Sheila Mary Solarin (''née'' Tuer, 1924–21 October 2012) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

educator. She was awarded an

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

on 17 October 2007 for her educational services in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. She ran the

Mayflower School Mayflower School was founded on 27 January 1956 by Tai Solarin, a Nigerian educator, humanist and civil rights pioneer, who was married to Sheila Mary Tuer, an English woman; they had two children Corin and Tunde Solarin. The school is located on ...

on behalf of her late husband,

Tai Solarin Augustus Taiwo "Tai" Solarin (20 August 1922 – 27 July 1994) was a Nigerian educator and author. He established the famous Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State in 1956. In 1952, Solarin became the principal of Molusi College, Ijebu Igbo, a po ...

Early life

Sheila met Tai Solarin while both were in the military forces following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. They were married in 1951.

Career

In 1952, Tai and Sheila decided to move to his native Nigeria, where both worked in

Ijebu Igbo Ijebu Igbo (Yoruba: Ìjẹ̀bú-Igbó) is a town in Ogun State, Nigeria. It is approximately a 15-minute drive north of Ijebu Ode. Ijebu Igbo, also written as Ijebu-Igbo, is the headquarters of Ijebu North Local Government Authority of Ogun State ...

Ogun State Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. Ogun State borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo State and Osun State to the north, Ondo State to the east, and the Republic of Benin to the ...

at Molusi College. However, they disagreed with the politics of the organization and religious discrimination in schools, and decided to build their own school in

Ikenne Ikenne is a Local Government Area in Ogun State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Ikenne at . It has an area of 144 km and a population of 118,735 at the 2006 census. The postal code of the area is 121. Wards in Ikenne # Iken ...

. They left the College in 1956 to pursue their idea. On 27 January 1956 Tai Solarin and his wife founded the Mayflower School, the first

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

school in Nigeria, in Ikenne. The Students' Second Home was established by the pair in 1977. It was a boarding house that served more than two thousand students of the three public high schools in Ikenne town. Also complementing the now state-owned Mayflower School was the privately-owned Mayflower Junior School, the main school of the Mayflower institution. Using breeze blocks made from clay, they constructed two classrooms, each able to accommodate 36 pupils. The students helped in the construction of more classrooms. "They had their bunks at the back of the class, and the desks at the front" said Sheila. "We didn't ask anybody what their ethnic background or religion was, we simply wanted to provide an education for all the children in the area." As the Mayflower School became more popular, Sheila and her husband expanded, making it one of the largest schools in the country. Sheila headed the Mayflower School on behalf of her late husband Tai Solarin. Sheila retired at the age of 80, passing much of the responsibility for the school to her children.

Personal life

Sheila and her husband had two children, Corin and Tunde Solarin. She died on 21 October 2012, at the age of 88.

References

1924 births 2012 deaths British emigrants to Nigeria Members of the Order of the British Empire Nigerian women educators British people of World War II Founders of Nigerian schools and colleges {{UK-academic-bio-stub