Mervyn A Pryer
Memoir, Cultural history
Mervyn Pryer (1919-2014) began teaching in 1939 at age 19. He taught in NSW Small Schools for 41 years.
Of all the small schools in which he taught, only one remains today. It is of an era passed about which he writes. A time when young teachers were sent to isolated villages consisting of few houses and a building freezing in winter and stifling in summer, to teach the local children. The ever-present loneliness and the need to keep the kids busy and learning.
Upon retirement he began to write his memoirs, beginning with a tribute to his Father. A life begun in poverty blossoming into an innate practical ability and a strong social conscience. A train driver who possessed uncanny bushman's skills. Mervyn admits he never knew where he was in the bush.
