Beltane School
Beltane School was an independent school in Wimbledon, London and later Melksham, Wiltshire, founded in 1934 and closed in 1941.[1] Beltane was one of the Schools in Exile founded by teachers and educators who had been forced to leave Germany for political reasons or because of their Jewish ancestry.[2]
The school's founders were socialists[3] and the education, using the Montessori method, was regarded as innovative[2] and iconoclastic[1] compared to the English school system of the time.
History
[edit]Beltane was founded by German educationalists Ilsa and Ernst Bulova[1] with English progressives Joan[4] and Andrew Tomlinson. The school was named for the traditional May Day festival.[3]
The school initially comprised 30 German and Austrian emigrant children with an equal number of English children.[2] Many of the German students had previously been taught by the Bulovas in Berlin.
By 1937 there were 23 teachers and 200 students. At this point, Beltane was primarily a day school, but offered places for 60 boarding students.[2]
With the outbreak of World War II, the school moved to Wiltshire and became a boarding school.[5]
Notable staff and alumni
[edit]- Ernst and Ilsa Bulova[1] went on to found Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp with support of relatives from the Bulova watch company
- Ulrich K. Goldsmith worked as a language teacher for Latin, German and English from 1934 onwards. He was interned as an enemy alien in June 1940 and deported to Canada a month later[2]
- Arthur Wragg, pacifist and illustrator, taught at Beltane from 1941 onwards[6]
- Harry Blamires[7] worked at Beltane, after being forced to leave his job at Nottingham College because he was a conscientious objector
- Denis Grant King,[8] another conscientious objector, taught history, geology, archaeology and woodwork
- Barbara Steele[9] was a student at Beltane and then at King Alfred School, London
- Hilary Kilmarnock[10] attended for a year after leaving Bedales School due to bullying
- Charlotte Mayer,[11] a sculptor whose work was influenced by her unhappy time at the school
- William Bennett (flautist)[12] began to play the flute as a student at Beltane
- Ann Dally,[13] author and psychiatrist, was a student at Beltane
- Edmund Rubbra,[3] composer, taught music at Beltane
- Raoul Bott,[14] mathematician, was sent to Beltane in 1939 from Bratislava, where his education had been disrupted by the war
Beltane School internment camp
[edit]After the school moved to Wiltshire, the original site in Wimbledon was used as an interment camp for German detainees, also referred to as "Beltane School".[15] The camp held both Nazis and holocaust survivors together,[16] which was the subject of questions in Parliament[17]
Further reading
[edit]- Tomlinson, Joan (1977). On a May Morning. Richmond: Hickey Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-900644-02-3.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Baumel, Judith Tydor- (2012). Never look back: the Jewish refugee children in Great Britain, 1938-1945. Shofar supplements in Jewish studies. West Lafayette, Ind: Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-55753-612-9.
- ^ a b c d e Feidel-Mertz, Hildegard (1990). Pädagogik im Exil nach 1933: Erziehung zum Überleben ; Bilder und Texte einer Ausstellung. Kasseler Semesterbücher Studia Cassellana (1. Aufl ed.). Frankfurt am Main: Dipa-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7638-0520-4.
- ^ a b c Cradduck, Lucinda (2019-01-14). Spirituality in the Music of Edmund Rubbra (phd thesis). The Open University.
- ^ Rée, Harry (May 1979). "Book Reviews". Research in Education. 21 (1): 100–102. doi:10.1177/003452377902100109. ISSN 0034-5237.
- ^ Tomlinson, Joan (1977). On a May morning. Richmond: Hickey Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-900644-02-3.
- ^ "Arthur WRAGG | Cornwall Artists Index". cornwallartists.org. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ University College Record (PDF). University College Oxford. October 2018.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Phillips, Laura. Collecting the 'Minoans' in 20th – 21st century (PhD thesis). Bristol University.
- ^ "Barbara Steele". prod.tcm.com. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ Leader, Zachary (2010-07-08). "Hilly Kilmarnock obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ Flynn, Tom (2013). Charlotte Mayer: in essence. Gallery Pangolin. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Gallery Pangolin. ISBN 978-0-9570417-2-1.
- ^ Emerson, June (2022-05-17). "William Bennett obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ "Dr Ann Dally". www.thetimes.com. 2024-08-27. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ "Wolf Prize In Mathematics, Volume 2 | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2024-08-28.
- ^ "Camp 020R at Huntercombe | Coldspur". coldspur.com. Retrieved 2024-08-27.
- ^ Jacobs, Gerald (30 October 2003). "Obituary: Nicholas Hammer". The Independent.
- ^ "Personal Cases". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 419. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. 21 February 1946. col. 277.