Raymond Kannemeyer obituary

My grandfather, Raymond Kannemeyer, who has died aged 94, was a teacher, writer, family man and humanist.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Raymond attended the city’s Grassy Park EC primary school, founded by his uncle Fred, where both his parents, Vera (nee Roberts) and Raymond Kannemeyer, taught, his father as principal. As Ray enjoyed recounting, at birth the doctor announced he would “never make old bones”, but he survived, with his characteristic strong will. Categorised under apartheid as a “Cape Coloured” (a term he hated), Ray never forgot being ordered in childhood to leave a train carriage he was sharing with his blonder cousins.