Indomitable

The personal reminiscences of an energetic and adventurous man across three continents, in peacetime and in war. After attending boarding schools in England, Bernard "Bunny" Inge worked as a teenage laborer on a farm in Canada, taking up "the family profession" (teaching) on his return to the UK.  After teaching at four different schools in England and Scotland and attending a Boy Scout Jamboree in Hungary, he landed a position as Headmaster at St. Giles British School in Tsingtao, China.  Traveling out there on the Trans-Siberian Railway, he managed the school with great success for six years under very stressful circumstances; the Japanese invaded and occupied Tsingtao the year after he arrived.

He wasn't able to leave until 1941, and his voyage home round the world on a freighter in wartime was a four-month odyssey marked with dangers, delays and extraordinary good luck. On returning to England he married, resumed teaching while serving in the Home Guard and earning his university degree, all at the same time.  He then became Headmaster of the 300-year-old Reading Blue Coat School in Sonning, a position he held with great distinction for twenty-two years until his retirement, bringing it from a near-bankrupt institution to a highly-successful and well-recognized private school.

Throughout his life, "Bunny" Inge cheerfully forged ahead, always focusing on the positive and getting done what needed to be done, keeping others' spirits high and, in his own words, having "a full and happy life." Here are his personal reminiscences, with annotations and context added by his son.