Chapter XVII: Teaching and family life
Looking back over a life-span which by now has covered almost eighty years, I have come to realise that the War years had become a kind of water-shed. That side of the water-shed which covered my life up to the War years remains quite vivid in my memory, but this side of the water-shed has become much more difficult to recollect. For instance, the names of pupils of pre-War days can be unhesitatingly remembered but not so the names of more recent time. This, it seems, is a common characteristic of an old man’s memory.
So I am now embarking on the story of that part of my life which I shall find more difficult to recollect. I shall therefore have to describe a wider canvas, as it were, and concentrate less on remembering details, and remembering the correct sequence of life’s events.
First of all, what were my first impressions of School, and more especially of the Latin Department, when I returned at the beginnings of the Spring Term of 1946? To my surprise, my enforced absence did not seem to have had the effect of lowering the standard of achievement in Latin. I had envisaged having an uphill struggle to restore a good standard, but there was no need for me to have had such a worry, for John Jenkins, who had doubtful qualifications in Latin, had been able to teach the subject up to the Fifth Form with the same success as he had achieved in his specialist subject, History. But he must have found it more difficult to achieve the same kind of success in the Sixth Form. However he had been fortunate in having two outstanding pupils whose achievements in college were almost unique. I had the satisfaction of directing these pupils through the Advanced Course in Latin, even though it was with moderate success.
These two pupils happened to be Carrie’s nephews, the sons of her eldest brother, David. The elder was named Simon, known to his family as Sim, and the younger was Elis. I could devote many pages to recounting the scholastic achievements of these two, but I shall just mention the more important facts. Sim is now the Professor of Welsh, and at the moment, the Vice-Principal, of the University College of Wales, Lampeter, while Elis has progressed from being Professor of Welsh at the University College of Swansea to the prestigious post of Professor of Celtic Studies and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. I have used the word ‘unique’ in referring to these two, but it was really meant to describe Elis’ achievements.
Elis sat the A level examination when he was sixteen, being seventeen the following month. He entered University College, Aberystwyth in the following October, but changed College at the end of the Session. He had a transfer to the University College, Swansea, and there he gained First Class Honours in Welsh when he was nineteen. The following year he gained a first Class Honours in Latin, and then in the next year he gained a First Class Honours in Greek, a triple First when he was twenty one years of age.
During the period 1946-50 there were changes in the School which were detrimental to the teaching of Latin. This was mainly because the courses in the Sixth Form were now orientated towards the Sciences. Although the teaching of Physics had very great successes the teaching of Chemistry and Biology was registering success after success. Herbert Lewis was a conscientious and inspiring teacher, while Miss Helen Jones was even more successful in achieving outstanding results. These successes affected the Latin Department in that all the brighter boys were now making the Sciences their first option. So the numbers taking A level Latin were diminishing every year. However, with the help of the occasional bright girl or two, I managed to keep Sixth Form Latin functioning even to my final year of teaching.
Another factor which made it difficult to maintain standards in Sixth Form Latin was the Headmaster’s attitude towards the Classics. He seemed to think that since the results in Latin were not quite as good as they were in the pre-War period, the subject warranted fewer teaching periods being allotted to it. And indeed it was obvious that he did not consider Latin to have much practical value. Up to this time, the main value to him was that a good number of pupils achieved excellent examination results, thus achieving a good name for the school.
This may seem a prejudiced view of mine, but I had confirmation of this attitude when I was persuaded to apply for the Headship of Llandovery County School by a very influential County Councillor. Alderman W.D. Davies was a native of Panteg who was very friendly with my family and was proud of my academic achievements. I had to have a testimonial from Evan Morris, the Headmaster. In it he referred to the outstanding results achieved in Latin. Two or three years afterwards, after failing to gain the Headship of Llandovery, I applied for the Headship of Whitland Grammar School. This time I asked whether I could use his testimonial for the Llandovery post,. He said that he would have to change the wording ‘applying for the Headship of Llandovery’ but when he returned the testimonial, not only had he changed the wording referring to Llandovery County School, but he watered down the remarks on the examination results in Latin without, of course, referring to those factors that had brought change to its teaching.
I have not known or heard of any Headmaster who, after holding his post for some years, has not been adversely criticised for some aspects of the running of his school. It can be said in all honesty that Mr Evan Morris was a successful Headmaster, being well liked by his staff and by the pupils. But he had one obvious weakness - he had an excess of one of the humours portrayed in Ben Jonson’s ‘Every Man in his Humour’, and that was an excess of choler. He had, indeed, a violent and uncontrollable temper. In some circumstances this was an asset. He could maintain a fairly strict discipline, as the staff had to beware of any dereliction of duty and the pupils of any misbehaviour.
Visitors to the School could also be the victims of this violent temper. After the War we used to have regular visits by three old spinsters who gave school concerts under the name of the Dorian Trio: piano, violin and cello. I can remember the names of two of these ladies, Miss Taylor and Miss Lewis, because they became famous in West Wales as the owners of a Welsh Cob stud farm in Llanarth after retiring from their concert work.
Our School in those years, unlike the Schools of today, had no instruction and training in musical instruments, and consequently had no appreciation of chamber music. In one of these concerts the Head and I were present along with boys and girls from the Upper Forms. They were naturally uninterested in the classical chamber music, and showed this by their restlessness. At the end of the concert Miss Taylor showed her annoyance with the audience by expressing in rather strong terms her displeasure with the behaviour of the boys and girls. This so annoyed the Head that instead of giving thanks to the Trio, he attacked Miss Taylor for criticising his School and his pupils, and told her in no uncertain terms that he did not wish them to continue to visit his school
However, I feel sure that when Mr Morris recovered his calm he regretted having made such a display of bad temper. Indeed at this time the bouts of bad temper increased in their frequency. Whether these bouts were due to the heart condition from which he suffered or whether the bouts of anger caused and aggravated his heart condition is a moot point. His lack of control obviously worried him, as once or twice he was seen to be in tears after such a bout. The result of all this was his sudden and premature death in, I believe, the year 1950. I hope I have not given the impression of denigrating his character. He was at most times a happy and jovial character, and was popular with both staff and pupils, who all regretted his sudden passing away.
At home life after the War had settled down into a happy routine. Una and Nest were growing up and continued to be happy in school, and to be making good progress. They were avid readers, while we made every effort to provide them with books which seemed to be suitable reading material: school-girl stories and adventure stories by such authors as Enid Blyton. But we made no effort to censor, as my belief is that if a child is fond of reading then he or she will be able to make his or her own choice of the literature to be read, and will gain that verbal intelligence which is indispensable for any academic study.
In those days every child aged eleven had to pass the so-called eleven-plus examination in order to enter a Grammar School. Comprehensive schools were not in existence then, and so a child received his Secondary education either in a Grammar School or in a Secondary Modern School. Una was entered for the eleven-plus examination for Llandeilo Grammar School. However a strange twist of fortune decided that she was not to have an entrance to Llandeilo Grammar School, although she passed the examination with credit.
Carrie had become very friendly with Mrs Gwyneth Jones, Canton, both having become mothers almost at the same time, and so both were taking much interest in the upbringing of their babies during their early years and during their growing up. Gwyneth had married into a family which had superior ideas about their status in society, and so wished Natalie, more or less of the same age as Una, to have her secondary education in Public School, or at least in a school that was not wholly in the State system.
When Gwyneth saw an advertisement in the Western Mail, stating that two Boarding Scholarships at Howell’s School, Llandaff, a direct grant school at that time, could be gained by sitting a competitive examination she decided that Natalie should sit the examination, which could be a qualification for entrance as well as for a boarding scholarship. The boarding scholarship covered all school fees, all books, and full boarding - a very valuable scholarship indeed! Gwyneth was rather keen on Una going with Natalie to sit this examination, and we were eventually persuaded to let her have a try as long as she herself showed willingness. The possibility of her not having to be taught by her father was a prospect that did not displease me, but at the same time it never entered our minds that she could win one of the two scholarships, open to all South Wales, and of course, we did not contemplate sending her as a fee-paying pupil.
We had a pleasant surprise when a letter arrived from Howell’s School, informing us that Una had gained one of the two scholarships. But there was no such pleasant surprise for Natalie. Not only did she fail to win a scholarship but she also failed to gain an entrance. So there was no company for Una, but this did not deter her from accepting the offer, and indeed she seemed to be quite excited at the prospect of going to a Boarding School.
Although all fees would be paid, and boarding would be completely free, there were some initial expenses which we had to cover, such as uniform, sports equipment and music lessons. In the accompanying instructions it was strictly laid down that all clothing should be bought in one particular shop, Evan Roberts, Cardiff. When Carrie realised that several of the items were quite expensive and highly priced, she took it for granted that some of the clothing could be made at home and much more cheaply. This turned out to be a big mistake, for Una was subjected to some harsh criticism from the teachers, and indeed was told that all clothing without exception was to be bought at Evan Roberts. The Physical Education mistress, a Miss Disney, was particularly harsh and unsympathetic.
But Una, to our surprise, was undaunted by this unhappy start and soon settled down to what seemed to us a happy and carefree existence. That was how it seemed to us from the tone of her letters, but we soon found out that it could not be otherwise, as the weekly letter, which was made compulsory by the Head, were censored by the Housemistress, and no adverse criticism or complaint was tolerated. But in spite of this, there was no doubt that Una had settled down well, gaining more and more self-confidence as she progressed to the Upper Forms.
The discipline was typical of a Girls’ Boarding School. The teachers seemed to be afraid of losing their grip, as it were, by making any relaxation of the rules. The boarders were allowed to go home every half-term and were given a leave once in the first half of the term and once in the second half. The times for the start and the end of the half-term holiday and for the leaves were adhered to very strictly, with no deviation of even minutes being allowed. Both the half-term break and the leaves started at midday on Saturday and not until the school clock struck twelve were the boarders allowed out to meet their parents waiting patiently outside. The same strictness was adhered to for the return to School at six o’clock.
It was no easy matter arranging times for any entertainment in the afternoon and for having tea in a restaurant so that we could arrive back at Howell’s School, Llandaff, by the six o’clock deadline. The result of this was that we were either back at School well before the deadline or it would be just a few minutes past. More than once we failed to make the deadline. This was quite understandable but not so to the mistress on duty. The punishment for being late was a curtailment of the length of the next leave, sometimes by two hours, that is we had to be back by four o’clock.
You can imagine the difficulty of adhering to a suitable time-table. Both Una and I were keen on seeing any important Rugby match at Cardiff Arms Park, especially International Matches. Then after pushing our way through milling crowds to a convenient restaurant and finding that too equally crowded, and so affecting the waitress service, we had to gulp down our tea of buttered scones and cakes, or even do without. Then we would have to catch a trolley-bus to Llandaff Fields. These were supposed to run every twenty minutes, but sometimes we would have an anxious wait of much more than the expected twenty minutes. There was also quite a long walk from the bus terminus to the School. The mistress on duty would listen to your tale of woe, seemingly sympathetically, but in Una’s next letter we would be informed that two hours had been cut off her next leave.
During this time I had no car, and so had to make a long and tedious journey to Cardiff by bus. In spite of the inconveniences of such travel, I used to enjoy these trips to Cardiff, having the extra pleasure of seeing Una enjoying her day-out. An early start and a late return were involved in the journey. The first stage was in an eight o’clock Rees and Williams’ bus from Llandeilo. The next stage was from Ammanford to Port Talbot in a Western Welsh bus. This left Ammanford just before nine o’clock. The stop in Port Talbot was made in order that drivers should change over, and sometimes a change of bus was also made. The bus arrived in Cardiff soon after eleven o’clock. But that was not the end of the journey. A trolley bus ride to Llandaff Fields came next, and then a walk of about half a mile to the School, where I had to wait outside until the clock struck twelve.
This journey was, of course, repeated in the opposite direction in the evening. But there were anxious moments in the latter stages of the journey. Would the bus arrive in Ammanford in time to catch the nine o’clock bus to Llandeilo, thus avoiding a long wait for the ten o’clock bus? In order to catch the earlier bus I had to jump off the bus at the traffic lights on the Square and then make a dash for the Llandeilo starting point, about two hundred yards further on. Sometimes the dash would be in vain. It was very frustrating sometimes to see the bus just starting off when I was only a few yards away.
In spite of our not having a car, we managed for several years to have enjoyable trips during weekends, but hardly ever on a Sunday. Our landladies, who lived next door, were two old spinsters who had extremely narrow puritanical views about Sunday observance. If by chance we had missed chapel services on Sunday through visiting friends or relatives we were subjected to very sour looks as well as bigoted and sly remarks during the following week.
We always looked forward to Saturday trips to my parents’ home. Just before the beginning of the War they had retired from farming, moving from Bryngwyn to a bungalow that was not far from the main road leading from Carmarthen to Pencader. The name they had given to it was Fronolau, the same name as the house in which they lived in GwaunCaeGurwen.
The attractions of the Saturday trips to Fronolau and of the week’s holidays in Summer were many. We always looked forward to my mother’s special cooking. It was a real treat to sit down to a roast dinner with rice pudding after a rather tiring trip by bus from Llandeilo, with a change of buses in Carmarthen and a half-mile uphill walk to Fronolau from the Pencader road. Then for tea a sumptuous serving of fresh bread and butter, cakes and fruit tarts freshly baked of whim berries, gooseberries, red currants, or other fruits newly picked from the garden. A special treat was a tart made of cranberries picked on the nearby mountain. Quite often we were served with Mother’s speciality - pancakes, which we had watched being made and cooked with tongues hanging out in anticipation.
Somehow or other my memory is only of beautifully fine, sunny afternoons and the countryside in all its glory with the trees in full foliage and the hedgerows covered with wild flowers of many hues. No doubt there were disappointingly wet visits in inclement weather, but these memories have been blotted out by the nostalgic memories of pleasant walks in idyllic surroundings.
One of these pleasurable walks was up the mountain of Staffle Carn, about a mile and a half from Fronolau. It did not really warrant the name ‘mynydd’ (mountain). It was more of a boggy plateau on uplands about a thousand feet above sea-level with a glorious view of the Towy Estuary at Llansteffan, of the Preseli Mountains and of the Brecon Beacons. But the particular attraction of the ‘mountain’ was the abundance of whimberries in the month of July and of cranberries in August. Although picking the small fruits could be very tiring and rather daunting, yet we were urged on by the thought of the mouth-watering tarts of whim berries or cranberries that would be baked by Mother.
We felt sure that we had a complete monopoly of the mossy beds of cranberries. We used to feel that a special knowledge was required to locate the concentrations of cranberry beds right in the middle of the bog. They must have been inaccessible to the inexperienced town-dwellers who sometimes came up from Carmarthen to enjoy the mountain air and the wonderful view, and then the local farmers must have thought that it would be a time-wasting task picking such small fruit, and then having only sufficient for a small tart. Picking the cranberries cleverly camouflaged in the soggy beds of moss was also a back-breaking job, a job that Una and Nest gave up long before I felt that we had picked sufficient for a tart.
Our Saturday trips were not always in the direction of Carmarthen. The other destination convenient by bus or rail was Swansea. The journey by rail to Swansea was enjoyed by the four of us, a journey from Llandeilo station via Pontardulais to Victoria station. The latter part of the stage from Pontardulais to Victoria Station was really picturesque, with an exciting view of the sea and the sea-shore of Swansea Bay, with its beach, on a fine summer’s day, crowded with happy trippers. What a pity that this beautiful stretch of railway is now closed!
There was so much that could be done in the town of Swansea. It was really the centre for shopping for the people of Llandeilo. After making the round of shops, such as Ben Evans, David Evans and Lewis Lewis, came the less pleasurable task of carrying home the awkward packages of purchases.
On fine Saturdays in summer there were three favourite beaches which could be reached easily from Swansea. The most convenient was Swansea Bay, where the train from Llandeilo had a stop before the final stop in the terminus at Victoria Station. The station in Swansea Bay was so convenient that you could step off the platform right on to the beach. The second favourite beach was at Mumbles, which could be reached by a trip from Swansea Bay Station or Victoria Station in the famous Mumbles railway, claimed to be the oldest in Britain. The attractions in Mumbles were the Pier and the rocky beach, where the girls enjoyed playing in the little pools between the rocks. The third destination was Caswell Bay, which could be reached by bus from Swansea.
The bus stop in Caswell was a fair distance from the beach. But in spite of this we made our way to the furthest end of the beach, lugging with us hired deck-chairs and bags containing our picnic lunch and tea. It was not without many grumbles that Carrie, Una and Nest followed the Father. This was a regular practice of mine, or rather what they considered a regular failing. I always favoured those parts of a beach which were not crowded with people, although it meant that I would often have to trudge a long way to go and buy ice-cream or little items of food and sweets from the shop. This must have been a legacy of my upbringing in the sparsely populated and lonely regions of Panteg. I have already said that I was fond of my own company. Perhaps I should add that I was fond of the company of my own family and not of strangers.
At this time too we were restricted in our choice of venues for our summer holidays by not owning a car, and indeed by our finances being somewhat depleted during my Army service. Two of these summer holidays I remember very well, for certain reasons which I shall explain.
The first one was in 1947, when we were fortunate to be able to rent a caravan in the most convenient site in Tenby. Our holiday had been jeopardised by an unfortunate illness suffered suddenly by Carrie. She had been rushed to the hospital in Gorseinon after suffering severe appendix pains in the night. After a week recovering in hospital and a week or two of convalescence at home it was decided that she could have a holiday provided that she could have a fairly inactive holiday. So the site of the caravan just behind the Pavilion Cinema and on a dune by the South Beach was ideal for such a holiday. We had been able to rent this caravan as it was owned by Harry the husband of Carrie’s sister Annie Mary. The holiday turned out to be one of the most enjoyable we have had, not only because of the convenience of the site but also because of the glorious summer weather, that hot summer remembered by everyone as the summer after the severe snow-storms of the previous winter.
Our next Summer holiday in 1948 was at Mumbles. This holiday is particularly remembered because it was in the year when Carrie’s unplanned pregnancy occurred. She was about six months pregnant when we took our holiday at the beginning of August.
On Bank Holiday Saturday I could not resist the temptation of taking the opportunity to see Glamorgan playing the Australian touring team at St Helen’s. so we decided to make our way in opposite directions, Carrie and the girls to Mumbles Pier and Bracelet Bay and I by the Mumbles Train to Swansea Bay and St Helen’s. Australia batted first and their early batsmen batted merrily on until about three o’clock, when a tremendous burst of thunder and lightning heralded a real cloudburst over the ground.
What was I to do now? I was worried about Carrie in her state of advanced pregnancy having to dash for shelter and to the Mumbles train in order to return to Oystermouth where we were staying. So I decided to make my way by the Electric Train to Mumbles, hoping to find Carrie and the girls sheltering there. But there was no sign of them! My only choice then was to return to Oystermouth and to the guest house, where I found all was well. Carrie had anticipated the storm and had wisely decided to make for the train before the start of the downpour.
I have stated that it was an unwanted pregnancy. However, it was a real blessing in disguise, as subsequent events have proved. The birth took place on October 31st without, as far as I can remember, any complication. But there were complications later. We had not learned from our mistakes in rearing Una and Nest, and especially in Nest’s case. We still had the same fears about over-feeding and about the constant bouts of wind and hiccups after feeds. So Bethan’s first months were no credit to us. We were becoming rather anxious about her thin and scrawny appearance, and so we decided to take the plunge, as it were. We ignored the wind and the hiccups and increased the fat content of her feeds, with surprisingly good results. From then on she began putting on weight and to look like a well-fed baby.
In the year 1947 a rather dubious honour came my way. I was elected a deacon of Capel Newydd, a Welsh Independent Chapel. An election of deacons in Welsh Nonconformist chapels always arouses great interest and indeed much excitement. Long before the actual election takes place there is a great deal of speculation among the members about the likely front-runners. Being elected a deacon is generally considered a great honour and a reward for worthy services to the religious cause and to the successful continuance of the chapel services. So in order to make sure that the right person, or persons, is elected, the trust deeds of the chapel demand that the person elected commands two-thirds of the votes of the members present in chapel on the morning or night of the election. This means that very rarely more than one, or perhaps two, is elected.
If I remember rightly, on this occasion I was the only one who polled the necessary two thirds of the votes. Actually, this was contrary to the expectations of the Minister, Mr. Ben Davies, a rather wily and tactful manipulator of the rules. There were two members he had ear-marked as potential Secretary and Treasurer of the Chapel, but neither was elected. However the wily Ben Davies managed to co-opt them as members of the Sêt Fawr.
In the meantime I had made up my mind to reject what I have called the dubious honour. Before Ben Davies came to see me and to persuade me to accept, I had prepared what I considered to be strong arguments why I should not take on this responsible office. My main argument was that I did not have a strong religious conviction and that indeed my views on religion were very liberal, disbelieving the accepted dogmas of the Christian church, such as the virgin birth, the holy trinity, the miracles, and the resurrection, although I admitted that there could be symbolic truth in the tenets. I remember one time being defended by a member of a Sunday School class and labelled a Christian agnostic. That description, I believe, still holds. Having been brought up in the Nonconformist tradition I still cling to the Church as an institution, and I am prepared to show tolerance to the views of the orthodox Christian. I am a firm believer in the Christian ethic and in its concept of love.
Well, the arguments failed to overcome the persuasions of the Minister, who maintained that the members had shown complete trust in me, and that they wished to reward me for my faithful attendance in the Sunday School and for my work with the young people, and in the regular meetings of the Young People’s Literary Society.
As a deacon I felt that it was my duty to attend all the services and to support the activities arranged by various members. But I refused to attend the weekly prayer meetings. My experiences in Panteg helped me to decide.
There, the young people, that is the teenage boys and not the girls, were expected to attend a prayer meeting for half an hour before the evening service under the guidance of a senior deacon.. This deacon, although probably the most faithful member of the Chapel was not the type to inspire young people. He always had a very serious and even sour expression on his face, he lacked a sense of humour and failed to inspire in any way quite a large class of budding exponents of the art of praying. Indeed it was an art in which some of the boys became experts.
However the content of their prayers was wholly stereotyped clichés and quotations from hymns, completely lacking in originality. This did not satisfy me and I think I failed miserably in giving expression to original views. Even then my college training, and especially my study of the exact meaning of English passages that I had to translate into Latin caused me to have real doubts about the meaning of the accepted clichés. I also lacked confidence in uttering aloud what I thought should be ideas held in private.
One of the flourishing activities of a group of members was the Capel Newydd Drama Society. This activity was well-established when I became a member of the Chapel. This was due to the tremendous enthusiasm of the producer, the English master of the Grammar School.
Dan Jeffreys spent most of the winter evenings directing the dramatic productions both of the School and of the Chapel. He was a very keen student of drama, in Welsh as well as in English. Every Spring he used to arrange trips to see the Shakespearean plays in Stratford-on-Avon, a trip for the School and a trip for Capel Newydd. We were rather a motley crew from Capel Newydd, several of the hangers-on having no interest in drama and joining simply for the day out.
One of these trips comes back vividly to my mind. William Evans, the Chapel caretaker, qualified for the trip as the helper for the stage manager. He was a hard worker, a coalman during the week, but a very simple character, rather uncouth with no pretensions to appreciating any form of literature.
Dan Jeffreys had been able to book seats for some of us in the front row, immediately below the apron stage. My seat was next to that of William Evans. The two experiences of that matinee performance that my uncertain memory brings back to mind are first of all the streams of spit spouted at us by the declaiming actors at the front of the stage, and secondly the embarrassment of having to sit next to William Evans, who throughout the performance had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly. I hope that the actors were so engrossed in their parts that they did not become aware of William Evans’ show of boredom.
My job with the Capel Newydd Drama group for several years was stage manager, and indeed that was my job with the School Dramatic Society and even with the Town company. Eventually I was persuaded by Dan Jeffreys to take part in the plays which he produced for the Chapel.
I was forthwith plunged into the major part in ‘Yr Inspector’, a Welsh translation of J.B.Priestley’s ‘The Inspector Calls’. I had seen a film version of this play, in which Alastair Sim took the part of the Inspector. This was no boost for my acting of the part, as such a tour de force could not be imitated by me. However, I think I can claim that our production proved quite a success with the audience.
But almost always our productions were somewhat flawed by fluffed lines and pauses for promptings. The chief culprits in this respect were a brother and sister, Towyn and Aldwyth Harries, who were always given major parts as they were good actors in spite of the fact that they never learned their lines well enough to be word-perfect. This, of course, was no help to their fellow actors, as they often made up lines of their own, thus making it difficult to take up one’s cue. My fault was that I was too anxious and too nervous not to have learned my part word-perfect. So when the wrong cue was given I was completely in the dark, and would probably show to the audience my inability to improvise.
Another play in which I took part was ‘Siop Morgan’, a Welsh translation of a play by the Irish playwright, St John Irvine. The title of Irvine’s play escapes my memory. We had an excellent performance in the Llandeilo Church Hall when I conjured up such tearful emotions in my part as Morgan that I felt the tense atmosphere in the audience. However there was an unhappy sequel to this. We had after the intervention of about a month, been invited to perform in a small hall in a country village called Court Henry. We made the mistake of over-confidently embarking on this performance without any rehearsal. The result was that our performance was a real shambles, and I must have been the chief culprit. At times I was at such a loss to remember my lines that I left the stage and tried to continue after being prompted back-stage.
This was a busy time for us as a family, especially for Carrie. A newly-arrived daughter to add to two daughters who were growing up fast! As we had no car at the time, Carrie’s opportunities for having a change from purely domestic duties and being confined to the home was just a session of pram-pushing in the afternoons, whilst I, in addition to being in school, managed to have my relaxation on the golf course.
Una seemed to be settling down well in Howell’s School, and when two years after her entrance to the School we saw a notice in the Western Mail notifying the date for the scholarship in Howell’s School we asked Nest if she would like to try. We were rather surprised when, without any hesitation, she said ‘yes’. We were surprised as we had the impression that Nest was rather timid and prone to worry unduly. I suppose the fact that her sister was already in the School helped her to decide.
When the fateful day of the examination arrived, Nest was in rather a sorry state. She had had a very bad cold, and was hardly in a fit state to sit any examination. When we took her to the main entrance of the School and saw her walking through the doorway, we felt that, however well she performed in the examination, she could hardly, in her sorry physical appearance, create a favourable impression in the interview. So a week later we were pleasantly surprised that a scholarship, similar to that awarded to Una, was offered to her.
This time, owing to our experience with Una when she started, we decided that we would stick rigidly to the School rules when kitting out Nest with the school uniforms. So a trip to Cardiff was made later on with two aims in view: one, to buy the uniform in Evan Roberts’ shop, and two, to take Una out for her six hours leave.
Nest was surprisingly cheerful when they both set out for the first day of term in the following September in the year 1949. More surprises were to come! Not only did Nest show a more aggressive and self-confident attitude in school, but she also did well in sport. She managed to get into the games mistress’s good books and in the Fifth form was given a place in the First Hockey Eleven. Actually Nest was even in more trouble with the School authorities, especially with her House Mistress, than Una was in her first year. Several of her leave days were curtailed by two hours, mainly for talking during preparation time in the evenings.
Once she had four hours taken off her leave, four hours out of six! This time it was not her fault. For some reason or other, on one particular leave day I took Nest out without having Una with us. Both Nest and Una enjoyed being taken to Cardiff Arms Park when an international match was being played there. So Nest and I went to see an International Match on this leave day, and immediately after the game we made a dash through the milling crowds to David Morgan’s restaurant. The restaurant was so crowded and the waitresses were so harassed that we had to wait for an unduly long time to be served. Then we dashed to the bus terminus to catch a trolley-bus to |Llandaff Fields. These buses were supposed to leave every twenty minutes. But, unfortunately, we must have waited for well over the twenty minutes before the Llandaff fields bus arrived. Then another dash from the fields to the School.
We arrived five minutes late. I told Nest not to worry, that I would explain the circumstances to the mistress on duty. I was given an attentive and seemingly sympathetic hearing to the many difficulties we had encountered. But the only answer I received was that my report would be given to Nest’s House Mistress. In Nest’s letter home the following week we were informed that my intercession had had no influence at all on Miss Richards, and that her next leave would be curtailed by four hours. Four hours for being five minutes late!!
About this time the so-called quinquennial inspection of the School took place. Actually, ‘quinquennial’ is a misnomer, as in all my thirty eight years of teaching such an inspection occurred only twice. About fifteen or sixteen H.M. Inspectors would descend upon the School and would carry out the inspection for a whole week. Each Inspector was a specialist in a certain subject and confined his inspection to the teacher in that subject.
My first inspection took place sometime in the thirties and then my second in the late forties was carried out by the same inspector, Captain (or Colonel) Mat Davies. His report on me in the first inspection was far from complimentary, perhaps to be expected in my first years of teaching. So for the second inspection I decided that I was going to indulge in some window-dressing. There was no need for me to take special care that all the exercise books had been marked as I prided myself on being a conscientious marker. But I saw my chance to make a impression in a fifth form lesson on a particular chapter of Caesar’s De Bello Gallico.
This chapter gave a very detailed and indeed technical description of the bridge that Caesar had built over the Rhine. It would be difficult for Fifth Form pupils to understand and to grasp the details without a clear illustration. So I copied an illustration from the Loeb edition of the De Bello Gallico. I felt very pleased with my copy, a real work of art which would need all the space of the black-board. Although this chapter had not been reached in our study, I decided to concentrate the lesson, in which I expected Mat Davies to be present, on this chapter, and to make a clear explanation of the map on the board. The lesson proved to be a great success, and the Inspector was obviously impressed. He even asked me later if I had contemplated applying for a Headship. At the time I had already applied for the Headship of Llandovery County School, but I was not even granted an interview.
Soon after I was persuaded, especially by my supporter on the County Council, the influential Alderman W.D. Davies, to put in an application for the Headship of Whitland Grammar School. By this time also I had the support of my Uncle Dafydd, who had been elected the Councillor for the Brechfa area. He produced for me copies of all the applications for the post. Although there were many well qualified teachers of vast experience among the applicants I was chosen as one of three on the Short List to be interviewed by a small Select Committee. From what I gathered from friends who had connections with the interviewers, I put up quite a good performance in the interview, although I myself felt that I had failed to create a really good impression. In any case, the successful candidate was Trevor Thomas, the Classics Master at Ammanford, who proved a better communicator and headmaster than I could have been.
About this time the whole School staff were shocked to hear of Evan Morris’ sudden death. And yet we had had the feeling for some time that he could have a fatal heart-attack at any moment. I wonder whether his poor heart condition was affected by his uncontrollable bursts of temper or was it the bursts of temper that aggravated his heart condition. So another Headship became vacant. Again against my better instinct I gave way to pressure to apply for the post. On the whole it was not the policy of the Education Authority to appoint a member of the staff to the Headship of his own School. However I was again chosen for the Short List only to be pipped at the post, as it were, by Mr Ray Samuel.
I had one last attempt at promotion by applying for the post of Assistant Director of Education. If I had been reluctant to apply for the headships, I was even more reluctant to apply for this high office, which would carry a lot of responsibility and would be very much in the public eye. My supporters were again able to get me on the Short List, but I was really much relieved when another candidate, better qualified than I was, was appointed. With hindsight, I feel sure that, although all the posts carried higher salaries, I would have been very unhappy shouldering the extra responsibility and worry.
Ray Samuel was a very different character from Evan Morris. Whereas Evan Morris had a choleric temperament and made his decisions independently without consultation with the staff, Ray Samuel had a much more equable temperament and had a good relationship with both staff and pupils. Like all new brooms he introduced several changes in the running of the school, but it was very seldom that he introduced a new idea without consulting the staff concerned. If anything he had a weakness, and what Headmaster has no weakness? This weakness was a certain diffidence in introducing a change, and so he needed the support of his staff. A regular statement of his, or rather a question, was, ‘Don’t you think so?’. I realised this all the more when I eventually became Deputy Head. He was continually approaching me about the advisability of adopting a particular course of action. Although he was supposed in the final instance to take on himself a difficult problem of school discipline, he left it to me to shoulder all the responsibility.
However he gave me his full support in helping me to bolster up an ailing Latin department. Latin came to be seen in many schools as a kind of luxury and prestige subject that was not necessary to gain a worth-while qualification. So the numbers taking A level Latin were gradually dwindling and were it not for the Head’s support would probably disappear altogether from the School curriculum, as is happening now in most Comprehensive Schools in Wales.
The only boys who undertook the Advanced Course were those who had very little interest in Science and had done fairly well in the O level Arts subjects without applying much effort and industry. Then in the Sixth Form they did very well in those subjects requiring a certain facility of expression but failed to apply themselves to the study of Latin, which demanded a great deal of hard work and dedication. It must be admitted that these did not lack ability, as has been shown in later life. I can now bring to mind two of these boys who have had and are having successful careers.
But I was fortunate enough to have several good girls who distinguished themselves in their University careers. Two of these were Ann Thomas and my daughter Nest. Both in the same year gained State Scholarships. Ann decided to sit an examination for a scholarship to Bedford College, London, intending to specialise in French. She failed to qualify for a Scholarship but she was offered a place on the strength of her Latin result and on the condition that she pursued the Honours Course in Latin rather than in French. I shall later on describe Nest’s achievement and how she came to my class in the Sixth Form.
1953 was an important year for the country and for our family. It was the year of the coronation of the present reigning queen, Queen Elizabeth II. But as far as we were concerned that was not really the important event of the year, but that the whole pageantry was shown on television. This was exciting because in Llandeilo we had the first opportunity to see a television programme. We did not see it at home, but at a colleague’s house a few doors away. Wynford Evans, our Physics master, had bought a television set just in time for the televising of such a colourful and indeed extravagant display of pageantry. It was an exciting experience, although, of course, as it was wholly in black and white, not to be compared with modern pictures of royal pageantry in colour. Almost the whole day was spent watching the programme in the company of several neighbours who had been invited to the show.
The important event for our family was moving house. When Fronlas in Thomas Street, not far from Alan Road, was put on sale, we decided for two particular reasons to make a bid. First of all, relations with our next-door landladies had become very strained because of their obvious show of disapproval with our way of life. They would subject us to a moody show of disapproval if by absenting ourselves from a chapel service we had appeared to have broken the Sabbath. They were often critical of our upbringing of the girls, especially at that time of Bethan. Secondly we were anticipating having to accommodate my parents in a house which had four bedrooms and had sufficient rooms downstairs to allow them to have a living room of their own. We feared that such a move might come soon as my father was in the incipient stage of Parkinson’s disease.
We were enabled to buy Fronlas at the asking price of £2,100 by having an interest-free loan from my parents of a large part of that sum. Actually the loan turned out in the end to be a gift, one of the advantages of being an only child! It is amazing how my parents had been able to make such a generous gift after retiring from a small hill farm, which could not have given them an income that did much more than cover outgoings. But then, they had always been extremely thrifty and saved any money surplus to their immediate requirements.
After having an excellent result in O levels, passing with high grades in all subjects, Una decided in 1954 to sit in the Spring a scholarship to Aberystwyth University College, her Father’s old college. She was not qualified to sit most of the closed scholarships, but there was one particularly attractive group of scholarships confined to those candidates from Wales who either had O level Welsh or could pass a comparatively easy test of translating a straightforward passage of Welsh into English. Una, being a Welsh-speaker, although not having sat O level in Welsh, thought that such a hurdle could be overcome quite easily. And so it was proved. She with nine other were awarded an Evan Morgan Scholarship of £40 per annum. She then passed A level English, Latin, and French with the intention in her final year to sit the Honours Latin examination.
In the same year Nest made an unexpected decision to leave Howell’s School to enter the Sixth Form in Llandeilo. It was a decision that she denied was the result of her losing Una’s company in Howell’s School. It was an unexpected move in that she seemed to be very happy in Howell’s, where she not only achieved good results in her O levels but also had become a member of the First Hockey XI. But by now I had a changed attitude towards the teaching of my daughters in my own school and was looking forward to having another good girl in the Sixth Form, who would probably to be able to set a high standard and give a competing edge to the achievements of a good girl whom I had taught throughout the Lower Forms. Indeed it was rather difficult for me not to show favour to my daughter in the marking of Ann Thomas and Nest’s work, but on the whole it was a kind of see-saw in both of the girls’ work, one having the better mark one week, and possibly the other in the next.
Both of these girls had outstanding results in their A levels. Both of them were awarded State Scholarships, a fine achievement in those days. Soon after, these scholarships were abolished. However no financial benefit was gained by the awards, as they were cancelled out by the means test on their parents. But Nest was allowed to add the sum of the Evan Morgan Scholarship which she had gained in the same way as Una had done. The only difference was that by then the amount of the Scholarship had been increased to £60 per annum.
Nest, like Una, decided that her main subject was to be Latin and so followed the Honours course in that subject. Una and Nest chose to specialise in Latin of their own accord. I had put no pressure on them to follow in their father’s footsteps. But, although I did not try to influence them in any way in their choice, I must have unwittingly given them some encouragement.
It proved to be a wise choice on Nest’s part, for she gained a First Class Honours in what proved to be, in Professor W.H. Davies’ words, an ‘annus metabolism’. Three members of the Honours Class had gained a First Class, an unusually successful result. Later we found out from Carrie’s nephew Elis Evans, who was by now a Lecturer in the Welsh Department in Swansea University College, that according to the external examiner Nest topped the Honours Class in the four constituent colleges of the University of Wales.
Unlike Una, Nest stayed in the College in her fourth year to pursue the Teacher’s Training Course, with Physical Education as her second subject. During the last term she decided that she would like to go to America to pursue a course for the Master’s degree. She had seen a notice in the local press advertising Thomas and Elizabeth Williams Scholarships for those who wished to pursue a further degree in an American college.
Thomas and Elizabeth Williams were natives of Kidwelly and had emigrated to America where they had made a lot of money, most of which they left at their death in a bequest to establish scholarships in America for students who lived in Kidwelly. As there were very rarely any candidates from Kidwelly for such a scholarship, the trustees of the bequest had decided that the scholarships should be open for the whole of Carmarthenshire. Even then applicants were few and far between, with the result that the funds of the bequest were increasing every year. So when Nest applied, the value of the scholarship had rocketed to become an exceedingly valuable one. The scholarship covered all expenses of travel to and from America, tuition fees and full board and lodgings. I believe that in the end the sum amounted to about £1600.
The Spring of her teacher’s training year was spent by Nest applying to several American colleges for admission and for information about the course or courses she could take for the Master’s degree. In the end an admission was gained to the Wisconsin State University in Madison. The qualification for a Masters was the gaining of a certain number of points for nine different courses, each carrying a certain number of points, which varied according to the recognised standard and difficulty of the course. Each course had to be completed in one term or, as the Americans called it, semester.
It had been Nest’s wish to follow a course of further Latin study and research similar to that in the University of Wales. But there was only one course on a Latin subject, a study of certain works by Cicero. And then the other courses were a conglomeration of unrelated studies such as Rural Studies, International Relations and the modern American novel. She passed all courses with flying colours until she came in the final semester to the study of the American Novel. She could not understand the peculiar ideas held by the tutor and was being continually marked down by him. So she was very worried that the necessary total number of points would not be acquired. However, although she did not gain top marks for the course, she gained enough points to qualify for the degree M.S., Master of Science. Nest, thinking that such a degree would require a lot of explanation in the United Kingdom when applying for a teaching post, persuaded the Authorities to grant her an M.A., Master of Arts.
Nest did not neglect the social side of her college life. There were quite a few Welsh-speaking immigrants from Wales among the citizens of Wisconsin and she was befriended by several of these, especially by the wife of Judge Evans, who was a native of Mid-Wales. She also struck up a very close friendship with her room-mate, Mary Claire. Mary Claire married a Frenchman, and for many years she and Nest kept in close touch with each other. Almost every summer either Mary Claire and family would visit Nest’s home, or Nest and her family visited Mary Claire in different places in France.
After Nest qualified for the Master’s degree in her final semester she found that she had not exhausted the Thomas and Elizabeth Williams grant, and so, taking advantage of her stay in America she decided to have a grand tour of many of the States before returning to this country. Throughout her stay in America she had corresponded regularly with her parents. Her letters were full of interesting details about her work in college, about her friendships, and about her visits to various places. Her letters during her tour of the States were even more interesting. She had bought a Greyhound Bus ticket, giving her unlimited travel at a very cheap rate. She went all the way to the West Coast, to San Francisco, several National Parks, the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, a rodeo in Phoenix Arizona, and the States bordering Mexico.
There was one disadvantage in her having undertaken this tour of America. As it was during the school summer holidays in this country, she was not at home to make applications for any vacant post in Latin. However I offered to make an application for her, when I saw an advertisement in the Western Mail inviting applications for such a post in Rhyl High School. First of all, I explained the reason for my applying on behalf of my daughter, who was absent in America. Then I gave a full list of Nest’s qualifications and indeed I myself felt very impressed with them. The Rhyl Headmaster must have been equally impressed, as he replied that he was prepared to appoint Nest, even though she could not appear for interview.
Una by now had a teaching post in Gainsborough High School in Lincolnshire, although she had no Teacher’s Certificate. She had decided at the end of her third year in College not to stay another year in order to pursue the Teacher’s Training course. While in College she had formed an attachment with Glen Emanuel who specialised in Economics. They must have made their own plans for the future.
Glen, after finishing in College, had to put in two years of National Service, while Una wished to start earning immediately after gaining her degree. The only Latin post on offer towards the end of the Summer vacation was the one in Gainsborough, a location far removed from her home in Llandeilo and from Glen’s Army station. So when Glen, after his National Service was successful in having a job with the Westminster Bank in Swansea, Una applied, successfully, for a post in Mynyddbach Comprehensive School for Girls. Mynyddbach was a suburb of Swansea.
1959 was the year when Bethan entered Llandeilo Grammar School. At this time there was much agitation among parents and politicians demanding that the tripartite system of Grammar School, Secondary Modern School and Technical School should be abolished and, of course, that at the same time the much maligned eleven-plus examination be discontinued. However, the eleven-plus examination was still in existence, especially in Carmarthenshire, where the Director of Education, Iorwerth Howells, continually stalled on the reorganisation of schools and the introduction of Comprehensive Schools
Bethan, like her sisters, had made excellent progress in the Primary School. Her headmaster entered her for the eleven-plus despite the fact that she was strictly too young as she would not be eleven until the end of October. Bethan duly passed the examination and her transfer to her father’s school encountered no problems, or so it seemed to me. I myself was by now a sufficiently hardened teacher to have no doubts about my approach to teaching her in my school and at the same time it seemed to me that Bethan was settling down well in the School and was happy among her friends. I say ’seemed’ because she never brought back any tales to her home and never complained about possible persecution by those pupils, who though indiscipline, had incurred my displeasure with dire results.