Bruce Chalmers, the St John's "half" man, and the generosity of people

I was at the St John’s vs Stithians derby rugby game last week and saw the little man with the number half on his back, as you always do at St John’s games.

In the days since, the significance of that tradition has emerged as, first, the St John’s website posted a letter from a parent about their match against Pretoria Boys’ High in which he eloquently describes the contribution of the “half” man to the performance of the team. Read it here St John’s parent letter .

Watching the St John’s vs St Stithians game via live streaming in far off Ho Chi Min city, Vietnam, was Bruce Chalmers, captain of the St John’s 1985 and 1986 1^st teams, and he weighed in with a recounting of the history of that little rugby jersey.

In short, he says, he was given that jersey – a manufacturer’s sample – by the school priest. He took it home and his mother sewed the number on it. The team agreed to get the smallest rugby player in the school to be their water boy and kicking tee carrier, and that he will wear the number half jersey. That was in 1986, and the traditional lives on.

Read Bruce Chalmers’ description here.

It’s an inspiring anecdote. And Bruce Chalmers is an inspiring man. He was way back, when I first became aware of him as an extraordinarily talented schoolboy sportsman, and he is now – as he battles injury and misfortune with a fierce determination, with his humanity shining through.

I first became aware of Bruce when he was at Athlone Boys’ High. He won every breaststroke race at the local galas and, as a junior, he was part of Athlone’s first water polo team and in the Transvaal Schools team. He played for the SA Schools team in standard 8.

Then he moved to St John’s and the story he tells above began. As a sports reporter, I crossed paths with him after the left school. He was a star in the Wits interfaculty rugby league – where I was a referee – described as “unplayable” by his coach. He also played in the 1^st team for several clubs in the Pirates Grand Challenge competition.

I saw him again a few years later, teaching at St Benedict’s. Then he set off for the Far East, teaching English as a foreign language. Which is how he got to be in Vietnam now.

Things haven’t gone well for him. In 2020, he slipped on a wet stairway, dislocating his hip and fracturing his femur. He collapsed in the street while trying to go for help and ended up lying on the ground for an entire night. He was eventually helped by passers-by and ended up having surgery.

Back at home, after much suffering, he was befriended by a neighbour, who fed him and, in his words, saved his life. All of this happened while Ho Chi Min city imposed one of the strictest Covid-19 lockdowns in the world.

The story gets more amazing. Bruce was bedridden, so he couldn’t teach and, therefore, earned no money. And his medical expenses were huge. That’s when some of his school friends from St John’s who he hadn’t seen for over 30 years, heard of his predicament and decided to do something. One of them, John Mc Pherson, started a BackaBubby fund for Bruce and, to date, they have collected enough to see him though.

In the meantime, though, the original surgery failed and had to be redone and that was followed by a series of serious infections, so Bruce still isn’t out of the wood yet. But he has moved into a new apartment and continues to post his gratitude for the kindness and generosity of the, manily poor, Vietnamese people who live around him on Facebook.

And then, thanks to SuperSport Schools, he watched the St John’s vs St Stithians derby last week and shared his role in the rich traditions of St John’s rugby. It’s an incredible story.