MAGHULL C.E. SCHOOLS 1839-1939 CENTENARY SOUVENIR BOOKLET
A MESSAGE FROM LORD DERBY
Stratford Place,
W.1.
Headmaster, Maghull C.E. Schools.
Dear Sir,
I understand that the Centenary celebrations of the Maghull C.E. School take place this year.
I hope, if any of these celebrations are public, I shall be allowed to attend, but in case I am not able to do so, I would like to say how much I enter into the feelings of satisfaction of those who celebrate this hundredth anniversary.
I know that the School is divided really into two parts the older one, which celebrates its Centenary this year, and the newer one, which is the Maghull Parish War Memorial to its dead. I cannot think of any Memorial more fitting than one which fits the youth of the country for the battle of life. Probably many of its pupils have been the sons of men who fought and perhaps fell in the War, and I am sure that every one of you would rejoice to think that the Memorial to those men is helping their children in their future career.
My best congratulations to the School as a whole: my thanks to those who have made it the success it is; and my earnest hope that the future may bring additional rewards to those who are educated within its walls.
Yours sincerely,
DERBY.
FOREWORD.
Inscribed over the main entrances to many of the schools of Wales is the motto :
"Goreu arf arf dysg Goreu dysg gair Duw,"which, freely translated, means "The best weapon is the weapon of knowledge; the best knowledge is a knowledge of God."-- This is an adage which might be more deeply studied in this secular age. The stress laid here on the importance of education to an individual or a nation, and the double emphasis on the paramount importance of spiritual or moral values, make it a fitting theme for the centenary celebrations of a Church of England School.
For many centuries the Church was almost solely responsible for the preservation and the dissemination of learning. During the last century She led the way in establishing schools for the education of the general public. It is to that enterprise that we in Maghull owe a hundred years of educational opportunity.
This year Maghull celebrates the centenary of its Church of England School At such a time as this we must ask ourselves two important questions . How are we going to show our gratitude to those who have gone before ; and what are we going to pass on to those who will come after ? The end of one century marks the beginning of another, and there is a tendency to forget the one in the contemplation of the other. In this age of breathless progress we are inclined to despise the old through admiration for the new, but if we do this we are guilty both of ingratitude to the past and of disloyalty to the future. As members of an organised Church we are duty bound to provi de for the rising generation continued facilities for an adequate education hallowed by religion.
Twenty years ago we were just emerging from the indescribable horror of a war which had claimed victims in practically every parish of the land. That occasion was marked everywhere by the erection of War Memorials to the fallen, and the people of Maghull, which was then a rural village, showed profound sagacity when they decided that their memorial should take the form of a school-an addition to the existing Church of England School. We, to-day, have just passed through a night-marish crisis but, thank God, peace has been preserved. Surely, this occasion should not be allowed to slip by without some tangible expression of gratitude. The most fitting method would be to invest one's tokens of gratitude in increasing the educational amenities of the parish, for this would be more than plain investment it would be an insurance policy.
Thus it is the object of this Souvenir Booklet to focus attention on the work of this school in the past, and to direct interest towards the needs of the future. It will have achieved its aim if, in a small way, it inspires the people of Maghull with a desire to see that a representative Church of England school is passed on to posterity.