OLD DECANIAN SOCIETY I DEAN CLOSE SCHOOL
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The Flecker Family
Jeremy Hill sent in some of his father’s, Edward Parkinson Hill (Tower, 1934), photos taken when he was a pupil:
The name ‘Flecker’ in the Dean Close community usually, but not always, refers to one person - The Revd Dr. William Herman Flecker.
Corps band - Edward Hill front row seated 3rd from left
He was a graduate of Durham University, briefly Headmaster of the City of London Collegiate School, and then founding and first Headmaster of Dean Close Memorial School, appointed at the age of 26 in 1886. He was also the longest serving Headmaster, in post for 38 years (1886-1924). With the governors of the day, he was responsible for the Evangelical Christian tradition and ethos that permeated the School from the beginning, and much early building. He was responsible for many early initiatives, such as the founding of the School magazine The Decanian (1892), a few months after Old Decanians had founded the Old Decanian Society (1891); membership of the Headmaster’s Conference (HMC) in 1896 and the School’s OTC, forerunner of today’s CCF (1909).
Drill on Shelburne Road - Sergeant E.P. Hill (Behind Left)
School Hall c1933 now the Flecker Library
C.A.P. Tuckwell (light Jacket), Mr F.R.H Brian (2nd from right) and Prefects
18 FLECKER I SUMMER 2015
He sought to retain maximum authority, Houses did not exist before he left, except Cora Lynn in St Marks Road, effectively an over-flow House, between 1891 and 1894. When Housemaster L. G. Tugwell left, he was not replaced, and the boys were absorbed back into the main School. There was no Junior House until 1925, although Flecker was tempted to start one. He was also School Bursar and yet was said to have taught a full time-table. A reason for the School’s early popularity was that it was one of the cheapest boarding schools in the country, Flecker and his teachers earning comparatively little compared to other public schools. Sarah Flecker, the Headmaster’s wife, was also a considerable personality. Apart from being the mother of four children, she was effectively ‘domestic bursar’, overseeing all the domestic, catering and health arrangements for the School. She was a pianist who sometimes taught the instrument; Several boys were aged nine and occasionally eight when they arrived at the School, and she tended to take them under her wing. The elder son was Herman, better known as poet and dramatist, James Elroy Flecker, OD. He was a pupil here 1893-1900. He differed from his father on religious questions and for the last two years of his schooling went to Uppingham. One or two of his literary efforts, including his re-writing of the National
Anthem, were published in The Decanian. He died of tuberculosis in Davos, Switzerland in January 1915. The elder daughter, Claire, married E. C. Sherwood, Headmaster of St. Lawrence, Ramsgate, a School founded by some of the same Evangelical Christian group that later began Dean Close School. The younger daughter, Joyce, won a place at University College, London to read Chemistry; in those days a considerable achievement for a young woman. Later, the World War I situation was so difficult her father could not find a male science teacher; in desperation he recruited Joyce. She was successful and even published a textbook on Chemistry before she left the School, with her parents, in 1924 having been briefly engaged to Lionel Halse, OD, before he died of his wounds in 1918. She is one of only two women teachers to date having a Dean Close School Classroom named after her, the other being Preparatory School teacher, Iris Long. H. L. Oswald Flecker, OD, the youngest child, was at the School from September 1905 to Christmas 1914. Wounded in World War I, he returned to the School as Commanding Officer of the School’s OTC. Later he became Headmaster of Berkhampstead School, Hertfordshire, then Christ’s Hospital. He subsequently became Principal of Lawrence College, Pakistan. He was awarded a CBE in 1949.