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Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School

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Two teachers enjoy a break in the staff room

from Gwyn Evans

Here are Charles Morris and Tom Evans engrossed in a discussion in the staff room. It was almost certainly the staff room in the old Trecynon School. Tom was rarely seen without his pipe in the 1960s and 1970s but at some point in his retirement it was suddenly abandoned. The date of the photograph is unknown, but the two gentlemen seem to be as they were in the mid-1960s.
Meirion Jenkins and Tom Evans
Charles Edward Landeg Morris was an Aberdarian who came from a long-established family in the town. He attended the Aberdare Boys County School 1927-33, and later graduated with honours from U.C. Cardiff in Latin, 1936, and French in 1937. His Diploma in Education was taken at the University of Reading. Prior to arriving as Latin master at Aberdare in January 1953, he had spent six years teaching at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital School in Bristol. Mr Morris retired from teaching at the school in 1978, and died in 1994 at the age of 78.
Tom Evans, was also a well-established Aberdarian and a past pupil of the school, 1929-35. He spent almost the whole of his career as a teacher at ABGS, 1948-79, as Head of Geography. He graduated from UCW Aberystwyth in 1939 with an honours degree in Geography and obtained his Diploma in Education one year later. He came to ABGS in September 1948 after spending two years teaching at Ardwyn Grammar School, in Aberystwyth. During WW2 he served from 1941 in The South Wales Borderers, and saw active service in the Normandy (D-Day) landings, and in engagements in France, Belgium and Holland; he attained the rank of Captain. He retired rom teaching in 1979, and enjoyed an active retirement until his death in November 2011 at the age of 94.