The teachers that changed my life: From Swansea to Bermuda to Egypt and back again
Although she wasn’t to know it, Miss Green, headmistress at Lewis School for Girls in Ystrad Mynach, set Sian James’s life on a path that she hadn’t imagined for herself. The formidable head recognised Sian’s talent for languages and forced her to attend Latin classes halfway through a term.
With the class already thirty pages into their textbooks, and Sian not knowing the difference between an imperative and infinitive, she thought to herself, “This dead language isn’t going to beat me” and worked hard to master it.
Her resulting good grades landed her a place at Swansea University to study Latin, from 1968 to 1971, where Sian met a myriad of influential figures including her tutor, Dr. Alan Lloyd, now a professor.
Sian and her then roommate (and still close friend), Margaret Parry, were exceptional students, attending every lecture without fail and becoming Head Girl (Sian) and Secretary (Margaret) at Beck Hall in their teacher training year. However, Sian was not averse to a spot of mischief…showing up as the only attendees to a Saturday morning class on Cicero when Swansea was covered in snow, and leaving the absent lecturer a bold note on the blackboard, “We were here but where were you?”; dropping her voice when translating one word in Horace’s Odes which she couldn’t find in the dictionary, hoping that the lecturer, Gwyn Griffiths, who had hearing difficulties, would not notice (he didn’t!); and, hand delivering an assignment to a pyjama-clad Professor Gould at 9.30am on a Saturday morning after missing a deadline.
Graduating with a 2:1, Sian went on to become a Latin teacher, teaching to O and A Level between 1972 and 1999. Along with her husband Illian, the last twelve years of her career were in Bermuda at the Bermuda High School for Girls. Whilst there, they found an astute financial advisor based back in Cardiff, who was able to help the couple make sound decisions to ensure their future financial security.
Having moved back to the UK in 1999 and returning to Swansea for a Friends of the Egypt Centre lecture in 2002, their lives again changed for the better when they met Egypt Centre curator, Dr Ken Griffin.
Between 2003 and 2011, Sian and Illian travelled to Egypt on numerous trips organised by Ken, with Sian becoming known for keeping immaculate records of the dirtiest public toilets used on their routes, as well as immaculate notes on their learnings.
Remaining firm friends ever since, Sian and Illian have chosen to make an enormously generous donation of £100,000 in their will to the Egypt Centre and are happy for it to be used however Ken deems appropriate.
Sian said: “We trust Ken implicitly, and we’ll know he will make sure the donation is put to good use. We cannot speak highly enough of him and what he has done for us and others with his work at the Egypt Centre, as well as the online courses, which were an absolute godsend during Covid.”
Ken said: “It’s an astoundingly generous donation which will be truly transformative for the Egypt Centre.”
Sian and Illian now love to spend their time visiting ancient sites and soaking up Egyptian artefacts and knowledge in museums and at lectures.
