In Memory

Raymond Lalouette

Raymond Lalouette was an unfailingly polite and helpful classmate. He was with the Class of 1961 for his first three years at DHS, and after that he took a more leisurely route to matriculation in 1962.  Raymond was born in South Africa and spoke English at home, but at school and throughout his life he took great pride in his French heritage --  his father was Mauritian, as were his mother's parents.  

Raymond was a Blackmore's boy, and in his first year at the school was assigned the task of waking up every morning (without an alarm clock) to ring the school bell at 6.15 in order to rouse the fellow boarders from their slumbers.  Raymond achieved considerable celebrity when he awoke one cold winter morning at 1.20 am,  mistakenly thought it was 6.20 am, and rushed outside in a panic to ring the chimes.  On his return he was confronted with an array of sleepy boarders, staggering to the showers or groggily fumbling with their clothes, plus some  boarder masters who were seething with rage at what they assumed was a prank.  
 
After school Raymond joined the army, but unlike most pupils who tried to get their military obligations over as soon as possible, he signed up for six years with the Natal Field Artillery.  Raymond became a gunnery lieutenant and was also trained in accounting, a skill that was to prove very useful in his later career. 
 
In 1968, Raymond married Josiane Juppin De Fondaumière, who had been born in Mauritius.  They had three sons, Jean-Marc Raymond, Paul Henri, and Jacques Edouard.
 
After a brief stint as an accountant with South African Railways, Raymond was hired by the Lion Match Company.  He was rapidly promoted and had become Financial Controller of the group by the time he left in 1978.   He then joined an investment/brokerage company,  but in 1985 started his own financial services company with two colleagues.  He bought his partners out three years later, and then ran his own company that serviced a variety of areas -- corporate finance, tax structuring, property dealing, money market investing, and (his specialty) bond trading.  He finally retired in 2006.
 
Raymond followed all the activities of the Class of 1961 with great interest.  He took special pleasure in reconnecting with old comrades at our 50 year reunion celebrations in Durban in 2011:
 
 
Raymond was always a supporter of the school, and helped raise funds for the DHS Foundation.  He looked back on his schooldays with a slightly guarded fondness:  "While I have from time to time reflected on the wisdom, or otherwise, of being constantly flogged for leaving "dry" washing on the balcony - when the washing was 'designed' to be placed on the balcony in order for it to dry - and for one's shoes being "untidy" in the shoe locker - just as easily knocked by some clumsy (or malicious) fellow - I have in my maturer years come away with an awareness that I did not suffer any lasting damage.  I think that most of us came away with an awareness that we had attended a 'fine' school and that we had obtained a secondary education from a school with a good ethos, laudable traditions (for the most part) and that we had been 'educated' by dedicated (again, for the most part) teachers, who themselves were proud to be products of DHS - Messrs, Payne, Theobald, Nourse, Lucas, Chater, Mc Michael, and Wilkinson (who helped me get an A for Maths)".
 
Always civic-minded, Raymond was a prominent member of the Rotary Club of Durban and the Durban Country Club.  His competence, leadership skills and integrity were recognized by Rotary when he was elected President in 1992-3, and by the Country Club when he was elected Chairman from 2001-2005.   
 
Raymond loved the game of tennis, which he played throughout his life, mostly at the Morningside Sports Club and at the Durban Country Club.  Here are two photographs of Raymond with family members in his retirement years -- in 2018, with his wife Josiane and daughter-in-law Amy:
 
 
 -- and in 2020, with his grand daughter Ella:
 

Unfortunately Raymond was admitted to hospital in mid April 2023 with what was believed to be pneumonia,  but later discovered to be a different lung infection. While various treatments were attempted, his condition did not improve and after two weeks his organs failed, and he passed away on 4 May 2023.   

Raymond Lalouette is survived by Josiane, his wife of 55 years; his son Jean-Marc, his wife Lucy, and their two sons Daniel and Julian; his son Paul, his wife Bronwyn and their daughter Kaylee; and his son Jacques, his wife Amy, and their daughter Ella.   All live in Durban.

[Special thanks to Nick Gray and Jacques Lalouette for their help with this In Memory notice]


 
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16/08/23 12:12 PM #1    

Christopher Makepeace

I first met Raymond in 1956 when I became a boarder at DPHS, an institution with a similar level of stupid cruelty and paedophilia as that it was 'Preparatory' for.
When I became a boarder in Fifth Form at DHS we became friends again, and, on long weekends, I was often invited to the family home at Stanger with his mystical Dad and irritating little sister!

Later on, when he was at Lion Match, we met again, living in the boarding house of one Mimi, a Mauritian lady whose cooking was truly excellent but who cursed her hapless Zulu staff in vitriolic French!. Also there was the love of his life, Josiane, with whom his rather long courtship was well under way. I suddenly left for UK when the Security ous started asking about me, and only saw him and Josiane once, during a visit to SA in 2008, in his family home. He seemed to glow with the satisfaction of a life well lived. So long, Raymond.

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