Dear Editor,

The one person I recognise in the Mikado photograph, published recently in the Ross Gazette, is Graham Mountford. He is the schoolmaster with the moustache on the left hand side of the photo.

He was our next door neighbour for many years until moving away in the early 1940s to become Head Master at Kington Grammar School. His younger son, Roger, stayed with us for a few months to enable him to finish his final exams at the grammar school.

For the first 20 years of my life I lived in Ross. My friend, Barbara Ashmore, formerly Peacock, and I were born a few weeks apart to mothers who were also friends. We began our education together at Ross Council School, as it was then called, in 1936 and both left Ross Grammar School in 1949 to train as school teachers.

We have also formed a close friendship and our children are also friends. We live within half an hour of one another. Now, both widows, school days are frequently a topic of conversation.

I don’t suppose many people can say they have been best of friends for 87 years.

Daphne Grieff (née Jones)

Leicestershire