| The second in a series of articles and jottings from Mike Weston the BSN archivist.. (Read 1st Article here) |
|
In 1979, shortly after the new Senior Division of the B.S.N. was opened in Voorschoten, the then Headmaster, Brian Davidson, asked me if I would be interested in starting a school archive and finding out something about the school's history. Amazingly, very little was known. The school, for much of its life, had been rather small and had moved from one set of rented accommodation to another. After each move all the "rubbish" had been thrown away. There had been no magazine. Most of the staff and pupils had stayed for relatively short periods of time and had then scattered to all corners of the globe, taking their photos and reminiscences with them. So it was a challenge. A challenge which gradually became a very real personal interest.
By 1985 I had discovered enough to write a 10 page 'History of the School' in the 50th Anniversary magazine. I was confident of the account's accuracy from 1948 on - when the school was re-founded after the war - but the pre-war years remained largely a mystery. In 1986, after an amazing stroke of luck (see 1st Article) I wrote an update to the 1985 account in which I was able to say much more about the period 1935-40. But still one thing remained a mystery. What had become of the lady who founded the school ? I knew her name was Gwen Brunton-Jones and that she had married a Russian singer called Eugen Emeljanow. I knew she had spent the war years in a German camp and had then probably gone back to her own country, New Zealand. And there the trail stopped. The public records office in Auckland was not able to help and the letters I wrote to various thirty and forty year old addresses were returned or answered in the negative. |
| In the following years, at intervals, I followed up several other possible leads, but always to no avail. Then in 1999 I came across an extremely promising clue - and yet again had my hopes dashed. So I finally accepted that we would never know what became of our founder or even what she looked like. In the Millenium edition of the school magazine I wrote a detailed article called "The English School at The Hague 1939-40". Some of you may have read it, and if so you will recall that it ends by saying as much. Gwen Brunton-Jones-Emeljanow would for ever remain a mystery. |  Gwen Brunton-Jones and some children. August 1932 |
| But, of course, one must never give up. A few months ago I read an interesting article about the rapidly growing number of people who were tracing old friends through the Internet. I knew that Mrs G.B-J (aka Emeljanow) had had a little boy called Victor, so I punched in the name Victor Emeljanow and to my amazement got a hit - the website of a distinguished and much published Professor of Drama at the University of Newcastle near Sydney, Australia. Crossing my fingers I emailed Professor Emeljanow. I cannot begin to describe the feeling when, after a quest of nearly twenty years, I received the answer : |
|
"Dear Mr Weston, I can't tell you how delighted I was to receive your letter. Indeed, you are talking about my parents and I am the Victor to whom you refer....." |
|
Over the last few months we have been in regular contact. I have been able to give Professor Emeljanow information about his mother and his own early life and he has been able to answer a number of my questions. What is additionally exciting is that he has been invited to present some papers at Amsterdam University in July so will be able to come and see for himself what has become of the tiny school his mother founded all those years ago. And, to conclude, he has also given me another quest: Gwen Brunton-Jones managed to hang onto 5 photos of the school which I now have in the archive. On the reverse side of each of them is information in her unmistakeable handwriting. One of them is dated August 1932. In itself not a startling piece of information, except that we always thought the school was founded in 1935! We even had 50th and 60th Anniversary celebrations with royal visits. I now have to find out whether we got it wrong. I hope you will watch this space.
addendum May 7
I thought it might interest readers if I quoted a little of what Luis had to say about his time at the school: |
| “At the English School I found an academic turning point due entirely to the kind and dedicated teachers who seemed to have been determined to unlock some potential visible only to them. The headmistress was Mrs Brunton-Jones, a lovely, cheerful, dignified New Zealander from whom I took a wonderful and lively Geography course. She set a mannerly tone for the whole school……. My principal teacher was Miss Margaret Davies….. She was liberal in her praise, when it was merited, and she was an interesting and forceful, almost passionate teacher, the first whose approbation I eagerly sought. Arithmetic, algebra and geometry were still my downfall. My math teacher, a kind and quiet Welsh woman named Miss Olive Jones, must have recognised my block and set out to eliminate it. She suggested that we work together on math after school and that after an hour or so we go ice-skating on one of the canals. This we did, and with long, low Dutch skates with turned-up points tied to my shoes she taught me to skate holding on to the back of a chair which I pushed along in front of me. Pretty soon the numbers started to come together and I found myself enjoying math almost as much as the other subjects. For the first time studies became my favorite part of school.” |
|
It would be nice to think that an ex-pupil, reminiscing in the year 2064 about their time at the BSN, would want to say something similar. Mike Weston May 2002 |
| Now that the B.S.N. has its own website and a flourishing Old Students Association, and thanks to those wonderful things called emails, there is an unprecedented flow of news between the school and ex-students and teachers. If anyone reading this is looking for information that they've not been able to find in our webpages, don't hesitate to get in touch with me (Mike Weston) at The British School, Jan van Hooflaan 3, 2252 BG Voorschoten or email me westmi @hotmail.com. I'll be more than happy to help if I can. |
|
SPOTLIGHT YEAR - 1992
A selection from the Archive of 1992
From time to time I will be posting a selection of photos from different years on this page. If they bring back any memories, or you'd like to suggest a year, don't hesitate to get in touch.
