Friends' Newsletter

Members

My Life with ESB Life Member, Marjorie Fenston James, shares her memories with ESB over the years.

As a Life Member of the English Speaking Board I would like to tell you how it influenced my life in a positive way. My Speech and Drama teacher handed me a leaflet which encouraged people to join ESB, a new venture presented by Christabel Burniston in 1953. I showed it to my father who remembered Christabel and immediately decided to join me as a Life Member to this new club for my birthday present! My father, William Fenston, a Radio Officer for Marconi who had travelled the world, was a man with insight. I then went to train as a teacher, studying English and Drama in the Midlands. I had already passed many Speech exams in Guildhall, London College and Poetry Society to a high standard from aged seven to eighteen with my Speech teacher Rita Trantom Jones.

study for the English Speaking Diploma (Dip ESB), which I passed in 1986. I also trained pupils for ESB examinations in local schools and acted as an Ambassador for ESB in Cornwall for many years.

Marjorie , aged 11, holding cup presented by Christabel Burniston at Liverpool Festival, 1951

Later, I took early retirement and trained to be an ESB Assessor. I thoroughly enjoyed 16 years of visiting schools, meeting pupils who have benefitted from ESB exams with the confidence it gave them.

My main link with ESB at that time was to attend summer conferences, where I met up with members from many parts of the International scene. Therefore, I decided to

8