A.W. Elliott (Teacher Aberdare Intermediate School, 1906–1930)
A.W. Elliott
1923
Albert William Elliott was the first teacher of biological subjects at the Aberdare school. He was appointed in 1906, ten years after the school was established.
He was born in West Chinnock, Dorset, in 1863, the son of a shoe and boot maker Emanuel Elliott and his wife Fanny, née Matte. His secondary education took place at Crewkerne Grammar School, where he was also a Pupil Teacher. A move to Huddersfield in the early 1890s enabled him to gain several advanced certificates of the Board of Education in scientific subjects whilst attending Huddersfield Technical College.
There followed an eleven-year period when he taught at Brighouse and Ecland Technical School, as well as Longwood Grammar School in Huddersfield, leaving there in 1902 for Trowbridge County Secondary School where he stayed until 1906. During this latter post he graduated as an external student at the University of London with a B.Sc. in Botany, Zoology and Chemistry.
It was in the spring of 1906 that he joined Aberdare Intermediate School as a teacher of various scientific subjects including Botany and Chemistry. He also taught in the evening classes that were run for adults at the school. In 1913, he was ‘loaned’ to the new Intermediate School for Girls in Plasdraw as a teacher of biological subjects. He stayed there until 1917, shortly after the appointment of Miss Alice Jane Prothero who was to take over from him in the biology department.
Mr Elliott then returned to the Boys’ Intermediate School where he taught Chemistry1, remaining there until his retirement in 1930. Unfortunately, he did not have a lengthy retirement for after an illness during which time he went to Harley Street for surgery, he died not long after in May 1933.
Elliott became well known in Aberdare delivering lectures on a range of scientific and rural studies topics to various clubs and societies2. He also took part in Aberdare’s Literary and Debating Society – as did several other County School teachers.
In 1890 Elliott married Clara Dutton in Kensington, London. A child Dorothy Millicent Jane Elliott3 was born in 1896 whilst the family lived in Huddersfield. After moving to Aberdare, the Elliotts lived at ‘Mayfield’, 66 Broniestyn Terrace, Trecynon - a house almost at the top of the terrace very close to the County School. In 1921, at St. Elvan’s Church, their daughter, Dorothy, married Thomas Thomas a teacher at the Gadlys School. One of their offspring was Professor Raymond Elliott Thomas4. Dorothy died in 1973 at Clevedon where her son lived.
When W.A. Elliott left the school in 1930, he was the first ever member of staff to leave at retirement age. He was remembered by former students by his nickname Daddy Elliott.
- Presumably, chemistry had a higher priority in the Boys’ School curriculum at this time. Biological subjects resumed in 1930 when Harold Ivor James was appointed to take both Botany and Zoology to Higher Certificate Level.
- Elliott gave talks to a variety of organisations: The Rotary Club Some Common Errors about the Theory of Evolution;
The Aberdare Gardeners’ Society The Great Food Problem;
Bethania Literary Society Stories from a Science Teacher’s Notebook;
The Allotment Holders’ Society, An Afternoon at Kew Botanic Garden (Lantern Slides);
Aberaman Allotment Society, Slugs & Snails;
Past Students’ Literary & Debating Society, Has the World Progressed?;
Highland Place Church Social Union, Science and Our Food Supply, Popular Mistakes Concerning Evolution.
In 1912, Elliott produced a catalogue of the trees in Aberdare Park, which later resulted in a book, A descriptive catalogue of the trees and shrubs in the Aberdare Park, (1913). Aberdare library holds a copy of this book.
In the night school classes he taught a course on Pharmaceutical Botany.
He was also a member of Aberdare Library Executive Committee - Dorothy attended the County School in Trecynon taking her CWB Junior Certificate in 1910. Later after transferring to the new Plasdraw girls’ school, she passed her London University Matriculation Examination in 1914.
- Raymond Elliott Thomas has an entry in the Former Pupils section of this website.
CR, December 2025