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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0<br />
wife and I find ourselves back in London<br />
(approximately twice a year) we always<br />
find time to catch up with them both.<br />
Finally I was intrigued by the letter from<br />
Leslie McBride Singleton a) because he<br />
began at Stationers' the year after I did,<br />
and b) he had fond memories of Johnny<br />
Gore just as I do. It seems his memory is<br />
also indelibly printed on your consciousness<br />
as indicated by your reference that<br />
followed. I don't have Leslie's address but<br />
if you can provide one I will happily email<br />
a pic of the red book to which Leslie refers.<br />
Clearly I'm not prepared to part with the<br />
book itself as it is one of the few Stationer's<br />
possessions that I have. Sadly my red book<br />
does not have the distinction of a gold<br />
crest but it was definitely given to Latin<br />
students in preparation for O Level. Gore's<br />
instantly recognizable red scrawls are in<br />
evidence everywhere throughout the book,<br />
some marks better than others of course. I<br />
would be very surprised if anyone has a<br />
spare copy to part with therefore an<br />
emailed pic may be sufficient to satisfy<br />
Leslie's curiosity.<br />
Best wishes<br />
Dave Gordon 1957-1964<br />
FROM MY ECCLESIASTICAL<br />
Dear Geraint<br />
CORRESPONDENT IN<br />
THE NORTH<br />
peterkmills@talktalk.net<br />
13 October 2014<br />
Many thanks for your updates on your<br />
travels – recently received. Here in Haxey<br />
and the Parish Church in particular, we<br />
were joined about 3 years ago by a couple,<br />
Eileen and David Owers. I discovered<br />
yesterday that DAVID OWERS had been<br />
a pupil at Stationers'!! The only guidance I<br />
can give is that David is 79 – and which<br />
should help you to approach the records. I<br />
will be loaning him the publication you<br />
delivered when you called – but when I<br />
mentioned the 'Wakefield experience' he<br />
was of course aware of the bones of the<br />
situation but not of the history of Stephen.<br />
Regards<br />
Peter Mills<br />
Peter Mills, I have known for very many<br />
years since he and his wife arrived in<br />
Llandegfan, near Beaumaris in Anglesey as<br />
the Postmaster in the Post Office in this<br />
village many years ago, where my mother had<br />
lived since 1973. He was very much involved<br />
in the Church in Wales and became my<br />
'adviser' locally on Church matters in the<br />
Principality. Then, when he moved to Haxey,<br />
near Doncaster, Peter continued to keep me<br />
advised, now on Church of England matters,<br />
especially as he was aware that the former<br />
Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten, was a<br />
Stationer ever since he was appointed to<br />
become the Bishop. Consequently, Peter has<br />
always kept me up to date on much of the<br />
major developments and changes in the<br />
Church of England and sent me much of the<br />
documentation as both he, and I alerted by<br />
Peter, kept me updated on a major change on<br />
the bishoprics of West Yorkshire. Thus, through<br />
cuttings in the Church Times I was able to<br />
provide a comprehensive understanding<br />
without precedent, of the process of<br />
amalgamation of three bishoprics to only one,<br />
in the Church of England. Thank you Peter.<br />
[Please see Magazine Number 79]<br />
Hello Geraint,<br />
johnbathurst@sympatico.ca<br />
20 th October 2014<br />
As LES HUMPHREYS (1952-1959)<br />
states in 'The Old Stationer No 79 (p 29),<br />
he has been unable to persuade me “to<br />
stump up a membership”. I have also<br />
eluded similar societies, e.g. Northampton<br />
Engineering College Alumni and the<br />
RAF Association. As usual, Les kindly<br />
lent me his copy of the magazine. Finding<br />
some interesting stuff therein (notably<br />
contributions by JOHN WARD 1958-<br />
1965 and JOHN AANONSON 1960-<br />
1967) prompts me to offer a few rambling<br />
comments. However, as a 1938-1943<br />
dinosaur and Wisbech veteran, I doubt<br />
many readers old enough to care a fig<br />
about them.<br />
In 1938, to handle increasing enrolment,<br />
construction of the School's wing was<br />
underway. First Formers were being<br />
temporarily accommodated in classrooms<br />
at a decommissioned girls' school of<br />
Victorian vintage located on the west side<br />
of Oakfield Road, near Addington Road.<br />
That meant a trudge back up to the main<br />
school for gym, the library, classes such as<br />
woodwork and art, army cadet corps<br />
parades, and in cases of serious<br />
misbehaviour, a chat with 'Josh'. Around<br />
the corner in Stapleton Hall Road was St.<br />
Aidan's Secondary School where,<br />
conveniently, my girl friend was a pupil.<br />
She, too, was at Wisbech. We bonded at<br />
Muswell Hill Junior School, better known<br />
as 'Tin Pot School' (p 22) due to the<br />
corrugated-iron cladding of its walls and<br />
roof. Built as a WWII temporary school, it<br />
remained temporary throughout WWII<br />
and then survived two more decades<br />
before preceding Stationers', St. Aidans<br />
and Hornsey High – where my sister went<br />
– into oblivion. (I warned you about this<br />
rambling).<br />
My attached photograph, taken in the<br />
spring of 1939, shows Form 1A of the<br />
1938 intake. This comprised of boys<br />
surnames with initials A-H while those in<br />
Form 1B were I-Z.<br />
Many of the younger OS will remember<br />
the above KEITH HEWETT as their<br />
schoolmaster while PETER BULLEN<br />
needs no introduction. I suspect that<br />
COTTRELL was HARRY'S brother<br />
GEORGE COTTRELL (p 25). PETER<br />
ASKEY, a dry humorist, was reputedly a<br />
son of the famous comedian Arthur Askey<br />
but in fact he was not. BARRATT and<br />
DAVENPORT were our two brightest<br />
brains. Also somewhere in the picture were<br />
AKERMAN, ANGWIN and BRADLEY.<br />
My friend LEO GATFIELD was later at<br />
university with me; we were also in the<br />
93rd North London and, at Wisbech, the<br />
2nd Stationers scout troops. The former<br />
was under the patronage of St. George's<br />
Church (p 21), our pre-war HQ being in<br />
the basement of the parish hall at the foot<br />
of Cranley Gardens, site of the present<br />
church. The hall was half-demolished by<br />
Hornsey's first 'flying bomb' on 16 th June<br />
1944. Our temporary HQ was the<br />
gatekeeper's cottage of Grove Lodge, the<br />
mansion on the east flank of Muswell Hill<br />
that was a wartime hospital. There I did<br />
hospital orderly and fire-watching duties<br />
– the latter referring to incendiary bombs,<br />
not living room fireplaces. Also in the 93rd<br />
NL and 2 nd Stationers' troops were<br />
JOHN SHELDON, who lived on Farrer<br />
Road, and JOHN WILLIS on Wood Vale,<br />
both ahead of me at school. I recall<br />
climbing Snowdon with KEN WILLIS,<br />
the latter's older brother, also a Stationer<br />
and in the 93 rd NL. I was running the<br />
93 rd NL cub pack in 1945/6, meeting at<br />
Rokesly School (p 18). One of the cubs<br />
was my brother, ANTHONY<br />
BATHURST 1948-1953, later also a<br />
Stationer. Our home was in Cascade<br />
Avenue, off Muswell Hill. Schoolmaster<br />
RODNEY NAYLOR lived three doors<br />
from us. (In the group photograph the<br />
juxtaposition of BACON and FRYER was<br />
doubtless unintentional).<br />
Ah yes – the Priory Road area, (p18 et<br />
seq). Starting in 1905 there were doubledecker<br />
trams running up from Turnpike<br />
Lane as far as the shops shown in the<br />
picture on page 21. Single-deckers<br />
continued up the west end of Alexandra<br />
Palace and its LNER branch line station.<br />
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