The Generous Mill Owner and hundreds of children
Alice's father's good friend was a wealthy mill owner called Reg Sherd. His mill produced angora, the only factory in the world making angora wool. Angora looked beautiful but was dreadful stuff to work with all day. The owners and staff all had to wear masks and cover their clogs.
In those days children went to primary school and had to learn to read by the time they left. No secondary schools. (Remember the 1944 education act.)
Most people working in mills didn't have children able and willing to study to university level. But he heard his employees talking about one boy who was a diligent student and would have liked to have gone to university if his parents could have afforded it.
The mill owner paid for the boy to go to university, all three years. When the student graduated, the mill owner looked for another deserving candidate to be sponsored.
Alice remembers fondly, "He was such a generous man. You didn't dare admire anything because he'd insist on giving it to you. He had no children of his own, but was like Mr Chips, the schoolmaster, in the book which was made into a film. Mr Chips was a schoolmaster in a boarding school who had no children because his beloved wife had died in childbirth. His last words, when asked if he'd had any children, were, 'I had hundreds of children'."
Alice's father's good friend was a wealthy mill owner called Reg Sherd. His mill produced angora, the only factory in the world making angora wool. Angora looked beautiful but was dreadful stuff to work with all day. The owners and staff all had to wear masks and cover their clogs.
In those days children went to primary school and had to learn to read by the time they left. No secondary schools. (Remember the 1944 education act.)
Most people working in mills didn't have children able and willing to study to university level. But he heard his employees talking about one boy who was a diligent student and would have liked to have gone to university if his parents could have afforded it.
The mill owner paid for the boy to go to university, all three years. When the student graduated, the mill owner looked for another deserving candidate to be sponsored.
Alice remembers fondly, "He was such a generous man. You didn't dare admire anything because he'd insist on giving it to you. He had no children of his own, but was like Mr Chips, the schoolmaster, in the book which was made into a film. Mr Chips was a schoolmaster in a boarding school who had no children because his beloved wife had died in childbirth. His last words, when asked if he'd had any children, were, 'I had hundreds of children'."
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