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Daily Mail 2/4/1940
They Refused Free Car Ride to School, but –
CHILD STRIKERS WENT FOR MILK!
Defied the Rector
By Daily Mail Woman Reporter
It was the day of revolt yesterday in Ash, near
Gravesend in Kent – a village so small that even the compilers
of gazetteers have overlooked it. For, as the sun rose over the
peaceful rural scene, this is what was going on:
In a tiny cottage by the schoolhouse the
61-years-old headmistress, Miss Alice Wright, was packing. She
has been dismissed by the Kent Education Committee.
Along the quiet streets went Mr. Simmons, school manager, in his
car, offering to give children a free ride to school.
Parents Warned
He tempered his generosity with a warning to parents that if
their youngsters did not go to school they would be summoned.
But the villagers of Ash, firmly set on a strike because of Miss
Wright’s dismissal, were – well, moderately firm about it.
Down at the school summer term began with a muster of only nine
older boys and girls and a sprinkling of youngsters. Miss
Hodges, a temporary mistress, was in charge. Free milk arrived
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for the normal number. Now, in Ash, they like
the free milk idea. So along went the children-on-strike and
asked for it.
Mrs. Wise Takes a Hand.
They found the Rector, Mr. H.B. Hennel, there.
"He said they couldn’t have it – and sent them
away," Mrs. Wise, caretaker at the school for six years,
told me. But when school was over, Mrs. Wise collected the milk
and took it to the children. And they drank it at home. Mrs.
Wise, having sampled the thrills of revolt, will go farther. She
told me, "Miss. Wright has done nothing wrong and there is
going to be a strike until she’s put back again."
‘We’ll Have a Banner’
And that’s not all, "We are going to get a banner and
openly protest," she added. Miss Wright, who says she
doesn’t care for ‘all this fuss,’ told me: "I think I
shall stay with friends in the village. In any case I am going
to see what happens." "I do want to teach my children
again," she added, "At the moment I am suspended from
going into the school, but I cannot tell what will happen."
Ash is so tiny that the Daily Mail cartographer missed it
when he drew a map for the paper on Saturday, and portrayed
another Ash near Sandwich.
But you can’t keep it out of the news. |