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Alice Victoria Lee [75] was born on 6 Jul 1897 in Adelaide, Eastern Cape, South Africa,
died on 8 Oct 1994 in Durban, Natal, South Africa aged 97, and was buried in 1994 in
Stellawood Cemetery, Durban, South Africa. The cause of her death was Old Age.
Another name for Alice was Punch.
General Notes: Alice Victoria Lee was born in Adelaide, Eastern Cape, South Africa in
1897. Daughter of Frank Raey Lee and Amy Maitland McMaster. She attended boarding
school at St. Mary's, Kloof, Natal where she was honoured shortly before her death as the
oldest "old girl" at the time. It was also the school which her two great-granddaughters
attended; Janlyn and Julieann Falconer.
Alice married William Steel after the 1st World War and had Llandell Llewellyn Steel.
Her second son, Danby Maitland Steel, wasn't in fact a Steel at all. He was the result of a
union with Albert Edgar McMaster, her first cousin. At the time she was still married to
William Harold Steel.
When finding herself pregnant she left South Africa and travelled to Australia to meet up
with William Harold Steel who was working in Bunbury as an Accountant. He had
travelled to Fremantle aboard " The Balranalt' and arrived via the Cape on the 11th
November, 1923. She travelled to Fremantle on 'The Beltana' with Kate Vaughan Steel
aged 2 at the time. They arrived via the Cape on the 24 Feb 1925. Danby Maitland was
born on the 24 July, 1925.Whilst living in Bubury William Harold and Alice Victoria lived at 2 separate addresses.
In 1929, when she came back to South Africa, she went to Colenso and opened up a
boarding house for men only. While she was running the boarding house, William Gabriel
Vorster was a lodger. This is where they met.
From a young girly, she had great organizational abilities, especially when it came to fun
and games. On one such occasion she even became involved in spanning oxen to take
everyone to a picnic at a local river.
She learnt to drive during the second World War so that she could ferry the many helpers
to the various military hospitals.
Talking about her driving, it is important to note that she continued to drive well into her
eighties and it took great diplomacy to persuade her to stop driving. Apparently it started
one day when a grandson was cruising up the dreaded Fields Hill coming out of Pinetown
in his van when he was overtaken by a very speedy red mini. To his great astonishment
the speedster was identified as none other than his eighty something year old
grandmother.
She started each day with an ice cold shower no matter what the weather, and even took
an ice cold shower on the days that it was snowing. Perhaps that was the recipe for her
long life as she lived to the age of 97.
During that time of her life she witnessed the invention of the first motor car, the first
flight of an aeroplane, the first landing of man on the moon and the invention of the radio,
television, calculator and computer. She even had the distinction of seeing Haley's comet
twice.
By the time she died she had had 5 children, 16 grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.
To Dear Dot & Redvers Wishing you a very Merry Xmas & a Bright and Prosperous New
Year With Lots of Love & kisses from the crowd at the Zoo Bill & Punch
Alice and Kate with William Steel outside his house in Bridgetown, Western Australia.
They were not living together at the time, but Alice was living in another suburb in a
house of her own.
Alice next married William Harold Steel [76] [MRIN: 31], son of William Charles
Thomas Llandell Steel [6565] and Elizabeth Bastard [6566], on 14 Jan 1918 in
Ficksburg, Orange Free State, South Africa.21 William was born circa 1887 in
Rotherhithe, Kent, England and died on 4 Jan 1954 in St. Winifred's Beach , South Coast,
South Africa aged 67. They had one son: Llandell Redvers.
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