came all the way from France to help us make sense of Mum's demise. Amongst the staff, we thank Watson and Elmon at Charleston, together with all the staff who worked for and walked with Mum through her 81 years in the bush. As we speak, Graham Holiday is in our camp at Charleston with our staff scattering flower petals in remembrance of her. Finally, thank you to Robinson and Chrissy for looking after my mother for all these years. In particular, Robinson has stood by her and been her friend and companion. They both share a passionate hatred for corrupt politicians!
I would like to remember and thank absent friends and family who could not make it today. In particular Philippa, who has stayed in America to help Nicola start a new venture at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Mum would have been excited beyond words for Nicola. Secondly both Mike's and my younger children, Richard and Sarah, are starting new phases of their lives \endash Richie in his second year of high school in San Francisco and Sarah working in London. The friends who have called in with apologies and condolences are too many to list. Mum knows they are all here in spirit.
Mum asked to be cremated privately. For her friends, she instructed Mike and me that she could think of nothing better than tea and scones with a glass of wine, or a gin and tonic with smoked salmon, in the garden at the Country Club. So, once again, welcome to the celebration that Mum requested. To this end I am going to start with a quotation from Mum's vast collection which reads:
"In those glorious years the world was before us like an opal filled with delicate shadows, fiery light and endless breathing colour."
This is how Phyl wants you to think of her life which, as many of you know, was a rich and vibrant one.
Mum was born in Johannesburg on June 28, 1921, the second oldest of four daughters of Frank and Clarice Unger. Her parents' home was on St. Andrews Road in Parktown, and she attended Kingsmead School in Rosebank. She was an accomplished student and athlete at Kingsmead, ultimately gaining acceptance to Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University in 1939. Due to the War and the travel restrictions that existed in Europe in 1939, she elected instead to go to the University of Cape Town.
After graduating with a BA in Fine Arts from UCT, Phyl worked for Dr. Thelma Gutsche in the Department of Information during the latter war years. As her first job, her role at the DOI was to edit film footage coming into South Africa from South African troops in Europe, as well as to work on public relations for the war effort in South Africa.
In 1945, at the end of the War, at the urging of her parents, Phyl set sail from Cape Town for India, where she stayed mainly in Delhi for a year with family friends \endash Vee and Stu West. Stu West at the time was the colonial head of India's transportation infrastructure and, through the Wests, Phyl experienced an India that few could imagine. As her black and white photos attest, her trip to India took on the dreamy characteristics of a 1940's film. Upon arriving in Delhi by train from Bombay, she became instant friends with the British colonial authorities, the British military command and the American Air force command, as well as, to a lesser extent, members of India's fledgling independent authorities. This included a decades-long friendship with the Maharajah of Bundi and Jinnah, the man who would ultimately become the first ruler of an independent Pakistan. It was a time of great fun and elegant parties, and remained throughout her life a period that she would recall with great fondness.
At the end of her spell in India, Phyl returned to South Africa where she went to work as an assistant for the noted neuro-surgeon, Dr. Krynauw, at the Johannesburg General Hospital. In 1948 she met John Beaumont, who had returned to South Africa after serving as a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force during the war. Phyl and John married in 1948 and by 1956 they had two sons. In 1954 they purchased what would become a very happy and fulfilling family home for many years at 39 Valley Road in Parktown.
Phyl was a great mother.
There are too many incidents and memories to recount, but who could forget the many days of tennis and swimming as a family; the bedtime stories that Mum would read night after night covering the Hardy Boys all the way through to the Lord of the Rings; the annual Christmas parties at Valley Road; the Sunday roasts at lunch time, the choux pastry swans that would appear on the entry hall table on a Sunday morning after a Saturday night dinner-dance at the Country Club, and the impromptu Sunday night American-style waffle and sausage parties \endash a legacy of John's three years of work in America. Other enormously memorable family times were the annual family trips to Charleston farm, Port St. Johns and, later, Plettenberg Bay and Natures Valley. Through all these memories is woven the thread of a devoted and engaged mother. Mum was loyal in the extreme to her family and always gave sound and heartfelt advice to her two sons. She prized higher education and always encouraged us to seek the highest and best education possible \endash even if it meant leaving not only her but also South Africa. Beyond education, one of her greatest gifts to her children was the freedom she gave them to explore the world and, ultimately, to establish their own homes far away from her \endash even after losing John to cancer in 1973.
Phyl was a great friend.
Phyl's circle of friend was startling in its diversity. She was as comfortable with the royalty that she counted amongst her friends in England, Scotland, Italy, Thailand and India, as she might be with the range operator at the gun school in White River. Despite her privileged upbringing as the daughter of Frank Unger, who was Vice Chairman of Anglo American, she connected easily with new friends across all cultures and all levels of society. She easily held her own in any setting, and was a gracious and entertaining hostess \endash as anyone who attended one of her dinner parties at Valley Road or Wauchope Road will attest! Phyl was an engaging and witty conversationalist, and no-one could ever forget the seemingly endless string of stories and jokes that she could tell. We cannot tell you how many people have told us how they will miss her stories, jokes and endless brightness. Absent her failing health in recent years, she was game for just about anything, including the unusual activities that two sons might have concocted for her in their younger days. Phyl was an accomplished bridge player, an excellent batter in "rounders" at Charleston farm and, until recently, an active tennis player. All of this meant that she had a wide and diverse set of friends. Power and social status meant little to her, despite her high standards for behavior, dress and conduct. She could drink tea out of a thermos on the side of the road just as easily as she could engage with Earl of Wemyss in a castle in Scotland. She could engage her Shangaan tracker at Charleston with as much earnestness and concern as she could discuss impressionist art with a London art dealer. Yes, her standards were high and at times unattainable for many. But Phyl was principled and unwaveringly loyal to those who understood her. She was also generous in the extreme with her time, with her financial support of those less privileged than her and, of course, with her greatest passion, Charleston farm.
Phyl was a great conservationist.
Conservation is rooted in Phyl's family, beginning with her father's first purchase of land in 1926 in what would later become the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. She was one of a committee of four individuals (the others were Steven Roche, Wac Campbell and Brennant Hall) responsible for the original plan to create the Sabi-Sand \endash something for which she was rarely, if ever, properly recognized. She steadfastly resisted any temptation to commercialize or have commercial beds on Charleston. Aside from preserving Charleston in its pristine state, Phyl has been a significant donor to many wildlife and animal related causes like the Endangered Wildlife Trust and Beauty Without Cruelty. She was also an active member and committee member for years of the South African Ornithological Society, and many people will recall her frequent and witty writings for the SAOS's magazine, Bokmakierie. Most importantly, however, she contributed her great knowledge and love of the "bush" to countless friends and, of course, to Mike and me. To both of us she imparted her deep knowledge, love and respect of the bush, in addition to patiently teaching us how to shoot and drive long before the legal driving age. She was a fine shot \endash in fact, at 85 she was the oldest South African to qualify in hand gun and rifle competency at the gun range in White River in 2006! Phyl was, to the very end, totally and completely at ease in the bush, having been going to Charleston and its sister farm Sparta for 81 years (since 1927). Those of her friends who have been there with her \endash and there are many \endash will have firsthand experience of her extraordinary knowledge and passion for all of the bush's flora and fauna, her wonderful camp meals, her fireside stories and, last but not least, her marvelous repertoire of stories.
Phyl was a great intellect.
As Phyl's admission to Oxford University hints, Phyl's intellectual curiosity knew no bounds. This was a trait she inherited from both her parents, but from her father in particular. She was very close to her father, and accompanied him on several business trips to Europe in the late 1930s. Flying to Europe at that time was a time consuming process by today's standards, but arguably more enjoyable. The journey would sometimes take up to 14 days, with the plane leaving Johannesburg in the morning and stopping in places such as Salisbury, Nairobi, Khartoum and Luxor, before flying on to Italy and then, finally, to London. On her last trip before the war, Italy was as far as they could fly due to the risks of being airborne during times of war, and so they had to switch to a train in order to get across the continent to England. Without the ability to fly safely at night, nights en route across Africa were always spent on the ground, frequently at the local British consulate or ambassador's home. Phyl's travels, her exposure to her father's business, her education and her worldliness led to an inexhaustible quest for knowledge and an interest in a vast array of subjects. This spanned everything from languages (she was close to fluent in French), to literature, politics, the environment, the economy and even trying her hand at photography in the late 1990s. Those who knew Phyl well might hear her quote directly from the Classics, recite a poem in Latin from memory, or recall the botanical name of a recently discovered species of tree. Her mind and her intellect were sharp to the very end.
Phyl was principled.
To those who knew Phyl, to say that she was principled could be viewed as something of an understatement. Certainly, being on the wrong side of her was not something to which one might look forward! But principled she was across all facets of her life and it proved to be a deeply valuable asset to her, as well as to Mike and me. In the two of us it engendered a sense of trust in her judgment, and a feeling of confidence that her advice was always sound. From an early age, as a student at UCT, she was an eager supporter of reform in South African politics \endash even though 1941 had not quite yet arrived and the Nationalist Party had not yet fully emerged onto the political scene. She was an early supporter of the Progressive Party and did not hesitate to participate in protests against the National Party. Her belief that the large underprivileged population of South Africa needed to be addressed was evidenced many times over in her participation in organizations such as the Black Sash, several private scholarships that she granted for black university students, contributions to African charities too numerous to mention, and a continuing commitment to organizations such as the African Children's Feeding Scheme. Outside of politics, she was equally principled in the areas of honesty, integrity and social justice. Half-truths and dishonesty had no place in Phyl's life. Simply put, she was the most honest and principled person that anyone, anywhere, could meet. She believed in doing the right thing, in being a good person, in doing good deeds, and in standing by her family and friends.
******
Phyl was a person engaged in, and passionate about, life in every way. She was loyal, principled, immensely caring and a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. A stronger, kinder and more generous person would be hard to find. She had soul, life, grace and dignity in abundance. In the end, at 87, she was unable to fight off her fourth bout of cancer. To the very end she remained fit and determined to make the most of her remaining days, walking her usual distance of about a kilometer around her garden in Wauchope Road together with her friend Robinson. We will miss her terribly. But she would not have wanted sadness to be the result. Quite the opposite, in fact, and so I am going to preface our toast to Phyl with a short poem by Henry Scott Holland:
Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped into the next room.
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way you always used.
Put no difference in your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed, at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name ever be the household word it always was.
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is unspoken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval.
Somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
It is with great pleasure that I ask you to raise your glass and drink a toast to Phyl Beaumont.
******
I am going to close off with a view on attitude that we found in my mother's papers, which typifies how she chose to lead her life:
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or do or say. It is more important than appearance, talent or skill. It will make or break a Company
a Church
a Home
..a Person.
The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react.
Finally a Benediction for Mum which Mike and I feel appropriate:
Phyl, wherever you are
May the Peace of the Morning befriend you
The Happiness of the Sky stand by you
And the Light of the Sunset guard you
Thank you.
General Comment. Copy of her father - Frans Anton Unger's Death Notice dd 14 May 1948 in RAB's possession.
General Comment. Copy of her mother - Clarice Maud Unger nee Van Ryneveld's Death Notice dd 13 Oct 1958 in RAB's possession.
Phyllis married John Toller Beaumont on 5 Nov 1949 in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa. (John Toller Beaumont was born on 25 Jun 1917 in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa, died on 9 Oct 1973 in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa and was buried in Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa.)
Sources of information or n events in their marriage were:
Marriage Banns. Married at St Georges Church, Parktown, Johannesburg by Rev Edward Keith Blundell
Web Based Info. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9T43-PJX?i=409&wc=SFV8-ZJW%3A44975801%2C52325201%2C57036901%2C57113401%3Fcc%3D1468076&cc=1468076
Witnesses:-
H.H.Taylor
R.Beaumont
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