Ernest Leslie Jenner was one of Goldsmiths’ College’s first students between 1905 and 1907. During this time, he would buy postcards of photographs. These were taken by the College’s resident photographer Mr W.T. Wilkinson.
‘Leslie’ as he was known to friends and family would write messages home to his mother, Bessie, step-sister Annie, and her friend Bertha Cordin who lived with his family. He asked them to keep the postcards. This way, he had a record of his time as a student teacher. It documented what happened to him over the two years he was in New Cross.
He also kept Goldsmiths’ College postcards sent to him by his fellow students.
They would include pictures of him as captain of the College’s second soccer eleven team. There would be images of him helping to dig out the firing range at the back of the college playing field. There would even be an apparent postcard photograph of his ‘digs’—the room he rented from a local landlady.
Leslie Jenner went on to have a successful teaching career as a headmaster. Two of his daughters followed his path. They went to Goldsmiths during the 1930s and 1940s.
A special album of the postcard photographs was donated to Goldsmiths by these daughters. Barbara Martin (née Jenner) studied at Goldsmiths between 1940 and 1942. Eileen Gartrey (née Jenner) studied at Goldsmiths between 1934 and 1936.
The postcards album of Leslie Jenner at Goldsmiths’ College between 1905 and 1907. Image: Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
It would be dedicated by them ‘in happy memory of our father.’
This unique album of postcards has been preserved and catalogued in the university’s Special Collections and Archives.
Dedication of the Leslie Jenner’s postcard album by his daughters Barbara and Eileen. Image: Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
It is an invaluable photographic record of not only Leslie Jenner but also his fellow students. Some of these students would be casualties in the Great War of 1914-1918.
The Goldsmiths History Project presents this publicly for the first time. This event is part of the celebration marking 120 years of Goldsmiths as a university this academic year.
Leslie had posted the cards home. We present his handwritten fountain-pen ink messages. We endeavour to highlight the significance of his words about his life as a student at Goldsmiths during its first two years.
It would seem Leslie has annotated and captioned many of the postcard photographs himself.
Leslie’s father, Ephraim Jenner, was a tailor. His name and trade suggest Jewish heritage. However, the origin may also belong to the tradition in the Unitarian Church of late 18th and early 19th century England. At that time, it was common to christen children with names from the Old Testament.
When we look at the 1891 census return for their family home at 23 Wolseley Road, West Ashford in Kent, Ephraim is 42 years old, his wife Bessey is 37 and Ernest Leslie is 4 years old. Annie Eleanor Hunter, Ephraim’s stepdaughter and Leslie’s stepsister, is resident as a 17 year old pupil teacher.
Annie was Bessie’s daughter from a previous marriage. She would go on to be a major influence on Leslie’s future career. She influenced his interest and ambition to follow her in the teaching profession.
Some of the postcards he wrote from Goldsmiths were specifically addressed to her. By the time he was at Goldsmiths, Annie Hunter worked as an ‘Assistant Mistress’ teacher at the West Street Council Girls’ School in Ashford. She was appointed Head Mistress there between 1924 and 1931.
By the time Leslie was 14 years old in 1901, the Jenner household included his stepsister Annie. It also included her teaching colleague and actual head teacher, Bertha Corbin. Bertha was lodging in the family home called ‘Rothesay’, 31 Western Avenue in Ashford.
Bertha would remain at Rothesay as though she were part of the family. In 1911 at the age of 47 she was a ‘Certificated Head Mistress’.
Clearly, Bertha and Annie as professional teachers must have been the mentoring and inspiring influence on Leslie.
His postcards to them when he was at Goldsmiths suggest they offered constant guidance and advice. He was also enthusiastically briefing them on the teacher training he was receiving in New Cross.
Bertha received her teacher training at Swansea Training College. She taught at College Street Girls’ School in Swindon, Wiltshire between 1885 and 1889. Then, she was appointed Head Mistress at West Street Girls’ School in Ashford.
Annie would take over from her as Head Mistress when she retired in 1924.
Leslie’s Teachers’ Registration Council form confirms he passed his exams at Goldsmiths successfully. He received qualification with the award of the Board of Education Certificate. He carried out teaching practice while training at Goldsmiths’ College at Ashford British Boys’ School between 1905 and 1907.
He received financial support and sponsorship from Kent County Council. He was appointed to his first full-time Assistant Schoolmaster position at Lower Walmer Parish Mixed School. This was located near Deal in Kent, between 1907 and 1912.
He was appointed Head Master of the Great Stambridge Council School in Rochford, Essex in 1912 when he was 25 years old. He continued in this role until 1925. Then he was appointed Head Master of Thaxted Council Senior Mixed School in Essex.
This school eventually became Thaxted Primary School. The building and site where he was head teacher is now purposed for the 21st century education system.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Leslie was responsible for teaching 11 to 13 year-olds. These students were not going to Grammar or Secondary School. This was a time when the school leaving age was 13.
On 10th April 1912 at the Parish Church of Ashford, he married Nellie Phyllis Bent. Her father was described as ‘A Gentleman.’
Leslie was also a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society.
By the time of the June 1921 Census, Leslie and Nellie were living at the School House in Great Stambridge. Nellie was also a School Mistress at the same school. They were both employed by the Essex Education Committee.
The Great Stambridge Council School is now Stambridge Primary School and the building where they both taught still exists.
They had two children: Keith born in 1913 and Eileen born in 1916. Leslie’s mother-in-law Elizabeth Bent, then 72 years old, was living with them and helping with ‘house duties.’
Public records show they would have two more children. Barbara’s birth was registered in Rochford, Essex in 1922. Elsie’s birth was registered in Brentford in 1930.
In the 1921 Census, Leslie’s father Ephraim is 73 years old. He is still working as a tailor. He lives with Leslie’s stepsister, who is now 48. She is an ‘Elementary School Teacher’ employed by the Kent Education Committee at West Street Council Girls’ School in Ashford.
Her head teacher and friend Bertha Corbin is still living with them at 31 Western Avenue in Ashford.
As already mentioned, Annie Hunter was appointed Head Mistress there in 1924. She continued in the post until her retirement in 1934.
Leslie’s father Ephraim would pass away at the age of 90 in 1937.
The late September 1939 Register was taken a few weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. It shows Annie and Bertha still living in 31 Western Avenue.
They were both listed as retired schoolmistresses and were respectively 64 and 73 years old.
The public records show that Leslie Jenner died in Chanctonbury, Sussex in 1962 at the age of 76. His wife Nellie died on 1st January 1979 in Fairfield Hospital, Arlesey, Bedford. She was 91 years old.
All of the postcards Leslie’s collected and annotated have been reproduced here as they appear in the album.
The transcription of his postcard letters to his mother Bessie, stepsister Annie and her friend and head teacher Bertha builds a unique and charming narrative of how Leslie reported his experiences and progress as a student teacher at Goldsmiths’ College to his family.
On a few occasions he has kept postcards posted to him from Goldsmiths’ College by his friends.
It seems one of them was handwritten by Arthur Haslam Barlow and signed ‘AHB.’
Arthur was appointed a head teacher after qualifying from Goldsmiths. Tragically, he was killed in action during the First World War. This occurred in the same Gallipoli campaign that claimed the life of Goldsmiths’ first Warden- Captain William Loring.
Leslie’s album provides a comprehensive photographic portrait of the College, its students, lecturers and activities during the first two years.
A student friend sending a Goldsmiths’ postcard to Leslie does refer to the College photographer William Thompson Wilkinson by his first name on one occasion. This suggests they were all very well known to each other.
Mr Wilkinson was very happy to take personal commissions from individual students. In return, he sold the images as postcards. The students could then post these postcards to friends and family.
-o-
Leslie Jenner kept several general postcards of the front of Goldsmiths’ College. This rather gloomy picture may represent the site in wintry weather. It also reflects the rather poor quality of a worn postcard that had seen better days.
The postcard album is not chronological of the two years he was studying at Goldsmiths’ College. We presume he decided to compile the album later. However, the accuracy of his entries and annotation suggests it may have been only a few years afterwards.
Not all the postcards had been ‘posted’ as such with messages written on the other side.
Sometimes there is a contradiction between what he writes on the picture of the postcard and its annotation in the album. This may be the result of subsequently correcting original information from the original labelling.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
-o-
Leslie took great care to identify each of the first men staff teaching at Goldsmiths’ College when he began his training as a teacher in the autumn of 1905.
In the Edwardian style of addressing by surname they were back row to front row, left to right:
Bishop, Kay, Loring, Funstead and Gallworth; then: Fitzgerald, Lapworth, Raymont, John and Savory.
The Warden, William Loring is centre standing back row and his Deputy Principal for Men is Tommy Raymont sitting below him with the distinctive bushy black moustache.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
At the end of his first year he would write the postcard to his mother Mrs Bessie Jenner on 22nd July 1906:
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
To: Mrs Jenner, Rothesay, Western Avenue, Ashford, Kent. 10.15 am July 22nd 1906.
‘This is our staff.
I am getting a p.c. [postcard] of all the groups of the Coll. Girls & Fellows.
Heard from Mrs S this week.
Shall be glad when exams are over.
Weather lovely here.
Hope neuralgia is better.
I am going to Bellingham on Sat. & to Serpell on Sunday.
Shall be very glad now for a holiday.
Giving love to all at Rothesay. Yrs Les.
-o-
This is a postcard of the staff of Goldsmiths’ College ‘Training Department’. These individuals were teaching the teachers in 1907. It includes both men and women together. There was also an expanded cadre of lecturers towards the end of the first two-year teaching certificate course.
This image has not been annotated with staff names. However, in the middle seated row in the centre, we can identify Caroline Graveson, Vice Principal for Women. Warden William Loring and Tommy Raymont, Vice Principal for Men, are also identifiable.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
-o-
This image of the ‘Staff Common Room’ is also qualified by his pencilled note on the other side as the ‘Princs Room’
It is the only photograph surviving of the room the first staff used at Goldsmiths’ College. They utilized it as their ‘Common Room’ between 1905 and 1907.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Not all of Leslie’s postcard writing is legible.
It looks like he sent some postcards in letters as this one has not been separately posted with a stamp.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
He says: ‘This is the Princs [shortened from Principals?] room.
Tell M (?’M for Mother) the parcel arrived safely & thank her for it.
It is a very large one this week.
Still hard at work, but it will soon be holidays.
Love to all
Les.
Hope the grammar will be of [perhaps ‘prt’ for particular?] help to you.
-o-
This is one of the first postcards of Goldsmiths’ College Rugby Union 1st 15 players. It shows them taking part in matches during the season 1905 to 1906. The jersey horizontal colours are golden yellow stripes on dark blue.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie Jenner uses the language of men at the time to describe the Woman’s Common Room as the ‘Girls’ Common Room in the College main building. The first women students were anything but ‘girls’.
Most had been working as paid pupil teachers in elementary schools and were admitted into the College at the ages of 20, 21 or 22.
The tables of the Common Room are furnished with tablecloths, vases of flowers and carafes of water. The carpet and pictures give the impression of a homely living room.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The back of the postcard is timed as 8 p.m. and dated 16th April 1906- the spring term of his first year.
The short message is addressed to his mother Mrs Bessie Jenner at their family home Rothesay, Western Avenue in Ashford.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear M [for Mother],
I arrived safely on Saturday.
Caught train at Maidstone.
Found all well.
They all send their love.
Don’t work too hard this week and make yourself bad.
With much love,
Les.
-o-
The postcard of the Men’s Common Room is not labelled as the ‘Boys’ Common Room.’ The furnishings do appear somewhat gendered.
Less of the soft chairs, table cloths and flowers and more patronymic symbols- a raised dais with table and chair for control and authority at meetings requiring some degree of formality and control, and at least one picture of men playing sports on the wall.
It is understood there was a snooker or billiards table in the corner to the right.
By the 1950s the students shared one ‘Joint Common Room.’ The men and women students could play billiards against each other.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie has written a note on the back of this posted postcard. The note is addressed to the head teacher in the family household, Miss Bertha Corbin. It makes reference to some organisational matter.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘So write to the adjutant at once whether we will go or or not, so please write back by return post.
Dear Miss C,
Please excuse this being written on this p.c. It is one of our Common rooms at Coll.
Love to all,
Les.’
-o-
This postcard captures a scene which Leslie Jenner witnessed himself on 29th September 1905. It marks the opening of Goldsmiths’ College and its beginning as a university.
Here is the Great Hall adorned with ferns and palms. The organ as it was built for the Goldsmiths’ Institute in 1891 with its impressive array of pipes all visible.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The postcard above was sent to his mother at the end of his first year at Goldsmiths and was posted at 12.15 am on 1st July 1906.
He was clearly taking part in an athletic sports event.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear M.
Shall be home Thursday tomorrow.
Might be about 7.26.
I think we get the last hour off tomorrow to run the heats of the races.
If so, I can try to catch an earlier train from L [London] Bridge. If not I shall catch the 5.50 from L. B. [London Bridge station]
Love Les.
-o-
Leslie Jenner had an interest in Group IV of the men students and who constituted their own inter-College soccer team. In this postcard he annotates all the players with their surnames and identified the three members of staff appearing to manage the team.
Perhaps these are the staff allocated to Group IV as tutors.
Leslie’s fellow students left to right from standing to seated and then the captain with the ball cross-legged on the ground are:
Canning [Francis William], Pargeter, Jenkins, Dixon, Davies, Tyler.
Watkins, Walters, E Fitzgerald, Dr Lapworth, I.B.John Eng M.A., Pearce, Thomas
and Pearce (Capt) [cross-legged on the ground with the football].
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
On the back of the postcard, Leslie provided insights into ‘Group IV’ and the lecturers in charge of it.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘This is an old photo taken last term. It is obvious that Fitz is the tutor on the left. Canning is in the back row. The other tutors are Dr. Lapworth (Science) in the middle and Ivor John on the right.
Eight out of these are Welshmen, the one on the bottom left hand corner being the one who went home with appendicitis.’
-o-
These are the first women lecturers at Goldsmiths’ College with Vice Principal Caroline Graveson seated at the centre position, third from the left and right.
This was sent from New Cross at 12.15 a.m. on 25th June 1906 by Leslie to his older stepsister Annie Hunter who was then presently teaching at a local girls’ school.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie must have thought she would have been interested in seeing the women lecturers working at Goldsmiths.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
He wrote briefly:
‘Dear A. [Annie]
Thank M. [Mother] for parcel and F. [Father] for suit.We lost at cricket today.
Will send Miss C. [Bertha Cardin- the Headmistress of Annie’s school who lodged with the family] a card in the week.
Love to all,
Les.
-o-
This is a delightful and characterful group photograph of Goldsmiths’ College men students in the academic year 1906 to 1907. It showcases the ability of the resident photographer, Mr William Thompson Wilkinson. He captured the group humour of the student population.
This has been taken in and around the sports pavilion inherited from the Goldsmiths’ Institute.
This was used as a changing room for the sports played on the back-field [now known as the College Green]
The Sports Pavilion was located in the South-West corner. It would be destroyed by a V1 doodlebug rocket explosion in June 1944.
The eye is drawn to the wag with pipe putting his head where the Pavilion’s clock should be.
The dynamic nature of this photograph is represented by the great range of cheeky expressions. There is playful interaction between students. The image shows a mixture of those smoking cigarettes and others puffing on pipes.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This card was addressed to Leslie’s mother to give her an amusing picture of her son’s life at Goldsmiths.
It was posted 12.15 p.m.on Saturday 27th May 1907. Leslie is nearing the end of his two-year course at Goldsmiths and preparing for his final examinations.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie writes:
Dear M [Mother]
Thanks for letter and paper received. Am sure I shall like chain. [This is likely to refer to a gold chain his mother has probably bought him for his pocket watch. They were known as ‘Albert chains.’ More men wore pocket watches with chains than wrist watches with straps at this time. If you zoom in on some of the waistcoats being worn, it is possible to spot the fashion for chains. This makes sense when it becomes clear the theme of the postcard message and image on the other side relates to clocks.]
What price our new clock? He is a funny chap and no mistake.
You might give this p.c. [postcard] to A [Annie] or Miss C [Berthe Corbin].
I shall send another later of the ‘straight’ one. [This refers to the practice of Mr Wilkinson to encourage the students he photographed to show themselves ‘formally’ for one photograph and then have some fun with an informal one as an option.]
Love to all,
Les.
-o-
Leslie Jenner’s postcard album includes this evocative photograph of Goldsmiths’ College’s Water Polo team for the academic year 1906 to 1907. This provides a close-up at the architectural features of the Art Nouveau style swimming pool built for the Goldsmiths Technical and Recreative Institute operating between 1891 and 1904.
The wooden building had a gallery running round the pool with large windows allowing light to stream inside. The current site is occupied by a building extension for drama, performance and music classes.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Another postcard extolling the virtues and successes of Warden William Loring’s encouraging policy for sports.
This is an annotated photograph of Goldsmiths’ College providing a ‘Surrey Soccer Team who were champions of the Inter County League in 1906.
The Warden, William Loring is proudly sitting around the middle of the seated row. He is the only person in a suit.
Leslie Jenner lists the names the students as left to right standing and sitting: T Bateman, G. Steventon, A.C. Thompson, A Barlow (who would die in the Great War Gallipoli operation with the Warden in 1915), and T.S. Williams.
L.C. Johnson, F.W. Canning (winner of the first Warden’s Cup), A Morris, W Loring esq MA (Warden) M Waters, J Stephen.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
On the other side of this postcard, Leslie Jenner writes this team were champions of the Inter-County and Goldsmiths’ College leagues. He also adds: ‘This I think you have seen before.’
-o-
This is a rather proud picture of Goldsmiths’ College men students voluntarily digging out the ground in the far corner of the backfield for the firing range in the spring of 1906.
The present site is where the Surrey and Kent boundary marker is and the end of the hard tennis courts on the North West side of the Professor Stuart Hall Building
It is without doubt strenuous work. See the abandoned suit jackets on the grass.
Leslie himself has been identified by his daughters as ‘Dad’ with the white arrow pointing down to the young man sixth standing from the left and holding a spade in his right hand.
He looks puffed and is wearing a cloth cap.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
He wrote to his mother on the back of this postcard timed at 8 p.m. and dated 2nd May 1906 ‘Can you find me?’
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear M. [Mother]
Hope you are keeping well.
Here we are at work on our rifle range. Can you find me?
We had a music exam today. Group 3 go to Caterham with the Geog. tutor on Saturday.
Love to all,
Les.’
-o-
This picture postcard of the Goldsmiths’ College swimming pool is one of the best images of a facility and charming building which no longer exists. During the Second World War it was converted for use as a large-scale public mortuary.
Yet, a fire would destroy it and it would never be rebuilt.
This photograph provides a clear view of the wooden gallery above the changing cubicles on the sides. It also shows how the large windows cast light upon the surface of the pool. This includes the round flower petal design at the front onto Dixon Road.
This photograph was likely taken by William Thompson Wilkinson. It was during the first academic year of Goldsmiths as a university in 1905-06.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Cricket was Leslie Jenner’s favourite sport and his postcard writing indicates he was a member of the College’s first Cricket Eleven.
This picture postcard has been sent to Leslie most likely at the end of July 1907 from a fellow student whose signature is an indecipherable letter and therefore cannot be clearly identified.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The postcard below was posted from Erith in Kent to ‘Mr E. L. Jenner’ at ‘Grove House, Liverpool Road, Lower Walmer, Kent’ where Leslie had started in his first full appointment as an assistant schoolmaster at the Lower Walmer Parish Mixed School on the Kent coast near Deal.
He would teach and make his life here for five years.
The school no longer exists, and primary education in the village is now provided by the Downs Church of England School in Owen Square, Walmer.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie’s friend writes mainly about the outcome of a cricket match between the ‘Present’ first XI and ‘Past’ first XI Goldsmiths’ College cricket teams:
Dear Les, [correspondent writes upside down above this ‘kind regards to Miss! (forget name)’ – perhaps a reference to Leslie’s then girlfriend.]
I expect you think it about time I answered your letter. So do I. I will next week accept this card as aforementioned. I am arranging my holidays and I want if possible, to be at Walmer when you are.
We break up on July 10th. Let me have a card this week can you? To let me know when you break up.
This photo was taken after the ‘Present’ had made us field first to the tune of 140 odd for 5 or 6 wickets. I had been bowling and [unclear- ‘sweating like a bull leave’] my lazy don’t “careadamn” look. We made 60 odd.
[unclear ‘Please’] like we played 4 of last years’ 1st XI and only had 10 men. More details by letter or person. I couldn’t get the photo you required. William [reference to William Thompson Wilkinson, Goldsmiths’ resident photographer] ‘ran out’ of them.
Ripping day at Crystal Palace yesterday. Kind regards [initial for signature and not identifiable.]
-o-
This postcard is labelled ‘Group III’ and clearly has Leslie Jenner in it as the fifth man from the left in the second standing row. He has the hand of a fellow student on his shoulder who is wearing a flat cloth cap.
Notice the fashion for ‘Albert’ gold pocket watch chains on the waistcoats.
They look like they are standing at the entrance to the sports pavilion which would also appear to be a popular location for group photographs.
Ernest Leslie Jenner is the young gentleman standing in the second row, second from the right, wearing suit, Eton collar and tie with the appearance of a top pocket handkerchief. Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie sent this photograph from New Cross 12.15 p.m. on 30th October 1905, soon after he had started his studies.
He must have thought his mother would have appreciated seeing a picture of her son with the fellow students he was getting acquainted with.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
There are many references by Leslie to his mother’s state of health and this indicates he would be continually concerned about it while studying in London.
‘Dear Mother,
I had a good time at [‘N. or A. B.’ It is unclear what these letters represent but in the context of other postcards they might refer to a family holiday location in the Gillingham- north east Kent coastal area.]
Reached New Cross about 9.30. What do you think of this group!
Hope you are better. You did not say in your letter.
Love to all,
Leslie.’
-o-
This is a very good postcard photograph of Goldsmiths’ College first Rugby Union XV in the academic year 1905 to 1906. The Warden, William Loring, and Deputy Principal for men, Thomas Raymont, are sitting in the centre of the second row.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie Jenner writes this postcard to his stepsister Annie Hunter which is posted at 7 p.m. on 12th December 1905 at the end of the first term.
He reports outstanding results in the first matches.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘This is our rugby team. In the middle is the Prin: [Leslie’s name for the Warden] On his right the V.P. and on his left Ivor John the Eng. tutor.
Up to the present they won all 5 matches, having gained 114 pts and lost 12 pts.’
-o-
A more dynamic photograph of the men students digging out the ground in the building of the firing range.
This postcard sent home to Ashford has Leslie Jenner actually digging fifth from the left in front of the student wielding what looks like a pickaxe.
Even though it is a warm spring day most of the young men are still doing this heavy work in their waistcoats.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The postcard message is sent to the resident headmistress in the Jenner household in Ashford, Miss Bertha Cordin in May 1906.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie Jenner writes:
Dear Miss C.
What price this for hard work! Barlow is the left hand man on the bank. [Arthur Haslam Barlow is one of Leslie’s student friends] I am bending down 5th from left below bank.
Yrs
Les.
The College Firing Range would formally open in May 1907 with the staff trying it out with a little shooting competition between them. The Goldsmithian reported:
‘The Miniature Rifle Range at the College was opened on May 23d at 2.15 p.m. Previous to the first shots being fired a large number of students had assembled in the vicinity of the range.
The Warden having arrived, and a cocoa-nut-coir-fibre-mat, having been requisitioned from the gymnasium to make prone shooting comfortable. Mr. Loring opened the range by firing three rounds. He was followed by other members of the staff. The following were the chief results:- W. Loring, Esq., eight points of a possible twelve; Mssrs. Bishop, 9; Fitzgerald, 10; Bell, 9; Young, 7, and Sergt. Seager. 9. The recorded scores do not do justice to those who fired, as both the rifle and range had not been used before.’
-o-
Leslie Jenner’s daughters made sure there were two photographic postcards of their ‘Dad’ captaining the Goldsmiths’ College second soccer XI team for 1905 to 1907.
Here he is sitting down centre on the second row with his arms crossed and Barbara and Eileen have emphatically put a biro cross above ‘Dad’s’ head. The Goldsmiths’ soccer strip is vertical stripes of golden yellow and dark blue.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The next postcard was most likely sent to Leslie by his friend Arthur Haslam Barlow as it is signed with the initials ‘AHB’ and refers to travelling to Nottinghamshire from where he hailed.
It is a poignant document because it represents the only surviving writing of one of Goldsmiths’ casualties of the Great War of 1914 to 1918.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This is a well-thumbed and creased postcard photograph of Goldsmiths’ Warden William Loring and Vice Principal for Men Thomas Raymont and one or two more staff along with the first men students in the academic year 1905-06.
It was sent to Leslie Jenner during the Christmas and New Year vacation 1905 to 1906 from Chesterfield at 7.15 p.m. on 30th December 1905.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Arthur Barlow is clearly something of a wag. He’s addressed his friend as ‘E. L. Jenner Esq. M.D.’ A doctor of medicine he certainly was not. Perhaps the joke refers to Leslie’s talent at first aid on the sporting field.
He’s also described ‘Rothesay’, Western Avenue as ‘Wheredidyousay’, and then started his correspondence with ‘Dear Sir (or Madam).’
There’s upside down writing below this- similar to upside down writing in the other postcard Leslie received from a fellow student whose initials were not legible.
Was that also written by Arthur Barlow? It cannot be said for certain that the handwriting is similar.
Upside down young Mr Barlow says: ‘P.S. It is untrue that I sent more than one P.C. a day to Sel. [It could be surmised that ‘Sel.’ means self.]
And then diagonal to the main postcard writing there is another ‘P.S. In reply to your other remarks. So have we. “No.” Can’t fancy that this is Thursday. Yours A.H.B.’
After ‘Dear Sir (or Madam), Arthur Barlow says:
Next time you presume to address me, kindly refrain from using my title, as I am travelling “incog” this journey. I also beg to inform you that I am nothing as vulgar as “swot”. Wouldn’t lower myself to do it. (Change of Key).
Have need one P.C. from Sel….. [Again his use of ‘Sel’ may well mean ‘self’ and he is making fun perhaps of his reputation for sending Goldsmiths’ College postcards to fellow students as well as himself.]
Am going to Notts next week to a dance. I shall prob stop for a week or so.
Have not heard from [This is not clear. There are four letters with an apparent apostrophe- ‘I’son’? Presumably a diminutive name for a mutual student friend.]
-o-
This is a better and clearer postcard photograph of Leslie Jenner’s Goldsmiths’ College 2nd XI soccer team, and the context and significance of the previous postcard message becomes apparent.
Leslie has annotated the player line-up:
Thomas, Eastmead, Heal
Kemp, Muncaster (Vice Capt), Jenner (Capt), Gordon, James
Bateman, Barlow, Benson
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie’s friend Arthur Haslam Barlow is sitting below him, cross-legged and holding the soccer ball.
The Goldsmithian for November 1906 reported:
‘The second XI have accomplished some good performances, defeating the Reserves of Borough Polytechnic, and drawing with Trojans Reserves. May they go on improving!’
It is March 12th 1907 and Leslie’s postcard message is full of concern for people at home getting a cold.
If you could forgive the pun colds in the Edwardian period were not to be sneezed at.
There were no antibiotics available back then. Homes rarely had central heating. Colds could easily deteriorate into something more serious.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear M,
Hope by this time your cold is better. This is our second team.
I have not got one of the first yet. The caps do not come this term.
Hope Annie’s cold has disappeared.
Love to all,
Les.’
-o-
Leslie Jenner’s favourite sport was cricket. And that was the sport he was best at.
He played for Goldsmiths’ cricketing first team.
He appears in this slightly over-exposed photograph made into a postcard and proudly annotated with the surnames of all the players.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie has written the names in blue fountain pen ink starting with Honorary Secretary (the man in the suit standing at the back) Evans (Hon Sec)
Back row standing: Clee, Godber, Collyer, Jenner, Seagar, Thompson, Thomas.
Front row sitting: J Curzon, Canning (Capt), Stevens, and Dr. White (a staff lecturer and teacher of music).
-o-
This is a close-up of Leslie Jenner in his ‘whites’ for the Goldsmiths’ College cricketing first XI in 1905 to 1907.
Unfortunately none of the early Goldsmithian magazines for 1906 and 1907 carry any reports on the performances of Goldsmiths’ cricketing teams.
There is a reference by Leslie’s friend Arthur Barlow. It is in a postcard and mentions the ‘Past’ Cricket XI playing the ‘Present’ Cricket XI. This was a tradition in all the sports. Senior students leaving at the end of two years, known as the ‘Past’, would play those students now in the ‘Present’ team. This included the 1st XV in rugby, 1st XI in soccer, cricket, and hockey.
-o-
It is not clear if Leslie Jenner is mocking the enthusiastic College’s first OTC (Officer Training Cadet) force. He does look rather like the cadet in the first row at the far right end holding a rifle and looking at the camera.
This photograph was taken in the first year on the College quadrangle, which at that time was open to the backfield. This is a rather dramatic picture of ‘drill’ and with actual rifles.
Leslie writes on the postcard: ‘The Runaway Mounted Foot (Not on 1/1 [one old shilling and a penny] per day).
Despite extensive searching of the public records, there do not appear to be any references to Leslie doing military service during the Great War of 1914-18. This is unlike many of his contemporaries.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This is posted 11.30 a.m. on 26th August 1907 to his stepsister Annie Hunter who is presumably holidaying while staying at 61 Carlton Road, Lowestoft in Suffolk.
The postcard carries important news about the outcome of his ‘Finals’ at Goldsmiths’ College.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
It was first written on a Sunday.
‘Dear Annie,
You will be pleased to know that I have passed all my college exams and passed with merit in Practical Teaching, Compulsory and Optional Drawing.
Have also passed in French in which I thought I had a distinction.
The Coll. list comes out in October.
M.N. [possible reference to domestic servant hired at home] is a good worker mother says.
Ted returned to town yesterday. I had tea there last night. Kate is at home for a little time. Hope you all like L. Went to C. today.
M. [Mother] remains at home. Mr Bealis’ son preaches.
Love to all.
Mon. morn. Had your p.c. [standing for postcard]. M. [Mother] feeling very tired.’
-o-
Another picture of one of the group football association teams formed during the first two academic years. This created a hotly contested Goldsmiths’ College soccer league. The players and staff, including the Warden, are in Group II.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
On the other side, Leslie writes to his mother Mrs Jenner in a very bright red fountain pen ink. She is staying at ‘Harrodale’, 107 Rock Avenue in Gillingham.
This might have been a popular holidaying place for the family.
‘Harrodale’ was a building divided into rented apartments. The postcard is posted from Brockley at 9 p.m. on 5th July 1906.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie writes:
Dear M.
Hope you are having a fine holiday and feeling better for the change and rest. Have got History and Drawing exams over.
Think I’ve got through them.
Will write you later about coming to [H/A?].B.
Love to all and yourself,
Les.’
-o-
The first 103 men students enrolled for the academic year 1905 to 1906 with the men teaching staff at the front. Leslie Jenner, of course, is somewhere in this panoramic group photograph taken by the resident College photographer William Thompson Wilkinson.
This likely occurred towards the end of the first year. It includes staff recruited during the year and not at the start.
All the men staff with degrees are wearing academic dress. The Warden, William Loring, is standing just behind the Deputy-Principal for men Thomas Raymont.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This postcard was sent home to his stepsister Miss Annie Hunter at 12.15 p.m. on 31st May 1906 just before the College’s first annual sports day.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie writes:
‘Dear Annie,
It is not much of a day for sports, but looks like clearing.
Wish some of you could come up.
Tonight a concert is to be held for an hour in the Great Hall.
Hope C wins the cup. [This is likely to be a reference to F. W. Canning, a friend of Leslie’s who did win the staff/Warden’s cup].
The Princ [Leslie’s reference to the Warden William Loring] is standing up in middle of photo.
Will you please get me my birth certificate as it needs to be seen for Superannuation.
Love to all,
Les.
-o-
This is a postcard photograph of the first annual sports day at Goldsmiths’ College in June 1906.
This shows the main building when the quadrangle was open to the back field. It was before the construction of the Blomfield block for the Arts School. This construction would be completed in 1908.
Leslie Jenner writes on the front ‘Throwing the cricket ball’ which was one of the heats for students competing for the staff/Warden’s Cup. The sports pavilion with its familiar clock face in the middle of its roof is towards the right.
The old Royal Naval School chapel clock tower was built in 1851. In 1906, it was used as a lecture and performance room. It is towards the left.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
In the postcard, Leslie writes to his mother to explain his commitment to perform for the College’s second XI soccer team.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear M,
I am not going to [‘A/N B’- we presume this is a holiday location for the family] this week as I had already promised to play football on Saturday against Westminster Coll. and also a game on Monday.
So I must go down another time. I hope you are feeling much better and that Annie’s cold is better. Also that F’s [for father] back is better.
Please put this p.c. [postcard] with the collection. It is one taken on Sports day.
Love Les.
-o-
This is a photographic portrait of the first Rugby Union XV for Goldsmiths’ College in the season 1906 to 1907- the second year of Leslie Jenner’s University of London teacher training course.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
By the spring of 1907, Goldsmiths’ College had started opening hostels for students. The first beneficiaries were the ‘Juniors’ enrolling in the academic year 1906 to 1907.
The first hostel for 34 women students was provided by Kent County Council in Granville Park, Lewisham. It opened in January 1907. Surrey Hostel for 44 women students was opened in April.
This is the dining room of the Surrey Hostel. The hostel still provides accommodation for Goldsmiths’ students to the present day. It operates from the expanded building on the corner of Lewisham Way and Shardeloes Road.
It was so named because it was funded by Surrey County Council. The Council was providing scholarships and grants for trainee teachers.
How the students of today would appreciate a near ‘silver service’ of breakfast, lunch and dinner at tables covered in white tablecloths and adorned with potted plants?
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
-o-
This is a very rare photograph of student digs from 1905 to 1907. It shows one room complete with commodes and wash basins. There is also a study desk and a trunk for clothes and other personal belongings. There’s a long mirror to make sure the Eton Collar and tie have been fitted correctly.
This was likely taken by the college photographer William Thompson Wilkinson. It could have been a special commission for Leslie Jenner. Alternatively, it might have been a generic picture of a student room at Surrey House. This way, the women students there could buy them. They could send them home to their families and friends.
The hostels were opened after the first two generations of Goldsmiths students had to find their own rented accommodation in the New Cross, Deptford and Brockley areas in the autumns of 1905 and 1906.
The first College staff, in particular, the Vice Principal for Women, Caroline Graveson, said she had to vet local landladies carefully to make sure the accommodation was ‘suitable.’
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This postcard was not posted. It was written for his stepsister, Annie Hunter. It was most likely included in an envelope with a letter to Leslie’s mother in September 1905.
It is sent to 112 High Street, Lymington, Hants- a likely holidaying location for the family perhaps.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
In pencil Leslie writes:
‘I have secured some decent lodgings at New Cross.
I have a bedroom to myself. I did not hear from H.E. (possible initials for a friend) so went on my own.
The rent is 14/6 [presumably weekly at 14 shillings and 6 old pence- 75 pence in current currency. The Bank of England inflation calculator says this would be the equivalent of £79.31 pence in September 2025].
There are two other students each staying in one bedroom.
We live with the family. She is a nice landlady.
Love, Les.
-o-
This is a postcard of Group IV of the men students, again in front of the Sports pavilion. All are wearing suits, collars and ties; only one with a flat cloth cap, and two are smoking pipes.
The smartly attired young gentleman on the far right is proudly displaying his gold Arthur watch chain. He also has a pocket-watch on his waistcoat. A carnation style boutonnière or buttonhole flower is in the lapel of his suit jacket.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie’s card to his stepsister Annie Hunter, posted 9.30 a.m. on 7th November 1906, then now working as a teacher in a school in Ashford, gives news of his teaching practice. It was part of the vocational side of the College’s teaching course.
The students would be assessed by the schools they would be allocated to and observed and mentored by qualified and senior teachers.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
‘Dear Annie,
Have got 1st day of school over.
Had to give a science lesson this morning. This is a very fine school and has a nice head.
I am in with Sld. IJ. [not clear what these acronyms or letters represent. They may be the initials of fellow students doing practice in the same school] About 62 boys.
The teacher is alright too.
This group [referring to postcard photograph] is 4. Suppose you recognise some of them. [An indication Annie Hunter has been visiting Leslie at College and met his fellow students]
Love to all,
Les.
-o-
There is every suggestion that Leslie Jenner was a good friend of both of the men in this postcard photograph.
They played sports together and previous postcard messages mentioned Leslie’s hope that Francis William Canning would win the staff/Warden’s cup at Goldsmiths’ first sports day in June 1906.
It seems Edwin Walter Waghorn with two towels over his shoulder may have been Mr Canning’s trainer given his inclusion in the triumphant image of him holding the cup as that year’s winner.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Francis William Canning taught at Camden Road School, Carshalton for 12 years between 1907 and 1919. There was an interruption of service during World War One. During this time, he served as a sergeant mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps and RAF.
He became headmaster at Cheam Boys’ School in Cheam. Then he led London Road Boys’ School in Mitcham. Afterwards, he took charge of Western Road Central Boys’ School in Mitcham from 1928.
Edwin Walter Waghorn would teach at schools in Maidstone, Hammersmith, Epsom and Tottenham.
He served as a second lieutenant in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment during the First World War.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The above photograph was published in the Goldsmithian magazine for November 1906 and celebrated Mr Canning’s success. He competed for the cup again during the Sports day for 1907 and came second.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This is the message on the back of the Canning and Waghorn card posted to his mother Mrs Bessie Jenner from Brockley at 12.15 a.m. on 9th July 1906.
‘Dr. M.,
I suppose A. (Annie Hunter) and you could not come up next Friday to see the Coll. [College]
You could get here about dinner time and could catch the 6.2 down again to A/H. B.[possible initials for holidaying location]
I will have returned to Ashford when I begin next term. Let me know in the week.
Saw the balloon race today.
Love to all,
Les.’
The balloon race Leslie was referring to was most likely the first Aero Club race held from the Ranelagh Club in Barnes, West London, on July 7, 1906. This was a perimeter race for a fifty-guinea cup with seven balloons participating. The winner was the balloon that descended nearest to the village of Ingatestone near Chelmsford.
-o-
This is a picture postcard of the first generation of women students joining Goldsmiths’ College as a university in the autumn of 1905 and continuing to qualification as teachers at the end of the summer term in 1907.
The Warden, William Loring, can be seen standing far left on the top row. A few other men lectures flank on the other side.
The front seated row appears to include all the women lecturers and staff.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
This is the Goldsmiths’ College gymnasium, inherited from the Goldsmiths’ Technical and Recreative Institute (1891 to 1904) and including all the equipment.
It is the site of the current refectory of the main building behind the Great Hall.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Leslie Jenner has clearly asked Goldsmiths’ photographer W. T. Wilkinson to take this picture and turn it into a postcard for this family.
As with sports, drama became an enthusiastically followed extra-curricular activity at Goldsmiths.
The cover illustration of Convict 99 published in 1898. Image: Goldsmiths History Project.
Leslie has dressed up as a rather unconvincing police officer. Somewhat incongruously, he is holding a rifle while standing to attention. He’s labelled this apparently “Convict 99 ) Goldsmiths’”
It is not clear whether he means “( onvict 99 ) Goldsmiths’”
There is a possibility that his dressing up might have something to do with a dramatisation by staff and students from the book Convict 99- the title of a popular melodramatic novel written jointly by Marie Connor Leighton and Robert Leighton and published in 1898.
The illustration on the cover of this bestseller became somewhat iconic and it may have been a running joke in the family that Leslie did in fact have a remarkable resemblance to the character depicted in the book.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The last postcard in Leslie Jenner’s collection is a photograph of Goldsmiths when it was the Technical and Recreative Institute funded philanthropically by the Goldsmiths’ Company in the City of London.
Image: Leslie Jenner postcard album. Special Collections and Archives, Goldsmiths, University of London.
-o-
Leslie Jenner’s postcard album represents a unique archive of the world of one of Goldsmiths’ first university students.
His collection of postcards also provides an insight into the family life of a student from this time. Leslie was undoubtedly inspired and encouraged by his older stepsister Annie Hunter, who was working as as schoolmistress in Ashford at the time and her close friend Bertha Corbin who was Annie’s head teacher in the same school.
In his postcard letters he reveals friendships with students who would have to take part in the First World War in uniform. His very good friend Arthur Barlow would not come back.
Leslie Jenner would have a long and successful career in the teaching profession becoming headmaster and after retirement passing away at the age of 76 in 1962.
It was a thriving family of teachers.
Leslie’s education at Goldsmiths was so successful and fulfilling, two of this daughters would train to be teachers there in the 1930s and 1940s.
We have every reason to be grateful that they would generously preserve and donate his album and all the fascinating dimensions of the university’s early history to Goldsmiths Special Collections and Archives.
-o-
This posting mirrors the original posting for the Goldsmiths History Project ‘Ernest Leslie Jenner- one of Goldsmiths’ first students 1905-1907 and the album of his postcards’
Many thanks to Hannah Stageman, Head of Special Collections and Archives, and the library staff at Goldsmiths, University of London and the following Goldsmiths alumni Pat Loughrey, Ian Pleace, Dr Alexander Du Toit, and Lesley Ruthven.
-o-
The Goldsmiths History Project contributes to the research and writing of the forthcoming volumes in the Goldsmiths’ History series by Professor Tim Crook.
The project is dedicated to being Open Source which means free access for reading and appreciation.
Kultura Press will be publishing in book form a series of volumes preserving the research and writing called The Goldsmiths History Series. These will be a printed format of the online work for future book reading and library research.
The planned volumes are:
The origins and beginning of Goldsmiths University of London 1792 to 1914
The First World War and Goldsmiths University of London 1914 to 1919
The Nineteen Twenties and Thirties at Goldsmiths University of London 1920 to 1939
The Second World War and Goldsmiths University of London 1939 to 1946
V2 on the New Cross Road 25th November 1944
Post War Goldsmiths University of London 1947 to 1959
The Sixties at Goldsmiths University of London 1960 to 1969
Late Twentieth Century at Goldsmiths University of London 1970 to 1999
Early Twenty First Century Goldsmiths University of London 2000 to 2030
Other volumes commissioned are:
That’s So Goldsmiths
One Thousand Short History Stories and Pictures of Goldsmiths University of London