Description | Typescript transcripts of letters written by Hugh Creek, a student at the Exeter Diocesan Training College [later St Luke's College), to his parents during the First World War. The letters were sent from various locations, including Plymouth, Andover, Southampton, S.S. Nevasa, Dalhousie, Ferozepore [Firozpur, Punjab], Secunderabad, and Mesopotamia [present-day Iraq]. This collection also includes a short history of Hugh Creek's teacher training, which was compliled by his daughter, Patricia Creek, including information about his time at Exeter Diocesan Training College and extracts from his letters to his parents from this period. The letters appear to have also been transcribed by Patricia Creek. |
AdminHistory | Alfred Hugh Creek was born 27 May 1894 at Sproughton near Ipswich as the eldest of three children. The family moved to Trengwainton in Cornwall in 1906 and Hugh went to the village school at Madron. From 1908 to 1909 he attended the Penzance Pupil Teachers' Centre, and in Agust 1910, at the age of 16, he was appointed pupil teacher at Daniel Boys' School, Madron for two years. In the autumn of 1912, Creek started a two-year couse at the Exeter Diocesan Training School [later renamed St Luke's College] in Exeter. Upon finishing his college examinations, he went straight to Halesworth Boys' School in North Suffolk to take up the post of Assistant Master. He taught at Halesworth for three weeks and then went to the annual Territorial Camp with the College Company. He then expected to spend the summer holidays with his parents in the Cornwall, but the First World War broke out, and it would be four years before he returned to civilian life and his appointment in Halesworth. Creek joined the Army at the age of 20 and was enlisted into the Royal Devonshire Regiment Territorial Force. His unit was known as the 'Exeter and South Devon Volunteers', and later became a battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. In July 1922, Creek married Florence Larter at Blyford, Suffolk, and they went on to have three children. After leaving Halesworth, he worked at Stoke-by Nayland Secondary School as Headteacher. He retired as Headteacher in 1958 and together with Florence, moved to Frinton-on-Sea. Florence died aged 77 in 1972, after which Creek appears to have moved to Hadleigh. He died on the 22 January 1987, aged 92. (Source: biography by Patricia Creek and information found at www.bures-online.co.uk/creek/Creek.htm) |