South Yorkshire Times, July 3, 1943
34 Years At Secondary School
Retirement of Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Williams
“Shep’s pie today!” The minds of many hundreds of old boys and girls of Mexborough Secondary School will recognise in this phrase a talisman capable of conjuring up their school days and will be reminded incidentally of excellently cooked dinners. These old pupils will extend best wishes this week to Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Williams, of Hampden Road, caretakers and kitchen supervisors at the school for over 34 years, who retired on Wednesday.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams have become a tradition in the school, as have their shepherds pies, “spotted dogs,” (sultana pudding) and “gravestones” (jam pasties). They started work there in 1910 – at the time they fed 87 people at 4d. per head. The price of dinners went up during the last war to 5d., and at the end of the war to 6d. It has since been reduced to 2s. for 5 dinners, or 5d. for a single dinner. They are now serving 540 dinners per day, including meals for the teaching staff.
When a “South Yorkshire Times” reporter visited the school on Wednesday, Mr. and Mrs. Williams said the work had been their whole lives and that they had enjoyed “growing up” with the school. Asked if the war had made much difference to them, Mr. Williams said they had experienced few difficulties due to the war. In 1941 and 1942, in addition to their own staff and pupils, they fed 120 students per day from the Schofield Technical College, who at that time had no kitchen facilities of their own.
Mr. and Mrs. Williams started with the help of three maids – they finished with nine girls and two boys. The dining room and kitchens have been greatly extended. In Mr. Williams’ opinion, rationing in the present war is much fairer than in the last, when there had to be at least one meatless day per week. Mr. Williams recalled how in the general strike in 1926 they were hard put to for food, and had to send for two tons of potatoes from Boston and mix them with turnips and rice. When they started at Mexborough Secondary School there was a teaching staff of seven, including the headmaster Mr T. W. Ireland, and the senior mistress, Miss J. E. Crowther. The teaching staff now numbers 37.
In the cooking of the varied meals, the domestic staff use per day such quantities as 3 cwt. of potatoes, ¾ cwt. of carrots, four stones of flour, and five stones of meat.
The busiest day of Mr. and Mrs. Williams’ career was when they served meals for 1,800 in one day when the inter-school sports were held at Mexborough. During the year ended March, 1943 they served over 100,000 dinners at the school.
Presentation.
A presentation of a cheque to Mr. and Mrs. Williams on behalf of the teaching staff of the school, and the clerical staff at the Education Offices, was made on Wednesday. Mr. Alderson presided in the absence through illness of the Headmaster (Mr. H. L. Watkinson). A letter of appreciation was read from Mr. Watkinson, and the presentation was made by Mr G. W. W. Way. Thanks and appreciation of Mr. and Mrs. Williams’s services were expressed by several members of the staff and Mr. Hall, who said that the work of Mr. and Mrs. Williams had a reputation all over the country for high quality and cheapness. Mr. Williams thanked the staff.