Dr Cecil Moss of Riversdale

Nothing wrong with Riversdale...you city slickers don't know the difference between quality life and humdrum stressful city life...indeed a Springbok great came from there and still lives there...I think if he's still alive

Cecil Moss (born in 12 February 1925, Riversdale) was a South African rugby union player, coach and a professional physician. He was also a qualified medical doctor (anaesthetist) and was part of the medical team who removed the heart from the first heart transplant donor, Denise Duvall. Moss was Jewish[1][2][3][4] and had two children.[4]

He had 4 caps for South Africa in 1949.[5] Educated at the South African College Schools, he developed close involvement with the University of Cape Town. Moss was vice-captain of the Springboks in 1949, when they beat New Zealand 4–0,[3] and played four winning tests for South Africa, debuting on 16 July 1949.

He was head coach of South Africa from 1982 to 1989 and achieved 10 wins and only 2 losses during his time in office. He missed the 1987 Rugby World Cup due to the international sports boycott for his country Apartheid policies.

Even the old gaol (jail) house is picturesque...

 Seb
I am not surprised by your comments on Cecil Moss - he was Jewish and at the time there was a substantial Jewish community in Riversdale - the Gordons, the Nainkins, the Sagors, etc.  There even was a Synagogue here.  However, teh community members died out and at present there are only two Jews living in Riversdale - as mentioned by me in earlier postings.  I do not think Cecil Moss ever retired in Riversdale - would have known if he did.
The Riverdale goal is famous for having had one execution there - a murderer by the name of Piet Matthysen.   For many years afterwards as kids my parents used to scare us when we were naughty by saying Piet Matthysen would come and get us.
The goal was bought by Wilhelm Malherbe and his wife a few years ago.   He is the uncle of Frans Malherbe - the Springbok prop.  It is at present used as a curio shop and a coffee shop/restaurant.   
Riversdale was at a time also the residence of Mozart's father - he was a pupil at the then Riversdale Boys High School.   Surprising how bad-tempered and self-important his son has become.  
    

I'm not Jewish, Mike...I wish I was...I would have been richer but I went to SACS for 2 years before moving to Merchiston Prep in Pietermaritzburg and later Maritzburg College.

My grandfather and his brother (Clifford) also went there when the school was in the Gardens in Cape Town before moving to Newlands. SACS was predominantly Jewish when my brother and I was there...it is the oldest boys school in SA...grandad was Irish and a magistrate in SA and later a Rooi-bos tea farmer in Clanwilliam in the Pakhuis pass...he knew the famous Afrik aans poet well...who farmed next door...Louis Leipoldt and his friend Hymie Ginsberg (Russian Jew) who with the help of Dr Frans Nortier (a French botanist) started the business of commercialising this herbal bush for the local market and then later overseas. His brother Clifford (my great uncle) played rugby for SA against the British Isles way back in 1910...there were 3 tests, one in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and I think Johannesburg. SA won 2 and lost one. Clifford was a war hero at the Dardenelles where he served as a captain...he also practised as a magistrate in Pietermaritzburg...became a diplomat to Argentina and later quite a famous businessman in England producing and designing ice skates that I'm told are still used today.

We lost track of Clifford (older than Grandad)...he got into a nasty divorce scandal in England and disappeared sadly out of the family's life...he died relatively young in England after having a rather eventful life...recently I have been in contact with distant relatives in Australia that were comprising family ties and links...for a while I generated some interest but it's time consuming and my family is strange sometimes...I think it's the Irish, Scots and French blood...the other part on mum's side is Scots/Scots...far more stable and boring but lovable and solid people. My late mother's ancestry according to what she told me as a child can be traced to the Mac Gregors and yes Rob Roy. I don't talk about it because it's interesting but means sweet fanny adams and ofcourse people don't believe you anyway...all I know my late mum who died relatively young at 49 from cancer was as honest and truthful person...

On the Irish side I've been told there's a connection to Chris De Burgh's mother...Chris the singer took on his mothers maiden name and there is also a Kate Middleton connection.

I have an interesting ancestry but don't pursue it because I believe it really proves nothing and people think you are making it up.

Cecil Moss was also an old boy of SACS,and so was Percy Montgomery...there were others too and cricketers Peter and his half brother...peter was also a great rugby flyhalf...he really had far superior ball sense than I've seen from most no 10's today and sadly he was badly crocked and gave up rugby.

Seb
Interesting info on your family side.   I have traced back my ancestry to the early Cape settlement days.   In the family tree was one famous name - Eva of the Goringhaikona.  Eva was taken into his household as a small girl and brought up by him and his wife (Maria).  He wanted her to be a contact person and interpreter with the local community, but it never worked out as envisaged since Eva became a bad problem in later years - she could not adjust to the Dutch culture of the time.
However, before she became an alcoholic - she married a Danish shipowner by the name of Meerhof  - who was inked to Van Riebeeck and did some exploration work.  However, his main activity was slave trading and on one trip to Madagascar he was killed by the locals.   He had two children with Eva - a son and a daughter.  The daughters nae was Pieternella.   After he father's death her mother became an alcoholic and caused so much trouble in Cape Town that she was sent to Robben Island.   The D utch Reforemed Church took over the care of the children and when a Dutch family on the way to Mauritius (then a D utch colony) undertook to bring up the two children and take care of them until they could find their own way in life - the two children went to Mauritius.   There at the time was a vegetable farmer by the name of Pieter Saayman  on the island with a contract with the D utch East India Company to provide vegetables to ships.   Simon van der Stel was in charge of the Dutch activities on Mauritius and since he was married to an Indian woman as well - he saw no problem when Pieter Saayman married Pieternella Meerhof.
After Van der Stel became Governor of the Cape - Pieter Saayman moved to the Cape himself and that was the first Saayman who settled in SA.  Eba of the Goringhaikona through Pieternella Meerhof was an ancestor of many famous South Africans - not only the Saayman family.  Tracing back the family ancestry of people like Presidents Paul Kruger and Steyn, as well as Jan Smuts you will find Pieternella Meerhof in those families as well.   
So most SA whites from the D utch colonial era are not as lily white as they pretend to be - and most are from their ancestry as African as they are in fact White.
I have the family tree from that time to date.   The last Saayman borne under D utch rule was the great grandfather of my father - borne in Stellenbosch in 1803 and he died on the family farm (Seekoegat) near Riversdale in 1897.   So the family as such has had no ties with anybody from outside of SA for many generations.