farmerdave
master brummie
John Bentley (1916-2009) was born in Sparkhill and attended King Edwards Camp Hill Grammar School. He was an actor famous for appearing in 3 Paul Temple films (1948-1952), the TV jungle adventure series, African Patrol (1957), and as Hugh Mortimer in Crossroads in the 1970's. He played alongside Noele Gordon and they were married on-screen. In February 1960 he visited Birmingham with the specific intention on visiting Camp Hill. I have a press cutting which says, " the star of African Patrol on a Birmingham safari". He must have been at Camp Hill Grammar School in the late 1920s to early 1930s. In 1960, at the time of his visit, the school had moved four years earlier to Kings Heath. John Bentley decided to visit the new school in the slender hope that there might be some masters who still knew him. Two did remember him, Mr W. Drysdale and Mr. P. W Bates. They are shown in the attached picture, together with the new headmaster, Mr. A Cholmondeley. John Bentley died in 2009, aged 93, at Petworth in West Sussex.
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