Balshaw’s Church of England High School in Leyland has a long and rich history and a very active school archivists’ group who have researched Old Balshavians from the First and Second World Wars as well as interviewing previous Headteachers and students of the school.
Last year we made an exciting discovery which led to a significant reconnection and lots more research. I called Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines just after the COVID pandemic to ask if she would consider coming into school to talk to the young archivists about her experiences on the Kindertransport for Holocaust Memorial Day. Imagine our surprise when Milena declared that we were speaking to the wrong sister! Her sister Eva attended Balshaw’s after the Second World War from 1946-1953! As promised, we got in touch with Eva Paddock and she Zoomed in to speak to our school archivists for that Holocaust Memorial Day. We kept in touch. Every year we have the pleasure of welcoming back a former Balshavian to speak to us and present the certificates and prizes to our Year 11 leavers. This year was a particularly special year as we welcomed a very special speaker who travelled back to Leyland from Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 89 to speak at her old school: Balshaw's!
Eva Paddock (née Fleischmannová) came to the UK on the 'Kindertransport': the trains organised by Nicholas Winton in 1939 to help young children escape persecution and execution by the Nazis. Eva's family would have been targeted as her father was a Czech politician who helped the German writer Thomas Mann who was a vocal anti-Nazi campaigner get citizenship in Czechoslovakia.
Fearing for their children's safety, Eva's parents put her and her sister (Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines) on the train leaving Prague in 1939. It was a daring and risky operation that saved the lives of 669 children from Nazi persecution. After a brief stay in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Eva moved to Preston and passed the entrance examination for Balshaw's Grammar School in Leyland. Her academic skills meant that she had to study Maths and Science which she didn't enjoy. Whilst working at Boots Chemist considering pharmacy as a career, Eva met her husband, the architect Jim Paddock.
After having children and moving to the United States, Eva went back to education where she followed her true passion: English and Psychology.
Eva went on to become a teacher, and a principal working to innovate education and was named State Department Education Principal of the Year for Massachusetts. She has retired several times only to take up further work such as the Mass Urban Leadership Programme as well as being a mental health counsellor and group therapist working with adults with long-term and persistent mental health illness, as well as working within holocaust education and holocaust survivors' groups.
It was a great honour that Eva travelled across the Atlantic to return to Leyland to address this generation’s 'graduates' of Balshaw's, her old school. Not only that but Eva came in the previous day to give a workshop on her experiences of the Kindertransport to the whole of Year 9 with Lady Milena in tow! We even had a school lunch afterward which was given high praise by both sisters.
On the Awards night, Thursday 13th November 2025, Eva donated all her Balshaw’s school reports and the sewing case she had made and embroidered during her first year at school and spoke fondly of her favourite teacher while she was at school, Mr Tom Speakman.
Eva gave our school archivists a real task in the run up to her arrival for Awards Presentation Evening – she wanted us to trace any living relatives of her favourite teacher so we could extend an invitation to the evening on her behalf! We were given only their first names – Neal, Edith and Margaret Speakman. Only Neal would still be called Speakman, so this was a tricky task! Every year our school archivists visit the Lancashire Archives in Preston, so contacted Lee Sanderson, an archivist there who did a little research for us, and managed to find Edith Speakman! He found out that she had married Peter Ainsworth Cordall in 1964 at St Marys Church Euxton. At the time of her marriage she was living at Woodcock Farm, Euxton. We knew it was her because the father was recorded as being Thomas Speakman – a college lecturer. Between 2004 and 2007 Peter and Edith lived in the Ormskirk area at Nook Farm Cottage (Mawdesley), but unfortunately Lee couldn’t find their whereabouts after this date or if they were still in that area or have moved away somewhere.
Having this married name, our school archivists searched the internet and found an article about Edith and Peter Cordall’s wonderful open garden…and a contact number! Dr Breen called and asked for a message to be sent to Edith and Peter to extend her invitation. The very next day Edith called into school and invited Dr Breen to their cottage to see the garden and interview her about her Dad. It was then we found that both Neal and Margaret had sadly passed away, but Edith was delighted to accept Eva’s invitation to the Awards Presentation Evening on Thursday 13th November. Just as Eva is an active 89-year-old, Edith is just as active as an 85-year-old! Edith developed her love of plants as a child on the farm where she was raised and on walks with her mother. Edith’s father, Tom Speakman, gave them the one-acre plot of land as a wedding present 61 years ago, and the first brick for the house was laid on their wedding day. Since then, they have created a beautiful global garden on the derelict orchard.
Eva’s speech on the night praised Tom’s teaching style beyond the classroom and Eva and Edith were joined by Head Girl of Balshaw’s from 1977, Ruth Savage (née Cutts) who travelled from Oxfordshire to hear Eva speak because she also had Jewish heritage and wanted to hear her story.
In her speech, Eva said,
“A small group, six of us, were doing Botany and Zoology, Chemistry and Physics for A levels. Tom had been my General Science teacher since first form but in 6th form, he taught Botany, Zoology and some of the Chemistry.
Tom’s way of teaching Botany and Zoology combined was to take us out in his van to the local tarn to collect frog spawn, plants and anything else of interest for study in the classroom. The transport on these field expeditions was his small white van. A cab at the front and a closed back. The back was just big enough to fit a wooden bench on each side. We would drive along merrily sitting three on each side, untethered, free floating. (Any School Health & Safety officers here? Don’t even think about it!). And after those excursions we would often end up at his home on the farm for hot chocolate and biscuits in the kitchen…what a special man.”
Needless to say, the Awards Presentation Evening was a triumph and Dr. Breen, Eva, Edith and Ruth enjoyed a late dinner after the event at Papa Luigi’s in Euxton courtesy of Balshaw’s.
Current Head Girl, Mischa Daggers, thanked Eva on the evening,
“This year we, at Balshaw’s, achieved School of Sanctuary Status, the first Church of England School in Lancashire to have been awarded this. If Eva’s experiences teach us anything, it is that Balshaw’s has always been a school of sanctuary and we are proud of being a welcoming place of safety for all, offering sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. Thank you.”
You can see a selection of photographs below:
