Charles Cecil Tugman, headmaster of our school from 1925 until 1935.
As a young boy he lived in Kennington, South London, and then went to school first at Weare, a tiny parish in Somerset not far from Axbirdge. Later he and his brother Ralph went to Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex.
He was in the Gunners (Welsh Regiment) until wounded in 1917. He travelled to South Africa after the war with a number of other ex-servicemen.
He married on 26 April 1923 the same day as the wedding of King George VI and Elizabeth Bowles-Lyon. After meeting them during the Royal Visit in 1947 they received a cablegram in 1948 saying: 'On our Silver Wedding Day ..... George R'.
They had three children: Anthony (who lives in East Sussex), Penelope (lives in Oxford) and James (lives in Parktown).
While headmaster of St Marks he designed and built the well known thatched classrooms which originally did not have windows installed. Most of us know them as the cowsheds!!
The theatre and especially Shakespeare were Rev Tugman's main leisure interests along with writing (mostly plays), calligraphy (he designed the new Swaziland postage stamps in 1931) and in his youth he was a good rugby player. Canon Tugman was also known for his Sunday afternoon radio programme on the SABC 'Let me tell you a story'.
Rev Tugman created an amphitheatre halfway between St Marks and Mbabane town. Seats were in semi-circular tiers cut into the side of the steepish hillside with the stage at the bottom. His enthusiasm for theatre was infectious and his St Marks productions were enormously popular. This amphitheatre was still in use in the 1950/60s for plays and 'Carols by Candlelight'. |
