Friends
Diana Creese
On behalf of the Dance family
My husband has said how much we both owe to Eric's bringing him to Calday Grange Grammar School in 1954, but my own family connection goes back to the previous year. My brother, John Dance, was in the fifth year at the school when the new headmaster arrived, some time in the summer term of 1953. I remember my parents were "very impressed" by their first meeting with the new arrival.
What was so amazing and so touching was that some eight weeks later, when my father died suddenly after an operation, my mother received a personal handwritten letter from Eric. He'd read the announcement in the local paper, and expressed his sympathy and concern in such a genuine and helpful way that my mother kept the letter, and I have it still. Eric had probably only been in school five or six weeks before the summer holidays began, hardly time to get to know the boys, and yet he had, typically, 'done his homework' and responded immediately to our tragic loss.
One highlight of John's school years was when Eric proposed him as the local young ambassador for the Rotarians. He went to Denmark as the guest of the Copenhagen Rotary Club and was given a great welcome, fine hospitality and sightseeing trips. There followed several slide lectures in Hoylake and West Kirby - my brother was already a keen and able amateur photographer. It was a wonderful opportunity for a sixth-former - thanks to Eric.
Were my brother still alive, he would, I know, wish to contribute a few words to this memorial to Eric, whom he admired and respected greatly. John's work took him abroad for most of his life and he lost touch with the old school, but in recent years, whenever I met up with Eric and Ellen, they both always remembered to ask after my brother and took a real interest in where he was and what he was doing. There was often reference made to the time "when your brother helped run the school office for me" while the secretary was off sick! Eric was always so thoughtful of others - we treasure our memories.