Norwegian Educational Holiday

This is a photograph of Stanley Breakwell, the Denaby boy, who is one of a party of 60 English boys who have been sent out to Norway, for a three months educational holiday under the auspicies of the Women’s Committee for the Relief of Miner’s Wives and Children, a body which operated during the late dispute under the auspices of the Labour Party.

Mrs Singleton of Mexborough, who made the arrangements and saw the boy off, has received an interesting letter from Breakwell, who arrived last week in Oslo, the capital of Norway, where the party received a warm welcome.

He has been introduced to his appointed “guardian” and says of him “He is a very nice man and speaks English. Also he is very rich. I can have whatever I like for the asking – nuts, chocolatres, oranges, apples and lemonade.”

The boys were shown the sights of Oslo, where there are “tons of ice and snow,” and they learnt sledging and skiing.

Stanley Breakwell is living at Voksenlia, a sports resort just outside Oslo, and according to his account, “is getting invited all over.”

He has been shown over the Parliament House three times, and has already made friends with a pressman, to whom he has given an account of mining conditions in South Yorkshire, and has had the satisfaction of seeing it reproduced in a Norwegian newspaper. He has also made friends with M.P.’s and collected heir autographs. Here is an homely domestic touch at the end of the letter:

“When they wash the clothes in Norway they put them out to dry, and then knock the ice out of them, and then iron them.”

I cannot thank you enough for the holiday you have given me.” He adds