The incredible ELO - photo taken 2007 Eigor Osmend (ELO) is possibly the school's longest serving teacher throughout it's history. Born in Wales himself, ELO joined the school while it was evacuated in Monmouth. Fresh from University, young Eigor was not much older than the school's sixth formers. Here is a transcribed extract from an interview conducted with ELO at his home in Barnstable in 2007:
ELO: I joined the school in Monmouth because when the war started in 39 I was just finishing university so I went to the Rose Hall and volunteered for the RAF. But they looked at me and said “Aah polio…bumph… nothing” but I’m still alright up here and I could still write and I could take somebody off a desk, you know? However, they wouldn’t have it, they wouldn’t have it at all, so er, I joined the Home Guard.
(chuckles)
Joined the Home Guard and I was there a week and I was made the platoon commander. I eventually became the platoon commander of the… oh, now what do they call it? It was a reserve platoon that would go wherever there was trouble I was called to go out to it, so I had a very busy time because Monmouth in those days was, er, a whole host of evacuees were there, from London as well, and Peter Gilbert, you remember Peter Gilbert? He was the biology master at school then, he and I were digging with Miss Hill and when the war was over he went to South Africa and there was trouble in South Africa so he went to Rhodesia and he taught in a Rhodesian school out there.
He was a great friend of mine, yes I missed him when he went. But there we are. That’s life isn’t it?
PJM: Yes people come and go don’t they?
ELO: That’s right
PJM: So were you living in Monmouth?
ELO: Well, he and I were digging with Miss Hill, now it was near the post office, by the post office there was a driveway going down to the Hill’s, where we were, but now of course it’s a garage, that driveway to a garage and the house has become … well there’s no one living there now, it’s been knocked down and the garage built there, so some of my memories have gone now, disappeared.
PJM: So what was the connection with the school and how did you come to join up with it? Was that while the school was actually evacuated?
ELO: Yes, after I graduated as I said, I tried to join the RAF but they wouldn’t have me because of my polio and so I joined the school and went to Monmouth with them and was there for four years. Four years we were in Monmouth. Then when we were coming back to Birmingham, I went to the headmaster, Dobinson then, and asked him for a reference and he said to me:
“What do you want a reference for?”
“Well” I said “You’re going back to Birmingham, I don’t know anybody there, so I’ve got nowhere to live, so I’ll go back home and teach in a school down in South Wales”
“Yeah” he said “Hold onto your application” he said “Hold onto it until Thursday and I’ll have a word with you on Thursday”
So I said “alright”. I held onto my application form, didn’t send it away and he came to me and he said:
“I’ve been to see the Governors and they have offered you £200 extra a year if you’ll stay with us”
And £200 then was a lot of money, you know? So I thought to myself, I must mean something to somebody! (chuckles) Oh dear me.
PJM: Absolutely. And that was 1945 was it?
ELO: That was forty… I went there in forty one, but the money came in forty four.
PJM: That’s when the school moved back to Five Ways in Edgbaston?
ELO: That’s right, yeah. So… it’s an experience. You wouldn’t believe it.
PJM: And how many years of teaching did you do?
ELO: Forty years at the same school. Five Ways. When I came up to forty years and I was what? Sixty two then, I handed in my resignation and he accepted it this time, the headmaster, Burgess, accepted it. So, off I went and I was on my own.
I’ve had a good life, had lots of experiences, met lots of lovely people and er… I can’t grumble. You know, not really. Yeah.
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