Tributes to Rother Valley Country Park pioneer "Wilf"

Donald “Wilf” Dale, who was a “leading light” in creating Rother Valley Country Park, has died from heart disease, aged 90.

Family man Mr Dale was also a committed councillor at county, borough and parish level—and a talented cricketer.

Son Martin (60) said: “He wasn’t a proud man, but he had a life of which he could be proud. He didn’t talk about his achievements, others did.”

After serving with the Royal Engineers in the Middle East in the Second World War, Mr Dale took up an assistant teaching post at St Ann’s Junior School.

He taught at junior schools in Dinnington and Thurcroft before taking up the headship in Fence—where he himself was born and educated.

“It was said to me that he was the youngest head teacher to be appointed in the West Riding,” said Martin, of Clifton Mount.

“He was a youth leader, who pioneered exchange visits with German clubs not very long after the war.”

Mr Dale settled in Dinnington with his wife Kay, also a teacher, in 1961. He was head teacher at Thrybergh Juniors for more than 20 years until he retired in 1979.

Martin said: “Something that seems normal now but was a major achievement of his was helping establish the parent teacher associations.

“He organised fund-raising for their first bus, which was bought from an army surplus dealer.

“And even more remarkable now is his role in bringing about a swimming pool at Thrybergh, again through hard work and fund-raising events.

“He helped and made a difference to tens of thousands of lives.

“He was an NUT officer and became involved in local politics before local politics became dirty work.”

Mr Dale was a keen cricketer who even turned down an apprenticeship at Yorkshire for his teaching career and played tennis bowls and danced.

Martin said: “Where dad found the time to do all this I don’t know.

“He was a highly intelligent man, very sociable and gregarious. I think people came away from meeting him with a warm feeling inside.

“Everything me and my brother Roderick did he would support.

“He bought a roof rack for the car when we took up canoeing, and showed us how to light fires properly before we went camping.”

Martin praised his father’s caring friends and neighbours Wilf and June Slack for helping to look after him in recent years, during the onset of dementia.

At the funeral last Thursday (14), donations in lieu of flowers went to the Alzheimer’s Society, who Martin said went “above and beyond” for his father.

Borough councillor Iain StJohn said: “Until very recently I used to see Wilf walking along Swinston Hill Road from his bungalow.

“As a county councillor, he was involved with Rother Valley Country Park right from the very start.

“The route of the River Rother was moved three times to take coal out through open cast mining, which actually made the country park feasible. Wilf was one of the leading lights in this.

“And during his time with the county council he was chairman of the majority Labour party group, meaning he was held in very high esteem.”