OR Family Connections

The Brach and Henderson families both have links to Roedean going back many generations, and so it was wonderful earlier this year, when a link between the two was discovered:

I had always known, thanks to the stories told to me by my aunt, Lily Reitlinger (Brach, No.1, 1943-1951) that my exiled Austrian grandparents had both worked at Roedean School during the Second World War…. My family had fled to Brighton from Vienna in 1938 and very soon found themselves forced to move inland from the coast as they were considered ‘enemy aliens’. Friends suggested they move to Keswick where the family became firmly embedded in the Roedean community, the School having evacuated there. My aunt became a Junior House pupil, my grandmother Tekla Brach played piano for the ballet lessons taught by Joan Barron. My grandfather, as an ‘enemy alien’ despite being a Jewish Refugee had been a POW on the Isle of Man and on his release joined his family in Keswick. According to the story I was told, Roedean begged him to help them out when their German teacher had to go on maternity leave and none other could be found. He had never taught anywhere before having trained and worked as a solicitor and he had also run a business in Vienna, but he took up the post and subsequently started teaching at Roedean School. In 2016 at Roedean Day I was thrilled to meet an OR who had been taught by my grandfather and remembered his lessons fondly. And until now, that was all I had ever really known about the Roedean link with my grandfather. In February, during half term, as I was rooting around the attic in Austria, I came across an old, dusty bundle wrapped in paper and tied up with string. Inside there was what appeared to be very old exercise books … one of which had the familiar ‘Roedean’ printed across the front. At first I imagined them to be some of Lily’s old exercise books but on closer inspection I was surprised and delighted to find they were in fact the exercise books used by my grandfather in his role as German teacher at Roedean. Inside were lesson plans, drafts for girls reports, letters from Emmeline Tanner and other members of Roedean staff such as N Woodcock … and some rather delightful apology letters written by two pupils who had been late for my grandfather’s lessons. Imagine my further surprise on finding out that one of those pupils was none other than Loetitia Marshall, aunt of Mary Henderson, President of the ORA. I immediately contacted Mary and invited her to come and inspect my wonderful find prior to my donating the whole bundle to the Roedean School archive. Mary Henderson takes up the story; Thank you so much to Teresa for sharing this find, as several ORs will know, I love rummaging through old family papers and archives and am always fascinated with the information and connections that they divulge. My cousins and I were delighted to see the letters from my aunt (Loetitia Stone (Marshall, No.3, 1939-45)) to Dr Brach. We were also highly amused to read some of her reports “She tried successfully to overcome some difficulties and is progressing but finds it hard to concentrate except on the subject of menus and cooking recipes”. An early indication of where her interest and talents would lie; Loetitia was later to be a domestic science teacher in Plymouth. She was also the most wonderful cook and was extremely accomplished at sugarcraft, creating the most beautiful cakes for weddings and other celebrations. Another report stated “Though Loetitia’s talents are not in the linguistic field. she has worked with lively interest. She overcomes her difficulties with good humour and has made some steady progress”. While German was obviously not her strong point, she was significantly better at French. After my cousins started school Loetitia taught French to primary school children in the Plymouth area. Other ORs who were also taught by Dr Brach were Dilys Dunn, Enid VanDyk, Dione Debenham, Josephine Hamilton, Bettina Lowit, Mary Driver and Edna Faulkner. Teresa Outhwaite (Brach, No. 1, 1985-91) and Mary Henderson (No. 3, 1971-76).