(My recollections from my personal blog posts)
Midhurst 1962-63
Marjorie and Jim Norton were my Guardians when my parents decided to send me to England to get a good British education. They had moved to Hong Kong in 1959.
I attended the Primary School in Midhurst in 1962-3. And met the lovely Biddy Hatchwell, with whom I fell instantly in love. I was age 10/11 and took the 11plus and surprisingly passed it. So I was set to go to a Grammar School
However, at the end of my first year there in Midhurst, the Nortons decide to move to Crawley, they both had new jobs. They did not want to take me or their son, Richard for differing reasons, Richard was going into the 6th Form and they did not want his education to be disrupted. Me, I was not their kid so they left me and their son Richard back in Midhurst to be Boarders at the Grammar School, I was going to be going in to 1st Form and Richard was going to be in his last two years of school. He was on course to go to a college at Cambridge University, he was a bright lad.
Any reservations my parents may have had were allayed by the Headmaster a wonderfully Avuncular fellow by the name of Norman Lucas. In October 1962 with the Cuban Missile crisis the 6th Form (last two years of school) went on strike. His reaction spoke volumes. The striking pupils formed a vigil and marched in the main street of Midhurst.
ITV Presenter and former Midhurst Grammar School pupil Mick Robertson talks to Noel Edmonds about his part in the Midhurst Grammar school Strike 1962. Forty Midhurst Grammar School sixth formers took part in a protest over the situation in Cuba. This clip was from the 1982 BBC programme “The Time of Your Life”.
There was no punishment for the culprits by Lucas. He withstood considerable pressure from the powers that be who wished to punish the culprits. This showed my parents that Luke, as we knew him, was a tolerant man. I am not so sure he would have been as tolerant if it had been the young Conservatives on strike for some reason,
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOARDING HOUSE STAFF(September1963 age 11)
Usually this is a frightening experience, because the staff in a Boarding School are usually a cross between the Adams Family and the Munsters, or Harry Potter’s eccentric lot . They were a motley crew when I first arrived. Most everyone had a nickname, a habit which was thankfully dying out.
Mrs Crawley, assistant Matron was a very kindly middle aged lady who sat in the front office to the right of the door that is hiding behind the tree in the picture above. She was the one who provided band aids and sewing up of stuff, generally clothes, she was in charge of the laundry. Sort of. She did not have a nickname to my knowledge. I actually really do not know what she did, she did seem a little weary of life though.
Miss Doreen Bassett (matron) who we not so affectionately termed The Old Boot, she was fierce. Myself and two of my mates ran into her almost literally and got hauled off to see the Headmaster Mr. Lucas, however that was much later in my school life. She was a force to be reckoned with the pinched spinster features of the school house matron. She could have been a character in Harry Potter, that English middle class scorn when you made a mistake or did something wrong. I do not remember her getting cross but she had that look that would scare even the most hardened criminal type in the Boarding House. And there were those. I was convinced she had a broom.
There were three Masters who were young male teachers unmarried who slept at the Boarding House in their own rooms which were used as our common rooms when we were not in school and they were not sleeping. They were there to keep us under control, as best they could. In my first year, there was Bob Davies affectionately known as Bob Death. He was one of the lads and we respected him, and did not torment in him. He had very gaunt features, thin drawn face, and he was Bob to the older boys. His was the smoking room for older boys. That was me when I was older. There was a Mr. Beecham, who I only vaguely remember since he was only there for a year while I was there. He had a rag top sports car I think and there was a bit of a scandal, he had an affair with one of his older students whom he ultimately married I believe, might have even been a “shotgun”. I cannot remember who the third master was which is odd because his room would have been very close to my first dormitory BABYLON.
Mr Jackson referred to as Dude and he had a room right next to Babylon, my dormitory, he was fearsome. He was older close to retirement a bachelor, with a portly appearance you could imagine him being in a spaghetti western with a velvet waistcoat, gold chain watch in his pocket and a silver gun with holster. Thus the nickname Dude. Despite his single status there were rumours around him and the Old Boot, I think it was just that, speculation. Babylon, the dormitory had two doors, rumour has it that one night, before my time there was a ruckus in Babylon, hardly surprising with 8 or more 11 and 12 year old’s. Simultaneously each of the doors opened with Dude shining a torch (flashlight) in one door and the Old Boot shining one from the other, each demanding to know “who was shining that light” . Clearly that night the culprits in the dorm got off with “keep it down“.
Norman and Vera Lucas, headmaster and his wife were living in the part of the Boarding House which we rarely saw because we were not allowed there. Unless we were sent to Sickbay or were summoned to be corrected as to our behaviour. I struggled with what I now know were Migraine Headaches in my pre-teens and was committed to the sickbay on several occasions. It seems to me that we carried our bedding there and if we there too long we eventually got fed. If we were there for a weekend which is generally when I got there Saturday and was released on Sunday evening I might have had one previously warm meal, but not so warm now.
Vera Lucas was an very elegant middle aged lady with a tremendous sense of style and grace, except she walked with her toes pointing out as shown below. She had an incredible track record with her students, most of whom excelled and I am sure they are extremely grateful to her for her teaching prowess. I had her briefly, I remember constantly disappointing her because I had not completed the requisite homework. Story of my academic life.
From left to right above; Unknown Bureaucrat, Don Fisher the Headmaster after Luke, Luke, Vera and Fred Buckle former Headmaster at Midhurst Secondary Modern. Vera is getting an award. I love this picture because it shows the love and admiration that Luke had for Vera. (for good reason)
The structure of the dormitory system was that each dorm had boys of the same or similar age with a dormitory prefect generally a 16 year old sometimes there were two in Babylon because it included boys from the 1st and 2nd Forms. The beds had mattresses that were no thicker than a book of short stories. They were so sunken in the middle that you could roll marbles up and down them and you could disappear into the mattress.
The bedtimes and rise times were staggered because there was only one bathing area with 4 baths not enough sinks and only two toilets. As the youngest group we went to bed first at 8 pm and were the first up at 7am to be ready for breakfast at 8, school at 8:50 which was Assembly in the gym. I feel certain that if I get details wrong I will be helped by others reading this. It seems to my limited memory that only the Anglicans could attend Assembly the Catholics and other assorted heathens were stuck in the gym changing rooms, I was envious.
Babylonian boys circa 1960-61
MGS was pretty liberal and was a relatively safe place from sadistic teachers. Although there is a story/myth about something that was a little sadistic although not physically brutal. A group of boys were caught by Mr. Jackson (Dude) doing something wrong. We all had nail scissors as part of our requirement necessities for being there. The Boarders lawn behind the Boarding House was a large lawn the size of a small field hockey field without the goals. This particular year it was completely covered by daisies. Their punishment was to cut the daisies using only nail scissors. After 3 hours they were released from their punishment having succeeded in cutting a few square metres. The results were inspected to make sure that the daisies were cut not pulled. The Dude took pleasure in that kind of “torture” apparently.
His most famous line was “I know who you are just tell me your name.” Regrettably I was never taught by him and he retired around 1965.
OTHER TEACHERS
Wol Mason our geography master real name was Jim and quite rightly, John Newman, his son was Peter who was in our class, we were relatively quiet in Mr. Mason’s class. Simply put we did not want to embarrass Peter. He was a very tall fellow, even less athletic than myself. He was not really bookish either, not thick as a post but no star. Wol was not tall and apparently had a sense of humour. Who knew? my favourite story is Wol cricket where there was a competition to see who could score the most runs, there was no umpire but it went something like this.
You scored one run if Wol looked in your direction, two runs if he looked and coughed, three runs if he said something to you, four runs if you were sent to the corner, six runs and out if you were sent out of the classroom. My understanding was that the best approach was to be less irritating every time you did something to get his attention.
So we had the Latin master Kelly’s daughter in our year and the Geography master’s son. If only poor Agnes Horlick “Aggy” our French mistress(teacher) had a child in our year then we might have been a lot nicer to her. She was a lovely person and we were horrible little beggars .
Our English master was a Mr. Ash, who had terrible halitosis, he did not last it was not only his hair that ran away from his mouth, we all did. (Thank you Penelope Lane) Miss Launder who taught us General Science who was young thin and not completely unattractive to an 11 year old. She had very high standards and as was in keeping with the school but not necessarily all its pupils. It seems to me that she taught Botany and Zoology at the 6th Form level which is where I believe Bernard Harrison, our zoo consultant got his love for all things living from her classes.
In July 1965 I left Midhurst Grammar School for Vancouver BC, going from a 400 strong academically oriented school to Kitsilano High School which at the time was a very working class part of Vancouver with 1200 students most of whom were not academically inclined and were considerably bigger than me.
Fortunately I returned to MGS in January 1967