This fascinating article about how Concord College was though of was first published in the 1978 Concord Magazine. The full version can be found in Magazines page in the Memories section on this website. It was written by Barney Maharaj, who was at Concord from 1976 to 1978. Sadly he passed away, aged 62, in 2021. 

This version has been shortened slightly.

The other day, I went to Church Stretton, about nine miles from Concord College to have a talk with the only surviving founder of  Concord College.

- CONCORD'S FIRST JOINT PRINCIPAL WAS KNOWN AS 'MR PAUL' NOT 'MR OERTEL'

I was warmly welcomed in the stout Edwardian house with its large garden and Mr. Paul Oertel was ready to chat to me. My first  question was about the name of "Mr. and Mrs. Paul" as he and his wife, a fellow Concord teacher, were known.

Mr. Paul explained to me that his full name was actually Paul OERTEL, the latter, his family name. In this family name the first letters O and e were pronounced as o and a in the English verb ' to coach,' so that the whole name was like a three-syllabled word. As this proved rather difficult for most foreign students, they just called them Mr. and Mrs. Paul and they wrote to their parents about Mr. and Mrs.Paul. 

The parents in return wrote letters to Mr. Paul and  in the end, instead of explaining over and over again that Mr. Paul and Mr. Oertel were the same entity, he signed letters with  "Yours...Mr. Paul". 

WHO WAS MR PAUL OERTEL?

Mr. Paul was born in  Alsace, the French province along the river Rhine. 

After his University studies, he had to join the compulsory military service of 18 months in the French Army then he started his teaching  life. They were the unruly pre-war years, when, next door to France, Hitler was preparing for war and they were interspersed with several three-month periods of extra training in the army.

In the war, Mr. Paul had to join the army: "We were thoroughly defeated; I was taken prisoner, had the opportunity to escape and escaped. I later joined an underground group was to rescue as many war prisoners as possible, to look after them and guide them, by stages, to Switzerland and from there to Africa. It was an incredibly hard and dangerous life! "

After the war had stopped, France was a very sad place indeed and Mr. Paul was then looking for wider horizons. In 1948, after some short courses in administration and some interviews, he was eligible for a colonial teaching post but was told that a good working-knowledge of English (which he did not then have) was essential.

So Mr. Paul resigned from teaching and went to England to improve his English - he found a residential post as French master in an English Boys' school, in Bexhill where he settled down happily, in the spring of 1949.

MR OERTEL MEETS MISS CARR- TAYLOR; CONCORD'S CO-FOUNDER

"When I came to England, I was dreaming of far-away horizons in the colonies; then slowly the simple, un-exciting horizon of Bexhill proved very soothing. It was nice to be, for once, just a nobody in a foreign country, doing a simple job."  

When looking for intense teaching in English, Mr.Paul met Miss Carr-Taylor in the early summer of 1949. Miss Taylor, he told me, was an exceptionally good teacher, a magnificent human being, full of warmth, dignity and charisma. 

Before the war she had been a teacher at an international school, which closed at the beginning of  the war and never reopened. After  the war, she had rented a big house in Bexhill and, in the summer of 1949, organised a holiday course in English for Belgian and French boys, who every year came in numbers to the English south coast in order to pick up some English.  

So. in 1949. Miss Carr-Taylor offered Mr. Paul some English tuition in exchange for Mr. Paul's teaching of Latin, Greek and German to some of the holiday boys during the summer. 

"My lessons with her continued and both of us began sensing each other's dynamism. One day, Miss Taylor asked me about my position at the Boys' school and my prospects in France. It was then that Miss Taylor proposed joining her at the end of the school year, in the summer of 1950." 

Mr. Paul was not really interested in holiday courses, but told her he would like to work at a kind of private school with a real secondary teaching curriculum. Miss Taylor warmed quickly to this  project. So together, they made sure of the legal position of such a private school. They had funds enough to cover the first heavy expenses.

They made sure that about 30 students could be found abroad in the near future, that domestic staff and teaching staff was available; they  hammered out a time-table for the daily routine, the one still in use at  Concord these days (1978). The curriculum would embrace:  English at all levels; then at  'O'  level: French, German, Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Geography, Biology, History, Political Science and  Economics; at  'A'  level: Geography, History, Political Science and Economics. 

CONCORD COLLEGE IS NAMED

After some months of very intensive preparation, Concord College came to life in September 1950 with 32 students, two full-time resident young teachers and plenty of part-time teachers all resident in Bexhill. 

The accent in the school was on order, discipline, responsibility, love for work and especially on a warm family atmosphere.

THE COLLEGE EXPANDS WITH EXTRAORDINARY EXAM RESULTS - A REAL GEM!

By September 1951 Concord College had 48 students but could gow no more and needed more space, so in 1953 Concord moved to bigger premises in Tunbridge Wells. The following  year  the  adjacent  property  was  purchased and scienc  laboratories were  built. From 1955 onwards Concord  had  regularly 80 resident students, some more at times, depending on the number of resident masters - it was also the year Mr Oertel married Miss Anne Ibbotson, a teacher at Concord who became known as 'Mrs Paul'. 

In 1958 the College was inspected and then recognised by the Ministry of Education. The successes at that time in the 'O' and 'A'  levels examinations were extraordinary.

"Of course"  Mr. Paul told me, "we had our little troubles and difficulties, mostly financial, but the school was a real gem, with a   wonderful relationship between Principals, masters and students."

CONCORD COLLEGE IS SOLD TO FRANK BELL 

"In the spring of 1968, Miss Taylor and I knew that a  turning-point in the life of Concord College had been reached. Miss Taylor was 70 years old, could no longer continue her work and was to retire after the summer term.  At first, it was understood that I, at 61 years old, would continue for another four years up to retiring age, and that I should look for a person to take over Miss Taylor's day-to-day work and appoint a junior partner to take over the school, when I retired. 

"Mrs. Paul was too much of a successful teacher to be drawn into the running of the school, so contacts were made.  One contact  was  Mr. Frank Bell, a most appreciated director of several schools and a very respected person in the academic circles of the country.  He was also a very close friend of  Miss Taylor and mine since he had repeatedly visited Concord College, which he greatly admired."  

Mr. Bell warmed to the idea of getting involved with Concord College and was prepared to discuss a partnership. However, just at that  time, Mr. Paul did some over-lifting  in the school and consequently suffered from a painful frozen shoulder.  Further medical examinations. indicated there was something fundamentally wrong with Mr.  Paul's health.

The specialist told him that he was greatly overworked and complete rest for a year or two was the only way for survival. It was against this unexpected background that the vital decision over Concord was taken. Both the partners  agreed that they would retire together.

MR MARTIN HORWOOD IS APPOINTED AS CONCORD'S NEW PRINCIPAL

"We asked Mr. Bell to take over the school entirely from September 1968.  All the arrangements were made to this effect. In order to  give Mr. Bell a free hand, I proposed that Mrs. Paul should change to another school but Mr. Bell would not hear of this."

In the meantime Mr. Paul's medical tests proved negative one after the other.  However, the specialist congratulated him on his decision to give up the school and assured him that he had thus prolonged his life by ten years.

In the meantime Mr.  Bell had found a head-master (Mr Martin Horwood) to replace Mr. Paul.  However he had a post abroad and. in the end,  he could not make it for September 1968.  So Mr. Bell asked  Mr. Paul to be his first headmaster in the new Concord until the arrival of  Mr.Horwood. 

Happy to know that nothing was fundamentally  wrong with his health, except for the fact that his body was "a worn-out machine,"  Mr. Paul consented and in September, he was back at the helm of the school to everybody's delight.

"Of course, we had booked up every place in the preceding summer term.  Even Miss Taylor remained at the school to initiate Miss  Angela Hynes into the day-to-day work which she was to  take over from her.  Mr. Paul, helped by Miss Hynes, continued as headmaster until the end of the school year. Mr. Horwood, his  successor was to take over on 1st July, 1969.

- May I just add that I returned to Concord from my interview with the deep conviction of having spoken to quite a guy.

BARNEY MAHARAJ (1978)