Staff Register

This page was last changed on 10 May 2005

The Board of Education, the forerunner of the Ministry of Education, required a permanent register of the Staff to be maintained at every grant-aided School. The Directions for Filling up Staff Registers for Secondary Schools were set out under Rules 52 (August, 1928) and included the following:

The Register should contain detailed particulars of every person engaged in giving instruction to pupils of the School, including:

1. The Head Master or Head Mistress;
2. The regular assistant staff, including teachers on probation;
3. All visiting or occasional teachers;
4. Any person undergoing a course of training in teaching at the School (exclusive of any Training College Students visiting the School for practice in teaching under the supervision of the Training College Staff).

The Register should not include particulars of the following:

5. persons employed to assist the staff, but not giving instruction to pupils, e.g., school secretaries or laboratory assistants;
6. Teachers temporarily employed as substitutes.

The Board of Education originally required a duplicate copy of the Register to be kept but a letter from their Office in Whitehall, dated 5th February 1934, stated that it was no longer necessary for the Register to be kept in duplicate. The duplicate kept until then is held by the Enfield Local Studies Library.

The following list includes every member of staff entered into the Staff Register and it is our intention to include on this Website also the individual Record Sheet for every name on the list, with just one exception, Miss Lilian Hyde, whose Record Sheet is missing; also any photographs, anecdotes, tributes, obituaries, etc., we have for each person. The Record Sheets and any photographs, etc., will be accessed by double-clicking on the relevant name in the list - wherever a name is shown in green and underlined. Where any name is not shown in green and underlined it will mean that we have not yet scanned and loaded the Record Sheet for that person.

If there is anyone on the list who does not want his or her Record Sheet to be shown, please let us know and we will remove it at once.

The Register covered a period of sixty years and two terms, from 1st May 1907, when the School first opened, until the end of the Summer Term on 21st July 1967. When the School reopened in September 1967, it was as a Comprehensive, combined with the former Oakwood Secondary Modern and located on two separate sites.

There are 245 names in the Register but William Hofmann appears twice, for each of two separate period of service, in 1932 and 1936 (contrary to the Directions quoted above), so only 244 individuals actually served on the teaching staff, of which 124 were men and 121 were women.

Of the total of 244, many were temporary or "supply" teachers, at least 58 serving less than one year, including Mr Hofmann, whose first period was of just two days, 4th and 5th February 1932. Of those serving less than one year, 31 were men and 37 women.

Two men and one woman served more than 40 years: William Auger (40 years and two terms), Miss Mabel Bedford (40 years and 45 days) and Robert Smith (40 school years).

Nine men and six women served 30 to 39 years; 5 men and eight women served 20 to 29 years and sixteen men and five women served 10 to 19 years.

Nine members of the staff left at the end of the Summer Term 1967, as the school was about to become a Comprehensive, and Wilfred ("Johnnie") Johnston and Richard ("Tubby") Roberts retired then but 22 carried on, although Brian Forrest stayed on just for one term, to help with the transition, Reginald Pratt also stayed for only one term, retiring at the end of the Christmas Term 1967, and sadly Margaret Green died just before the start of the following term.

NOTES

1. If only Month and Year recorded, Day entered above as 1st of month on joining and last on leaving.
2. Women teachers are "Miss" unless specifically stated to be "Mrs".
3. Retired
4. Retired owing to ill-health
5. Killed in action in attack on Guillemont Station on 8th August 1916 - the only member of staff killed in either World War
6. "Disappeared on the evening of July 3rd 1931. No news of his whereabouts up to the present date - 22.1X.31 (signed) T Everard"
7. Percy Knowles died in service on 12th February 1955, after more than 35 years service
8. Leaving date not recorded
9. Miss Edith Hardy was the first woman teacher appointed (5 Jul 1909)
10. Mrs Evelina Paull was the first married woman teacher appointed, on 3rd May 1916. She was the first of several wives of teachers who joined the staff as temporary replacements for their husbands who had been called up for military service.
11. Miss Isabel Day was the earliest born teacher (12 Aug 1858)
12. Joseph Cook was the oldest teacher appointed, aged almost 76 at the date of his appointment: he served just one term
13. The longest service was by William Auger, the 3rd Headmaster, who retired after 40 years and 2 terms
14. William Clark's service included nine months at Minchenden
15. Miss Mabel Watts was seconded from Hornsey County before she joined the permanent staff in April 1945
16. The sheet for Miss Lilian Hyde missing
17. The reason for Miss Susan Gould leaving (22 Jul 1966) was given as "Bunny with Brains"
18. Continued on staff of Comprehensive School
19. Continued on staff of Comprehensive part-time (not as Headmaster) until retired 12 Jan 1968)
20. There were four Headmasters during the sixty years (1907-1967):
    A T Warren: 22 years (1907-1929)
    T B Everard: 15 years (1929-1945)
    W Auger: 6 years (1945-1951)
    B M Forrest: 16 years (1951-1967)
21. Nine members of staff had been pupils at the School:
    Doris Tippett (1915-1922)
    John Stubbs (1916-1923)
    Marjorie Seward (1919-1925)
    Marjorie Rowe (1931-1932)
    Ann Crampton (1939-1944)
    Jean Culpeck (1938-1944)
    Kathleen Cordingley (1932-1934)
    Mrs Megan Luscombe (née Phillips) (1949-1957)
    Alfred Turtill (1939-1940)