Parents up in arms over new sex education lessons at Yorkshire School... in 1949

Parents of Yorkshire schoolchildren turned up en masse to object to the way new sex education lessons were being delivered.

Pupils at Maltby Hall Girls’ Secondary were concerned about the fact they had not been consulted about the lessons.

Mrs Jessie Tallantire, leader of the campaign against the lectures, said: “We shall be there. We are making headway in our fight.

“I think we should be somewhere in the region of 400 parents at the school... and we want to see these lectures for ourselves.”

She went on: “We do not object to sex education, but we do object to it without the parents being consulted first.”

Miss G Dalton, head mistress, had invited mothers to meet the lecturer, Dr Elsie Vincent.

Mrs Tallantire sent a telegrams to George Tomlinson, Minister of Education, which read: “We have obtained 1,000 signatures protesting against the crude and vulgar way the sex talks are being given at our secondary school for girls of tender years, and beg to ask your intervention by suspending the lecture until a definite national policy is announced.”

However, not everyone was against the new lessons. A counter petition was organised by Mr T Fisher, which had more than 200 signatures.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Education said: “These sex talks are governed by the local authorities and have nothing to do with us. Any telegram of protest will make no difference to our attitude.”

In other news, a 31-year-old man, Jack Brook, from Qarmby Road, Huddersfield, was taken to hospital after being severely scalded when he fell into a vat of boiling dye at the Lindley Mills of Smith and Calverley Ltd.