1926 - 1951 Mrs. Emilie Life

 

Cutting from the Daily Mirror, 1951No marble clock or engraved silver tray for the retiring headmistress. The “Mrs Chips” of Chenies Bucks will have a better token of her pupils love in her new home.

 

One hundred and sixty eight bricks each inscribed with the name of a child at the village school form part of the walls. Here, headmistress Mrs Emilie Life, surrounded by “her children” watches Valerie Watson lay her brick.

 

Mrs Life had been headmistress at Chenies for twenty-five years. And so reluctant was she to leave the village that the Duke of Bedford sold her a piece of land so that she could have a house built within sight of the school playground. It was the first private house to be built on the Duke’s land for over 100 years.After Valerie had laid her brick yesterday, the Rector the Rev. Trevor Jones conducted a dedication service and led the children in singing “Bless This House”