Hans Joseph Meyer

Hans Meyer (1913–2009) was a German-born teacher at Bunce Court School in the County of Kent, England. He taught at the school from 1934 until it closed in 1948. In 1940, Meyer and several others from the school were forced to go to a British internment camp. Learning that several of his pupils were being deported to a camp in Australia, Meyer volunteered to accompany them, ending up on the HMT Dunera.

Meyer was born in Mainz, Germany, the son of Jewish parents. His father ran a hardware store. He died in 1932; his mother was sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she perished.

After attending gymnasium, he began studying medicine until he was prohibited from attending university by the Nazis. In 1934, at the age of 21, he left Germany and moved to England, where he began working for Anna Essinger at Bunce Court School. The school's original home was in Herrlingen, Germany, but after it came under scrutiny from Nazi authorities and her senior pupils were prohibited from taking the exams for the abitur, Essinger evacuated the entire school to England.

Bunce Court's enrollment was primarily made up of refugees from Nazi Germany and countries under Nazi control. Alumni Leslie Baruch Brent, who arrived on the first Kindertransport, and Eric Bourne credited Meyer with having been very empathetic with the pupils, a large number of whom ultimately lost their families. Years later, Meyer said that at that time, teaching was less important than being a "sympathetic human being". Bunce Court pupils were on a first name basis with their teachers or were called nicknames made up by the children. Meyer's nickname was "Meyerlein", an affectionate diminutive, meaning "little Meyer".

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