Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Arthur Victor Meek was the son of livery-stable keeper Arthur Cecil Meek and Nina Henriette Regnier. Arthur Victor was usually known by his second name.  Probably born in Potten End, Victor had two sisters,  Nina Ethel (b.1899) and Poppy-Blanche (b. 1908). By 1911 his father’s Berkhamsted business on Lower King’s Road, Meeks’ Livery and Hunting Stables,  was flourishing and the family was living at 29 Charles Street, Berkhamsted.

Victor was educated at the Berkhamsted School.  After school, he started work as a mechanic. After an apprenticeship, he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a Boy Fitter c.1918. After 8 years’ service, he was discharged.

In 1926 he married a woman named Rose F. Dawking, and they lived at 32A Charles St. Their daughter Pamela Nina Meek was born in Croydon 11 December 1928.

During the years of the Great Depression, he made a living in varied ways – working as a barman, manservant, coffee stall attendant, labourer and even as a professional boxer.

He subsequently entered the Metropolitan Police Service in London. He served for 20 years, eventually rising to the rank of Superintendent. During WWII, Meek took time out of the police to serve with the RAF and as a docker. He was discharged from the police due to ill health and worked on a farm. Clearly, Victor liked to keep busy; he said “In thirty-six years, I was never unemployed for a single day!”

Victor Meek wrote a book, My Five All Went To Grammar School, which was published in 1959. Based on his personal experiences as a working man who sent his children to good grammar schools despite his social class, it was aimed at helping aspirational parents with their children’s upbringing and education.

“Whether the reader resides in city, small town or hamlet; in house, flat, rooms or lonely cottage, Victor Meek’s recipe for overcoming the Eleven-Plus or the alternatives will not be out of place. He has lived in and knows them all!”

Victor Meek died in September 1980 and was buried in the Meek family plot in Rectory Lane Cemetery, with his mother, who had died in 1929 and his daughter Pamela (died 1948). His father is not buried here as he had died in 1945 in Sydney, Australia.

With thanks to Mary Casserley for additional information