Association - Old Scarborians
Association - Old Scarborians
Association - Old Scarborians
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1<br />
Tene Propositum<br />
SUMMER TIMES<br />
The Journal of the<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong>’ <strong>Association</strong><br />
Members of the <strong>Association</strong> are former pupils<br />
and members of staff of<br />
Scarborough High School for Boys<br />
Volume 62– May 2012<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong>’ <strong>Association</strong><br />
Web address: http://oldscarborians.org<br />
Price £3.00
2<br />
David Pottage<br />
IEng AMICE<br />
Managing Director<br />
John Jacobs Golf Associates Ltd<br />
Golf Course Architects and Consultants<br />
A Complete Service<br />
from<br />
Project Appraisal<br />
through<br />
Detailed Design<br />
to<br />
Turnkey Development<br />
70 Whitesmead Road<br />
Stevenage<br />
Hertfordshire SG1 3JZ UK<br />
Tel: +41 (0)1438 488922<br />
Mobile: +41(0) 7770 981618<br />
E-mail: pottaged@hotmail.co.uk<br />
Member: European Institute of Golf Course Architects
1<br />
EVENTS DIARY 2012<br />
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2012<br />
TUESDAY 27th November 2012. SRUFC 7.30pm. ALL WELCOME.<br />
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS DINNER 2012<br />
FRIDAY, 7th December 2012, at 7pm for 8pm. To be held at SRUFC,<br />
Scalby Road, Scarborough. (The new club premises are between Scalby<br />
and Burniston on the right hand side of the road after leaving Scalby<br />
village) Price £27 which includes limited wine. All Members are welcome.<br />
Please use the enclosed form and book as soon as possible. Contact<br />
Bob Heaps with any queries. (Contact details page 2).<br />
ANNUAL BOWLS MATCH 2012<br />
FRIDAY 31st AUGUST 2012, Manor Road, Bowling Club. Please contact<br />
Chris Found for details. (Contact details on page 2)<br />
ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENTS 2012<br />
THURSDAY June 14 th & THURSDAY September 20 th . North Cliff Golf<br />
Club. Please contact John Brinkler for details. (Contact details on page<br />
3)<br />
OSA TIES— New style <strong>Association</strong> ties are available at £10. Please<br />
send your order accompanied by a cheque to the Treasurer. For new<br />
members please send £20 to include Life Membership.<br />
Please send items for the next Summer Times to Peter Newham,<br />
(address on page 2), as soon as possible please, but to reach him by<br />
15th August 2012. Items sent by e-mail are of great help, otherwise<br />
please type or write your letter and mail it on to him.
CONTENTS<br />
1. Events Diary<br />
2. Contents/ Committee Contacts<br />
4. Editorial<br />
4. Officer’s Reports<br />
8. Errata<br />
9. The Magazine<br />
11. Sporting Events<br />
12. From Here & There<br />
24. Further Cameos of Scarborough<br />
25. Ian Pryme writes<br />
25. Absence makes the heart …<br />
26. School Drama Programmes<br />
27. Gilbert Gray QC<br />
30. Secretarial Profiles 1 and 2<br />
32. Woodlands<br />
32. The Vice-President<br />
35. Annual Scarborough Dinner<br />
37. Scalby & Newby<br />
38. Torridon Camp 1958<br />
39. Nicknames<br />
39. Dai Liddicott<br />
39. Literati<br />
40. Faces from the past<br />
41. One foot in Eden<br />
42. Atkinson Grimshaw<br />
42. Mr Giblett<br />
43. Sports team photos<br />
44 Speech Day follow-up<br />
45. Graham Thorburn writes<br />
45. David Shaw writes<br />
45. Frank Binder<br />
47. Gerald Hinchliffe—90 years young<br />
49. Memories of TH Dawson<br />
56. Trivia & Universal Laws<br />
57 SBHS pays homage<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 />
Farthings Publishing<br />
8 Christine House<br />
1 Avenue Victoria<br />
Scarborough. YO11 2QB<br />
Tel: 01723 365448<br />
E-mail: dgfowler@farthings.org.uk<br />
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE<br />
2009/10<br />
PRESIDENT & MEMBERSHIP<br />
SECRETARY<br />
Geoff Winn<br />
‘Kingfishers<br />
5 Beech Court<br />
North Street,<br />
Scalby,<br />
Scarborough, YO13 0RU<br />
Tel: 01723 362414<br />
E-mail: Winn.geoff@talk21.com<br />
VICE-PRESIDENT<br />
William (Bill) Temple<br />
305A Scalby road,<br />
Newby<br />
Scarborough YO12 6TF<br />
Tel: 01723 362584<br />
E-mail: williiam-temple@sky.com
IMMEDIATE PAST<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 />
SECRETARY<br />
Bob Heaps<br />
67 Newby Farm Road<br />
Newby<br />
SCARBOROUGH YO12 6UJ<br />
Tel: 01723 365597<br />
E-mail: bobheaps@yorkshire.net<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 />
Alan Thraves 01723 360851<br />
MAGAZINE ADVERTISING<br />
Chris Found<br />
Pinewood Cottage<br />
Silpho Scarborough<br />
North Yorkshire. YO13 0JP<br />
Tel: 01723 882343<br />
E-mail: deefound@btinternet.com<br />
PRESS & PUBLICITY<br />
Maurice Johnson<br />
Cottage Farm<br />
Foxholes, Driffield YO25 3QF<br />
Tel: 01262 470272<br />
E-mail: dairymagic@aol.com<br />
3<br />
SPORTING EVENTS - GOLF<br />
John Brinkler<br />
20 Barmoor Close<br />
Scalby<br />
Scarborough YO13 0RZ<br />
Tel: 01723 362665<br />
E-mail: jovalbrinkler@gmail.com<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 />
Bill Potts<br />
3636 Edison Avenue, Apt. 104<br />
Sacramento, CA 95821-2750<br />
USA<br />
Tel: +1-916-514-9974<br />
E-mail: osa@wfpconsulting.com<br />
Howard Acklam 01723 584061<br />
Colin Adamson 01723 364373<br />
Mick Bowman 01287 634650<br />
Don Graham 01723 850177<br />
Mick Peart 01723 864164<br />
HONORARY LIFE VICE-<br />
PRESIDENTS<br />
Frank Bamforth 01723 364432<br />
David Fowler 01723 365448<br />
Doug Owen 01723 360960<br />
Peter Robson 01723 859335
EDITORIAL<br />
It is both ironic and<br />
regrettable that the<br />
Magazine, having at<br />
long last become financially<br />
viable, at<br />
least for the near future,<br />
should increasingly<br />
struggle for<br />
contributions of material from the self<br />
-same <strong>Old</strong> Boys who have recently<br />
contributed so generously to its continuance,<br />
and whilst I perhaps always<br />
tend to err on the side of pessimism,<br />
can I please repeat my usual plea for<br />
more contributions, whether letters,<br />
articles, résumés, up-dates on careers/<br />
retirements –– anything in fact which<br />
may be of interest to your contemporaries<br />
or stir the memories of related<br />
life in Scarborough in the 40’s, 50’s,<br />
60’s or early 70’s. The President has<br />
previously referred to the very welcome<br />
addition of a number of Members<br />
from the 1960s with their time at<br />
Woodlands, and they are the future for<br />
the <strong>Association</strong>, without, of course<br />
losing sight of the many of us with our<br />
equally nostalgic view of Westwood<br />
and its idiosyncrasies, long serving<br />
and autocratic staff included!<br />
It is strange that there is so much<br />
about the School in both its locations<br />
and about the town itself which, after<br />
all these years, still attracts a fierce<br />
loyalty and affection. Perhaps it is the<br />
epigram that you can take a Tyke out<br />
of Yorkshire but you cannot take Yorkshire<br />
out of a Tyke! –– and that is how<br />
it should be, no matter in which part of<br />
the world we end up!<br />
Peter Newham (1954-61)<br />
4<br />
PRESIDENTIAL<br />
The 2011 Christmas<br />
Dinner was again<br />
well attended and<br />
was thought by<br />
many of those present<br />
to have been<br />
one of the best ever.<br />
After the weather<br />
problems of the two previous years,<br />
we were blessed with much improved<br />
travelling conditions both locally and<br />
for those coming from away. Several<br />
new members joined us for the first<br />
time and it is hoped that, having renewed<br />
acquaintances with old school<br />
friends, they will make this an annual<br />
event in the diary. The Rugby Club<br />
again proved an ideal venue and the<br />
re-introduction of a speaker after the<br />
meal was well received. My thanks to<br />
John Oxley for his light-hearted and<br />
amusing anecdotes.<br />
At the 2011 AGM, Mick Bowman<br />
retired as Secretary after several years<br />
in post. On behalf of all the membership,<br />
I thank him for all the hard work<br />
he has put into the <strong>Association</strong>. He has<br />
agreed to remain on the Committee<br />
and this will assist in the transfer of<br />
responsibilities to our new Secretary,<br />
Bob Heaps.<br />
On 13 February this year, twenty five<br />
of us met up at Harts Restaurant in<br />
Nottingham to celebrate the 90th birthday<br />
of one of our best loved former<br />
teachers, Gerald Hinchliffe. He was on<br />
good form on the day and a full report<br />
on the lunch is given elsewhere in the<br />
Magazine.
I am sure you join with me in wishing<br />
him many more happy years.<br />
I have mentioned in my Membership<br />
report the new members who<br />
have joined over the past six months<br />
and this is very encouraging. However,<br />
we must now make a decision regarding<br />
those members who have<br />
failed to respond to the update requests<br />
in recent copies of Summer<br />
Times or the letter sent out to non-<br />
responders instead of the magazine<br />
last November. It is a difficult problem<br />
for the Committee to deal with, but if<br />
we do not hear from the 120 or so<br />
members who have not replied, we<br />
have no way of knowing whether they<br />
are still interested in the OSA, have<br />
moved without informing us or indeed<br />
passed on. We shall be dealing with<br />
this matter at our next committee<br />
meeting.<br />
Finally, I look forward to the London<br />
lunch at the East India Club on 17<br />
March which will in fact have taken<br />
place by the time you read this! Please<br />
support the golf and bowls events this<br />
year which involve the organisers in<br />
considerable time and effort and they<br />
would appreciate a good turnout.<br />
Geoff Winn (1949-56)<br />
SECRETARIAL<br />
As we prepare to go to print, Secretary<br />
Bob Heaps is abroad on holiday but he<br />
has provided a summary of his background<br />
which appears on page 31.<br />
5<br />
TREASURIAL<br />
YEAR ENDED<br />
31st OCTOBER 2011<br />
We have had a very<br />
successful year financially<br />
as donations<br />
made following our<br />
appeal in October<br />
2010 have continued<br />
to roll in and are still<br />
coming in. In addition Geoff Winn has<br />
kept up the pressure on recalcitrant<br />
potential members resulting in an increasing<br />
number of new joiners.<br />
A rather excessive profit was made<br />
on the London Lunch mainly because<br />
we had to advertise a price long before<br />
we were able to confirm a figure with<br />
the RAF Club. However, I believe that<br />
what we paid was very good value for<br />
what we received. Also our members<br />
drank a lot less wine than we had provided<br />
for.<br />
Our expenditure was almost exactly<br />
the same as last year. We have taken<br />
steps to reduce the cost of Summer<br />
Times by not mailing copies to those<br />
who have not returned the form confirming<br />
their continued existence and<br />
address. This has saved us in the region<br />
of £100 on the Autumn edition<br />
and the saving in a full year should be<br />
twice that sum.<br />
Support for our Golf and Bowls<br />
events has been a little disappointing<br />
this year, and this is a pity in view of<br />
how enjoyable the competitions<br />
proved to be.<br />
The <strong>Association</strong> is in a very healthy
financial position and we can look<br />
forward to carrying on our normal<br />
activities for a few years more without<br />
having to worry about our bank balance.<br />
INCOME<br />
6<br />
One last appeal to members - Please<br />
remember the <strong>Association</strong> in your<br />
Will!<br />
Chris Found (1951-59)<br />
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT<br />
YEAR ENDED 31st OCTOBER 2011<br />
2010<br />
£ £ £ £<br />
Subscriptions and donations 4892 3950<br />
Profit on sale of ties 76 129<br />
Bank interest 2 1<br />
Profit on activities:<br />
Christmas Dinner (10)<br />
London Lunch 440<br />
Golf Dinner and Competitions 4<br />
Bowls Competition 18<br />
EXPENDITURE<br />
452 256<br />
___ ___<br />
5422 4336<br />
Summer Times 1205 1259<br />
Postage and stationery 36 13<br />
Website costs 106 86<br />
Sundries 30 20<br />
Room hire 50 50<br />
____ ____<br />
1427 1428<br />
Surplus for the year 3995 2908
Assets and Liabilities<br />
MEMBERSHIP<br />
SECRETARIAL<br />
Having said in my last Report that the<br />
tide had eventually turned and I was<br />
having to tell you that, over the past<br />
year, there had been more deaths than<br />
new members, lo and behold the last<br />
six months have produced an influx of<br />
new Members. These have been the<br />
following :<br />
Clayton, Colin (1937-42)<br />
Gough, Raymond (1944-49)<br />
Hartley, David (1965-70)<br />
7<br />
BALANCE SHEET<br />
AS AT 31st OCTOBER 2011<br />
2010<br />
£ £<br />
Balance at Bank 10809 5312<br />
Stock of ties (at cost) 252 426<br />
Debtors and prepayments 325 325<br />
____ ____<br />
11386 6063<br />
Less Creditors 1843 515<br />
Representing:<br />
9543 5548<br />
Accumulated Fund at 1st November 2010 5548 2640<br />
Surplus for the year 3995 2908<br />
_____ ____<br />
Accumulated Fund at 31st October 2011 9543 5548<br />
===== ====<br />
Hogg, Melvyn (1962-69)<br />
Mason, Alan (1962-69)<br />
Milner, Roger (1962-67)<br />
Moorhouse, Paul (1964-69)<br />
Pillar, Michael (1963-67)<br />
Radford, William (1966-70)<br />
Robinson, Philip (1962-68)<br />
Settle, John (1972-73)<br />
Shaw, David (1953-60)<br />
Southwick, Robert (1961-69)<br />
Tringham, Howard (1958-63)<br />
Trousdale, Graham (1958-63)
Those who have passed on are :<br />
Bowes, John (1949-55)<br />
Gilder, Barry (1949-55)<br />
Hoyland, David (1960-68)<br />
Kent, George (1941-45)<br />
Perfect, David (1953-61)<br />
Unfortunately, in the last ST, Ray<br />
Kidd was included among those who<br />
had died. I am happy to report that<br />
this was an error, and having spoken<br />
to him since, he was glad to tell me he<br />
is still alive and kicking and living in<br />
York.<br />
I have referred in my President’s<br />
report to the situation regarding Members<br />
who had not responded to the<br />
various requests to confirm their membership<br />
so will not dwell further on<br />
this.<br />
Can I just remind members that if<br />
they are still in contact with other <strong>Old</strong><br />
Boys who are not Members, it would<br />
be helpful if you encouraged them to<br />
join and attend one of our events.<br />
Geoff Winn (1949-56)<br />
ARCHIVIST’S REPORT<br />
The only item I have<br />
added to the Archive<br />
this past six months is<br />
a cutting from The<br />
Yorkshire Post which<br />
reported that Kevin<br />
Young (1968-72) was<br />
awarded the CBE in<br />
the Queen’s birthday Honours of 2010.<br />
He attended the SBHS and the Scarborough<br />
Sixth Form College before<br />
being awarded undergraduate and<br />
8<br />
graduate degrees in Sports Science and<br />
Exercise at Liverpool John Moores<br />
University. For the past 11 years he<br />
has worked with Gilead Sciences in<br />
California where he is presently the<br />
chief executive. Gilead has developed<br />
Atripla, the only Single Tablet Regime<br />
for the treatment of HIV. Gilsead had<br />
made this medication available at no<br />
profit prices in 100 low income countries<br />
and at deeply discounted prices<br />
in 130 developing countries.<br />
Kevin’s father was until very recently<br />
a resident of Ebberston and his<br />
brother and sister are health professionals.<br />
Meanwhile a reminder that I will<br />
take any SBHS related memorabilia<br />
that you want to get rid of or indeed<br />
that you want preserving.<br />
Peter Robson (1945-53)<br />
Archivist<br />
ERRATA<br />
Following his receipt of the last issue I<br />
was somewhat embarrassed to receive<br />
a phone call from the “late” Ray Kidd<br />
indicating that, as Oscar Wilde succinctly<br />
said, reports of his death as<br />
have been greatly exaggerated! (See<br />
Membership Secretarial) and I am<br />
pleased both to apologize and put the<br />
record straight and to report that Ray<br />
remains very much with us and that<br />
our telephone conversation was in no<br />
way ethereal!<br />
Editor
THE MAGAZINE<br />
(correspondence)<br />
Tom Pindar (1936-45)<br />
writes …<br />
I’ve had a go at reading Summer<br />
Times off the screen. The idea of saving<br />
you guys work and the <strong>Association</strong><br />
money appeals to me. The experience<br />
was not encouraging. Double column<br />
and so mousing up and down the page<br />
to get to column 2 is a bit of a ploughing<br />
through excessive nostalgic verbiage.<br />
In the paper version one can scan<br />
a column or page and train the eye/<br />
mind to pick out salient areas of the<br />
prose. With large type on the screen<br />
you can lose the will to live as more<br />
Bar Room Bore paragraphs roll down.<br />
Of course the Mag. is unashamedly<br />
nostalgic so much content offers up the<br />
hazard for all to see, that is, unless one<br />
can mentally Sub Edit and keep the<br />
excellent, proud, worthwhile statements.<br />
Statements, that is of gratitude,<br />
amity, achievement etc.<br />
I suppose I am really wondering if<br />
it is feasible to make items more pithy<br />
and /or change the page format and<br />
page character count so screen use is<br />
pleasurable. If you do that will the<br />
same format work for a printed version?<br />
Is one necessary? Is an email<br />
one so much work for you that we<br />
should all pay up and just keep the<br />
print one, with email of it available to<br />
those who live in Timbuctoo to avoid<br />
crazy mail costs?<br />
These are simple thoughts, recognizing<br />
what a debt we all owe to you for a<br />
9<br />
great deal of work and Tene Propositum<br />
commitment.<br />
David Fowler (1949-55) -<br />
(Design and Layout)<br />
writes…<br />
Quite frankly I feel the same way as<br />
you and will keep you on the paper<br />
copy mailing list. I like to browse past<br />
issues in bed, or from a chair, and a<br />
laptop doesn’t give the same effect.<br />
At present we have around 30%+ of<br />
Members who have agreed to take a<br />
copy by email. If we can increase that<br />
percentage we can adjust the format to<br />
make for easier reading, but, certainly<br />
initially the email version will be similar<br />
to the paper version.<br />
The format was agreed to save paper<br />
and cost yet get as much content<br />
into the magazine as possible. With a<br />
small print point size a single column<br />
was felt to be too much of a strain for<br />
reading. Were we to get to the stage<br />
where the majority of members – and<br />
all overseas members where postal<br />
costs really escalate – would take<br />
emailed copies we could redesign the<br />
magazine for that medium.<br />
Incidentally, if you download the<br />
current free copy of Adobe Reader<br />
(version x) from www.adobe.com , the<br />
program allows you to adjust the<br />
viewing size for online reading. I fact<br />
your present version might already do<br />
so.<br />
If you agree, I’ll pass your message<br />
to Editor Peter Newham, as he has<br />
control of “what goes in.” I merely put<br />
the thing together.
The Editor writes….<br />
David has passed to me your recent<br />
correspondence, with his response in<br />
relation to the online version of the<br />
Magazine, and I also confess to having<br />
a strong personal preference for a hard<br />
copy of the Magazine for the reasons<br />
outlined, and also my own computer<br />
deficiencies. A legal lifetime when everything<br />
was in hard print and could<br />
easily be read and reread does not sit<br />
easily with my now playing with a<br />
somewhat erratic machine, and at least<br />
while I am Editor we will continue to<br />
have a hard copy available for the technically<br />
challenged!<br />
With regard to the content, apart<br />
from the filler articles I write myself on<br />
local background and hopefully general<br />
interest, (and which would be further<br />
minimized if I received more material<br />
from Members!) you will appreciate<br />
that this is totally dictated by what I<br />
receive from them, which is frequently<br />
“unashamedly nostalgic”, but given<br />
that this is what we have in common,<br />
our respective ages and the celebration<br />
of our time at School, this is perhaps to<br />
be expected, and too much on the subsequent<br />
lives of members becomes of<br />
limited interest to other than their immediate<br />
contemporaries, though updating<br />
more generally is obviously more<br />
interesting.<br />
Hopefully we can, however, achieve<br />
a balance to provide enough of interest<br />
to everyone, and, if you do not mind, it<br />
may be useful to reproduce this exchange<br />
of views between the three of<br />
us in the next Magazine both to stimu-<br />
10<br />
late other views and hopefully encourage<br />
more contributions.<br />
Tom further adds…<br />
Maybe I did not explain very well? ––<br />
–There are 2 main points:<br />
1. The page layout which works with<br />
the printed version is slower to read on<br />
the screen.<br />
2. One cannot scan an item and skip<br />
parts of great interest to the writer and<br />
his year group, but of less interest to<br />
another group. Hence those items of<br />
lesser interest to one group of readers<br />
can stimulate a feeling of needless<br />
wordiness or undue nostalgia.<br />
But, if the layout is changed to allow<br />
easier scanning of screen wordage that<br />
negative influence could disappear.<br />
So, for a screen based publication to<br />
become the dominant variety a redesign<br />
would be needed. Obviously I like<br />
paper and print but the last half of my<br />
life has been spent also embracing the<br />
use of and developing digital technology,<br />
alongside, parallel with and as a<br />
replacement for conventional imaging<br />
and media. Readability or user friendliness<br />
are part of making any New Tech<br />
usage a success.<br />
None of this alters the fact that the<br />
Members owe a lot to those who do<br />
such a good job with the <strong>Association</strong><br />
activities and it would be good to stimulate<br />
discussion of Summer Times .<br />
David Fowler further<br />
responds...<br />
I agree with Tom, assuming the online<br />
version is accepted by a majority of<br />
members. At present, having emailed
everyone, we have roughly 30% of<br />
members opting for an emailed version<br />
of Summer Times. And, of course, we<br />
have many mainly older members who<br />
don’t have, or don’t use, e-mail.<br />
The present paper version is fairly<br />
easily transferred into an online format<br />
and it is that version which was sent<br />
out as a sample to all those on e-mail.<br />
However, to prepare two versions<br />
with the same contents, but with different<br />
layouts to meet each medium<br />
would take me more time than I have<br />
available and I feel at present that the<br />
version which caters for the majority<br />
should have precedence.<br />
To meet Tom’s points we could possibly<br />
redesign the present layout to part<br />
meet both requirements, but, just as an<br />
example, were we to do away with the<br />
two columns to a page, whilst this<br />
could aid ‘skipping through’ the online<br />
version, it could deter many from reading<br />
the paper version. We need to use<br />
such a small font size to reduce costs,<br />
that, without two columns to each<br />
page, legibility would become more<br />
difficult. For the online version, of<br />
course, members can zoom the page<br />
size on their screen, have one or more<br />
pages showing and so on.<br />
Having said all this, the likelihood is<br />
that members will gradually move<br />
from paper to online and we must be<br />
prepared. I would be happy to join a<br />
small sub-committee to discuss how we<br />
could adapt the present design to better<br />
cater for both forms of media, as that<br />
way we would only be producing one<br />
version. That would assist me as the<br />
11<br />
time I have available is finite on a<br />
“freeby” basis. Maybe such a Sub-<br />
Committee could “meet” online initially<br />
as with Peter as Editor living in<br />
Northampton face to face meetings<br />
could be difficult and costly. I would<br />
suggest yourself (Peter), Tom and myself.<br />
Throughout I’ve been talking about<br />
my part in the process – the design,<br />
getting the copy into the magazine and<br />
getting the think printed twice a year. I<br />
‘pass’, on the content, which is between<br />
Peter as Editor, and the Members.<br />
I’ll pass this through Geoff Winn as<br />
President to seek his views, particularly<br />
on a Sub-Committee, but if we were to<br />
go ahead and whilst we could swop<br />
ideas before the next issue and maybe<br />
incorporate some improvements before<br />
then, my feeling is that it could be useful<br />
to have an article included in that<br />
issue to get the views of other members<br />
on both content and design.<br />
SPORTING ACTIVITIES<br />
CROWN GREEN BOWLS<br />
COMPETITION - 2011<br />
This took place on Friday 26th August<br />
2011 at Manor Road Bowling Club.<br />
Unfortunately because of heavy rain<br />
we were only able to reach the semifinal<br />
stage and the plate competition<br />
had to be abandoned altogether.<br />
However the weather did not dampen<br />
the enthusiasm of the competitors for<br />
the Glaves pork pies which were on<br />
offer afterwards.<br />
The semi-finals were re-arranged for
5th October but this had to be abandoned<br />
due to the Borough Bowling<br />
Club green being closed for end of<br />
season maintenance. However, a further<br />
date was fixed for 31st October<br />
and we finally managed to get a result,<br />
although with some difficulty.<br />
The original semi-final line up was<br />
Jack Binns (Borough) versus Les<br />
Stockell (Brid. Bay) and Chris Found<br />
(Borough) versus Bill Simmonds<br />
(Borough). Unfortunately Bill Simmonds<br />
had to go into hospital for an<br />
operation and so the three remaining<br />
contestants agreed to a three way play<br />
off in the form of a round robin. The<br />
results were Chris Found beat Les<br />
Stockell 21-11 but lost to Jack Binns 21-<br />
6. Les Stockell beat Jack Binns 21-11.<br />
As all finalists had won one game we<br />
had to have a count up of ends won<br />
and Jack and Les had an equal number<br />
of 32 ends. To produce a winner a<br />
short play off of 3 ends was held and<br />
Jack Binns won by a short head.<br />
Bill Temple, who will become our<br />
President in 2012, presented the Geoff<br />
Nalton Trophy to Jack and a bottle of<br />
dry sherry to Les as runner up.<br />
Next year’s competition will take<br />
place on Friday 31st August 2012.<br />
FROM HERE AND THERE<br />
Michael Corbyn (1954 -61)<br />
writes…<br />
A possibly interesting anecdote from<br />
my schooldays might be of interest:<br />
I started SBHS in September 1954 but<br />
prior to Easter of that year I unfortu-<br />
12<br />
nately fractured my femur one<br />
lunchtime on the playing field at Newby<br />
County Primary School. This resulted<br />
in 5 weeks in hospital. When discharged<br />
I was encased in plaster of<br />
paris around my leg and around my<br />
chest - joined at the groin so I was unable<br />
to sit. (Oh the joy of bedpans!!) For<br />
the rest of the summer term my father<br />
took one of our easy chairs from home<br />
in a wheelbarrow to the Primary<br />
School, (I followed on crutches), and it<br />
was placed in Mrs Green's classroom. I<br />
was able to recline in that and therefore<br />
attend lessons as normal.<br />
On the occasion of the parent's introductory<br />
evening for new entrants to<br />
SBHS I remember I had to stand in the<br />
central aisle of the assembly hall whilst<br />
'Joey' Marsden gave his talk.<br />
The plaster was removed before I<br />
started the new term but I was not allowed<br />
to do games/PE for 6 weeks or<br />
so until the medics were satisfied my<br />
leg was back to 'normal'. Scarborough<br />
Hospital certainly did a good job because<br />
I have no problems with it ever<br />
since.<br />
Once able to take part in PE I found<br />
that the rest of the class were fully acquainted<br />
with all procedures including<br />
'stripping off to take a shower' - they<br />
just got on with it, but a new recruit? –<br />
– well he just had to be checked out by<br />
the class just in case he was any different!<br />
That was not so bad, but on the<br />
odd occasion when Keith Dutton supervised<br />
our PE lesson he always<br />
seemed to get us to line up before going<br />
into the showers –– less said about<br />
that the better!
Jack Binns<br />
(Master 1962-73) writes….<br />
The publication in the Scarborough<br />
Evening News on 29 November 2011<br />
of the photograph of staff and students<br />
of the Boys' High School taken in 1963<br />
re-awakened many personal memories<br />
of nearly half a century ago. On the<br />
photo the boys were too small and<br />
indistinct for my failing vision, but I<br />
could recognise and name almost every<br />
one of the staff, teaching and support.<br />
This was taken after my first<br />
year at SBHS, the first of eleven that<br />
remained of the School's life and perhaps,<br />
for that reason, my most memorable.<br />
Perhaps, also, I happen to have<br />
kept my mark book for 1962-3. <strong>Old</strong><br />
boys beware!<br />
Though I was probably conceived in<br />
a boarding-house in Queen Street during<br />
Keighley Parish Feast week in August<br />
1933, I did not return (so to speak)<br />
to Scarborough until invited for interview<br />
for the post of history teacher in<br />
March 1962. By that time I had a wife<br />
and a two-month-old son living in<br />
Birkenhead and behind me nearly<br />
three years of teaching history at Wirral<br />
Boys' Grammar School. The prospect<br />
of going back to Yorkshire, after<br />
Cambridge, Cyprus, Newcastle and<br />
Merseyside, and living by the sea was<br />
enough to prompt my application for<br />
the job, but the interview day was well<br />
beyond my best expectations.<br />
From personal experience of other<br />
Boys' grammar schools at Wirral,<br />
Newcastle Royal and Keighley, I had<br />
assumed that school dinners were in-<br />
13<br />
evitable displays of chauvinist greed<br />
and disorder and the food was disgusting.<br />
But here the boys sat at tables;<br />
each table of eight was a miniature of<br />
the school from year one to year seven<br />
and attended by a master; the menu<br />
was divided equally on to eight plates;<br />
and after the meal tables were cleared<br />
and cleaned with amazing speed and<br />
efficiency. And the dinner was delicious<br />
and filling, thanks to a modem,<br />
on-site kitchen and superb cooks led<br />
by Mrs Standidge. As I later discovered,<br />
the presiding genial genius over<br />
these proceedings was a dynamo<br />
called Norman Stoddard.<br />
Of the interview itself with Alec<br />
Gardiner I remember little. He asked<br />
me whether history was really a study<br />
only for mature adults and not suitable<br />
for adolescent boys, but I can't recall<br />
my answer except that it was a good<br />
question that deserved a reply and still<br />
does.<br />
What I remember best of that day,<br />
apart from the school dinner, was the<br />
splendid location of the new school, its<br />
spacious playing fields, the magnificent<br />
gymnasium and, even in March,<br />
the natural light flooding through all<br />
those windows and plate glass and<br />
reflected in the moat! ––What a building!<br />
–– Even Nicholas Pevsner was<br />
impressed with it a few years later.<br />
And the staff room, the like of which I<br />
had never seen anywhere else. There<br />
were settees and armchairs; tableservice<br />
for coffee at break; and a separate,<br />
smoke-free marking room.<br />
Of course the building was then<br />
only two years old. The high alumina
cement ceilings had not yet begun to<br />
crumble, gaps between outer walls and<br />
roof had not yet appeared and the gym<br />
floor was still level, yet I have never<br />
known school architecture to match it<br />
before or since. At Keighley and Newcastle<br />
there were no adjacent playing<br />
fields and inside all was gloomy, overcrowded<br />
and out-of-date. Even Wirral<br />
GS, opened as late as 1938, was like a<br />
military outpost on the North-west<br />
frontier where the snow (not sand) blew<br />
into the classrooms across open balconies<br />
and the staff room was standing<br />
only.<br />
And finally there was the all-male<br />
teaching staff. All that I met were cheerful,<br />
welcoming and clearly content.<br />
That was another new experience for<br />
me. Naturally, the only one I spent any<br />
time with that day was "Biff" Smith.<br />
Why he was nicknamed "Biff" puzzled<br />
me deeply, then and thereafter, because<br />
I found him so considerate, quiet and<br />
thoughtful. Perhaps his received reputation<br />
for physical violence was decades<br />
out of date and by 1962 was certainly<br />
inappropriate and undeserved. To me it<br />
seemed that working with him in the<br />
history department could be only easy<br />
and pleasant. –<br />
Readers, I took the job!<br />
Clive Roberts (1954-59)<br />
writes…….<br />
I started at the School in<br />
September 1954 and<br />
joined Arthur Costain’s<br />
class 1L situated in the<br />
Music room on the top<br />
14<br />
floor – or was it called the Lecture Theatre?<br />
I used to cycle to School which<br />
allowed time to travel home for lunch.<br />
On arrival at school, the rules were that<br />
you could ride down the sloping driveway,<br />
but then had to dismount and<br />
walk along the level to the cycle racks at<br />
the end against the railings. Being a<br />
little cunning, or perhaps stupid, I soon<br />
discovered that it was possible to gather<br />
sufficient speed down the hill and then<br />
swing one leg over the saddle to stand<br />
on one pedal and coast along the level<br />
almost as far as the cycle racks. This I<br />
considered could hardly be classed as<br />
cycling if you were not actually astride<br />
the bike, and anyway it saved a few<br />
seconds if you were running late.<br />
One day performing this trick after<br />
lunch a breathless boy came running<br />
along as I parked the cycle in the rack<br />
and informed me that Bonn Clarke<br />
wished to speak to me. “Who’s Bonn<br />
Clarke?” I enquired, not having had the<br />
dubious pleasure of meeting him by<br />
that time. “He’s that chap at the foot of<br />
the slope” he replied. So I walked back<br />
towards this figure who was stomping<br />
along with an uneven gait. One leg appeared<br />
permanently bent at the knee<br />
and his face was purple with the veins<br />
on his head standing out. I thought any<br />
moment now this chap is going to explode!<br />
As I approached he asked was I<br />
not aware of the rule prohibiting cycling<br />
along the drive in front of the<br />
school. I replied that I was aware. He<br />
then asked me to answer politely,<br />
which I thought I already had. I realised<br />
that I had forgotten to add the word<br />
“Sir” so I replied again “Yes, I am sorry<br />
Sir” thinking that inevitably a detention
was going to follow. “Very well, seeing<br />
as you are a new boy I will let you<br />
off on this occasion”. So I turned and<br />
walked back to join the afternoon classes.<br />
That was my first encounter with<br />
the infamous Bonn Clarke. Subsequent<br />
meetings over the next five years were<br />
not exactly pleasurable either.<br />
One Master who I always got on<br />
well with was John Perry, who taught<br />
woodwork, metalwork and engineering<br />
drawing, all my favourite subjects.<br />
He used to organise the aero modellers<br />
club and as I was a keen modeller<br />
I used to take part. After school we<br />
used to fly rubber powered model<br />
aircraft on a line tethered to a pole in<br />
the middle of the hall. Someone<br />
brought a model powered by a ‘jetex’<br />
engine which was in effect a jet propelled<br />
rocket using solid pellets of fuel<br />
ignited by a fuse. This would fly round<br />
in circles at tremendous speed leaving<br />
trails of foul smelling smoke. It surprised<br />
me that Joe Marsden allowed<br />
this to take place.<br />
Sometimes we would meet on a Saturday<br />
morning at Oliver’s Mount<br />
playing fields to fly our planes. Some<br />
of us had progressed to building models<br />
powered by diesel engines. This<br />
was more exciting and slightly more<br />
dangerous, particularly if you caught a<br />
finger in a propeller spinning at 10,000<br />
revs per minute – the scars took a<br />
while to heal!<br />
On a schoolboy’s pocket money, commercially<br />
available fuel was quite costly,<br />
so most of us blended our own. The<br />
basic ingredients were paraffin, castor<br />
15<br />
oil and ethyl ether mixed in more or<br />
less equal proportions. I used to buy<br />
mine from a chemist on Falsgrave who<br />
was quite relaxed about dispensing<br />
potentially harmful substances to<br />
schoolboys – how times have changed.<br />
We had many happy times flying<br />
and nobody came to any harm. Inevitably<br />
we would crash a plane, sometimes<br />
beyond repair, in which case we<br />
would take out the engine and fuel<br />
tank to save for a future model, pour<br />
some fuel over the wreckage and set<br />
fire to it as a sort of funeral pyre. Many<br />
more hours would then be spent building<br />
a subsequent model to fly again.<br />
On reflection, perhaps spending<br />
time in this manner instead of studying<br />
accounted for my poor performance<br />
academically. Oh the folly of<br />
youth !<br />
Colin Moore (1945-50) –<br />
The Gang, North Bay Pool<br />
Colin Moore has forwarded the photograph<br />
of “the Gang” (next page) taken<br />
at the North Bay Pool, probably in<br />
1951, with the following comment -:<br />
As far as I can remember the girls<br />
were – Shirley Temple [second from<br />
right], Pat Harwood [second from left]<br />
and Margaret Mead [far right] whose<br />
father was Jack Mead, Groundsman at<br />
the North Marine Road cricket field.<br />
Margaret married Derek Terry, who<br />
sadly passed away recently.<br />
The four 'he-men' !! - On the back<br />
row – George London, Deryck Fawcett,<br />
Derek Terry and myself were all
pupils in the ''l'' form from 1945 to<br />
1950, when I left. I think the others all<br />
continued into the Sixth form. They<br />
were all good swimmers apart from<br />
me. (I think they liked me to enter because<br />
I made them look even better!!)<br />
Paul Gridley (1954-59)<br />
writes…<br />
Strange how a little natter with Mr<br />
Editor obliges one to trawl the<br />
memory of the good and bad times in<br />
the pursuit of the ephemeral<br />
16<br />
“THE GANG”<br />
“education”.<br />
I was not a happy pupil<br />
at the High School until<br />
the advent of the newer<br />
generation of teachers<br />
personified by Bob Watson,<br />
who put me back on the right<br />
path, with the correct application of<br />
carrot and stick. However, he was<br />
powerless in his contest with my<br />
Mum !<br />
It was one of those winter days on
Oliver’s Mount with the wind driving<br />
the sleet across the Rugby pitches, the<br />
mud the consistency of “ordure”, and<br />
the cold sufficient to numb the acupuncture<br />
of the feet caused by the<br />
splinters from the changing room<br />
floor. It must have been a House<br />
match as Keith Dutton was the “ ref “<br />
resplendent in his College rugby shirt<br />
fresh from the laundry, and in full<br />
voice, driving us on to bury ourselves<br />
in the mud.<br />
At one stage he yelled “Tackle him<br />
round the legs, Gridley!” Fine, but the<br />
“him” was Biff Smith’s son, commonly<br />
known as “Bifflet” and about the same<br />
size and weight as his father. Well I<br />
had no escape from Dutton’s exhortation,<br />
and down came Bifflet, taking<br />
most of my torso with him into the<br />
mud. “Good tackle” roars Dutton and<br />
the game moves on. Bifflet removes<br />
himself from my torso and I rise from<br />
the mud’s clutch. But no – I don’t rise.<br />
Bifflet trots off, and I manage to sit in<br />
the mud. “Get on Gridley” is the cry<br />
from Dutton - but I can’t. A blinding<br />
feeling of nausea stops me, and I sit in<br />
the cold mud confused. “I can’t get up<br />
Sir,” I gasp at Dutton, who seeing a<br />
gap in play comes over and assists me<br />
but has to hold me upright. He senses<br />
something that is not malingering and<br />
sends for Bob Watson, who is “reffing”<br />
a neighbouring game, resplendent in<br />
College blazer as well as full rugby rig.<br />
He guides me off the pitch and to<br />
the changing sheds very slowly. “I<br />
think you may have damaged a collar<br />
bone” he says, “ I’ll have to take you to<br />
the hospital.” Well, not knowing<br />
17<br />
what a collar bone was, but being in<br />
considerable pain, I stutter out, “But<br />
Sir, I have to meet my Mum in town at<br />
4.30!!” “We’ll sort it” he assureD me.<br />
So, off to the Hospital in Bob’s Ford<br />
Popular, every bump a nightmare.<br />
Bob ushers me round, oversees the<br />
binding of my injured part to the rest<br />
of my body, still in mud encrusted<br />
black shirt, and says, “Only a little late<br />
for your Mother” . When we arrive in<br />
the Ford outside the Georgian Grill in<br />
York Place, my Mum is pacing up and<br />
down with a face like thunder under<br />
her brolly, trying to peer out through<br />
the sleet. Bob parks next to her and<br />
exits the car, leaving me inside whilst<br />
he faces my Mum who does not instantly<br />
recognise the car or Bob, or her<br />
errant son.<br />
Bob introduces himself and Mum’s<br />
gaze falls upon the wounded warrior.<br />
“What have you done to my son with<br />
that brutish game?” she cries, and<br />
thwacks Bob across the shoulders with<br />
her brolly, and, warming to her task<br />
gives him a good work out with said<br />
brolly. I was scared, never mind Bob!!<br />
I don’t remember Bob running us<br />
home, all I remember is that I couldn’t<br />
have a bath for several days, indeed, I<br />
couldn’t move much with my broken<br />
collar bone. Only when I began to<br />
smell and had turned bright purple of<br />
torso was the shirt cut off. By that<br />
time Mum had lost patience with me<br />
as well as Bob, but by heck , a woman<br />
can do some damage with a brolly and<br />
a handbag!!<br />
Bob never forgot that day, and I
never got full use back of that arm,<br />
which dear Readers, explains why I am<br />
sometimes slow to put my hand in my<br />
pocket at the Bar!!<br />
Chris Ledgard (1952-59)<br />
writes …<br />
Tom Pindar (May 2011 edition) set me<br />
thinking – here are the results:<br />
I left SBHS in 1959 with mediocre<br />
academic results and went to work<br />
with Yorkshire Bank in Leeds, Ryedale<br />
and Scarborough until 1962. At this<br />
point I left to work for my father, a<br />
market gardener at Snainton with market<br />
stalls at Dewsbury and Batley and a<br />
shop at Snainton, whilst I prepared<br />
myself for the various academic and<br />
practical examinations which would<br />
equip me for acceptance for training for<br />
the Methodist Ministry at Wesley College,<br />
Headingley, Leeds – just a little<br />
later than John Dean (see May edition).<br />
I was a student and finished with a C.<br />
Theol. Thereafter I went to my first<br />
ministry in the Shetland Islands and<br />
stayed for 3 years. –– A very enjoyable<br />
experience.<br />
In 1970 I was approached to see if I<br />
was willing to be a chaplain in the RN,<br />
but eventually went to the RAF, serving<br />
for 16 years in uniform in England,<br />
Wales, The Gulf and Germany with<br />
brief spells in Cyprus and visits to Belgium<br />
and Sardinia. My denomination<br />
label was “Church of Scotland and Free<br />
Churches” – in other words anyone not<br />
C of E or RC plus people of other faiths<br />
and no faith!<br />
During the mid 1970’s I completed a<br />
18<br />
BA degree with the Open University –<br />
one of the earliest people to do so.<br />
In 1983 I went to RAF Lyneham for<br />
my last tour of duty, previously having<br />
been at RAF Brize Norton during the<br />
Falklands War, with all that involved. I<br />
remained at Lyneham until 1986, ending<br />
my years there as Senior Chaplain.<br />
This was an extremely demanding time<br />
with service people detached e.g. to<br />
Ethiopia for famine relief duties and at<br />
other places worldwide. We are aware<br />
of repatriations of deceased Service<br />
personnel through RAF Lyneham until<br />
recently – perhaps one or two at a time,<br />
but I was involved in the first repatriation<br />
at Lyneham when 17 bodies were<br />
brought home on one aircraft : the victims<br />
from a coach fire in Germany involving<br />
members of the RAF Germany<br />
Band. There was just a low key return<br />
with families and colleagues present…<br />
not the journey through Wootton Bassett<br />
– just quiet, dignified and exceptionally<br />
discreet.<br />
In 1986 I left the RAF Chaplain’s<br />
Branch in the relative rank of Wing<br />
Commander. In September 1986 and I<br />
became Methodist Minister in Whitby<br />
(alongside John Dean in the URC). I<br />
retained my RAF connection by being<br />
civilian Officiating Chaplain to RAF<br />
Fylingdales.<br />
In late 1989 I moved to Scotland and<br />
spent a 3¼ year period of charity fundraising<br />
in Edinburgh, I also served part<br />
time on the staff of St Giles’ Cathedral,<br />
Edinburgh. In late 1992, now married<br />
to Elizabeth, we moved to Parish Ministry<br />
in NE Scotland in Banffshire, Aberdeenshire<br />
and Moray. We moved to
the Borders in 2002 so I could spend<br />
the remainder of my parish ministry in<br />
Berwickshire. Soon after arriving I was<br />
taken ill and ended up taking medical<br />
early retirement. We have now settled<br />
at Chirnside, 10 miles west of Berwickupon-Tweed<br />
and 6 miles from Duns.<br />
The reason for early retirement was<br />
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)<br />
arising from my ministry as an RAF<br />
Chaplain and from other draining pastoral<br />
situations. With the help of Combat<br />
Stress I have now been able to find<br />
a much happier situation in life and<br />
many pressures are generally under<br />
control.<br />
Over many years - from 1978 – I<br />
have been working on a “History of<br />
the Royal Air Forces Chaplains’<br />
Branch – from a Church of Scotland<br />
and Free Churches perspective”. It<br />
originally started as a MTh. thesis at<br />
University College, Cardiff but I ran<br />
out of time to present it, due to the<br />
extremely heavy workload of my later<br />
years as a Chaplain. However, over the<br />
years the work has developed and I<br />
19<br />
found what I think will be its final<br />
shape. Copies of this are now held at:-<br />
Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon,<br />
New College, University of Edinburgh,<br />
John Rylands Library, University<br />
of Manchester and elsewhere.<br />
I have other projects underway but<br />
they have to be done “in slow time”.<br />
Recently I had a triple heart by-pass<br />
and a repair in the heart. I am now<br />
much improved and begin the last part<br />
of my treatment in September 2011 –<br />
this being physiotherapy and rehabilitation.<br />
This has been the “year of the garden”<br />
and gentle exercise has been a<br />
great help. Apart from visiting family,<br />
holidays are on hold and in that respect<br />
we look forward to future years<br />
and live with a great deal of hope.<br />
Dave Pettit (1964-66 and<br />
1970-73) writes…<br />
Following Stan Todd's letter in Summer<br />
Times it was great to renew contact.<br />
Stan could well hold the Guinness<br />
Book of Records record for playing at
the Ilkley Sevens in brand new boots.<br />
The only problem was they were both<br />
for the left foot! I enclose the photographs<br />
of the 1964-65 and 1965-66 1st<br />
XV Rugby teams. (above and on previous<br />
page)<br />
A Riposte from Michael<br />
Wearing –<br />
As a former Scarborough College student<br />
I shall probably be seen as an<br />
interloper. However, I beg permission<br />
to respond to Peter’s Dawson’s accusation<br />
(Summer Times, vol 61 ). He<br />
20<br />
claims that as a lad I sold him a dud<br />
bicycle that had a back pedal brake, a<br />
faulty front brake and a slack chain.<br />
This slur on my character was also<br />
included in the May issue. That’s really<br />
pushing it – the slur not the cycle!<br />
How do I know about these things?<br />
Well, from time to time I am “philled”<br />
in by two <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> – Phil<br />
Clarke and Phil Ruston. They have<br />
kindly informed me of Peter’s complaint<br />
– obviously it’s still niggling<br />
him. I can’t understand it – after all I
spent hours painting the frame a vibrant<br />
red. The gloss paint itself was<br />
worth 15/-.<br />
However, be that as it may. It was<br />
great to read of Peter’s reminiscences<br />
and to see his photo. I well remember<br />
him, his parents and his sister in Oakville<br />
Avenue.<br />
So many familiar names appeared in<br />
the November 2011 edition that was<br />
passed on to me. My wife Elizabeth<br />
(nee Taylor, of H O Taylor fame) also<br />
had recollection of so many – for example,<br />
Geoff Winn, Chris Found, Charlie<br />
Hall, Graham Thornton. She cannot<br />
remember meeting up with Peter –<br />
presumably her cycle was not as fast as<br />
his!<br />
I now live in Harrogate but am often<br />
in Scarborough. I do not know of Peter’s<br />
whereabouts but if I catch sight of<br />
him he’d better get on his bike and stop<br />
back-pedalling!<br />
To everyone who might recall us –<br />
Good Wishes and Happy Memories<br />
Michael Wearing<br />
David Bates (1964-1971)<br />
writes…<br />
I have been meaning to write a contribution<br />
to Summer Times for some<br />
time now, as there seems to be little<br />
contact in the OSA from my contemporaries.<br />
I am not sure how much to<br />
write, as I have many recollections of<br />
people and events, which are vivid<br />
reminders of the atmosphere of the<br />
times spent up Woodlands Drive. I<br />
suppose the best place to start is Sep-<br />
21<br />
tember 1964, when I cycled on my<br />
brand new bike, which was a reward<br />
for passing my 11 plus, from my grandmother,<br />
with some trepidation to the<br />
Scandinavian designed edifice between<br />
the hospital and the crematorium.<br />
Woodlands Drive, in some ways, was<br />
a metaphor for life’s journey. You were<br />
born in the hospital, made your way to<br />
that great place of learning, and further<br />
on up the road, the crematorium was<br />
where you would possibly end your<br />
time on the planet. I recall the first year<br />
boys were put into forms 1X, 1Y and<br />
1Z, and also into houses. I was in form<br />
1Y and Ruskin house. The first day was<br />
confusing, mainly because the staircases<br />
were all the same and one class room<br />
looked like another. After the relative<br />
simplicity of Newby County Primary<br />
school, this was scary. We were issued<br />
with our 6 day rotating timetable, and<br />
were left to fathom our where the classrooms<br />
for each lesson were.<br />
You could say I was not the most<br />
able when it came to sport, and I was<br />
not keen on Rugby, despite the fact my<br />
dad had played for Scarborough in the<br />
late 1940’s and up until 1953, when a<br />
broken leg and my arrival into the<br />
world ended his career. Life has a way<br />
of finding solutions to such difficulties,<br />
sometimes. In October 1965, a freak<br />
collision with a classmate, in the gym<br />
led to my fracturing my right wrist,<br />
thus ending my period of compulsory<br />
rugby, much to my delight. I found a<br />
new sport, which I liked Cross country<br />
running was easier than getting<br />
roughed up in rugby scrums. Unlike<br />
some of my fellow runners, who used
cross country as an excuse for a crafty<br />
fag and a leisurely stroll, I enjoyed<br />
trying to better my times.<br />
I had always liked cricket, but was<br />
not very good at it in my early years<br />
(nor my later years – come to think of<br />
it). In fact, I was scorer for the under<br />
14’s team. I did play for Ruskin in<br />
house matches, and remember becoming<br />
hero for 5 minutes when I took a<br />
catch on the mid wicket boundary,<br />
much to the amazement of my team<br />
mates. There were a lot of good cricketers<br />
at that time. Keith Poskitt and<br />
Dave Hartley were very good bowlers.<br />
In my year Mark Brumfitt (Richards as<br />
he is now) was always capable, even<br />
though made everything seem like<br />
hard work. I managed to progress<br />
from scoring to playing with the Colts<br />
under Pete Lewins ‘s captaincy, and<br />
eventually I spent two summers as 2nd<br />
eleven captain. I recall that I was very<br />
naïve about life, particularly about the<br />
activities of post pubescent boys. On a<br />
coach trip to play Bridlington Grammar<br />
school with the Colts, we shared<br />
the coach with the first eleven, which<br />
was made up of older boys. I was often<br />
the butt of mickey taking, and remember<br />
being asked, “Do you w**k?” to<br />
which I replied, “I don’t know because<br />
I don’t know what it is.” They all<br />
thought it was hilarious, but I was<br />
none the wiser. How cruel school children<br />
can be! Barry Beanland looked<br />
after the 2nd eleven, and he appointed<br />
me captain of the team. I never really<br />
knew why, until I asked him last year,<br />
at the Christmas Dinner. He said it<br />
was because of my knowledge and<br />
love of the game. Tactically, it seemed<br />
22<br />
to work out well, We played 8 matches<br />
and won 6 drawing the other two in<br />
one season. There were some exciting<br />
finishes, and some “inspired” (flukes<br />
more like) bowling changes, like the<br />
game at Hull Grammar, where we<br />
had about 20 minutes left to get a result<br />
and still needed 5 wickets. I<br />
turned to one of the younger spin<br />
bowlers John Stockhill. Lo and behold,<br />
he took 4 wickets, it may have been all<br />
5 , and we won.<br />
At Archbishops Holgate we witnessed<br />
one of the most spectacular<br />
catches off a full blooded drive to silly<br />
mid off you are ever likely to see. Let’s<br />
put it another way—if he (name escapes<br />
me) hadn’t caught it, his prospect<br />
of ever fathering children would<br />
have been in serious jeopardy!! We<br />
weren’t the most accomplished of<br />
players, but the team work was fantastic,<br />
and someone would always chip in<br />
with a performance, when we needed<br />
it. My own personal achievement was<br />
a stand of 103 with the late Alan<br />
Duguid. We had been set a target of<br />
186 by Fylinghall School, on the cricket<br />
pitch inside the athletics track. This<br />
seemed an impossible task, as we had<br />
a weakened side out. For some reason,<br />
I put myself in at number 4, I was no<br />
great shakes with a bat at all. We were<br />
3 wickets down for about 25, when I<br />
joined Alan in the middle. We put on<br />
103 for the 3rd wicket of which I<br />
scored only 24. Alan’s inspired batting<br />
got us an unlikely win, which capped<br />
off an unbeaten summer.<br />
Many of you will remember the<br />
Bright Bowl Junior cricket competition,<br />
and most years it was High School v
Scarborough College in the final.<br />
However in 1971, Scalby Village juniors,<br />
for whom I played reached the<br />
final against the High School first eleven.<br />
The High school team won, but it<br />
gave me my chance to play my only<br />
match at North Marine Road. I was<br />
disappointed not to get a bowl at my<br />
school adversaries and only batted at<br />
number 10.<br />
I did manage a couple of streaky<br />
boundaries off Messrs Poskitt and<br />
Hartley to finish top scorer on 10 not<br />
out, though. After the match, our pub<br />
crawl to celebrate our defeat ended up<br />
with my beer being spiked, and the<br />
first experience of being really drunk.<br />
It was a good job my school days were<br />
over, as I could not stand up until<br />
lunchtime the next day. As we do in<br />
those situations it was a case of<br />
“Never again” (which we all know is<br />
never the truth).<br />
I could go on and on reminiscing, but<br />
will try and cut it short. Listed below<br />
are a few highlights and fond memories:<br />
Natural History Society trips to<br />
Swaledale—Grinton Lodge YH. My<br />
interest was geology, which meant<br />
hours scouring the hills for galena –<br />
lead ore. I remember marmite sandwiches<br />
in our daily packed lunch, and<br />
older boys putting thistles in McFerran’s<br />
bed.<br />
1966 July trip to Hadrian’s Wall and<br />
seeing the Russia world cup squad<br />
training at Durham University<br />
1967 Lake District camp in Martin-<br />
23<br />
dale, Ullswater, It rained every day<br />
except the day we went on a coach trip<br />
to Windermere. The rain was so bad it<br />
made the stream in the field uncrossable.<br />
Whose idea was it to site the latrines<br />
at the other side of the stream?<br />
Not much fun trying to go to the loo in<br />
the middle of the night in the pouring<br />
rain!! August 14th, the end of pirate<br />
radio, I remember trying to listen on<br />
my transistor radio.<br />
1970 “The Prodigious Snob” school<br />
play, in which I and Martin Watts<br />
played flunkies. Spent 80% of the play<br />
standing like a couple of statues,<br />
Hardly any lines to say, which as an<br />
actor can be a banana skin, because<br />
it’s easy to miss your cue. Best part<br />
was after school/pre-performance listening<br />
to Blind Faith blasting out in<br />
the school hall. We were lucky to put<br />
all our performances on, as the rest of<br />
town was subjected to selective power<br />
cuts, due to industrial action. Fortunately<br />
, school was on the same circuit<br />
as the hospital so our supply was secure.<br />
Bridge School - every morning before<br />
school Tim Metcalfe, the late<br />
Chris Boddy, Nick Rogers and myself<br />
would get in early and play bridge.<br />
Were we mad or what??<br />
Maths teacher John Davidson used<br />
to start the first lesson after the weekend<br />
talking about football. He was a<br />
big Middlesbrough fan… well I suppose<br />
someone has to be.<br />
There are many more memories,<br />
maybe I will submit more next time.
Michael Lester (1949-57)<br />
writes …<br />
The Eric Fenby Plaque at<br />
Scarborough Spa.<br />
Over the past three years Scarborough<br />
Spa, including the Grand Hall, has undergone<br />
a massive renovation costing<br />
about £6.5 million. The main work was<br />
finished in Spring 2011, and there was a<br />
grand civic re-opening in May.<br />
During this time many precious artefacts<br />
had to be removed and placed in<br />
safe storage including the plaque dedicated<br />
to Eric Fenby OBE who was an<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Scarborian from the Municipal<br />
School days. He attained world-wide<br />
recognition as the amanuensis of the<br />
blind and paralysed Yorkshire composer<br />
Frederick Delius. In September a<br />
sharp-eyed member of the Delius Society<br />
noticed that the plaque had not been<br />
put back by the end of the summer, and<br />
letters to the Spa manager met with no<br />
response. Contact was then made with<br />
a sympathetic local Councillor who<br />
was also the cabinet member for regeneration<br />
on Scarborough Council. There<br />
was some small panic as it was not<br />
known where the plaque had been<br />
stored, but it was eventually found<br />
securely wrapped and protected, and<br />
in a short time it was replaced. Although<br />
not in the same place as before,<br />
it is nearer the main entrance and will<br />
hopefully be seen by more people.<br />
Editor: Readers may recall a feature on<br />
Eric Fenby previously appeared in the<br />
May 2008 Issue of the Magazine.<br />
24<br />
FURTHER CAMEOS OF LIFE<br />
AT SCARBOROUGH IN THE<br />
50’S…<br />
Peter Dawson (1950-58)<br />
I can recall an incident with Derek<br />
Price. He and I were standing near the<br />
old United Bus Station when a car<br />
roared across Valley Bridge heading for<br />
South Cliff. Perched precariously on<br />
the back of this vehicle, with feet on the<br />
rear bumper were two boys singing<br />
and beating gongs - obviously part of a<br />
wedding party.<br />
Derek's keen eyesight recognized one<br />
of them immediately, though he was<br />
never in his class. It is a weird anomaly,<br />
that such daredevil behaviour was possible<br />
in the 50s, when I remember being<br />
reprimanded twice by the local constabulary<br />
- once at the bottom of Prospect<br />
Road when my bike stopped dutifully<br />
at the white line, but with the<br />
front wheel half over it, and secondly<br />
in an evening when my rear light wasn't<br />
working but there was a very adequate<br />
red reflector.<br />
Nowadays, cyclists are just as common<br />
riding the pavements as the roads,<br />
frequently without any lights at all and<br />
totally ignoring red traffic lights!<br />
Do you recall the stand of elms, between<br />
the Bus Station and the bridge,<br />
in which there was a rookery? Every<br />
year one or two nestlings would fall<br />
out and every year I would take one<br />
home to try and rear it. Only once was<br />
this successful. The rooklet grew very<br />
quickly and was very tame. It used to<br />
terrify my much younger sister, flap-
ping towards her and cawing loudly<br />
as soon as she came through the back<br />
garden gate from school, demanding<br />
to be fed.<br />
I got to the stage of throwing it out<br />
of the bathroom window to encourage<br />
it to fly. At this point my parents insisted<br />
on the bird being sent to a more<br />
appropriate home. So it went to a lad<br />
from the country where it was soon<br />
flying and kept coming back to his<br />
home for weeks afterwards.<br />
Do you remember the United Bus<br />
Station in the war years? When petrol<br />
was in very short supply, some buses<br />
pulled a trailer burning coke and producing<br />
a gaseous mixture of hydrogen<br />
and carbon monoxide which was<br />
burned in their engine much as LPG<br />
can be today.<br />
My father used to tell me, I couldn't<br />
remember, that on one weekend trip<br />
on the road to Helmsley, the underpowered<br />
bus could not make it up a<br />
hill and all the passengers had to get<br />
out and walk up rejoining their bus at<br />
the summit.<br />
Finally a little unrelated cameo —<br />
General Elections were taken very<br />
seriously at Westwood, with all 3 main<br />
parties campaigning and leading to a<br />
secret ballot. The Cons. usually came<br />
out on top, but very closely followed<br />
by the Liberals and the Socialists way<br />
down. At that time the Liberals only<br />
had about 6 MPs in Westminster. I<br />
don't think the Liberal support reflected<br />
the Liberal tradition in Scarborough<br />
(it had been a Liberal Borough) as<br />
much as an "up yours" to the establish-<br />
25<br />
ment. At one packed meeting in the<br />
music room, Charlie Rice's son was<br />
speaking for the Liberals on Home<br />
Policies and working up to one or other<br />
of the main Liberal policy planks at<br />
the time — proportional representation,<br />
or worker management...."<br />
and the magic word for this policy is<br />
"…...". “Abracadabra" — came the<br />
noisy heckler's riposte, from the back<br />
row - one of the 3rd year 6th sporting a<br />
blue bow tie.<br />
Just behind the Music Room, opposite<br />
the Chemistry labs lived the quiet,<br />
fair-haired lab. Technician Mr. Judson<br />
(a Methodist lay preacher) — always<br />
undervalued. Once when either Zenna<br />
Potts or Mr. Speight was unable to<br />
get to school, Mr. Judson deputised as<br />
teacher very adequately. He helped me<br />
construct a Russian exposure meter<br />
from a kit. I was into photography at<br />
this time. Joey caught me at work on it<br />
in Mr. Judson's tiny cell and was not at<br />
all pleased!<br />
Ian Pryme (1955-63)<br />
writes..<br />
My career at SBHS commenced in<br />
1955 and ended in 1963. I then took up<br />
studies at the University of Newcastle<br />
upon Tyne (B.Sc. in Zoology and Physiology,<br />
followed by an M.Sc. in Clinical<br />
Biochemistry). Whilst a student at<br />
Newcastle a student-exchange programme<br />
took me to Bergen in Norway.<br />
Fate would have it that I returned to<br />
Bergen having completed my M.Sc. in<br />
October 1967. Since November 1967 I<br />
have been employed at the Medical
School at the University of Bergen,<br />
since 1996 as a professor in biochemistry<br />
and molecular biology. I have initiated<br />
from my research efforts over<br />
the years two spin-off companies -<br />
Palm Research and UniTargeting Research,<br />
both operating from, and<br />
based, in Bergen.<br />
At SBHS my interest in the biological<br />
sciences was stimulated first by<br />
Derek Price and then Gordon<br />
Whalley/Bernard Thomas. I was therefore<br />
a keen member of the Natural<br />
History Society. NHS weekend hikes<br />
and trips to the Lake District, the Shetland<br />
Islands and twice to Switzerland<br />
were major highlights of my days at<br />
SBHS!<br />
ABSENCE MAKES THE<br />
HEART GROW FONDER?<br />
The Editor…<br />
After being away from the home town<br />
for over half a lifetime, interspersed<br />
with the very occasional home visit,<br />
my own personal retirement routine<br />
has settled into one annual visit of<br />
some two days for the December Dinner.<br />
Without reprising the articles<br />
which have appeared already on<br />
“Scarborough Now and Then”, I wonder<br />
how many other <strong>Old</strong> Boys are in<br />
similar circumstances, their views of<br />
the town being similarly conditioned<br />
by a mixture of views from a distance<br />
coupled with rosy-tinted nostalgia?<br />
The changes, such as they are, must<br />
be seen in that context by expats., although<br />
I am conscious of the great<br />
number of Members who have either<br />
continued to work in the surrounding<br />
26<br />
area, or have retired back to the town.<br />
They will, through familiarity and the<br />
gradual nature of change, see things<br />
rather differently. Certainly, even<br />
from where I view it the town has<br />
changed relatively little, allowing for<br />
the lapse of 50 years: ––whether that<br />
is a good or bad thing is another question<br />
altogether, on which views will<br />
differ and on which it would be foolish<br />
to be drawn! –– Any contributions<br />
welcome however!<br />
SCHOOL CHRISTMAS<br />
DRAMA COVERS 1958-<br />
1962 –<br />
Courtesy of Mike Corbyn<br />
(1954 -61)<br />
Mike, who was noted for his artistic<br />
skills, has forwarded the four Drama<br />
Covers which follow, the design for<br />
“As You Like It” being his own, together<br />
with details of their production.<br />
This was effected in those days<br />
on scraper board. (Scraper board is<br />
made of plaster of paris or gypsum<br />
and has a smooth, white clay surface,<br />
usually covered in ink, in each case<br />
black, and can be scraped away to<br />
reveal white) ––– Mike still has the<br />
original for the design which he produced<br />
and the brown envelope in<br />
which his design was returned with<br />
his name on the front.<br />
These were then sent to Boucher &<br />
Brown printers in Scarborough. Mr<br />
Colenutt dealt with them –<br />
1. Merchant of Venice (design - A. E. J.<br />
Prosser )
2.Twelfth<br />
Night (design -<br />
Robert<br />
Willsher )<br />
3. Julius Caesar<br />
(design -<br />
Nigel Cutts )<br />
4. As You Like<br />
It (design Mike<br />
Corbyn )<br />
27<br />
GILBERT GRAY QC<br />
By Tom Pindar (1936-46)<br />
One, if not the<br />
most colourful<br />
personalities of<br />
my school days<br />
until his death in<br />
Spring 2011 (see<br />
obituary in previous<br />
issue) was<br />
Gilbert Gray QC.<br />
We were pals from just before going<br />
into long trousers, aged 14, in 1942. A<br />
shared interest in listening to inspired<br />
eloquent preachers and politicians<br />
brought us closer together, and we<br />
were rather infused with the sheer<br />
pleasure of singing hymns in a 1000<br />
strong congregation at Queen Street<br />
Methodist Church. Gilbert had started<br />
with his parents at the Salvation Army<br />
but the preaching of greats such as<br />
Leslie Newman and Ken Waights, coupled<br />
with the Good Companions Youth<br />
club with numerous attractive girls,<br />
soon seduced him to Methodism.<br />
Our first 6th form excitement, after<br />
getting a motor cycle apiece (1940 AJS<br />
350 cc) was the School elections. Fewster<br />
was the Blue candidate; I forgot the<br />
Labour one, and GG was the Liberal.<br />
We had cottoned on to a basic fact,<br />
even a rather base one, namely that the<br />
masses like to be entertained whilst<br />
half-pretending to be serious. So we ran<br />
diversions, –– a tiddly winks competition<br />
was just one. Gilbert was already<br />
learning that getting the audience on<br />
your side is often more important than<br />
the intellectual rigour of your words.<br />
He was elected with a big majority –an<br />
outcome not shared across the UK with
the huge end of war swing to the left!<br />
I was of course his earnest stooge –– the<br />
Ernie Wise to Gilbert’s Morecambe.<br />
So straight after Highers we were off<br />
to the Call Up Centre. He to the Army<br />
where, after a spell at Gallowgate Richmond,<br />
he somehow ended up with a<br />
two year pip on his shoulder and a<br />
motor boat and crew based on an<br />
attractive Cornish harbour. He seemed<br />
to spend a lot of time sailing in interservice,<br />
inter-regiment, intereverything<br />
else competitions or being<br />
taken to the Scillies to review the<br />
corned beef stocks or some such vital<br />
military matter!<br />
As a dull plodder full of Air Training<br />
Corps zeal and being fooled by the<br />
promise that as ATC Air Force fame<br />
and fortune awaited me I went to the<br />
RAF at Padgate and then had some<br />
good times at the Parachute School and<br />
working on Avro Yorks that flew back<br />
and forth to Hong Kong and Singapore<br />
carrying important people and things.<br />
Ernie Bevin as Foreign Secretary left us<br />
a bottle of whisky, presumably as a<br />
thank you for a safe return.<br />
But I digress. Out of uniform GG<br />
went to Leeds to read Theology but<br />
remustered to Law. As he said “I realised<br />
money wasn’t everything” He<br />
gained a place as a barrister and was<br />
soon set on a route to stardom and a<br />
big income.<br />
His opponents would claim that his<br />
law was perhaps sketchy, but his ability<br />
to weigh up the case, the defendant<br />
and the jury and usually make the<br />
28<br />
prosecution seem inept, lacking in understanding<br />
and generally unfitted to<br />
get a guilty verdict was legendary.<br />
Coupled with these attributes and the<br />
great gravitas created by his half-moon<br />
glasses (which he didn’t need) he frequently<br />
unnerved his opponent and<br />
pulled off many spectacular acquittals,<br />
some of which were probably unjustified.<br />
He came to and spoke at a few <strong>Old</strong><br />
Boys Dinners.<br />
The late Wm. Deedes of Daily Telegraph<br />
fame described Gilbert as one of<br />
the two best after-dinner speakers in<br />
the land. He was in great demand and<br />
his spread of acquaintanceships was<br />
immense. Despite having places in<br />
York, Grays’s Inn and Chichester his<br />
real home was Scarborough. His greatest<br />
joy was to use his cottage on Robin’s,<br />
Harwood Dale Farm, to teach<br />
country lore, practical sense and values<br />
to his twin grandsons and their sister.<br />
He was still working at fourscore<br />
years because he loved the buzz of the<br />
courts and playing for a win!<br />
One of his other great interests was the<br />
sea and seagoing people, especially<br />
those hardy souls in fishing boats and<br />
lifeboats. He held high office in the<br />
RNLI and was once dispatched to<br />
Tyneside to decorate the Tynemouth<br />
lifeboat crew. True to form he painted a<br />
verbal picture of the immense seas and<br />
storm at the time of the dire event<br />
which was being commemorated.<br />
There were few dry eyes when he had<br />
finished. The presiding person called<br />
on the coxswain to respond. This was
ief. “Thank you Mr Gray, –– if we’d<br />
known it was that dangerous we’d never<br />
have put to sea!”<br />
The North Eastern Bar circuit arranged<br />
a memorial service, well attended<br />
in York Minster, and many were<br />
reminded of GG’s ability and the sort of<br />
tensions that build up in almost every<br />
great public performer. GG had them<br />
just as did, say Tony Hancock but ––<br />
and he wouldn’t say it loudly –– his<br />
Christian faith and stable upbringing<br />
were the roots from which the tree of<br />
eloquence grew and continued to flourish.<br />
Peter Dawson (1950-58)<br />
recollects –<br />
I was sad to read of Gilbert’s death.<br />
Coming from a Liberal<br />
family, he was a<br />
hero standing up<br />
against the inevitable<br />
Tory victory at the<br />
polls. In the 6th<br />
Form, I volunteered<br />
to help his cause and<br />
found myself, with my girl friend of the<br />
time, Christine Bowland (SGHS) manning<br />
his polling office one evening.<br />
This was a Columbus Ravine front<br />
room about opposite the Ebenezer<br />
Chapel Hall. Gilbert was out with his<br />
entourage on the campaign trail. It was<br />
very quiet, so we sat together on the<br />
sofa “necking”. Without warning the<br />
door burst open, and Gilbert and Co.<br />
walked in. He assessed the situation<br />
quick as a flash- and said with a huge<br />
grin-“ Ah, I see you are combining<br />
business with pleasure!”<br />
29<br />
Gilbert Gray QC<br />
An Appreciation by Bryan<br />
Barnes (1944-51)…<br />
I was at School with Gillie, as he was<br />
always known, and later, after his National<br />
Service, at Leeds University. He<br />
was three years older than me, a gap<br />
usually too wide to bridge in a Grammar<br />
School like SBHS. However he<br />
sang the part of the Bosun in HMS Pinafore<br />
and I sang Josephine. The regular<br />
rehearsals led to friendship as we discovered<br />
we both had an interest in sailing<br />
boats.<br />
While still at School he had a boat<br />
called Rose, from memory about 16<br />
feet long and double–ended. Evening<br />
sailing was possible and popular when<br />
the tide was right, but one night with<br />
two friends he was becalmed near Ravenscar<br />
and having been out all night<br />
made the pages of the Scarborough<br />
Evening News. Rose was sold! Later<br />
on he bought a “sharpie” about 15 feet<br />
long, flat-bottomed rather angular with<br />
a centre-board –– Perfect for tidal Scarborough.<br />
In this boat he introduced me to sailing<br />
and indeed taught me the essentials.<br />
The boat was called “Elf”– I have<br />
no idea why. I continued to sail until I<br />
had to have knee operations, and I shall<br />
always be grateful for the kick-start to a<br />
life-long hobby.<br />
I went to Leeds in 1951 to find Gillie<br />
well-established. He was President of<br />
the Union in, I think 1953. He invited<br />
all SBHS boys at Leeds to afternoon tea<br />
during his Presidency to meet Joey.<br />
Something like 40 boys turned up,<br />
something of a surprise to us all!
He was always a little larger than life<br />
and very fluent: the Law was an inspired<br />
choice for him and I am not surprised<br />
he became so respected – he had<br />
style. I recall that he was the first chap<br />
I knew to drive his own Rolls-Royce,<br />
just an example of the high standards<br />
he set himself throughout his working<br />
life.<br />
PROFILES:<br />
SECRETARY (1)<br />
MICK BOWMAN (1954-61)<br />
Given his retirement as<br />
Secretary at the November<br />
AGM it is only<br />
right, despite his modesty,<br />
that the <strong>Association</strong><br />
place on record<br />
our appreciation of the<br />
hard work behind the<br />
scenes carried out by Mick during his<br />
years as Secretary, a sometimes thankless<br />
task involving much organization,<br />
paperwork and travel from the wilds of<br />
Guisborough. He also served as President<br />
during the years 2003-4.<br />
The following résumé by Mick will<br />
give a flavour of Mick for the few who<br />
do not know him and his service to the<br />
<strong>Association</strong>––<br />
“Born in 1942 in Derby, I spent the<br />
next 10 years wandering via Cayton,<br />
Redcar, Seamer, Holme on Spalding<br />
Moor to Crossgates, attending five Primary<br />
Schools. During these travels I<br />
met Paul Gridley at Lisvane and Mart<br />
Wilson at Seamer Primary. I am happy<br />
to say we are still on friendly terms and<br />
are still fit enough to wander a golf<br />
course. Mart and I started the High<br />
30<br />
School with Eddy Willmore and Alan<br />
Haigh in 1954.<br />
Having done five years at the Westwood<br />
site I was deemed to have<br />
achieved a high enough level of academic<br />
work to be invited to work as a<br />
cleaner at the new School during the<br />
summer holidays. Jack Speight always<br />
did have me sorted! However the job<br />
earned me an invitation to the official<br />
opening of the new school. Not as a<br />
pupil but with the Caretaker on the hall<br />
balcony. Joe Marsden did seem a little<br />
surprised to see me there.<br />
I had three meetings with the Head.<br />
The first when the mock O level results<br />
came out and he informed me, “Eh<br />
Bowman, you’re not as good as your<br />
father and uncle.” The second when the<br />
O level results were posted on the<br />
School notice board and Jack Speight<br />
took me into the Head to inform him<br />
“You won't believe this Mr Marsden,<br />
but Bowman has passed all his exams.”<br />
Finally I was seen when it was discovered<br />
well into my seventh year that I<br />
had not applied to any colleges or universities.<br />
This time all he said was<br />
“Well lad, you will have to be a teacher.”<br />
I took his advice.<br />
On leaving Scarborough I went to<br />
Sheffield Training College and then<br />
Newcastle University before teaching<br />
for 37 years at schools in the Middlesbrough<br />
area, ending up for a short time<br />
as Head teacher of an 11 to 16 Comprehensive.<br />
In this, my twelfth year of retirement<br />
I hope to celebrate 48 years of<br />
marriage to Vivien. A college romance.<br />
We have a daughter, a son and four
grandchildren. One girl and three boys<br />
all of whom keep me busy but are a joy<br />
to be with. Amongst a variety of leisure<br />
activities I spend a good deal of time<br />
chasing a maverick golf ball in and out<br />
of bunkers and bushes, often accompanied<br />
by Dave Burnley, Pete Lassey and<br />
Paul Gridley. For less stressful pleasure<br />
I enjoy live theatre, especially the Stephen<br />
Joseph Theatre in the interesting<br />
company of Mick Peart, Mart Wilson<br />
and their wives, and holidaying in the<br />
sun sharing a beer or two with Clive<br />
Hopkins and his wife.<br />
I have enjoyed my time as President,<br />
Secretary and Committee member of<br />
the <strong>Old</strong> Boys, being especially honoured<br />
that my father and I are the only<br />
father and son to have been President.<br />
Long may the OSA continue to flourish.<br />
Editor: It is gratifying that Mick has<br />
agreed to remain as a Committee Member<br />
of the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
PROFILES:<br />
SECRETARY (2)<br />
BOB HEAPS (1967-74)<br />
As many members will already be<br />
aware, Bob Heaps has taken over as<br />
Secretary of the <strong>Association</strong> from Mick<br />
Bowman (see article above) and, for<br />
their sins, it has been the custom to<br />
include a few biographical details of<br />
new Committee Members for the benefit<br />
of those members who may be unaware.<br />
On this basis Bob has revealed<br />
the following:<br />
“ I joined the High School in 1967 as<br />
an 11 year old in 1Z and after 5 years<br />
31<br />
found myself in the 6th form entwined<br />
in the change to comprehensive education.<br />
The lower 6th continued at the<br />
High School but we were joined by the<br />
girls, a bit of a shock (but pleasant) for<br />
some of us after an all boys school. We<br />
then moved in the Upper 6th to the<br />
new 6th Form College.<br />
I studied Pharmacy at Manchester<br />
University and did a year of training in<br />
Macclesfield and Liverpool before registering<br />
as a Pharmacist in 1978.<br />
My first year after registering was<br />
spent working for Selles Chemists<br />
based in Hull but I spent most of my<br />
time travelling round all their Pharmacies<br />
to cover for holidays, absence etc. I<br />
then joined the family business in Scarborough<br />
managing our Ramshill Road<br />
branch. The family business expanded<br />
to 3 and after my father’s retirement in<br />
1992 we sold one shop in Gladstone<br />
Road but opened another in Morrisons’<br />
supermarket. The business celebrated<br />
50 yrs in 2009. I have recently sold the<br />
business as none of my children are<br />
interested in Pharmacy and now am in<br />
the fortunate position of only having to<br />
work part time.<br />
I was married to Yvonne for 16yrs<br />
but am now divorced and have 3 children,<br />
Abbie who is at Newcastle University<br />
studying Law, Oliver who is at<br />
the 6th form and Will who is at Scarborough<br />
College.<br />
I played Rugby for Manchester University,<br />
Macclesfield, and Scarborough,<br />
I am still an active supporter of Scarborough<br />
as my son Oliver plays and I<br />
spent several years on the committee.
I have also been a member of the Rowing<br />
club for 30yrs and spent some<br />
15yrs as treasurer. More recently I<br />
have also done quite a bit of skiing and<br />
cycling. Last year I cycled from John<br />
O’Groats to Lands End, – 1000 miles in<br />
9 days.<br />
WOODLANDS<br />
Over the years much has been written<br />
about Westwood, which has held a<br />
special and very nostalgic place for its<br />
many years as Alma Mater to the great<br />
majority of our <strong>Old</strong> Boys, and little<br />
until recently has been featured in relation<br />
to Woodlands, albeit that for the<br />
last 15 years of the existence of the<br />
School it was the replacement centre of<br />
the Universe for a growing percentage<br />
of the membership. Now that these<br />
“younger” Members are thankfully<br />
increasing and their memories are<br />
coming to the fore it is perhaps time<br />
to further explore its idiosyncrasies,<br />
foibles and own special character in<br />
more depth – in the context of which<br />
even distinctive photographs seem in<br />
short supply.<br />
As Editor I plead guilty to having a<br />
foot in both camps, in that my final two<br />
years in the Sixth Form were spent<br />
there, but the only real recollection was<br />
a very small Sixth Form room (only<br />
seven or eight of us!), the large Hall<br />
and the comparatively civilised playing<br />
fields without either the arduous<br />
struggle up to Oliver’s Mount or Hockey<br />
on the beach with Norman Gallagher<br />
every fortnight when the tide<br />
was out.<br />
32<br />
Also memories come back of an unusually<br />
gullible Zenna Potts being persuaded<br />
of the interest of a number of<br />
us in matters scientific sufficient to<br />
permit the loan of a rather cumbersome<br />
telescope, and the subsequent<br />
physically demanding expedition with<br />
it up the hill at the rear of Woodland,<br />
from whence it was directed with similar<br />
scientific curiosity at the Gym of<br />
SGHS: a very misplaced exercise however,<br />
not only failing to disclose the<br />
source of the planetary system but any<br />
other matter of scientific interest to<br />
curious 16 year olds.<br />
Cross-country running and a quick<br />
puff on the Wills Woodbines once “out<br />
of site/sight, out of mind” were also<br />
readily possible in the environs of<br />
Woodlands; and, for those of us who<br />
lived at Newby, sloping off home was<br />
also rather more viable!<br />
Perhaps there are more tales to tell of<br />
Woodlands and memories to be awakened<br />
of life there and then they hopefully<br />
will have a place in subsequent<br />
issues of the Magazine!<br />
THE VICE PRESIDENT<br />
Bill Temple (1943-<br />
48), who was elected<br />
Vice President of<br />
the <strong>Association</strong> in<br />
November 2010,<br />
seems to date to<br />
have escaped biographical<br />
mention<br />
in the Magazine, a deficiency in which,<br />
with some prompting, is now repaired.
Bill modestly gives his biographical<br />
details as follows:<br />
“I joined the School via form 1L in<br />
1943, when our Form and French<br />
teacher was Miss Andrews (Fanny) of<br />
the red hair and green skirt, who rejoiced<br />
in leaping from a standing start,<br />
from the front of the classroom, onto<br />
the second tier, whenever she wished<br />
to emphasise a point. To do that at all<br />
was some feat, but to land in decent<br />
lady-like good order, was even more<br />
of an achievement. She made us feel<br />
most welcome at our new School.<br />
My passion for cricket got me into<br />
the under twelve team (captain, no<br />
less!) in 1944, when the team was organised,<br />
not by a master, but by Duckie<br />
Helmuth, then presumably in the<br />
Sixth Form, who acknowledged a lack<br />
of cricketing ability, but who knew the<br />
game inside out. Throughout that year<br />
we seemed to play against Lisvane<br />
(the prep school for Scarborough College)<br />
every two weeks, on a home and<br />
away basis, and at their home matches,<br />
pretty well the whole school watched<br />
from the boundary. My lasting<br />
memory of those encounters, was of<br />
the Lisvane fast bowler, who took an<br />
inordinately long run up, frightening<br />
the life out of half of us. He often took<br />
five wickets, and astonishingly, a collection<br />
was taken around the ground<br />
for him. In to-day’s parlance, he often<br />
took 5 fer!<br />
I took part in sport generally, but<br />
particularly in cricket, throughout my<br />
school years, moving to under fourteens,<br />
second eleven and then to the<br />
first eleven.<br />
33<br />
In 1947, the First Eleven joined the<br />
school camp of that year, in the Yorkshire<br />
Dales, and as the campers went<br />
off walking for the day, we went off to<br />
play cricket. I’m sure the first camp<br />
was by the beck at Gunnerside, in<br />
Wensleydale, after which we all<br />
walked over the Buttertubs Pass to<br />
Hawes, where we camped, and played<br />
cricket. On the way over, one of the<br />
team would deliberately walk ahead of<br />
Brad, the master in charge and camp<br />
supremo, whose response was ‘come<br />
back you little rabbit – I’ll set the pace!’<br />
The team was driven to the various<br />
venues in Tuckley’s van, which resembled<br />
a black maria – no side windows<br />
and bars across the back! After<br />
Hawes, we played against a school in<br />
Harrogate and then Richmond Grammar.<br />
In an evening match against<br />
Richmond Town, the team was augmented<br />
by masters, including Gerry<br />
Hovington and Norman Stoddard.<br />
The final cricket outing was a day<br />
spent watching England play South<br />
Africa, at Headingley, when Ken<br />
Cranston took four wickets in five<br />
balls, for England, who won by ten<br />
wickets. That was a wonderful week<br />
and I wonder whether any other sports<br />
team ever again accompanied the annual<br />
school camp.<br />
I left the School in 1949 and joined<br />
Beevers and Adgie (later to merge<br />
with KPMG) in Leeds, to train as an<br />
Accountant. I became articled to the<br />
junior partner, Richard Wainwright,<br />
who later became the Liberal MP for<br />
Colne Valley, then the Treasury<br />
spokesman, and finally, the chairman<br />
of the Liberal Party. Gilly Gray had
Liberal ambitions and was often in the<br />
office, but no attempt was ever made<br />
from any quarter to influence my political<br />
thinking! I lived for six years in<br />
the YMCA hostel in Lyddon Terrace,<br />
at the top of University Road, and enjoyed<br />
the company of students from all<br />
over the world who were studying at<br />
the University. The work was varied<br />
and called for a good deal of travel,<br />
including trips to Liverpool, working<br />
at the main offices of the Merseyside<br />
and North Wales Electricity Board<br />
(Manweb). We worked long hours,<br />
but the audit managers thought it therapeutic<br />
for articled clerks to take an<br />
hour off on Thursday afternoons, to go<br />
down to the docks to watch the big<br />
transatlantic liners dock. I also recall<br />
that the audit of Wrexham Lager<br />
Brewery was thirsty work!<br />
National Service followed in February<br />
1956, after deferment for six years,<br />
and following the undertaking I had<br />
given, that I would ‘join up’ on completion<br />
of articles. Whilst National<br />
Service was an interruption to one’s<br />
life, it was also a wonderful experience.<br />
After basic training at West Kirby,<br />
on the Wirral Peninsula, I was posted<br />
to the No. 1 Radio School at RAF Locking<br />
near Weston-super-Mare, to learn<br />
the technical side of Radar. On the<br />
first morning in the labs, I was seated<br />
before an oscilloscope, with a view to<br />
forming an electrical current into sine<br />
waves and shaping into radar pulses<br />
with a four micro second delay. The<br />
manufacturer’s label on the oscilloscope<br />
read ‘Erskine Laboratories, Scar-<br />
34<br />
borough.’ I immediately felt at home!<br />
At week-ends and on stand down occasions,<br />
a rota for guard duty of the<br />
station was in place, when two airmen,<br />
together, patrolled the station, two<br />
hours on and four off, each armed<br />
with a pick axe handle, in case of<br />
attack by the IRA!!<br />
Again, I played a great deal of cricket<br />
at Locking, and was selected to play<br />
in the team to represent Weston-super-<br />
Mare and District, against Taunton<br />
and District on the County ground<br />
there. We were routed by a young fast<br />
bowler called Ken Palmer, who was<br />
shortly to become the opening bowler<br />
for England. I played for the Station in<br />
the National Playing Fields <strong>Association</strong><br />
six a-side knock out tournament,<br />
in which many southern Counties entered<br />
a team, and which Locking won.<br />
(On returning to civvy street, I introduced<br />
that six-a-side format to Scalby<br />
Cricket Club in the early sixties for<br />
competition by the Beckett League<br />
teams.) My stay at Locking was most<br />
enjoyable, with a perceived quality of<br />
university life, and I was sorry to leave<br />
in September 1956. From Locking, I<br />
was posted to the Radar station at<br />
Neatishead on the Norfolk Broads, to<br />
put into practice the lessons previously<br />
learnt in the detailed understanding,<br />
servicing and repair of radar equipment.<br />
The site was underground, out<br />
in the countryside, and affectionately<br />
known as ‘down the hole’. It was a<br />
tribute to the excellence of the Locking<br />
training, and the practical experience<br />
gained at Neatishead that entry to<br />
Marconi and Plessey, on demob, was
almost assured, if sought, through<br />
consultants of those two companies<br />
permanently on site, with the rank of<br />
Flight Lieutenant.<br />
I was demobbed in February 1958,<br />
and returned home to the family practice<br />
in Huntriss Row, Scarborough.<br />
The work was always interesting and<br />
varied, and included my appointment<br />
as Clerk to the Trustees of the Scarborough<br />
Municipal Charities, an office<br />
I held for 44 years, spanning pre and<br />
post retirement years. Similarly, I was<br />
appointed Clerk to the Trustees of Dr<br />
Smart’s Trust, from which I have recently<br />
retired after 24 years. I married<br />
Elizabeth in 1961 - we had two lovely<br />
little boys, who are now so big that I<br />
don’t always hear what they say to me!<br />
By the end of the 1970’s, my cricketing<br />
years had given way to golf, playing<br />
at Scarborough’s North Cliff Golf<br />
Club, which honoured me with the<br />
Captaincy of the Club in 1995, the<br />
Presidency in 1999 and Captain of the<br />
Scarborough and District Golf Captains’<br />
<strong>Association</strong> in 2005. I still play<br />
once a week, on Thursday, but find<br />
that I move somewhat gingerly on<br />
Friday!”<br />
SCARBOROUGH ANNUAL<br />
DINNER 2011<br />
After at least 2 years of abominable<br />
snowman weather for previous Dinners<br />
it is overdue that this year the sun<br />
finally shone on the righteous for the<br />
occasion, and some 95 <strong>Old</strong> Boys were<br />
in attendance (as listed beneath, with<br />
their years of entry to the School)<br />
35<br />
It is almost unbelievable but very<br />
gratifying, given the passage of time,<br />
that the Annual Dinner continues to go<br />
from strength to strength, largely now<br />
supported by the welcome influx of<br />
“young” or at least “younger” <strong>Old</strong><br />
Boys who are increasingly supporting<br />
the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
A welcome from Geoff Winn, our<br />
President, emphasised this, and that<br />
24 members were there who had not<br />
previously attended, which augured<br />
well for the future of the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
He also referred to the retirement of<br />
Mick Bowman as Secretary after his<br />
valued service in this role (see elsewhere<br />
in the Magazine), which was<br />
applauded, and the appointment of<br />
Bob Heaps as his replacement .<br />
A welcome was then extended to<br />
John Oxley who taught at the School<br />
from 1960 for some 8 years, and who<br />
proceeded to entertain us with reminiscences<br />
of his somewhat unorthodox<br />
appointment to the School at York<br />
Station, regaling us further with his<br />
references to some of the more distinguished<br />
or notorious of the pupils he<br />
had encountered, particularly in a<br />
Rugby context.<br />
A good meal in fine company, when<br />
the drink and the reminiscences flow,<br />
highlights again the benefits of membership<br />
of the <strong>Association</strong> and the camaraderie<br />
and renewal of friendship<br />
which is an essential benefit of this.<br />
ATTENDEES (E&O excepted):<br />
Howard Acklam (60), Colin Adamson<br />
(65), James Allaker (40), Barry Beanland<br />
(50), Malcolm Beavis (54), Bruce
Bedford (57), Richard Bell (59), Peter<br />
Bell (57), John Birley (44), Mick Bowman<br />
(54), Dave Burnley (54), Philip<br />
Clarke (46), Philip Cook (62), Adrian<br />
Copley, Ian Copley (64), Mike Corbyn<br />
(54), Fred Crosby (49), Norman Davies<br />
(62), Peter Dawson (50), Brian Devenport<br />
(56), Dave Eade (55), Dave Ellard<br />
(69), Peter Emms (51), Rod Emms (58),<br />
Peter Exley (57), Mike Fewster (59),<br />
John Flinton (50), Norman Flinton (49),<br />
Chris Found (51), John Found (49), David<br />
Fowler (49), Chris Garner (62), Roger<br />
Gilbert (60), Jim Goodman (63), Ray<br />
Gough (44), Paul Gridley (54), Dave<br />
Hartley (63), Bob Heaps (67), Dave Hepworth<br />
(51), Melvyn Hogg (62), Alan<br />
Holmes (62), Roger Hopkin (61), Colin<br />
Hurd (52), Shaun Ireland (49), Joseph<br />
Jaconelli (58), Steve Johnson (72), Bryn<br />
Jones (72), Peter Lassey (54), Richard<br />
Lazenby (62), Mike Lester (49), Dave<br />
MacDonald (62), John Mann (50), Nick<br />
Martin (72), Alan Mason (63), Duncan<br />
36<br />
McGregor (47), Ron McGill (62), Derek<br />
Megginson (60), Keith Milner (49), Roger<br />
Milner (62), Roy Moor (62), Paul<br />
Moorhouse (63), Mike Mulvana (62),<br />
Peter Newham (54), John Oxley (59),<br />
Philip Pearson (60), Mick Peart (54),<br />
Mick Pillar (62), Alan Readman (54),<br />
Colin Rennard (61), Howard Reynolds<br />
(48), John Riley (61), Clive Roberts (54),<br />
Philip Robinson (62), Peter Robson (45),<br />
Howard Rowley (68), Ian Scott (62),<br />
John Settle (72), David Shannon (49),<br />
Eaglen Sheen (57), Rob Southwick (61),<br />
Albert Storey (48), Malcolm Storry (46),<br />
Geoff Taylor (46), Bill Temple (43), Trevor<br />
Thewlis, Alan Thraves (50), Graham<br />
Trousdale (58), James Turner (55), David<br />
Ward (62), Simon Ward (62), Gez<br />
Wardell (72), Gary Waterman (72),<br />
Dave Watson (59), Steve Williamson<br />
(49), Mart Wilson (54), Nigel Wilson<br />
(72), Geoff Winn (49), Bill Wood (58).
Photos p.36 - the committee, top p.37<br />
is 1949 intake members. More photos<br />
appear on page 59. Courtesy<br />
Scarborough Evening News.<br />
SCALBY AND NEWBY<br />
The Editor…<br />
My attention has been drawn to a<br />
recent local publication “Newby and<br />
Scalby through Time“ by Robin Lidster<br />
which may be of some interest to<br />
those Members, of whom I am one,<br />
who grew up or were initially<br />
schooled in those locations. Largely<br />
photographic, but with interesting<br />
explanatory legends, it is a fascinating<br />
exercise in nostalgia and perhaps<br />
also a rather poignant reminder that<br />
none of us are getting any younger!<br />
37<br />
In this context the old Scalby<br />
village School, closed in 1950 , initially<br />
attended by a number of <strong>Old</strong> Boys,<br />
springs to mind, and Scalby Mills and<br />
Monkey Island, the subject of several<br />
previous references in the Magazine,<br />
is shown in its extensive glory days in<br />
the 1880’s as the background to the<br />
Scalby Mills Hotel. Newby cannot<br />
however boast such a distinguished<br />
history: an 1851 census recording<br />
only 7 households, a population of a<br />
mere 40 in 1883 but exploding to over<br />
4000 in the fifties, with the newly<br />
opened Newby County Primary<br />
School sending ten to fifteen pupils to<br />
the High School each year. In those<br />
days there was a separate Rural District<br />
Council, –– but now inevitably<br />
the whole has been long subsumed<br />
into Scarborough!
THE TORRIDON CAMP -<br />
1958<br />
Additional photographs and recollections<br />
from Peter Dawson (1950-58)...<br />
1. My tent in 1958, Torridon. Duck,<br />
second left, PD, third Left. (One<br />
evening I walked down to the loch to<br />
look at the Eider duck, being a keen<br />
ornithologist. A local elderly man<br />
befriended me and showed me an<br />
oyster catcher's nest complete with 4<br />
eggs. We then chatted in his croft<br />
over a glass of milk. All delightfully<br />
friendly and innocent - but possibly<br />
unlikely nowadays).<br />
2nd Photo –– I was late back to<br />
camp and got a good telling off from<br />
38<br />
Mr Williamson - (Latin) the new RE<br />
master, brilliant at hockey (he replaced<br />
Peter “Chico” Hampton) --<br />
Chris Francis, an old boy now, son of<br />
“Fungus Lugs” -- Mr. Speight --<br />
Physics and allegedly a Rugby<br />
League player - denied! But he<br />
looked the part,-- old boy Mr. Tinkler,<br />
-- Eddie Colenutt, -- Mr. Dutton -<br />
don't remember who the foreground<br />
master is.<br />
Finished with the Camps except to<br />
remark that on all the long ride back<br />
to Scarborough, the highlight was<br />
buying a copy of Health and Efficiency<br />
on York Station to revive our flagging<br />
spirits!
NICKNAMES<br />
Mike Lester (1949-57)<br />
writes…<br />
I was interested to see the short article<br />
on staff nicknames on P.33 of Summer<br />
Times 160, so here are one or two<br />
thoughts on the matter:<br />
During 1960’s and 70’s Mr Liddicott<br />
was one of the Committee, (secretary<br />
perhaps), of Scarborough Classical<br />
Concert Society, which brought to<br />
Scarborough many nationally famous<br />
singers, piano recitalists and string<br />
quartets for chamber music concerts. I<br />
looked at some of their old programmes<br />
to see if there was his contact<br />
name on any of them, but unfortunately<br />
not. I always assumed “Dai” was<br />
because he was Welsh.<br />
Now what about “Spike” Jones?<br />
This may be a totally wild guess, but<br />
in the 1950s there was a comic American<br />
band which did silly send-ups of<br />
popular records of the times. The<br />
name of this outfit was Spike Jones<br />
and his City Slickers. I seem to remember<br />
the name at Westwood became<br />
corrupted to Spike Jones and his Slitty<br />
Knickers. Their output consisted of<br />
such gems as Cocktails for Two, The<br />
Sheik of Araby, You Always Hurt the<br />
One You Love and Chloe. The tracks<br />
were littered with zany sound effects<br />
such as whistles, bells, gunshots, and<br />
flatulent sounding motor horns.<br />
My father and his brother Roy were<br />
taught by Mr “Pike” Richardson, but<br />
in their day I seem to remember that<br />
they said his nickname was “Tich” -<br />
39<br />
fairly obvious, really!<br />
I have decided that I would like to<br />
continue to receive Summer Times in<br />
magazine form rather than online, so<br />
to salve my conscience, I will be sending<br />
a modest cheque to Chris Found to<br />
cover postage for the next few issues.<br />
DAI LIDDICOTT<br />
Gordon Dexter (1948-55)<br />
adds…<br />
Even after 60 years, whenever I hear a<br />
mention of "dyestuffs", I still mutter to<br />
myself (in my own attempt at a Welsh<br />
accent and delivery ), "There is a great<br />
art in dyeing nowadays."<br />
We found this doubly funny and all<br />
fell about. I cannot now remember<br />
how Dai reacted to this spontaneous<br />
response.!<br />
LITERATI<br />
Albeit dating back to the pre-1923<br />
days of the Grammar School as a<br />
mixed sex school, and therefore well<br />
beyond the ken of any existing Members<br />
of the <strong>Association</strong>, perhaps the<br />
most famous author and literary celebrity<br />
emanating from the School must<br />
still be Storm Jameson, and previous<br />
issues have covered both her life story<br />
and reproduced the recently rediscovered<br />
strange and disturbing short story<br />
she wrote for the then School magazine<br />
while a 16 year old pupil in 1907.<br />
Enormously popular in the 1940’s to<br />
70’s, and the author of over 45 novels,<br />
poetry essays and polemic pieces,<br />
apart from her copious contributions<br />
to Magazines and newspapers, it is
significant how since then literary<br />
tastes have changed and her recognition<br />
has hugely waned to the point<br />
when to all but elderly readers she is<br />
unknown, despite surviving until<br />
1986. As an interested bibliophile a<br />
tour of second-hand shops and even a<br />
trawl on the internet appears to only<br />
disclose a handful of her books for sale<br />
second-hand, and her fame does not<br />
appear to have survived the passage of<br />
time. As a personal view, based admittedly<br />
on limited reading, apart<br />
from the immaculate English and an<br />
interest in the psychology of the human<br />
condition, they can represent a<br />
rather turgid and lacklustre story line<br />
and sequence of events which can veer<br />
just this side of tedium.<br />
The School’s other major literary<br />
graduate, Leo Walmsley, though perhaps<br />
not been so well known national-<br />
40<br />
ly, fares rather better, with an appreciation<br />
society still extant, and a much<br />
simpler more readable narrative, much<br />
of which was set in Bramblewick<br />
(Robin Hood’s Bay) from whence he<br />
travelled by train daily. The works of<br />
both, particularly the former, do very<br />
much demonstrate how fashions<br />
change in everything and, as Jack Ellis<br />
would have said, ––Sic transit Gloria<br />
Mundi!<br />
FACES FROM THE PAST<br />
David Eccleston has forwarded the<br />
photo below with relevant names except<br />
for one, his recollection being<br />
confirmed by David Fowler, and one<br />
of those included, Peter Dawson, further<br />
commenting as follows:<br />
Can’t remember the lad in the middle.<br />
Suspect he was a near red head.<br />
I used to go cycling with Derek Capes
and bird watching with Frosty.<br />
Played tennis in the School yard with<br />
Roy Cass. He lived in Murchison<br />
Street, near Glyn Bower, and about<br />
where my father had lived as a lad.<br />
One day at Roy’s house I went to the<br />
khazi - in the outhouse in the yard<br />
then. Normally there would have been<br />
neatly torn up newspaper for cleansing<br />
purposes - the dreaded Izal roll<br />
having not yet arrived in that area of<br />
Scarborough. Sadly there was nothing<br />
that day. Mrs. Cass apologised and<br />
said she was sure I’d be alright for just<br />
missing a wipe one day!! I’m sure you<br />
wanted to know that!! Strange what<br />
we remember and what we forget.<br />
At the Dinner those who could remember<br />
the roll call of classmates got<br />
up and spouted. Very impressive. I<br />
could just about remember my German<br />
class as Bon had us sitting in alphabetical<br />
order- it went: Adamson,<br />
Barker, Cass, Crabtree, Dawson, Ford,<br />
Gallagher, Hurrell, Leppington and<br />
Wright, I think. John Brinkler tells me<br />
that Crabtree is in Wollaton, Nottingham<br />
and they are often in touch. I<br />
met John Flinton at the dinner and<br />
called round next morning to his farm<br />
in Wrench Green for an extended chat<br />
before heading off for home. That’s<br />
the nice thing about these dinners - the<br />
unexpected. Should have attended<br />
long ago!<br />
The names, photo p.40, are L to R:<br />
David Eccleston; Howard Frost; Unknown;<br />
Roy Cass; Peter Dawson;<br />
Derek Capes.<br />
David Fowler adds: “It came to<br />
41<br />
me as I was putting the magazine together;<br />
could the boy 3rd from left<br />
have been a lad called Drewery? Or<br />
was it Adrian Casey?<br />
ONE FOOT IN EDEN<br />
Alan Wilkinson (1941-5), who is now<br />
an honorary priest at the Cathedral of<br />
St. Thomas Becket, Portsmouth and<br />
the author of various studies of the<br />
Church in 20th Century society, and<br />
who has been a Parish Priest and university<br />
lecturer has forwarded a flier<br />
on his book under the above title.<br />
The flier records that the book tells<br />
of Peter a young Anglican priest, who<br />
is leaving his deprived parish in London<br />
to join a monastic community in<br />
north Lancashire. Will he be able to<br />
adapt to austere life? How will his<br />
decision affect his family and his<br />
cousin Sally with whom he has had a<br />
fond relationship since childhood?<br />
Peter's pilgrimage of faith interacts<br />
with major changes in church and in<br />
society in the twentieth century. The<br />
Archbishop of Canterbury has written<br />
in the foreword 'This is a very engaging<br />
narrative, challenging in its way,<br />
as it holds up a mirror to the recent<br />
decades of the Church's life in England,<br />
but ultimately deeply positive,<br />
affirming of so much of what makes<br />
the Church of England worth loving<br />
and defending.<br />
Copies can be ordered by sending<br />
send a cheque for £9.00 (£7.50 + £1.50<br />
postage & packing) to: Mirfield Publications,<br />
House of the Resurrection,<br />
Mirfield, WF14 OBN.
ATKINSON GRIMSHAW<br />
As a postscript to the article in the last<br />
issue on the Victorian artist and erstwhile<br />
resident of Scarborough, Atkinson<br />
Grimshaw, it was interesting to be<br />
told by at the annual Dinner by a<br />
Member, whose name I unfortunately<br />
omitted to record, of his father’s interest<br />
in and ownership of two Grimshaw<br />
paintings, which, given their<br />
current values, is indeed a fortunate<br />
position to be in, quite apart from their<br />
visual attraction as scenes in which<br />
light, direct and reflected, are a principal<br />
feature, and of which a major exhibition<br />
at the London Guildhall Art<br />
Gallery has just finished.<br />
Editor<br />
MASTERS – MR GIBLETT<br />
The Editor<br />
Looking back on the<br />
sketches of past Masters<br />
and the anecdotes,<br />
good and otherwise,<br />
of our Members,<br />
one name that<br />
seems to have largely<br />
escaped attention is<br />
that of Robert James Reginald Giblett,<br />
albeit that he was Senior Geography<br />
Master from 1944 to at least the early<br />
1960’s; perhaps because he appeared<br />
to lack the memorable eccentricities of<br />
the more colourful Masters, and was<br />
seen by at least a few as “dry as dust”,<br />
- with not even a nickname of which to<br />
boast. Even the old School Register is<br />
lacking in detail, baldly recording his<br />
appointment in 1944, at the age of 42,<br />
42<br />
as Senior Geography Master, with no<br />
detail as to his subsequent retirement<br />
/departure, although the author<br />
can vouch for him being there in 1961!<br />
A Dorset man, born in 1902, educated<br />
in Bournemouth, which may explain<br />
to his students in “Physical geography”<br />
his strong familiarity with and<br />
emphasis on the Dorset coastline, ––<br />
Durdle Door , Lulworth Cove, and<br />
Kimmeridge Bay, though admittedly<br />
when subsequently see in real life by<br />
yours truly it did not really resemble<br />
my misconceived preconceptions from<br />
the Ordnance Survey map over which<br />
we pored at School! His impressive<br />
First class Geographical Tripos degree<br />
at Downing College Cambridge was<br />
then followed by junior teaching posts<br />
at Cambridge and Belper, before his<br />
appointment to SBHS.<br />
My recollection is of an amiable,<br />
quiet, fair minded Master, certainly<br />
not a “character”, and with a dry manner<br />
which could be regarded as boring,<br />
with an abiding interest in matters<br />
photographic, which he was happy to<br />
share with pupils showing such interest,<br />
and I can dimly recollect the gift of<br />
contact printing apparatus, developer<br />
fluid and other minor technical bits<br />
and pieces, the use of which is now<br />
lost in the mists of antiquity and obsolescence.<br />
I can also recall an illustrated<br />
talk on the great polar photographers<br />
Ponting and Hurley accompanying<br />
the Scott and Shackleton Antarctic<br />
exhibitions in 1912-13, which perhaps<br />
has particular relevance this year with<br />
the current exhibition of these magnificent<br />
and dramatic photographs under
the Title of “The Great Unknown” at<br />
the Queens Gallery at Buckingham<br />
Palace.<br />
For many, Geography was perhaps<br />
a makeweight subject, which therefore<br />
attracted little attention, but for me,<br />
had the then almost inevitable consequence<br />
been the subsequent teaching<br />
of Geography, for<br />
which I was plainly not<br />
fitted, I might have<br />
further pursued it, and<br />
still have fond memories<br />
of studies with Mr<br />
Giblett, albeit uneventful.<br />
SPORTS TEAM<br />
PHOTOS<br />
Rick Ware<br />
(1957-62)<br />
writes…<br />
Right, and on the<br />
next page are some<br />
Sports photos with<br />
the known names of<br />
subjects –<br />
Top right 1958-<br />
59 U14 XI<br />
Back row - L to R. –<br />
Jim Moorby. John<br />
Barman. Pete Huddleston.<br />
George<br />
Carter. Steve Male.<br />
Paul Cammidge. Rick<br />
Ware. Mick Griffiths.<br />
John Ashwell. Dave<br />
Anderton.<br />
Front ?, Michael Ost,<br />
Chris Eves.? ? John<br />
43<br />
Robinson. Clive Caddy. (The master is<br />
'Harry' Wilson)<br />
Centre: 1960 Colts (I think!) - the<br />
ones in black were a Welsh school who<br />
completely hammered us).<br />
Back row: L to R. Pete Huddleston.<br />
George Carter. John Ashwell. Rick<br />
Ware. Clive Caddy.
Middle: ? Mick Exley. ? Jim Moorby.<br />
John Robinson. Roy James and Ron<br />
Edwardson)<br />
Front: ?, John Dresser. ? Paul Cammidge.<br />
Michael Ost. Chris Eves.<br />
Previous page, bottom:<br />
1961 Athletics Team<br />
Back Row L to R. Mike Lewins. ? ?<br />
Keith McFarlane ? ? Roy James<br />
Middle :? ? Rick Ware. ? ?<br />
Front : ? Adrian Scales. ? Mick Bowman.<br />
? Peter Taylor. Dave Watson. ? ?<br />
Clive Wood..<br />
I should think Mick (Bowman) could<br />
fill in a few missing names; unless his<br />
memory is now as u/s as mine is!<br />
Tony Philipson (1957-65)<br />
who was “turning out a few drawers”<br />
of old material has also forwarded the<br />
above two pictures :-<br />
Below: 1st XI 1963<br />
Back: l to r. - Steve Poole, Mick Dale,<br />
Simon Barningham, Rob Trousdale,<br />
Brian Devonport, John Oxley<br />
Front l to r -Norman Megson, Graham<br />
Mathers, Jeff Dowson (capt), Tony<br />
44<br />
Philipson, Mick White (Missing: Mike<br />
Ost)<br />
Below: Under 14 XI 1959<br />
Winners of John Bartliffe Trophy v<br />
Scarborough College at North Marine<br />
Rd<br />
Back l to r. - Steve Poole, Keith Lloyd,<br />
Mike Ost, ? Gittings, Brian Devonport,<br />
Eaglen Sheen<br />
Front l to r.- - Ian Quick, Tony Philipson,<br />
Len Haley, John Chadbourne, John<br />
Robinson<br />
SPEECH DAY – QUEEN<br />
STREET<br />
Brian Turner (1958-66) writes in relation<br />
to the photograph on page 45 of<br />
the November issue…. (The photo is<br />
reproduced—again on p.45)<br />
I may be able to help with names.<br />
Firstly though, not all on photo were<br />
receiving prizes. The bulk on the left<br />
were, I believe, Prefects.<br />
Front Row: David Ellis (I think, son of<br />
Jack Ellis) not Hunter, (8), ?, 9= Clive<br />
Hadfield
Second Row: J J,1= David Triffit, Stephen<br />
Welbourne, George Dowd ?, Michael<br />
(Mick) Lewins ?<br />
Third Row: Shackleton, G Southwick,<br />
Brian Turner, Parry ?, Harvey Proctor.<br />
The bulk of these were in my form<br />
group –– Who were the Masters on the<br />
far right?<br />
I attended SBHS from 1958 to 1966;<br />
played in the 1st XV with Geoff Dowson,<br />
Peter Taylor, Stan Todd and with<br />
John Mason (whose recent death is<br />
reported in this issue). Also part of the<br />
group The Outcasts, which spawned<br />
the careers of John Longbottom (now in<br />
the States), Johnny Taylor, and for a<br />
short time that of John Walker.<br />
Gordon Thorburn (1956-64)<br />
writes …<br />
Thanks for magazine. –– Photo on<br />
p45 (See previous page this issue) -<br />
front row, first on left, –– me - English<br />
Prize that year which, I feel sure, was<br />
not 64-65 but 63-64, as I went to Leeds<br />
University in September 64. I recognise<br />
quite a few of the faces but alas<br />
45<br />
cannot put names to them. I was one of<br />
the few third year Sixth, so most of<br />
my contemporaries had left in 63.<br />
New Member David Shaw<br />
(1953-60) writes…<br />
"Form 1A, 2L to 5L then Sc VI B/A.<br />
Under 14's, Colts and Second 15 Rugby,<br />
Second eleven Cricket, Basketball and<br />
still the reigning 4st 7lbs to 5st boxing<br />
champion. – Bet would never make the<br />
weight anymore!! One year at ICI Billingham,<br />
13 years RAF 24 years BOAC/<br />
British Airways. Retired 1997"<br />
FRANK BINDER<br />
Michael Rines (1941-52)<br />
writes…<br />
David Fowler and I can report significant<br />
progress in our efforts to secure for<br />
Frank Binder the recognition his genius<br />
deserves. We and Elsie Binder, Frank’s<br />
daughter, have signed a contract for the<br />
wider publication of Sown With Corn,<br />
a book that has won high praise from<br />
important academics in both the UK
and Germany.<br />
Another of his books, A Journey in<br />
England, first published in 1932 is being<br />
considered for republication by<br />
Penguin Classics, and I shall be lecturing<br />
on Binder and Sown With Corn at<br />
Bonn University in June.<br />
We had always hoped that publication<br />
of Sown With Corn by David’s<br />
small publishing company, Farthings,<br />
would prompt a major publishing<br />
house to take the book on and give it<br />
wider circulation. Now Barnsley-based<br />
Pen & Sword Books will bring out a<br />
new edition in the autumn. It normally<br />
specialises in non-fiction military, aviation<br />
and maritime subjects, but is so<br />
impressed by SWC’s potential that it is<br />
making an exception.<br />
Not the least factor in Pen and<br />
Sword’s decision has been the astonish-<br />
46<br />
ing reception the book has received in<br />
academic circles. The latest and perhaps<br />
most important praise comes from<br />
Robert Gildea, Oxford University Professor<br />
of Modern History in a review to<br />
appear in a future issue of History Today.<br />
He congratulates us for bringing<br />
out what he describes as “this moving,<br />
colourful and evocative account of the<br />
rise of Nazism in the Rhineland”.<br />
German academic Dieter Mehl,<br />
Emeritus Professor of English at Bonn<br />
University, where Binder lectured from<br />
1921 to 1933, says he is “fascinated by<br />
this authentic account of the political<br />
and social climate in the region in the<br />
early thirties, by an observer unaffected<br />
by any hindsight, which is rare<br />
enough”. At his request, I have sent<br />
more of Binder’s work and, at his<br />
prompting, I have been invited by the<br />
Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft Bonn to<br />
lecture on Binder and the book on June<br />
18. One of those in the audience will be<br />
Christian Kloeckner, the present day<br />
holder of Binder’s job at the University.<br />
These reviews follow a ringing endorsement<br />
of the book by leading authority<br />
on German Jewish relations<br />
Colin Richmond, Emeritus Professor of<br />
Modern History at Keele University.<br />
He said:<br />
“The importance (not to say significance)<br />
of a book written by a contemporary<br />
English observer of intelligence<br />
and sensitivity, one who spoke and<br />
understood the language, and who<br />
loved Germany, cannot be overstressed.<br />
Frank Binder taught at the<br />
University of Bonn from 1921 to 1936:
he was, therefore, a first-hand witness<br />
of the rise and triumph of Nazism<br />
(which he detested for its corrupting<br />
effect on all that was good in Germany).<br />
It is fortunate that he was capable<br />
of a deeply felt, acutely vivid description<br />
of what he witnessed. He<br />
was the right man in the right place at<br />
a terrible time. His book may very<br />
well be unique.”<br />
Praise has also come from Professor<br />
Ian Kershaw, author of the award<br />
winning two-volume Penguin biography<br />
of Hitler. He says the book<br />
“might offer insights into Nazism<br />
based on first-hand experience, which<br />
could appeal to many who are interested<br />
in the topic, but perhaps not<br />
keen to read through an extensive<br />
non-fictional literature.”<br />
Further recognition came last summer<br />
when Professor Richmond and I<br />
led a symposium at Winchester University<br />
on the book. It was attended<br />
by a number of academics from the<br />
Parkes Institute at Southampton University,<br />
the UK centre for Jewis/Nazi<br />
relations. It was a particular pleasure<br />
that Elsie Binder’s daughter, Elaine<br />
Stocks took part. She is Deputy Editor<br />
of BBC Food Magazine.<br />
In Austria, translation and publication<br />
of the book under licence from<br />
Pen & Sword is being considered by<br />
one of the country’s leading publishers.<br />
David and I hope Pen & Sword will<br />
get reviews in non-academic publications.<br />
Apart from a great paean by<br />
47<br />
Christian Wolmar in last March’s<br />
issue of The <strong>Old</strong>ie, we have been unable<br />
to do this ourselves, probably<br />
because publications will not review<br />
books unless they are widely stocked<br />
in book shops – something we have<br />
not had the facility to achieve. Now,<br />
because those who have read Sown<br />
With Corn have been so full of praise<br />
(a surprising number have bought<br />
several copies), we are optimistic<br />
about its prospects under our new<br />
Publisher.<br />
GERALD HINCHLIFFE—90<br />
years young<br />
Last year, John Webster (1944-55),<br />
who lives in Canada, had been in<br />
England and had visited Gerald<br />
Hinchliffe. In an unguarded moment<br />
Gerald had mentioned that he would<br />
be 90 on 23rd January.<br />
John contacted David Fowler and<br />
said that, whilst he could not arrange<br />
a further visit, how wonderful it<br />
would be if a few old boys could<br />
meet Gerald to celebrate his 90th.<br />
David then circulated all those who<br />
had been at school whilst Gerald<br />
taught at the High School and we<br />
ended up with 24 members who travelled<br />
from all over the country to be<br />
present. We would have had more<br />
but many members were already<br />
committed.<br />
At the lunch Geoff Winn introduced<br />
Gerald and after Gerald had spoken<br />
extremely eloquently, humorously<br />
and very movingly, David Fowler
gave a short response and read out<br />
apologies and anecdotes from those<br />
unable to attend. As examples, Ted<br />
Lancaster would have been there—but<br />
it coincided with his own Golden<br />
Wedding anniversary, so he “thought<br />
it might be difficult to have got away!”<br />
Many members were on winter breaks<br />
and Dudley Wallis said that if we<br />
could rearrange for the lunch to be<br />
held in the Maldives, we could join<br />
him there!<br />
The event closed with a toast to Gerald<br />
and a toast to the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
48<br />
GRAHAM THORNTON<br />
(1950-58) TAKES UP THE<br />
STORY...<br />
Close to the historic centre of Nottingham<br />
where Charles I raised his standard<br />
to start the Civil War lies Hart’s<br />
Restaurant. Here 24 <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong><br />
gathered for a celebratory lunch for<br />
the 90th birthday of Mr Gerald<br />
Hinchliffe.<br />
Gerald arrived in Scarborough in<br />
1947 after gaining an English degree at<br />
Leeds University and three years of<br />
military service. Geoffrey Winn introduced<br />
him to the gathering;<br />
In his eight years at the school Gerald
said he had a great sense of belonging<br />
and it was easy to throw himself into<br />
all aspects of school life, the teaching,<br />
sport, the library and camps. He<br />
attributed his longevity to school dinners.<br />
He recalled School Assemblies<br />
with the school gathered in serried<br />
ranks in the middle with begowned<br />
masters around the perimeter watching<br />
for any sign of pupil dissent until<br />
Mr Marsden climbed up onto the dais<br />
as though “he were scaling the Matterhorn.”<br />
These were the days when boys had<br />
caps and raised them when they saw<br />
teachers in the street. Once in<br />
Peasholm Park, Gerald was hand in<br />
hand with a young woman when he<br />
saw a boy who raised his cap. ”Sir,<br />
was that your girlfriend?” said the boy<br />
the following day. Gerald looked into<br />
the distance “No, no. That was my<br />
grandmother,” he replied.<br />
Gerald was delighted to see so<br />
many old friends and was pleased that<br />
his teaching had helped so many to<br />
understand more fully the human<br />
condition. He particularly remembered<br />
Michael Rines and John Larbalestier<br />
and his Head Librarian Richard<br />
Toft who was always dapper. He<br />
quoted “Julius Caesar” Act 2. “If we<br />
do meet again, why, we shall smile; If<br />
not, why then, this parting was well<br />
made.”<br />
On behalf of the <strong>Association</strong> Gerald<br />
was presented with a colour print of<br />
Scarborough taken from the Esplanade<br />
and with flowers for his wife<br />
Joan.<br />
49<br />
He thanked John Crabtree and his<br />
friends in the Institute of Bankers who<br />
had recommended Hart’s and David<br />
Fowler for organising the event. After<br />
five weeks of poor health Gerald had<br />
hugely enjoyed himself on this day.<br />
Finally he said, “Tene Propositum”.<br />
He sat down to great applause.”<br />
FROM THE MEMOIRS OF<br />
T H DAWSON (1915-19)<br />
(Editor: Peter Dawson (1950-58) has forwarded<br />
a very lengthy memoir written by<br />
his late father, which he has typed up and<br />
edited, of his Father’s childhood and subsequent<br />
career in Scarborough, including<br />
his time at the Municipal School – the<br />
predecessor of SBHS, which represents a<br />
fascinating and well written social history<br />
of the time and the family, and of which<br />
the following, relating to his time at the<br />
School, is but an extract)-<br />
In the Summer term of 1915 I sat the<br />
entrance examination for the Municipal<br />
School. There were few free places<br />
then and only the children who really<br />
wanted a Grammar School education<br />
took the exam. Five of us from my<br />
class went along to the Muni. in some<br />
trepidation. This was made worse<br />
when we were shown into the lecture<br />
theatre and saw the two invigilators.<br />
These were two prefects - Bentley and<br />
Binns, known as the “terrible twins”.<br />
This was a misnomer, because later<br />
we found they were nice chaps. I<br />
thought I had done quite well with the<br />
papers, answering all the questions
50<br />
and doing the sums and writing a good<br />
composition. When the results came<br />
out a few weeks later, four of us were<br />
given application forms to be filled in<br />
by our parents - but not me! I was<br />
shattered being so keen to get to the<br />
Muni. and knowing my parents could<br />
never afford the fees. I set off home in<br />
despair wondering how I could break<br />
the sad news to them. As I passed<br />
Tonks’ repository at the top of Gladstone<br />
Lane, one of our teachers, Mr<br />
Robert King, passed on his bike. He<br />
saw I was close to tears and stopped to<br />
enquire why. “I haven’t passed for the<br />
Muni” I blurted out. “ But you have,”<br />
he said. I told him about not getting a<br />
form and he said that mine had been<br />
mislaid and it would come shortly, and<br />
the teacher should have explained! It<br />
was a sick joke on behalf of my teacher,<br />
as he knew all my desires and circumstances.<br />
It was a long time before I forgave<br />
him. After that fortuitous encounter,<br />
I fairly raced home.<br />
I began at the Muni. in September<br />
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probably followed by US and German editions, the final<br />
copies of the first edition could become valuable in years to<br />
come! See page 45 of this issue for details of the re-publication.<br />
We also intended republishing Binder’s A Journey in England<br />
but this has been delayed as interest has been shown by<br />
Penguin Classics.<br />
PUBLISHING:<br />
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1915. We went into form 2A. There being<br />
a shortage of teachers we did not<br />
have a Form Master. It was an entirely<br />
new experience to have a separate<br />
teacher for each subject. All aspects of<br />
maths were covered by one teacher as<br />
were all aspects of English. On our first<br />
day we were escorted up to the Physics<br />
lab and fitted with school caps - dark<br />
blue, then, with the Scarborough coat of<br />
arms on the front in gold. They came in<br />
boxes of different sizes. Wearing our<br />
new caps on the way home, we felt that<br />
we had really made it. The art room<br />
with its little stools to each of which was<br />
attached an upright board for paper, the<br />
botany lab with its bottles of specimens,<br />
the physics lab with its machine and the<br />
chemistry lab with its gas taps fitted on<br />
the benches for the Bunsen burners and<br />
the smells were all excitingly new for<br />
us.<br />
Mr AS Tetley, MA, the headmaster,<br />
looked into the classroom occasionally -<br />
we regarded him with awe. On one<br />
occasion, he looked through the window<br />
into our classroom and caught a<br />
rather unruly lad called Lewis, playing<br />
about and being inattentive. He came in<br />
and brought Lewis out to the front of<br />
the class, taking up a broad blackboard<br />
ruler. “Bend down Lewis,” he ordered.<br />
The unwilling Lewis only bent a little.<br />
“Bend down further, Lewis” and Mr<br />
Tetley dusted Lewis’ trousers with a<br />
few sharp strokes. We were highly<br />
amused but dare not show it, as Lewis,<br />
red faced returned to his desk. Only the<br />
head was allowed to cane. Detention<br />
after school finished was the punishment<br />
for any misdemeanour, such as<br />
52<br />
talking in lessons, copying , unruly conduct<br />
or failing to hand in homework etc.<br />
On one occasion in our first term,<br />
having English with Miss Price, a strict<br />
disciplinarian, we had all been inattentive<br />
and the whole class was put in detention.<br />
We were given the poem<br />
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness….”<br />
to learn. One by one we had to<br />
go up to Miss Price to recite it and could<br />
not go home until we had. I always<br />
had a problem at remembering lines<br />
and was in a panic because it was the<br />
day of the big chapel anniversary - the<br />
great social event of the year, when the<br />
tables were laden with meats, and all<br />
kinds of cakes and jellies etc. The class<br />
members were slowly leaving when I<br />
went up to recite to Miss Price. But I<br />
couldn’t do it and went back to my<br />
place. In the end there were only two of<br />
us left. By this time Miss Price was<br />
ready to leave and let us go. I ran to the<br />
chapel and to my relief, was just in time<br />
for the second sitting. What a great tea<br />
that was.<br />
In the war, soldiers stationed on the<br />
racecourse and elsewhere attended services<br />
at our chapel and were invited<br />
into the homes of some of the congregation.<br />
There were the Lancashire Fusiliers<br />
and a Manchester regiment among<br />
them. Some were very talented artistes<br />
and they gave a concert at the chapel.<br />
There was a splendid vocalist who sang<br />
Tosti’s “How can I live without you, how<br />
can I let you go…” It was very popular at<br />
the time. There was a very accomplished<br />
sergeant on the violin, who was<br />
popular with us lads. Then there was a<br />
Jewish elocutionist, who had us rolling
in the aisles with his facial expressions<br />
as he recited humorous lines. Our<br />
Chapel boasted a singing group and<br />
elocutionist (Walter Brining) who went<br />
around and entertained the troops<br />
mainly at the YMCA, which was opposite<br />
Pavilion Square by the side of the<br />
station. I was now a capable pianist<br />
and accompanied the singers and the<br />
audience sitting at tables. The rooms<br />
were thick with tobacco smoke and<br />
good humoured conversations between<br />
the items. We sang the popular songs<br />
of the war- “Good byeee” and “Roses of<br />
Picardy” and “There’s a long trail awinding”.<br />
They were sung with gusto and<br />
often with emotion. We felt we were<br />
doing our bit to cheer up the lads who<br />
were far from home and family.<br />
My first school report was very satisfactory<br />
in all subjects - except gym –<br />
which was only fair. I could perform<br />
on the ribs and vaulting horse , but<br />
only get half way up the ropes, because<br />
of a fear of heights and weak arms. I<br />
much preferred football and was a goal<br />
keeper. Sadly we did not play much<br />
football at school.<br />
Our teachers were: English - Miss<br />
JM Price; French - Miss H.M. Morley<br />
known as “Sally”; History - Miss Price.<br />
This was my favourite and I got several<br />
firsts. Maths - Mr. JW Estil; Chemistry<br />
- Mr WR Grist (“Gribber”); who later<br />
went to Leeds University; Physics - Mr<br />
H Halliday (“H.H”); Natural History<br />
(Botany) - Mr DW Bevan “Botany<br />
Bill”). He became Head when Tetley<br />
died after my first year. BB was a dedicated<br />
botanist and roamed the countryside<br />
in knee breeches, with a long<br />
53<br />
flat tin box for specimens, over his<br />
shoulder. Geography - Miss Tiffin - a<br />
young teacher also in charge of the<br />
prep class. When chiding us for bad<br />
behaviour would compare us unfavourably<br />
with her “ Babies”. We were<br />
not ashamed, I’m afraid. Drawing -<br />
Miss AH Parkin, a rather cheerless<br />
lady who set up uninteresting models<br />
of piles of books, vases, cubes and so<br />
on, which we were to draw. Ships and<br />
aeroplanes would have been more in<br />
our line, even if it did not develop our<br />
knowledge of art. Woodwork - Mr CA<br />
Shires- for two terms only then he left<br />
for war work. After two terms I was<br />
moved to form 3B, with several others.<br />
WP Rudsdale (“Snaffy Rudsdale”) was<br />
our form master and taught English for<br />
a year until Miss Legge, a very attractive<br />
young teacher, took over for a<br />
while. Her fiancé, an army officer, occasionally<br />
came to the school to meet her.<br />
We were very sad when she left and<br />
Mr Rudsdale took over again.<br />
In form 3A our French master was<br />
WF Allen, ( Froggy Allen) a Welshman<br />
whose son, Frank was in our form.<br />
Sometimes when Frank had not done<br />
his drawing homework, I quickly did<br />
it for him. He became a much respected<br />
doctor in Snainton and died there after<br />
war service and after returning to<br />
Snainton some 2-3 years ago. ( I don’t<br />
know when dad wrote these memoirs. Ed.)<br />
There was another change- Harry<br />
Richardson came as maths Master. He<br />
was young and small of stature and<br />
was promptly known as “Tich Richardson”<br />
(Later to be known as “Pike in<br />
my time. Ed.)
I fear we plagued him because of his<br />
inexperience. When he was writing on<br />
the blackboard, we fired paper pellets<br />
at the board with our rulers. The Headmaster<br />
quickly put a stop to this threatening<br />
us with severe punishment. One<br />
time in the dinner hour when Tich was<br />
out of the class room, we were supposed<br />
to be reading at our desks. So I<br />
drew in coloured chalks on the blackboard,<br />
a fearsome looking cowboy with<br />
pistol in each hand, firing away, and a<br />
scraggy doleful horse behind him.<br />
Hearing Tich returning, we quickly<br />
reversed the board to show his sums.<br />
Later we learned that Tich had turned<br />
over the board in class expecting a<br />
clean side and was confronted with my<br />
artistry. I expected retribution , but<br />
Tich took it all in good part and it was<br />
never mentioned.<br />
Another new teacher was Miss Connie<br />
Driver who taught us History in<br />
Form 4. She was a dumpy figure with<br />
golden hair and quite a character. She<br />
would stride into class with her gown<br />
flowing behind her, and ask “Will any<br />
gentleman clean the black board for me?” It<br />
was surprising how many of us considered<br />
ourselves gentlemen as there was<br />
a big rush to oblige her. Both she and<br />
Tich retired in due course and remained<br />
in Scarborough. Occasionally I<br />
would bump into them in Falsgrave<br />
and have a chat. They died several<br />
years ago.<br />
There were other changes of staff in<br />
Form 4. Robert King came from Gladstone<br />
Road Boys School to teach chemistry;<br />
FH Kemp, whose parents had a<br />
54<br />
shop in Falsgrave, came as Woodwork<br />
Master, and AI Burnley came from<br />
Friarage School to teach geography. He<br />
was known as “Ack I. Beer” (Air Force<br />
jargon) because of his initials. I drew<br />
maps for him, and particularly remember<br />
a sepia map of the Panama canal. In<br />
one lesson he was to show us slides of<br />
the Pennines. Alec Crosby of the 6th<br />
Form was recognised as the Schools<br />
lanternist, but was not asked this time-<br />
possibly through an oversight, or Mr.<br />
Burnley did not want to take Alec away<br />
from his studies.<br />
After an introduction on the subject,<br />
the time came for the slides, but the<br />
lantern ceased to function and all was<br />
in darkness. There was a hurried checking<br />
of wires but everything seemed in<br />
order. Then someone mentioned the<br />
fuses in “Daddy” Ogles cabin downstairs.<br />
Daddy was the caretaker. Several<br />
of us dashed downstairs and opened<br />
the fuse box, to find that the relevant<br />
fuse had been cut! Alec, peeved that he<br />
was not called upon, had taken his revenge!<br />
But after a short delay, the fuse<br />
was replaced, and the lantern showed<br />
the slides to our great enjoyment.<br />
My particular school friend was Fred<br />
Kendrew. ( He was dad’s best man Ed.)<br />
He came to the Muni. from St. Thomas<br />
Boys School in Longwestgate. His father<br />
had a grocer’s shop in Castlegate,<br />
but sold his business, and joined the<br />
wholesale firm of Lance. The family<br />
moved up to 9, Ramsey Street, - the<br />
same house my grandparents had lived<br />
in. We always went to and from school<br />
together.
Our friendship lasted until Fred died,<br />
his wife, Lilian, dying one week before<br />
he did. He died suddenly where he<br />
worked in the council offices in Beverley.<br />
On Friday evenings, he and I went<br />
along to 92 Candler Street, where his<br />
aunt lived. Her husband, Bob <strong>Old</strong>ridge,<br />
was away in the Royal Flying Corps.<br />
While she was out at a friend’s, Doreen<br />
Walker, the lodger, would bath and get<br />
their baby William to bed. Fred and I<br />
messed about in the scullery producing<br />
some kind of innocuous gas which we<br />
conveyed from one jar through a tube<br />
to an upturned jar full of water. We<br />
watched the water slowly being driven<br />
out of this second jar . I don’t remember<br />
the chemicals we used, but we<br />
made quite a mess and got into hot<br />
water when Fred’s Aunt came home.<br />
I was keen on playing goalie at football<br />
and would have loved to play for<br />
the School, but the matches were on a<br />
Saturday morning. But that was when I<br />
had to earn my pocket money by being<br />
a delivery boy for Duggleby’s butchers.<br />
At first I was on foot but then graduated<br />
to a carrier bike. Despite my disappointed<br />
I never complained to my<br />
parents. I delivered meat etc to customers<br />
in the neighbouring streets, to Dean<br />
Road, Westborough and even up to<br />
South Cliff. One cold winters morning<br />
there was ice on the ground. I had a<br />
basket full of meat, sausages and a dozen<br />
eggs. I was turning into Prospect<br />
Road on the bike, when the back wheel<br />
skidded and the bike collapsed under<br />
me. The basket rolled out of the carrier<br />
and all its contents were scattered over<br />
the road. Of course, the eggs were<br />
55<br />
smashed. I was horrified and fearful of<br />
returning to the shop.<br />
Once I went with Will Duggleby and<br />
an older lad, to Cloughton to buy some<br />
sheep. Will was Aunt Annie’s eldest,<br />
and he managed the business as her<br />
husband, Uncle Ernest, had died several<br />
years earlier. The sheep bought, our<br />
job was to drive them to Scarborough<br />
for slaughter. Progress was slow, but<br />
simple, along the coast road, as the<br />
sheep stopped to nibble the verges. But<br />
rounding a bend, we were confronted<br />
by a flock of sheep being driven towards<br />
us! Both flocks stampeded and<br />
mingled totally. As they were not all<br />
marked it was a devil of a job to separate<br />
them! Both drivers got their numbers<br />
right, but not necessarily their<br />
original sheep. Back at the shop, we<br />
kept very quiet about the trek. I earned<br />
the princely sum of one shilling for the<br />
morning’s work and as a bonus, a half<br />
pound of sausages from Aunt Annie.<br />
There were no fridges or freezers in<br />
those days, so in Summer, on Saturday<br />
afternoons, we took the unsold meat on<br />
a hand cart to the icehouse in Swan Hill<br />
Road, to remain there until Monday<br />
morning. At the ice house, we and the<br />
cart, went up in a lift and pushed it into<br />
the huge frozen chamber, among all the<br />
hanging carcasses. I was glad to get<br />
back into the Summer warmth. Also on<br />
Saturday afternoon I often had to go to<br />
Newham’s tallow works in Cross<br />
Street, with fat and bones. There were<br />
days, too, when I was sent to the<br />
slaughter houses on Wrea Lane for the<br />
blood for black puddings, which I carried<br />
back to the shop in a large bucket!
The pay for a day’s work was two shillings<br />
(10p).<br />
One evening in September 1917, a<br />
lovely late Summer day, Fred called for<br />
a walk down to the harbour and Foreshore.<br />
There was always something of<br />
interest. There could be the crew of a<br />
torpedoed or mined ship, waiting to be<br />
cared for at Mrs. Christians; or a convoy<br />
passing; or a high speed motor<br />
patrol boat; or the Bluebottle or Red<br />
Devil, riding in the swell of the harbour<br />
mouth, being prepared for take<br />
off. However, we changed our minds,<br />
and took a walk over what is now,<br />
Prospect Mount. We went by the cemetery<br />
wall, over the wooden railway<br />
bridge, up the path between the allotments<br />
and sat on the stile , where now<br />
the road comes up from Woodlands<br />
Ravine to Barrowcliff. There were no<br />
houses then – we were in the country.<br />
There was a clear view of the town in<br />
the setting sunlight, when there were<br />
several loud explosions and black<br />
smoke billowing up from various parts<br />
of the town. We thought it must be<br />
another bombardment and hurried<br />
back home to be with our families. On<br />
the way home, we came across the Rev<br />
Edgar Reveley, the minister of Gladstone<br />
Road chapel and we walked with<br />
him. The bombardment was over by<br />
the time we got home.<br />
There was a rumour that a house on<br />
Hoxton Road had been hit, so we went<br />
down to inspect. The house was not<br />
damaged, but there was a ghastly pool<br />
of blood on the doorstep. The house<br />
owner had come to the door, on hear-<br />
56<br />
ing the explosions and caught a piece<br />
of shrapnel in her leg, which, severing<br />
an artery ( probably the femoral –Ed.)<br />
the poor woman had bled to death.<br />
Meanwhile, on the Foreshore, where<br />
Fred and I would have been, a soldier<br />
and his girl friend were hit. He died<br />
and she had to have her leg amputated.<br />
This shelling had come from a German<br />
sub. We never knew whether or<br />
not it was sunk or captured. Overall,<br />
three people were killed and a number<br />
injured with considerable damage to<br />
property.<br />
TRIVIA<br />
YORKSHIRE TALES<br />
A Yorkshire man takes his cat to the<br />
vet.<br />
Yorkshireman: "Ayup, lad, I need to<br />
talk to thee about me cat."<br />
Vet: "Is it a tom?"<br />
Yorkshireman: "Nay, I've browt it with<br />
us."<br />
....................................<br />
A Yorkshireman's dog dies and as it<br />
was a favourite pet he decides to have<br />
a gold statue made by a jeweller to<br />
remember the dog by.<br />
Yorkshireman: "Can tha mek us a gold<br />
statue of yon dog?"<br />
Jeweller: "Do you want it 18 carat?"<br />
Yorkshireman: "No I want it chewin' a<br />
bone yer daft bugger!"<br />
......................................<br />
A Yorkshireman's wife dies and the<br />
widower decides that her headstone<br />
should have the words "She were<br />
thine" engraved on it.
He calls the stone mason, who assures<br />
him that the headstone will be ready a<br />
few days after the funeral.<br />
True to his word the stone mason calls<br />
the widower to say that the headstone<br />
is ready and would he like to come and<br />
have a look.<br />
When the widower gets there he takes<br />
one look at the stone to see that it's<br />
been engraved "She were thin".<br />
He explodes: "'ells bells man, you've<br />
left the bloody "e" out, you've left the<br />
bloody "e" out!"<br />
The stone mason apologises profusely<br />
and assures the poor widower that it<br />
will be rectified the following morning.<br />
Next day comes and the widower returns<br />
to the stone mason: "There you<br />
go sir, I've put the "e" on the stone for<br />
you".<br />
The widower looks at the stone and<br />
then reads out aloud:<br />
"E, she were thin".<br />
.............................<br />
Bloke from Barnsley with piles asks<br />
chemist "Nah then lad, does tha sell<br />
arse cream?"<br />
Chemist replies "Aye, Magnum or Cornetto?"<br />
UNIVERSAL LAWS:<br />
�� If you play with anything long<br />
enough, it will break.<br />
�� If anything can go wrong – it will.<br />
�� Everything takes longer than it<br />
should, except Sex.<br />
�� It works better if you plug it in.<br />
�� When all else fails, read the instructions.<br />
57<br />
�� The easiest way to find something<br />
you have lost is to buy a replacement.<br />
�� Anything you buy will be in the<br />
sale next week.<br />
SBHS PAYS HOMAGE—<br />
REMEMBRANCE DAY,<br />
OLIVERS MOUNT<br />
One of the largest crowds for years<br />
attended Olivers Mount on Sunday<br />
13th November, to take part in the annual<br />
wreath laying service.<br />
A thick fog hung over Olivers Mount<br />
and lent a sombre atmosphere as old<br />
soldiers joined the younger generations<br />
for the annual Remembrance day service<br />
.<br />
The assembled congregation was<br />
reminded of the harsh realities of war<br />
when they were told of the 385th British<br />
casualty who was killed in the current<br />
conflict in Afghanistan.<br />
Scarborough Mayor, Councillor John<br />
Blackburn, said it was important to<br />
observe the annual remembrance and<br />
honour those killed in all conflicts.<br />
Peter Parkinson, Chairman of the<br />
Scarborough branch of the British Legion,<br />
said it was the biggest turnout he<br />
had seen for years. “it’s good to seethe<br />
young ones here. I think it’s particularly<br />
important to keep remembrance<br />
going—especially with what is going<br />
on in the world today.”<br />
Wreaths were laid by Councillor<br />
Blackburn as well as various branches
58<br />
of the armed services, military organisations,, the police and fire services, individuals—and<br />
The <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Scarborians</strong> <strong>Association</strong>, whose wreath was laid by David<br />
Fowler in memory of the old boys and masters who had given the ultimate sacrifice<br />
to their country.<br />
Below: 4th left: David Fowler prepares to lay the OSA wreath. Bottom: The<br />
OSA wreath.<br />
Page 59: More photos of the Scarborough Dinner, courtesy Scarborough Evening<br />
News, (See also pages 36 & 37)
60<br />
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4<br />
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