|
AYTON SCHOOL |
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
People |
|
|
||||
|
|
I was very happy at the school and will always remember with gratitude the help given by the Headmaster, Herbert Dennis, and other staff to give me coaching in English literature, language, history, maths etc, without which I would never have passed the matriculation in 1936. Indeed Mr. Dennis did much more, he and Mrs. Dennis invited me to spend the Easter (1936) holidays with them in their cottage in the Lake District; they also arranged for me to spend the Christmas and summer holidays with friends of theirs in London and Yorkshire. During my brief year at school I made many friends, was elected Vice Captain of Pendle, played soccer for the school team and won the boys’ section school tennis tournament at the end of the summer term.”
3. Dieter Wolff (1936-37). “My brother Peter, gave me the following account of his time before coming to Ayton. The Nazi period was of course very difficult in his German school (in Berlin) but after a period in a French speaking Swiss school he returned to Germany, when my parents made plans for him to go to England, which he did in the spring of 1936 having just turned 16 years. Contact was made and one day my parents took Peter to Hamburg where he boarded a small cargo/ passenger boat for the 36-hour sea trip to Hull, where he was met by the great Herbert Dennis himself, who drove him to Ayton. Having already studied English for a year, it took him not long to settle into the school, and he soon made friends with Douglas Hardy (1936-37) who invited him to his parents’ house in Darlington during the holidays. The following year both Douglas and later his mother came for a visit to us in Berlin. Peter took his Matric, and, in 1937 and left school to train as an accountant in Darlington, until he was interned in 1940 and sent to Canada. He returned to join the Army where after the D Day landings he was posted to France where he could make use of his fluent French as an interpreter. (At this point, Dieter Wolff changed his name to Peter and took ‘Wayne’, after the actor John, ‘just in case he was captured and put against a wall and shot.’) Later on he was sent to Germany to interpret at the denazification courts.” 4. Walter Wolff (1938-43). “In 1938 war loomed on the horizon and my parents were anxious that I, too, should leave Germany. I was given a few weeks crash course in English and arrangements were made for me to go to Great Ayton. I was only 12 years old, so it was both exciting but a little frightening to make the same journey |
|||||
|
People |
|
|||||
|
AYTON SCHOOL ARCHIVES |
1. Hanno Reed (Reichenbach 1935-36). “In 1935 both Walter Balnemones (1935) and I were the first German refugee children to come to Ayton, where soon afterwards we were joined by Peter Laske (1935-37). Walter and I arrived from a Friends’ School in Gland, Switzerland. Herbert Dennis met us at Darlington Station . Both my parents and sister also left Germany for England. Though I was briefly interned in July 1940, I was lucky, no expulsion to Canada or Australia and my family also safe in England.
2. Peter Laske(y) (1935-37). Peter was interned in 1940, he, along with many others, was sent to Australia on the infamous ship, the ‘Dunera’. There were 2500 refugee males from 16-70 years of age on board a ship designed to hold 1600. They had only the clothes they stood up in and the hatches were kept battened down for most of the time so that neither daylight nor fresh air reached those below. The full story of this dreadful voyage was told in the 30s’ News section of the 2003 Annual Report.
from Hamburg to Hull on my own. Wisely my parents chose a British boat which, in case of war, would head in the right direction. I remember finding myself in the company of about six other passengers, all men and most looking rather sinister. For all I knew they might have been spies. Only one man, a young Scottish teacher returning from a teaching post in Germany spoke to me telling me about England and helping to dispel my anxiety. Mealtimes were rather glum and silent occasions, with passengers and captain sharing one table. I think no one dared to talk because of the political situation. As soon as possible I escaped on deck to enjoy the sea air, watching the seagulls who also seemed to be emigrating to England, and not least to help myself to the deck cargo of delicious sweet plums. Peter met me in Hull and we travelled straight to Darlington where I stayed with the Hardys for a few days before being taken to Great Ayton. The term in first form was intended to help me progress in English which was still difficult for me but I remember that I shone in Mathematics and was well ahead in French which pleased John Dobbing who made me read out to the class so that they might absorb my perfect pronunciation of the French "u" which is of course identical to the German U Umlaut. By the spring term, my English was proficient enough for me to join my age group. Early memories are mainly of the spartan conditions at Ayton, cold and wet winters, smelly changing rooms and not much comfort sitting on lukewarm pipes in the so called common room. No one could explain the rules of football and even less of cricket so I never took to either. There was however relief from homesickness, thanks to the warm and friendly invitations to tea at the Dobbings (the parents of Joyce Spinks and grandparents of Judy and Jenny). Holidays were also a problem as we could no longer go back to Germany. Fortunately the Hardys were kind enough to allow me to stay with them. During the months before war broke out I too became good friends with Douglas who joined the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, and volunteered for relief work in China where he so tragically died of Typhus.”