Summer Times: Volume 57, May 2009 - Old Scarborians
Summer Times: Volume 57, May 2009 - Old Scarborians
Summer Times: Volume 57, May 2009 - Old Scarborians
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
1<br />
Tene Propositum<br />
SUMMER TIMES<br />
The Journal of the<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong>’ Association<br />
Members of the Association are former pupils<br />
and members of staff of<br />
Scarborough High School for Boys<br />
<strong>Volume</strong> <strong>57</strong> ‐ <strong>May</strong> <strong>2009</strong><br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong>’ Association<br />
Web address: http://oldscarborians.org<br />
Price £2.50
2<br />
David Pottage<br />
International Golf Course<br />
Architect<br />
A Complete Service<br />
from<br />
Project Appraisal<br />
through<br />
Detailed Design<br />
to<br />
Turnkey Development<br />
70 Whitesmead Road<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Town<br />
Stevenage<br />
Herts. SG1 3JZ<br />
Tel: 01438 221026<br />
Fax:01438 229271<br />
e-mail davidpottage@ntlworld.com<br />
Member European Institute of Golf Course Architects
1<br />
EVENTS DIARY <strong>2009</strong>/10<br />
Please put the following dates in your diary NOW!<br />
GOLF -<br />
Thursday 14th <strong>May</strong> and Tuesday 28th July at North Cliff Golf<br />
Club. Golf Dinner after the July event. All welcome - not just golfers.<br />
Contact John Brinkler.<br />
BOWLS -<br />
Morning, Friday 28th August. Contact Chris Found.<br />
CRICKET–<br />
Afternoon, Friday 28th August, Scarborough Cricket Club, North<br />
Marine Road. A casual event. Just turn up near the Carlsberg<br />
Open Air Bar.<br />
AGM -<br />
Tuesday, 24th November <strong>2009</strong>, 7.30pm. SCARBOROUGH RUFC,<br />
Scalby Road, Scarborough. (This is at the new club between<br />
Scalby and Burniston) at 7.30 pm. Contact Mick Bowman with<br />
queries. All Members are welcome.<br />
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DINNER –<br />
Friday,18th December <strong>2009</strong>, at 7pm for 8pm. To be held at the<br />
superb new facilities of SCARBOROUGH RUFC, Scalby Road, Scarborough.<br />
(This is at the new clubhouse between Scalby and Burniston)<br />
Price £25. All Members are welcome. Please use the<br />
enclosed booking form and book as soon as possible. Contact<br />
Mick Bowman with queries.<br />
Send items for the next <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> to Peter Newham,<br />
(address on page 2), as soon as possible please, but to reach him<br />
by 15th July <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
Items sent by e-mail are of great help, otherwise please type or<br />
write, on one side of your paper and put in the post.<br />
COMMITTEE CONTACT DETAILS ARE ON PAGE 2
CONTENTS<br />
1. Events Diary<br />
2. Contents<br />
2. Committee Contacts<br />
4. Editorial<br />
5. Presidential<br />
6. Secretarial<br />
6. Treasurial<br />
6. Sporting Events<br />
7. From Here and There<br />
19. Obituaries<br />
23. Scarborough Then & Now IV<br />
24. Reminiscences of a very Bad Boy<br />
27. Apologia –The Editor<br />
28. Motor Cycle Racing<br />
29. Music at Westwood<br />
30. Annual Dinner<br />
30. The Fenby Plaque<br />
32. Rugby Club Appeal<br />
32. End of an Era. Scarborough RFC<br />
33. Leonard Norton‐Wayne<br />
35. The Staff Register II<br />
35. Recollections of School Plays<br />
38. Journey To Stalag Luft III<br />
45. Forge Valley Railway<br />
47. Newby County Primary School<br />
47. Weather<br />
48. OSA Dinner c.1951<br />
50. 1961‐2 Rugby<br />
***<br />
2<br />
SUMMER TIMES<br />
PRODUCTION:<br />
EDITOR<br />
Peter Newham<br />
‘Badger’s Rise’<br />
8 Southcrest<br />
Hunsbury Hill<br />
Northampton NN4 9UD<br />
Tel: 01604 767895<br />
E‐mail: the.newhams@btinternet.com<br />
DESIGN & LAYOUT<br />
David Fowler<br />
8 Christine House<br />
1 Avenue Victoria<br />
Scarborough. YO11 2QB<br />
Tel: 01723 365448<br />
E‐mail: dgfowler@farthings.org.uk<br />
***<br />
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE<br />
<strong>2009</strong>/10<br />
PRESIDENT & TREASURER<br />
Chris Found<br />
Pinewood Cottage<br />
Silpho<br />
Scarborough North Yorkshire.<br />
YO13 0JP<br />
Tel: 01723 882343<br />
E‐mail: deefound@btinternet.com<br />
VICE-PRESIDENT &<br />
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY<br />
Geoff Winn<br />
ʹBarmoor Houseʹ<br />
Scalby<br />
Scarborough<br />
North Yorkshire YO13 0JF<br />
Tel: 01723 362414<br />
E‐mail: winn.geoff@talk21.com
SECRETARY<br />
Mick Bowman<br />
9 Ilkley Grove<br />
Guisborough<br />
Cleveland TS14 8LLTel: 01287 634650<br />
Email: mjwb@supanet.com<br />
IMMEDIATE PAST<br />
PRESIDENT<br />
David Fowler<br />
8 Christine House<br />
1 Avenue Victoria<br />
Scarborough. YO11 2QB<br />
Tel: 01723 365448<br />
E‐mail: dgfowler@farthings.org.uk<br />
COMMITTEE<br />
ARCHIVIST<br />
Peter Robson<br />
Forge Villa<br />
High Street<br />
Ebberston<br />
North Yorkshire. YO13 9PA<br />
Tel: 01723 859335<br />
E‐mail: Peter.Robson@btinternet.com<br />
INDEPENDENT REVIEWERS<br />
Peter Berry 01723 362633<br />
Geoff Winn 01723 362414<br />
MAGAZINE ADVERTISING<br />
Chris Found<br />
Pinewood Cottage<br />
Silpho<br />
Scarborough North Yorkshire. YO13<br />
0JP<br />
Tel: 01723 882343<br />
E‐mail: deefound@btinternet.com<br />
PRESS & PUBLICITY<br />
Maurice Johnson<br />
Cottage Farm<br />
Foxholes<br />
Driffield YO25 3QF<br />
3<br />
Tel: 01262 470272<br />
E‐mail: dairymagic@aol.com<br />
SPORTING EVENTS - GOLF<br />
John Brinkler<br />
20 Barmoor Close<br />
Scalby<br />
Scarborough YO13 0RZ<br />
Tel: 01723 363655<br />
E‐mail: brinkler@downinguk.net<br />
SUMMER TIMES EDITOR<br />
Peter Newham<br />
‘Badger’s Rise’<br />
8 Southcrest<br />
Hunsbury Hill<br />
Northampton NN4 9UD<br />
Tel: 01604 767895<br />
E‐mail: the.newhams@btinternet.com<br />
WEB SITE MANAGER<br />
http://oldscarborians.org<br />
Bill Potts<br />
1848 Hidden Hills Drive<br />
Roseville<br />
California 95661‐5804 USA<br />
Tel: +001 916 773‐3865E‐mail:<br />
osa@wfpconsulting.com<br />
Howard Acklam 01723 584061<br />
Colin Adamson 01723 364373<br />
Ron Gledhill 01723 362644<br />
Paul Gridley 01723 370806<br />
Colin Hurd 01723 870597<br />
Mick Peart 01723 864164<br />
HONORARY LIFE VICE-<br />
PRESIDENTS<br />
Frank Bamforth 01723 364432<br />
Jack Layton 01723 362455<br />
Doug Owen 01723 360960<br />
Peter Robson 01723 859335
OFFICERS’ REPORTS<br />
EDITORIAL<br />
Previous Editorials<br />
have partly consisted<br />
of my boringly predictable<br />
pleas for letters<br />
and articles from <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Scarborians</strong>, fuelled by<br />
a rather neurotic concern<br />
that each next<br />
issue of the Magazine would be struggling<br />
to justify the enthusiasm of Members<br />
in opening their twice yearly post<br />
from the Association. The last issue<br />
however not only demonstrated that the<br />
glass can be half‐full rather than halfempty,<br />
despite my innate pessimism<br />
(the result of many years in the legal<br />
profession,) but that, despite the School<br />
being closed some 35 years ago, there is<br />
life in <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> yet!<br />
The downside to this silver lining<br />
was however that its record 64 pages<br />
both strained the limits of what could be<br />
bound together within reasonable costs<br />
by the printers and certainly exceeded<br />
our preferred postage rate to the point of<br />
incurring considerable extra postage<br />
costs and thereby incurring the justified<br />
wrath of the Treasurer fighting to make<br />
our diminishing financial resources last<br />
out a few more years!<br />
I would not however wish this in<br />
any way to serve as a discouragement to<br />
correspondents, quite the reverse, it evidences<br />
the rude health of the Association,<br />
albeit that none of us are getting<br />
any younger, and, the annual Dinner<br />
apart, it is one of the principal ways of<br />
keeping in touch, particularly for those<br />
of us who may be somewhat technically<br />
challenged in relation to e‐mail and the<br />
4<br />
internet! Before too long however Members<br />
and the Committee may be obliged<br />
to take a view on finance and the future<br />
of the Magazine and its frequency, given<br />
that each half yearly issue costs, net of<br />
advertisements, in excess of £700 to produce<br />
and send out.<br />
In the meantime, apologies to those<br />
Members from my bumper postbag who<br />
may have had their contributions or<br />
requests for articles deferred. We attempted<br />
a reduced size type in this Issue<br />
(Palatino Linotype 8 for the initiated) in<br />
an attempt to shoehorn more material in<br />
but this was not really practical so we<br />
reverted to the usual 9 font. An upside<br />
to this in the minds of some readers may<br />
be the omission of my own more general<br />
background articles by way of previous<br />
filler to accommodate the increased flow<br />
and feedback from members. Photographs,<br />
which also tend to be hungry on<br />
space, have also been pruned, –– though<br />
how many of us now even marginally<br />
resemble our halcyon days 40‐50 or 60<br />
years ago!<br />
David F, on layout, is as ever called<br />
to perform ever‐increasing feats of prestidigitation<br />
to fit the constituent parts of<br />
this quart of material into a pint pot,<br />
although it is important to stress that<br />
this report to Members must certainly<br />
not be seen as any sort of disincentive<br />
for them to put future pen to paper (or,<br />
given the typographically challenged<br />
abilities of your Editor, preferably fingers<br />
to computer or typewriter) for the<br />
next or any other issue. These, and the<br />
feedback from previous issues, many<br />
correcting or clarify my previous infelicities,<br />
are in fact an interesting and
stimulating part of the role‐ (albeit E &<br />
OE)<br />
Peter Newham (1954-61)<br />
Editor<br />
PRESIDENTIAL<br />
I must admit that I submitted<br />
my Treasurial<br />
contribution automatically<br />
to the Editor but<br />
completely overlooked a<br />
Presidential contribution<br />
until I got an e‐mail<br />
from Peter saying “ How<br />
is your Presidency going? ” or words to<br />
that effect. I replied that I was just about<br />
coping, and he replied that what he<br />
meant was “ Where is the President’s contribution<br />
to <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> ?”<br />
So here it is !<br />
The Association is still in good health<br />
and in the capable hands of your Secretary,<br />
Mick Bowman and the Committee.<br />
At our last meeting which was held at<br />
the new premises of the Scarborough<br />
Rugby Club we discussed the venue of<br />
the next Scarborough Dinner and, as it is<br />
likely that the Palm Court Hotel is stopping<br />
outside catering, we have decided<br />
to arrange the <strong>2009</strong> dinner at the Rugby<br />
Club as they now have excellent facilities<br />
with a fine banqueting room which<br />
can seat more than 200 guests. This will<br />
enable us to keep a better control of cost<br />
and, having attended the Club’s Annual<br />
Dinner last week I can assure you that<br />
the catering and room are ideal for our<br />
type of event. In fact the whole site is<br />
amazing and I take my hat off to the<br />
present management of the Club for<br />
having the courage to invest £3 million<br />
5<br />
pound to give Scarborough the best<br />
rugby facilities in Yorkshire. Your Committee<br />
have an excellent rapport with<br />
officials of the Club and a match is still<br />
staged on Boxing Day to play for the<br />
HW Marsden Trophy.<br />
As you know the Committee is very<br />
unhappy about the lack of support for<br />
the London Lunch and we are actively<br />
looking for a cheaper venue next year as<br />
it is clear that the cost is the main limiting<br />
factor with regard to numbers attending.<br />
We have a full range of activities in<br />
store for the coming year and full details<br />
will be shown in the <strong>May</strong> edition of<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. I am delighted to tell<br />
you that all the Eric Sigston South Sea<br />
memorabilia displayed at the last Scarborough<br />
Dinner has been gifted to the<br />
Association and this can be inspected by<br />
arrangement with our Archivist, Peter<br />
Robson.<br />
Personally I am very much looking<br />
forward to the London Lunch which will<br />
be all over by the time that you read this,<br />
and the venue sounds superb. The Royal<br />
Horseguards Hotel which incorporates<br />
the old Liberal Club has just spent £18<br />
million on refurbishment and the reopening<br />
ceremony was attended by the<br />
Royal Horseguards in full ceremonial<br />
dress. Although the cost of the Lunch is<br />
high I am sure that it is going to be<br />
memorable.<br />
Chris Found (1951 - 1959)<br />
President
SECRETARIAL<br />
Gentlemen,<br />
A short but urgent appeal<br />
to you to continue<br />
supporting our events.<br />
Last year’s Christmas<br />
Dinner had 100 members<br />
booked in. The<br />
Golf and Bowls were also well supported.<br />
The London Lunch however<br />
continues to be a concern. Could you All<br />
take a minute and e‐mail me at<br />
mjwb@supanet.com to express your<br />
opinion of our attempts to keep the London<br />
event going. Why do you not attend?<br />
PLEASE let me know. The committee<br />
cannot make suitable arrangements<br />
while working in the dark. IT IS<br />
YOUR ASSOCIATION. HOW DO YOU<br />
WANT IT TO RUN?<br />
This year we are to hold the Christmas<br />
Dinner at the new Scarborough<br />
Rugby Club. A venue well worth travelling<br />
to Scarborough to see. Two golf<br />
competitions, a bowls event combined<br />
with an afternoon at a Yorkshire cricket<br />
match have been arranged. Details are<br />
on the front page along with the names<br />
of the organisers. If you wish to join us<br />
and cannot reach them let me know and<br />
I will make the contact.<br />
Please e‐mail your opinions and<br />
please continue to attend our functions.<br />
Mick Bowman (1954-61)<br />
Secretary<br />
TREASURIAL<br />
6<br />
We have actually achieved a surplus<br />
this year, mainly due to one large bequest<br />
and the generosity of a small number<br />
of members. The actual new subscriptions<br />
received were 13 which is a<br />
considerable improvement over the previous<br />
year.<br />
Our main expense continues to be<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> and the cost has risen<br />
due to higher postage costs, the knock on<br />
effect of the inclusion of more material<br />
and the inflation of printing costs.<br />
As usual all our events have been<br />
run at a profit and our other expenses<br />
continue to be minimal. The cost of our<br />
website is inflated as the cost to settle in<br />
dollars was £30 on making the payment<br />
of £66. I am exploring cheaper methods<br />
of settling this debt and if any of our<br />
American members are willing to accept<br />
sterling in return for sending Bill Potts a<br />
dollar cheque please let me know.<br />
During the year we changed from<br />
Alliance and Leicester to Lloyds TSB and<br />
this has made everything much easier<br />
for the Secretary and myself as we both<br />
now have access to branch banking.<br />
In addition I wish to encourage<br />
members to remember the Association<br />
in their wills, and this will ensure the<br />
Association’s longevity, if not their<br />
own.<br />
Chris Found (1951-59)<br />
Treasurer<br />
SPORTING EVENTS 2008<br />
CROWN GREEN BOWLS<br />
COMPETITION<br />
Chris Found writes….<br />
The competition, which had to be discontinued<br />
at the semi‐final stage in September,<br />
was finally completed on Tuesday<br />
21 st October 2008 at Manor Road.
7<br />
In the semi‐finals Jack Binns beat Freddie<br />
Drabble fairly comfortably and Les<br />
Stockell was given a walkover by Tom<br />
Gofton, who was unable to travel over<br />
from Chesterfield.<br />
The final provided an excellent struggle<br />
and at one stage the score was 18 all in a<br />
competition up to 21, the lead having<br />
changed frequently throughout. In the end<br />
Jack Binns was able to win the last two<br />
ends to become our first Bowls champion.<br />
There were only four spectators at the final<br />
but it was a worthy end to our first competition,<br />
and the October weather was perfectly<br />
fine and mild and made up for the<br />
atrocious weather in which the earlier<br />
rounds were played.<br />
***<br />
FROM HERE & THERE<br />
DAVE HEPWORTH (1951-<br />
1958) writes…<br />
One of the unforgettable moments of<br />
my School career was during an ATC gliding<br />
course. I had just made a very dodgy<br />
landing, and as I was pulling myself together<br />
for the next launch I was aware that<br />
my instructor, a fiery little Welshman, was<br />
muttering ʺDear Mr and Mrs Hepworth,<br />
the Air Ministry regrets to inform you that<br />
your son... ʺExcuse me sir,ʺ I said with<br />
some trepidation, ʺI didnʹt quite catch<br />
that.ʺ ʺOh itʹs nothing Hepworth,ʺ he<br />
growled. ʺI was just composing a letter to<br />
your parents in case you did another controlled<br />
crash like that last landing!ʺ<br />
The message hit home. I went on to<br />
qualify for my A and B certificate with the<br />
necessary three solos ‐ which I flew in a<br />
thunderstorm ‐ at the end of the course.<br />
It was high summer 19<strong>57</strong>. John Cooper<br />
and myself ‐ both corporals ‐ had been<br />
picked by the CO, dear old HSPT, to join<br />
the course at RAF Rufforth, near York. We<br />
couldnʹt believe it ‐ what a dream way to<br />
spend the summer hols. All we had to do<br />
was learn to fly... Getting there wasnʹt always<br />
easy though, as our weekend travelling<br />
coincided with a bus strike. There was<br />
much thumbing of lifts, including a<br />
memorable journey for me in a flour lorry.<br />
I emerged at the airfield in a blue and<br />
white uniform!<br />
I also managed to make a name for<br />
myself one day by deciding to use my initiative.<br />
Flying had finished, leaving myself<br />
and another NCO in charge of the control<br />
caravan on the grass in the middle of the<br />
airfield. So ‐ without orders ‐ we hooked<br />
our 15 cwt truck up to the caravan and,<br />
with me driving, towed it back to the hangars.<br />
Only later did we find out that a senior<br />
RAF officer was forced to abort his<br />
landing because two idiots were bowling<br />
merrily down the runway in a truck with<br />
bright yellow caravan behind.<br />
I later did some flying with the RAF<br />
gliding club at Driffield and, much later<br />
with the Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton<br />
Bank. John Cooper later rose to the rank of<br />
Flight Sergeant with the squadron and<br />
won a flying scholarship.<br />
By this time I had left school after A‐<br />
levels and joined the Scarborough Evening<br />
News as a reporter, which Mike (as I<br />
knew him) Jefferson seemed to forget in<br />
his earlier piece on SBHS <strong>Old</strong> Boys who<br />
worked for the local paper. For the record<br />
Mick, I did four years bashing round town<br />
with notebook and pencil before moving<br />
on (with my proficiency certificate) to the<br />
Yorkshire Evening News, followed by two
years on the Sheffield Telegraph. I may<br />
not have risen to the giddy heights of<br />
some ex‐<strong>Old</strong> Boys, but I spent 24 happy<br />
years sub‐editing on the Daily Mirror,<br />
Sunday Mirror and Sunday People in<br />
Manchester. Post Maxwell I worked for<br />
12 years on the Express in London before<br />
taking early retirement in 2001.<br />
8<br />
DERRICK CRAVEN<br />
(1933-38)<br />
writes….<br />
Thank you for an excellent <strong>Summer</strong><br />
<strong>Times</strong>, and I was especially interested in<br />
the “Scarborough Then” article. I recall<br />
Saturday morning matinees in the 30ʹs at<br />
the Aberdeen Cinema with Tom Mix<br />
and Hopalong Cassidy. I think the entrance<br />
cost less than sixpence then<br />
though. My uncle was a projectionist at<br />
that Cinema during the period. I also<br />
remember the opening of the Open Air<br />
Theatre and the North Bay Swimming<br />
Pool. I lived in Tennyson Avenue at the<br />
time and used to get down to the pool<br />
early in the morning for a free swim in<br />
the new pool. The cross‐country run at<br />
the time was a run round the base of<br />
Oliverʹs Mount past the Mere. The holiday<br />
jobs in the 50ʹs were rather more<br />
interesting than my recollections of the<br />
30ʹs. My summers were invariably spent<br />
pushing a bicycle loaded with groceries<br />
round the town, especially up to the further<br />
parts of South Cliff. No multiple<br />
speeds in those days! I also did a stint as<br />
a telegram boy, which was just as tiring.<br />
As I lived in Tennyson Avenue, I<br />
spent a fair amount of time at or around<br />
Monkey Island. I can vouch for the fact<br />
that the summit was quite large. My<br />
father was an instructor with the Territorials,<br />
and I sometimes accompanied him<br />
when he took a squad up there.<br />
On a later matter, my son, Ian Craven,<br />
was a boarder at Archbishop Holgates<br />
School in the early 60ʹs, when I was<br />
in Africa. He played cricket for his<br />
school as a bowler. I know he played<br />
against Scarborough College and I seem<br />
to recall his mentioning SHBS. My father<br />
told me his name appeared in reports<br />
of matches in the Evening News,<br />
and I wonder whether anyone of that<br />
period remembers him. He has spent<br />
more than 30 years in the Far East.<br />
STEVE TAYLOR (19<strong>57</strong>-64)<br />
writes on the Staff Register...<br />
In connection with the Article in the<br />
November issue (page 22), the Register<br />
commenced in 1932, so Masters who<br />
commenced before that time would not<br />
be included. I am pretty sure that Messrs<br />
Bradley and Richardson fell into that<br />
category. When they retired in July 1958<br />
(the tallest and shortest Masters at the<br />
School) I am also sure that they were the<br />
longest serving members of staff.<br />
The Deputy Headship seemed to be<br />
granted according to seniority of service.<br />
Mr Freeman was next in line after<br />
Brad so it is likely that he too joined the<br />
School before 1932.<br />
Does anyone remember the pre‐war<br />
School photographs which adorned the<br />
corridor of the Junior School section at<br />
Westwood? If so one can also recall<br />
seeing the same Masters’ faces that we<br />
were familiar with in the 50’s, (Taylor,<br />
Potts, Smith, Brown, Rice, Freeman,<br />
Bradley, Richardson, Liddicott, Marsden)<br />
They had been teaching at the<br />
School before many of us were even
9<br />
born! I’m sure most of these names<br />
appear in the Staff Register.<br />
Incidentally I’m told that Mr Marsden<br />
was famous for conducting staff interviews<br />
in unlikely places – Alan Wilson,<br />
for example , was interviewed in the<br />
waiting room of Leeds City Station.<br />
(Ed. –– other sources have York Station<br />
as a rival venue!)<br />
NORMAN HOPKIN<br />
writes…<br />
I gave up on the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong><br />
some years ago, for various reasons, but<br />
a continued participant in the Organisation’s<br />
affairs recently drew my attention<br />
to some material in the most recent issue<br />
of “<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>,” Page 18 to be exact,<br />
which greatly aroused my ire.<br />
The reminiscences of Marcus Woodhouse,<br />
whom I remember as Simon ––<br />
but certainly not as early as his starting<br />
date of 1953 –– included a reference to<br />
his languishing among the lesser brethren<br />
in the subject then known as<br />
“Scripture” (later “Religious Knowledge”,<br />
“Divinity” and “Religious Education”)<br />
Mr Woodlouse’s lowly placing in<br />
the subject may well have occurred, but<br />
his claims that this put him on a par with<br />
Peter Diamond (sic. this should be<br />
Dimond) and Norman Hopkins (sic, this<br />
should be Hopkin) cannot be allowed to<br />
pass unchallenged.<br />
I cannot speak for Mr Dimond, but,<br />
supported by my surviving School Reports,<br />
I must point out that I was always<br />
top at Scripture. The subject was always<br />
taught on the lines of “the History of the<br />
Israelites” and as the year’s star turn at<br />
History, ultimately leading to three university<br />
level qualifications, this was meat<br />
and drink to me. Gideon, Samson, Saul<br />
and David were more or less interchangeable<br />
with William the Conqueror,<br />
Elizabeth I, Pitt the Younger and Sir<br />
Robert Peel and the whole learning process<br />
seemed more like a hobby than a<br />
lesson to me.<br />
By all means treat me with mockery<br />
and derision over my pathetic productions<br />
in the manual dexterity such as Art<br />
and Woodwork for which my Chair, and<br />
Bill‐file must have given the Staff Room<br />
much innocent mirth and pleasure, but<br />
do not mock me in the realms of<br />
Acadème!<br />
JOHN HALL (1948-<strong>57</strong>)<br />
writes…<br />
As usual <strong>Summer</strong><br />
times was read avidly<br />
from cover to cover<br />
immediately on receipt.<br />
Missing first names<br />
on photos:<br />
p.13 –– John Porter<br />
(was big in Air Cadets<br />
and last heard of teaching at<br />
Heriott‐Watt(?) University, John Storey,<br />
–– p.14 David Shaw. I counted no<br />
fewer than 11 pix of your good self in<br />
this issue: is this a record? p.<strong>57</strong>–– Bit of<br />
repetition there, I think (spotty 17 yearold<br />
+ Latin verb). Luckily it was not<br />
plagiarism, but cut‐and‐pasted from<br />
your own earlier text on p.32 If in future<br />
you need a proof‐reader....<br />
Russian was also taught to GCE “O”<br />
level (by Mr Anthony) to some 6th formers<br />
in early 1960 (John Tesh, John<br />
Forster, myself and at least one other)<br />
after they had secured University
places. I think we all passed except possibly<br />
one. Somewhere I have a photo of<br />
Monkey Island (background to family<br />
beach photo). I climbed halfway up the<br />
front, got stuck and had to be rescued by<br />
my Dad.<br />
Will recount at a later date some<br />
experiences of holiday jobs and a School<br />
camp in Glen Nevis.<br />
RAY LAZENBY (1935-40)<br />
writes ….<br />
Thank you for excellent <strong>Summer</strong><br />
<strong>Times</strong>. Re your footnote to Peter<br />
Massheder’s contribution (p16),<br />
ʺinexplicably ʹJoeyʹʺ ‐ see my contribution<br />
to <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> of November<br />
2005, p. 52.<br />
(Editor. I missed this. Ray then wrote––<br />
“Joe was always the Boss until Joe Stalin<br />
impinged on our consciousness in 1938 or<br />
’39 with phrases like “Joe for King” going<br />
around. A few of us stood at the bottom of<br />
the slope having fun with variations of “Joe<br />
for…” till we finished up with “Joe for<br />
Boss”, which is how ”the Boss” became “Joe<br />
Boss”, –– and some years later just “Joey”).<br />
JOHN MANN (1958- 1963)<br />
writes …<br />
To Ray Lazenby`s<br />
question I raise my<br />
hand on two counts:<br />
firstly, I crossed the<br />
Valley Bridge by<br />
means of the girders<br />
underneath, secondly,<br />
I was accompanied<br />
by a fellow pupil and great<br />
friend, Andrew Todd, who went on to<br />
10<br />
do it on another occasion. We were accompanied<br />
by another friend called<br />
“Milky” with whom I have lost touch.<br />
The feat was performed in around<br />
1960, when Andrew and I were in the<br />
Fifth Form. It was only vaguely related<br />
to the location of the old school at Westwood<br />
as by that time we had all moved<br />
to Woodlands. However, the area under<br />
the bridge had been our “play zone” for<br />
many years and as a precursor the first<br />
section of the crossing had been traversed<br />
several times. (This may explain<br />
why my blazer was blacker than most).<br />
Our complete crossing arose from one<br />
such occasion: having gone this far we<br />
thought we might carry on.<br />
We went from north to south, and I<br />
think I was on the west. The girders are<br />
indeed a hollow box shape, with crisscross<br />
struts across the top. On the one<br />
hand these made walking difficult, on<br />
the other they gave you something to<br />
hold. (I think Andrew crawled) At the<br />
point where the diagonal sections from<br />
above joined the lower girder it was necessary<br />
to step out on to a flange which<br />
protrudes by about 3 inches at the base<br />
of the girder. This manoeuvre was a bit<br />
worrisome.<br />
Although I now look back on the<br />
crossing with horror I do not recall it<br />
being especially “hair‐raising” at the<br />
time (confirming what Ray suggests). In<br />
fact I think we were probably more concerned<br />
about getting caught (which may<br />
be why we didn’t talk about it very<br />
much). I suppose that the unplanned<br />
nature of the event helped a bit. It didn’t<br />
seem as bad as the maiden jump from<br />
the top board at the South Pool, but it<br />
was a hell of a lot dirtier. I did the Sydney<br />
Harbour Bridge walk some 40 years
later and that seemed a piece of cake in<br />
comparison.<br />
The Sydney Harbour Bridge walk/<br />
climb has proved to be a great commercial<br />
success and one wonders whether<br />
or not a similar scheme could be introduced<br />
under the Valley Bridge by the<br />
creation of a catwalk? Then Ray would<br />
be able to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition!<br />
And it would be very popular when<br />
it’s raining‐ which is a bit of a downer at<br />
Sydney, where the walk is not down<br />
under! (Sorry I couldn’t resist that!) I<br />
suppose it might be difficult to get planning<br />
permission …. But this might be<br />
made easier if you had bingo on top of<br />
one of the towers …and perhaps throw<br />
in a bit of affordable housing for good<br />
measure. Alternatively, you could build<br />
a version of the Vasari Corridor hosting<br />
a modern art collection and link it to the<br />
Scarborough Art Gallery with an aerial<br />
footpath designed by Norman Foster.<br />
(The Vasari Corridor is on top of the Ponte<br />
Vecchio in Florence and links the Pitti Palace<br />
with the Uffizi)<br />
Thank you Ray for reminding me<br />
about all this.<br />
While I am writing may I say how<br />
much I enjoyed David Colenutt`s accounts<br />
of the school camps he attended.<br />
They evoked many memories.<br />
I think that the 1960 camp near<br />
Aviemore, my first, took place at the<br />
Whit half term. The weather was very<br />
varied: after persistent drizzle there was<br />
enough sun for many to suffer from<br />
sunburn. Then some other schools<br />
camping in the area were flooded out of<br />
their tents and had to take refuge in<br />
nearby Glenmore Lodge. We at SBHS<br />
were of sterner stuff and were trained in<br />
11<br />
the art of pitching tents by David’s father<br />
Eddie, our superb quartermaster. I<br />
remember a stock phrase: “nooooh yer<br />
can’t do that…..its not good campin`.” Our<br />
tent was on kitchen duty on the day of<br />
his scalding accident. It was so out of<br />
character that he should have chosen to<br />
rest his foot on the lid of a pan of nearboiling<br />
fat. And it was so unfortunate<br />
that the pan was such a good fit that no<br />
end of hopping around the tent on the<br />
other foot would remove it! Poor chap,<br />
I’m glad he enjoyed the whisky in his<br />
hospital porridge.<br />
I was also on the Glen Nevis camp<br />
and you didn’t miss much David on<br />
“the highlight climb”. I recall it been<br />
rather cloudy and not being able to see<br />
very much. The best bit was sliding<br />
back down on the snow on oilskins or<br />
whatever. I can’t remember whether or<br />
not the boat on which we had the trip to<br />
Oban was “The Waverley” (See Nov.<br />
edition of Classic Boats for picture p8).<br />
But I do remember that it had a bar on<br />
the lower stern deck. I recall observing<br />
through the thick smoke and through<br />
the bottom of a glass the entry of officialdom.<br />
There were no repercussions. It<br />
was in Oban that Doopher Hodgson<br />
walked into a gift shop and asked if<br />
they had any plaster of Paris Alsatians……to<br />
no avail. One highlight of<br />
this camp was David’s playing of his<br />
euphonium to which we sang songs old<br />
and new.<br />
In between these camps I think that<br />
there was one at Littondale in the Yorkshire<br />
dales. This was run by Mr Thomas<br />
(biology) and Mr Rose (classics). I particularly<br />
remember the transfer from the<br />
train to the camp site which was on the
ack of an open lorry with the kit. It was<br />
brilliant, so much for health and safety.<br />
Happy days, how lucky we were to<br />
have Masters prepared to put so much<br />
time and effort into these camps. I hope<br />
they enjoyed them too.<br />
ALAN GREEN (1937-44)<br />
writes…<br />
Re‐reading Vol. 56 <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>,<br />
what an amazing collection of people,<br />
masters, mistresses and pupils alike! You<br />
could not invent the Eric Sigston story or<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Boys such as Eric Fenby, SC<br />
Harland and the like. Beautifully compiled,<br />
and mercifully free (almost) from<br />
errors (among your 12 handsome photos,<br />
you are down twice (pages 43 and 55) as<br />
vintage ’51‐61 instead of ‘54‐61, which<br />
threw me momentarily! (Ed. As to my<br />
inadvertent over‐exposure see Apologia in<br />
this Magazine!)<br />
Miss Morley, sexy Canadian was<br />
always Bernice, and I never heard the<br />
Mabel label. Florrie Andrews was<br />
widely known as Fanny, ‐ bright red hair<br />
and mesmerising boobs, ‐ thick specks.<br />
One or two masters were quite gone on<br />
her, notably Norman Stoddard who<br />
gawped throughout morning Assembly.<br />
JOHN M WEBSTER (1944-<br />
55) writes...<br />
Here is an article which may be OK<br />
for the <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. You are doing a<br />
really great job as Editor. Please keep it<br />
up as many of us scattered around the<br />
globe depend on it to keep in touch.<br />
Sorry that I shall not make the December<br />
Dinner this year. Best wishes to you and<br />
12<br />
all the Executive Team.<br />
What’s in a House?<br />
The first day at School and you were<br />
given a House! Yes, your very own that<br />
you would share with others, compete in,<br />
compete for, meet at, bat for, swim, box,<br />
play, run, jump and sing for, and if you<br />
were very good or lucky you would win<br />
for your House! ‐ But how did the system<br />
work?* How did you get allotted,<br />
given, get placed in that House in the<br />
first place? Was it random placement or a<br />
factor‐related decision by a higher being?<br />
Arnold, Carlyle, Kingsley and<br />
Ruskin, all are well‐known Houses to us<br />
all. We acknowledge also their distinguished<br />
literary stature and association,<br />
and it is just conceivable that some of us<br />
may well have read some of the scholarly<br />
works of all four House‐title holders. – I<br />
wonder how many of us have.<br />
The imprinting of our House and all<br />
that it stood for in our young brains was<br />
reinforced by periodic House Meetings<br />
with pupils that shared your House with<br />
you. Were these monthly meetings or<br />
only at the end of term? Our team spirit<br />
and, yes, even competitiveness, was reinvigorated<br />
by messages from our House<br />
Master. Mine, as I was in Kingsley, was<br />
Pike Richardson.<br />
As we stood or sat and listened to<br />
him describe the parade of excellence, or<br />
lament over its absence, our House Master<br />
was flanked by other staff who were<br />
head of sections (Tutorials?) within the<br />
House. These groups were given the inspiring<br />
names of A,B,C and D! I believe<br />
that I was in D, and my section leader<br />
was Spike Jones. The section met more<br />
frequently too, I think weekly on Fridays,<br />
perhaps? Kingsley D met in Room 4,
13<br />
Spike’s class room. However, I have no<br />
recollection of what occurred at those<br />
sectional meetings, have you?<br />
I do remember, however, that the<br />
top House for three years in a row in the<br />
early fifties was Kingsley. Wow! How<br />
did a House rise to the top? – What was<br />
the system of points, do you know? – I<br />
presume that it was an amalgam of<br />
sports and academic points awarded on<br />
the basis of relative degrees of excellence,<br />
but who did the statistics and<br />
worked the magic?<br />
Location, location, location is key,<br />
they say. Perhaps that is why Kingsley<br />
was tops, because we met in the Lecture<br />
Theatre! Arnold, on the other hand, had<br />
to be satisfied with the biology lab. and<br />
Ruskin the basement woodwork shop.<br />
Carlyle exerted its influence from the<br />
Main Hall no less, and with signal success<br />
much to the chagrin of Kinsleyites.<br />
There was a fifth House, a select few<br />
of you may remember, Morris House,<br />
the one with the white cap badge. Membership<br />
of this House was only transitory<br />
while you were in the Prep B and<br />
Prep A forms. Following this you were<br />
transferred to one of the big four. Wasn’t<br />
Cush Turnbull the last House Master<br />
of Morris House before its dissolution<br />
together with the Prep forms in<br />
1946?<br />
Perhaps the benign, jovial, masterful<br />
Joey was actually the benevolent dictator<br />
that decided everything, including<br />
your House. Does anyone know?<br />
Did the Houses survive the transition<br />
from Westwood to Woodlands?<br />
Sorry that I seem to be unaware of<br />
many of the facts, some forgotten and<br />
others I am not sure I ever knew. I was<br />
House Captain in my final year too, and<br />
I do remember that we were not top<br />
dog.<br />
*(Ed. Perhaps, for those who have read<br />
Harry Potter, there may have been the then<br />
equivalent of the Sorting Hat!?)<br />
JOHN FORSTER (1955-60)<br />
writes…<br />
Mike Mansfieldʹs<br />
recollection<br />
(ʺ<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>ʺ,<br />
November 2008,<br />
page 30) of Mr<br />
”Gilmore” is almost<br />
correct. Iʹm fairly<br />
sure he was James<br />
(or Jimmy) Gilmour<br />
(Ed. The Staff Register confirms this) and<br />
think he taught English and was form<br />
master of 5L, the classroom at the southwest<br />
end of the Westwood building. I<br />
have an unusual memento signed by<br />
him, this came about as follows: in January<br />
19<strong>57</strong> a magazine called<br />
ʺCompetitorsʹ Journalʺ ran a competition<br />
which asked entrants to unscramble an<br />
anagram of a line from ʺHamletʺ. This<br />
took me about an hour to work out, and<br />
I sent an entry in. The magazine, rather<br />
unwisely, promised a prize<br />
(unspecified) to every entrant who got<br />
the correct answer. I therefore sent<br />
in further entries, including one in the<br />
name of Mr Gilmour, giving the Westwood<br />
address. In due course he appeared<br />
in our classroom, brandishing a<br />
sixpenny Postal Order. The magazine<br />
had received lots of correct entries and<br />
had kept their promise! I owned up as<br />
the perpetrator, whereupon Mr Gilmour
signed the postal order and gave it to<br />
me. However, it had already been<br />
crossed, and could only be paid into an<br />
account in his name. I therefore kept it,<br />
and it sits to this day among my collection<br />
of postmarks and postal ephemera.<br />
One other trivial correction: the road<br />
which led down to Monkey Island and<br />
the Scalby Mills Cafe was (and is)<br />
Scalby Mills Road, not Scholes Park<br />
Road. The latter was a cul‐de‐sac which<br />
for many years led to an establishment<br />
known as Colleyʹs Cosy Camp.<br />
This caught fire spectacularly overnight<br />
sometime in the late 1950s, an event<br />
which I watched from my bedroom at 122<br />
Scholes Park Road. The camp was rebuilt<br />
but later demolished and replaced<br />
by housing.<br />
DR JACK BINNS<br />
writes ….<br />
Many thanks for your splendid work<br />
as Editor of <strong>Volume</strong> 56 of <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>:<br />
it was full of interesting reading and had<br />
something for everyone. However (!), as a<br />
former schoolmaster and addictive pedant,<br />
I was driven to seek out my red<br />
marking pen, still functional, though<br />
rusty with age.<br />
(Jack, for the few who are unaware,<br />
taught History at the School from 1962‐<br />
1973 , subsequently becoming Head of History<br />
at Scarborough Sixth Form College until<br />
his retirement in 1992, and is well‐known as<br />
a local Historian and Author)<br />
From my own experience as an author,<br />
I know that personal names present<br />
pitfalls and there were several errors<br />
printed in 56: ––Trueman not Truman –<br />
– Norman Hopkin not Hopkins –– Bismarck<br />
not Bismark ––<br />
14<br />
Flather Pickers Leas not Flatter Pickers<br />
Leas on the Scalby Enclosure map of<br />
1777. The flather or flither girls were<br />
Scarborough women who walked amazing<br />
distances up and down the coast in<br />
search of ʺflithersʺ or limpets to bait the<br />
fishing lines of their men folk. Flather<br />
Pickers Leas is now called Scalby Mills<br />
Ness.<br />
As a historian Iʹm a tyrant on dates.<br />
The Boysʹ High School closed in 1973 not<br />
1974.<br />
Historically, it is perfectly appropriate<br />
that a magazine of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong>ʹ<br />
Association should contain references to<br />
the High Schoolʹs illustrious predecessor,<br />
the Muni. The High Schoolʹs academic<br />
excellence, its then unfashionable emphasis<br />
on the sciences, the breadth and<br />
achievements of its extra‐curricular activities<br />
and the deserved esteem it enjoyed<br />
locally all derived originally from<br />
its Muni. ancestry, not to mention its architectural<br />
home.<br />
Some years ago I wrote a book called<br />
ʺHeroes, Rogues and Eccentrics: A Biographical<br />
Journey through Scarboroughʹs<br />
Pastʺ. Recently, I have added 20 new<br />
chapters devoted to more Scarborough<br />
men, women and families who, it seemed<br />
to me, ought to be better remembered.<br />
The only ʺold boy” was Sir John Wilson,<br />
whose accident in the chemistry lab.<br />
proved to be more of a gift to millions<br />
than a tragedy to a 12‐year‐old boy. But<br />
there are also chapters on two Muni.<br />
products: Storm Jameson and Sydney<br />
Cross Harland.<br />
You may not be aware that before he<br />
died in 1982, Sydney wrote his autobiography,<br />
which was published only privately<br />
in a few copies. It is wonderfully
frank and revealing and formed the foundation<br />
of my essay on his life and remarkable<br />
career. It contains an abundance of<br />
amusing anecdotes about his youthful<br />
delinquencies at the Muni. and his experience<br />
as a trainee teacher at Friarage school.<br />
(Incidentally, the statutory school‐leaving<br />
age was 12, not 10, when the Muni. was<br />
opened and not raised to 14 until after<br />
1918). A typescript copy of Sydneyʹs autobiography<br />
is in the biographical section of<br />
the Scarborough Room in the Central Library.<br />
Finally, I must take you to task for<br />
writing that John Uppleby (when was he<br />
knighted?) lived in Londesborough Lodge.<br />
In fact, the Boroughʹs first Town Clerk<br />
after reorganisation in 1835 bought the site<br />
of what is now the Art Gallery in 1844 and<br />
lived in Crescent House he had built on it<br />
until his death in 1856. His widow occupied<br />
the house until her death in 1881.<br />
Before it was re‐named Londesborough<br />
Lodge, the neighbouring mansion was<br />
called Warwick House. As a member of<br />
the Friends of the Art Gallery I had the<br />
privilege last year of giving a lecture on<br />
the history of the Art Gallery. Crescent<br />
House became the townʹs Art Gallery in<br />
1947. Thanks to the generosity of Tom<br />
Laughton, it has a magnificent collection,<br />
much of it not on public view, of a very<br />
wide range of pictures. Atkinson Grimshaw<br />
is number 13 in my second volume<br />
of Heroes.<br />
15<br />
and families with Scarborough connections.<br />
They include Atkinson Grimshaw,<br />
Storm Jameson, Winifred Holtby and<br />
Will Catlin.<br />
Winifred is one of my foremost heroines<br />
and I was one of a private party allowed<br />
to visit her home in Rudston a few<br />
weeks ago. I hope that my tribute to her<br />
will extend local recognition of her extraordinary<br />
talent and courage. Thank you<br />
for sending a copy of her precocious piece<br />
on the Bombardment. Incidentally, it was<br />
Winifredʹs pushy mother who sent the<br />
essay to the Brid. Chronicle. Winifredʹs<br />
experience of Queen Margaretʹs School<br />
had a profound and lasting affect on her –<br />
she left all her books to the school library.<br />
Atkinson Grimshaw is another of my<br />
favourite subjects, though like so many of<br />
his paintings, he remains a dark, mysterious<br />
and elusive figure. I have a book full<br />
of memories of the Boysʹ High School during<br />
its last eleven years of existence from<br />
1962 until 1973, but it is still too early to<br />
make them public, even if I could find the<br />
time and the publisher. At present, I am<br />
busy promoting my latest book, out this<br />
week, on the life of Sir Hugh Cholmley<br />
(1600‐ <strong>57</strong>) of Whitby, for the pre‐Christmas<br />
market.<br />
(Ed. In view of the local interest and connection<br />
it is hoped to include short pieces on<br />
both Winifred Holtby and Atkinson Grimshaw<br />
when and if space permits.)<br />
DR JACK BINNS<br />
further writes …<br />
The second volume of “Heroes, Rogues<br />
and Eccentrics,” to be published, I hope,<br />
next year, contains 20 additional, brief<br />
biographies of outstanding men, women<br />
***
GORDON DEXTER<br />
(1948- 55) writes….<br />
16<br />
I have only just come across the <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Scarborians</strong> after a first look at Friends<br />
Reunited. A pity because until 4 years<br />
ago I was still visiting my mother at home<br />
in Falsgrave as frequently as every 2<br />
weeks. So far I have only just got around<br />
to reading the last 2 magazines but they<br />
trigger lots of memories. I can add my<br />
own recollections which no doubt overlap<br />
a lot with previous contributions but may<br />
add a different slant. Perhaps they are<br />
even mistaken in some areas but it is all a<br />
terribly long time ago.<br />
The most important comment I can<br />
make is that I owe the School an enormous<br />
debt of gratitude. After the hated<br />
and frightening Hinderwell Junior School<br />
where I was even caned by the Headmaster<br />
on my very first day, I remember the<br />
High School as being nearly always<br />
stimulating and encouraging. At age 16,<br />
my not very academic parents thought<br />
that they were being helpful by fixing me<br />
up with a Post Office /Telecom apprenticeship<br />
through a manager friend. Joey<br />
actually came around to our house to<br />
persuade them that I should continue into<br />
the 6th Form and apply for University.<br />
My parents had neither time nor<br />
money for holidays but they did pay for<br />
me to join in all the School Camps for<br />
which I was eligible, Wensleydale, Loch<br />
Morlich, Western Highlands, Zermatt,<br />
leading to a lifelong enjoyment of the<br />
outdoors. In Bainbridge, I remember<br />
peeling enormous quantities of potatoes,<br />
accidentally knocking over the latrine<br />
cabin, farting competitions in the belltents,<br />
and washing(?) in the river with the<br />
crayfish. On the first Scottish trip I remember<br />
the early morning light in<br />
Aviemore and the smell of wood smoke<br />
as we set off from the station on the 7<br />
mile walk to the campsite and my first<br />
blisters. Next morning the tents were covered<br />
in snow and we moved into one of<br />
the huts where we were better able to<br />
observe the folk dancing of a group of<br />
girls from a Glasgow school. In Zermatt<br />
the campsite was not available for some<br />
reason and we ended up sleeping just feet<br />
away from the railway tracks. The station<br />
even had slot machines with chocolate!<br />
Again, washing or not in the stream, we<br />
were able to observe, like Ruskin, that<br />
German women had hairy armpits! Do I<br />
remember correctly that a certain Potts or<br />
Pitts was allowed to sleep on when we<br />
crept off the train at York on the return?<br />
In parallel with the school Camps,<br />
every school holiday involved some bicycle<br />
travel, usually with friends Peter<br />
Youle, David Beanland, Stuart Marriot.<br />
We camped with shared equipment,<br />
stayed in Youth Hostels, or even farm<br />
barns in the winter. A favourite was Elterwater<br />
in the Lake District. The twin Langdale<br />
Pikes were always known as Mount<br />
Blakemore!<br />
Although generally a bit of a swot I<br />
struggled to get by in Languages. After 4<br />
years of terror with Bon it is rather ironical<br />
that I was married to a German lady<br />
for 22 years and that half my relatives<br />
and friends are German. I was kept behind<br />
after school every day for a week for<br />
my stupidity over the Subjunctive form<br />
until my strong‐willed mother turned up<br />
and pulled me out in front of everyone.<br />
What humiliation! However I still feel<br />
quite offended when I see or hear it misused,<br />
particularly on Radio Four.
I was quite good in Maths, Physics,<br />
Chemistry and Geography but only<br />
ever got second place because Stuart<br />
Marriot always came first. This was<br />
very unfair because he was always top<br />
of everything else. My only bad report<br />
came in Biology in the first year though<br />
I never found out why. Perhaps it was<br />
because I was reluctant to collect leeches<br />
from the Valley pond, or smirked in<br />
THE SEX LESSON.<br />
After the sudden death of Cyril<br />
Isherwood, I was surprised to pass A<br />
Level Physics but went on to a Rolls‐<br />
Royce apprenticeship, thanks again to<br />
Joey recommending me for a taster<br />
course, and then Nottingham University.<br />
There, one dark January evening in<br />
1958, Gerald Hinchliffe approached out<br />
of the fog and asked for a telephone. His<br />
wife was expecting a baby. He was<br />
working for the Education Dept. Much<br />
later when I became a Physics teacher<br />
after helping to bankrupt Rolls‐Royce in<br />
1971, we met many times when he came<br />
to look at his student teachers.<br />
That reminds me how different interview<br />
styles and times can be. At<br />
Rolls‐Royce I was asked to compare the<br />
writing of D H Lawrence and Graham<br />
Greene (Were they having a joke at my<br />
expense?) Luckily I had been spending<br />
part of my lunch hours in the library<br />
reading aviation magazines and could<br />
tell them that their new wonder material<br />
was titanium and could describe<br />
how aeroplanes develop lift. At Nottingham<br />
University I was only asked if<br />
Scarborough was any good for sailing.<br />
By chance in 1972 after sitting next to<br />
and chatting with a headmaster in a<br />
Derby theatre, I was offered a post<br />
17<br />
teaching Physics while just showing me<br />
around his new comprehensive school.<br />
The Library Theatre in the Round<br />
first introduced me to theatre. I remember<br />
that tickets were sent round to the<br />
6th Form when sales were not going too<br />
well. I remember too seeing a young<br />
Alan Ayckbourn playing the lead in a<br />
piece called ʺPrentice Pillar.ʺ<br />
I knew the Flax family quite well.<br />
We lived only 2 doors away and I<br />
swapped a model steam engine for a<br />
model yacht with Maurice. Mrs Flax<br />
taught me to swim and gave me my first<br />
25 yard (metre?) certificate. ʺJust get to<br />
the other side even if you crawl across the<br />
bottom.ʺ Later swimming lessons were a<br />
disaster and I won no more certificates.<br />
Dives were always belly flops and with<br />
the crawl I turned into a submarine,<br />
heading for the bottom.<br />
All sports and gymnastics were a<br />
disaster really. I hung from the wall<br />
bars like an electrocuted chicken, and<br />
when springing over the box or the<br />
horse I would land winded or on my<br />
head. A tall but very short sighted prop<br />
forward I would flounder from scrum<br />
to scrum in rugby and go home with<br />
bruised ankles and twisted ears. The<br />
best bit was the downhill run on a bike<br />
afterwards. In the 6th Form I took a<br />
book to the beach instead and if anyone<br />
missed me they kept quiet about it.<br />
In younger days we played on the<br />
beach after school with Dinky toys and<br />
model boats, at least until we moved up<br />
to long trousers. I remember an older<br />
boy (Sixsmith?) trying between tides to<br />
chip out a very large ammonite from<br />
rocks below the Spa.<br />
In later years we would tear around<br />
Scarborough and the cliff paths playing
chasing games on our bikes, ending up<br />
about 9pm at Leppingtonʹs chip shop<br />
off Falsgrave for a generous portion of<br />
chips with mushy peas and scraps for<br />
3d. Friday evenings were spent playing<br />
table tennis and trying to chat up the<br />
girls in the Youth Club of Albemarle<br />
Church.<br />
Sometimes we sat in the gallery of<br />
the church during Sunday evening services<br />
in order to help the girls with their<br />
homework. We were frequently admonished<br />
by the Reverend Vellam Pitts,<br />
particularly for our cynical attitude to a<br />
Billy Graham meeting in York which<br />
left the girls all weepy.<br />
A few more items for your Trivia<br />
section:<br />
A problem set by Zenna Potts when<br />
he must have had something more important<br />
than teaching classical Physics<br />
on his mind. I won 5 shillings for being<br />
the first to finish ‐ when 5 shillings<br />
would buy a mixed grill in the cafe on<br />
York Place :<br />
18<br />
ʺA farmer lets different numbers of<br />
identical cows into 3 identical fields.<br />
Field 1 is used up by 10 cows in 8<br />
days.<br />
Field 2 is used up by 8 cows in 12<br />
days.<br />
Field 3 is used up by 6 cows in ?<br />
daysʺ<br />
(He left it to us to remember that we<br />
had to allow for the rate of re‐growth of<br />
the grass. Apparently this is related to<br />
the wartime problem of deploying<br />
minesweepers most efficiently when<br />
waterways are re‐seeded every day by<br />
enemy aircraft. ) We also heard a lot<br />
about his wartime work on the ʺdegaussing”<br />
of steel ships to make them less<br />
vulnerable to magnetic mines. (I get it to be<br />
24)<br />
From my school tests of 12 year olds,<br />
ʺMr. Dexter pushed an odd blonde under<br />
waterʺ (Oblong? We had found the volume<br />
of an irregular object by the displacement<br />
method.)<br />
ʺThe male sex organ is called the pee<br />
nuts.ʺ (Seems like a fair alternative to<br />
me)<br />
Somewhere I think I still have some<br />
photos which I will try to unload on to<br />
the Archivist, if I can find them. I live<br />
alone now in a small cottage which is<br />
overloaded with items which ʺmight<br />
come in useful one dayʺ, but one day<br />
will certainly be thrown out by my ruthless<br />
daughter...<br />
It comes of being a wartime child.<br />
MAURICE SHORT(1938-42)<br />
writes...<br />
Another great Journal created for<br />
<strong>Volume</strong> 56 ‐ thanks to you and all the<br />
Committee.<br />
Having read the Scarborough Now<br />
‐ III, I paused at the item on Monkey<br />
Island which over some years created<br />
quite a discussion among Yorkshire<br />
and even Scarborough friends. First on<br />
its very presence, its name and also the<br />
fact presented and noted in your article,<br />
that cricket was played on top. I<br />
can remember going on the top of the<br />
Island and playing with my brothers a<br />
relative ʹsmallʹ game of cricket, which<br />
for me was a big game since I was only<br />
seven (1932). However, such was the<br />
impression it made on me that whenever<br />
a discussion arises I am prepared<br />
to ʹbattleʹ over any negative views of its
presence and its now historical presence.<br />
Such were my feelings for it that<br />
in discussion with my Mother she became<br />
so impressed by my concern that,<br />
unknown to me, she commissioned a<br />
Scarborough artist, Don Micklethwaite<br />
to paint a picture of it in its later years. I<br />
enclose a photo of the painting which<br />
may not be able to be reproduced in the<br />
Journal but you may wish to show it to<br />
other local members, or archive it; I<br />
leave its future to you.<br />
I was also interested to learn that a<br />
Register was kept of School Teachers,<br />
noting particularly the names of those<br />
female teachers replacing those High<br />
School Teachers called up for war service.<br />
I do remember one female teacher<br />
arriving at the school, the first of such<br />
replacements, whose additional out of<br />
school specialty was Fencing. I think I<br />
recorded the excitement not only among<br />
scholars but teachers too, with Mr<br />
Stoddard becoming very keen on fencing<br />
such that he ʹstoleʹ some of her available<br />
fencing teaching time during the<br />
lunch hour, much to the disgust of aspiring<br />
Olympians!<br />
As an aside I would be grateful if<br />
you could advise me where I could purchase<br />
a copy of the History of the Westwood<br />
School. I do recall that a short<br />
summary of it was included in a previous<br />
copy of the Journal some years ago,<br />
which I no longer have. I was particularly<br />
taken by its beginning involving a<br />
Northern response to the Governmentʹs<br />
apparent lack of interest in improving<br />
schools and education in the North.<br />
Little wonder there is still a feeling for<br />
UDI for Yorkshire! (Ed. The History itself<br />
is not in the Association Archives, but a<br />
19<br />
substantial extract appeared in the <strong>May</strong><br />
2002 Issue of the Magazine)<br />
***<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
Alec Gardiner<br />
(Died October 28 th 2008) – by Bill<br />
Redman<br />
Bill Redman (1946‐54) taught History and<br />
English for just over four years (1963‐67) at<br />
the Boysʹ High School under Alec Gardiner.<br />
To this day he still maintains that he used<br />
Jack Binnsʹ ʹOʹ level notes for his ʹAʹ level<br />
students and they were none the worse for<br />
that. This was his first teaching appointment<br />
after leaving industry. Bill was later Head of<br />
a secondary school in the Manchester area for<br />
twenty four years. Clearly he considers Alec<br />
Gardinerʹs influence to be pivotal to his professional<br />
development. The following is based<br />
on an appreciation of Alec which he gave at<br />
the <strong>Old</strong> Boysʹ Dinner in December.<br />
Memories of Alec Gardiner<br />
I once had the<br />
temerity to ask<br />
Alec Gardiner a<br />
personal question:<br />
‐ ʺHow did you get<br />
your Military<br />
Cross?ʺ<br />
I was wasting my<br />
time. I should<br />
have known better.<br />
ʺAh Bill. It was the motor bike really. By<br />
the way how are you getting on with the<br />
English ʹOʹ level retakes?ʺ<br />
This was so typical of Alec, a private<br />
man; he was not easy to get to know. A<br />
man whose accomplishments were not
up for discussion. There were members<br />
of staff who had worked with him who<br />
did not even know that he had been<br />
decorated.<br />
The conversation reveals Alec as a<br />
Head Teacher who knew exactly what<br />
he wanted from his staff, particularly<br />
recent appointments. All boys in his<br />
care should achieve their potential. I<br />
worked at the Boysʹ High School when<br />
Grammar schools were going out of<br />
fashion. Certainly the standard criticism<br />
of ʹlowerʹ forms not maximising<br />
their ability could not be applied to any<br />
school where Alec Gardiner worked.<br />
Alecʹs method of communication<br />
was somewhat bizarre by modern standards.<br />
I remember in my first week in<br />
the staff room taking coffee during<br />
morning break with the Headmaster<br />
next to me casually making conversation.<br />
This was repeated on many occasions<br />
during my probationary year.<br />
Had Alec no faith in me? Was he keeping<br />
a watchful eye on what he considered<br />
to be a doubtful appointment? He<br />
was, in fact quietly and unobtrusively<br />
making sure that I knew what was expected.<br />
The process was repeated with<br />
other colleagues. No written aims and<br />
objectives, no performance indices, the<br />
staff room at the Boysʹ High School was<br />
like a gentlemenʹs club ‐ civilised with<br />
value discretely but firmly stated.<br />
Alec was awarded 1st class honours<br />
at University College, London. He<br />
studied for a year before the war and<br />
returned to complete his studies after<br />
the war in, what I suspect, was just one<br />
more year. As he once said to me:‐<br />
ʺIn those days I was a man in a hurry.ʺ<br />
The key to Alec Gardiner was his<br />
20<br />
Methodist faith which governed his<br />
attitude to life and his work. A man of<br />
high principles, somewhat dauntingly<br />
so, he was still so completely and generously<br />
tolerant, understanding and<br />
encouraging to those of a more secular,<br />
alcohol‐fuelled disposition. After I left<br />
Scarborough, I did not immediately<br />
find my career in teaching so pleasing.<br />
I was grateful that I had a man of Alecʹs<br />
stature to remind me what education<br />
was about. He was my yardstick as far<br />
as professional standards were concerned<br />
for the rest of my career. If I fell<br />
short of his exacting standards, at least<br />
I was aware of my shortcomings.<br />
At an <strong>Old</strong> Boysʹ Dinner a few years<br />
ago Alec asked me to call him by his<br />
Christian name. ʺYes, Mr Gardiner,ʺ was<br />
my reply. Total respect for the man<br />
with a certain amount of awe.<br />
‐ʹService to the Communityʹ this was<br />
how Alecʹs daughter described Alecʹs<br />
life. How right she was.<br />
‐Service to his country in time of<br />
war. Those who knew him only a little,<br />
could appreciate how uncongenial he<br />
would find all aspects of army life.<br />
‐Service to Education. Not just as<br />
Head teacher and administrator at the<br />
Boysʹ High School. Alec had a key role<br />
in the creation of a comprehensive system<br />
in Scarborough through his work<br />
as the first Principal of the Sixth Form<br />
College.<br />
‐Service as a Magistrate. At one<br />
time, I understand he was Chairman of<br />
the Bench for the North Riding.<br />
‐Service to his Church. Not only by<br />
his work at Westborough and Scalby<br />
Methodist Churches, was Alec a more<br />
than competent organist.
With all his talents, I always felt that<br />
Alec Gardiner could have gone further<br />
professionally. He decided to remain in<br />
Scarborough and it was very much his<br />
choice, devoting a life of service to the<br />
benefit of the community.<br />
Thank you ‐ Alec.<br />
(Ed. A further Obituary, based on that contained<br />
in the Scarborough Evening News of<br />
the 5 th December 2008, appears on the OSA<br />
Website, with other tributes)<br />
Vernon Houlden Charles<br />
77 years old, died 28th October 2008 and<br />
lived in Thornton Le Dale. Nothing else<br />
known.<br />
Ralph Green(1944-1951)<br />
( Contributed by Patricia Green)<br />
Ralph died on the 14 th August 2008,<br />
having had Parkinson’s disease for 19<br />
years.<br />
He was at the School until 1951 when<br />
he left to do his National Service in the<br />
I. Corps in the Canal Zone. After Egypt,<br />
he went to Christ’s College, Cambridge<br />
to read Modern Languages and had a<br />
long career in teaching at Berkhampstead<br />
School, The University of Saigon (as it<br />
then was) and Chester College (or University<br />
as it now is) where he was very<br />
committed to the training of teachers.<br />
He was very proud of his Yorkshire<br />
roots, and of his time at Scarborough<br />
High School, and had framed photographs<br />
of himself in the Cricket Team<br />
(1944) and as a very small member of the<br />
cast, probably again in 1944, in a production<br />
of Julius Caesar. I think he felt privileged<br />
to have been educated there.<br />
21<br />
Alan Green (1937- 44) also<br />
writes...<br />
My brother was an all‐round sportsman<br />
(soccer, cricket, rugger, tennis,<br />
squash, lacrosse, water polo, badminton,<br />
and cross‐country) ‐ one of five children.<br />
He and I were 5 years apart. Typical of<br />
SBHS pattern, a scattered existence away<br />
from Scarborough. He and I met infrequently<br />
in various exotic places (Port<br />
Said, Singapore, Saigon) also nearer<br />
home in Cambridge, Berkhampstead and<br />
Chester, but rarely in Scarborough.<br />
He had the nerve to turn down Wadham<br />
‐ Oxford (Joe Boss’s old College)<br />
despite HWM’s recommendation to (Sir)<br />
Maurice Bowra, in favour of Christ’s<br />
Cambridge (a lovely College but, still,<br />
Cambridge?) It probably took some years<br />
to overcome that particular handicap.<br />
A less frivolous handicap was the<br />
war years for Ralph, growing up in a<br />
period where Father was back in the<br />
Navy (at age 40!) for 6 years, my sister<br />
Dorothy pushed off into the WRNS in<br />
’43, and I followed in ’44 for 4 years in<br />
the RAF. Younger sister Beryl died, aged<br />
only 16, in March 1945, following nearly<br />
2 years with cancer of the liver, nursed<br />
throughout at home. Quite how our<br />
mother coped, running the shop, and a<br />
two acre plot, plus the remaining two<br />
children Ralph and Brenda Marjorie<br />
(now at Burniston), heaven knows!<br />
Ralph had a B.Phil from Liverpool in<br />
addition to his MA Cantab. but nevertheless<br />
was not an academic. Typically his<br />
final act was to donate his brain to the<br />
Parkinson’s Society for medical research.<br />
Not many of us would go down that<br />
road I guess. At School I note from the
1944 Scarborian that he earned his under‐12<br />
Cricket and Soccer colours and<br />
won the Junior School cross‐country<br />
championship the same year (I reported<br />
it as Sports Secretary ‘43‐44 and came<br />
third myself in the Seniors race)<br />
(Ed. His obituary in the Chester Chronicle<br />
further referred to his candidature as a<br />
Liberal for the two Parliamentary elections<br />
for West Cheshire in 1974 and at the first<br />
elections for the European Parliament, and<br />
to Ralph, “in everything he did, being<br />
known as an exceptionally able and enthusiastic<br />
teacher with a passion and dedication<br />
towards his students. His educational work<br />
extended outside his University work as he<br />
was Chairman of Governors at two local<br />
schools.”)<br />
Arthur Edwards<br />
(1944-51)<br />
22<br />
Peter Robson (1945-53)<br />
writes...<br />
Arthur Edwards died in Hull on Jan<br />
8th 2008 aged 74. Arthur was a keen<br />
sportsman and excelled at cricket. He<br />
was a left handed bat whose confident<br />
waddle to the wicket will be etched in<br />
the memory of all his contemporaries.<br />
The Hull Daily Mail reported his death<br />
as follows: “Arthur Edwards was one of<br />
the best known figures in East Riding school<br />
sport has passed away aged 74. Educated at<br />
Scarborough Boys High School in his home<br />
town, he taught at Hull’s Riley High School<br />
for 30 years from 1958 until his retirement.<br />
Edwards was also the chairman of the Hull<br />
Schools FA, the highlight coming in 1986<br />
when they reached the English Schools final<br />
against Middlesbrough. He also played<br />
cricket, as wicketkeeper batsman, for Hull<br />
Zingari and <strong>Old</strong> Hymerians. He was founder<br />
member of the Cave Castle Golf Club<br />
near his home in South Cave. He is survived<br />
by his wife Pam, a son, a daughter and three<br />
grandchildren.”<br />
Arthur was the first Chairman of the<br />
East Yorkshire Cricket Alliance and was<br />
Secretary of the Humberside Cricket<br />
Federation, going on to represent East<br />
Yorkshire as delegate to the Yorkshire<br />
Association. He and his non‐identical<br />
twin brother Bobby, who is also a member<br />
of the OSA, were the sons of the<br />
Registrar of Births, Marriages and<br />
Deaths, James Edwards, who presided<br />
over the office when it was located in<br />
Dean Road.<br />
Some years ago, on re‐joining the<br />
OSA, Arthur bequeathed his Junior<br />
School Cap to the archive. ‐ <strong>May</strong> he rest<br />
in peace.<br />
Trevor Pepper (1959-63)<br />
Phil Austin (1958-64)<br />
writes…<br />
I wondered if you were aware of the<br />
relatively sudden death of my old<br />
school pal Trevor Pepper who joined<br />
the High School in 1965 after taking the<br />
13+ exam. If you recall, those boys were<br />
”kept downʺ a year and we got to wear<br />
long trousers a year earlier as a year<br />
made a difference to hirsute limbs!!<br />
Although we did not meet until he<br />
joined the High School, I recall little of<br />
him at school but we were close friends<br />
outside of school, both living in the<br />
Peasholm area. He was nearly two years<br />
older than me, his birthday being in<br />
October whereas mine is in August. We<br />
explored that period of transition from<br />
child to adult together and I have very
23<br />
clear memories of some of our (mis)<br />
adventures together!<br />
Trevor contracted cancer of the liver<br />
and was extremely unlucky in that<br />
Christieʹs, in Manchester where he was<br />
treated, were convinced that this was a<br />
secondary cancer as primary liver cancer<br />
is extraordinarily rare. They<br />
searched for the primary source but<br />
ultimately discovered he was one of<br />
those extremely rare cases. He did not<br />
suffer too much and was fairly well<br />
until a fortnight before his death in<br />
early August. He lived in Romanby,<br />
Northallerton and leaves his second<br />
wife, Sarah and two daughters from his<br />
first marriage.<br />
I will try to get to the London Bash<br />
in March. Events in the nature of the<br />
above make me feel old, but when I<br />
meet up in London I feel quite young!<br />
Sola resurgit vita!<br />
***<br />
SCARBOROUGH –THEN &<br />
NOW – IV<br />
“Scarborough Then” and “Scarborough<br />
Now,” although apparently popular<br />
features in the Magazine, appear in this<br />
issue in merged and somewhat truncated<br />
form, partly because of constraints<br />
of space and partly from the<br />
dearth of new material about present<br />
changes, either because little new has<br />
recently happened of note or your Editor<br />
has woefully failed to keep pace<br />
with local events. In particular<br />
“Scarborough Now” for an expatriate<br />
Editor who has been long removed<br />
from the Town and only infrequently<br />
revisits it is not the easiest of features to<br />
service, although it appears to be appreciated<br />
by other “foreign” readers, but it<br />
does remain dependent upon being fed<br />
by both local residents and the online<br />
Scarborough Evening News. The indulgence<br />
of local readers is therefore<br />
sought for occasional inaccuracies and<br />
incorrect conclusions and they are invited<br />
both to correct these and themselves<br />
submit material worthy of inclusion<br />
as being of interest to us outsiders.<br />
Whilst previously Scarborough Then<br />
has been a miscellany of separate snaphots<br />
of the Town as we remember it,<br />
this particular article focuses on the<br />
former Open Air Theatre, which so<br />
many of us will remember, and pilfers<br />
unashamedly from an article in the<br />
Scarborough Evening News last autumn<br />
and which perhaps bridges both<br />
the “Then” and the” Now.”<br />
During our youth many of us will<br />
have spent once at least shivering on<br />
damp and uncomfortable wooden seats<br />
with a weather eye on an overcast sky<br />
on a chilly summer evening at the Open<br />
Air Theatre, either as the unwilling accomplice<br />
to our parents or perhaps<br />
even voluntarily marvelling at the then<br />
sophistication of White Horse Inn, Rose<br />
Marie or other light operatic treats.<br />
Other <strong>Old</strong> Boys may even have been<br />
part of the cast, whether supporting or<br />
otherwise, and I seem to recall our esteemed<br />
former President, David Fowler<br />
confessing in this Magazine to his involvement<br />
(Mountie hat and all!) in<br />
Rose Marie, and the alleged amatory<br />
advantages of this in relation to<br />
(gullible) members of the opposite sex!
The Theatre was in fact built by the<br />
Corporation and opened by the Lord<br />
<strong>May</strong>or of London in 1932 as allegedly the<br />
largest Open Air Theatre in Europe since<br />
antiquity, with fixed seating for 5876 (the<br />
balance being deckchairs.) The house<br />
record, set in 1952, was nearly 9000 but<br />
an unofficial 11000 was later claimed for a<br />
free recording of It’s a Knockout in the<br />
1960’s. The site was leased by the Corporation<br />
to Scarborough Operatic and Dramatic<br />
Society, which selected and produced<br />
each annual show, hired principal<br />
professional performers and recruited the<br />
great many extras from among its own<br />
members. In its heyday it was a theatrical<br />
venue of national repute, mounting lavish<br />
musicals with casts, largely amateur<br />
of up to 200 with 2 performances per<br />
week in a three month season.<br />
Post‐war the Theatre was very successful,<br />
light opera giving way to musicals<br />
such as The Vagabond King, Song of<br />
Norway and Desert Song, followed by such<br />
favourites as Oklahoma. The sixties, with<br />
changing public tastes in entertainment,<br />
saw a rapid decline however and following<br />
a financial disaster in 1968 the Corporation<br />
leased out the site, and for 11 years<br />
It’s a Knockout games took place with increasing<br />
losses. In 1977 the dressing<br />
rooms and stage set building on the island<br />
were demolished and the seating<br />
removed.<br />
After all this time, plans are now underway<br />
to bring it back to life as part of<br />
the redevelopment of the North Side,<br />
with a planning application for a 7000<br />
seat Theatre to form part of the interrelated<br />
Sands Development. The plans<br />
include; –– reconstruction of seating terraces<br />
with a central area covered with a<br />
canopy –– dancing waters fountain in<br />
24<br />
front of the main stage, –– renovation of<br />
the old lighting tower –– new buildings<br />
for toilets, ticket sales and information ––<br />
new stages and pontoon –– temporary<br />
market stalls for certain events — and a<br />
new adventure playground. The original<br />
lighting control tower will be brought<br />
back into use, with the first floor being<br />
used for lighting while the ground floor<br />
will become a refreshments outlet. A<br />
metal framed stage will be constructed on<br />
the island.<br />
It is envisaged that the Theatre will<br />
host between one and three events every<br />
weekend during the main 12 week season<br />
with one or two smaller events during the<br />
week. Apparently issues with badgers,<br />
bats and great‐crested newts remain however<br />
to be addressed! Whilst official approval<br />
has been given last October by the<br />
Planning Committee, and works on the<br />
main construction contract have started,<br />
Easter 2010 has now been given as a completion<br />
date for opening of the Theatre,<br />
and it remains to be seen however how<br />
much it will once again resemble the<br />
memories of our youth, although it<br />
would be a great shame if the potential of<br />
this magnificent acoustical amphitheatre<br />
could not once again be brought back to<br />
life!<br />
***<br />
REMINISCENCES AND<br />
CONFESSIONS OF A VERY<br />
BAD BOY<br />
John Liley (1949-54)<br />
writes...<br />
ʺYou really are a very bad boy, Lileyʺ<br />
barked ʺBonnʺ as he stumped along the<br />
corridor in his brown boots and well‐
worn dark blue suit, with me in tow. Iʹd<br />
often heard him say ʺbad boyʺ ‐ his regularly<br />
used phrase when a boy displeased<br />
him, but ʺveryʺ? I really must be in trouble.<br />
Bonn had been in full flow about declensions<br />
when, bored as usual, I silently<br />
stretched my arms forward. Bonn came<br />
to an abrupt halt and said “Who made that<br />
disgusting noise?ʺ Complete silence for<br />
several minutes. Bonn gradually swiveled<br />
his head towards me and delivered<br />
that searing, ʺMadmanʺ stare known to<br />
all whom he taught. Eventually, I<br />
cracked; ʺSir, I stretched my arms but I<br />
didnʹt make any noise.ʺ ʺYou gave a loud<br />
yawn, as you well know, Liley.ʺ ʺNo Sir.ʺ<br />
ʺYouʹll do four pages of copybook; two for the<br />
noise and two for lying.ʺ ʺSir, thatʹs not<br />
fair!ʺ ʺDo you want to see the Headmaster?ʺ<br />
ʺYes, sir.ʺ (Gasps around the room ‐ an<br />
offer made fairly frequently but never<br />
taken up).<br />
We arrived at ʺJoeyʹsʺ; Bonn gave a<br />
summary of the case for the prosecution<br />
and stumped off. ʺWell, lad?ʺ ‐ʺSir, I<br />
stretched but I didnʹt yawn. ‐ Itʹs not fair.ʺ‐<br />
ʺLad, youʹre learning the hard way. ‐ Lifeʹs<br />
not always fair. ‐ Do your lines.ʺ‐ ʺYes Sir.ʺ<br />
I did them but, before doing so, learned<br />
from several ʺreliable sourcesʺ that John<br />
Pitts had given a loud yawn but hadnʹt<br />
ʺcoughed his crimeʺ. He denied it when I<br />
challenged him; I wonder if heʹs ready to<br />
confess. Where are you now, John?<br />
John was a fine boxer; indeed Yorkshire<br />
schoolboy champion. I had the misfortune<br />
to meet him in the preliminary<br />
rounds of the ʺLe Peton Cupʺ, which were<br />
always fought in the gym, with the finals<br />
taking place in the hall,‐ readers will remember.<br />
John gave me a real towsing but<br />
25<br />
a few days later, in our classroom during<br />
the lunch break, a few of us were risking<br />
detention by indulging in wrestling. I<br />
was delighted to secure John in a painful<br />
headlock from which he couldnʹt free<br />
himself. After refusing to do so for at<br />
least ten minutes, he eventually submitted.<br />
I released him and he sprang to his<br />
feet, white and trembling ʺRight. Iʹll see<br />
you in the fives courts after school!ʺ (I think<br />
heʹd been reading too many dramatic<br />
books). I knew his boxing skills would<br />
ensure me another beating in a ʺstand‐up<br />
fightʺ, so I settled for one victory each<br />
and declined!<br />
My closest friend at junior and grammar<br />
school was Tony Calcraft. We were<br />
almost inseparable (apart from a short<br />
interlude when Tonyʹs father had visited<br />
Joey to enquire about his sonʹs lack of<br />
progress and was advised to remove him<br />
from my bad influence!) We were<br />
ʺpartners in crimeʺ over a wide range of<br />
illegal, illicit or irregular activities. Tony<br />
remains convinced to this day that, on<br />
one occasion, Bonn believed Tony had<br />
snapped and intended to assault him.<br />
Tony and I were larking about on the<br />
stairway, ambushing each other and indulging<br />
in a modest amount of violence.<br />
Tony thought he heard me coming up<br />
and tensed himself round the corner with<br />
his hands ready to fasten round my neck.<br />
He lunged forward and found himself<br />
about to strangle the German master!<br />
ʺDonʹt be foolish, bad boy.ʺ said Bonn,<br />
brushing past my friend. Tony believes<br />
that, ever afterwards, Bonn used to eye<br />
him in a very strange way!<br />
We never missed rugby on the Mount<br />
playing fields (what a hike that was on<br />
games afternoons) but would appear for
cricket, then sneak off through the wood<br />
to the Foreshore for a coffee at the Harbour<br />
Bar or, if we had money and could<br />
convince the kiosk lady that we were old<br />
enough, see an ʺXʺ film at the Aberdeen<br />
Picture House. It was the height of nefarious<br />
pleasure to catch sight of a nipple in<br />
the fourth reel; how films have changed!<br />
Jeff Davisonʹs shotgun and cannons<br />
stories in the November <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>ʺ<br />
did display, as he said, the stupidity of us<br />
schoolboys; I can cap them with another<br />
much more dangerous instance. Tony<br />
and I had managed to procure an air pistol<br />
each (I canʹt remember how I got mine<br />
but I only had it until my mother found it<br />
in my bedroom desk and my father gave<br />
me one day to get rid of it). Tony and I<br />
adjourned to the Valley Bridge one lunchtime;<br />
he took position within the stone<br />
supporting arches on the school side of<br />
Valley Road and I took position within<br />
the arches at the other side. We then began<br />
to try to shoot each other! By some<br />
miracle, the only injury was to one of<br />
Tonyʹs hands, where one of my slugs had<br />
hit him. As Jeff said at the end of his<br />
piece, ʺThere really was someone looking<br />
after usʺ!<br />
The matter was not ended; the following<br />
day we were summoned to the Tuck<br />
Shop, where Mr. Bradley was serving.<br />
We were told to close the door then he<br />
admonished us at great length about being<br />
seen with guns in the valley. As we<br />
agreed afterwards, we thought that, without<br />
gun licenses and risking causing<br />
grievous injury, we were on the way to<br />
being expelled. Blessed relief ‐ Brad<br />
wound up with ʺPlaying with toy guns is<br />
not an appropriate recreation for a pupil of<br />
this school. Get out and donʹt do it againʺ.<br />
26<br />
At the time we had a laugh at his error<br />
but, several years later, I had second<br />
thoughts. Brad was Chairman of the Magistrates<br />
and would be well aware of the<br />
implications of a firearms investigation.<br />
To frighten two lads and warn them off<br />
playing with ʺtoyʺ guns achieved a good<br />
result all round.<br />
Mick Lesterʹs piece in the November<br />
issue brought memories; yes, we were<br />
obsessed with the Goons and, of all of us,<br />
Mick was the outstanding mimic of all<br />
the strange voices heard on the show. We<br />
would wander about, babbling goon<br />
phrases at each other, not only in school,<br />
but when venturing into the town. We<br />
certainly drew some strange looks; particularly<br />
as I was always addressed as<br />
ʺLilʺ ‐ not the most masculine of nicknames.<br />
It was derived from Les Brownʹs<br />
practice during a classʹs first French lesson<br />
of translating everyoneʹs surname<br />
into French.<br />
When oneʹs memory is stirred, it is<br />
strange how sometimes quite obscure<br />
things come back. When I applied to join<br />
OSA., David Fowler rang me and said<br />
ʺDo you remember cycling down Seamer<br />
Road after school to build a crystal set at your<br />
house?ʺ I wouldnʹt have remembered this<br />
but it came back clearly when David<br />
mentioned it. (Actually, David was a<br />
bright lad and already a bit of a ʺboffinʺ;<br />
he built the set and I looked on.) I seem to<br />
remember it worked whilst he was there,<br />
but never thereafter!<br />
To make some pocket money, I decided<br />
to take an after‐school job and became<br />
an errand boy at Charles Johnsonʹs<br />
Prospect Road butcherʹs shop. This entailed,<br />
amongst other things, loading up<br />
the front carrier on the heavy old errand
ike as far as it would go and cycling<br />
round a tortuous route delivering meat,<br />
eventually reaching Scalby ‐ a very exhausting<br />
exercise. One day, Gareth<br />
ʺGartchʺ Thomas who had made history<br />
by arriving at school on his own motorbike<br />
‐ an old, hand‐painted bright red OK<br />
JAP ‐ came up behind me as I set off for<br />
Scalby.<br />
ʺI live there. Iʹll give you a tow. Grab<br />
hold of my arm.ʺ Somewhat hesitantly, I<br />
did so and we shot off at what seemed a<br />
terrifying speed but was probably about<br />
20mph. Errand bikes are inherently unstable<br />
when loaded and difficult to control<br />
with two hands when being pedaled;<br />
when being steered with one hand at<br />
such a speed, they become positively<br />
lethal, juddering machines. I began to<br />
wobble from side to side, worsening all<br />
the time, not daring to let go and terrified<br />
to go on. Gartch seemed unaware of any<br />
problem and continued to accelerate;<br />
eventually my grip was torn free, I careered<br />
across the road into a bank, went<br />
over the handlebars and scattered various<br />
joints of meat over a wide area. I brushed<br />
down myself and the meat, re‐wrapping<br />
it where necessary, declined a further lift<br />
and completed my round.<br />
Some customers did complain to<br />
Charles Johnson about their meat and this<br />
may well have contributed to my losing<br />
the job. I took time off for the Air Training<br />
Corps camp and asked Bernard<br />
ʺBerbyʺ Jones to stand in for me. On my<br />
return I was told he was a great improvement<br />
and I accepted the offer of work<br />
getting in the harvest on the Johnson farm<br />
‐ the hardest work Iʹd ever done. I was<br />
lucky to escape injury when having my<br />
tow and was fortunate on more than one<br />
27<br />
motor‐cycling occasion afterwards. A few<br />
years later, when Johnny Corradine and I<br />
were North Riding Police Cadets, we tore<br />
around the town, he on his 1939 Velocette,<br />
I on my 1940 BSA, and had a few<br />
escapades best left unrecorded.<br />
In the course of time, I joined the<br />
Regular Police and settled down to the<br />
hard work and study I had neglected at<br />
School, eventually to achieve senior rank.<br />
When I was still young in service, I<br />
was on Northallerton Railway Station<br />
with my new wife, when I saw standing<br />
nearby me ʺBiffʺ Smith, the History master<br />
whom I had tormented during my<br />
scholastic career. I went over to him and<br />
we exchanged a few pleasantries; when<br />
he heard that I was in the Police Service,<br />
his reaction was to stare through his<br />
glasses long and hard for some seconds<br />
then, ʺI always expected you to be on the<br />
other side, Liley; still, I suppose it takes one to<br />
catch oneʺ! (He had a bit of a twinkle in<br />
his eye; ‐ I think he quite liked me really).<br />
My wife and I visit Scarborough quite<br />
often and, passing along the Tesco walkway<br />
towards town, we look down on the<br />
old school – sadly now very shabby and<br />
dilapidated. Almost every nook and<br />
cranny brings back a memory. This little<br />
piece is merely a small selection of the<br />
ones more‐or‐less fit to put into print.<br />
***<br />
APOLOGIA -<br />
THE EDITOR<br />
In response to the several readers<br />
who, good‐ humouredly or otherwise,<br />
had perhaps assumed that the repeated<br />
photographs of your humble Editor in the<br />
previous issue (eleven in all, according to
one eagle‐eyed correspondent!) demonstrated<br />
the terminal stages of folie de<br />
grandeur on my part, I feel honour bound<br />
by way of mitigation, if not defence, to<br />
lay the responsibility fairly and squarely<br />
at the door of David Fowler, who performs<br />
minor miracles with the layout, but<br />
perhaps got carried away with filling<br />
every little space and illustrating as many<br />
of the features as possible. (It is not even<br />
that I am currently recognizable photographically<br />
or otherwise, even to my former<br />
contemporaries at School, unlike<br />
several of them who Dorian Gray like and<br />
quite undeservedly appear to have retained<br />
their appearance.) In appreciating<br />
that readers can have too much of a good<br />
thing I am hopefully more conspicuous<br />
by my relative visual absence from this<br />
issue!<br />
In saying that, David was obliged to<br />
perform minor feats of prestidigitation<br />
with the previous Issue when he was<br />
confronted by me by a sea of last minute<br />
material, albeit very welcome, and managed<br />
to shoehorn all of this into the maximum<br />
number of pages (64) allowed by<br />
the printers, and, without his expertise<br />
with layout I would have long sunk without<br />
trace.<br />
Postage and other costs remain a<br />
problem however, given the finite and<br />
diminishing funds of the Association,<br />
though hopefully this should not be seen<br />
to be a constraint on contributions from<br />
readers, but may reduce the number of<br />
pages to keep within the relevant postage<br />
bands.<br />
***<br />
28<br />
MOTOR CYCLE RACING –<br />
OLIVER’S MOUNT.<br />
The memories of Ray<br />
Devonshire, the widow<br />
of Leslie Devonshire<br />
the formerly well<br />
known <strong>Old</strong> Scarborian<br />
and erstwhile President<br />
of the Association many<br />
years ago, have been<br />
further stirred in relation to Leslie following<br />
the article prompted by her in the<br />
last issue on his escape from School to<br />
ride on the last tram to run in Scarborough,<br />
and this relates to the early days of<br />
Motor Cycle Racing at Oliver’s Mount.<br />
Since 1947 none of us at School at<br />
Westwood in the lea of the Mount could<br />
escape the hornet‐like buzz from the circuit<br />
for what seemed an interminable<br />
time in the <strong>Summer</strong>, whether one actually<br />
followed the racing or not; the noise<br />
reverberated as far as Scalby, and a number<br />
of boys from the School even found<br />
temporary employment selling programmes,<br />
confectionary and ice cream to<br />
the considerable crowds who turned up,<br />
even, or perhaps because of bad weather,<br />
given its potential for excitement and<br />
danger! Motor Cycles and sidecars were<br />
frequently seen on the roads then and it<br />
was the aspiration of many a schoolboy<br />
to graduate from their own humble bicycle<br />
to the status of Geoff Duke with a<br />
Norton or a Gilera.<br />
The Circuit and the racing were<br />
largely the brainchild of Jack Plaxton and<br />
Scarborough and District Motor Cycle<br />
Club who prevailed upon the Council to<br />
provide the Circuit in 1946, partly as a<br />
welcome home event for troops returning<br />
from the War. At the first Races over
29<br />
12,000 spectators attended and soon Radio<br />
commentaries followed, with the<br />
likes of Graham Walker and later his<br />
son Murray! It became soon a national<br />
event and proving ground for World<br />
Champions such as Geoff Duke, Cecil<br />
Sandford, John Surtees, and Phil Read.<br />
Leslie Devonshire, a keen Motorcyclist<br />
and a leading member of the Club,<br />
was involved from the first, becoming<br />
Chief Marshal; Ray being the Results<br />
Recorder, and she recalls, until the construction<br />
of a proper office, the whole<br />
operation being directed from converted<br />
double‐decker buses. Television coverage<br />
followed later, presentations at the<br />
Spa being hosted by such then luminaries<br />
as Wilfred Pickles.<br />
The events were not however without<br />
their tragedies, notably John Hartle<br />
losing his life tragically in a collision on<br />
Quarry Hill in 1968.<br />
As a spectator sport it perhaps left<br />
something to be desired, particularly on<br />
those days when it was cold and miserable<br />
on the Mount, and as an uninformed<br />
schoolboy spectator one was<br />
much more dependant on the Radio<br />
commentary than the occasional peering<br />
over the shoulder of the adults inevitably<br />
standing in front of you trying to<br />
identify riders who momentarily flashed<br />
by, incapable of recognition. Sidecar<br />
racing was admittedly more dramatic, if<br />
only for the gravity‐defying proximity of<br />
the passenger to the ground on the<br />
bends!<br />
Those were the days however when<br />
most of the bikes were the well‐known<br />
British brand names and the public demand<br />
for entertainment was perhaps<br />
less sophisticated than it is now, although<br />
the races still continue ‐ 60 years<br />
on!<br />
(Ed. A detailed and heavily illustrated<br />
source of reference is “Oliver’s Mount‐ 50<br />
years of Racing”‐ Hillaby and Coupland)<br />
***<br />
MUSIC AT WESTWOOD<br />
David Colenutt (1954-61)<br />
writes…<br />
Michael Lester’s letter and the article<br />
about the cellar jazz group prompted<br />
several memories about musical events<br />
at Westwood. As well as the personnel<br />
in the photo, Johnny Goodhead on<br />
trumpet, the younger Dean on alto sax,<br />
the elder Trott on tenor sax and the<br />
younger Trott (Howard) on piano and<br />
string bass were also active in the Scarborough<br />
jazz/dance band scene.<br />
During Arthur Costain’s absence, a<br />
temporary replacement was obtained in<br />
the person of a Mr Pidd, who was<br />
promptly nicknamed “Comrade” on<br />
account of his refusal to let classes sing<br />
“Rule Britannia”. This was on the not<br />
unreasonable grounds that, even in<br />
1955/56, Britain no longer did. (Ed.‐‐ Elgar’s<br />
Pomp and Circumstance “Land of<br />
Hope and Glory” also figured among his<br />
similar aversions!)<br />
As Michael recounts, he had taken<br />
over playing the piano for morning assembly.<br />
When Comrade Pidd learnt that<br />
a mere pupil was usurping this duty he<br />
assumed control only to demonstrate<br />
that he had studied piano under Les<br />
Dawson. A horrified HWM approached<br />
Bill Potts and my father with the words,<br />
“You two have got to do something or<br />
there will be a riot”. So for a few days
Zenna and Eddie took over the piano<br />
duties with Mr Pidd being told that, as he<br />
had a long way to travel (Filey?), he<br />
could come in on a later bus. Michael<br />
was able to resume playing after a short<br />
time. He also wrote out the tune and<br />
harmony which Mr. Costain had composed<br />
for ”O Brother Man” but had always<br />
carried in his head. I think we sang<br />
this at Speech Day under Michael’s direction<br />
as a tribute to Arthur.<br />
Finally, does anyone else remember<br />
the very battered cornet and single horn<br />
that sat in a cupboard outside the Lecture<br />
Theatre? In a moment on indulgence,<br />
Arthur let me borrow them (I said<br />
that I wanted to learn) but we, Martyn<br />
Fisher, Ewen Ritchie and I, used them to<br />
make noise at that night’s Inter‐School<br />
Swimming Gala as a way of encouraging<br />
our team. Cheering in those days was<br />
unusual and we were surprised that<br />
there were no repercussions, though<br />
there were for some High School girls<br />
who happened to be with us!<br />
***<br />
ANNUAL DINNER<br />
The Annual Dinner of the Association<br />
took place on the 5 th of December at the<br />
usual venue, the Palm Court Hotel, with<br />
a record attendance of 93 Members<br />
(although 100 were expected) many of<br />
whom had travelled considerable distances<br />
for the event. The Dinner commenced<br />
with a tribute by Bill Redman to<br />
Alec Gardiner who died on the 28 th October<br />
2008. (see Obituaries)<br />
President Chris Found welcomed<br />
Members, extending from the oldest present,<br />
Bob Taylor (1926) to those from the<br />
30<br />
1960’s, and introduced the Speaker, Peter<br />
Redmond (1940‐1945) who provided an<br />
entertaining, if somewhat visceral account<br />
of his career after School, from the<br />
Army Medical Service to work as a Market<br />
Trader and subsequent Theatre<br />
administrator.<br />
The formal part of the Dinner concluded<br />
with an Appeal by Colin Rennard<br />
in respect of The Scarborough<br />
RUFC, after which Members enjoyed<br />
their usual convivial exchange of reminiscences.<br />
***<br />
THE FENBY PLAQUE AT<br />
SCARBOROUGH SPA<br />
Following the further reference in last<br />
November’s Issue to the distinguished <strong>Old</strong><br />
Boy Eric Fenby the following additional note<br />
has been received from Michael Lester<br />
(1949‐<strong>57</strong>):<br />
When Dr Eric Fenby OBE died in<br />
February 1997, it occurred to me that<br />
there was no memorial of any kind to<br />
him in Scarborough. After his six‐year<br />
association with the blind and paralysed<br />
Yorkshire composer Frederick Delius<br />
when he acted as his amanuensis,<br />
Fenby’s fame had spread throughout the<br />
musical world, but Scarborough seemed<br />
largely unaware of his importance. I<br />
wrote to the leader of the council, Mavis<br />
Don in July 1997 to suggest that the town<br />
of his birth should consider erecting a<br />
plaque or some other small memorial to<br />
his memory.<br />
The idea was well received by Mrs.<br />
Don (although her letter referred to Dr<br />
Fendley!) and the Chief Executive, John<br />
Trebble, and it was suggested by the Di‐
31<br />
rector of Tourism and Leisure Services<br />
that a plaque should be erected at the<br />
Spa; funds were found to make this possible.<br />
Eric’s widow, Rowena and the<br />
Fenby family became involved, and the<br />
project had the backing of the Delius Society,<br />
which promotes and encourages<br />
the performance and recordings of the<br />
music of Delius.<br />
There followed a period of several<br />
months in which nothing seemed to happen.<br />
The Delius Society had specifically<br />
asked to be kept informed of progress,<br />
but nothing had been heard, so I contacted<br />
John Trebble in early June, and<br />
was very surprised to hear that the<br />
plaque was actually in position, and was<br />
ready to be unveiled at a Civic Night at<br />
the Spa on 6 July. At such short notice it<br />
meant that no one from the committee of<br />
the Delius Society was actually able to<br />
attend.<br />
It seems that the person responsible<br />
for dealing with the arrangements had<br />
changed jobs, and although the Council<br />
had continued to work with the family,<br />
the link with the Delius Society and our<br />
request for information was overlooked.<br />
Despite all this, the arrangements<br />
went very smoothly at the Civic Night.<br />
The inscription on the plaque had been<br />
written by Eric’s son Roger, and the unveiling<br />
was done by Lottie, Roger’s<br />
daughter. Surmounted by a photograph,<br />
the plaque reads: ERIC FENBY 1906 –<br />
1997 ‐ AMANUENSIS TO DELIUS ‐<br />
“Growing up to the sound of Spa Orchestras,<br />
he went on to find a unique place in<br />
musical history.”<br />
Present were Fred Standing (<strong>May</strong>or)<br />
and several Borough Councillors, Mavis<br />
Don, John Trebble, Roger Fenby and his<br />
sister Ruth, Lottie Fenby, Marjorie Halstead<br />
(Eric’s sister) and her husband Len,<br />
and Susan Halstead, (Eric’s niece). The<br />
Delius Society was represented by myself<br />
and Avril Powell, another Scarborough<br />
The plaque, being unveiled by<br />
Lottie Fenby, granddaughter of the late<br />
Eric Fenby.<br />
member. Unfortunately Eric’s wife, Rowena,<br />
was not well enough to attend.<br />
After the official unveiling there was a<br />
buffet, and at the Grand Civic Gala Concert<br />
that followed we heard music by<br />
Delius performed by Simon Kenworthy<br />
and the Spa Orchestra. If you enter the<br />
Spa through the main entrance and turn<br />
down the corridor to the left side of the<br />
grand staircase, the plaque is on the wall<br />
of the Grand Hall on your left.
32<br />
Eric Fenby is now also commemorated<br />
by Fenby Gardens at Sandybed,<br />
where the houses stand on the site of the<br />
former Lisvane School.<br />
***<br />
RUGBY CLUB APPEAL<br />
Iʹm thrilled to report that, following<br />
my appeal at the Dinner, we are able to<br />
display at the new Clubhouse 3 brass<br />
plaques dedicated to H W Marsden, Alec<br />
Gardiner and the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> Association.<br />
These will be proudly displayed<br />
alongside each other on the wall of<br />
plaques recognising the help given to our<br />
fundraising efforts by many individuals.<br />
I should like to take this opportunity<br />
to thank each and every <strong>Old</strong> Scarborian<br />
who has ʺput his hand in his pocketʺ in<br />
order to help meet the costs of this ambitious<br />
£4 million development.<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Boys who have not had recent<br />
contact with relatives and friends in<br />
town may be unaware of this project, let<br />
alone the fact that it has had to be COM‐<br />
PLETELY SELF FUNDING! The Rugby<br />
Club has had no help whatsoever from<br />
organisations such as the National Lottery,<br />
Sport England, or Local and National<br />
Government. We can even report<br />
a lack of support from the sportʹs governing<br />
body at Twickenham! …. incredible<br />
but TRUE!<br />
I would, through the e‐mail list of the<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Boys Association, via this edition of<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> and through the OBʹs<br />
Website ask that an appeal is made to all<br />
former Boys High School pupils and staff<br />
to help us with the final one hundred<br />
thousand pounds of fundraising. The<br />
ambition of the Rugby Club is to offer the<br />
very best of playing, training, coaching<br />
and learning facilities to ANYONE in the<br />
Scarborough area who wants to learn the<br />
value of being part of a caring, active,<br />
ambitious and friendly collective of<br />
sports‐minded people. Our aim is to provide<br />
a trouble free, interesting diversion<br />
enabling healthy, sociable and focussed<br />
development of individuals in a team<br />
environment.<br />
I would be obliged if this message<br />
could be delivered throughout the <strong>Old</strong><br />
Boys ʺnetworkʺ and naturally everyone<br />
associated with Scarborough RUFC<br />
would be thrilled to receive donations of<br />
ANY SIZE WHATSOEVER! The message<br />
is a simple one ... if YOU can afford<br />
to help improve the lot of the next generation<br />
... this is your opportunity. Many<br />
thanks to you all. I hope we are able to<br />
support this worthy venture to its conclusion.<br />
Colin Rennard (1960 - 1967)<br />
Current President Scarborough RUFC<br />
***<br />
END OF AN ERA AT<br />
SCARBOROUGH RUGBY<br />
CLUB<br />
As readers may be aware, Scarborough<br />
Rugby Club has vacated its previous<br />
headquarters at Newby after 82 years<br />
playing there. They have moved to purpose<br />
built facilities further along Scalby<br />
Road next to the old Silver Royd playing<br />
pitches.<br />
Since the introduction of Rugby as<br />
the major winter sport at school in 1946,<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> have played a prominent<br />
part in the development of the Club<br />
both on and off the field.
33<br />
The following <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> have<br />
served as Presidents of the Club:‐<br />
H W Marsden, Howard Acklam, Chris<br />
Found, Colin Hurd, Norman Hopkin,<br />
Colin Rennard, Barry Beanland, Alan<br />
Elliott, Peter Emms and Brian Shipley,<br />
Other <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> have been<br />
elected Captains of the Club:‐<br />
John Smith (twice), Alan Elliott (three<br />
times), Barry Beanland (three times),<br />
Norman Hopkin, David Eade and Roger<br />
Gilbert (twice), Clive Burnard, Colin<br />
Rennard (three times), Martin Reed<br />
(twice) and Nigel Wilson.<br />
Colin Hurd and Norman Hopkin<br />
have both served as Secretaries of the<br />
Club.<br />
Many other <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> participated<br />
in the Club’s development by playing<br />
in teams at all levels. Some started<br />
their playing careers with the Scarborough<br />
Club then moved away and joined<br />
more senior clubs, and in some cases<br />
went on to play at representative level.<br />
Keith Poskitt captained England Schools<br />
19 Group before going on to University.<br />
David Hoyland went on to play for Morley<br />
and represented Yorkshire.<br />
Geoff Lee joined Wasps and represented<br />
Middlesex.<br />
Frank Ankerett joined Broughton Park<br />
and played for Lancashire.<br />
Jeff Dowson played for Wakefield and<br />
captained Yorkshire on many occasions.<br />
He also played for North of England and<br />
received the ultimate honour in Rugby of<br />
being selected to play for the world famous<br />
Barbarians Club.<br />
We are proud of their achievements and<br />
congratulate them all.<br />
Although Football was the major winter<br />
sport before the War, some <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong><br />
did play Rugby for the Club. Pride<br />
of place must go to Bob Taylor who, at<br />
97 years old, is the oldest surviving<br />
member. He first played for the Club in<br />
1928 and still frequents the bar on most<br />
Friday evenings and joins in as many<br />
social occasions as possible. Long may<br />
he continue to do so. The Boys High<br />
School closed down in 1973 and became<br />
part of the new Comprehensive arrangements<br />
in Scarborough. We are proud of<br />
our connection with the Rugby Club over<br />
the years and wish them continued success<br />
at their new Stadium.<br />
Colin Hurd (1952-1958)<br />
***<br />
LEONARD NORTON-WAYNE<br />
Some personal reminiscences<br />
of Leonard Norton-<br />
Wayne<br />
by John Moorhouse<br />
A strict contemporary of Leonardʹs, I<br />
first made his acquaintance in a boxing<br />
ring!<br />
To explain, Mr Stoddard approached<br />
me in my first term in 1951, with a<br />
strange request: would I take part in a<br />
ʺfun, totally harmlessʺ, blindfold boxing<br />
bout with the other smallest boy in the<br />
School, as a brief interlude in the School<br />
boxing championships? I must confess<br />
that I was not exactly keen, but Mr<br />
Stoddard assured me that the other boy,<br />
called Leonard, had already said ʺyesʺ,<br />
and we would be wearing very big, soft<br />
boxing gloves.<br />
Touched by school spirit, I acquiesced.<br />
A practice was arranged in the
School gym, where I first met Leonard,<br />
who was perhaps ¼ inch smaller than<br />
me but (handicap or advantage) considerably<br />
heavier, I being slight to skinny.<br />
With no extraneous noise, I could hear<br />
Leonardʹs heavy breathing and plodding<br />
footsteps, whereas I doubt if he<br />
could have heard me as I glided and<br />
danced around. I certainly punched<br />
him more than he me, but neither of us<br />
was hurt, as far as I know.<br />
However, in the proper ring, in<br />
front of the whole School, my advantage<br />
was nullified; there was so much<br />
noise, shouting and laughter that I had<br />
no idea where Leonard was, nor vice<br />
versa. While I advanced, stylishly<br />
shadow‐boxing to no effect, Leonard<br />
was apparently swirling round, arms<br />
outstretched, like a dervish. Hence the<br />
great amusement at the unplanned contrast<br />
between us ‐ an amusement enhanced<br />
every time Mr Stoddard, as I<br />
learned later, poked either of us with a<br />
boxing glove attached to a pole.<br />
After a few minutes Leonard suddenly<br />
caught me full‐face with one of<br />
his swirling punches and I simply remember<br />
a sledgehammer hitting me,<br />
knocking me flying backwards. Truly<br />
knocked out, I was carried out of the<br />
ring. We were eventually warmly congratulated<br />
for putting on a great spectacle,<br />
which was lots of fun for everyone ‐<br />
except me that is! I could easily have<br />
been brain‐damaged (perhaps I was!)<br />
Incidentally, Leonard later told me that<br />
Mr Stoddard had informed him too<br />
that the other smallest boy had said<br />
ʺyesʺ implying that he would have let<br />
the side down if he had refused. Despite<br />
this pugilistic start Leonard and I<br />
34<br />
became friendly classmates the next<br />
year in 2L. Iʹm sure he never accompanied<br />
me to a table tennis match, but one<br />
bitterly cold day in January I joined him<br />
fishing on the pier, exposed to a howling<br />
nor‐eastern. I was nithered, bored to<br />
death, neither of us caught a single fish,<br />
and I never joined him again.<br />
My next memory is of travelling<br />
with him by train to Oxford, in December<br />
1958, each for our one attempt to<br />
obtain an Open Scholarship, myself in<br />
Modern Languages, Leonard in Physics,<br />
I believe. Neither of us succeeded.<br />
On our way back we agreed that we<br />
ought to learn to dance, a social accomplishment<br />
in adult life ‐ fat lot of use itʹs<br />
done me though!! Together we faithfully<br />
attended lessons at the Roscoe<br />
Rooms, for a few weeks at least. However,<br />
when it came to dancing for the<br />
hour, once the actual lesson was over,<br />
we chickened out, preferring a game of<br />
snooker at the Club and Institute. We<br />
soon abandoned the dancing as an<br />
abysmal failure.<br />
Sadly that was where our paths<br />
separated, and I donʹt believe we ever<br />
saw each other again: a strange relationship<br />
then, littered with failures or disasters<br />
‐‐ (1) Leonard knocking me out at<br />
blind‐boxing; ‐‐ (2) both failing to catch<br />
any fish; ‐‐ (3) joint academic failure at<br />
Oxford; ‐‐ (4) neither learning to dance.<br />
In later life, I doubt if Leonard ever<br />
returned to the boxing ring ‐ I certainly<br />
never did. As for fishing, never again<br />
for me, but I know he continued, maybe<br />
throughout his life. Academically, I<br />
donʹt think either of us suffered in any<br />
way for our perceived failure at Oxford.<br />
Finally, I suspect that Leonard, like me,
never returned to the dance floor, but at<br />
least I continue to enjoy playing snooker!<br />
***<br />
THE STAFF REGISTER – II<br />
Dipping once more at random into<br />
the formal School Staff Register which is<br />
included within OSA records discloses a<br />
further variety of names we knew (and<br />
loved?) although it does not in any way<br />
purport to be biographical, merely a record<br />
of qualifications, previous education<br />
and experience and dates of commencement<br />
and departure from the School,<br />
whilst regrettably the names themselves<br />
are also incomplete for the reasons explained<br />
by Steve Taylor in his letter in<br />
the current issue of the Magazine.<br />
Norman Stoddard<br />
Norman Stoddard, who was born in<br />
1912, joined the School in 1939 after education<br />
at Hulme Grammar School Manchester,<br />
and a B.Sc at Manchester University<br />
in Maths, with Physics as a subsidiary.<br />
A keen sportsman, he had also a<br />
Diploma in Physical Education from Carnegie<br />
College Leeds. Norman left in 1955<br />
to become Headmaster of Friarage<br />
County Modern School, returning in September<br />
1959. A resident of Throxenby<br />
Lane, Newby for many years, both his<br />
sons, Ian and Peter, also attended the<br />
School.<br />
Norman Gallagher<br />
After education at Bede Grammar<br />
School for Boys, Sunderland, Norman,<br />
who was born in 1929, graduated with a<br />
B.Sc in Economics from University College<br />
Exeter in 1952, followed by a Diploma<br />
in Theology from St Johns College<br />
Durham. He was appointed Assistant<br />
35<br />
Master at the School in 1955, leaving in<br />
1963 for a post at City of Bath Boys’<br />
School. Any of us will remember him for<br />
R E, Hockey, the introduction of Tennis<br />
at Woodlands and School camps!<br />
Cyril Isherwood<br />
Born in 1906 and educated at Leigh<br />
Grammar School and Manchester University,<br />
where he attained both a B.Sc in<br />
Physics in 1927 and an M.Sc (Tech) the<br />
following year. Commenced at the<br />
School in 1935, tragically dying at<br />
Oliver’s Mount in October 1954.<br />
Leslie (Les) Brown<br />
After education at Barnsley District<br />
Holgate Grammar School, Les, who was<br />
born in 1909, spent 4 years at Sheffield<br />
University, where he gained both a B.A<br />
And a M.A in French. Several periods in<br />
France, Spain and Germany followed<br />
prior to his appointment to the School in<br />
1936. Military service from 1941 was followed<br />
by his return to the School in 1946.<br />
***<br />
RECOLLECTIONS OF<br />
SCHOOL PLAYS<br />
By David Colenutt (1954-61)<br />
As with School Camps, my memories<br />
of school Plays go back a number of<br />
years before I had actually joined the<br />
School. This was, in part, because Eddie,<br />
my father, was business manager to successive<br />
Plays and I tagged along, front<br />
stage and back stage.<br />
Until the early 50’s Samuel Rockinghorse’s<br />
Shakespearian productions had<br />
been interspersed with Gilbert & Sullivan<br />
operettas directed by Arthur Costain. I<br />
think that my earliest play memory is of<br />
“Pirates of Penzance” with Gerry Hinch‐
36<br />
cliffe being a very nervous policeman<br />
setting out on the daunting task of arresting<br />
the pirates.<br />
Music also features in the next memory.<br />
The opening of “Twelfth Night” (If<br />
music be the food of love…) was to chamber<br />
music from behind a screen. Was it Mr.<br />
Costain on piano with Dick Bradley on<br />
cello?<br />
If my memory is correct, the first Play<br />
whilst I was a pupil was “The Tempest” in<br />
1954. Dick Haslem played a noteworthy<br />
Caliban and Prospero’s cave featured the<br />
dissolving gauze effect of seemingly solid<br />
scenery disappearing.<br />
1955 brought “Hamlet” with John<br />
Brinkler, in the title role, having a highly<br />
dangerous looking fencing match with<br />
John Rice, as Laertes. Miss Blakemore<br />
was a voluptuous Gertrude and Stuart<br />
Marriott earned himself an unfortunate<br />
nickname as his doublet was too short<br />
and his hose too tight.<br />
There was no play the next year as<br />
Samuel Rockinghorse had a serious illness.<br />
Rehearsals had started (one of the<br />
Henrys?) and it looked as though the<br />
traditional temporary stage in the corner<br />
of the Hall was going to be abandoned in<br />
favour of a ¾ round staging in front of<br />
the Hall platform.<br />
By 19<strong>57</strong> “Ducky” Helmuth had rejoined<br />
the School to teach English and<br />
fancied doing the other big tragic lead,<br />
”Macbeth”, having been Hamlet when he<br />
was in the 6 th form. (OK, ‐ so I have<br />
never seen King Lear). It being the<br />
“Scottish Play”, considerable quantities of<br />
tomato ketchup were used, mainly by<br />
Lady MacDuff who developed a craving<br />
for it. I had become a junior stage electrician<br />
and spent performances clinging to a<br />
rack of dimmers (resistors) which were<br />
perched on a window sill.<br />
The only member of the stage crew<br />
with worse conditions was John Tesh,<br />
lurking under the stage with Chas’s massive<br />
reel to reel tape recorder, manfully<br />
trying to get the thing to start on cue for<br />
sound effects. Our Editor prompted from<br />
the comparative safety of “stage left”.<br />
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was<br />
the offering for 1958. As usual, it was the<br />
set play for “O” level Eng. Lit.. “Jake”<br />
Watson press‐ganged a considerable<br />
number of 5L into being “crude Mechanicals”<br />
and court hangers‐on, claiming that<br />
it would help with the exam. Samuel<br />
Rockinghorse took a back seat and Donald<br />
Helmuth directed. Jennifer Lincoln<br />
made the first of two appearances with<br />
the School, this time as Titania. John<br />
Tesh had more work to do with the tape<br />
recorder as much of Mendelssohn’s music<br />
was used; including the woodwind<br />
chords every time the magic potion was<br />
applied. It turned out to be the last time<br />
that the temporary stage was used by<br />
our school. Did Friarage use it after they<br />
moved to Westwood, or does it still lurk<br />
in a cellar at the west end of the building?<br />
Regrettably, School students would not<br />
now be allowed to undertake the erection<br />
and fitting out of such a structure, nor its<br />
frantic demolition on the Sunday morning<br />
after the last night.<br />
The first Play to use the purpose‐built<br />
stage at Woodlands was “The Merchant of<br />
Venice”. The electricians were elevated to<br />
a gallery high above the stage with twice<br />
as many dimmers to play with. It is salutary<br />
to realise that all the control gear and<br />
the 6 people needed to operate it would<br />
now be replaced by a computer. A de‐
sign fault quickly revealed itself. There<br />
was no ventilation in the roof of the<br />
stage and, with the heat from all the extra<br />
lighting, the electricians were roasted<br />
nightly.<br />
John Mann was a commanding Shylock<br />
with Michael Kemp as Antonio. I<br />
think that Gillian Lincoln, Jennifer’s<br />
elder sister, was involved but I cannot<br />
recall her role. Miss Woods would only<br />
let her “gels” be involved in nonexamination<br />
years and, I think, Gillian<br />
would have been in the lower Sixth that<br />
year.<br />
Someone persuaded our new head<br />
caretaker (Jack?) that it would be alright<br />
if the cast had a post‐play party in the<br />
room behind the library. Chas thought<br />
otherwise and we all had to see Joey the<br />
following Monday.<br />
With a permanent stage other dramatic<br />
events could be arranged. Sixth<br />
Form productions of “Waiting for<br />
Godot” and “Endgame” come to mind,<br />
and an inter‐house drama competition<br />
was organised at least once, though the<br />
latter featured “The Crimson Coconut”<br />
and other less intellectual fare.<br />
1960 saw Jennifer Lincoln return to<br />
the SHS boards as Rosalind in “As You<br />
Like It”. Pru Wood, daughter of our<br />
School Cook, Mrs Wood, was her companion<br />
and Gloria Tyerman and Gillian<br />
Justice completed the input from the<br />
girls’ school. John (Wes) Webb was the<br />
melancholy Jacques and Arthur Costain<br />
appeared as a minstrel, complete with<br />
mandolin. David Hartshorne was the<br />
“bad” Duke and, as the week progressed,<br />
made ever longer pregnant<br />
pauses before delivering the words<br />
“Thou diest”.<br />
37<br />
I got two boll..kings from Chas during<br />
that production. One was for writing<br />
a sub‐title, Gilbert and Sullivan style,<br />
“Done to a turn” on the lighting plot.<br />
The other was not my fault. When the<br />
School had been at Westwood, Milly had<br />
been relaxed about her girls coming for<br />
rehearsals as it was only a short walk<br />
to most of the town’s main bus stops.<br />
Woodlands, with the half mile, poorly‐lit<br />
path to Scalby Road, was another matter<br />
and, I think, Chas had undertaken to<br />
take all the girls home.<br />
After one rehearsal only three girls<br />
had presented themselves and Chas assumed<br />
that I had given the fourth a lift<br />
in my father’s car without telling him. In<br />
fact, Frank Barnish, the Stage Manager,<br />
had whisked her away on the back of his<br />
scooter. If I had thought of it first I<br />
would have done the same, so no hard<br />
feelings Frank.<br />
In this production, Sam R. made<br />
good use of the “dissolving gauze” effect.<br />
This was a gauze curtain across the<br />
stage on which the ”Court” scene was<br />
painted. Lit from the front it appeared<br />
solid only to disappear when the<br />
“Woodland” back scene was illuminated<br />
and the front lights dimmed. We got a<br />
round of applause for the effect most<br />
nights.<br />
“Julius Caesar” was the 1962 production<br />
with Wes Webb as Mark Antony,<br />
John Mollon played Brutus and Michael<br />
Bell was Cassius. Mike ?, as Caesar, got<br />
killed off in the first Act and then had to<br />
hang around to re‐appear as a corpse<br />
under a blanket for Mark Antony’s oration<br />
and then again for the curtain call.<br />
Have I made it up that a little substitution<br />
occurred some night to let Mick get
off early? Wes had no idea who would<br />
be under the blanket as the week progressed.<br />
The smoke effects of the final battle<br />
scene were drawn up to our gallery by<br />
the fans installed to keep us cool. To<br />
stop us coughing we reversed the fans<br />
only to start the audience spluttering.<br />
Chas was not amused and a compromise<br />
of leaving the fans off for the finale was<br />
agreed.<br />
Carol Wyvill (Andy’s sister), as<br />
Brutus’s wife, had to reveal her thigh to<br />
show the wound she had made to demonstrate<br />
her fortitude. Most nights she<br />
was fine with it (the Sixties had yet to<br />
swing much in Scarborough) but on the<br />
night that Milly was in the audience and,<br />
despite the make‐up being applied<br />
much lower down her leg than usual,<br />
Carol was really nervous. Fortunately<br />
her stage husband, John Mollon, was<br />
on hand to supply comfort!<br />
***<br />
JOURNEY TO STALAG<br />
LUFT 3<br />
Frank Stephenson (1931-<br />
36) writes…<br />
In the August 1999 edition of<br />
“Electric Flight” I saw a review of a<br />
model of a Lancaster which was built by<br />
a man in the Isle of Wight in memory of<br />
his brother who was killed in the last<br />
month of the war flying a Lancaster of<br />
No 7 Squadron. The picture of this<br />
model stirred some powerful memories<br />
for me because I had been shot down in<br />
a Lancaster of this Squadron. I had not<br />
attempted to build a multi‐engined<br />
model but I was ambitious to have a go<br />
38<br />
at this Lancaster so I contacted this man<br />
and he gave help and advice, and after<br />
much effort I eventually succeeded in<br />
getting it built and flown.<br />
A reporter from the “Gazette & Herald”<br />
did a feature about this and the<br />
article was picked up by David Fowler,<br />
the Editor of <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>, who published<br />
it in the next Edition. At the time<br />
that I was in contact with David Fowler<br />
there was a notice in the Press concerning<br />
the murder of fifty escaping prisoners<br />
from Stalag Luft 3, and I mentioned<br />
to him that I was a prisoner there at that<br />
time.<br />
I must admit that making the model<br />
did bring back a lot of memories and not<br />
all of them pleasant. David talked about<br />
a love affair with the Lancaster. I would<br />
rather call it a love‐hate affair because<br />
the memory of this aircraft is one that is<br />
overridden with one emotion, ‐FEAR.<br />
Operating in Bomber Command in the<br />
winter of 1943‐44 was a frightening business,<br />
(well not just in 1943‐44 but that<br />
happened to be the time that I was<br />
around).<br />
Having left Scarborough High<br />
School with no School Certificate, I<br />
found a job as a shop assistant at Gibson’s<br />
in Westborough, tailors and outfitters,<br />
at seven shillings and sixpence a<br />
week. ‐ (this was the price of a decent<br />
pair of shoes in 1936). I was shortly<br />
joined by my friend Ken Railton who<br />
came with an equally undistinguished<br />
school record. We stayed there for two<br />
years and in 1938, when Hitler was causing<br />
anxiety and the RAF was looking to<br />
expand, we both responded to newspaper<br />
advertisements to join as Air Observers.<br />
We hadn’t a clue what they were!
We were accepted and early in 1939<br />
were called to start training, me at Ansty<br />
near Coventry and Ken at Desford<br />
in Leicestershire. When I arrived at Ansty<br />
I met another school friend, Albert<br />
Stone, who had played in the First<br />
Eleven for the school football team with<br />
Ken and me.<br />
Training was in the hands of civilian<br />
contractors, and we were civilians and<br />
would not be enrolled in the RAF until<br />
the successful completion of the navigation<br />
course. The Air Observer was<br />
taught dead reckoning, map‐reading,<br />
photography, wireless telegraphy and<br />
meteorology in the classroom and we<br />
flew in pairs in Avro Ansons for the<br />
practical application of air navigation<br />
with a civilian pilot and wireless operator.<br />
Oddly enough the ground instructing<br />
was done by retired mariners who<br />
were only accustomed to travelling at<br />
eight knots. What a lark!<br />
After passing the end of course<br />
exam we were now enlisted in the RAF<br />
as LAC’s and were sent on a bombing<br />
and gunnery course, bombing in Fairey<br />
Battles and gunnery in Hawker Demons,<br />
after which we were promoted to<br />
Acting Sergeant, Acting Air Observer.<br />
We were not at this stage given a brevet<br />
so imagine the consternation of Station<br />
Warrant Officers (old sweats all) seeing<br />
18 year old Sergeants arriving in the<br />
Sergeants mess (no flying badge). They<br />
had never seen anything like it!<br />
However after six months or 50<br />
hours flying we were confirmed as Sergeant<br />
Air Observer with the Flying<br />
Arsehole brevet and didn’t we strut our<br />
stuff. By now the war had started and<br />
we were posted to Squadrons where we<br />
39<br />
found that the air navigation was done<br />
by the second Pilot and Air Observers<br />
were regarded with some suspicion and<br />
introduced with great reluctance. In fact<br />
some were used as air gunners until<br />
Second Pilots were phased out.<br />
I was sent initially to 264 Squadron<br />
‐ Boulton Paul Defiants ‐ as an observer/<br />
gunner but the Defiants were soon relegated<br />
to night fighter duties with W/op<br />
Air gunners. After a period as an instructor<br />
I went to 220 Squadron Coastal<br />
Command in 1942 flying in Boeing<br />
B17’s (Flying Fortress) on antisubmarine<br />
sweeps and convoy protection.<br />
Then another spell instructing at a<br />
Bombing & Gunnery School and in a<br />
moment of madness I applied to get<br />
where the action was. I soon wished<br />
that I hadn’t! In September 1943 I was<br />
posted to the Pathfinder Navigation<br />
Training Unit at Upwood and began to<br />
get to grips with REAL navigation.<br />
From Upwood I was posted to 7 Pathfinder<br />
Squadron, Bomber Command at<br />
Oakington near Cambridge where we<br />
were “crewed up”. Pilot was to be S/L<br />
Ken Davies, our first navigator F/O Dick<br />
Powell, second navigator F/Lt Frank<br />
Stephenson, Wireless Operator F/O Ken<br />
Marriott DFM, gunners F/Sgt Albert<br />
Grange and Sgt Roy Child and flight<br />
engineer was Sgt Ted Maugham.<br />
All of the crew with the exception of<br />
me and the flight engineer had previous<br />
experience in Bomber Command and<br />
knew all about night operations over<br />
Germany. My previous experience was<br />
with Coastal Command flying in daylight<br />
over the Atlantic, often boring but<br />
not frightening. Our first four weeks on<br />
the Squadron were spent in becoming
familiar with the Lancaster and practising<br />
navigation and bomb aiming. The<br />
navigation in PFF was very exacting.<br />
Bennett insisted on extremely high standards.<br />
<strong>Times</strong> at turning points and time<br />
on target had to be accurate to ONE<br />
MINUTE and the two navigators had to<br />
work together to achieve a result. Dick<br />
Powell worked out the flight plan from<br />
the forecast wind, and working back<br />
from time on target, set courses to get us<br />
there on time. He operated the GEE box,<br />
kept the log and plotted the whole program<br />
on the chart. My job was to operate<br />
the H2S and keep track of our position<br />
by a form of map‐reading from the radar<br />
image, and then identify the target and<br />
operate the Mk 14 bombsight. My early<br />
training as an Air Observer, when navigational<br />
aids were minimal, meant that<br />
map reading was a basic requirement, so<br />
it was a job that I picked up fairly<br />
quickly.<br />
Pathfinder Force were tasked to do<br />
45 operations and for this the whole<br />
crew were given a promotion one rank<br />
up, and after six trips and a satisfactory<br />
performance, a Pathfinder badge and a<br />
Certificate signed by Don Bennett the<br />
AOC. The casualty rate at that time was<br />
frightening. In 1943 Bomber Command<br />
lost 2841 aircraft and in 1944 it lost 3298.<br />
The total losses for the period of the war<br />
were over ten thousand aircraft and over<br />
55,000 aircrew killed. Of course we were<br />
not to know these horrific figures at the<br />
time but were soon confronted with the<br />
realities of night operations over Germany.<br />
With casualties running at 5% and<br />
rising, we were apprehensive—or<br />
should we say shit‐ scared.<br />
40<br />
The ultimate device was the H2S<br />
which allowed the operator to see a radar<br />
image of the ground whilst flying<br />
above or in cloud, which meant that operations<br />
could be carried out in very<br />
unfriendly weather conditions where<br />
night fighters would find it hard to attack<br />
the bomber. Targets could be identified<br />
and marked with coloured pyrotechnics<br />
even when obscured by cloud<br />
and for a while the advantage was with<br />
the bomber. But sadly the enemy succeeded<br />
in homing on to the radar transmission<br />
from the H2S and was able to<br />
home on to the bomber in a most unpleasant<br />
way.<br />
Junkers 88s were fitted with upward<br />
firing cannons and were able to creep,<br />
unseen, under a bomber and deliver a<br />
lethal blast at close quarters into the<br />
belly of the target. The actual armament<br />
consisted of three 20mm cannon and<br />
three 7.9mm machine guns. Each cannon<br />
fired 540 shots per minute while each<br />
machine gun fired 1,180 in the same<br />
time, so that a three second burst would<br />
launch 81 explosive shells and 177 heavy<br />
machine‐gun bullets in the direction of<br />
the target. As the guns were synchronised<br />
to give a narrow cone of fire the<br />
damage to the target aircraft was usually<br />
terminal. The Germans called it Schrage<br />
Musique...Jazz Music.<br />
We opened our account with a long<br />
trip to Stettin. It proved to be an easy<br />
one because we were only over the Fatherland<br />
for about one hour out of a total<br />
nine hour flight.<br />
Taking off at 11.30pm on January 5 th ,<br />
I can remember the tension as the Lancaster<br />
gathered speed and lifted off the<br />
runway with ten tons of high octane fuel
41<br />
and four tons of high explosive bombs.<br />
Then we settled to our tasks. From<br />
Cromer on the Norfolk coast we flew<br />
north for about two hundred miles<br />
before turning on an easterly heading<br />
and crossed Sweden at twenty thousand<br />
feet and over the Baltic to the<br />
Danish island of Bornholm and then<br />
crossed the German coast heading for<br />
Stettin. Most of this was above cloud<br />
and demonstrated the magic of the<br />
H2S. Coastlines gave first class images<br />
and navigation was straightforward.<br />
The cloud over the target was broken<br />
and I was able to bomb visually and<br />
saw the bursts clearly in the harbour<br />
area.<br />
We were slightly early on target<br />
but because we were not being used in<br />
the role of pathfinders we got in and<br />
got out before any serious anti‐aircraft<br />
fire. Our skipper had told us that his<br />
intention was always to get the Lanc.<br />
as high as he could in the belief that we<br />
would always be safer well above the<br />
bomber stream. So we came back over<br />
Sweden at around 26,000ft and saw the<br />
Swedes fire some token shots well below<br />
us.<br />
Landing back at Oakington in daylight<br />
at nine o’clock in the morning we<br />
were tired but elated. ‐ A doddle ‐ If<br />
this was what ops were all about then<br />
we were up for it.<br />
Our next four operations were all<br />
to Berlin and in two of them we were<br />
heavily involved with night fighter<br />
attacks. The first saw us suffering severe<br />
damage and after jettisoning the<br />
bombs, limped home to an emergency<br />
landing. On the next occasion our gunners<br />
were able to shoot down one attacking<br />
fighter and possibly a second.<br />
A very dodgy trip where we finished<br />
flying out over Holland at under<br />
2,000ft. Once again the Lanc. was damaged<br />
and the crew were very shaken.<br />
Our tail gunner, Albert Grange, got a<br />
DFM and the next night we all went<br />
out in Cambridge and got drunk.<br />
The confidence that I felt after our<br />
first trip was swiftly evaporating. We<br />
were attracting so much attention from<br />
night fighters that we accused the skipper<br />
of flying with his nav. lights on. It<br />
was only later when we learned that<br />
the magic of H2S had a down‐side and<br />
that when it was working it was in fact<br />
a beacon that the fighter could home<br />
on to.<br />
Our gunners were very alert and<br />
were quick to spot the fighter, and<br />
from then they called to the pilot the<br />
required evasive action. Roy was excitable<br />
but Albert calm and unflappable.<br />
At the call to CORKSCREW to port or<br />
starboard, Ken put the Lancaster into a<br />
twisting dive and climb sequence that<br />
would beat any fairground rollercoaster.<br />
Dick and I in our curtained<br />
nav. compartment had to hold on to<br />
our gear to stop things flying about.<br />
Ken Davies was only a small man<br />
weighing less than 10 stones, but he<br />
could make the Lanc. perform aerobatics<br />
and he did not have power‐assisted<br />
controls. The gunners and pilot kept<br />
the intercom switched on during these<br />
encounters and we had to listen to<br />
their excited shouts and the rattle of<br />
Brownings, four in the rear turret and<br />
two in the mid‐upper. It was a very laxative<br />
experience.
At midnight February 19/20 th, eight<br />
hundred and twenty‐three aircraft, 561<br />
Lancasters, 255 Halifaxes and seven<br />
Mosquitoes set course for the city of<br />
Leipzig and the raid was timed to last for<br />
20 minutes, which meant that the<br />
bomber stream would stretch over about<br />
60 miles and would be easily located by<br />
the German radar and we knew that<br />
once located, the night fighters would<br />
infiltrate the stream and the bombers<br />
would be picked off.<br />
The raid got off to a bad start. The<br />
forecast wind that Dick used to plot the<br />
course was well out, and when we<br />
crossed the Dutch coast fifteen minutes<br />
early we had to turn back over the sea<br />
and lose that time before continuing. My<br />
job was to find our position, using the<br />
H2S and keep Dick informed so that he<br />
could work out the course and try to lose<br />
time so that we did not arrive at the target<br />
before our time of zero +10. Because<br />
of the following wind all the aircraft<br />
were trying to lose time by throttling<br />
back and dog‐legging There must have<br />
been some collisions and we felt the effect<br />
of slipstreams quite frequently<br />
As we arrived at the last turning<br />
point before the target and turned on to<br />
a south‐ westerly heading to run thirty<br />
miles down to Leipzig we were still<br />
three minutes early. It was in the middle<br />
of a dog‐leg that we were attacked. It<br />
had been evident for some time that the<br />
fighters were well into the bomber<br />
stream as the gunners had reported<br />
many combats and aircraft going down.<br />
At the time of the attack we were at<br />
around 26,000 feet and throttled back to<br />
about 120 knots when the cannon fire<br />
came through the floor. The navigation<br />
table was wrecked and fire and smoke<br />
42<br />
filled the aircraft and, while Dick and I<br />
were trying to find a fire extinguisher,<br />
Ken gave the order to bale out. We had<br />
rehearsed this moment many times and<br />
Dick and I had our parachutes always<br />
beside us on the nav. bench. I moved<br />
forward and handed Ken his parachute<br />
and got a thumbs‐up and then moved<br />
into the nose to find the flight engineer,<br />
John Woolston, poor fellow, on his first<br />
trip, standing on the escape hatch without<br />
a parachute. I clapped his chute to<br />
his chest, lifted the hatch, slung it out<br />
and shoved the F/E out into the night.<br />
Then I could feel Dick coming through<br />
and out I went. I remember thinking that<br />
I might have pushed the F/E to his death<br />
so I was relieved and happy to be united<br />
with him on the ground.<br />
Another thing that we had thought<br />
about was the hazard of leaving an aircraft<br />
at high altitude and falling through<br />
the bomber stream below. Whilst the<br />
Lancasters operated at 20,000ft and<br />
above, the Halifaxes were at around<br />
15,000ft. The prospect of getting hung up<br />
on a Halifax was frightening. So we had<br />
a clever plan. In free fall a man would<br />
take about three minutes to reach the<br />
ground from 20,000ft, so a delay drop of<br />
one minute would take us down 10,000ft<br />
through the stream and then open the<br />
parachute and fifteen minutes later land<br />
on terra firma. Now it takes some nerve<br />
to drop in free fall counting up to 60 and<br />
then pull the rip‐cord at three o’clock in<br />
the morning in subzero temperatures. I<br />
remember counting very quickly because<br />
after pulling the cord, it still took twenty<br />
minutes to land heavily on my backside<br />
in a frozen field<br />
Meanwhile the men, women and<br />
children in the city of Leipzig were on
the receiving end of three thousand tons<br />
of high explosive and incendiary bombs.<br />
Three of the crew did not make it.<br />
Two, Ken Davies and Ken Marriot are in<br />
the War Cemetery in Brandenburg and<br />
Albert Grange is commemorated on the<br />
memorial at Runnymede which records<br />
20,000 aircrew with no known graves.<br />
Seventy nine aircraft were lost on that<br />
operation with around 550 aircrew. Records<br />
show that 137 escaped by parachute<br />
and were to end up in POW<br />
camps, 413 died.<br />
The losses sustained by Bomber Command<br />
in the winter of 1943/44 meant that<br />
crews knew that the chances of getting<br />
shot down were greater than not. In fact,<br />
more than half the aircrew flying with<br />
Bomber Command perished. During my<br />
stay of 94 days on the squadron, we lost<br />
23 Lancasters, which was around our<br />
operating strength, so you could say that<br />
the Squadron was wiped out over those<br />
12 weeks. But it didn’t work like that.<br />
Replacement aircraft and air crew kept<br />
arriving and kept disappearing. The 23<br />
aircraft lost recorded 127 killed, and 34<br />
made prisoners‐of‐war.<br />
The good bits were the friendships<br />
and the bonding of men sharing a frightful<br />
time. Some may claim to have enjoyed<br />
it. I didn’t. I was afraid, although I<br />
tried not to show it. My strong memory<br />
is one of dread each time I saw that we<br />
were on the Battle Order, and the fear<br />
that I would not survive that night. Yet<br />
when the attack came I have no memory<br />
of fear, but I do recall that when I pulled<br />
the rip‐cord and felt the chute open, I<br />
shouted with joy and relief. I was going<br />
to survive.<br />
Escaping by parachute, not easy in<br />
the Lancaster, did not necessarily mean<br />
43<br />
salvation. A very hostile pair of German<br />
Home Guard (Volk Sturm) quickly collared<br />
me and made me very nervous and<br />
I was more than happy to be taken into<br />
custody by the military. The mood in<br />
Germany can be imagined; towns and<br />
cities being bombed and burned and<br />
civilian casualties, mostly women, children<br />
and the elderly were mounting. The<br />
RAF were labelled Luftgangsters and Terrorfliegers<br />
in the media and we knew that<br />
there would be danger if we were to land<br />
in a bombed area. In fact Hitler had encouraged<br />
the murder of aircrew captured<br />
after baling out and it has been estimated<br />
that one in twenty captured aircrew did<br />
not come home. Around five hundred<br />
were done away with and this was dealt<br />
with by the War Crimes tribunals after<br />
the war.<br />
Sitting on the floor of the kitchen in a<br />
farmhouse I was offered a drink by the<br />
wife of the farmer who was concerned<br />
that I was not abused by the Home<br />
Guard. She showed me a photograph of<br />
her son who was a POW in Canada. This<br />
act of kindness was heartfelt and I hope<br />
that he came back to her after the war.<br />
Under the eye of a German soldier, my<br />
eye was drawn to the inscription on his<br />
belt buckle. It said “Gott mit uns”. Well,<br />
well!<br />
Not what the RAF padre told us at<br />
the briefing before the raid.<br />
I was escorted to the local Police station<br />
where I was re‐united with Dick<br />
Powell, Roy Child and John Woolston<br />
(the stand‐in flight engineer) and from<br />
there to a Luftwaffe aerodrome at Falkenburg<br />
and there we were kept in the<br />
guardroom cells for a day. From there we<br />
were taken to Halle to catch a train to<br />
Frankfurt. We were now exposed to the
ustling throng of the German travelling<br />
public and they did not think<br />
highly of the scruffy, unshaven Terrorfliegers<br />
and we were glad of the protection<br />
of our escorts.<br />
But here we were the object of curiosity<br />
of a bunch of school children;<br />
fourteen year olds perhaps, who<br />
wanted to practise their English. I remember<br />
how smart and clean they<br />
looked and so normal, competing to<br />
ask questions about why we wanted to<br />
drop bombs on them. A difficult question<br />
to answer.<br />
Then by train to Frankfurt to the<br />
interrogation centre (Dulag Luft) and<br />
after a fortnight in solitary being dismayed<br />
to be confronted with a photograph<br />
of 7 Squadron! They seemed to<br />
know more about the Squadron than I<br />
did. It was here that I learned that the<br />
skipper, wireless operator and rear<br />
gunner had not survived and the feeling<br />
of euphoria was replaced by the<br />
feeling of guilt because we had survived<br />
and they had not. This feeling is<br />
still with me. After the interrogation<br />
we were housed in wooden huts until<br />
we were allocated to POW camps and<br />
then back on the train, this time a<br />
goods train, and the slow journey to<br />
Stalag Luft 3 Sagan, and after 3 days I<br />
was back within thirty miles of where I<br />
had been shot down. This journey was<br />
not without incident and when we<br />
finally arrived at Sagan late at night,<br />
dirty, unwashed and hungry and very<br />
relieved to be welcomed by a committee<br />
of seasoned prisoners, I for one felt<br />
safe for the first time for a month.<br />
The escape attempt took place just<br />
two weeks after our arrival and many<br />
44<br />
of the escapees had been inside for<br />
three years or more and were ready to<br />
take the chance for freedom. Me ‐ I<br />
was just glad to get inside that wire<br />
and wait for freedom.<br />
In January 1945 as the Red Army<br />
got close we were tipped out at nine<br />
oʹclock one night and trekked through<br />
the snow for ten days before being put<br />
on a goods train and taken to a camp<br />
near Bremen. POW camps were being<br />
evacuated from all over Silesia and we<br />
found ourselves sharing the trek with<br />
German peasant families with horses<br />
and carts, dogs and cattle all in miserable<br />
conditions with little or no shelter<br />
or food. One memory that I will never<br />
forget was that of an elderly woman at<br />
five in the morning standing in the<br />
snow offering hot drink from a bucket<br />
outside her cottage to Terror Fliegers<br />
and German refugees alike.<br />
The move to Bremen brought us<br />
into the area of air attacks from the<br />
RAF and USAAF and with my knowledge<br />
of the lack of precision of bombing<br />
from high altitude we thought we<br />
were out of the frying pan and into the<br />
fire.<br />
In early April we were evacuated<br />
again as the British forces got near and<br />
this time the weather conditions were<br />
good and we moved at a slow pace.<br />
Once again the roads were chocked<br />
with refugees, foreign workers and<br />
POWs and sadly many got strafed by<br />
rocket firing Typhoons of the RAF.<br />
One gathering of RAF prisoners were<br />
queuing for Red Cross parcels being<br />
distributed from a large white Canadian<br />
Red Cross truck when they were<br />
blasted, with over twenty killed. We
were not impressed. However the British<br />
Army caught up with us and the<br />
war was over and within a week we<br />
were flown back to England (in a Lancaster).<br />
The story of the escape attempt and<br />
the tragedy of the murdered prisoners<br />
is well told by Paul Brickhill in his book<br />
“The Great Escape”, and the tragedy of<br />
Bomber Command is examined objectively<br />
by Max Hastings in his excellent<br />
“Bomber Command”. In the preface to<br />
this book he quotes Keith Douglas:<br />
How can I live among this gentle<br />
Obsolescent breed of heroes and not weep<br />
Unicorns almost<br />
For they are fading into two legends<br />
In which their stupidity and chivalry<br />
Are celebrated. Each, fool and hero, will be<br />
immortal.<br />
Ken Railton died in a Wellington<br />
on the thousand bomber raid on Cologne<br />
on June 2 nd 1942 and Albert<br />
Stone was killed in a flying accident in<br />
a Blenheim in <strong>May</strong> 1941.<br />
The War Crime Trials charged 937<br />
Germans with causing the death of<br />
captured aircrew. 230 were executed by<br />
hanging, 245 got life sentences and 423<br />
got lesser sentences. It is estimated that<br />
six hundred thousand German civilians<br />
were killed in the bombing of towns<br />
and cities by the RAF and the USAAF.<br />
Most of these would be women, children<br />
and the very old, since men of<br />
military age would be away fighting<br />
the war.<br />
There was no campaign medal for<br />
aircrew who flew in Bomber Command.<br />
***<br />
45<br />
Ken Railton (left), and Frank<br />
Stephenson (right)-1940<br />
***<br />
FORGE VALLEY RAILWAY<br />
Whilst there is firm evidence that<br />
pupils, at least in the days of the<br />
Westwood School, travelled to School<br />
by train on the Scarborough to Whitby<br />
line, particularly when it was the<br />
Municipal School, (see features on Storm<br />
Jameson and Leo Walmsley in previous<br />
issues) it is perhaps less certain that<br />
what was rather inaccurately known as<br />
the Forge Valley Line similarly<br />
attracted travellers to and from School,<br />
but this would have been very likely<br />
prior to 1950, given the number of
large villages between Pickering and<br />
Scarborough.<br />
The Forge Valley Railway<br />
connected Pickering to Scarborough.<br />
Opened in 1882, it closed as long ago<br />
as 1950, and so now represents another<br />
vanished piece of industrial history,<br />
albeit without the spectacular visual<br />
charm of the Whitby line. It left the<br />
Malton to Whitby main line half a mile<br />
south of Mill Lane junction, and joined<br />
the York to Scarborough main line at<br />
Seamer junction, two miles from the<br />
town.<br />
The name Forge Valley came from<br />
a proposal in 1854 that, in conjunction<br />
with the proposals to build the<br />
Scarborough to Whitby Railway,<br />
another line would be built from<br />
Pickering via Ebberston, Snainton,<br />
Brompton, Wykham and Ayton, up<br />
the Forge Valley to Hackness and<br />
down the bank of the Cut to meet the<br />
proposed Whitby line at Scalby. The<br />
construction of the Scarborough to<br />
Whitby line was long delayed, and,<br />
when the Forge Valley proposals were<br />
eventually resurrected, objections<br />
were received, not least in relation to<br />
land owned by Lord Londesborough,<br />
and the promoters withdrew the Bill to<br />
have the line built. At the same time<br />
the increasingly monopolistic LNER<br />
applied for powers in respect of a<br />
direct Pickering to Scarborough line.<br />
With the withdrawal of the Forge<br />
Valley Bill it took them a leisurely<br />
further 9 years however to build the<br />
line.<br />
The line obviously did not pass<br />
through Forge Valley, but the Station<br />
constructed at West Ayton was named<br />
after it to avoid confusion with<br />
46<br />
another station – Great Ayton already<br />
owned by the North–Eastern Railway.<br />
Single track, with a passing loop at<br />
Snainton, the journey took on average<br />
some 50 minutes, which was perhaps<br />
hardly surprising given the number of<br />
intermediate Stations – Thornton<br />
Dale, Ebberston, Snainton, Sawdon,<br />
Wykham, Forge Valley and Seamer.<br />
Some 18 crossing‐keepers houses were<br />
originally constructed along the line,<br />
which also obviously affected the<br />
speed of travel. Given the need to<br />
reduce expenditure, avoid gradients<br />
and the populous villages it is<br />
significant that the route largely<br />
follows the Marrishes to their South, a<br />
little distance from the villages<br />
themselves.<br />
During the 1930’s onwards to<br />
nationalisation, the Service, which was<br />
Third Class only, was apparently<br />
operated by vehicles known as<br />
Sentinel Railcars, and with the<br />
expansion in popularity of country<br />
holidays a further innovation in the<br />
1930’s was the introduction of<br />
“Camping Coaches”, one at Thornton<br />
Dale and one at Forge Valley.<br />
Despite this, the line was not<br />
paying its way by the 1940’s, and,<br />
apart from a short commercial length<br />
which remained open for quarry<br />
traffic until 1954, it closed with only a<br />
brief mention of regret in the local<br />
paper, on the 3 rd June 1950. –– To<br />
School by bus or car became the only<br />
option thereafter!<br />
***
47<br />
NEWBY COUNTY<br />
PRIMARY SCHOOL-<br />
CHRISTMAS 1953<br />
With considerable reluctance/<br />
embarrassment , because of his own<br />
inclusion, the Editor has been urged to<br />
include the attached photograph of the<br />
Newby County Primary School Christmas<br />
play of 1953 which appeared last<br />
November in the Scarborough Evening<br />
News, as it includes no less than 9 of<br />
the 1954 intake to the High School,<br />
though it is perhaps doubtful whether<br />
they will now recognize themselves, let<br />
alone be recognized by their subsequent<br />
Schoolmates, particularly with<br />
their Chinese attire, though the title and<br />
details of the actual play now elude me,<br />
and it may be that the whole episode<br />
was better left in obscurity!<br />
Those of the 1954 intake include (but<br />
not in any particular order) Anthony<br />
Wyvill, Jack Thompson, Peter<br />
Newham, Jeff Davison, Michael Corbyn,<br />
Michael Kemp, John Edwards,<br />
Tony Race and Martin Lavender, but<br />
no prizes for identifying which, and<br />
apologies for anyone omitted. Also<br />
featured are several subsequent SGHS<br />
Girls.<br />
***<br />
WEATHER<br />
(Global or Yorkshire Warming?)<br />
“Now is the winter of our discontent<br />
made glorious summer by this sun of<br />
York” may perhaps be an appropriate<br />
soliloquy for Richard III, but it is doubtful<br />
whether it similarly reflected on the<br />
less than Salad Days of our childhood<br />
weather in the hardy North–East.<br />
But enough of these literary pretensions,<br />
–were the winters really harder, the<br />
snow deeper and the sea mists so much
more dense, damp and depressing,––or<br />
is this yet another legend put about by<br />
the Grumpy <strong>Old</strong> Men either anxious to<br />
promote how tough we were in the<br />
Good <strong>Old</strong> Days, in a sort of “barefoot<br />
down the Mines with a candle” syndrome,<br />
or, as Ken Dodd used to relate of his<br />
mythical hard childhood –– “When I was<br />
a lad, we took it in turns to have a bath: first<br />
the kids, then the whippets, then Granddad<br />
” – a sort of rose‐tinted spectacled view<br />
of life in reverse!<br />
Perhaps the best judges are those<br />
many <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> still living there,<br />
but generally, ‐ recollection, ‐ and possibly<br />
the actual physical evidence, supports<br />
the view that winters nationally<br />
were much harder in the Forties and<br />
Fifties, and this is particularly evidenced<br />
in the North‐East Coast.<br />
Tobogganing, for one, was virtually<br />
an annual pastime during these times,<br />
and not just for the odd day but for extended<br />
periods of time – Stepney Road,<br />
Throxenby Lane, Moor Lane, and, if one<br />
could face the interminable walk back<br />
up the hill, parts of Hay Brow, made for<br />
semi‐Olympic sledging for those who<br />
lived in the Newby/ Scalby area, as did<br />
the fields around Hutton’s Farm leading<br />
to Throxenby Mere, whilst there<br />
were many more gentle slopes for the<br />
tyro elsewhere in the town.<br />
Neither was it unusual for it to be<br />
reported in the Scarborough Evening<br />
News that the villages on the Moors,<br />
both in the Whitby and Pickering directions,<br />
were frequently cut off, often for<br />
several days. It all seemed very exciting<br />
when one was young, though it is difficult<br />
to recall ever being physically unable<br />
to get to School, or worse –– (or<br />
48<br />
perhaps better!) the School being actually<br />
closed.<br />
<strong>Summer</strong>s are perhaps more difficult<br />
and perhaps appear to have changed<br />
rather less though no particular time<br />
seems to stand out as Mediterranean or<br />
even exceptionally hot, and perhaps<br />
rainfall has been similarly unexceptional<br />
, which brings us back to Winters<br />
as the one very different perception of<br />
our youth.<br />
Meteorologists will no doubt be<br />
able to scientifically prove or disprove<br />
this very anecdotal evidence of what<br />
appear to be significant climate changes<br />
or even attempt to link it to changes in<br />
the rainforests or increased air travel.<br />
Perhaps, on the other hand we are just<br />
all getting softer with central heating,<br />
air ‐conditioned cars and a great many<br />
other comforts which we lacked 30, 40,<br />
or 50 years ago,! –– but it is interesting<br />
to reflect from our own local experiences<br />
on these seemingly significant<br />
changes within our lifetimes!<br />
***<br />
OLD SCARBORIANS<br />
DINNER - CIRCA 1951.<br />
Michael Rines (1941‐52 ) has forwarded<br />
the following picture, taken at an <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Scarborians</strong> Dinner, probably in 1951,<br />
being of particular interest in that it<br />
includes 2 Tetley Memorial Prize winners,<br />
who uniquely were Mother and<br />
Son. Rosh Ireland, who was School<br />
Captain is fourth from left. His Mother,<br />
“Win” Winifred Ireland, who was at<br />
the Municipal School when it was co‐ed,<br />
is third from left. The whole group from<br />
left to right was: Rosh’s father (who ran<br />
a printing business in North street);
49<br />
Michael Rines: Deirdre Newton (his then girlfriend and was at the Girls High<br />
School); Michael’s sister Pat and Mrs Ireland, the other two being unknown.<br />
Published August 2008 and now<br />
in its second print, GOD BLESS<br />
THE PRINCE OF WALES is the<br />
story of the town of Scarborough<br />
during WWII — and the estimated<br />
6,000 RAF aircrew who<br />
trained in the town, and what<br />
they got up to after training.<br />
Stories are many, but include<br />
the Lancaster which buzzed the<br />
town, the heroism of a teenage<br />
Italian girl near Monte Cassino in<br />
Italy, Lysander aircraft pilot training<br />
on Olivers Mount for clandestine<br />
operations, and Richard (now<br />
Lord) Attenborough and Alf Wight<br />
(of James Herriot fame), both of<br />
whom trained in the town. 240<br />
pages packed with detail, the<br />
book retails at £9.99 but is available<br />
to OSA members for £8.50<br />
including packing & delivery.<br />
Cheques please payable to David<br />
Fowler. Contact details page 2. Or<br />
e-mail giving your postal address<br />
and pay on invoice.<br />
dgfowler@farthings.org.uk
50<br />
1961-2 2nd XV Rugby Team<br />
Back Row: Rob Wilson, Paul Fazey, Eaglen Sheen, John Mann, Malcolm Beavis, John Lester,<br />
Bob Watson. Middle Row: Dave Hudson, Mike Anderton, Tim Holt, Chris Coole, Jimmy<br />
Turner. Front Row: Ian Rothery, Chuck Mc Kinley, Gordon Askew, Dave Burnley, PA Gardiner,<br />
Jeff Reed, Malcolm Steel.<br />
Why not Advertise in <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong>?<br />
<strong>Summer</strong> <strong>Times</strong> is published twice a year and is mailed to around<br />
700 members, world wide. Additionally, the magazine appears<br />
on our web site in colour. And the prices to advertise?<br />
Full page outside back cover £70<br />
Full page inside covers £65<br />
Full page inside £55<br />
Half page inside £35<br />
Quarter page inside £20<br />
Details from:<br />
Chris Found<br />
‘Pinewood’, SILPHO,<br />
SCARBOROUGH. YO13 0JP<br />
E‐mail DeeFound@btinternet.com<br />
Phone 01723 882343
51<br />
SELF PUBLISHING<br />
Over recent years publishing has changed dramatically<br />
with many small firms amalgamating. This<br />
means it is even harder for new writers to see their<br />
work in print. However, if you would like to see your<br />
book or manuscript published, quickly and at minimal<br />
cost, Farthings Design and Publishing,<br />
(which produces and puts together this magazine from material supplied<br />
by Peter Newham), can probably help.<br />
Self‐publishing can be daunting, but with our help you can have your<br />
masterpiece published, printed and on your bookshelf in a few weeks.<br />
Is your manuscript already languishing in a drawer? Then why not<br />
dust it down and send it to us for a free initial appraisal – or, better still,<br />
send it by e‐mail. Give us an idea of what you want and we will quote –<br />
very reasonably we feel and probably in the £50 — £250 price range.<br />
Our fee would include a choice of book size, style and binding, a simple<br />
but full colour cover, editing, proof‐reading and layout costs and some<br />
retyping. One Perfect Bound copy of your book, professionally printed,<br />
would also be included. For handwritten manuscripts an additional<br />
charge for typing will be necessary depending on the work involved in<br />
transcribing.<br />
On receiving your first book you can decide whether you need more<br />
copies — there is no obligation — and you can order any quantity from<br />
1 upwards. For a full colour cover and black print on white paper internally,<br />
with Perfect Binding, you would be looking at around £7.50 plus<br />
postage for a single copy of a 250 page book. There would be discount<br />
for multiple copies. If you chose to, you could then distribute copies<br />
round your family or sell copies to the public through mail order, bookshops<br />
and so on. Copyright remains yours at all times.<br />
Worth thinking about? Then contact :<br />
David Fowler<br />
Farthings Design & Publishing<br />
8/1 Avenue Victoria<br />
SCARBOROUGH YO11 2QB<br />
dgfowler@farthings.org.uk<br />
01723 365448
52<br />
Tel: +44 (0)845 658 3 658<br />
Fax:+44 (0) 870 490 1720<br />
Web: www.MsAglobalsolutions.com<br />
Box No 299<br />
London WC1N 3XX<br />
United Kingdom<br />
E-mail: RodgerSlape@MsAglobalsolutions.com<br />
MsA global solutions is a boutique consultancy practice, established<br />
in 1989 and specialising in<br />
Hotels<br />
Leisure<br />
Hospitality<br />
Hotel & Leisure Development service<br />
A consultancy service which will help you to obtain<br />
the maximum from your development site<br />
Operations Audit<br />
Finance<br />
We are industry specialists, with global experience;<br />
an audit of operational management standards of performance<br />
will focus future management attention and<br />
increase your company’s profitability<br />
We will help you to get the sums right and raise the<br />
finance<br />
Financial re-engineering - Condo Hotels<br />
An innovative product offered by MsA global solutions<br />
to enable hotel owners to release capital tied up in<br />
hotel property<br />
Call or e-mail Rodger Slape (RodgerSlape@MsAglobalsolutions.com)<br />
for a copy of our electronic information pack or a confidential, no<br />
obligation, introduction to our services.<br />
We are based in London, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, but we<br />
work anywhere in the world.
3<br />
St Nicholas Cliff, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 2ES<br />
Tel:01723 368161 Fax: 01723 371547<br />
Web: www.palmcourtscarborough.co.uk<br />
Email: info@palmcourt-scarborough.co.uk<br />
Commanding a wonderful town centre position, the Palm Court<br />
Hotel offers an uncompromising commitment to quality, service<br />
and comfort.<br />
All 41 bedrooms are en-suite and are well appointed, offering<br />
wi-fi access throughout.<br />
There is guaranteed free, secure undercover parking available -<br />
unique for Scarborough town centre hotels.<br />
Our elegant dining room serves the finest cuisine using the best<br />
fresh seasonal ingredients, complemented by a selection of<br />
wines from around the world.<br />
The Palm Court hotel is the perfect place from which to explore,<br />
relax and enjoy Scarborough, the beautiful coastline and the<br />
North York Moors, whether for business or leisure.<br />
Special Offer Packages available throughout the year
4<br />
Published by The <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> Association. Editorial 01604 767895<br />
Design & Layout - 01723 365448<br />
Printed by Prontaprint, 5 Station Shops, Westborough, Scarborough<br />
Telephone 01723 367715