Genealogical Society of Victoria Online Shop

Book

Elm Park

is the remarkable and highly unlikely story of an educational initiative that one might expect to find in the leafy shires of Middle England but which in fact took root in the heart of Co Armagh. Moreover, this preparatory school for boys aged from eight upwards was established at a time, 1921, when not only was the island of Ireland being partitioned politically but the violently disputed border that was thus created was only a few miles away.

It was the vision of two remarkable men, one a former First World War army captain, the other an academic and poet. Even the names of these two headmasters - Hugh Eric Seth-Smith and Willoughby Weaving - betoken their individualistic idealism, characteristics that they in turn came to expect of their equally colourful pupils.