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Ex-QDMS<\/p>\n
Peter Southwood<\/p>\n
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Pietermaritzburg\u2019s town crier of 21 years, Peter Southwood, believed to be the country\u2019s only official town crier, died at his home in Hilton on Friday. <\/p>\n
Southwood, who would have celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday, will be remembered for his elaborate outfit and the scroll he carried with him. <\/p>\n
Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business CEO Melanie Veness described him as \u201cquite a character\u201d who was part of the city\u2019s landscape. <\/p>\n
Gail Cornhill, of Spotted Owl Events and Promotions, said Southwood had been a fixture at more events than she could remember, from morning markets to networking meetings and the openings of new stores and large corporate functions. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeter would be there, enthusiastically ringing his bell,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Cornhill said that town criers often dressed elaborately, according to a tradition dating to the 18th century, in a red and gold robe, white breeches, black boots and a tricorn hat. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeter attended many international town-crying events and was a great ambassador for the city,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Southwood\u2019s granddaughter, Jodie de Bruyn, said he had been offered the role of town crier by Dick Jones, then the director of publicity in Pietermaritzburg, who believed that having a town crier would put the city on the map. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe became a fantastic ambassador for the city and represented SA at two international town crier championships,\u201d said De Bruyn. <\/p>\n
An article found on Southwood\u2019s computer and forwarded to The Mercury by De Bruyn reads: \u201cI have \u2018oyayed\u2019 for the queen and Prince Philip, the lord mayor of London, most of the local dignitaries, and even \u2018bayeded\u2019 for the king of the Zulus himself.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex-QDMS Peter Southwood Pietermaritzburg\u2019s town crier of 21 years, Peter Southwood, believed to be the country\u2019s only official town crier, died at his home in Hilton on Friday. Southwood, who would have celebrated his 74th birthday yesterday, will be remembered for his elaborate outfit and the scroll he carried with him. Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-8143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}