OSAmag78

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 8
by helicopter. He was also able to see the
museum that Nigel started and is going
fom strength to strength and to see King
Edward Point where we lived. Our house
is no more and it all looks very different.
He sailed from SG to Ascension in May
arriving back in UK in June,
Jennifer
Jennifer Bonner whose husband Nigel was
brother to Gerald Bonner whose obituary was
in the last magazine.
Dear Geraint
35 St. Stephen's Avenue
St.Albans, Herts., AL3 4AA
01727 851347
29th August 2013
I note with sadness the death of Gerald
Bonner. I was with Gerald – and Wilf
Baker, Eric Wareham, John Freeman and
others in the Arts 6th, 1942-43, my one
and only year at Stationers'. At Wisbech I
attended Hornsey County School until my
matric. in 1942, but then transferred to
Stationers' in London, as Hornsey County
no longer had the staff for 6th form work.
I subsequently lost contact with Gerald for
some years, but was able to renew it because
my wife knew his wife (before either of the
two was married) when my wife was was
German language assistant at Bedford
College in Regent's Park in 1956, and Jane
Bonner (as she later became) was a student
in the German Department there. Gerald
and Jane were both very helpful and
hospitable to me when I was last in
Durham, a few years ago.
I had only one year in the sixth, as I
managed to gain my Higher School
Certificate at the end of that year so as to
spend the next year as a university student
before I reached the call-up age for
national service at 18, when, in the
summer of 1944, I was sent to a
Nottingham coal mine as a Bevin Boy. I
thought that, if I had already spent a year
(1943-1944 as an undergraduate, I would
more readily be accepted as a student
after the war was over. I need not have
worried about that, as ex-service personnel
had no difficulty in getting into college as
post-war students. The Stationers' year
was the most enjoyable of all my school
years, although it was hard work to do the
two-year course in one. It would not even
have been possible, had I been in the
science sixth, as the extensive practical
work, plus the theoretical knowledge,
could not have been covered in a single
year. This shows how much more
demanding are science courses compared
with many arts courses – something
confirmed by my later experience at
university, where I studied first for a BA
and later for a BSc.
Anyway it was in the arts sixth that I was
taught at Stationers, and I had every
possible help and encouragement from my
teachers there. 'Bobs' Roberts was a
magnificent Latin teacher, and successfully
recommended me for the Latin prize,
which helped to pay my undergraduate fees
in the following year. 'Dickie' Dash did his
best with my French, which was not so
good, and 'Sacco' Englefield, who taught
me German, subsequently became a
lifelong friend. He was a truly remarkable
man, and, of all my teachers, the one who
has influenced me most profoundly. With
another of his pupils, the neuro-pathologist
David Oppenheimer whom pre-Stationers,
Englefield taugh at a private school in
Cheshire in the mid 1920s, I co-edited his
posthumous papers into three books, all of
which were duly published. The first of
them, Language, its Origin and Relation to
Thought appeared in 1977 (London: Elek/
Pemberson) and was the most successful of
the three. The New York publisher,
Scribner, was so impressed with it that he
at once brought out an American edition.
It is striking that nearly all the pupils who
became close to Englefield went on to read
for science, rather than for arts degrees,
although it was modern languages that he
himself taught. Doubtless it was his famous
school 'Bug Club', that led them towards
scientific studies. Nigel Bonner, Gerald's
younger brother, is an obvious example.
Like me, he became a lifelong friend of
Englefield.
I was intrigued by Sylvia Mogg's article
on The Guest in the issue of the Old
Stationer that recorded Gerald's death. I
was not involved in the production or
performance of that play, but I remember
Sylvia very well from my Hornsey County
School days at Wisbech. In 1941-42 I was
there in the fifth form, and she in the
science upper sixth. I did not get to know
her well, as she was so much my senior – a
difference of two or three years can seem
very considerable at that young age. Like
her, I was very fortunate to have had a very
good billet at Wisbech. At the time, I did
not realize what a sacrifice it was for my
hosts, who had three young children of
their own, to take in an adolescent boy as
if he were their own. Fortunately, by
keeping in touch with them until they
died, I could later express my gratitude. I
kept in contact with Hornsey County
School until its closure in 1952, but then
lost contact, which is remiss of me, for I
owe a great deal to my teachers there.
Sylvia says in her article that she would be
glad to hear from any survivors from those
early days, and if you can let me have her
address, I will write to her.
Best wishes
George Wells
11th September 2013
christopherbell238@btinternet.com
Good afternoon Geraint
Finally arrived back in the UK. On closing
e-mail account in the Falklands lost all
contact details so e-mailing on OSA
address to let people know new contact
details. Can you pass on to those that need
to know. Back in the old house in Bradford
on Avon.
Chris Bell
Hi Geraint
28th September
jleeming231@btinternet.com
You may have heard from other sources
that GEOFF RICHMOND has had a
successful liver transplant, and that he is
making good progress. This a quote from
his wife, posted on Facebook:
“Hello, I'm Judy Richmond, Geoff 's wife. He
would like you all to be informed that,
incredibly, after just over a week on the list he
has had a successful transplant on Monday.
All systems go and fingers crossed for
continued good news.”
That was last Monday, 23rd.
I hope all is well with you
Best wishes
John Leeming
Puybobe, 23200 St Alpinien
CRESUE, France
30th September 2013
carol.neil@orange.fr
Subject: Still you are Stationers..etc atc
Dear Editor
Today a copy of the Old Stationer turned
up in our letterbox here in Deepest France.
I think it came from Richard Phillippo,
who is about my generation (55-62) at
Mayfield Road and who recently emailed
me out of the blue. A nice surprise. I
particularly enjoyed your rather waspish
'Ed' notes in italics!
Any way to be brief, I am NOT an OS for
no particular reason apart from my
working life as an architect-planner in
some 20+ countries, now retired to France
bu still wielding the pencil and designing
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