Friends still meeting more than 70 years later
Two familiar faces at the Old Low Light Heritage Centre, North Shields Fish Quay, Sylvia Lambert and Lynette Scott, have been friends for more than 70 years, meeting at a boarding school for children following the death of a parent during Merchant Navy service.
They were among many Tyneside children who found themselves at the Royal Merchant Navy School (RMNS), a former mansion house set in large grounds with a lake, at Bearwood, Berkshire, more than 200 miles from home. The regime was strict with regular marching and a bugle marking the start and end of every day.
And now their story is part of a broad exhibition ‘Merchant Navy, Tyneside Stories’, at the heritage centre (open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 3pm).
Sylvia’s dad died of pneumonia in 1937, when she was a baby, while working for the British India Steam Navigation Company. There had been plans for Sylvia and her mother Ruth to join him in India. Instead, Ruth became a single parent with no income.
The company offered Ruth a job at sea and said when Sylvia was seven, she could go to the RMNS.
From being very young, Sylvia, who lives in North Shields, knew she would be going to boarding school when she was a ‘big girl’ but coming from an industrialised area, she remembers being ‘awestruck’ on her first sight of the imposing grounds and mansion and once inside ‘fascinated by the beautiful woodwork and amazing fireplaces’.
When her mother and grandmother left her at the school in 1945, she doesn’t remember being sad, just accepting that this was to be her home for the next eight years.
During her first term at the school, probably because she was the youngest and smallest girl, she was chosen to present a bouquet to Mrs Attlee, the Prime Minister’s wife.
At that time, it was just after the end of WW2 and food was still rationed, although Sylvia recalls plenty of fresh vegetables, eggs and milk from the farm.
Meanwhile, Lynette, born in North Shields, arrived at Bearwood in 1952, aged ten, following the death of her father, who, after becoming unwell, died in a hospital in Aden.
The family had often accompanied her father at sea, visiting many countries. Suddenly life was very different.
“Going away to boarding school was a huge shock for me. Up until then, I had lived a very varied life with much travelling. It was an affluent life, especially when we were abroad and were entertained by Governors of the various places we visited,” she said.
She remembers the first night at Bearwood being ‘strange’: “We slept in double height bunks with striped horse-hair mattresses. ‘Lights out’ was at 9pm and was marked by a bell and a lone bugler playing the ‘Last Post’.”
But she also remembers at other times being entertained by Sylvia and her friend: “I especially remember them singing ‘We’re a Couple of Swells’. They danced and they sang, and it was a lovely ending to the day. At school, Sylvia was always involved with theatrical productions and entertaining and she maintained this interest when she left school. She was very kind to me at school and I have always been grateful to her.”
