Egerton P

About Egerton P

<p><strong><span style=\"\\\">History of the school</span></strong></p>
<p>By Mrs R McKenzie (1988)</p>
<p>Egerton Primary School was named after 30 year old Lt. Frederick Greyville Egerton who was a naval gunnery officer on the H M S Powerful.&nbsp; The naval guns were removed from the battleship and transported to Ladysmith just before the Siege.&nbsp; On 2 November 1899 an enemy shell fell close to Lt. Egerton, mortally wounding him.&nbsp; Making light of his agony as he was lifted onto a stretcher he said, &ldquo;This will spoil my cricket I&rsquo;m afraid&rdquo;.&nbsp; He died the following day.</p>
<p>Egerton Primary School was established nearly twenty-one years later on 2 August 1921 with six teachers and 181 pupils on the roll.&nbsp; Egerton Primary School was initially an English medium school, with &ldquo;Dutch&rdquo; lessons being taught for an hour each day.&nbsp; It was only in 1935 that provision was made for Afrikaans speaking pupils.</p>
<p>Glimpses into the log book give us an idea of what it must have been like.&nbsp; Some of the difficulties experienced by the early teachers included a snow storm which resulted in poor attendance for three days, a severe drought during which time pupils were expected to bring their own water to school, boiling the school milk because of the danger of enteric, the restriction of bread at meal times because of a flour shortage during the war, frequent cases of truancy and outbreaks of measles, chicken-pox and diphtheria.</p>
<p>Interruptions in teaching time were frequent.&nbsp; Some of these included royal visits, outings and sports days.&nbsp; One was as a result of an exaggerated meteorological report of an approaching tornado!</p>
<p>The first Inspector of Schools to visit Egerton during 1921 wrote that teachers should &ldquo;&hellip;accept no half-hearted and lax performance from anybody&rdquo;.&nbsp; This sentiment is emphasised in the words of our school song.</p>

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