TRIBUTES are being paid to an American who formed the history detectives in Raglan and eventually became the Lady of the Manor of Raglan

Dr. Cheryl Lanyn Morgan was an international  innovative teacher of remarkable talent, who inspired pupils from Raglan Primary School to investigate the forgotten graves in St. Cadoc’s churchyard, uncovering and cleaning the buried gravestones and telling the fascinating stories of their lives.  

Finding that the only stories known to the villagers were of Raglan Castle, Cheryl researched and published the forgotten stories of the village on webpages, in books , pamphlets and a display map.

Soon, historic plaques on buildings, display panels, pamphlets and a new village map were to be seen in Raglan.  Working with her husband, Brinley Morgan, both jointly and separately  there were three books on Raglan on both World Wars, a past and present history of the village, plus histories of the Beaufort Inn and Raglan Baptist Church.

Cheryl raised many thousands of pounds for the village by obtaining grants which provided the village and school with audio/visual equipment and display materials.  Her local history and ancestry work continued until Alzheimer’s slowed her down.

She had two highly successful careers in both the USA and UK.  Aged 18, Cheryl began to work as a night-time telephone operator for the Bell Telephone Company. 

Calculating the company’s wage bill was a complicated operation that took many staff days to complete,

Cheryl found a way to reduce the calculation process in staff numbers and time drastically by  utilising an innovative punch-card system, saving them thousands of dollars and they helped her to go to university!

In 1989, she met Brinley Morgan, then a London Secondary School Headmaster, who was on a scholarship tour of America. 

They both decided to link their schools in a transatlantic partnership.  Over 30 years ago there was no system to see and talk to others, so Cheryl and Brinley set up a picture telephone system to do just that.

Brinley dedicated a special room in Walworth School with a bank of Sony lumaphones with a large screen TV and computers. 

Soon the pupils of both schools were  seeing and talking to each other, and to other schools in New York, Amsterdam, Israel and Korea. 

There were problems and issues with this new way of learning and Cheryl devised a control protocol to aid the experiments. 

Thus, the first  “international and transatlantic video conferencing”  had begun. 

Brinley and Cheryl married with a celebration at Cardiff Castle in 1992.

She began a new career as a senior-lecturer and departmental head in Colleges in Kent and Bristol, sharing her special skills with students and teachers. 

This period was followed by her becoming part of specialist group of teachers who developed a range of life skills for school pupils and college students across all Wales, including the Welsh Bac.  

She became Head of School Effectiveness in Wales in the Department for Children Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills and was profoundly influential in her field of expertise. 

Her career closed with her being the educational advisor to the Welsh Education Minister in the Senedd Cymru. 

This transfer to being a civil servant was not to her liking, as it took her away from frontline work with students and teachers, and she resigned. 

Cheryl pursued a passion for global education and became chairman of the iEARN UK charity as well as a member of the executive council for iEARN International. 

Her funeral is at St Cadoc’s Church, Raglan on Thursday 25 July at 11am, a day which would have been her 79th Birthday.