Dr Paul Murray (Bishops Archivist) reports:
On Thursday 04 April 2019 we received a visit from the two granddaughters of Dr Oscar John Soley ‘Solly’ Satchel who served on the Bishops Staff from the age of 60 for a further twenty-one years.  The scope of his duties at school reflected the broad range of interests and abilities of the person.  Not only was he a great teacher but also secretary of the Centenary and War Memorial Fund from 1938 – 1948.  He was Secretary of the Jagger Bequest from 1931 to 1952 which took him into his retirement.’ Solly came to SA from England as a soldier in the South African War.  He participated in some of the operations that took place in the Cederberg mountains, specifically on the Pakhuis Pass and the plains where Elizabethfontein is today.  After the war he remained in South Africa to become an inspector of schools and thereafter Headmaster of Kimberley Boys’ High in 1918.  He came from there to Bishops.  He was well-known for his specific dress … butterfly collar, ‘deep voice burr’ and for being a total humanist, teaching Latin and History. An OD Donald Brett Fraser who was taught by Solly recounts that teaching History was easy for him as he had lived through it.  At the tea on Thursday at Bishops, enjoyed by his two granddaughters Jean Lugar and Heather Sergeant, ODs who knew him as students, told a few interesting anecdotes about Solly and Jean and Heather filled in about their wonderful Grandfather.  Jeremy Lawrence recounted how he and some of the other boys used to take the train to Dr Satchel’s home in Plumstead, and as he was then very aged, used to go and read to him.  He died in October 1953 and his funeral was at Bishops.  Sadly, Jean told how their grandparents had lost their two sons.  It is probably a totally unheard of thing today for someone in the field of education to start their career as an Inspector of Schools; become a Headmaster; and then a teacher … that was Dr Solly Satchel!  Jean and Heather presented important biographical and other interesting Bishops archival material for which the Archives are most grateful. 
 
For further information or if you have stories to tell about Solly, please send them in to Paul Murray [email protected] so that we can collate them for the Archives.  If you have photographs and are happy to donate them, that would be greatly appreciated.