AUCTION WORLD

Dorothy (later a member of the Institute of Estate Agents and Auctioneers of South Africa, and a sworn Government Appraiser), proved that it was a career for a young woman with a zeal for acquiring knowledge and an enduring, unfaltering voice that was a glutton for punishment. Before entering with trembling feet into a domain, over which men have held a commanding position, she was a dancing teacher, a dentists nurse, and she also worked for a trust company. It was during the war that Dorothy and her husband, LA (Gun) Cannon, joined up but, unfortunately, he was captured and became a prisoner of war. Dorothy then had the responsibility of bringing up their two sons, John and Patrick. One of her close personal friends, who had great confidence in what women could achieve, talked Mrs.  

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Cannon into the idea of becoming an auctioneer. The friend took a long time to raise even a glimmer of interest, but finally Dorothy capitulated and said she would try just one sale. If she hated the job, or the sale flopped, she said that never again must her friend try to influence her. Mrs. Cannon, found that, although terror-stricken and tongue-tied the sale did not flop and she quite liked the set-up. This launched her career as an auctioneer on June 1st 1942, as an assistant to Mr. P.H. Smalridge, of Pietermaritzburg. She believed that she was at that time the 1st woman auctioneer in South Africa to have ever sold merchandise by auction, and the 1st woman auctioneer to have sold landed property too. In August 1946 she was notified that she had been made an associate of the Auctioneers of Land and Property Agents Association of London England.