Former Pinelands High School pupil Sherry Garlick Stanton launched a book on the life and legacy of her great-grandfather John Garlick, The Accidental Entrepreneur –John Garlick: His Life and Legacy, at Exclusive Books V&A Waterfront on Thursday January 25.
She was in conversation with Professor Mike Bruton, known for launching expeditions to study the coelacanth that was thought to be extinct but was discovered living off the coast of South Africa in 1938.
As curator of the Trial’s End Bike Hotel Museum in Grabouw, Bruton shares a love of bicycle history with the owner of the Garlicks department store chain – the last Garlicks store closed in Cape Town in 1993.
The author spoke of how her great-grandfather arrived from London by ship as a 20-year-old in 1872. The self-taught man went on to open his first Garlicks store in 1875 in Cape Town city centre.
During his lifetime he opened the first typewriter school in the country, built the first multi-storey car park in Cape Town, importing the first car to Cape Town, worked as a City councillor and politician and was a renowned philanthropist. He died in 1931.
This 470-page illustrated book is a must-have for anyone interested in South African history.
