Speaking at Dulwich College

A few weeks ago, Max asked me if I would give a talk on family history to one of his classes at Dulwich College. He thought it would fit well with work that his Year 12 AS geography students were doing about social change.

I love the sound of my own voice and an audience (captive or not), so I was happy to oblige. I put together some PowerPoint slides and a commentary which covered employment, social services and rights, wars and a number of subjects illustrated by direct examples from my research.

I did racism and prejudice, based on the story of margaret's Aunt Edna who married a Polish man after the war; migration and colonisation using the journey of Zachariah Burrows from Norfolk to Canada and Nebraska; health and safety using the story of the Pelsall Colliery disaster; and touching the past, based on visits to places where my ancestors had lived and how I had tried to recreate their experiences.

So on Friday, I went along to deliver the talk. It went quite well I think. They are really well-behaved and focused kids, so they are polite enough to listen attentively, but I think there was some genuine interest and a couple of pupils seemed  to be making a lot of notes. They were particularly struck by references to Frank Dilks, who was killed in a mining accident at the age of 17 - that's just a year older than them - and also Aleksander Mikalski (the Pole who had married Edna) who was also 17 when his country was invaded by Nazi Germany and he was shipped off to Dachau.

I took the afternoon off work and got the overground from Victoria to West Dulwich. The school is a short walk from there. It's a fantastic facility, like a larger version of King's in many ways, so no wonder Max feels at home. After teaching at a fairly challenging comprehensive, where breaking up fights was a regular duty and controlling classes was often challenging, this was an absolute pleasure. Pupils are well-behaved and keen to learn; parents are fully engaged and there's no shortage of funds or facilities (within reason, of course).

I was able to have a wander around with Max before his lesson and see a few of the artefacts collected from former pupils. Biggest is the James Cairn, a ship's boat given by former pupil Ernest Shackleton, the famous polar explorer of the early 20th century. Shackleton's Antarctic expedition had encountered dramatic problems when their ship was trapped in ice and the hull crushed. The crew were able to escape onto ice, but had no prospect of rescue or any way of appealing for help.

They faced a slow death by starvation and cold, their one chance was to use the ship's boat to sail to the nearest habitation - South Georgia. Shackleton and five crew members dragged the James Cairn across miles of pack ice to reach the open sea and then sailed it over a thousand miles across the Southern Ocean to reach help. His men were rescued, and it ranks as one of the most hazardous and brave journeys ever made. I guess they didn't have a lot of choice, but even so, sailing a tiny boat across that massive and treacherous ocean was amazing.

You can see how small the boat is by my picture which shows me standing by the craft in its display.

Ranulph Fiennes another arctic explorer (or adventurer) had been at the school a week or so earlier to give a talk (and promote his book). Max had got me a signed copy, which was a really nice gift.