A Line of Educators

Charles Leonard Highfield, known to friends and family as Leon, married Phyllis Jenkinson at Christ Church in Summerfield, Birmingham, on 4th June 1938. Both Phyllis and Leon had lost their fathers by this date. They were respectively 24 and 25 years of age. Leon's father is identified as Joseph Henry Highfield, a School Master, and Phyllis Jenkinson's late father was Percival Haden Jenkinson, a Farmer.

Not only was Charles Leonard Highfield's late father a School Master, but Leon's birth certificate reveals that he was even born within the School House at Bayton, in Cleobury Mortimer, Salop, the county of the time, where his father was the Headmaster.

Leon's parents, Joseph Henry Highfield and Ada Goodfellow, were wed on the 4th June 1900, the same date on which Leon and his wife Phyllis were to marry some 38 years later. Both Joseph Henry and Ada were School Teachers at the time of their marriage, at 21 and 22 years of age respectively. Like Leon, his father had married a lady one year his senior.

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Accomplished descendants

Joseph and Ada’s eldest child and daughter, Irene Lavinia Highfield, known as Rene, born at Chesterton, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, on 4th May 1902, married Horace Laister at Bayton Parish Church in 1924, when they were both School Teachers. Horace Laister's father was a pawnbroker and jeweller.

Rene and Horace had twin boys, Michael and Peter Laister. By the time of their births, the couple were living at the School House in Chelmarsh, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, where Horace was the Headmaster. This is later confirmed in the birth certificate of their third child, Bryan Highfield Laister. Bryan was born in a School House, like Charles Leonard Highfield.

Michael Laister graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1950 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. He married (first) Dorothy Mary James at King's Norton, Birmingham, on 5th April 1952 (divorced 1978), and (second) Valerie Ann Connett at Kidderminster on 7th September 1981. He resided at Bury Hall in Wolverley.

Peter Laister obtained the degree of B.Sc. Tech. from UMIST (then Manchester University College of Technology) in 1949 before going on to qualify as a Chemical Engineer. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, and was a Chartered Engineer, from his election in October 1983 until his resignation in April 2001. According to his entry in Who Was Who, 1920-2008 online edition, he held a number of significant directorships, including having been Chairman of Thorn EMI from 1984-85, after 5 years as the Group Managing Director. He was a Governor of BUPA from 1982-93, and a Member of Council of University College London from 1978-88. He married (first) Barbara Cookes at Hall Green, Birmingham on 12th May 1951 (divorced 1967), and (second) Eileen Alice Goodchild (née Town) at Eton in Berkshire on 5th June 1967, then living at The Thatches, Staines Road, Wraysbury.

Bryan Highfield Laister studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, receiving his B.A. in 1953 and his M.A. in 1964. He was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn on 2nd May 1961. Bryan never practised as a Barrister, instead going into education. He taught his cousin, Gregory Paul Highfield, while a Teacher at Chigwell House Preparatory School, Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and later served as Director of Education for the London Borough of Havering from 1976-92. He married Ruth Bradbury at Newport in Devon on 1st August 1970, with his uncle, Charles Hand, then Rector of Upton-on-Severn, officiating. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Sadly, Horace Laister died in 1931 leaving Rene a widow at 28 years of age. Rene later married James Bates on 4th June 1934, a popular date in the year for marrying in the family. They went on to have three children: Charles Graham (born 1935), James Roger (born 1939), and Frank Edward (born 1945).

James Roger Bates married Sylvia Rosina Willis at Yardley, Birmingham, on 27th August 1960. On 8th June 1962, Sylvia gave birth to Nicholas James Bates, who was later to become known as Nick Rhodes, a founding member of the band Duran Duran. Nicholas James Bates married Julie Anne Friedman, sometime heiress of the American Younkers Department Store dynasty, at Westminster, London, on 18th August 1984 (divorced 2003), whilst living at the Savoy.

Nicholas James Bates and his then wife Julie Ann had a daughter, Tatjana Lee Orchid Bates, born in 1986. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts of the University of Bedfordshire in 2011.

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