Oak Bank School, Seal.

A Memory of Seal.

My stepfather, Mr John Few, was at Oak Bank between 1942 and 1947. He was a teenager whose father was the head gardener billeted at the lodge alongside the golf course. John and his older brother Eric worked at the school. John's jobs included lighting fires and boilers in the hall, nursing quarters, classrooms, and dining room. (6 rooms).
Mrs Mitchel was the matron. Her daughter was Molly. They were said to have owned the school. They had sole use of a 1939 Hillman used for picking children up from the station. A Miss Blatch also drove the car.
John remembers a little girl called Myrtle who's parents were killed in the London bombing. She had no relatives and was allowed to stay after she got to school leaving age. She fed the chickens (100 approx.).
During John's time there, all the pupils were from the London area and all recovering from TB.
The school employed two needlewomen to repair or make the pupil's dresses.
He remembers Poppa, a nurse from Czechoslovakia. The majority of the nurses were Red Cross nurses from France, Czechoslovakia, or other European countries. They were all lovely people, really kind and supportive of the children.
The grounds, run by John's father, provided all the vegetables for the school except for potatoes. The food was cooked in the main building kitchen and was transported about 100 yards on a trolley by John to the dining room.
During 1944 the school was on the flight path of the V1 missiles and was evacuated to Ripon in Yorkshire. During that period the vegetable crops were then wheeled across to the local Guy's Hospital overspill site at the Wilderness golf club.
John had a good friend who lived in Seal. They were in the ATC and explored the local countryside together. His name was Geoffrey Blackaby. Does anyone else remember him?

From Graham Boylan, Dunstable.