Extracts from the Autobiography of Leicester Cecil Peregrine Scaife (1894 – 1980)

Introduction

In 1884 Arthur Hodgkin Scaife aged 29 married Edith Hilda Hanson aged 17 at Constantinople (now Istanbul.) Their eldest children were called Gillian Amy, Hilda Joan and John Andrew H. Scaife. Leicester Cecil Peregrine and his twin Arthur Martyn Peregrine were born on 18^th June 1894 in Victoria, British Columbia and given the shared name Peregrine meaning a wanderer, because their parents had lived in several countries. Christopher Henry Oldham was born in 1900. When their parents separated in 1904 the twins and Christopher lived with their father, the twins going to Epsom School and then boarding at Felsted School, Essex. Here after gaining his School Certificate, Leicester passed the Oxford and Cambridge Higher School Certificate in July 1911 aged 17 in Latin, Greek, Elementary Mathematics, Scripture Knowledge (Greek Text), and History. He had to leave Felsted in April 1912 owing to lack of funds.

In 1913 and 1914 Leicester was earning £60 per annum with board and lodging as an Assistant Master at Corchester Preparatory School, Corbridge, Northumberland. One of the other masters called Mason introduced him to the Bagnall family at 1 The Terrace, Riding Mill, where Mrs. Alice Bagnall, a widow lived with three unmarried daughters and a younger son Jack who was just finishing at Loretto, the Public School in Scotland. They all enjoyed tennis, songs around the piano and dances together.

Note: The autobiography has been edited by his daughter Pamela Slater with help from her husband, Frank, and her niece Jennifer A Burnett in 2015.  All rights reserved.