Miller and the 1939 - 1945 War Years

There was some concern at the start of the Second World War as to how education could continue for Miller Institution pupils.  The safety of the children in air raid conditions was considered and how the building might be protected or obscured from enemy planes.  The darkening of the windows received consideration though this was not in the event acted upon except in that the badminton club were told that if they used the gymnasium after dark they would be responsible for a blackout for the windows.  Bus services to quickly move pupils away were also looked at as a possibility.

 Initially a three point plan emerged;-     

1.       Children resident in the town to be sent home immediately upon the warning of a raid.  Children from country areas to go to a friend’s house.

2.       No darkening of windows but school to close at 3.30pm.

3.       Cleaning to begin at 3.30pm and also to be carried out in the mornings and to be completed before  nightfall.  There was to be no artificial light between sunset and sunrise.

However, this was not the end of the story.  The Rector, Mr Ironside, was asked, in June 1940, to prepare a report on the possibility of providing trenches in the playing field for cover for the pupils in the case of a daytime raid.  The Management Committee noted at their September meeting that they had not received a reply to their request which is probably not surprising.  One member commented that nothing had been done for the safety of children in the event of an air raid.

It became apparent that the school would require some protection if bombed and set alight or when the local fire fighting volunteers might require a practice area or base.  Some alterations were required to the building to allow a fire to be fought effectively and it was indicated that equipment would have to be bought.  It was decided to enlarge the hatches in the roof space to allow easier and quicker access to the roof and a list of equipment was drawn up for purchase.  This included stirrup pumps, fire boxes, buckets and ladders.  The last item was seen as the absolute minimum if money could not be found for the lot.  I am not certain what was finally purchased but the account for four stirrup pumps is recorded in the Management Committee accounts.  The cost would appear to have been about £6 for the four but since the pumps are listed along with another unrelated purchase the exact amount is unclear.

Further actions for the protection of the pupils included an air raid shelter built in the area of the present school entrance and another in the basement of the main building and referred to by Barbara Fraser.  This basement was considerably strengthened by the addition of extra concrete block support walls.  Gas masks were issued and practices held to accustom children to their use.  A number of correspondents remembered these masks and the practices.  Margaret Neil says, ‘Memories of having to carry around a gas mask in its little box, during the war years have faded considerably, as have those scenes of prisoners of war, and sailors rescued from torpedoed ships, arriving in Thurso while we boarded the school bus for home.  The Russian sailors were the most sad; while the German prisoners of war were radiant and cheeky, thankful to be away from the fighting most probably, with a chance to work on the Caithness farms.’  Agnes Mackay, a pupil at the school from 1943 to 1945 and later a teacher there, also remembers practising air raid drill, putting on the gas mask and crouching under the desk.  She speculates that the protections given might not have been sufficient to prevent serious injury.

The coming of war gave the school the opportunity to press for a telephone system.  Indeed, the case was made for a telephone in all the big schools.  The Council was not to be pushed into making a purchase and though the request was not turned down, in June 1941, the Council deferred a decision, apparently, indefinitely. A request for blackout blinds for the Headmaster’s Office and the staff room appears to have received more sympathy and this was approved.  No doubt, just as now, the teachers were expected to do much work after the end of the school day.

While the Rector might have had some success with the blinds, he was not so lucky when it came to the request for an office safe.  Though he had the backing of the School’s Sub-Committee, the Education Committee curtly replied that the clerkess should take money to the bank each day and the Clerk should tell Mr Ironside so!  A more satisfactory outcome in 1950 can be reported, a safe, costing £13, was acquired by the school with half the cost to be met by the ratepayers.

Dig for victory was no idle slogan in Thurso.  The local representative of the North of Scotland Agricultural College, Mr Longmore, visited the school to advise on the best area of the grounds to set aside for cultivation.  He then proceeded to advise other schools on the need for schools to help produce food to assist with the war effort.  This food might in any event be required in Thurso to replace that eaten by crows and pigeons!  There were complaints by farmers that the crows and pigeons sheltering in the grounds of the Miller Institute were doing damage to their stockyards and crops.  It was suggested that an effort should be made to thin out the numbers by culling some of the birds.  The same action might be taken today as the crows, or to be more accurate rooks, still cause a considerable nuisance – in the main to cars in the carpark and the unfortunate children who happen to be playing below them in the playground.

Many buildings were requisitioned for the war effort. Throughout the early period of the war buildings were being requisitioned and released almost weekly.  There is much correspondence relating to requests for school accommodation and the protests, refusals and appeals by the school authorities.  Amongst the school’s  buildings used were the West Public annex and a part of Mina Villa where soldiers went to collect their passes and other documentation for travel by train or to Orkney.  An H.M.I. report mentions the West School being requisitioned by the military authorities and six classes being taught in the West Church in reasonable comfort but with their return to the school being imminent.  The school had approached the local churches to find out if they could be used if the school was to be required by the forces.  St Peter’s, St Andrew’s, the West Church and the Congregational Church were contacted and St Peter’s and the West agreed to the request while the Congregational replied that they could not permit the building to be used for the purpose.  It was stated in the minutes of the Management Committee that a letter from the Congregational Church giving reasons for the refusal of the request had been received but I have not had a sight of this correspondence.  The reply, if any, from St Andrew’s is not recorded.

Pupils from the West Public were also taught in St Peter’s Church for a time.  I am told by Gordon Noble that he was taught there and that classes were located on either side of the pulpit area with curtains screening them from one another and from children in other areas.  Heating had to be specially installed in the church for the comfort of pupils and staff.

Another evacuation at this time was from Castletown School as part of that school was required by the military.  Castletown School had a new extension at the start of the war but it was not entered by pupils due to its requisitioning in 1940.  The pupils were taught in churches and halls throughout the village.  For two-thirds of the session 1940-41 infants under seven had no education at all.  Secondary classes were drafted to Miller Academy where the second and third years were combined with the Thurso pupils and the first year classes taught separately and mainly by Castletown staff.

The H.M.I. report of January 1942 is informative not only with regard to the quality of teaching and organisation but also provides details of the roll and placement of classes for the early war years.  It is reported that in April of the previous year the total pupil roll was 594 comprising 414 pupils in the infant and primary divisions and 180 in the secondary division.  It is stated that, ‘Some 40 voluntary evacuees are on the roll’.  The figures do not include the Castletown sections housed at the Miller due to the requisitioning of part of Castletown School for the war effort.  At Miller an air raid shelter was to be provided for about 550 but where such a number could be accommodated, in what might be termed suitable bomb-proofed buildings, is not clear.  Certainly the shelter below the school which still exists and the one demolished by the main gate were unlikely to accommodate such numbers in any sort of  comfort.

On the point of evacuees, I do not know who they all were but assume that many were the children of Caithness ‘exiles’ living in the more vulnerable parts of Britain in the early years of the war.  They were most likely sent to the safety of relatives and friends in the north.  One such evacuee was Elizabeth Sutherland, nee Dundas, who reports in her memories that she was evacuated from Leith through a private arrangement and attended the West Public and Miller Institution from 1939 to 1946.  As befits a Dux of the school she vividly describes the wartime arrangements.  She particularly notes, ‘the netted and taped windows, the late morning starts in winter to conserve fuel and avoid over much artificial light, the cold examination room arrangement in March with no heating, the lower corridor sand-bagged and with concrete block partitions for shelter from air raids and the air raid shelter itself in the basement.’

 The arrival of some refugees after the end of World War II was reported by a correspondent in her memories.  She indicates that a small group of refugees, probably Arabs and not Jews, attended the school for a short time and went on to Palestine.  The move would appear to be related to the setting up of the state of Israel.

In 1942, four male members of staff were on active war service, namely D. K. Sutherland, J. L. Wilson, A. B. Meiklejohn and J. Dallas, but the staffing loss seems to have been coped with at this time.  I am told by Mrs Sutherland, Stainland, Thurso that she returned from teaching at the Royal High School in Edinburgh in November 1941 to take the place of Mr D. K. Sutherland after he went on war service in October of that year.  Her family in Caithness, she tells me, were relieved by her return as bombs were landing in Edinburgh and two not far from where she was living.

Male teachers on war service were entitled to apply to the Education Committee for assistance to have the deficiency between their pay and allowances and their teacher salaries made up by the Committee.  The four members above applied for this financial enhancement in November 1941 and Mr Sutherland and Mr Wilson were successful with their applications at that time.  The applications of the other two were held over to a later date.  Not until 1942 did Mr Dallas get his financial supplement and I find no record of Mr Meiklejohn further applying or receiving any financial adjustment.

In the early years of the war, efforts were made to ensure that senior pupils received as near full time education as possible and though this did not always happen a reasonable level of hours of attendance was achieved.  The pupils in the Primary Department at Miller were not quite so fortunate as they were on half-time education into 1943.  His Majesty’s Inspector of Schools commented upon the shortfall and indicated the need for a return to normal provision.  This view was supported by the Education Committee in October 1942 when Rector Ironside was instructed to make plans forthwith for a return to full time teaching.  It appears the instruction was not implemented at that time. In January 1943 the matter was again raised in committee and the Director of Education was asked to see the Rector and to arrange that whole-time education be given subject to the dispersal of the children during alerts and until such time as bomb shelters were provided.

As at the present time, the Education Authority expected the Rector to be a ‘jack-of-all trades’ and responsible for every conceivable aspect of school life.  In 1943, Rector Ironside reported the theft, over the dinner hour, of the Class 1A money collected for the purpose of purchasing savings certificates.  After discussion, the Clerk of the Education Committee wrote to the school ‘recommending’ that the Rector should take charge of the cash in future and accept responsibility therefor.  He was also expected to take responsibility for the disappearance of other missing items around the school and though he, along with the Clerk to the Thurso Interim Sub Committee, made strong representations for gates on the girls’ and later the boys’ cloakrooms the requests fell on deaf ears.  It would appear that there was a spate of pilfering from the girls’ cloakrooms in 1947 and 1948 and about the same time a coat disappeared from the boys’ cloakrooms.  The Education Committee was of the opinion that the Rector should take actions to catch the thief rather than go to the expense of having gates fitted.  The kind of barrier requested is not clear though it must be assumed that rather than a door a more open lockable structure was envisaged.  This, along with other information in the various minutes and log-books for the school, just goes to prove that children have not changed that much and that the kinds of bad behaviour prevalent then and now were very similar.

The air raid protection measures mentioned by Elizabeth Sutherland were removed in the late summer of 1945.  Between March and July of that year there was considerable discussion with the A.R.P. regarding the removal of the ‘Baffles’ in schools.  The timing of the removal and the cost exercised the minds of the authorities but eventually agreement was reached that there was no longer a threat from enemy aircraft and that money should be found to return school buildings to some semblance of normality.

In Autumn 1945, with the end of the war and the return home of some of the teachers on war service the Miller was beginning to return in some degree to its former ‘tranquillity’.   Mr Meiklejohn and Mr Dallas came back to the school, the latter in August 1945 as a permanent staff member to take up duties which would eventually lead to responsibility for the West Public and finally the Headship of the Primary School in 1958.  Before that, however, staffing difficulties were encountered and particularly in Science.  John Baikie, the Science Teacher, resigned having applied for a post outwith the county.  He had been dissatisfied since early 1944 as he wanted a settled post in either Wick or Thurso but was on a temporary contract.  As a replacement, Mr Meiklejohn’s release from the Army was sought and until this could be obtained, other teachers were approached without success until local teacher Mr Ben Manson, from Keiss, agreed to work temporarily at Miller Academy.  When no longer required Mr Manson moved onto Reay and after other appointments, including the post of Head Teacher at Staxigoe School, he became Head Teacher of the new Hillhead School, Wick in 1969.

The release of Mr Meiklejohn serves to highlight the difficulties in obtaining the services of a teacher still not demobbed from the forces.  Despite Mr Meiklejohn’s agreement to apply to leave the Army there was some delay in the processing of the release and the Army indicated he would loose two months’ pay and allowances amounting to £91 15s.  An appeal to the Scottish Education Department for some monetary adjustment to his salary was refused leaving him short by the amount indicated above.

The attendance in session 1941-42 appears to have been much affected by snowstorms, measles and colds. and it was at this time during the war that the first consideration was given to providing what is at present the more traditional school lunch.  Though recommendations were not acted upon at that time there was some feeling that country pupils should have something more than soup and bread in the middle of the day.  A two-course meal was considered at a time when Mr Ironside indicated that 90 pupils were receiving this soup and bread meal.  He added that the absolute maximum number that could be catered for would be 140 pupils.  Most schools in the county at that time were giving cocoa, tea or ovaltine at lunch break.  The Thurso Management Committee suggested soup with bread or a pudding followed by tea or cocoa with bread and butter or cheese.  Whether it was wartime frugality or the view that the large mid-day meal need not be provided on dietary grounds, the existing arrangements for a more meagre lunch were continued.

Margaret Neil (Banks) a pupil in the Miller from 1939 to 1942 remembers that, ‘Georgie the Janitor and his Mrs used to dole out hot soup for us “country kids”, at the adjacent Mina Villa, during the lunch break.  Especially in winter, that was appreciated to take with our “piece” from home’.  She gives an account of her journey from Mey.  ‘Coming from Mey meant a long bus journey up and down among the farms and side roads to collect one pupil here, two or three there, and an occasional teacher.  For me, it began at twenty to eight in the morning, but at least it afforded an opportunity to swot up the lessons we were crammed with.’

Some interesting comments on how times have changed in schools since this period are contained in the memories of Moira Calder.  ‘Looking back I think, on the whole, I must have loved school.  Teachers (with one exception) were strict but fair.  There seemed to be little funds for extras – no school trips, few new books, no ball point pens (how I hated those filthy ink wells), no soft toilet paper (have they got rid of the pong in the loos?).  Do present day pupils realise how lucky they are?  I really can never remember litter in the school grounds or the streets around, defacing books, desks or paintwork was a crime and bullying, cheek to a teacher etc. earned a visit to the Rector.  Even minor offences were reported to your parents where the boys, at least, might get a quick skelp.’

At the end of the war the school was no longer required by the Military.  Mina Villa was de-requisitioned and the County Clerk notified the evacuation of the Public Cleansing Station at Miller Academy.   The playing fields were returned for use by pupils and Mr McLean from the Bank of Scotland representing the Welcome Home and Memorial Committee applied for the use of the school grounds.  The Committee wanted to organise a fete to celebrate the victory in the war and welcome Thursonians back to their home town.  Permission was given provided the Committee cut the grass at their own expense!

The school celebrated the end of the war with three special holidays.  Two for V.J. day and one for V.E. day.  Those were taken from 29^th October to 2^nd November 1945.  The period was to include a day for harvest thanksgiving.