Welsh Journals

nervous and apprehensive First Years! Indeed, during the whole of my secondary school career he remained my principal mentor and throughout my subsequent teaching career he maintained a keen interest in my work and in the achievements of all members of my family: our exchange of Christmas cards provided a regular and invaluable opportunity (not to be missed) of up-dating each other with the significant items of news of our contemporaries and their families during the previous 12 months! Other memories which spring to mind are the occasional Monday mornings, whilst waiting for the school bus to arrive, seeing our Geography teacher cycling past en route between his parental home in Newtown and his lodgings in Alexandra Road, adjacent to the school! A further memory was the prescribed seating arrangement of the Geography classes, which was determined by the order of merit list in the previously held Geography exam! Needless to say, Mr Oliver's examinations were always taken seriously, after all, you lived with the consequences for the whole of the following term! I well remember how different the Geography room was from all of the other subject rooms. For example, it was particularly well stocked with books, geographical magazines, atlases, wall charts and maps, and even carpets! In addition, the room had black-out curtains so that films could be shown during lessons and more importantly during the lunch hour for those who were interested: but more significant was its warm and welcoming atmosphere, often with Mr Oliver in attendance, outside normal lesson periods. Another cherished memory is of Mr Oliver's teaching style, which owed much to his own educational and linguistic background (having studied both French and Latin as subsidiary subjects at University). For example, any new geographical word would be carefully explained on the blackboard by emphasising its etymology, in. this way, words developed a special fascination, a new dimension, which added greatly to their underlying meaning and significance. It would not be too much of an exaggeration to claim that one's knowledge and understanding of English language was substantially advanced through his teaching of Geography! Certainly, for me he represented an excellent role model of what teachers should aspire to and, more probably than anyone else, exercised a major influence on my eventual career, initially in teaching and subsequently in teacher training. Throughout his long life and dedicated service to education in Radnorshire, he remained passionately interested in the achievements of former pupils; he will long be remembered by thousands of pupils who were privileged to have been taught by him. Raymond S. Griffiths PRISCILLA EVANS Priscilla Evans who died in July 1993 was one of the Society's most stalwart members. She served the Executive Committee, the Field Section Committee, and was a member, too, of the Powys Family History Society and the Offa's Dyke Association.