George Dixons Grammar School

[mw0njm.]

Alberta, Hi I'm relatively new to this site and I'm just wondering what you mean by "PM" By way of context for the question: I'm part of a group that left in 1970 so this is our fiftieth year since we left GD. Next year and the year after we are turning 70 yrs old so we are trying to track down our fellow former students. We certainly want to respect their privacy. Thanks Nigel Powell

pm means private messages,any confidential material.ie names etc must not be posted on open forum. you must send it via,the pm which can be found by clicking the envelope on the top right of the screen next to your avitar

 

[Colin Butters]

Because of his yellow fingers we gave him the nickname Nicotinus Rex

I left school at 16 with 5 O Levels but after a few years I decided that I would go for a university degree for which I needed A levels. Having left school, I had a free choice from the whole A level curriculum so I chose non school subjects which I had covered in my further education studies but needed an exam centre where I could sit the exams so I asked the school if I could go back just to sit exams. David Proctor was the only master who spoke to me on the days I was there. I am glad to say that I got ABB in the exams which satisfied the university.

My sister who was at GD Girls also knew David Proctor because he helped her with A Level Latin as the girls school did not have the staff to teach A Level in that subject.

Talking of Latin, about 25 years ago I attended a weekend residential CPD course. On the first evening as we assembled, as an icebreaker we had a general knowledge quiz. Of the c100 people there, I was the only one who could answer the question 'What is a two word Latin phrase that means the course of one's life?'. Dead silence except for one person who hesitantly said 'Carpe Diem?', and I then said 'Curriculum Vitae'. Gasps all round and even one of the tutors said 'Oh is that what it means'.

I will always remember David Proctor’s yellow nicotine-stained fingers and the permanent smell of tobacco. I liked him, he was a good teacher and nice person. He was left-handed I recall.
He taught me Latin.

David Proctor taught me Latin. However, I struggled partly because I was catching up from missing a year (see another of my posts). He used to get exasperated when he tested the class on vocabulary that was set for homework. He would go around the class, apparently randomly, and ask for the meaning of a word from the lists in the homework, which came from pages at the back of the text book. Quite often I didn’t know the answer but I said that I didn’t know but said that it was the sixth word down on the left hand column on the last but one page, as an example. I can picture him now, about to explode!

 

[avcr]

Ladies and gentlemen can you help?
For those of us went through to the upper sixth and left in 1970 this is our 50th anniversary. And of course either next year or the year after, we all will be turning 70.
Over the last few years it seems that there has been a slowly increasing contact between some of us - even including those like me, who live outside of the UK. So, as we are all now proficient in Zooming and Skyping, some of us thought it would be good to rope in those we have lost track of.
Fortunately, courtesy of the highly efficient Andrew ‘Digby’ Emson we have the 1970 class lists of both the upper and lower sixth ((attached below). Because some of us decided it would be good to do something in that gap between the end of exams and the last day of school.
So we hired a coach and on Wednesday July 15th 1970 thundered down the M1 to London to go and see the musical “Hair” – hence the list.
I’m sure the class of ‘71 are well able to look after themselves – so we are only really interested in the middle two columns. We already have:
Brian Adams, Tom Anney, Andrew Digby Emson, Steve Hazelwood, Garry Hill, Stephen Hines, John Juggins, Eli Leyton (Pedahzur), Malcolm Lyons, Martin McGuinness, David Napthine (aka Mr Nap), John Posnett, Nigel Powell, David Watkins, Michael Wotton
And we have good leads on Martin Elvis and Nigel Garrow
So pre-amalgamation ladies and gentlemen please flood us with intelligence. BUT in accordance with the site policy if you have information please don't post it on this site. Please email me either through the mail icon at the top of the page or direct to my email address: [email protected]

 

[Morturn]

Thanks you for posting on the forum. We strongly advise member not to post their personal email addresses on the forum. The data can be harvested and use for scams, fraud and identity theft. If you wish other members to contact you, then its best if you advise them to use the “Start Conversation” facility we provide. This then protects your privacy.

 

[avcr]

Thanks you for posting on the forum. We strongly advise member not to post their personal email addresses on the forum. The data can be harvested and use for scams, fraud and identity theft. If you wish other members to contact you, then its best if you advise them to use the “Start Conversation” facility we provide. This then protects your privacy.

Thank you for the warning.

 

[Difromguthrie]

I was at GD Girls from 65-72. I remember some of the teachers’ names and can add a few;
Miss Yeates - French
Mrs Hatt - Geography
Miss Barber - Music and RE
Miss Berge - French and German
Miss Everett - Chemistry
Mr Wood - French, who was in the habit of slamming the desk lid in front of you if you gave the wrong answer.
I remember a rather large lady who was our form teacher but can’t remember her name.

We were the first year to merge with the boys school for 6th form and I was taught by Mr Harrison for French.

 

[avcr]

Of course I remember the two Pedazurs. Eli went on to become a doctor and was a GP somewhere in the Midlands but retired a few years ago and is no longer registered with the GMC. Michael I didn’t know so well but I remember they both looked very different and lived in Barnsley Road which Leads to City Road so not far from the school. They were Jewish too and I remember their father too and met them socially as well.
I don’t remember Mark Gold at all. Have you any news of them all now?

David, Michael had a stellar academic and advisory career in the USA. He was a recipient of the Presidential Young Investigatory Award for outstanding work in cognitive science. He passed away March this year after quite a battle with dementia. Such a loss.

 

[red and green]

I also remember (but from GD Primary School) the Pedazurs, Brian Adams, Roger Leese and Mark Goldberg.Very sorry to hear about Michael - I remember sitting the King Edward's Scholarship exam with him. Needless to say, I failed!
I was Cynthia Cottrell

 

[avcr]

I also remember (but from GD Primary School) the Pedazurs, Brian Adams, Roger Leese and Mark Goldberg.Very sorry to hear about Michael - I remember sitting the King Edward's Scholarship exam with him. Needless to say, I failed!
I was Cynthia Cottrell

Close to one of the most embarrassing moments of my youth - I couldn't even understand some of the questions - not good!

 

[Colin Butters]

Ladies and gentlemen can you help?
For those of us went through to the upper sixth and left in 1970 this is our 50th anniversary. And of course either next year or the year after, we all will be turning 70.
Over the last few years it seems that there has been a slowly increasing contact between some of us - even including those like me, who live outside of the UK. So, as we are all now proficient in Zooming and Skyping, some of us thought it would be good to rope in those we have lost track of.
Fortunately, courtesy of the highly efficient Andrew ‘Digby’ Emson we have the 1970 class lists of both the upper and lower sixth ((attached below). Because some of us decided it would be good to do something in that gap between the end of exams and the last day of school.
So we hired a coach and on Wednesday July 15th 1970 thundered down the M1 to London to go and see the musical “Hair” – hence the list.
I’m sure the class of ‘71 are well able to look after themselves – so we are only really interested in the middle two columns. We already have:
Brian Adams, Tom Anney, Andrew Digby Emson, Steve Hazelwood, Garry Hill, Stephen Hines, John Juggins, Eli Leyton (Pedahzur), Malcolm Lyons, Martin McGuinness, David Napthine (aka Mr Nap), John Posnett, Nigel Powell, David Watkins, Michael Wotton
And we have good leads on Martin Elvis and Nigel Garrow
So pre-amalgamation ladies and gentlemen please flood us with intelligence. BUT in accordance with the site policy if you have information please don't post it on this site. Please email me either through the mail icon at the top of the page or direct to my email address: [email protected]

OK. I am on list, third column, third row. I will need to think a bit about the names but i do remember many of them. I wonder what was the origin of this list? LS is lower sixth and US is upper sixth but what do the other letters indicate? Maybe I am slow, I usually was and am!!

 

[Colin Butters]

OK. I am on list, third column, third row. I will need to think a bit about the names but i do remember many of them. I wonder what was the origin of this list? LS is lower sixth and US is upper sixth but what do the other letters indicate? Maybe I am slow, I usually was and am!!

Right, A is Arts and S is Science?

 

[avcr]

OK. I am on list, third column, third row. I will need to think a bit about the names but i do remember many of them. I wonder what was the origin of this list? LS is lower sixth and US is upper sixth but what do the other letters indicate? Maybe I am slow, I usually was and am!!

Collin, Hi, As I sort of inferred in the initial post this is the highly organised Digby Emson writing out the whole of each 6th form year so we could keep track of who paid to go etc. - because we were hiring a coach and buying the tickets to get in. So the list stopped us from taking money if we had too many wanting to go. And the other letters were "Arts" and "Science" - So my name is in the upper sixth arts column and it seems you were in the upper sixth science column which fits in with you being a scientist type person.

 

[Colin Butters]

Thanks, Nigel. I guess that because there are no marks by my name, I didn’t go to London. I don’t remember going. But, I do remember a coach trip to Blackpool which was funded by the profits from the sixth form tea swindle which was run in the new sixth form block. The thing I remembered from Blackpool was that several of us got thrown out of an amusement arcade. There was a mechanical horse race game with maybe 8 different coloured horses. The idea was to bet on a colour at about a penny (1d) a go. We soon realised that because it was mechanical and no electronics involved (too early) there must be a sequence to the winners. So, we got a piece of paper and noted the winners (the game ran continuously, even if no bets were placed). After about 10 or 15 minutes we identified the sequence and started betting and, winning every time. Maybe if we had kept quiet and played for a while and then left we might have got away with it but we were a bit excited at cracking the sequence and that gave us away to the stall holder and he took a dim view. We thought it was initiative!

 

[avcr]

Thanks, Nigel. I guess that because there are no marks by my name, I didn’t go to London. I don’t remember going. But, I do remember a coach trip to Blackpool which was funded by the profits from the sixth form tea swindle which was run in the new sixth form block. The thing I remembered from Blackpool was that several of us got thrown out of an amusement arcade. There was a mechanical horse race game with maybe 8 different coloured horses. The idea was to bet on a colour at about a penny (1d) a go. We soon realised that because it was mechanical and no electronics involved (too early) there must be a sequence to the winners. So, we got a piece of paper and noted the winners (the game ran continuously, even if no bets were placed). After about 10 or 15 minutes we identified the sequence and started betting and, winning every time. Maybe if we had kept quiet and played for a while and then left we might have got away with it but we were a bit excited at cracking the sequence and that gave us away to the stall holder and he took a dim view. We thought it was initiative!

Now you see I know nothing about a trip to Blackpool! But then in that gap between the exams and the last days of school I was working at Pontins Holiday Camp on the Isle of Wight. Largely so that I could go (with more than half a million kindred souls) to the completely superb Isle of Wight Pop Festival of 1970.

 

[avcr]

Folks, an amazing film just posted by Dave Sumpner on both Youtube:

or the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1844567112499346 - a silent movie project about GD 19963 to 1965

 

[DPD]

I have been in Australia for nearly 40 years and would love to hear from anyone from my school years in Birmingham.

I went to George Dixon Grammar School during 1955 - 1959

Would love to hear from anyone who was there around the same time or who could let me have photographs and/or history af what has happened to the buildings over the past 40 years

Thanks

Jeff Holloway

Just coming very late (by 12 years!) to your post. Is this you standing next to Mr Garden in the Rugby 1st XV? I think you will have been a contemporary of my brother, Richard Davies. Best wishes, DP (Peter) Davies.

 

[DPD]

Some good and some bad memories of my time, 1964-1969 at GD. I'm afraid I wasn't a very good pupil and had a rather laissez-faire attitude towards my education. After the 1st year at City Road, years 2 and 3 were spent at Five Ways. I liked Five Ways and found my time there more enjoyable that City Road. I have couple of tales to recount that I remember quite vividly:

One of the memories is the end of them assembly in the hall at the old Five Ways Building. We must have been in the 3rd form then. I think it was old man Trout leading the hymns and prayer. As the pianist sat down on the piano stool a ghastly rotten egg smell pervaded to hall. Someone had carefully placed stink bombs under the legs of the stool crushing them with dreadful effect. Trout was incensed at the general laughter and I believe he said something like, “This is not funny, now let us sink Hymn Number…” The designated pianist then hit the keys with some gusto whereupon a dreadful twanging noise erupted. Someone had detuned the piano and much laughter erupted as did old man Trout. One of the perpetrators I have since found out is a retired school inspector.

Another memory is of the great gunpowder plot. There was a, some say, mad genius amongst us . Smith, we will call him had the distinction of being an amateur chemist. One day he brought in a sample of homemade gunpowder, which to the delight of many, worked very well. Buoyed up by the accolades that followed his initial experiment "Smith" produced a large quantity of the stuff. The boys toilets was decided upon as the venue for the upcoming test. The toilets were outside the main building, on the ground floor and comprised urinals on the right, sit downs on the left with a long walkway between, ending in the cleaners closet at the end furthest from the entrance. "Smith" laid a thin bead of his powder along the walkway followed by a small pile of the stuff just inside the cleaners closet. Unbelievably he then dumped out the rest of the powder and closed the closet door. There was a large gap under the closet door through which the burning fuse found its merry way to the main charge. As a spectator, I didn’t really believe "Smith" would light the fuse…but he did. I, amongst others were off like greyhounds putting as much distance as we could between ourselves and the impending explosion. Walking around aimlessly, hands in pockets, whistling tunelessly and acting terribly innocent, we were startled by a very loud bang followed by a cloud of sulfurous smoke.

I didn’t see for myself but witnesses had it that the expanding gas from inside the closet blew out from the gap under the normally inward opening door, caused a vacuum which then resulted in the door being pulled inward off its hinges. High jinx is one thing, but large explosions at school were another. The result was Trout having the whole school assembled in the hall and launching into a tirade along the lines of, “Today, a pyromaniac has tried to blow up the toilets and until the person responsible comes forward, the whole school will stay behind.” Minutes ticked by until "Smith" did a mea culpa and we were all allowed to go home. Happy Days...

The 'Lord Dismiss us with Thy Blessing', last day of the academic year in '65 was hilarious. I can't recall the name of the woman teacher playing the piano and who I think taught French, but the horrified look on her face was all to behold. I was in the Lower 6th. The guys in the Upper 6th had threaded wire across the grand piano--the honkey-tonk effect was side-splitting. Too right, Mr Trout was upset. The stink was another thing. When sat on, the benches compressed the several stink bombs they had placed. Oh well, it gives us something to chuckle about! When we moved up into the Upper 6th, we were all a bit too serious and less adventurous. The only thing I'll own up to was that I was responsible for arranging for an election poster of Mr Edward Heath for the Mock General Election to pinned centrally at the top of the stage curtain. Mr Heath genteely gazed down on morning assembly until Five Ways was demolished. Best wishes, DP (Peter) Davies.

 

[Astoness]

Just coming very late (by 12 years!) to your post. Is this you standing next to Mr Garden in the Rugby 1st XV? I think you will have been a contemporary of my brother, Richard Davies. Best wishes, DP (Peter) Davies.

the doc is now only a guest on the forum so unless he re joins he will not be able to reply to you

 

[DPD]

the doc is now only a guest on the forum so unless he re joins he will not be able to reply to you

Many thanks for the advice, appreciated; stay safe and well in these strange times.

 

[Harry Flashman]

The 'Lord Dismiss us with Thy Blessing', last day of the academic year in '65 was hilarious. I can't recall the name of the woman teacher playing the piano and who I think taught French, but the horrified look on her face was all to behold. I was in the Lower 6th. The guys in the Upper 6th had threaded wire across the grand piano--the honkey-tonk effect was side-splitting. Too right, Mr Trout was upset. The stink was another thing. When sat on, the benches compressed the several stink bombs they had placed. Oh well, it gives us something to chuckle about! When we moved up into the Upper 6th, we were all a bit too serious and less adventurous. The only thing I'll own up to was that I was responsible for arranging for an election poster of Mr Edward Heath for the Mock General Election to pinned centrally at the top of the stage curtain. Mr Heath genteely gazed down on morning assembly until Five Ways was demolished. Best wishes, DP (Peter) Davies.

I happen to know that one of the protagonists of the honky-tonk/stink bomb event was Don G. He and others had similar thoughts about the repressive attitudes at GD. We have both agreed that education is not the learn 'like a parrot' system, but more the encouragement for a pupil to learn. He went on to become a teacher and school inspector in Wolverhampton.

 

[Unionville Man]

Many thanks for the advice, appreciated; stay safe and well in these strange times.

I am new to this site having come across it yesterday for the first time. It is with sadness that in my first post I must tell you that Jeff passed away just over 12 months ago.

 

[Unionville Man]

Some pupils names from my year:-
Peter Cooley
Tony Burley
Hawkes twins
? Kornhauser
? Griffiths
Peter Barry Jackson
Bob Lench
Duncan Muffett
John Posnett
Raynor Bourton
Rod Watts
? Forbes
? Kanji
Ron Drury
Barry Smith
Alan Timmins
Chris Ball

I am sorry that I cannot remember some Christian names but everyone was referred to using their surnames, and it is around 50+ years ago!

Hi Colin. Others you may recall include Chris Ball, Stephen Brown, Bob Coley, Dave ? Green, Noel Wells, ? Turvey, ? Hatter, Dave Harris, Regan Mulligan, Julius? Lezgold, Mick Griffiths, John Paramore, Dave Sumptner, Tim Dawson. I think it was David Kornhauser and perhaps Colin Forbes (he also had a older brother who also went to GD). The Hawkes were Peter and Anthony.

 

[Colin Butters]

Thanks for those names, I will keep thinking.

 

[Unionville Man]

It was Greg Turvey I think.

 

[Colin Butters]

Hi Colin. Others you may recall include Chris Ball, Stephen Brown, Bob Coley, Dave ? Green, Noel Wells, ? Turvey, ? Hatter, Dave Harris, Regan Mulligan, Julius? Lezgold, Mick Griffiths, John Paramore, Dave Sumptner, Tim Dawson. I think it was David Kornhauser and perhaps Colin Forbes (he also had a older brother who also went to GD). The Hawkes were Peter and Anthony.

Definitely Dave Green. Yes, Greg Turvey. Glen Hatter, I believe.

 

[Vivienne14]

Welcome Unionville Man. Hope you have plenty of spare time over Christmas, as this’ll keep you hooked. Enjoy the Forum.

Viv.

 

[Unionville Man]

Definitely Dave Green. Yes, Greg Turvey. Glen Hatter, I believe.

Ken Martin, Pete Harborne, Terence Topping .... You've opened a floodgate of memories here, Colin!

 

[Unionville Man]

Welcome Unionville Man. Hope you have plenty of spare time over Christmas, as this’ll keep you hooked. Enjoy the Forum.

Viv.

Many thanks, Viv.

 

[mw0njm.]

Welcome Unionville Man. hope you enjoy this forum,they are a great bunch as you will find out.

 

[Unionville Man]

Many thanks, Pete. Be cautious and stay safe and well.