Sheila Mary Tuer

Who is Sheila Mary Tuer?

Sheila Solarin is a British woman married to the late Tai Solarin. She was recently an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 October 2007 for services to education in Nigeria. She currently runs Mayflower School on behalf of her late husband Tai Solarin.

Nigeria.Sheila met her husband while both were in the forces following the World War II.

In 1952 they decided to move to his native Nigeria, and both worked in Molusi College ijebu Igbo

But they disagreed with the politics of the day and religious discrimination in schools, and decided to build their own in a town called Ikenne.

On 27 January 1956, Tai Solarin and his wife founded the first and only secular school in Nigeria, Mayflower School, Ikenne, Ogun State.

The Students' Second Home was established by Sheila and her husband in 1977, a boarding house which serves more than two thousand students of the three public high schools in Ikenne town. Also complementing the now state-owned Mayflower School, was the establishment of the privately owned Mayflower Junior School, the primary school arm of the Mayflower institution, a citadel of secular education for self-reliance and all round excellence.

Using breeze blocks made from clay they constructed two classrooms, each able to accommodate 36 pupils.The student also helped in construction of more class rooms .