Soham Grammarians - Archive - Mike Rouse

In the summer of 1966 Michael (Mike) Rouse successfully applied for a one term post at ‘The Village College, Soham’ to teach English and Geography. Thirty-seven successful and happy years later, Mike has now retired from teaching English at Soham Village College.

This website has benefited enormously from the work that Mike did over the years to preserve material relating to Soham Grammar School.

He is now working on a number of projects at the Village College, among which are sorting out their archives which of course includes material from the SGS days which he has been careful to preserve over the years.

His father's family came from Soham and his mother's from Ely. Though not an SG - he was at King's Ely from 1951-1959, one of the County Scholarship pupils - various Rouses have attended SGS as well as his mother's brother, the late Doug Unwin.

Mike has written numerous books about Ely, Soham and further afield. The latest, published in July 2002, is The Way We Remember It, an account of Ann Powell and his memories of growing up in Ely during the 1940s and early 1950s.

At our 2003 Reunion Dinner he was presented with an SG tie (from Arnold Tomalin on the left) in recognition of all he has done and will be doing on our records, and is welcome among us as an Hon SG.

Mike gave an excellent talk at our 2019 Reunion.

In 2020 he received his Community Star Award on his 80th birthday.

His daughter Lauren posted the following on Facebook:

"Beyond heartbroken to report that yesterday [19 May] we lost our Dad. We are all absolutely devastated. He was the kindest man you could ever meet, and an inspration to so many. My hero.

Details of his funeral will be posted in due course." 

last updated 30 Aug 2005: 22 May 22