It is with great sadness that we inform the OD Community of the passing of Peter Newton (1954O).

According to his son James, Peter died just 16 days before his 90th birthday, so he had a good innings but sadly his last few years were difficult as he had dementia.  

Peter matriculated from Ogilvie House in 1954, and after leaving school he started working for an American company, Wilbur – Ellis, where he traded canned fish to Sri Lanka amongst other markets.  He then opened up the markets to South African fruit to Mauritius and Reunion where he traded for many years.  Upon leaving Wilbur – Ellis he started his own trading company, Seaboard International Trading Company where he continued trading fruit.  Upon the deregulation of the fruit industry, he stared another export company called Cape 5 with five shareholders run by Wayne Mudge (1986S), who was also a shareholder and continues to run Cape 5.

Peter got involved with his class mate, Charles Lewis (1954O) who upon retirement started a small private railway business in Port Shepstone running locomotives and through that got involved with Rovos Rail owned by Rohan Vos (1964S). 

He also with another friend started a ships agency business.  Through Cape 5 he started a trucking business within Seaboard for the transport of containerised fruit for the industry which today continues and is run by his son Patrick.  James continues to run the fruit trading side of the business in Seaboard.  

All this is to show that his  first and great interest was transport which continued to fascinate him throughout his life – shipping, trucking and railways, that got him up every day.  He would put out a daily shipping update to the industry which was ahead of, and more accurate than updates given by the shipping lines and ports – many in the industry consulted him to get an accurate idea of what was happening.  He was in the port of Cape Town most days trying to facilitate and help smoother operations – this won him many friends and many foes!

Peter was married to Elizabeth (nee Green) sister of David Green (Bishops, 1947) who was a few years older than Peter.  Peter and Elizabeth were married for over 50 years and are survived by their three children, Vicky, James and Patrick and four grand daughters and a grandson, Tom (2021O).  After the death of Elizabeth, Peter moved from Erinvale in Somerset West to live in a cottage on James' farm in Banhoek where he was looked after by his family, James and Nikki, daughter of Wilfred Koster (1959W).  

The ODU and Bishops community send their heartfelt condolences to Vicky, James and Nikki and Patrick, Tom and Peter's grand-daughters.

Rest in Peace Peter!

Requiescat in Pace.