The South African
Ivor Christopher little was born in Cape Town on 19 December 1937 and was educated at Rondebosch Boys High School. At the age of 12, he joined the Cape Town Sea Cadets and later joined the South African Training Ship (SATS) General Botha from which he graduated in December 1954.
In January 1955 Ivor joined the Northern Steamship Company, at the time the largest South African Shipping Company with seven ships, and was appointed to an oil tanker, President Brand, where he served until 1957. In 1958 he completed his Second Mate studies at the Cape Town Nautical Academy and then joined South African Railway Shipping Services as a Third Officer on the collier Dalia. When the Dalia was sold later in 1958, he joined Safmarine where he worked until 1962. In 1962 he obtained his Master Mariner Certificate from the Cape Town Nautical Academy and joined the South African Harbour Services. He was posted to Port Elizabeth and did relief work in East London and Mossel Bay.
In 1966 Ivor left the maritime world and joined the commercial world. But the calling to oceans got the better of him and later in the year he was appointed as a Nautical Instructor at the SATS General Botha. Ivor joined the SA Navy on 1 April 1970 as a Nautical Lecturer at the Military Academy. There he introduced sea-going naval training for the naval students. This was achieved, aboard the WWII era HDML1204, which was used very successfully in exercises along the coast between Velddrif and Hout Bay. When HDML 1204 was withdrawn from service he utilised Air Sea Rescue Launches (ASRLs) at SAS Flamingo qualifying as an air-sea rescue Coxswain. He later arranged for the patrol boat P1558, initially built for the Malawian Navy but undelivered, to be transferred to Saldanha for training and with a scratch crew, sailed her there from Durban – a challenging undertaking. [Think boat built for Lake Malawi taking on the coastal seas from Durban along the Wild Coast to Cape Town then on to Saldanha...]
Completing Navy Staff Course in 1976, he remained at the Naval Staff College as a member of the Directing Staff until the end of 1978. He was then transferred to Naval Headquarters (NHQ) in Pretoria where he worked on the establishment of the Marines. Later that year he was appointed as an Exchange Officer to the Chilean Navy as the Navigator on the attack transport Aquiles. During his time on board Aquiles, the ship deployed to the Antarctic.
Ivor was promoted to Captain (SAN) on 1 January 1980 and attended the Joint Staff Course. This was followed by appointments to Defence Headquarters (DHQ) and NHQ before being appointed as the Military Attache in Argentina where he and his family arrived on Christmas Eve 1985. After only four months Ivor was recalled and reappointed as the Defence Representative in Italy from 1986 to 1989. On his return, Ivor was appointed as Senior Staff Officer (SSO): Personnel on the staff of Chief of Naval Staff Personnel (CNSP) at NHQ.
He was later transferred to Chief of Staff Intelligence (CSI) as SSO: Communication for Operations, followed by a stint at Defence HQ as SSO Defence Public Relations. He was then reappointed to CSI as SSO Shows and Exhibitions, successfully organising the first Dexa International Arms Show at Air Force Base Waterkloof. After this, he was appointed Director of Foreign Relations at the Defence Secretariat. Part of this appointment involved him being the secretary to the Inter-Governmental Defence and Security Organisation and Ivor accompanied the then Minister of Defence, Joe Modise, on visits to a number of African states.
He retired from the SA Navy on 31 December 1997.
In January 1998 he joined Elite Ship Management in Cape Town and served on a number of merchant ships before he finally retired four years later.
During his time with Defence Public Relations, he became involved with the ‘Battlefields of Natal’ project and set up the Natal Battlefields Committee. Ivor co-authored a book ‘Anglo Boer War Tours’ and he became an Honorary Tour Guide.
Ivor and his wife Anne joined the South African Military History Society in December 1980 and he served as a committee member from 1996 – 1997 and from 2004 to 2012. He was the Chairman of the Society from April 2010 to April 2012. During his time in the society, he presented more than half a dozen lectures. [His lecture “A name among seafaring men” revealed that the whitewashed stone “GB” on the hillside above Gordons’ Bay stood for General Botha - the training establishment he attended - rather than Gordon’s Bay. He also wrote a book, titled Above Board and Under Cover, about his years at sea.]
From 2009 to 2014 he regularly represented the Society at the quarterly meetings of the South African Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Ivor was a founder member of the Pretoria Navy Olds and Bolds - a group of retired Naval Officers living in Pretoria that get together twice a month.
Ivor married Miss Anne Cullen, in New Jersey, United States of America in June 1960. They have a son and two daughters. He passed away on 9 September 2022.
[Editor’s additional comments in brackets.]
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