Arthur Basil, the son of a coach builder James King and Sheila Heathcote, was born in East Lon­don on 12 February 1921.

He went to Australia and entered the Mit­tagong Juniorate on 16 February 1939 and thereafter went through all the stages of the Mittagong training, receiving the religious name of Brother Victor and subsequently making his First Profession on 2 July 1942. Thereafter he did teacher training receiving a Victorian Teacher’s Diploma in 1943.

After teaching at Observatory from 1945 till 1949 Brother Ephrem, as he was now named, there being another Brother Victor in the Province, was posted to Durban. It was during this posting that he made his Final Profession on 9 July 1946. When the Brothers opened a Juniorate on the property he was; named first Master of Juniors in January 1952 – transfer­ring to Hibberdene with the acquisition of this house in 1953. It was during this period that he also got his B.A.

This rapid ‘promotion’ to a post of such responsibility is indicative of his great aptitude as a teacher and formator – attributes that were thereafter recognised everywhere he was posted.

After spells in Inanda and Observatory Brother Ephrem was named Director of Durban in 1958, teaching mostly in Matric in a great variety of subjects at the same time as running the school.

In 1963 he was made Master of Scholastics in Pietermaritzburg in January, called to the Provincial Council in February and elected Provincial in November 1964, a post he held until the end of 1968. He stayed on at the Provincialate after his term of office, this time as Provincial Recruiter until 1972. He helped run Walmer during most of 1973 until re­appointed Master of Scholastics in Maritzburg in 1974 and when that establishment was terminated he took over the Directorship and Principalship of St Charles. Despite vigorous efforts to reverse the great financial debts piling up the Brothers had to pullout of this school which they had been running since 1914. He was thus the last Principal of that fine college.

Brother Ephrem then returned to the Transvaal, first as sub­-Director of Inanda in 1979, then as Director in 1982. During this latter appointment he was put in charge of the Johannes­burg Diocesan Schools. Brother suffered a slight heart attack in 1984 but continued his fine work.

Finally he took over as Director of Diocesan Catechetics in Port Elizabeth in 1988, a work that gave him great satisfac­tion and which he filled with tremendous enthusiasm.

The Community at 40 Western Road were often regaled with sto­ries of his courses and travels and ‘it was with the same ex­citement that he got up on the morning of 3 October 1990 and prayed with fervour for the future of Germany as the Berlin Wall was to come down that day.

In mid-morning Monsignor Martin phoned to tell Brother Martin of the sudden death of Brother in his Diocesan Catechetics Office.

He died on the job that he so loved – a great and most talented teacher, one of the most gifted this Province has produced.