N O V E M B E R
2006 NEWSLETTER

An Adobe PDF verion of this newsletter is available here.

SAD NEWS

We have just heard that John Perfect who taught at the RGS from 1951-1988 has just died aged 82.  There will an obituary in the next newsletter.

ANNUAL DINNER

The Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday April 28th in the Queen's Hall.  There will be opportunities for OWs to have a tour of the buildings before the Dinner, attend the Annual General Meeting, and hear a report on how the School is doing.  Do contact your OW friends, and come with them to the Dinner!  The Guest of Honour at this year’s Dinner will be John Roebuck.  Since 1970 John has taught History at the RGS and been Head of the History Department since 1991.  He introduced fencing to the RGS, and twenty of his fencers have represented England, Wales, or Great Britain.  He has organised History trips, helped to initiate the American Exchange, run cross-country, and participated in the Staff Revue.  So if you were one of his history or fencing students, you may want to come to the Dinner with your OW friends, to say farewell to him.  If any of you are thinking of coming, and would like to encourage others to come from your era, do contact me and I can advertise this in the January newsletter, or perhaps be able to give you some addresses of OWs with whom you have lost contact..  More details of the Dinner will appear in the January newsletter on this website, and of course, if you are a member of the OW Club, in the magazine or letter to be sent out by post.

REMINDER

If you are a member of the OW Club, you can expect to receive from us a letter with details of the Annual Dinner and Sporting Reunions.  If you left before 1950, you will receive our magazine. Some of you who left after 1950 said that you would like to receive a magazine and you will do so.  If any other member of the Club would like to receive one, please contact me.  The magazine will consist of articles and snippets of information that have appeared or will appear in the newsletters on this website.

NB If you are not a member of the Club, and would like to know how to join, PLEASE CLICK HERE. It is only £30 Life Membership.

ARE YOU A HOCKEY PLAYER OR A SHOOTER?
If you would like to play hockey in an OW Reunion match on Sat. April 28th and perhaps come on to the Dinner, do let me know.		If you participate in Shooting, how about taking part in the Annual match against the School on 28th April, if you want to, do let me know.
ARE YOU A GOLFER, OR A CRICKETER?
If you play golf, you might like to play in the Annual Golf Match against the RGS Staff on Friday June 29th at 4.00pm.		If you play cricket you might like to play in one or both of the matches against the Staff or the RGS 1st XI. The dates will be announced later.

Kelvin Jouhar continues his account of the RGS in the Seventies:

Life in the boarding house was pretty good – I think my parents had imagined that I would be kept under close control and schoolwork would be a priority, but the fact of the matter was that the Housemaster, Mr Skipp, was too soft with us, and I suppose we took advantage of that to an extent.  He was a lovely man, and as I mentioned earlier, he was to marry Jane and me in St.Mary's Church, Beaconsfield a few years later.  He would occasionally invite two or three of the boys to go into his sitting room in the evening to watch a TV programme and drink some tea.  He always had a good selection of teas and we tried Earl Grey and Lapsang Souchong, which of course, we had not drunk before. Sometimes we also had shortcake biscuits which were a luxury.

Two of the most senior boys in the boarding house were *** *** and *** ***.  I guess they were both 17 and maybe 18 years old. They both had Lambretta motor scooters which they rode around. They had received special permission from Mr Skipp to keep them round the back of the boarding house.  It has to be said that they were not a good influence on the younger boys in the house.  I don't think they did a lot of work, and I don't know how either of them got on eventually at A levels.  It would be interesting to know what ever happened to the two of them.

Anyway, they both spent most of their time, or so it seemed, fettling their motor scooters, including hours spent in the common room with the bodywork panels from the scooters, spraying them with aerosol cans of paint.  We all used to wonder how they could afford to be buying all of these aerosol cans and re-spraying their scooters every few weeks.

Then the truth came out – they were shoplifting all sorts of items, including the spray cans, from Woolworths down in the town centre.  They would apparently walk in there, holding their helmets, and put items inside the helmets before covering the swag with leather gauntlets or a scarf to hide them.  Then they would just walk out. This was the start of a series of events that eventually involved several of us, including me, almost being expelled from the school.  I can tell this story now, as my parents are no longer around, and at the time they knew nothing at all about the incident.

It is still the case now, and it was the case even then, that teenage boys like to have the latest fashions and try to look "cool". At the time, the items of clothing to have were Levi's jeans, Ben Sherman shirts and denim jackets.  The word got around in the boarding house that *** and *** were expert shoplifters and people started to give them "orders" to steal certain items from shops, in return for money.  There was a Millets store in High Wycombe, near The Octagon shopping centre and *** and *** would go down there on a Saturday afternoon with a list of items, and sizes, that they had been commissioned to steal.

Such behaviour does not even bear thinking about nowadays and I cannot tell you that I am proud of some of the things that I did, but there is no point in me writing about my life and my experiences if I don't tell you the full story.  Having said that, I myself, never bought any stolen items of clothing from *** or ***, but I did get involved in the Tuck Shop raid, which as I have mentioned, was almost the end of my school career, and it was only thanks to Mr Skipp that the whole incident was hushed up.

When I first went to the grammar school the tuck shop, which was literally 100 feet away from the boarding house, was a wooden structure about twenty feet by fifteen.  It sold sweets, fizzy drinks, blank cassette tapes (recording music onto cassettes was very popular at that time) crisps etc.  The structure was not in very good condition and eventually it was knocked down, and a smart new brick-built structure was built with windows and all new fixtures and fittings inside.  It had only been up a matter of a few weeks when someone in the house announced that they reckoned that the windows could be removed from the outside with a screwdriver.

I honestly don't remember who actually raided the tuck shop one night, but a lot of us in the Boarding House knew that it was going to happen.  The problem was that the perpetrators didn't just take a few small items, which may not have attracted undue attention – it was a major operation, and they virtually cleaned it out of the smaller items like chocolate bars, cassette tapes and crisps.

The swag was hidden all round the boarding house in various lockers, and I am ashamed to say that I bought an amount of the stolen items, including a number of blank cassette tapes, that I was going to use to record some music on.  I put my chocolate bars and tapes in my locker and thought no more about it.  In hindsight, I suppose it was absolutely crazy to think that someone from the boarding house was not going to be a prime suspect, once the discovery of the missing stock was made.

It seems that a search was made of some of the lockers in the boarding house and the next thing I knew was that I was summoned to see Mr Skipp.  He did not ask me where I had got the goods – I guess he had already found that out and did not need to ask me – he explained how seriously the whole incident was being taken and said that we would be interviewed by "Boss" who was the Headmaster of the school.

A day or two later, we went to see Boss and he tore us off a strip – I can't actually remember who else was in the room with me and I don't recall what Boss said – it's almost as though because it was such an unsavoury incident, my brain has managed to erase the memory.  I do know that he said he would not be telling our parents, and of course we had to promise that nothing like that would ever happen again.

Looking back at it now, I think that Mr Skipp must have pleaded with Boss on our behalf – it obviously would have reflected very poorly on Mr Skipp if the parents of the boarding house boys involved, had been told what had happened.

As I mentioned, *** and *** used to keep their scooters round at the back of the boarding house, and there was a third scooter round there that had been left by a previous boy who was no longer at the school.  This scooter was a wreck, with most of the bodywork panels missing, the throttle cable was broken and the headlight was broken. This did not stop us – we spent some time getting the engine to run by attaching a wire directly from the carburettor across the bottom of the frame.  The throttle was operated by pressing your foot on the wire as the scooter went along.  We would sneak out of the boarding house late in the evening and quietly wheel the scooter onto the huge school field, where we would start it up.

We would then drive it around the field in the dark, with no headlights.  One weekend we knew that Mr Skipp had gone away somewhere to visit a relative, leaving DWT in charge of the house.  Well, we were not too bothered about him, so we brazenly took the scooter out in broad daylight.  I was the unfortunate person riding it when the throttle stuck open and I crashed it at speed directly into a wall.  I hurt my leg quite badly, gashing a reasonable sized lump of flesh out of it.

I hobbled back to the boarding house to dress the wound.  Of course I could not go to the matron, who would then have asked some awkward questions, so I patched it up as best as I could – I still have the remnants of the scar to this day.  That was the end of the scooter as the frame was now badly bent and the front wheel was not running true.  I think that the scooter was pushed back, with difficulty, to the rear of the boarding house where it was left.

I had continued to be very keen on playing football, even though the school did not play it as one of the official sports.  There were a number of lads who were keen in the boarding house and we would occasionally have a match against one of the other houses. I was playing at a reasonable standard for my age and I was introduced to a guy who was running an Under-14 team called Totteridge Wanderers.   He was the father of one of the boys in the team.  They used to train once a week on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening down on the Rye in High Wycombe, not far from the outdoor swimming pool, and there would be matches on a Saturday afternoon.  They were in a proper league and I found myself playing up front for them and scoring quite a few goals.  My nickname in the team was "Joey" and I really enjoyed the matches.  I was less keen on the midweek practice sessions because, apart from anything else, it was a very long journey down to the Rye from where the school was, at the top of Amersham Hill.

My presence at the training sessions was patchy, because of the long journey, and also because I suppose I was a bit lazy.  Then the guy running the team offered to pick me up outside school at the appropriate time before the training sessions each week, and give me a lift there and back, and I didn't really have much of an excuse not to go. 

I do remember that on one occasion, when I just couldn't face an evening of training, I deliberately came out late so that he would already be there, parked in his car.  I had got this bandage and strapped up my ankle and lower leg to make it look like I had an injury.  I hobbled down the road towards his car and spun him some yarn about having hurt my leg playing basketball.  That trick enabled me to get off the training session, but, miraculously, I recovered in time to play in the proper match on the Saturday!

When we moved into our house in Beaconsfield, there was an old snooker table in the garage.  I call it a garage, but it was a rather rickety wooden structure, which obviously started its life many years previously as a garage, but it had been a victim of time and the weather.  It was a double length building that had some rafters for storage.  Anyway, this snooker table had been taken to pieces and all of the components appeared to be there, side rails, six huge turned wooden legs, the green baize covering and four massive pieces of slate, each one six feet by three feet.  You could quite understand why the previous owners of the house had decided to leave it there.  Maybe they had once had it set up inside the house, but had then decided at some point that they no longer had the room for it.

As I mentioned, we had this old wooden table on which we played table tennis in one of the common rooms at the boarding house.  I thought it would be fantastic to have the snooker table set up in there in place of the table tennis table and I mentioned the idea to Mr Skipp.  He agreed that if we could get the snooker table over to the boarding house from Beaconsfield, then we could set it up in the common room.  The slight problem was that each of the slate beds weighed about two hundredweight, and there were six of them. In addition there were all of the other components, and no one had any clue how it would be assembled even if we managed to get it to the boarding house!

Those slight issues were certainly not going to stop us, so we set about finding some transportation.  It happened that the housemaster of Tylers Wood, the house about a mile and a half away, was in charge of the Army section of the Combined Cadet Force.  I think he had served in the War, and then maybe he had carried on in the Army afterwards, because we all knew him as Colonel Pattinson, and I am sure he would not have been allowed to call himself a Colonel if he wasn't one.  The army cadets would occasionally go away on weekends under canvas, and for this purpose they travelled in a huge ex-Army truck with an open back.  This would be driven by Colonel Pattinson.  I asked him if he would be prepared to drive the truck over to Beaconsfield, so that we could collect the pieces of the snooker table, and he agreed.

One Saturday morning about ten of us went over to Beaconsfield, with Colonel Pattinson driving the truck, and we rolled up the driveway of the house.  I had forgotten to tell my Nan that we would be coming and I think she wondered what on earth was going on.  My Mum and Dad were still in Sweden of course, so they were not there.  We struggled a bit with the huge heavy stilts, but eventually we collected the table and all the ancillaries, and got it back to the boarding house and unloaded it.  Once we took stock of what we had, it became obvious that there were some crucial pieces missing, not the least of which were enough of the long bolts that would be needed to hold it all together!  There were a few of them, but not sufficient for the job.  I went round a few hardware shops in High Wycombe to see whether anyone stocked anything suitable, but I had no luck.

Colonel Pattinson put me onto a guy who was the chief caretaker/cleaner in the school and he had a team of men working for him.  We all called him Nunky – I don't know how he got that name, but that was what we called him.  Anyway, Nunky seemed to think that he would be able to get the bolts and so I gave him one of the bolts and he promised to do his best.  The snooker table DID eventually get assembled, but it was after I left the boarding house, so I never actually had the opportunity to play on it.

Nunky and his men had their own room to sit around in and drink tea and smoke, when they weren't actually doing any cleaning or "caretaking", or whatever it was they were supposed to do.  The door to their room was in the old part of the school and it led down some stone steps to a room about twenty feet square with windows close to ceiling height which were actually at ground level outside.  There was a horrible musty smell down there, and I they used to store a lot of the cleaning materials on shelves.  They had a cooker and a kettle and a couple of tables and a few armchairs that looked like they had been rescued from the tip.  We called the room "Nunky's Hole"

It was traditional at the boarding house, that the different age groups were allowed to have their own party in the weeks leading up to the end of the Christmas term.  This would usually be held on a Saturday evening and our age group was allowed to use Nunky's hole.  We already had the keys to the old part of the school, where the basketball court was, in the original school hall.  We were allowed to use that at any time after school and on the weekends.

The new Queen's hall was built at the front of the school in 1962 and was actually opened by The Queen.  This hall had no sports facilities; it was used for assemblies and events only, and also for examinations, as it could hold a huge number of people simultaneously. Nunky was happy for us to use his room for the parties.  We were in 4^th year, so although I was only 14, there were others in the group who were almost 16, so I suppose Mr Skipp made the assumption that we would be reasonably sensible.  Unfortunately, he had not accounted for ***.

*** was a strange sort of guy.  He was in the X or Y stream, I forget which, exactly, but this meant he was a bit of a swot.  Often, you find that swots do not have any friends, but ***  was very popular, although as I say he was a bit odd.  He was into astrology and fortune telling and other occult type activities.  Once he held a séance in one of the rooms at midnight.  I did not go, but the next day people were saying that he had managed to make contact with the dead!  He was tall for his age and at almost 16 had a bit of stubble on his chin and so he could easily pass for older. He would go down into Wycombe on the weekends and drink in The Antelope pub, not far from the church.  This was a popular place and he would come staggering back into the dormitory after drinking a few beers on a Saturday night.  He smoked like a chimney and we knew that he had tried cannabis as well, that he had bought from dealers who frequented The Antelope.  It transpired that on one of his visits to The Antelope he had also bought a tablet of LSD.

We were allowed to have food and drink down in Nunky's Hole as well as music, and at this particular party I suppose there were about twelve or fifteen of us.  We were not really supposed to have alcohol, but we did have a few cans of shandy and, I remember, a few bottles of cider, as well.  We listened to Status Quo, and The Rolling Stones on this ancient record player and we were all having a good time.  People were coming and going, and it was difficult to keep track of where everybody was. Then someone came rushing down the steps to Nunky's Hole saying that there had been an accident.  Someone had been knocked down by a car on the road at the front of the school.  It was Jonathan. What on earth was he doing off the school premises, let alone on the road?

It turned out that he had taken the tablet of LSD, a strong hallucinogenic drug, and it had affected him badly.  I never knew for sure, but I suspect that some of his closer friends knew that he had bought this tablet and was planning to take it.  He was the sort of boy who was very headstrong, and because he was a bit awkward in his ways, I can see why he might want to do something "different" in order to impress, but doing something a bit different and taking a dangerous hallucinogenic drug are miles apart, I would say.

Months later he was to tell us that he had run out of the school grounds because "he thought there were demons chasing him, and he ran over the road, fully expecting to be able to fly through the air over the tops of the cars".  Well, a car had hit him at speed and his hip and leg were badly broken as well as suffering cuts and bruises.  An ambulance was called and he was rushed down to Wycombe General hospital, where he had an operation and spent the next two months in traction, while his hip and leg mended.  This incident put a real dampener on the boarding house and the mood was very subdued for the rest of the term. ***, as we called him, had been very fortunate not to be killed in that accident.

The New Year started with the prospect of "mock" O-Levels followed by several months of hard work ahead of the real exams, which would be taken in the summer.   I continued to play a lot of sport and although I was still playing in the basketball team and scoring a lot of the points each match, I was only vice-captain now.  A new boy had joined the school and had been made captain of the team.

I was also playing hockey, and had started to play quite a lot of tennis as well.  School rugby matches against other schools took place on most Saturday's as well as occasional mid-week games.  It happened regularly that someone would not show up to play in one of the matches which would leave the team short-handed.  We would be sitting around in the boarding house on a Saturday morning and someone would come rushing in to ask whether anyone could play in the match.

I never played rugby, so I was not usually asked, but one particular morning there was literally no-one else of the right age-group available in the boarding house and against my better judgement I agreed to turn out for the team, just to make up the numbers.  During the match I was chasing after this lad, trying to catch him, and then tackle him, but I had never been taught how to tackle properly so I ended up just diving at his ankles to bring him down and I got a boot in the chin for my troubles.   After I took my "O" Level exams in the early summer of 1974, our family all went off to the South of France again on a camping holiday.  Mum and Dad had come over to the UK from Sweden in the car and the plan was that we would go back to Sweden after camping, and spend some time there before going back to school to start the 6th form.

Mid way through the summer, my sister Venetia and I received our "O" Level results. Mine were phone to me by Mr Skipp, who had collected them from the school. Fortunately I passed all the exams I had taken and so I would be able to move into the 6^th form to study my chosen subjects, which were Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

I don't really remember why I chose sciences to study at "A" Level.  I suppose that the natural progression for me was to go on to study Medicine as my father had done, and his father before him. How could I really make that choice when I was only 14 years old, but that is what I had to do, because we chose our "A" Level subjects well before we took the "O" Level exams in the summer, and, as I was ahead of my time, I was sitting the "O" Levels a couple of months before I was 15 years old.  The decision to study sciences was made easier because I knew that my friend Simon Roe was choosing those as well.  We got on well and we were due to share the small "annex" at the boarding house in the new September term, together with a boy called Andrew Pillidge, who was also going to be studying sciences.

The September term started and everything was new.  We were now in the small annex with just three beds, sandwiched between the Head Boy's room and DWT's room. Actually, DWT's room was a few yards down the corridor with some storage rooms in between, so we were able to make a fair amount of racket before he could hear us.  We had our own record player and we would toast bread in front of the gas fire.  Now that we were prefects we got a food allowance each day from the cook and we would take it back to our room.  Our form room was located at the top of the Science Block, and nearly all our lessons were in there, because the Physics and Chemistry labs were in that same building.

As I got older, I was more interested in doing things out of school hours, and we would sneak off to the pub at Terriers in the evenings after we had done some homework  (In those days, the pub was called "The Black Boy", but in the age of political correctness, the name has since been changed)   It is amazing to think that we were served alcohol in the pub but I guess the publican was happy to take a few chances if it meant extra business for him.  I played a lot of darts in that pub and was considered good enough to be asked to play in the pub team!  I then had to make excuses as to why I could not, as I thought that the team could have been disqualified if it was discovered that they had an under-age player in the team.

I was spending too much time at the pub in the evenings with Simon Roe and others.  We would play bar billiards and darts and listen to the jukebox, as well as drinking beer and the occasional whisky.  All of this cost money, and of course there was a limit to what I could get each week from DWT as "pocket money".

I don't know where we got it from – I think maybe it had been left by the previous occupant of the annex – but we inherited an air rifle when we moved into the annexe at the beginning of that term.  We found it at the back of a wardrobe that was in the room.  I bought some pellets from Woodward and Stalder, the sports shop in the town, and we were all set.  Now we just needed something to shoot at.  Our room was on the top floor of the house and the windows looked out towards the school and the clock tower.  There was a bell at the side of the tower that would chime on the hours.  It was about fifty yards away I suppose.   We would wait till one of the teachers was walking away from the boarding house, towards the school and, as he got close, we would shoot at the bell.  It was amusing to see them looking up at the bell as the pellet hit it.  We would also take the air rifle to the woods at the back of the school and shoot at tin cans.  The difficulty was smuggling the rifle out without anyone seeing.  It was necessary to cock the rifle, so that it was broken in the middle and put it under your overcoat with the butt pointing towards the ground, and the barrel down the inside of your coat sleeve.

On this particular afternoon we were on our way out of the boarding house and I had the air rifle hidden under my coat, when Simon and I came across Rev Skipp.  He stopped us for a chat and kept us there for a while with some small talk.  I had one arm out at a bit of an angle and completely rigid, because the barrel of the rifle was down the inside of my sleeve.  He must have known what was going on but he did not say anything and off we went to the woods.

I think Mr Skipp had a much better idea of all the things we were getting up to than he let on, but maybe he thought that he could turn a blind eye to these activities to make his life easier.  I don't know. He just wanted to make us feel uncomfortable in a sort of "I know EXACTLY what you are up to" - kind of way, in the hope that it would make us change our ways.  It didn't seem to work though!

I suppose the efforts of the months leading up to the "O" Level exams had taken their toll, and to be honest, I was taking life a bit too easy, and doing the bare minimum of work that was required.  We continued to have a lot of fun and get into a few scrapes.  In the Biology 6^th we were learning how to dissect rats as part of our anatomy course.  They would be laid on their backs and pinned through the legs and slit open, and various organs were removed etc.  When the procedures were finished, the rat would obviously be in a bit of a mess, so I had the idea that we should take one of them down to the town and put it into one of the freezers in Sainsburys, so this is what we did.  It took a little while to get the opportunity to place it in the freezer, along with the steaks, but once we had done that we retired a safe distance where we could watch the shopper's reactions.  It was interesting, to say the least!

I continued to try to meet girls, but with limited success.  I would go down to High Wycombe on a Saturday with a lad called Chris George and we would hang around in a café called Light Bite, on the High Street.  I did get friendly with a girl called Bridget who lived at Penn.  She had a friend called Karen who Chris rather liked, so we thought we were all set.  The problem was that my rival for Bridget's affections was a guy a couple of years older, who looked like David Essex.  He had a car and money and he was able to take Bridget out on a proper date, whereas I could only afford to buy her a cup of tea and a sticky bun in Light Bite on a Saturday afternoon.

The one time I did persuade her to come for tea at the house in Beaconsfield one Sunday when I went home for the weekend, she told me afterwards that she rather fancied my Dad – so that relationship ended pretty quickly!

As part of the first year "A" level Biology coursework, we went on a week's fieldtrip to Cornwall studying flora and fauna.  Evenings were spent in the pub near to where we stayed in the tiny fishing village of Porthallow.  I continued to do the bare minimum of work but I always thought that I would be able to catch up when it became necessary. Mum and Dad had obviously been getting to see my school reports and they did not make inspired reading.

The overriding theme was always "Could do better" and it was made clear to me that if I had ambitions to go on to University to study Medicine, then I would have to up my game significantly.  I was in a class where all of the boys had ambition to go on to further education to study subjects like Medicine, Veterinary Science and Dentistry and I realised, perhaps a little too late, how stiff the competition for places at University would be. 

I don't know at what point my parents patience finally ran out, if that is indeed what happened, but around Easter time in my first year in 6^th form they told me that I would not be able to board at School House for my second year in the 6^th form.  They said that they could no longer afford the fees, and maybe there was some truth in this, but additionally I think they felt that I was not working hard enough, and that Mr Skipp was not imposing enough discipline on the boys in the boarding house.  In any case, they were going to move back to Beaconsfield from Sweden and they would therefore be at home to keep an eye on me!

The autumn term started and it felt a bit strange to be travelling to school each day on the train again, having had almost three years in the boarding house. This was an important year for me.  If I had ambitions of attending university, I would need to work harder in order to achieve the grades required.  I was only just 16 years old and looking back, it was surely too much to expect someone of that age to be able to make the right decisions at the right time.

Maybe that is just an excuse, but I am not sure that my heart was really in the idea of studying Medicine for several years.  It takes a special type of individual to make a career as a doctor, and I suppose I was just carried along with what I thought  were the expectations and aspirations of my parents.  To be fair to them, they had only ever said that they would be happy so long as I was happy.  They never at any stage pressed me towards that career, and later, when I changed tack they were very supportive.

Around about the beginning of the spring term at the beginning of 1976, I noticed a girl who travelled each day to High Wycombe on the same train as me.  She did not wear a school uniform and I found out that she attended Wycombe College.  Her name was Jane Dickson, and she used to travel with one or two of her friends. 

During the spring half-term holiday when I should have been revising for my mock "A" level exams, I was, instead, travelling in to High Wycombe each day on the train to meet Jane at a pub, called the Coach and Horses, for a drink at lunchtime.  Jane had a friend, Sally, who was also attending Wycombe College at the same time.  The two of them were taking a secretarial course. Sally met a boy called Ross, who was at another part of the college studying Technical Drawing.  I knew his brother as he had been in the year above me at the Royal Grammar School.  Ross seemed to have a fair bit of time on his hands in the afternoons so when I went back to school after the half-term break, I would often take the afternoon off from school and play snooker with Ross in the British Legion club, where his granddad was a member.

This was not the sort of behaviour that was going to get the results I needed to go to university, at least not to study medicine.  I received the results from my mock "A" level exams and frankly, they were not good. My teachers (R.O. Knight, and Harry Clark if I remember correctly) told me that I had basically very little chance of achieving the grades I would need.  By then I had already started to investigate an alternative career path.  At that time, banks were hiring a lot of people and I rather liked the idea of working in London in International Banking.  

It was at that point in time that I made the decision that I would not attend university.  It was a combination of factors that led me to that decision.  A major factor was that if I went away to university, I would not be with Jane.  I wrote to a number of banks and was interviewed by four banks, three of which offered me a job, starting at the end of the summer.  I elected to take the job with Midland Bank – International Division, and I started to look forward to my chosen career.

I announced to my form tutor (ROK) that I would not be pursuing a university place, because of my banking ambitions, and I think he was both shocked and annoyed.  It was highly unusual for someone who was studying Sciences not to go on to university and I found from that point on, the teachers had a different attitude towards me.  I was not bothered – I had made my choice and I was looking forward, not back.

I took my "A" Levels in the early summer of 1976 in the knowledge that my job offer from Midland Bank International was not dependant on me passing them.  Having said that, I knew that the starting salary in my new job would be a little higher if I DID pass and in any case, although the pressure was off, I wanted to do as well as I could.  Also, I knew that I would be entitled to one day off each week for studying my Banking Exams if I passed "A" Levels.  I took a number of exams in the three science subjects that I was studying, including some practical exams, and the summer term ended with a sense of relief that this stage of my formal education was over.  Also, I had a sense of excitement about the new chapter in my life that was soon to start.

As I write this, I have been involved in banking ever since, mainly in the world of Foreign Exchange trading.  I am currently responsible for that business at HBOS Treasury in London.  I have had several jobs in this field over the last 25 years or so, including a period working in New York.  I sometimes wonder how life would have turned out if I had gone to University and studied Medicine or something similar, but on balance I am very happy with my lot, and I have some fond memories of my time at RGS, even though I probably did not put in as much effort with my studies as I should have done!

Ed.  Many, many thanks to Kelvin for his very full and honest account of life in the Seventies at the RGS.  I wonder how many of those in School House then can remember their contemporaries, whose names have been starred.

EMAILS / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Ian,

Hello - happened to come across your website - it took me back nearly 70 years when in 1939, as an evacuee from Chiswick County School we descended on you in some force.  I was billeted at 153 Amersham Rd in Terriers and later with the Ginger family at "Keverne", 33, Amersham Rd, a very superior dwelling.  Mr. Ginger there was a well known solicitor (or was it accountant?) in the centre of the town and his son Donald Ginger attended RGS, legitimately so to speak.   The memory is still clear, the fives courts where I spent hours, the long jump pit at the far end of the excellent playing field, classes in the field in the Summer and, in the winter and for most of the year, classes at long tables in the main hall. Occupancy of the actual classrooms was mainly for legit. RGS!!!  Pleasant memories nevertheless.  I remember well your head, one Mr. Tucker.  He didn't like us much.  Not surprising, I suppose.

There was an excellent sweetshop, just as you got into Terriers.  Rackstraws was the name.  After dark during the Blitz we used to stand opposite the school and watch the AA fire, the bombs exploding and the fires over London.  It is all very vivid.  I passed the school a year or two ago and wondered when they put the front bit on.  Much nicer facade without it.

One of my happiest memories I suppose was when I was picked as an eleven year old to play football against Borlase School at Marlow.  It was the first game I had ever played in, when all my side wore the same coloured strip.

After a tedious annual school play, "Coriolanus" the previous year I believe, our drama master, an oddball I remember, decided to rewrite Shakespeare and we performed "Julius Caesar in Modern Dress".  For Caesar we had Hitler and for the conspirators, Brutus, Cassius, etc. we had Hess, Goebbels etc.  Everyone on stage attired in Nazi brownshirts with swastika armbands.  In the middle of a war and your main hall too!  Can't remember the details but the mere thought of it makes me laugh.

Of course you have my permission to include my ramblings in your newsletter. Kindly send me a copy if possible.

I am thinking there will be old RGS OBs who well remember us 'orrible lot.

Best wishes

I admired your website - it looks as if the school is in excellent hands.

Peter Baker    

ED.  I wonder if any OWs have any memories of the Chiswick evacuees.  Do write them down and send them in. 

Hello Ian,

First off, can I ask you to ask Martin Berry to spread out the links on the navigation frame on the LHS of the OW website as it is getting a bit difficult for my failing eyesight and shaking hands to click my mouse in the right place? (That's done now!)

I don't know if you have visited my site http://www.rgs.ajhweb.co.uk/  recently, but it has taken an interesting turn from its original raison d'etre.  No longer being confined to identifying boys on the 1956 photo, the site has expanded to include photos for various years from 1947, 1952, 1954, 1958, and 1960 from which date John Saunders has taken over with his photos from 1964 and 1967.

Furthermore the site contains some interesting historical photos and a few Grey Book lists of which I would welcome additions.  Does the school have copies of the Grey Books for the years 1951, 52, 53 which I would particularly like to include on my website, and if so is there any chance of you scanning and sending them on to me?

A more recent diversion for me has been the introduction of scans from the Gilbert & Sullivan operas which were performed at the school.  On my website I have a list of the productions from 1947 to 1971 and copies of the programmes from five of these productions courtesy of Brian Veale and John Saunders.  These include scans of photos, cast lists and notes. Did the G&S operas finish after 1971?

As a by-product of this excursion I have become interested in the career of Bernarr (Ben) Rainbow who instigated these operas in 1947.  I have created an article about him at   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernarr_Rainbow  and would invite any personal recollections from boys who knew him and like me were enthused by his ability and versatility.

Regards,

Tony Hare

Ed: It is a very interesting website for those at school in the fifties, but there are some additional items of interest, such as the Gilbert and Sullivan tradition, and I certainly recommend all OWs of that period to have a look at it and perhaps contact Tony

Hi, Ian.

 Thanks to Google, I stumbled upon the link to the 2004 issue carrying your email address - which hopefully is still current.  Andrew MacTavish and I were contemporaries, so I was highly amused to read of his theatrical role as head of the school.

Though a longtime resident of Texas, I frequently visit the UK and would be interested to find out if there was a way I could re-establish contact. About 4 years ago I was able to make a quick visit and thanks to the Caretaker was given a quick tour. What I remembered as the Biology lab was draped with large charcoal sketches of the female nude. Le plus ca change….but E R Tucker would not have understood.

There is still a very soft spot in my heart for the RGS.

Bob Mitchell

STAFF LEAVERS

Below are extracts of the tributes paid in the Wycombiensian to various members of staff who have left the RGS

 Tim Dingle joined the RGS in April 1999 from Mill Hill School.  During his time as Headmaster, Tim always applied the skills obtained during his studies for his MBA.  This influenced his desire to streamline and modernise management processes, and he established a wider Senior Leadership Team.

Almost as soon as Tim arrived, he oversaw the opening of Fraser-Youens Boarding House, the culmination of two years’ planning and building.  This must have inspired him, because during the seven years of his Headship, a new Music Centre was completed, School House was renovated for administration and staff use, all-weather cricket nets, tennis courts and a hockey skills area were completed, the swimming pool was covered, the Space under the Queen’s Hall was enclosed and a new fitness suite was established in the Old Gym.

Tim was always clear that the educational experience of RGS boys should not just be on the academic achievement, but also on the extra curricular opportunities, and these were copious and varied.  However, it was always with a sense of anticipation and then pride that the exam results were celebrated each year. This last year was particularly satisfying for the departing Headmaster as RGS was acknowledged in two national newspapers as the highest achieving state school for GCSE results.

There is no doubt that Tim had a real passion for rugby and he was an assiduous supporter of school teams.  His commitment went beyond school teams and he was an England Schoolboys’ Selector, latterly Chairman for the England U16 sides.

Funding was always an issue during Tim’s time as Headmaster and he was determined that the education offered to the boys at RGS would continue to offer many broad opportunities within the curriculum and beyond.  This led to an extensive fundraising campaign, Educational Excellence, involving parents, OWs and friends of the school combining their efforts to raise over £1m- an astonishing achievement that provided the funds for the badly-needed refurbishment and extension of music facilities.

We can recognise the vision he brought to the school and the plans and determination he showed in implementing them.  These seven years were rich in achievement and the boys at RGS certainly benefited from a wide range of experiences.

The manner of Tim’s departure, which has been well-documented in the press, was particularly disappointing, as it came when the RGS was celebrating significant achievements.

Andrew Higginson

Chairman of Governors

David Keysell, who left in July 2005, came to the RGS in 1976 to join the History Department, then led by the legendary David Jones.  From the word go it was obvious that the school had not just acquired an excellent teacher but someone who would take his subject beyond the classroom.  He organised outside speakers, took groups to lectures in London and got involved in all sorts of school trips and visits that his pupils could participate in.  David’s interest in music and drama inspired him to set up his own Youth and Music group which tracked down concerts and operas in London that David then chased after with a minibus load of boys.

David has been an exceptional teacher, one of the best A Level teachers I know.  His particular personal qualities of patience, attention to detail and standards suited ideally for this role.  The last Ofsted inspector particularly noted and praised his skills at A Level.  Numerous Sixth Formers owe him a huge debt as he has steered them through their two years of A Level study and on to good courses at good universities.  His scholastic enthusiasm was rewarded with a prestigious schoolmaster scholarship at Merton College, Oxford, in 1991.

But David was always more than an exceptional classroom teacher.  He has been a role model for Sixth Form tutoring.  His concern for the boys is legendary.  In addition he has been a sociable and caring colleague in the staff room.  He was one of the first Teacher Governors, he appeared in numerous Staff Revues, he tramped the Fields of Flanders on the French/History trip, he sang in the school choir, he took boys Youth Hostelling, he did the Nimes and Osnabruck exchanges, and so much else.  This is the record of a committed member of the RGS.  It is also the record of a man who self-confidently gave service to the school without trying to draw attention to it: a rare quality.

Besides being a first-rate historian David is an accomplished linguist.  He speaks superb French and interesting German.  But not content with that, he learnt Polish because he had friends in that country.

David will be remembered as an exceptional teacher, a loyal colleague and a great friend to those privileged to have known him.  He always kept his enthusiasm for new things, recently debating and starting up and developing politics.  But he will be most missed for his great sense of humour, his infectious snorts and chuckles which he had great difficulty hiding behind his hands when there was a member of the staff common-room present who was not supposed to hear the joke.

John Roebuck

DAVID MOORE

 David has been a stalwart of the Physics Department since 1986.  The department quickly came to notice the quality of his teaching.  He stood no nonsense from the less enthusiastic pupils and his lessons were always conducted in a quietly authoritative manner, soon appreciated by the boys.

David has contributed to school life in a wide variety of ways.  He spent 13 years either helping or running Stage Lighting and was a Boarding House Tutor from 1990 to 1995. He was Treasurer and Committee member of the staff common room, and for eight years was a teacher representative on the governing body.  In more recent years, he has taken over the increasingly demanding role of examinations Officer, and has carried this out in his usual, thorough and effective way.

Despite affectionately being known as Mr. Grumpy, David and his wife can always be relied upon to give help and support.  We wish him and Janice a long and happy retirement.

Mike Earl

MRS JEAN FROST

Jean is retiring this year after giving 16 years of stalwart service to the school.  She has inspired pupils of all year groups.  And she has taken responsibility for exam. classes, including A Level English Language.  As well as her academic responsibilities, she has helped to run the school Vulture Society, arranging theatre and other cultural outings for pupils and staff.  Jean has been a constant supporter of TAA driving minibuses full of boys to their off-site activities.  She has accompanied school trips abroad including skiing and the French/History trip.  She is a fine linguist having lived abroad at various times with her late husband, Chris.   Jean has been a thoroughly professional member of staff and a great friend to the school and the English department.  We will particularly miss her sense of humour, her practical no-nonsense approach and her great generosity.  We thank her for her dedication and wish her a long and happy retirement.  She will be missed as a teacher and a friend. Joan Henderson

The following also have left the RGS: Chris Whitfield (Head of RE and Psychology), Sue Philpot (Librarian since 1991), Margaret Whitfield (part-time Physics teacher since1986), Andrew Pearson (Maths), Chris Buckland (English and Communication Studies), Andrew Roberts (Maths), David Wolfe (Physics), Keith Ellen (Geog.), Claire Gilbank (Geog.), Frances Snowden (RE), Cathie Wells (Maths), Danielle Mahoney (English), Jean Pickruhl (English)

Ed: We wish all who have retired a long and happy retirement and the other leavers much happiness in the next stage of their career and life.

SAD NEWS

It is very sad to record the death of Don Varney, Old Wycombiensian, and member of the OW Lodge

REMINDER

If you would like to have a nostalgic tour round your old school, please do not hesitate to contact me. It was great to meet Ralph Stockwell recently for such a tour.

– Funding for new Sixth Form, Maths and Changing facilities
– Current Total - £337,030.97
See also the news item on the school website
In order to ensure the RGS continues to provide the best possible learning environment it needs to continue to develop its facilities. It is vital that the boys are provided with modern facilities that will enable them to flourish and exceed all expectations.  We are approaching parents, OW’s and companies with a view to supporting ‘Shaping our Destiny’

The main focus of the project is the development of a new Sixth Form Centre and Mathematics Department on the site of the Old Gym block which currently houses the fitness suite and 4 maths classrooms. Provision of Sixth Form private study areas, dedicated ICT facilities, a Learning Resources Centre and a communal area is long overdue. It is hoped that all of the new Mathematics classrooms will be equipped with the state-of-the-art technology, which enables modern interactive teaching.

The planned conversion of the current Sixth Form Common Room to sports changing rooms with a modern fitness suite on the first floor, together with individual shower cubicles, lockers and larger changing areas, makes up the first phase of the project. The fitness suite will sit adjacent to a café which, as well as providing an income stream, will allow parents to watch sport in comfort.

Due to the urgency of the new build and ever mindful of escalating building costs, the Board of Governors is hoping to commence building in the early summer of 2007. Initial estimates suggest that phase one of the development (the changing rooms and fitness facilities) would take 9 months, with phase two taking 18-24 months.

Our initial fundraising target is £1.25 million which is a capital campaign for phase one of the development. A complete cost analysis for the development is underway but at present, it is estimated that phase two may cost a further £2 million. We are seeking contributions from certain grant making institutions, and envisage additional fundraising will be required to cover the full cost of the project.

We have an ambitious target for the campaign, and are keen to hear from anyone who may be interested to learn more about helping the Royal Grammar School achieve this vital project.

For further information on the Campaign, please contact the James Holland or Liz Charleston in the Campaign Office at RGS

Email: campaignoffice@rgshw.com

Telephone: 01494 551412

Fax: 01494 551424.

RGS CHRISTMAS CARDS

The Parents’ Association would like to advertise the Christmas cards that they have produced for this year.  Details are given below:

Christmas Cards On Sale

The RGS Parents'  Association, with support from Ian Clark at the Old Wycombiensians, would like to tell you about our Christmas Cards. Proceeds from the cards will support school projects that would otherwise go unfunded. Please see our website for details.

The cards have been professionally designed and printed exclusively for the PA. We have two designs. The first is the Old Chapel Window, (click to see large version) and the second is "RGS Season's Greetings" (click to see large version).

Both designs are available in packs of 10 at £4.50 per pack. Buy 3 or more packs for a special price of  £4.00 per pack.

Actual size 7.9 cm x 21 cm (3 1/4" 8 1/4") - within the new Post Office ‘Letter’ size. Text inside both cards reads "Season's Greetings". Pack includes envelopes.

Postage and packing cost is £1 for the first pack plus 75p for any subsequent packs. If you live outside the UK or wish to order more than five packs, please email cards@jaycowper.plus.com with your name, address and order details. We will get back to you ASAP with the best shipping price we can find.
Alternatively, if you would like to collect the cards, please email and we will arrange a convenient time.

How to OrderIf you wish to pay by cheque, please return the Order Form (see links below) to Jay Cowper - the address is on the form. If you wish to pay online with via Paypal (no Paypal account is required), please email cards@jaycowper.plus.com with your name, address and number of packs of each design required and we will send you details ASAP - please DO NOT include any credit card or bank details in your email.

Thank you for your time, and Merry Christmas!

Download The Form:

  Christmas Cards - Order Form

To view this form you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not already have it, use the link below and follow the instructions provided by the good people at Adobe.

   Adobe Reader

NEXT NEWSLETTER

This will be published on January 22nd.  Please send in your contribution, your memories, and your photographs to me, Ian Clark ianrclarkuk@yahoo.co.uk. In the next newsletter there will an article by Andrew Mactavish on the Number 149, and the significance it had for the RGS at a certain period in its history.

Ian edits the Newsletter, Judy De Gelas embellishes it and Martin Berry ensures that it appears on the website.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR READERS and