Extended family on the occasion of Ernst's 90th birthday, celebrated at St Mary's School
St Mary's school
St. Mary's School was founded in 1921. It was run by 2 ladies called Miss Giles and Miss Sarson, for children with special needs (at that time physical disabilities such as the now almost unknown polio, cerebral palsy etc). One of their ideas was always to have some children in the school who had no handicaps and whose special need was financial: it was in a way a forerunner of the more modern idea of accommodating, as far as possible, all special needs children in mainstream schools, so that the children do not feel totally cut off from the normal world. Miss Sarson's best friend was a lady who was a very keen Quaker and somehow this may have provided the tonnection with Mrs. Atkinson or Mrs.Landmann. Miss Giles (with her sister) had spent some years in Germany in around 1900. As a result of these connections St Mary's offered quite a large number of places for refugees from Germany, both as pupils and staff. To this day I am in touch with several of these.
Miss Giles' sister had married a German diplomat who stayed in his job after the Nazis came to power in 1933. In spite of her understanding of the need to offer places for refugees, Miss Giles made the quite ludicrous suggestion that her brother-in-Iaw should meet me to find out more as to what sort of boy I was. This was of course quite impossible.
I spent my first year in England at St. Mary's. The school was open all the year round as the treatment that was provide could not interrupted, so I went there for most of the School holidays from Bryanston. In 1968 St Mary’s, which by then had moved to Bexhill in Sussex, was to be taken over by a trust and Miss Sarson asked me to become a governor – which I remained until the end of 1999.
I met your grandmother Ann Thirkill when she was working at St.Mary's as a student teacher in 1958.
In 2003 a group of rooms at the centre of the main building containing the IT department for the children was named the Ernst Michaelis Suite. In 2006 we gave the school a contribution in memory of Ann to a fund for a new Hall needed by the school for concerts and other functions, to be built sometime in the future.
Memories of Ernst Michaelis and St Mary's School
Jane Barker
I was a pupil at St Mary’s School from 1955-1961. I remember Ernst as an occasional visitor, especially in the autumn term when he came to do the lighting for the annual nativity play. He was quiet and seemed rather shy (probably unsurprising in a predominantly girls’ school!). We didn’t really know who he was, but I think there was some vague story that he was the adopted son of one of the Principals. In those days we knew him as Edward because there was another Ernst (Wiener).
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After she died Ernst and I met up on several occasions to go to the theatre, visit museums, etc. and he told me more of his family history. I particularly remember the time he found the photo of his schoolfriend, Lutz Peter Schiff, who was the first love of Anne Frank. I was staying with him the weekend an article was published in the Observer colour supplement, and we went to the newsagents to collect the bundles of copies he had ordered, and then spent a couple of hours putting them, with a covering letter, in envelopes addressed to his friends and relations.
Ernst was good company, always with something interesting to talk about, immensely proud (and rightly so) of his family and eager to tell of the progress of his grandchildren. He was a gentleman of the old school and a generous host, so I had to argue my corner to be allowed to pay a share. He was a great help when I was collecting material to write a history of St Mary’s. I am sorry this was not accomplished in his lifetime, but I hope to complete it in time for the school’s centenary in 2022.
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He later told me the tale that he met Ann, who was a student teacher there in 1958/59, when she was playing a Roman centurion in one of the plays, and wearing a coal scuttle for a helmet!
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Ernst was appointed a governor at St Mary’s in 1967 when the school became an educational trust. I joined the board in the 1980s and got to know him better. Because of his professional expertise, plus his historical knowledge of St Mary’s and other schools, he made a particularly significant contribution to our deliberations. David Cassar, who was Principal from 1991, especially valued Ernst’s interest in technical matters relating to the buildings etc.
Ann and Ernst came to a couple of reunions held at St Mary’s in the 1980s and joined a group of us who held mini reunions in our homes, hosting one themselves in 1981.
Two things that stood out about Ernst; one was his slightly anarchic sense of humour, which was perhaps a little unexpected, given his otherwise conventional persona. The other was his philosophy of life which seemed so exceptionally balanced, given his experience of the Holocaust. His support of Jews for Justice for Palestinians is an example.
When I told him of Ernst’s death, David Cassar said he really liked and respected Ernst. When Ernst opened the Ernst Michaelis IT Suite, the headline on the local paper said something like “The Arab, the Christian and the Jew”. Ernst would have appreciated that, reflecting as it did his open, inclusive philosophy.
With old friends from St Mary’s
At 2013 reunion at St Mary’s
I shall always be grateful to Ernst for sharing with me some of his life experiences, what it was like leaving his parents and coming to England on his own at the age of 12. And those incredible letters he received from them. There lies the explanation of his strength of character and generosity of spirit. To have come through all of that and be a balanced, caring human being.
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It was a privilege to know him.