AYTON SCHOOL

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J. Stanley and Edith Carr

 Anecdotes and tributes to them on their retirement
Reprinted from the Beckside Autumn 1952

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I remember waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Carr and Roger and Oliver to arrive at Ayton. It was August, 1940, before the war had settled down into a pattern, and invasion was an hourly expectation. Some thirty boys and girls had remained "evacuated " at School for the Summer holidays, the old Headmaster had gone, and we wondered if the new one would ever arrive, or if he would be cut off somewhere between Ackworth and Ayton, by bombing, or road barriers, or any of the incredible things which were credible in those nightmare days. But nothing untoward happened, and on a sunny afternoon they arrived and quickly settled into the strange routine of holidays at School.

There follow in these pages some youthful impressions of Mr. and Mrs. Carr, and I should like to add my word, for I have worked with them during the whole of their twelve years at Ayton, and we are now old and firm friends. Mrs. Carr has indeed mothered the family well, especially in times of illness and difficulty. She has been the contact with School and home to exiles in the San, a cheery visitor with all the news of the day, an indefatigable note carrier, a seeker of pencils, writing cases, knitting, jig-saws, books, and all the oddments that make convalescence less tedious. She has taken over the job of housekeeping on various occasions when we have found ourselves without that most important member of staff,-and how hard that she should have had to shoulder this burden in her last term, when she should have had leisure to be the guest at so many functions rather than the caterer! And, perhaps, most valuable service of all, though the younger members of the School will not realise this, she has welcomed Ayton's visitors with such warm and homely friendliness that they have felt happy and at ease, and have realised something of the essential friendliness of the School in even a short week-end.

And what of Mr. Carr? The enthralling story teller ; the skilful hockey player; the gardener, beekeeper, bird watcher; the fell walker, loping over the moors; the geographer, illustrating his lessons so vividly that even the dullest topic became stimulating; the Headmaster of rapid and firm decisions - unmovable when his mind was made up; the good companion in leisure moments; the Friend lost in thought in Meeting, or rousing us out of our spiritual and mental lethargy by the realism and the idealism of his message;- in some or all of these characters, boys and girls who have been part of the Ayton community these last twelve years must know him. And I who have worked with him have found him a man of tremendous energy, imagination and vision, and a staunch friend. No School could be dull or static with Mr. Carr for its head, and we are grateful for the zest and quality of his service to Ayton.

Evelyn Nicholson

This afternoon, what shall I do?
 I’m .not as good at games as you.
And football I just cannot play.
Oh, just what can I do to-day ?

I wonder . . I wonder . . I wonder : . Ah!
I'll go for a walk with Mr. Carr.
We'll see the magpie and the crow,
The blackbird and the fieldfare, Oh!

And once we saw a kingfisher green
In the glory of its glistening sheen,
And lots of birds we'll see and hear,
A meadow pipit, peeping near.

Where'er we go, if near or far,
I like a walk with Mr. Carr.

Fred Peart (12 years)