Dear George,
I'm always surprised
how hard it is to remeber one's class mates, especially in a boarding
school. I'm pretty certain I do remember Clive
Thomas although he was in a different house. If I'm correct he
was a tallsh fair haired boy. Two or three of kept in contact
for a couple of years
after leaving, but then it all fizzed out. I was friends with
Simon Clarke, Peter Clough, Richard Lamb and Ian Dron (all from
my year). Other names
were Jimmy Wetherall, Terry Cook, ??Izzard (who I think died young),
Fred??, Ian Hook.
The teachers I recall
were HEAD of course, Nipper (Mr Jackson I think), Mr Freer, Lampril
(Tex), Le Shirly and Barrett. My memories are not all happy as
it was a harsh environment and there was a lot of bullying and
fights. Bonfire night was always built up as the night juniors
were beaten up by older boys. There were plenty of good things
too - I dont want to paint a black picture. But I was always in
trouble and had the slipper frequently. So its probably my own
fault I have mixed memories!
The scrambled egg
rebellion took place in 1959 (or 60). For weeks we only got the
powdered scrambled egg served at breakfast. Presumably this was
ex-war food stock. Well, the older boys planned this rebellion.
Word was passed along the queue at the counter, to keep walking
past the kitchen staff waiting to put the egg onto our plates
as we paraded along the
counter. Just as each boy was to receive his ration of egg he
up turned his plate and walked on past. The teacher on duty blew
his stack and the whole school (200 souls) had to go straight
back to houses and line up to attention. It was nothing to do
with us juniors but we still got the riot act read. The funny
thing was it worked and we never had powdered scrambled egg again.
This episode brings
back visions of the dining hall with rows of real animal heads
on the walls. Were they there in earlier years? Discipline was
incredibly hard in the dining room. Certain times allowed for
talking and other times in the meal where absolute silence was
enforced.
To be honest I dont
remember where the cross country races took us. Only remember
wanting to get out of doing them! My sport was swimming and I
also enjoyed art and the school orchestra. Presumably Mr Barrett
(music and art teacher extraordinaire) was not there when you
were there? Mr Barrett was reputed to have been a tank commander
in the war so a very brave person. He was the most decent of the
teachers at that time which unfortunately left him open to being
taken advantage off by some of the boys. He was always a friend
to me though. His standard greeting was a cheerful "what-ho
chaps".
Very old English upper class!
Other things were
the march down to the village church on Sunday mornings, all in
ranks. The swing over the canal of course, making the pigswill,
going out of bounds for a fag, films held in the assembly hall
on Saturday nights in winter term. A couple of us actually pinched
a chicken from the school farmyard one summer day, took it across
the canal and found a quiet spot somewhere in the farmer's field.
We strangled and plucked the poor chicken and attempted to cook
it up over a small wood fire we lit. I presume we took the guts
out first, but I'm not sure we understood the principles of cooking
that well. I imagine we bbd the thing for at least half an hour
before devouring it. Luckily we did not end up with food poisoning
and we never got caught.
I think I have one
or two 35 mm slides from Elmbridge which I will get printed and
scanned. I think one is of the torch
light parade up the school drive on bonfire night. Did you
do that? We all had wooden poles with scraps of blanket material
wrapped round the top - soaked in petrol. Can't imagine school
kids being allowed to do such 'dangerous' things nowadays.
All the best.
Howard
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