Charity auction goes under Tommy’s hammer
Retired auctioneer, Tommy Morgan, facilitated an auction at Caister Lodge, which aimed to raise funds for the Mater Vitae Pregnancy Crisis Home.
RESIDENTS at Caister Lodge in Musgrave supported a charity auction last week to raise funds for the Mater Vitae Pregnancy Crisis Home in Wentworth.
The auctioneer on the day was Tommy Morgan, who lives at the home with his wife of 72 years.
Tommy has a wealth of experience in this field. He started as a junior clerk for the municipal market next to the railway station in Pine Street, Durban, in 1937, and moved to Warwick Avenue in 1940.
He worked there until 1942, when he went to be a livestock auctioneer at the abattoirs in Sydney Road, selling meat to butchers and cattle and horses to farmers.
“Tobacco sales started in 1936 and during the war, in 1943, a tobacco auctioneer was coming to South Africa from the US as there were no tobacco auctioneers here at the time. His ship was sunk by the Germans and he was drowned. People from Rhodesia came down and offered me a job there, but I didn't go at the time. I got married and then later I went to Rhodesia for two weeks, and left with a contract to start as a tobacco auctioneer in 1945,” he said.
Tommy and his wife lived in Rhodesia until Prime Minister Ian Smith declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965, and Rhodesia broke away from British rule.
“With sanctions, tobacco sales came to a stop and we came back to South Africa when my contract ended. We've been here ever since,” he said.
Tommy's late father was a bookmaker (at the races) and he learnt the art when he was a teenager.
“I got involved in this when I got back, and retired in 2000, taking to playing golf instead,” he said.
The residents of Caister each had a secret bidding number and got four bids to put down on the 100 items up for auction.
Tommy assessed all the bids and then got to the bidding process, where people were able to bid against the highest amount.
