Fosterian Magazine 1995 - Old Fosterians and Lord Digby's Old Girls

L.i~e. so m~ny other t~ings it all .started by chance.My wife and I were justVISItIng ChIna as tounsts and as IS usual this involved pre-arranged visits toschools. All very interesting, even disturbing, but most striking at one HighSchool was the pathetic size of the library which we were shown. Surely withour affluence we could help - so on return home I proposed to my Rotary Club aproject for providing books.. The complications and obstacles at that time, over ten years ago, wereImmense. Fortunately I knew the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs so wewere able to enlist Departmental help, obtain free transport from QantasAirways and finally approval from the Chinese Government. The contact wasmade with the school we had visited and our proposal was greatly welcomed.That was only the beginning. Through supporting grants from theAustralia/China Council we were able to bring one of the Chinese teachers ofEngli~h to Australia to further extend the relationship. The Rotary Club thenestabhshed a bursary for English students at the school (which is still ongoing)~nd my wife and I visited China again to make the first presentations. By thishme the Australian Government was interested in the project and they alsomade a grant of gymnasium equipment and the presentation function became ajoint event attended by senior Chinese education officials as well as Australianofficials.The real significance of it all, however, probably lay in the personalrelationships and the influence on the lives of those involved. Our main Chinesecontact was one of the 'intellectuals' who had suffered deeply during theCultural Revolution and even then found life almost intolerable. Gradually thisnew interest lifted the depression allowing his true ability to show through. Theresult h~s been the. publication of ten books w.ritten over this period, including anew C~IneselEnghsh Thesaurus and the use In teaching English of a complete~du~ahon sys~em supplied by us from Australia. This has culminated recentlyIn hIS promotIon to recognition as one of the ten leading educationists in theShanghai District (15 million population).We in tum have also enjoyed widening horizons. It has given us excuses tovi.sit China w~ere we have re~ei.ved the warmest of welcomes, made manyfnends and aSSIsted students WIshIng to study overseas. Of special interest wasto see wall posters welcoming us to China and detailing our involvement withthe loca~ ~eople. Our last trip (unfortunately illhealth excludes further visits)was to VISIt and stay at six of China's leading Universities including a two weekspell at Quanxi University attending lectures to study Chinese art and culture.~nd what has this got to do with Foster's School? Simply - I believe that myenjoyment of school and the enthusiasm inculated in me by teachers such asRobert .Gi~ling, Pat Mi~ler .and Hu~ert Lush has continued throughout my lifeand maIntaIned an ongoIng Interest 10 all aspects of education.Maybe "If only .. " has been a continuing spur.Arthur J. Willis (30-36)14A VIEW FROM THEPROJECTION ROOM(With apologies to Arthur Miller)I can't remember now why I was hanging around at the foot of the library stairsand close to the door of the School Kitchen on that October evening back in '49.At this remove, I can only assume that I had arrived early for prep; a somewhatlonely child in his first term as a boarder. What I do know is that, although Icouldn't possibly have appreciated it then, thc following twenty-five minutes orso would change my life. Now, I wouldn't want you to get the impression thatanything cataclysmic happened - a sort of "road to Damascus" experience. No,it was more of a slow awakening, a quickening of something deep inside me -something of which an eleven-year old was totally unaware.Lights were on in the Hall. On tip-toe, I peered through the small window inone of the oak double-doors. The blue velvet stage curtains were open, theconcertina-screen that divided Art Room from Hall was drawn back. Anarrangement of chairs delineated the representation of a room with gaps fordoors and fireplace. Boys lounged on the margins, watching others as theymoved about within the marked out space. I pushed open the door and, Isuppose, that for dramatic effect, I should here recall that as I did so it creakedcausing heads to tum and a dozen pairs of hostile eyes to bore into me. But Idon't think it did, and they didn't. Nobody paid the slightest attention to anunimportant first former as he crept to a seat at the back. Sitting at a desk in themiddle of the Hall was the producer. He might have turned around when I satdown because I'm sure my chair must have squeaked; I have it in mind that allthe chairs in the Hall squeaked when you sat on them, creating a veritablecacophony of raspberries at Assembly.Years later Robert Morley would tell me that his introduction to the stage wasat the tender age of seven when he took part in a Mystery Play in his home townof Folkestone, directed by an eminent divine called Canon Elliott. This goodman, Robert remembered, sat at a similar small desk "looking rather like TyroneGuthrie." I don't think Mac ever in the least resembled the great Irish directorwho would watch rehearsals enveloped in a cloud of cigarette smoke but, nodoubt, the boys rehearsing R C Sherriffs "Badger's Green" were as much inawe of him as those more experienced thespians at the Old Vic were of Guthrie.I do, however, have one thing in common with the late and much-missed Mr.Morley. I, too, first trod the boards in a religious drama - my primary schoolnativity play. Like every other boy in the class, I wanted to be Joseph; I'd setmy heart on it. I should be so lucky. I was finally cast as one of the elderlyshepherds with some rather tickly grey crepe hair stuck incongruously on myyoung chin. In pursuance of what I then perceived as verisimilitude I'd decidedthat if I must be a boring old shepherd with a staff I'd affect a limp - after all,weren't all old men a bit shaky on their pins? Imagine my mortification whenthe parents of all my friends good naturedly enquired how I'd come to hurtmyself! There and then I renounced the stage forever.15