Childhood: The pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos - III

The bubble of childhood

It is strange that I find myself writing about the pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos again, a good 48 years since I left the school. This was prompted by two things, the need to publish a comment that had been left on one of my social media pages in 2010, that was discovered just a few months ago and an excerpt from a schoolmate’s father’s diary that gave an interesting context to the times in which we lived there.

We lived in Rayfield, a bucolic setting of tranquillity that was sometimes upset by graving cows beyond the fence of our homestead that could have been a ranch and a nest of wild bees that twice greeted me with a sting.

Our home had all the provenance of colonial privilege, a bungalow with 5 bedrooms, I think, painted white with green windows. A few outhouses called boy’s quarters and stretches of grounds and encirclement of fruit trees gave the appearance of an orchard, mangoes, cashews, oranges, figs, lemons, then pineapples and other things my dad planted.

No story of the bodies

What I read from the diary excerpt posted on Facebook also immediately dispelled my notion of Jos being so peaceful until the 1990s. In what must have been the late 1960s, there were disturbances for which her father was called upon to cater for the massacred, he counted 108 bodies that he superintended their interment in a mass grave. His colleague at the Bukuru Railway Station registered 398 bodies.

We as children were completely oblivious of these events either historically or contemporaneously as not even rumour reached us on the febrile environment in which we lived. The idyll of Rayfield presented distance and isolation even as our parents mollycoddled us with comforts and experience that dignifies our childhoods with privilege that could easily be the background of an Enid Blyton children’s story.

The Dent-Youngs in Nigeria

Be that as it may, I decided to do some digging around some elements of my childhood ensconced in the broader narrative of home and school. Our headmistress at Corona Primary School was Mrs Dent-Young, her husband was the head of the Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria (ATMN), my father’s boss, where he was the Deputy Chief Accountant.

On searching for the surname Dent-Young, I found that the elder Dent-Young, Lieutenant Colonel John Dent-Young, a scion of an engineering family and a mining engineer from Bath, first arrived in Nigeria in 1912 as a surveyor with Northern Nigeria (Bauchi) Tin Mines, Ltd before joining the West Africa Frontier Force during WWI, after which he managed Gurum River Tin Mines, Ltd, then Ribon Valley Tinfields, Ltd before serving as the joint managing director of Nigerian Alluvials, Ltd.

His miners found the first examples of Nok culture. [Geni: John Dent-Young]

He retired in 1950 returning from Nigeria to England and died at the age of 65 in 1955. [NMRS: John Dent-Young]

His son, David Michael Dent-Young, a mining engineer also, was the managing director of ATMN, my father’s boss and he was made CBE in 1977 for services to British commercial interests and the British community in Nigeria. He died at the age of 82 in 2010. [Geni: David Michael Dent-Young] [The London Gazette: Honours 1997 – PDF]

Wherefore Corona

Speaking of the British community in Nigeria brings us to a broader history of the Colonial Service along with the many changes of names and departments in the last century. First, the Corona Club was created in 1899 for the support of overseas civil service officers with its own tie and cravat and it offered benevolence to dependants of members who died in service as ‘tropical diseases were less well-controlled until the middle of the last century’.

The Colonial Office set up the Women’s Corona Club in 1937 to support the wives of officers being sent to work in the Commonwealth, it was renamed Women’s Corona Society in 1950 and then Corona Worldwide in 1970, it retains the wider remit of supporting women going overseas for all sorts of reasons. [Corona Worldwide]

The Corona schools

With wives abroad, there arose concerns about children’s education overseas, and in most cases, there was no adequate provision that children were sent back to England for school, usually boarding school. In 1953, the Children’s Escort Service was created to chaperone children between the abroad and England and back to their parents when on holidays.

The Corona Women’s Society opened its first school for British children in Nigeria in 1955, rapidly expanding to include all children. Comments posted to my earlier blogs would suggest the Corona School I attended at Shamrock House, was first opened at Miango Junction according to Joe Miner whose story links up with another, quite likely in the late 1950s, William Gardner comments about attending Shamrock School, which I believe would be Corona Primary School at Shamrock House at the age of 5 in 1962. [Corona Worldwide: Corona Anniversary Magazine – PDF] 

Note: I just visited the Corona Primary School, Bukuru, Alumni group page on Facebook and the celebratory anniversary cake along with shirts worn would suggest the school was established in 1963.

Until a few days ago, I never thought to explore the history of the Corona name and its significance in colonial times. I cannot however determine if Corona is an acronym, a contraction of words, or its etymology. My research continues, but having more context to the people and the times of our childhoods makes for interesting reading that I did not know until now.

Related Blogs

Blog - Childhood: The pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos

Blog - Childhood: The pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos - II

Blog - Childhood: Standing up to the powerful

Another comment to present

My annotations for context or clarification are in parentheses []. Having also visited the old pupils/alumni page, I have updated elements within the blog and the comments.

9. Murphy Erebor – 22^nd May 2010 (From one of my social media pages, it might have been Facebook.)

Hi Akin,

You seem to be about my age and attended Corona [Primary School]. I was in Corona in 1971 and was in Mrs Feliciano’s class and Mrs Sanda’s class at a certain time. Do you remember Mrs Uku our principal? [I do remember Mrs Uku as the school disciplinarian (she passed on in July 2021 at the age of 87), as well as Mrs Obole, but not as our headmistress who at that time was Mrs Dent-Young. Mrs Agbelusi was my teacher in Primary 3, the class I started at.]

Well, I live in Abuja and am an architect by training. Nice to know you have good memories of Corona [Primary School]. I wish I had more pictures of my stay in Corona [Primary School] though.

Just read your blog, quite interesting, Corona [Primary School] was a very beautiful place. I wish I knew where one of my teachers was, Mrs Onyemenam was a very good teacher. [She was my teacher in Primary 5, I recently saw a picture of her on Facebook with a caption that she was 93, that was in January 2021. I had a tough and unsavoury time in her class. I had issues and she chose to embarrass me before the class.

Funny enough, Mrs Feliciano if you remember her the Filipino lady is still alive. [My memory fails me on that score.]. She is in her eighties and lives in the US with her daughter. Mrs Feliciano’s mother is also still alive and over one hundred years old. Her son Joel is on Facebook. You might also remember him. [Unfortunately, I can’t seem to remember them, but I love the stories that come together in these comments.]

Sarah Sanda who wrote on your blog works with the Nigerian Television Authority. I see her on TV almost every day because she is a newscaster.

Take care, my brother.

Regards

Emokpae Erebor

Childhood: The pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos - II

Nostalgia gets you here

After blogging for almost 18 years, your blogs become callouts to people in search of information, especially to do with their pasts. You bring up a search engine and would likely type in the name of your primary school or secondary school, flick through the results until one or a few references come up that takes you down memory lane.

I attended three primary schools, the Army Children’s School in Kaduna where I started, and my three memories are my first day at school when I ran out of class to meet my mother as soon as I saw her come to collect me after school, the Indian headmistress who cracked the knuckles of kids who had not cut their fingernails and that is how we all became nail biters, and when I hopped on a school bus just as my dad arrived to pick me up, we did a good tour of Kaduna before I got off.

More school memories abound

Then Corona School, Shamrock House in Bukuru, Jos, where I spent 3 memorable years and have the keenest recollections of childhood from class 3 to class 5, having jumped a class in my transfer from Kaduna to Jos. During this time, I have written a lot and have had many comments from others who have found my blogs. To that end, I have met up with some old schoolmates and even seen a picture of one of my old teachers who is now in her 90s.

We returned to Kaduna in mid-1975 where I attended the Sacred Heart Primary School for my last year, and though I was involved in a number of extracurricular activities and played the part of Pharoah in our production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, I was absent for 4 months taking common entrance examinations in the southwest of Nigeria for secondary school admission. I returned for the last month to take exams and passed in the top half of the class.

Compiling recollections for posterity

As I have sometimes lost comments posted to my blogs, especially when I have had to migrate it from another platform, I now move some comments into blogs of their own. The many responses I get for the Corona School blogs cover a broad period of time from well before the school was on that site where I attended to long after I graduated, none of that knowledge would have been acquired with the blogs.

I wrote the first one in 2007 and then a couple more in 2008 after which I compiled in 2009 into a blog with the comments left on it. I guess it is now time to do that compilation again, because of the new comments posted and one quite recently too. All these would be cross-referenced, for the reader to get the whole story.

Blog - Rayfield, Jos - Memories of a child (May 2007)

Blog - Childhood: The pupils of Corona School, Shamrock House, Bukuru, Jos (May 2009) – The first comment compilation blog.

More comments in a blog

Once again, I thank everyone who left comments on the blogs, I have compiled the more recent ones below, so from Armstrong, Joe Miner, Julie Sanda and the anonymous poster the first compilation, I now have a guest, Brenda and Marianne whose surnames I am not too sure of and William Gardner.

My annotations and comments are in parenthesis [], the comments are edited for basic grammatical and punctuation to improve clarity without losing context or intent of the original posters.

5. Guest – 24^th May 2012

WOW! Today, I googled the Yelwa [Club] pool out of curiosity and stumbled on your blog and was brought back in time. I also was there much later (1983) through my father who was a microwave engineer (Jay Clark) I was as student with Ms. Opara as headmistress. Thank you for your blog I will continue to read your posts.

6. Brenda (Gelul) from Holland – 24^th May 2012

Wow! Amazing reading all those memories.

I remember Corona School and Hillcrest [School] too. We used to live near the Corona School. My best memory is the chopones [I don’t know what these are] this woman used to sell near the school. We loved them and cost 1 Naira [each].

Most my memories are about the food I loved, the Nigerian foods. [I] miss Nigeria loads being born there and growing up there it will for ever be in my heart.

7. Marianne [Geluk} – 25^th June 2012

[This seems to be another lady from Holland with a similar story as the last, probably the same person, I don’t know.]

So cool, I grew up there too. Corona School then Hillcrest School. I remember the swimming pool.we used to go to the club [I suppose this is Yelwa Club] loads of with my parents and we ate pep [I have no idea what this is.] & chicken with all the other people. So many cool memories, still miss it.

8. William Gardner – 24^th July 2021

I came across this super blog. No idea if it’s still reviewed [It is.], my name is William Gardner, my parents, Jim and Ina. Just to say to say I have strong memories of my time at Shamrock School in Bukuru.

My parents were from Edinburgh, Scotland and my father worked in tin mining (ATMN) [Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria]. Previously served with the West African Forces during the Second World War.

He was in the British Royal Engineers and was in Kaduna and Maiduguri in 1943 before the brigade was sent to Burma until 1946. My father and mother then went to Jos in 1947. I was born there, lived in Sabin Gida (Bukuru), Harwell houses (near Rayfield) and a few other places nearby. I remember going to Shamrock School when I was 5 in 1962.

My teacher was Miss Emby, then Miss Thorogood, and my last teacher I can’t remember her name. Yes, I remember Yelwa Club, snooker, pool, Sunday curry lunch, theatre also used for Badminton. I was sent back to Scotland in 1967 and went to private school and came out to Jos twice a year.

Really loved in being on so many airplanes. I remember the leaders of ATMN and their kids. Great adventure. Mum and Dad retired in 1974.

The Childhood blogs

Nigeria: Gone is the Jos I knew

Childhood: My aunts saw red

Childhood: The fruits of a chicken napping dog

Childhood: Driving the languages of sacrifice

The masterpieces of memory

Even more memories of a child

More memories of a child

Rayfield, Jos - Memories of a child

More memories of a child

Of memories long ago

Over a year ago, I wrote a blog about my memories of childhood in Rayfield, Jos in the 1970s. I also talked about my primary school, Corona School, Shamrock House in Bukuru, in many ways, I did have a somewhat privileged early education and that would be the topic of blog in the not too distant future.

It was heartening to read a comment placed on that blog today by someone who had been to the same school at a time when Nigeria was changing again and how after a personal tragedy, he still remembers those times fondly and has given me such great pleasure reading about his experiences.

Some comments should not be hidden from view, but given a good airing when the human interest aspects are self-evident.

I have taken the liberty to edit the comments, but laid it out as a story told in the intent, voice and context of the writer, my comments are in parenthesis.

Armstrong’s memories

Greetings to you, Mr. Akin, [I get called that a lot when I prefer either to be addressed by my first name alone and if my name is to be prefixed with a title, then the name is Akintayo – Just me being pedantic as usual.]

It’s nice to know that you were also a student in Corona School, Jos, Plateau State.

I was very impressed in how you described your past memories and past experiences of our school and very happy to know that I am not the only one who recalls these wonderful events that had happened to our lives.

I said this because, I was there also, but you were there ahead of me. My time was during President Shagari’s tenure in the early 80s, but he was overthrown by a coup d’états led by Major General Babangida [In fact, it was General Muhammadu Buhari] and that’s when the military rule begun until we left Nigeria.

[There was a military rule when I was at that school too, then the Head of State was General Yakubu Gowon, I was at the school between 1972 and 1975, President Shagari’s tenure ran from 1979 to 1983.]

Of course who could forget that wonderful places? There was the Club House just nearby where Mohammed Isa and I used to hang out and watch the British, German, Dutch and some Filipinos like me, playing Snooker or Darts whilst they were drinking or holding a bottle of Rock.

And yes one of my favorite place was the swimming pool, just a walking distance away. I remember it well; Mohammed and I, together with other expatriate friends used to swim there once a month or if there was other free time.

And just a stone’s throw away, there was the multi-purpose theatre hall and guess what? When it was time for the annual festival of all nationalities in Jos, where we performed our folk dance and songs, I was one of the chosen dancers to represent my country, at first I felt weird and uneasy, but I did it just fine!

Actually, I was a break dancer then; my moves were, hand spin and back spin, but not anymore now.

I was also one of the varsity players for the basketball team, though I'm not that tall our head coach, a lady, in fact, saw my talent and skills and put me in as a centre forward. Of course we won.

Everyone was very happy in the school that day, they were shouting ARMSTRONG! ARMSTRONG!! Of course I was very happy and proud to bring glory to our school.

One event that I can't really forget was when our Headmistress accused me about something I did not do at all. She put it in writing and put it on record.

Yes, I have a school record not only as a student and varsity player, but also had a record of chasing girls.

Was it my fault for being popular and with good looks?

Actually she was very strict Mrs. Opara (British National), but she overlooked the situation and jumped into a one-sided conclusion, she didn’t even bother to ask me of what really happened.

Probably because one of them was her niece, anyway it was no big deal for me.

My father was an Engineer and he worked as a Maintenance Manager at Microwave Associates at 26 Bukuru bye-pass. Sad to say my parents died in Nigeria, they were victims in a car accident on the way to Kano Airport. [I am so sorry about this.]

Thanks for the opportunity of sharing my happy memories and sad moment on your site, I hope you like it and find it interesting.

[Amstrong, I liked it very much and despite all that happened, you seem to have become a fine gentleman with fond memories; such is life and wherever you find yourself, live it well.

Thank you very much for sharing your memories.]

Rayfield, Jos - Memories of a child

Maps of places once seen

I wrote about my mobile phone a few days ago and alluded to Microsoft Virtual Earth which I could access from my smartphone device.

So, I panned the maps down to Nigeria and began to zoom in on Jos which when I lived there as a kid was in the old Benue-Plateau State - gone are the days when we just had 12 states in Nigeria as opposed to the situation now where every homestead is almost a national entity, a state would not suffice.

I would not be surprised if Nigerians found a way of creating 200 states just to be about to cater for the quest for power and the opportunity to waste oil money on personal enrichment rather that the socio-economic development of the governmental areas.

Rayfield green fields

As I zoomed in on Jos, I saw all the name places of towns that brought memories of childhood flooding back. I did not see the suburb of Rayfield which was just beyond the old airport; most of the residential area there was taken up by chieftains of the Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria (ATMN) where my father worked as Deputy Chief Accountant.

The fields around Rayfield were quite idyllic; a golf course with the tee-off point in front of the club house on a hill, strangely, about 20 metres down from the tee-off point was a steep descent that ran into a main road which cut the fairway and greens off from clubhouse.

Now, I wonder how sometimes we rode the paths through the golf course without the fear of getting hit by wayward golf balls. My father however, never played golf, the bag and balls simply rotten away in the garage; he was more a tennis player, the game of people in their late twenties.

Riding into the barren clay (kaolin ) outback was always a pleasure, we rode our bikes until we got to some functioning mine plant where the miners give us some souvenir tin ore to take back home, once we came across a menacing group of men who must have been up to no good as they snarled and gnarled at 2 little boys who were just exploring the world around them - that was quite scary.

Even little Rayfield had its scandals, we, the kids, all hear of these things, a sudden pregnancy and the poor girl suddenly disappears, but I also remember getting stung by bees twice, my right ear lobe still has the strange indent created as a result of the sting.

Corona School, Bukuru

Beyond Rayfield, there was Bukuru where the company clubhouse was as well as my school, a land-rover ride each morning from the front of the office - two things I remember were a fierce and feared teacher, Mrs. Obole and the school menace, who lived not too far from us, the nursery school even had a nursery rhyme to his honour which went.

Simon Cox, is a fox, put him in a leather box.

Many a time, some kids would have loved to have him put in a leather box and the lid sealed like Davy Jones' locker; once he tied a boy with a leather belt to a post and had others pelt the poor lad with water bombs made to some Origami design.

At that time Yakubu Gowon was the Head of State and he frequently had President Eyadema visit from Togo, and since he was from a village near Langtang, each time we knew he was in town we were taken to the railway crossing just before entering Bukuru where we waved patriotically; flags of Nigeria, the children - black, white and coloured, the same enthusiasm; I probably was one of the very few kids not born in Nigeria in my class.

We were always acknowledged, sometimes with a slow down and an appreciative wave from the host and his guest.

When the bloody coup of the 13th of February 1976 took place, I was preparing for secondary school in the South of Nigeria, one of the chief instigators was Lt. Colonel Buka Suka Dimka ; I was in school with his son.

Other towns of interest

Vom was the home of the veterinary centre (National Veterinary Research Institute), I remember I had to write a rambling essay about our visit to the centre, I never liked writing essays or letters, I hope I have improved with age.

Move on to Barakin-Ladi and another club house where our parents might not have been aware of the emerging studies on parental guidance for children's entertainment.

I saw my first horror film in that club house, some nice parent had arranged this cinema event for all the kids of senior ATMN staff and we were made to watch this blood and gore film - a millstone and lake awaits that kind parent, we were definitely marked for life after that.

Other names of places though my memory fails me of important army schools, the home town of our gardener and the seething but quiet animosity between the Birom and the Angas - Gindiri, Pankshin, Shendam, Damshin and Lafia extending into the Tiv lands were once quite familiar.

One local musician did not endear himself with these words in the more generally spoken Hausa language.

Birom de Angas, ku deina sha giya mus.

Translating to the Biroms and Angas should desist from getting drunk on alcohol. Oh! what days of yore. The local tipple was called Burukutu - brewed from millet which was abundant in that area, other recipes use sorghum.