| |||
Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate. |
Stephen Ward's grandfather knew Mr Irving's schoolteacher grandfather, he writes on Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Teachers in the Irving family line
THE
glimpse into your family history was most interesting. Your
grandfather
John Irving was my father's headmaster. My father
held him in great esteem, as did so many in the East Oxford
community.
Two of the teachers on one of the
photographs, Mattie Grierson (right) and
Skipper Phipps, taught my Dad. He never forgot them,
nor of course Mr Irving, 
for
between them they contributed much towards making him, and
so many other boys, true Britons.
He often used to recite poems to me, learned during his days at SS Mary and John: Kipling's Ballad of East and West, Newbolt's Play the Game, and Scott's My Native Land. My own grandfather didn't benefit from the improving educational standards of my parents' generation, only receiving some four years at a small East Oxford 'Dames' school.
Nevertheless, at the start of the Boer War he enlisted, and his education was twenty-five years in the British Army. He was one of the most generous, good-natured men I have ever known.
Although
my eyesight is no longer of the best, I was struck by your
seeming likeness to your grandmother,
especially when looking at the photograph of her walking on
the front at Eastbourne with her sister.
It's nice for some of us to know who we are, and where we came from. Incidentally, I usually start the day clicking on your website. Your manly stance, as historian and fighter for the truth, acts as a daily inspiration.
Bookmark the download page to find the latest new free books |
David Irving replies.
I have posted a better photo of teacher Mattie Grierson in my grandfather's dossier now (see image above). Britain's schoolteachers need their own memorial -- or do they? The Empire, and we who have descended from it, are their memorial.
David Irving