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Millfield in its Infancy
The first headmaster of Milifield School was RJ.O. Meyer. He was known as Jack to his friends and Boss to everyone else. His father, Canon Rollo Meyer, was a vicar.
In 1918, Jack won a scholarship at the age of 13 to Haileybury College, which was close to his home, and he carried its ethos with him when he went up to Cambridge in 1923.
This ethos was to have a considerable effect on Millfield as he founded the latter on the same principles of free choice and self-discipline with a firm religious base.
Jack was naturally athletic, representing his University in four sports, and he always encouraged young people to follow his example. This love of sport and the Haileybury connection landed him a job with a cotton-broking firm in Bombay when he graduated in 1926 (the year of the General Strike when jobs in the U.K. were at a premium). As a result he represented India at cricket and became National champion at rackets and billiards.
Disliking his job intensely he accepted a tutoring post in the Princely State run by the great Indian England Test player, Prince Ranjitsinghe in 1929. Three years kter, having just married Joyce and hence in need of a more permanent position, Jack moved to Dhrangadhre to oversee the Palace School. The latter had been created by the Maharaja for his own children and those of his Ministers and civil servants. In all there were 100 pupils of all ages who had little, or no, knowledge of English. Jack's solution to this problem was to introduce the small group system which he was later to develop at Milifield.
The Maharaja was anxious that his own three sons should have a full English education, and, in 1935 Jack and Joyce, now with their two very young daughters, agreed to take them to England and set up a home there, where they could be tutored and prepared for the English Prep. Schools. Jack's mother agreed to search for a suitable house in the South of England which could be leased and made ready for their arrival. Several house owners would not countenance having coloured people living in them but the Quaker Clarks of Street were happy to have them at Mill Field as it was then called.
Meanwhile Jack and the Maharaja had agreed to increase the numbers to spread the cost and added three more Princes and the son of the First Minister to the party, which left India by ship in May, arriving in Street on 6th. June, 1935". All went well for the first two months until the arrival of the Maharaja himself, who soon made it obvious that he thought that the "home from home" was too far from London and under the pretence of not being able to afford the fees he withdrew five of the boys at 24 hours notice.
With only two boys, who were being financed by the British Raj, Jack had to admit defeat or find additional pupils. His and Joyce's family urged him to carry on and, with the help of sympathetic shopkeepers in Street, he scraped by. His numbers grew slowly and his examination results were amazing especially with boys who had struggled at other schools. By 1937, he was teaching 12 boys, 8 heading for universities and the other four for the Common Entrance exam of various Public Schools. In 1938 the first girl joined and in 1939 there were 40 names altogether on the School List.
Jack believed that the war would sink his little ship but the reverse happened. Street was considered to be a safe area and many boys and girls found their way to Millfield, including four of Jack's cousins. Indeed, it was observed in many quarters that" Meyer's pkce in Somerset" was particularly skilled at preparing boys for entrance exams to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth and the like and consequently the headmaster of Haileybury sent one of his weaker entrants to Milifield. This pupil was Paul Atdee nephew of the then Deputy Prime Minister, in 1941. Six months later Jack was invited to London to meet "Clem" and discuss the possibility of his "word blind" son, Martin, entering Millfield. Eighteen months later when Martin passed his exams to enter the School of Navigation at Southampton, word started to spread at government and society level about a place in the West Country where young people with severe reading problems could be helped. Twenty years later, Millfield was still the only school in England properly equipped to deal with what was by then being called dyslexia.
By the end of the war the school housed almost 200 pupils, many in small "billets" locally. Returning servicemen, whose education had been interrupted, were searching for establishments willing to help them get qualifications for university entrance, and Jack took some of them on at a time when he was desperately seeking funds to buy houses for boarding. Coincidentally, 29 Nissen huts were built in a field adjoining Mill Field and in Somerton Road and these had been occupied by U.S. troops until the invasion of France in 1944, after which they lay empty. Using his position as Flight Lieutenant RJ.CXMeyer, Officer commanding the local Air Training Corps, he persuaded the military to allow him to use 3 of the huts, then another 6 and finally the whole camp for training and other purposes, which meant, to a whole generation of Millfieldians, their classrooms.
In 1953 Jack applied for recognition of Millfield School as a non-profit making Limited Company and Charitable Trust, with a Board of Governors, whose first job it was to appoint him as salaried Headmaster. The Clark family was represented by Mr. Tony Clark, who later became Chairman and who was a constant reminder that the Millfield estate belonged to his family who were loath to sell it to an organisation that might yet be a "seven day wonder". In feet, it took ten years (June 1963) and a doubling of numbers in the school to accrue enough capital and to persuade the Clark family to part with their property.
Plans were already drawn up for new permanent buildings on the Millfield site, along with a fund which it was hoped would raise enough money to complete the whole project But the contributions of parents, old Millfieldians and others were drying up as the cost of living rocketed with Middle East oil crises and problems in the Far East Boss's, perhaps simplistic, solution was to increase pupil numbers but, inevitably, this meant extra tutors, extra housing requirements and hugely increased transport costs. Boss also had a habit of giving large scholarships to those entrants whom he thought would add to the ethos of the school.
It had been agreed in 1953 that Boss would continue as Headmaster as long as he wished and then would become life Warden, though the duties of that post were never discussed. However, as his 65th birthday approached, he nominated his Deputy Headmaster, Colin Atkinson, to take over in 1971. __
Sadly Colin was diagnosed with cancer in 1985 and had to give up the Headmastership in 1986. His Deputy Head, Brian Gaskell, succeeded him but both retired in 1990, making way for Christopher Martin, ex-Headmaster of Bristol Cathedral School.
R.J.O. Meyer died in March 1991, aged 86, and C.R.M. Atkinson died four months later, aged 59. Between them they had created a remarkable school, known throughout the world for its pursuit of excellence in all things. The school continued to thrive under Christopher Martin and subsequently Peter Johnson and in fact it is largely due to the efforts of the latter that the Governors have been persuaded to build yet another "Village" in Street, this one of houses for boarding pupils in the Millfield estate and a new Dining Hall.
The Street Society Committee sincerely hope that you will be joining them in the Dining Hall for the Christmas Lunch on the 16th December.
Mary Oliver (taken from an article by Barry Hobson — Millfield Archivist)
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