Info sought on parachute club pioneers

I AM researching and writing a history on the development of the sport of skydiving in South Africa and would be grateful if you could help me by putting out a call for information to anyone in Cape Town who has information on the first parachute club(s) in the city.

So far I have discovered that Transvaal skydiver Ernie Thomas moved to Cape Town around 1962 and established a club at Youngsfield under the auspices of the Cape Aero Club. He was later joined by Hilton Pretorius.

Later – possibly around 1967 – they became independent and called themselves Cape Skydivers. The founders of this group were Nigel Johnson (RIP – Court Helicopters), Corry de Jongh and Gunther Gaebler.

About 1968 a second group of mainly ex-pat Brits formed a group called WP Parachute Club. The senior jumpers were Harry Ferguson and Bob Beckett, who set the Day Altitude Record (about 25 000 to 30 000 feet) over DF Malan Airport. I believe this was a world civilian altitude record at the time.

About late 1971/early 1972, Youngsfield was expropriated as a military base by the SADF and all recreational civil aviation activities on the site ceased. The two clubs then amalgamated to form WP Sport Parachute Club and moved to a farm at Citrusdal, which remained their base until 2006 when they were forced to move to Ceres.

They operated there for about a year and then moved again to Robertson, which has been their home drop zone since 2008. They now operate under the name Skydive Robertson

I would welcome e-mails to allan.banfield@btinternet.coman and, where possible, photographs.