John (Jack) was welcomed as the new head of the Brightwell Church of England School in April 1910, by the outgoing head teacher ( and former colleague), in his departing speech, noted in the local newspaper.
Teacher’s salaries were not high. As the head teacher, Jack and Pet and their children would have lived in quarters supplied by the school, the School House. As well as administration and teaching duties, Jack was also involved in the sports department. He was a keen footballer and had been a founding member of Porthleven’s football club. And he seems to have continued involvement in football (soccer) in Brightwell. There was also cricket and community and church activities and a busy family. Life in Brightwell for Jack and Pet and children was full!
https://www.oxfordshirehistory.org.uk/public/school/archives/teaching/s216_1_pl1_1scale.jpg
Young Claude and his sisters did their early years of education at Wallingford Grammar school. Claude, my father, at age ten, in 1916, wrote a couple of exams and was awarded both a scholarship to continue at Wallingford Grammar School and a “place” at Christ’s Hospital boarding school for boys. The latter was chosen for his further schooling. Christ’s Hospital is a boarding school for boys ( and girls) founded in 1552 by young King Edward VI to care for poor children in London.(Edward VI, son of King Henry VIII, began his reign at age nine in 1547, and he only lived to age 16, but made significant contributions during his reign). The facility became a school for boys and girls for several centuries in London. It moved to spacious new grounds in Horsham, Sussex in 1912, for boys and for girls in Hertford. At age 10, young Claude left his parents and his two younger sisters, Mary (8) and Betty (5) and became a boarding student. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ’s_Hospital
I know my father had good memories of “ Housey” as it was called affectionately, but I’m certain it was also not an easy experience. Typically in British boarding schools of those days, the new boys were “initiated” by the older boys with various brutal traditions ( the same ones the older boys had suffered themselves a few years previously).
On a personal note, when my husband and I and our two elder sons (ages 1 and 3), headed off to SE Asia for work with an NGO, there was the possibility of our sons having to go to boarding school. When i told my Dad about that they may need to go at age eight, he said he went at ten years of age , and that was too young! So, that was telling.
However, in the midst of the challenges, he excelled academically and was awarded the honoured title of Senior Grecian in his graduating class; he was also involved in music ( I play his violin!) and sports – we have photos….curled up scrolls which are very wide black and white photos of the whole school (600+ students), and we used to be able to find him! Below, modern day students at Christ’s Hospital; they still wear the unmistakeable uniform of navy tunics over navy knickers or skirts and bright yellow knee socks! Boy king, Edward Vi, age thirteen. And my father, age 16 or 17 when he was Senior Grecian.
Every couple of summers while growing up, my parents would host the “Old Blues” alumni gatherings for those who lived in Vancouver and surrounding areas. I recall one old gentleman, Captain Gregory, who had been single all his life, a sea captain, and then married at age 95!! ( King Charles 2 endowed the Royal Mathematical School at Christ’s Hospital in 1673, and it took in students and trained them in naval skills required to become naval officers and merchant seamen.)
And there was the time that my father, with a hopeful heart, set me up for a daylong date with a young “Old Blue”, a recent graduate, who was travelling through the area! I took him around Vancouver for the day….he was a nice enough chap, but there were no sparks.
(this link can be copied, pasted and searched if you’re interested to read more of the 470 year old history of the school, right up until today…a thriving co- ed (50/50) boarding school of 900 young people, aged 11 to 18. They still still have many benefactors so that children from many backgrounds who could not possibly afford an education like that are the majority of the yearly intake.)
Meanwhile, back in Buckinghamshire, John was busy with teaching and admin and sports at Brightwell School, and Peternal had started teaching at a girl’s school a couple of miles away at Little Wittenham, and Mary and Betty were at Wallingford Grammar School.
Sadly, John died suddenly of a stroke during the night, aged 49. It seems from the newspaper article that he had been under duress with work pressures. My father, Claude, fourteen years old, almost fifteen, was notified while at boarding school and returned at once by train to the town of Brightwell in Oxfordshire.
One day at a family gathering – my mother often gathered all six children from both his marriages for special occasions – our father shared with the older set of his children, that the loneliest day of his life was the day of his father’s funeral when he, age fourteen, walked alone behind his father’s coffin to the church and then on to the graveyard.
Interestingly, the town newspaper gives quite a vivid and detailed description of the event, and the service by the graveside, gave brief mention of the grieving family, but focused mainly on the school children and other children’s organizations in Brightwell cum Sotwell and their contributions and floral tributes in the service. I noticed also one note: “With the greatest sympathy from little Rosie Walker and her sister Doris, Little Wittenham”, which would have been from students at the girls school where Peternal was teaching at the time.
St Agatha’s Church and graveyard, where John Ernest Dolman is buried. https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/5801/
My paternal grandmother, Peternal, was only thirty three years of age when she became widowed in 1922. Census records don’t catch up to her until 1926. I am presuming she went back to her hometown Porthleven for some time, with Betty, aged 10. Claude returned to complete school at Horsham, and sister Mary at age 13 started boarding at the girl’s site of Christ’s Hospital in Hertford.
On a personal note, when as children we were brought by our parents to visit where our father grew up (Spring break 1972), the only thing I recall from Wallingford and Brightwell cum Sotwell ( apart from the interesting name of the towns! ) were the garden “allotments” on the edge of the town and my father explaining that people who lived in towns in England had their vegetable gardens in rented plots on the outskirts of town ( rather like today’s city community gardens). I recall he brought us to see the area where their family allotment had been! As my father himself was an avid gardener ( well into his 80’s!), of vegetables ( knowing when to add lime or ashes to which type of vegetable), as well as how to tend and propogate geraniums and roses, fuscias and fruit trees, I am making an educated guess that he inherited this interest and knowledge from his parents while living in Wallingford – my father was there from age four until age ten, and returned for school holidays until his father’s sudden death in 1922.
I do not recall going to the graveyard to see our grandfather’s grave in Brightwell, nor did we see our Granny Pet’s grave in Devoran. Nor my mother’s father’s grave in Vienna in 1969. I believe this was likely a wise decision of our parents….we would have been 15, 13 and 11 years old, and as all the graves had a traumatic memory for our parents, they likely decided not to bring us, but instead focused on places to show us where they had happy memories; a wise decision, i believe. 😊
Stay tuned for Part 4, where I will record what I know of my Granny Pet’s life from age 33, when she was widowed, until she passed away in her late sixties.
With gratitude again to my Cousin Tony ( on the Dolman side) and Cousin Rachel on the Cornish part of the family history.
JenniEliz 
