OSAmag78

T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 8
John Ward
match at Lord's in the sum,mer term
1959. I clearly remember when Mr
Phillips gave us our first timetable with
the names of the masters, there was a
double outbreak of hilarity when he
announced that our woodwork teachers
were Messrs. Naylor (laughter) and
Slogett (uproar). These were the names of
some of our subject masters – History:
Major 'Raz' Halls; Geography: Mr 'Uncle'
Topley; French: Mr 'Beak' Davis; P.E.: Mr
'Sid' Holmes; Music: Mr Clover.
For the next four years my form master
was Mr 'Peanut' Bartlett who also took us
for maths. Other subject masters were:
English Lang. And Lit. - Mr 'Gus'
Thomas; Physics – Mr Grant; Chemistry
– Mr 'Eno' Andrews; and Latin – Mr
'Johnnie' Gore.
As time went by I also enjoyed learning
under Messrs. 'Jim' Morris – English;
'Sam' Read – Geography, and 'Wally'
Betton – Latin. Other masters' names
have faded from my memory.
I was in the Lower and Upper Sixth - our
desks were on the stage – under Mr
Morris studying English Literature and
Latin for 'A' Level (all to little avail). For
a double period each week I had a solo
session with the Headmaster, Mr Baynes
on Comparative Religion. I didn't put
enough effort into my sixth form studies,
probably because I was continuing to
indulge myself in extra curricular activities
such as helping with school plays,chiefly
costume/wardrobe and set-dressing but
also assisting MICK BERG on lighting.
The productions I remember most were
The Government Inspector and Twelth
Night where I also had programme and
front-of house functions.
For some years I had been helping Mr
'Joe' Symons to compile the school
magazine and I did the initial proofreading
and correcting the printer's galley,
learning to use all the correct printers'
marks for the amendments required
(good stuff for my future career). As an
extension of that I also put together the
fixture cards for the soccer and cricket
seasons and did the admin around the
annual cross-country run. The Head
asked me to be the school's representative
on the Public School's Debating Society;
I'm not sure how the school benefited
from this but I enjoyed going to meetings
at top-notch establishments. I enjoyed
being a prefect and reading the scripture
text in Assembly but never knew how I
managed to make the grade.
Good friends at school included MIKE
FITCH, STEPHEN PLATTEN,
STEPHEN TREW, ROGER WOOLF,
MICK BERG, LORI FELLINGHAM,
COLIN KEAM-GEORGE, ALAN
CALDER and many others. Platten and I
put on an end-of-term entertainment
called 'TV Night of the Stars' which was
a send-up of various television programmes
of the time (around 1963) including Juke
Box Jury and That Was the Week That
Was.
After leaving Stationers' I joined the
newly-created Haringey Council as a
trainee and went through various
administrative roles before going into the
Committee Section looking after the
Education Committee. The Conservatives
were in control during my first two years
on Education but then in 1971 it became
a Labour Authority. A career move took
me to Islington Council and servicing
their Social Services Committee which
included the responsibility for council
housing; I sort of specialised in the
children's services side of the committee's
remit. After little more than a year I was
back in Haringey, again with the Education
Committee and its many off-shoots. That
coincided with changes in secondary
education and I remember attending a
meeting with members of the Education
Committee and trustees of the Stationers'
Company about the future of the School
and what part the Company would be able
to play in supporting education in the
borough after the school closed down.I
also did a lot of work in connexion with
the formation of Middlesex Polytechnic
which was controlled by a Joint Education
Committee involving people from Barnet
, Enfield and Haringey Councils; meetings
took place around the boroughs and in
some institutions that formed the
polytechnic – a very interesting period.
After several years immersed in the rather
introspective world of education I took on
Planning and Development Committee
which was extremely interesting because
the Council at that time was trying to
look at everything from airports and
railways to industry and employment with
travellers community centres, and the
Haringey Central Area Redevelopment
also in the mix. I was introduced to Her
Majesty the Queen when she came to
Wood Green to open the Shopping City,
originally a very swish development with a
futuristic road plan that never came to
fruition because of the reversal in policy
over demolishing homes in order to build
roads. I suppose it was a life of meetings
and the proceedings thereof, but it took
me to many interesting places, like 10
Downing Street, and allowed me into the
company of many fascinating people,
including Ken Livingstone, Princess
Anne, and Monsignor Bruce Kent –
separately of course. These events all
seemed so momentous at the time but are
so insignificant today.
From the late 1980s onwards I was
progressing along a management career
path and became the Business Manager
of the new Contract Service department
with several thousand staff that did
everything from schooldinners to street
cleansing. When the time came for the
Council to take on new powers of parking
enforcement, for some reason that now
escapes me I said “Yes” to the request to
set up the new service and became the
borough's parking manager. I very soon
learned not to tell people I met outside of
work what I did for a living. Who hasn't
got a parking ticket story to tell?
Looking back on my career after
retirement in 2004, I would sum it up by
saying that I served as a general
adminstrator and writer in the public
service; I was fortunate to have been able
to put to good use many of the skills and
abilities I picked up during my
extracurricular activities at Stationers'
Company's School.
Outside work, I helped to set up, and for
several years was very active in, the
Muswell Hill Friends of the Earth, and
have been a long-standing member of the
Hornsey Historical Society. I was a
member of the Buildings Committee of
the Victorian Society for ten years from
1995 and was an active member of the
Twentieth Century Society, both reflecting
my interest in architecture and historic
buildings. Moving to Norfolk in 2005
meant that attending frequent meetings
in the capital was no longer practical but I
retain my memberships and read all their
publications.
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