Memories of Ralph and Rhoda Dix For our May Zoom meeting over 30 members joined to listen to Patrick Roberts talking about his family and Grandparents, and in particular his grandfather Ralph Dix, Headmaster of the village school during the interwar period. The Dix family originated in Saffron Walden where they were builders. Ralph became a Student Teacher at the school aged 16 and subsequently went on to Teacher Training in Hull. By contrast, Rhoda was the daughter of a Yorkshire coalminer and unusually all siblings managed to evade working at the pit. She managed to get enrolled at Leeds University in 1916 to study Botany. An older brother was a feared headmaster who family tradition says had Henry Moore on his staff and gave him a nudge to follow his artistic ends. In 1915 Ralph enlisted and was sent off to Sierra Leone to help guard German merchant men prisoners. He retained his pith helmet all his life and his saying ‘always wear a hat or you will go mad’ went down in family history. Ralph had met Rhoda when she was visiting Newport and the were married in Pontefract. They arrived in Hatfield Heath to take up the headships of the two village schools – the British and the National. The schools were soon combined and Ralph became the Headmaster on the school and Rhoda as Deputy. They became heavily involved in all the village clubs and societies – with Ralph organising the building of the War Memorial for the British Legion. He was later proud to receive a Gold Medal from the Queen Mother for 50 years membership. In WW2 he was the village Billeting Officer and often made use of the Trinity Hall and Village Hall to provide accommodation. Following his retirement in 1956 he was still active in the village and Bill Brunty regularly used his services to write speeches for his FA activities. Similarly Rhoda would regularly have Brusher Wilson come round into her 80’s to reinsert his pebble lenses in his glasses, having started when teaching him. Patrick told a lively tale with many more family anecdotes of a couple who gave so much to the village and our members comments post talk showed how much they were appreciated. Quentin Spear
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