For forty-five years, William was the master of Toot Baldon School, until it closed in 1920.
He was born in Shrewsbury in 1854, the son of a blacksmith. In 1871, at the age of 17, he was a “pupil teacher” in Shrewsbury. He was “certificated” (i.e. qualified) from Saltley College, Birmingham (a teacher training college) then took charge of Gorse Hill School nr Swindon.
He was appointed to the role of schoolmaster at Toot Baldon in September 1875 on an annual salary of £110. Prior to his arrival, the school clearly was struggling. In 1873 the Government Inspector found that the school’s discipline was “deficient” and there was an “urgent necessity for a change in the administration of the school”. Within a few years William seems to have turned matters around for the better, as the Government Inspector’s report from May 1876 stated that “this is a fine type of a successful Agricultural School” and “The tone and results please me greatly”. Glowing reports of the school continued over subsequent years.
William Lewis, 1906
When he arrived in Toot Baldon he was a single man, but in September 1878, aged 24, he married Jane Pitson (aged about 23), born in Toot Baldon, daughter of John William Pitson, an agricultural labourer, and Ann (nee Harper). They had five sons and one daughter, and they lived in the schoolmaster’s house, next to the school, now 31 The Row, Toot Baldon.
William was clearly a man of many parts. Rev JC Ross, the Toot Baldon vicar, records him, variously, playing the church organ, singing in the choir, partaking in amateur dramatics performances, singing old English folk songs at a fund-raising concert and playing cricket. Alongside his regular school teaching duties he also helped at the night school, a kind of adult education / religious study class established by Rev Ross. He was also clearly keen to further his own education, passing a science exam at St Ebbe’s, Oxford, in 1893.
Jane Lewis died in November 1898, aged about 43. In 1906 William married again, to Katharine Fruin, also born in Toot Baldon, daughter of John and Catherine Fruin.
William’s daughter, May Sybil, born in 1881, became his assistant at the school. When the school closed in 1920, William retired, but May carried on teaching for many years at Marsh Baldon School.
William died in October 1933, aged 80, and is buried in St Lawrence’s graveyard.