Mildenhall JHS History
Opened: 1957
Closed: Unknown (closed by 1978)
The school later known as Mildenhall Elementary and Junior High School was first known as Lakenheath Dependents School. It was an elementary school and was opened in early November of 1952 with Mr. Ernest Miller as principal. Mr. Miller came to England from the Dependent School system in Japan. His teachers were the wives of military personnel stationed at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. The following fall the first stateside teachers arrived. A later principal, Miss Reed, was in the first group of stateside teachers. Mr. M. G. Leonhard, who was later a Dependent School principal in Germany, was principal of the school during the two years which followed the opening term. In the summer of 1955 Lakenheath Dependents' School was moved from that base to an RAF station six miles distant. Since it was then located on Mildenhall Base, it became known as Mildenhall Dependents School. It was during this first year at Mildenhall that students and parents began hearing rumors that Central High School, located at Bushy Park, Teddington, Middlesex, would become a senior high school only. It soon became official news that several new junior high schools were to be organized in connection with a number of the already existing elementary schools. Mildenhall was to be one of these. Officials immediately began looking for a suitable location and building. By the close of the 1955-56 term of school, definite plans had been made for the remodeling of two buildings near the Officers' Club site and a short distance from the elementary school. Mr. H. Robinson was then the school principal. In the fall of 1956 redecoration of these new buildings was not quite completed, but nonetheless Mildenhall Junior High School opened on schedule. Although it was relatively small, the school offered the students such activities as an art club, glee club, bowling, tennis, tumbling, wrestling and boxing.
Information from school yearbooks