THE CAMP SCHOOL
By Derek Patten –
former pupil 1941-44
At the age of eleven
in 1941, I had the opportunity to attend the Elmbridge Camp School
for boys. The camp near Cranleigh in Surrey had been selected
to house the boys from Loxford School in Ilford shortly after
the outbreak of war and was one of about thirty such establishments
set up throughout the country. This was my third home after
being evacuated firstly to Ipswich and then to South Wales.
On arrival at
the camp, the new boys were met by Mr. Clarke, the former headmaster
of Loxford School and now held the same position at his new post.
Next came the introduction to the four house masters and the
allocation to one of these houses to the newcomers.
The houses or
dormitories were Roding and Forest forming the East wing of the
camp and Fairlop and Abbey the West wing. All dormitories were
identical housing about sixty boys each. At each end was accommodation
for teachers. There was an area for recreational purposes and
the rest was taken up with double tier bunk beds along each side
of the dormitory.
I was fortunate
to be allocated to Fairlop House with Mr.Anderson as my house
master. The only married couple at the camp was Mr and Mrs
Anderson and with this couple occupying one of the masters rooms
and the other occupied by miss Findlay, a lady of mature years
and very stern looking but I was to find, a lady with a heart
of gold. In his talk with the new boys, Mr. Anderson was quick
to point out the need for discipline to maintain Fairlop House
as the best of all four houses. ( The other house masters were
I am sure giving much the same talk ).
Over the next
few hours we were told about the meal-times, the class times,
times that must be used for mending and cleaning. We were also
shown how to make our beds ( with hospital corners ) and keep
our lockers tidy.
The head boy
of Fairlop House was Bill Wiggins; at fifteen years old Bill already
bigger than most masters, commanded respect from all members of
the house. After showing all newcomers round the camp, Bill’s
informal speech made it clear to all that his agenda was different
from that of the teachers. Any breach of discipline that let
down Fairlop House and showed it up in a bad light would bring
punishment from Bill. This would include "grassing"
on other members of the house, cowardice shown when confronting
the enemy (the other houses) or when taking punishment from the
teachers.
In the months
following my arrival at the camp, I soon settled into the routine
of camp life. Mr. Clarke insisted that the main priority was
the schooling but this left a great deal of time for other activities.
In the winter, football became my main sport. The camp had
an extremely good football coach in the person of Mr.Wiscar.
Since during the winter period lessons were morning and evening
to give maximum leisure time during daylight; the afternoons were
spent football training.
With Mr.Wiscars excellent coaching, the schools football
teams became very successful in the Guildford area, winning many
championships and cups very often against boys several years older.
In the summer,
I played shinty (poor mans hockey ). I think that this was introduced
because funds were not available for hockey equipment but since
not many schools played this game (or even heard of it ), matches
were mainly house against house. With an ash stick in boys hands,
many matches got out of hand and during matches the sick bay was
well visited.
Cricket was
of course the main sport during the summer period and although
I was enthusiastic, I was not very good. However the cricket
coach was my house-master and he encouraged me to persevere.
I became second choice wicket keeper and played a few games for
the school eleven. One of the matches arranged was against Cranleigh
Public School and this sticks in my mind as the first time I had
become aware of the difference between the rich and the not so
rich. Cranleigh took the field in their whites, the camp school
managed a few grey flannel trousers with white shirts, the rest
of us were dressed in khaki shorts and shirts. Needless to say,we
were thrashed but we did get a good tea for our efforts.
With each season,
various activities took place. There were the usual boys activities
such as conkers, marbles and knock down ginger. But with the
rivalry between houses pitched battles with spears, bow and arrows
and staves took place in the school fields. Each year tree houses
were built when all the timber and tools disappeared from the
woodwork room run by Mr.Styles. The various activities generally
finished when they got out of control and teachers noticed injuries
to participants. Punishments normally took place with teachers
using their own method of retribution.
Mr. Clarke,
as headmaster, and Mr.Wiscar as deputy head were the only masters
that could use the cane but I do not remember Mr.Wiscar ever doing
so. Serious breaches of the rules were dealt with by the headmaster
generally with six of the best followed by the punishment entered
in the punishment book. Mr.Anderson being the cricket master
preferred to use either a bat or a stump. He would chalk two
lines on the dormitory floor, the miscreant would bend over and
toe one line, after receiving the bat to the backside, if the
boy did not clear the other line he would have to endure a second
blow. I remember being astonished when a boy guilty of repeatedly
wetting the bed nearly leaped out the end of the dormitory on
the first strike. He was found to be suffering boils on the
backside, the cricket bat had done the nurses job for her although
Malcom did spend a week in the camp hospital to get over the experience.
Mr.Hall was known as "vatcha" Hall using his hand
to strike the back of a boys head.
Mr. "Nobby" Styles used a piece of four by two timber
to the backside but was known to throw anything that came to hand
when he was really angry. Mr. Cotton was a dab hand with a
slipper.
Not all punishments
were as severe and for minor infringements such as lateness, cheek
and untidiness lesser punishment included picking up litter, tending
gardens and collecting sacks of rabbit food.
Very often
an argument or scuffle would be seen by a teacher and boys would
be encouraged to settle their differences in the ring. This
consisted of benches squared off to form the ring, the boys donned
the only two pairs of boxing gloves the school possessed and boxed
each other for three rounds. In practice however, for every
fight settled in this way, ten more would be settled in the fields
without gloves and some were quite bloody affairs especially if
the honour of the house was at stake. The worst of these fights
seen was in fact between the head boy of Abbey house, Bill Macnamara,
and one of the groundsmen, a lad of seventeen. This was over
the affections of one of the school maids and lasted about two
hours witnessed by the whole school. The matter was not settled
with this encounter since both protagonists were too exhausted
to carry on. The two boys later became good friends and forgot
their differences.
When I arrived
at the camp school, there were already rabbits and hens that the
boys looked after. There were also allotments for boys to cultivate
and areas where vegetables were grown by camp staff for use in
the kitchens. The idea was formed by some members of the staff
mainly, Mr. Jackson and Mr.Wiscar , that these activities should
be extended for the purpose of raising extra well needed funds
for the camp. This idea resulted in the formation of the Young
Farmers Club .
In the first
year, new hen runs were built to house more hens. Land was cultivated
using a method called the Loxford Plough. This involved up
to forty boys digging together. The first boy would start to
dig a row. After about six spits the second boy would start
to dig and so on until all boys were engaged. Complete fields
were cultivated in this way and the produce sold to the camp manager.
After the first
year there was sufficient money to build pig pens and equipment
for pig rearing. Goats and ducks were also reared and for extra
income boys were sent to gardens for digging and weeding ( this
was popular since the lady of the house would generally supply
sandwiches and lemonade ). During holiday periods, boys were
also sent to farms to help and to learn. All these activities
were carried out on a voluntary basis but were very popular with
the boys.
With the Y.F.C.
doing well it was decided by a vote that a swimming pool could
be constructed with equipment being paid for out of the profits,
the main work i.e. excavation to be carried out by the boys.
Swimming up to this time had been carried out in either a nearby
quarry ( which of course was out of bounds ) or "rat hole"
part of the stream which ran down the side of the camp.
I was at the
camp just long enough to see the completion of the pool and left
to take up my place at Leyton County High School, after passing
the necessary exams. I was then fourteen, head boy of Fairlop
House and one of the two superintendents of the Young Farmers
Club.
Looking back
now, at the time spent at Cranleigh, I have many memories of the
events that took place during these wartime years. We were kept
up to date with events that were taking place. In 1941 there
was mostly bad news, but by the time I left the camp in 1944,
the end of the war was in sight and in spite of the V1 rockets
(doodlebugs) and later the V2 rockets there was a confidence that
better days were ahead of us.
Even though as evacuees,
the boys at Elmbridge Camp School, were out of the way of the
worst aspects of the war with Germany, there were several incidents
affecting the camp.
One of the favourite
haunts of boys from the camp was an area of common ground to the
West towards Alfold. One morning I was with a few friends in
the tall ferns that stretched to the top of a hill. I could
see a group of our boys below me throwing something at an old
derelict car further down the hill. Suddenly there was a loud
explosion and all the boys in the group were laying on the ground.
We of course rushed down the hill to help, fearing the worse.
Although badly cut and bleeding about the arms and face, none
of the boys appeared to be seriously hurt and we helped them to
walk back to the camp. We found later that a practice grenade
had been left by the home guard who used the area for training.
Another incident
involved an American plane which was badly damaged and was trying
to land at the airstrip at Alfold. A group of boys noticed the
plane coming from the direction of Cranleigh trailing smoke.
The fighter bomber crashed about a mile from the camp, coming
down in chicken runs located between Cranleigh village and the
camp. It was to be quite a few years before Rodger Bannister
ran the first four minute mile, but I don’t think he could
have got to the scene of the crash quicker than a group of schoolboys
on that day. The plane was almost intact but debris from the
plane spread for hundreds of yards and there were dead chickens
everywhere. Although visibly shaken, the three man crew were
not badly injured. The pilot was however trapped and the other
two members went to telephone for help. I am afraid that the
sight of so many souvenirs was two much to ignore and we got back
to the camp with arms full.
The headmaster
had been notified what was happening and we were met at the camp
entrance. All the souvenirs were confiscated and were piled
onto the stage in the hall to await collection by the American
Air Force personnel stationed at the nearby aerodrome at Alfold
(a Mustang squadron ). By the time a lorry arrived at the camp
however, the pile of ammunition,cameras ect. had noticeably shrunk
and I don’t remember Mr.Clarke,the headmaster being more
angry. An inspection of the entire camp, lasting days when we
were all confined to camp, did not find any of the contraband
and things gradually returned to normal. I can say now that
if the compost heaps of the allotments had been looked at more
closely, most of the goods would have been recovered. As it
was, for several months after this exciting event ,tracer bullets
could be seen disappearing over the playing fields, fired from
the vices on each veranda normally used to re-stud football boots.
In June 1944,
the skies over Surrey were filled with a new threat to our folks
in London. These were the V1 rockets or "doodlebugs".
Before guns were moved to the coast, twenty or thirty rockets
could be seen at any one time. It was one of these flying bombs
that exploded in Cranleigh. I was in the Regal cinema when halfway
through the film there was a loud explosion and parts of the ceiling
started falling down. When we got outside, we could see that
a flying bomb had landed in a gas holder to one side of the cinema.
Fortunately for the cinema occupants, the blast had mainly gone
the other way and had badly damaged a row of houses the other
side. Much to our disgust, we were not allowed to help, but
were told that several people had been killed in the explosion.
Many more memories
come flooding back of life at the camp school of a more normal
life such as the football training by Mr. Wiscar always involving
a football. Heading was practised with a ball on a string, dribbling
was with the use of cricket stumps. Hours each week was spent
learning how to double foot tackle ( not allowed now ), the correct
use of the shoulder, how to keep the ball low and many more skills
that made the team feared in the Guildford area.
Mr. Wiscar was
also the instigator of the Young Farmers Club and where as I believe
Mr. Jackson did a great deal of work behind the scenes, it was
Mr.Wiscar who was hands on. He had a great love of all things
connected with the country-side and I remember spending a lot
of time with him ferreting and with other pursuits connected with
the country. I visited Mr.Wiscar in 1955 after he had become
the headmaster of the Glebelands School in Cranleigh. A very
pleasant afternoon was spent talking about the camp and looking
at photographs.
This was to
be the last time I really thought about those happy days at Elmbridge
Camp School until of course I started to write this article, when
the memories came flooding back.
back to Memories