Follow Us
Like Us
Matching family tree profiles for Percy Alfred Vale
view all
Immediate Family
-
-
-
-
Privatechild
-
Privatechild
-
-
father -
sister
About Percy Alfred Vale
Percy's father died of pneumonia about a year after he was born. His mother, Emily, re-married soon after to a Mr Thomson, an apple farmer, and travelled with him to Australia with her two children, Percy and Thelma. They lived there in Bilpin near Sydney for some years, had four children, and returned to South Africa. When Percy was about 14 years old he joined the Royal Navy as a "boy". He served for several years, eventually returning to South Africa. He met Elizabeth Vale (Bessie) and they married in 1934. He worked as a fireman in Johannesburg at that time, since work of any kind was difficult to find. He and his wife lived in the firestation in Central Johannesburg and in Rosebank. The couple, then with two children, bought a farm in Tzaneen in the N.Transvaal in 1938. When war broke out in 1939, Percy re-joined the Royal Navy as a "torpedoman" in Simonstown, Cape, which was a RN base at that time. He re-trained and was sent to England for officers training. He was posted to a mining station at Lochalsh in Scotland, as a Lieutenant, where he spent the war laying mines and mine sweeping in the North Sea. In 1943 he returned to South Africa and resumed farming. He became a Major in the South African Army Reserve at that time. Two further children were born to the marriage, in 1944 and 1948. In 1949, he left Tzaneen and went to the Copperbelt where he worked for several years in the mine stores. Having been divorced from his first wife, he re-married, but nothing is known about the marriage. He returned to South Africa in 1957/1958, re-joined his former wife and children and farmed in the Pietersburg district. The farm was not a success and in about 1963 went to Johannesburg where he became one of the first employees of Parity Insurance, a company which specialised in 3rd party insurance. He rapidly gained promotion and became a senior executive. There he met Marie, considerably younger than he, whom he married shortly after. When Parity was placed in liquidation in the mid-seventies he could not find new work. He divorced Marie in the late seventies, not wishing to be a burden to her, and lived until his death in a retirement home for ex-servicemen.
view all 12
Percy Alfred Vale's Timeline
| 1908 |
June 7, 1908
|
Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa
|
|
| 1933 |
1933
- 1938
Age 24
|
Johannesburg Fire Brigade, Johannesburg, South Africa
|
|
| 1936 |
November 1, 1936
|
Duivelskloof, Transvaal, South Africa
|
|
| 1938 |
1938
- 1949
Age 29
|
Ridgeholm Farm Tzaneen, Tzaneen, South Africa
|
|
| 1963 |
1963
- 1972
Age 54
|
Parity Insurance, Johannesburg, South Africa
|
|
| 1982 |
August 6, 1982
Age 74
|
Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa
|
|
| 1986 |
1986
Age 74
|
Braamfontein Cemetery Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa
|