Summer Times is the Journal of the Old Scarborians Association

COMMITTEE PROFILES (2)
David Fowler
(1949-55)
I was born in Scar‐
borough and at‐
tended Gladstone
Road Primary and
Junior schools.
Why Gladstone
Road, I don’t know.
It had a good reputation but we lived in
Newby at the time. However, I recall that my
Aunt’s address in St John’s Avenue was given
– presumably to put me within the catchment
area—if bureaucracy had invented such
things in those far off days.
The St John’s Avenue address caused all sorts
of problems! In the Winter of 1947, myself
aged 9, my sister then 7, and 3 other children
who attended ‘Glaggo Road’, set off from
Throxenby Lane at around twenty past eight –
our usual time to catch the bus on Scalby
Road. Snow was already about 2 feet deep,
and it was still snowing and lying, and as it
was apparent there were no buses, we set off
to walk to school.
It must have been after 10 am when we
trooped in to our different classes, and later in
the morning ‘Pop’ Hall, the Headmaster, gave
me a mild ticking off for being late arriving.
He had apparently thought I had walked
from St John’s Avenue – all of 400 yards
away! To give him credit, he must have spo‐
ken with the other late arrivals, and realised
we had all walked to school together. Later
on, he returned to my classroom and, in front
of everyone, described the five of us as a be‐
ing a good example of ‘commitment to the
school’ on making the effort to get there in the
snow.
Another incident occurred when, for some
reason, the school Bank needed the signature
of one of my parents. It must have seemed
10
urgent at the time as I was sent ‘home’ to
obtain it. When I returned to school over an
hour later, there were suggestions that I had
been malingering – but an hour to Throxenby
and back in those days was not bad going,
despite the teacher thinking I had only had to
go to St John’s Avenue.
I passed my 11 plus and started at the Boys’
High School in September 1949. Somehow I
managed not to be ‘bushed’ and after a year
in 1A, I found myself in the ‘L’ stream with
Les Brown for French and Bon for German.
Bon really terrified me, but much, much later
I had very good reason to be grateful to him.
Academically, I usually languished some‐
where in the lower half of the class, but I
blame this on an Uncle who was a very keen
‘radio ham’ ‐ (he was the husband of my
Aunt in St John’s Avenue and had returned
from being a Prisoner of War since my earlier
“Glaggo Road” days). I think the attraction of
‘helping’ him contact people in far off lands
through the air waves, was of much more
geographical usefulness than Mr Giblett’s
geography homework.
In those days I was the second smallest boy in
the class. In all school photographs I look like
a pixy with sticking out ears. It was only
when I started my National Service that I shot
up to 6 ft 2 inches within a very short time.
I was never a sportsman at school, my peak
sporting achievement being to play Shinty
under the watchful eye of Norman Stoddard
on Olivers Mount. However, I enjoyed being a
School Librarian, and singing with the Junior
and later the Senior choirs. I well remember a
train trip to Whitby where we were taking
part in the Eskdale Festival of Music and
Song. Bransby Croft’s mother, I think it was,
bought us all ice cream at Scarborough Rail‐
way Station on the outward journey. If it was
to relax our vocal chords it certainly worked,
as we won the shield for our class.
After scraping through O levels I left school in
July 1955 at 16 to join Barclays Bank after Joey