Chisholm arrived in Cape Town, via Durban, some time in April or May of 1946, having come by flying boat from Cairo and, before that, from Singapore. He was wearing only his tropical khaki suit which, according to the Cape Argus, was all he was allowed on his flight. Perhaps he had been unable to take up the 65-pound baggage allowance itemised on his Cairo to Cape Town air ticket.

He must have been going through a complex of emotions. He had been in environments and climates he had never experienced before, and performing in Italy must have widened Chisholm's horizons considerably. Apart from anything else, it was his first experience of a country where English was not spoken. In Singapore, he had been given virtually unconditional support by people operating under severe restrictions and had come into contact with musicians from many different countries who had spent months as prisoners of war. He had, in other words, been trusted, but also faced with extraordinary demands upon his administrative and personal skills – demands of a kind that had been thrust upon him previously only by his own ambitions.

He was now about to take up a triple responsibility at the University of Cape Town as Dean, Professor and Principal. As such, he was occupying in South Africa the same position held by Sir Ernest Bullock in Glasgow. The University Calendar shows nobody in charge for the years 1946–7, only registering Chisholm’s presence in the 1948–9 edition. In this, however, he is duly credited as ‘Professor of Music, Dean of the Faculty of Music, and Director of the College of Music’. Chisholm must have felt some satisfaction – not least when he had the chance to compare climates! When asked what were the main turning-points in his career, the third and final one he listed was: ‘when Dr. W. Gillies Whitaker told me in a Glasgow tramcar that they were looking for a music professor at Cape Town.’

In succeeding Eric Grant, Chisholm was succeeding a man who was officially named neither as Dean of the Faculty nor Professor of Music, although he was personally styled as a professor.