THE mention in Malvern Memories two weeks ago of Emperor Haile Selassie's sojourn in Malvern while his native Ethiopia was occupied by the Italians, has prompted reminiscences from Bridget Beard of Welland.

Mrs Beard (nee Anderson) actually went to school with cousins of the emperor's grand-daughters.

Although the emperor moved back to Ethiopia when it was liberated by Allied forces, many family members remained in the relative safety of Britain.

Mamit and Sophie Asfawassen both attended Clarendon School, in North Malvern Road, in the late 1940s at the same time as Mrs Beard.

The emperors grand-daughters, Ruth and Sybil, had been at the same school a few years earlier.

Mrs Beard said: "While I was at the school, it moved to Abergele, to Kinwell Hall, which was a lovely grand National Trust-type house. The rumour was that Haile Selassie had bought it for the school. Mamit and I were best friends at the time."

Mrs Beard also remembers a horse which the royal grandmother had bought for Ruth, and which was stabled behind her mother's house in Malvern Link.

"He was a lovely little Arab stallion called Flicker and I used to borrow a horse from the stables and go riding with Ruth around Newland. There was very little traffic in those days.

"In the school holidays, when Ruth was away, I used to look after Flicker, mucking out his stables and so on. It was just like having a horse of my own."

l Pictured is a class at Clarendon School, taken at Kinwell Hall. Mrs Beard is on the back row, extreme right, with Sophie Asfawassen in the centre of the front row.