Shortly after his eighth birthday in January 1905, DW was sent away to Boarding School. His parents chose Skelsmergh House School in Dalby Square, which opens onto the front of Cliftonville at Margate.
DW seems to have settled in well. The headmaster G.N.Hester taught geography, and his lessons were mostly about his own travels as a young man. DW was enthralled. Nevertheless he was a fussy eater (throughout his life he could not eat butter), and he hated ball games, so parts of school life cannot have been appealing.
DW was already reading adventure stores avidly, and he kept his friends amused by telling them stories of his devising after lights out.
He was a delicate child, and spent some of his time in staying in the headmaster's house along with a trio of other pupils. It was here that he apparently saw a ghost - click here for more details of this episode.
Unfortunately G.N. retired towards the end of DW's time, and was replaced by a much less popular headmaster. This was not to bother DW for long however - at the age of twelve it was time to move on to his senior school.
