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Menu Home Upfront Now Up Books Towns Structures People Firms Lexicon CASSELS, Graeme Cooper (Peter) Born: 1919 01 19 Died: 1955 01 Architect Architect in Bloemfontein from about 1949 until his death in 1955. Graeme was born in Pietermaritzburg on 19.1.1919. His mother was Mable Cassells (Elgie) and Andrew “Punch” Cassells a medical doctor from the Kirkcaldy area in Scotland. Andrew died as a young man; Mable re-married William Ian Goodbrand or WIG as most knew him, of Durban. He was well known in the Durban [and] Maritzburg area as the cartoonist for a daily Durban newspaper. The family moved to Pretoria in the early 30’s. Graeme and his brother Alexander were at school at CBC in Pretoria for their prep school years, and later to Hilton for their high school years. I [Graeme Cassells] think he matriculated in about 1936. Graeme was better known as Peter, his nick name. I [Graeme Cassells] think most people would have known him as Peter Cassells. He started his studies at the Pretoria University. The faculty was a satellite of the University of the Witwatersrand. The war years intervened and when he enlisted he was sent to the South African Engineers in what was then Palestine. Two of his very close friends in Palestine were Phillip Russell who became the Bishop of Cape Town and Vernon Trathan who became a Quantity Surveyor in Bloem[fontein]. I [Graeme Cassells] was only 7 or 8 when he died, but I believe he did the town hall of Odendaalsrus, the chapel of St Andrews College, and the Anglican church in Ryk Tulbach Street Auckland Park/ Bayswater, and of course his own home. He married Olive Ruth Atkin of Johannesburg in September 1943 and had three children, Graeme, Adrian and Neill. He established the partnership with Ron ROBERTS [ROBERTS and CASSELS] at the time of his diagnosis in 1954. He died in January 1955. Graeme Cassells, September 2020. Eldest Son Recorded as being Honorary Secretary to the Orange Free State Institute of Architects in 1953 (SAAR, 1953 (July), p.46).