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Commonwealth War Graves OW v RGS sport Sixth Form Maths Class 1945 Ted WoodwardOWs NEWSLETTER
AUGUST
30th
VENUE: QUEENS HALL - PUT THE DATE IN YOUR DIARY NOW!
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ARE YOU A FULL
INTERNATIONAL IN ANY GAME OR SPORT?
DO YOU KNOW OF OWS WHO ARE FULL INTERNATIONALS?
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The RGS is considering an Honours Board for those OWs who have represented their country at the Senior Level. It is very important that we make sure that nobody is omitted. Therefore if you aware of anyone in that category, please let me know as soon as possible. Can you name four rugby internationals, one cricket, one hockey, or are there more than that? What about athletics, shooting, swimming? Lots of nominations please. |
Next year it is hoped to arrange lots of matches in different games, some against the school. Rugby, hockey, rowing, and fencing, would take place on the same day as the annual Dinner on Saturday 12th April. Cricket, tennis and golf would take place on one day in June or July, with shooting a possibility. A number of OWs have already expressed an interest, but how many of these activities run will depend on the interest shown. If you are interested in playing rugby, do contact
Ralph Miller (email rmiller@glencoecourt.fsnet.co.uk)
Hockey, David Stone (email david.stone2@ntlworld.com)
any other activity Ian Clark (email: ianrclarkuk@yahoo.co.uk) It would be great to have an early response. The more the merrier. More details on this website during the coming months.
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Sir
I discovered your email in the RGS web page. I was a pupil at the school 1963-1969.
I believe that I was the youngest cross-country runner to receive team colours, but I am not at all sure. I also think that I held the cross-country record for a time. Again memory usually lies in our favour. I won a Scholarship to Trinity Oxford where I matriculated for the 1970 year. I am now a Doctor of Literature and am surprised my book is not in the library: Black American Author-Biography, 1995.
I once saw articles about people who must have been my contemporaries, but it seemed I had reached the wrong school. Where are the John Reitzs(?), the Keith Clarkes, the Maurice Caveys, the Jim Kirkwoods, in short the Greats… Charlie Connolly, even. Is this the school I went to and did I achieve anything lasting there?
Perplexedly,
Dr Peter A Muckley.
Dear Sir
Harry Hodkinson reminiscing about the daily four miles marching to and from Tylers Wood prompts me to write; it seems like yesterday - almost.
In brief, all that 'marching' must have rubbed off on me as I was commissioned into the Army and served with both the Royal Artillery and the Royal Canadian Artillery. Various tours at home and abroad included, a three month detachment to the South Seas and Australasia, a two year posting with an Independent Parachute Battery; back to school for a year at the Army Staff College, Camberley; and, a few years on, another relaxed year studying at the National Defence College up the road at Latimer. Retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1984 to go into the aviation industry - but sadly a fatal crash also spelt the end of the company. Presently working as a Civil Servant in a fascinating and most enjoyable post at the MOD Defence Crisis Management Centre under forty feet of concrete beneath Whitehall. Married, with a grown-up son and daughter, we have lived in Salisbury for the past 16 years. I am still in regular and close touch with fellow Old Boys and lifelong friends Jeremy Rendall (recently retired from British Airways as a senior Concorde Captain) and Brian Bull (enjoying a relaxed and comfortable semi-retirement near Oxford with a range of business interests). Barry and Raymond Quirke also appear regularly on the radar screen.
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Most acute memory: two successive half-terms
in sick bay at Tylers Wood - I STILL can't believe it!!
From William Pender (Bill) 1953 -58. Boarded School House and Tylers Wood. |
Dear Mr. Clark
Because, owing to the War, I was away from RGS for 3-4 years, I do not have many contacts among Old Boys. I do remember going back to the school to lecture to the science 6th - this was in Tucker’s day. Also I remember an episode, which may amuse you. When David was to be a new boy my wife and I attended as parents. Mr. Tucker had died and Sam Morgan was standing in as temporary Head. He asked if there were any old boys among the parents and I put my hand up. He said ominously “Oh, yes, I remember you!” Then he launched into a rather rambling speech about the dreadful things that the boys did. One terrible crime was that they left their overcoats lying around. “We are very strict about this,” he said, “and offenders are severely punished.” He turned to the junior headmaster on the platform., Hr. Hollingsworth, who was wrapped in his own thoughts. “And what do we do to the offenders, Mr. Hollingsworth?” “Er, we hang them in the cloakrooms, Sir!”
Incidentally my wife was at the High School at the same time (it was then in the buildings on Amersham Hill) and we travelled together on the train from Denham, although we were supposed not to fraternise!
Kind regards
Jeremy Stevenson
Dear Ian
One of my housemasters, and also Mathematics teacher was R.A.P.Wilson, or “Rap” as we called him. I am sure many guys from my period will remember him. I left in 1966 with my family for Canada. I was amazed a few years later, when I was walking up Yonge Street in Toronto to literally “bump” into him and a lady. He was equally surprised, and we chatted for a short time, informing me that he was teaching at a school on an exchange program. I don’t know if he returned to the UK, or stayed in North America. He was quite a young man as I remember, so he could be working somewhere.
With best wishes,
Roger Monk (1964-1966)
Anyone know anything about “Rap”?
Anyone met an OW in an unusual place? Do write and let us know. Editor
THANKS!
Many thanks to those who have told me of the whereabouts of some of the Missing Old Wycombiensian Members. Please have a look at the list and do let me know of the postal or email address of any of the names, which appear on the list. My apologies for giving my email address wrongly in the Missing OWs’ Section, and for the inconvenience this caused some OWs. Any information to ianrclarkuk@yahoo.co.uk
A photograph of a 2nd Year Sixth Maths Class 1945
| Do you recognise yourself and others on this photograph, which has been kindly sent in by Jeremy Stevenson? Please send me the names. Do send any photos you might have that we can publish. |  |
Which teacher said and when? “Go and eat your passports!”
A certain Head of Modern Languages was leading one of her many school trips to Europe. It was the last day and the coach set out from Rome on the long trek home. After about two hours the Head of Modern Languages realised that she had left all the passports at the hotel. She realised that they would have to wait for the passports to be brought, and to fill the time, and to cause no concern she decided that the best thing would be for the boys to eat their lunch. So she issued the command “boys, eat your passports!” No wonder the boys looked baffled!
Which teacher used the 4-letter f -word in assembly?
A certain Deputy-Head, who shall remain nameless but who is now in the room in which I am sitting on my own, once used the 4-letter F-word in Assembly. He was haranguing Years 10 &11 on the need for punctuality especially after break and lunchtime. He told them that they should get away from the tuck-shop punctually. Unfortunately the letter f was still on his lips when he got to the word tuck and it replaced the letter t! Soon the tuck-shop became very popular and was named shortly afterwards the School shop.!
Which teacher left the RGS in July and was apparently replaced by his twin brother in Sept?
A certain Economics and RE teacher handed in his notice towards the end of the Summer Term. However he changed his mind before it was too late. He told the boys however that he was leaving and would be replaced by his identical twin brother in September. For the first weeks of the autumn term he maintained this pretence, and received comments, such as “You are older than your brother,” or “ you are much better looking than him.”
When the teacher confessed, a Sixth Former who is now an Oxford Don, laughed and said, ‘I am not falling for that. I have studied both characters very carefully and I can see the obvious differences’!
On 17th July Bobby Dix organised a team of OWS to take on the RGS 1st team. The parents of Duncan Moore an OW, who was a very good cricketer but who very sadly lost his life a few years after leaving school, have presented a cup to be awarded each year to the winners of the fixture. This was the second such game. In glorious weather the game was played in a good spirit, with a young RGS team doing very well to recover from a poor start to score 190. The OWs always looked as if they would reach the target, and this they did. I hope to give a fuller report next time.
In the RGS team in a recent match, two sets of brothers played. Is this a record? Can any OW think of any other occasion, when two or more sets of brothers have played in the same team?
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During an RGS School trip to Italy in
March, boys and teachers visited the Commonwealth War
Graves Cemetery at Cassino to pay their respects at the
grave of Lt. Richard Bailey. Richard Bailey was a pupil at RGS in the 1930s and was killed at the age of 25 during the battle to take Monte Cassino in 1943. He left a wife and young son, Malcolm. Below are some pictures of the cemetery. |
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Were any of your OW friends killed in the
Second World War?
Below is an article first published in the
Bucks Free Press. Do you remember him?
EMAILS
Some of you have reported that you have sent me emails and I do not seem to have received them. If you have not had a reply to an email you sent and to which you expected a reply, please do send me a copy of your email, and I will reply as soon as possible.
SAD NEWS.
Chris Griffiths reports that Ian Macwhinnie (1957-62) very sadly died in July.
A REMINDER
A number of OW members have said that they would like to have the opportunity of buying the School Magazine, the Wycombiensian, which is published every July. If you wish to have a copy and live in the UK, please send a cheque for £4.00 payable to the Old Wycombiensians, to Ian Clark, 5 Foxhill Close, High Wycombe, HP13 5BR. If you live abroad, please send a cheque for £7.00 (and confirm your present address).
“To be honest I hated Rugby but we had to play the game” he recalls.
Ted Woodward had impressed the then RGS headmaster ER Tucker with his love of sport when he came up from Wheeler End. But when he started at the school, which had not long switched to Rugby he was a good standard junior footballer. By a quirk of fate Ted had been born the very week Wycombe Wanderers won the FA Amateur Cup in 1931 and was soon hooked by the game. He played for Marlow Minors at centre half as a youngster. “In those days soccer was my game and it still is. I played at Loakes Park in a junior cup final back in the forties and I follow Wycombe Wanderers very closely and am delighted when they win.”
His early experience of Rugby was far from happy. A master called Horace Johnson said, “if you don’t play Rugby you won’t be in the Cricket team next year, and so that’s how it started. At first I played in the front row. I hated that because it rubbed your ears and hurt your neck. I could always run fairly quickly so in time they put me on the wing. It was a move I never regretted. I had a marvellous sports master called Ron Emery who encouraged me. He used to give up a lot of his time to help me and in time he’d take me to the matches.”
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By 1947 the Wasps were starting to take an interest in the sixteen-year old Woodward. Neville Compton the secretary of Wasps kept tabs on the progress of the rising star. In due course Ted was making his way to Sudbury on a regular basis. |
But it wasn’t just in Rugby that Woodward excelled, he was also a first class sprinter setting A Bucks schools record in the 220 yards and he joined a distinguished list at the 1948 All England Schools Championship in Bath. It was Olympic year but Woodward’s sporting destiny lay elsewhere.
He played for Bucks, and then was invited to play for East Midlands. In one match he was charged with marking one of the legendary Bruce- Lockharts. “He knocked hell out of me…. I couldn’t get the ball to our star man Lionel Oakley, the Bedford and England centre. At half time they moved me out to the wing. Oakley made a break, passed the ball to me and I dropped it …and never played for them again.”
But Woodward’s reputation was growing at Wasps and in the Middlesex county team. His form was soon noticed and all went well when he played in a trial at Leicester. The next match was at Twickenham itself and very soon an invitation came for him to play against the touring springboks. His test debut came on 5th January 1952. The ground was slippery but Woodward almost enjoyed the dream debut. He raced away midway through the second half and his pass found Albert Agar. Unfortunately Agar slipped short of the line and the chance was gone and England lost the match 8-3.
Woodwind was a more regular member of the team after that but he says, “The trials were hit and miss affairs. There were always three trials – and you had to be lucky. It’s so easy to have a bad game in front of the selectors and never be seen again. I was lucky – one of my first trials was up north and I didn’t have a particularly good game. But I was standing on the platform on the way home I heard Cartsten Catcheside, one of the selectors, say I think we ought to give young Woodward another chance.”
In those days the championship was five nations, and Woodwind made his bow against the Welsh. In those days they had Cliff Morgan and were destined for a Grand Slam despite Woodwind’s try. In later years he enjoyed playing against the Welsh and more often than not he scored against them. It wasn’t until Woodward’s third match for England at Murrayfield that he was on the winning side. Typically, he scored a try against the Scots.
When another RGS old boy Matt Dawson joins up with today’s England squad under Clive Woodward, there’s no shortage of coaching and medical expertise available. Things were very different in 1952. “We were left to our own devices with training, and what’s more there was no organised physiotherapy for injury.”
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Although he was better known in the town for his Sports shop – back in the fifties he ran a butcher’s shop at Lane End. “It wasn’t easy but I had a wonderful sister. I’d do the chopping of the meat and my mother would help with the deliveries. My sister would run the butcher’s shop whilst I went off to play rugby. I used to get advice from the Middlesex President, Cyril Gadney. “Don’t play in the trial before Christmas – you have more than enough to do at the butchers shop – it’s coming up to Christmas. They’re bound to pick you for the final trial, so drop out of this one.” Luckily they did. |
“There was nothing like the media circus we see today. A few letters of congratulation and encouragement was about it. We used to meet up on the Thursday but there was no training. We’d just run up and down a few times, and that was it. In those days the winger used to throw in at the lineout and I tried to get out of running up and down because I thought it might tire me out for Saturday. The selectors would tell us we’ve picked you for what you are, now go out and play… but, Woodward, all I want you to do is run as hard as you can toward the corner flag – that was it that was our team talk, amazing really.”
“And when you got to play there certainly wasn’t all the razzmatazz you get nowadays with soldiers abseiling down the stand with the match ball etc. Mind you, when you get in the tunnel ready to go out, you just tighten and within a couple of minutes you completely forget about anything but the match itself. If I was playing Rugby at Wasps the routines was slightly different. I’d do the meat deliveries the morning of the match and then go off to play at Sudbury or wherever.”
These days Woodward would have been a dead cert for a lion’s tour but in the fifties they weren’t nearly as regular. He missed out on the 1955 tour to South Africa and by the time the next one came round, Ted’s career had at international level at least been brought to a premature end by injury. He’d won 15 caps which by the standards of the fifties was a lot. In the modern age he would surely have won many more.
But what would England have given for
the RGS version of Jonah Lou today? “I suppose I was rather
like him. I was never a jinker. I used to try and run through
people rather than round them. It wasn’t very scientific,
but it seemed effective.
The next newsletter will be published on October 20th. Do send in your memories of the RGS, teachers or fellow Old Wycombiensians, to me by October 10th.