It is known that George Henry Starck came from a fairly humble background, and was born in the east end of London in 1882. It is said that the family business or trade was concerned with making wooden musical instruments, but that was not of great consequence and George Starck obviously realized that it offered few prospects for him. In 1902 – a couple of years after the ending of the Boer War, he emigrated to South Africa, and was to live the whole of the rest of his life here and contribute greatly to the country’s development and success. When he landed in Cape Town, however, the country was in the middle of a deep and serious depression following the end of the Boer War and he, personally, was probably as near to being penniless as didn’t matter. He tried to make a living by producing odd items of furniture during the week in his workshop, and wheeling them down to the Parade on a Saturday morning to try to find a buyer, but with very mixed success, partly due to the very depressed conditions. He undoubtedly found the going very hard indeed during those early years, and it is said, and I believe it to be true, that through lack of money he was often obliged to live in his workshop and to sleep under his workbench at night. In a rare reminiscence to his family, which I heard him repeat later, he described how he finally reached the end of his tether and decided that there was no alternative but to return to England, but how he changed his mind at the last moment when he walked on to Newlands station early one morning and saw, on a newspaper poster, that the government had decided, as a first sign of the end of the depression, that it was to take on a hundred new employees and build new homes for them. He said to himself “that must mean at least 100 new tables and 100 new beds – I am not turning my back on that, I am staying!” And stay he did! That Dick Whittington like decision was possibly the most momentous one of his life. Some years after that he took on a business partner. But that was not a success, and he was then faced with the problem of finding the money to buy him out. There seemed to be no solution, until one day a fairy godfather appeared – a Frank Claribut, who had come to know and like George Starck, and made him a cash loan without security or strings. The partner was bought out, the loan was quickly repaid in full, and the darkest days were over. In 1911 he formed his own company, G H Starck Ltd, which was destined to grow into the largest furniture manufacturing company in South Africa, and arguably the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. By the outbreak of the Great War, he had made steady progress and acquired factory premises in The Gardens, in Cape Town, including an adjoining house called Willow Lodge, in which he was living when he married Annie Oram in 1914. Now the Oram family had also immigrated from England, from Maryport in Cumberland,  a few years before George Starck’s arrival, while the Boer War was still in progress.  Annie Oram’s father had become seriously ill with tuberculosis and been advised to find a warmer and drier climate if he wanted to recover.

 The family consisted of father, mother and baby Annie. Later 3 sons were born; Percy, who spent most his life working for G H Starck Ltd, Cecil, named after Cecil John Rhodes, who died at the age of 17, and Teddy, who died as a baby. They, too, had very little money, and one can only imagine their privations and courage in making the long sea voyage, probably travelling steerage, and arriving in Cape Town with no friends or prospects. Mr Oram eventually found work with South African Railways and was sent to De Aar. By this time, G H Starck Ltd was starting to take off and to leave many of its competitors behind. At this stage, it might be appropriate for me to tell you something about the personalities and characters of George and Annie Starck. You will have realised, and you can see from the excellent portrait of him hanging in the lounge, that George Starck was a man of very strong character and an unconquerable will to succeed. He had not had the benefit of a good education and was not a particularly skilled craftsman but had made his mind up to earn a living by making furniture, and to reach the top of the industry. One of his great skills was in finding men of ability to work for him. He was deeply religious and a devout churchgoer, and he expected his family to have the same standards. His ethical standards in business were beyond reproach, and he earned the respect of friend and foe alike. Annie, his wife, shared his high moral standards and was as true as steel to her family and friends, but with a much softer nature and a heart worn firmly on her sleeve. She valued her friends greatly and treated them with great warmth and compassion. She had a fine sense of humour, at times a very necessary quality in dealing with her dominant husband, to whom she was a wonderful consort. During the years between the wars both George Starck and his business developed greatly in status and success. Competition in the furniture industry was fierce, and one of his great qualities was his realisation of the need to keep ahead in manufacturing techniques, including raw materials, plant and machinery. He boasted that every year for twenty years between the wars, he travelled abroad in search of new developments, and undoubtedly this paid huge dividends. In the early 1930’s, he decided that Wesley Street was becoming too small and he bought a farm of several hundred acres at Elsies River and started building a new factory there. When completed, this comprised some 25 acres of covered floor space – easily the largest of its kind in South Africa, and arguably in the Southern Hemisphere at the time. While all this was happening his reputation as an industrialist and businessman was spreading, and he was invited to take on a number of important directorships, and other honorary appointments, including the Chairmanship of the Cape Town Technical College and as a major sponsor of the YMCA. The family home was moved once more from Rondebosch to Lidcote in Kenilworth, and it was round about that period that he acquired the Fairview and Oosterzee farms at Bellville, where these homes are established. The names of the various cottages here at Bellville have been chosen to commemorate the life of the Starck family. On the outbreak of war in 1939, General Smuts quickly recognized his abilities when he became Prime Minister, and in January 1940 he was summoned to Pretoria by the General, who invited him to join his administration as a full-time official in helping to harness the country’s industry to the war effort.