King Edwards Grammar School Camp Hill

[don wright]

Part 8

So we ain't sherrins any more..... an it's payback time y'all.... 'Hey, so here we here we go' and so the new ones got what generation of sherrins had got cos all was fair in love and war wasn't it. Jim has reminded me of this :


'In fact your memory of sherrins reminds me of my first day and going to lunch and being unceremoniusly grabbed and dragged into the queue by none other than yourself and a couple of others and made to act as the tables servant, as was the custom then.
Please keep the memories flowing.'

which I don't remember, so sorry Jim.... but if he's the Jim I think he is, and he hasn't confirmed that he is yet, then if he is, I have to admit that he was a star and a credit to the school and should have a verse about him inserted into the school song.... especially for his exploits in woodwork with Harry the Plank. So there we were in 2L and being introduced to Latin, which I enjoyed initially as I had always been interested in the Romans, and their republican history, but for some inexplicable reason have never been able to get interested in the Greeks

Which reminds me of the Subshine 'Caf' on Vicarage Road which played an integral part in my life at Camp Hill..... and it's still there and going .... a tribute to bacon sarnies and fags, and stewed tea, as it then was .... a credit to British culinary excellence based upon lard and cholesterol, 'I might not know much about cooking, but I know what I like..... I am [thanks to John Cleese and Monty Python.]' For maths we had a Mr. Hudson otherwise known as Soapy, and he was a northerner, from Lancashire or Yorkshire 'although he did use the word 'the ' instead of 't' because since I was bored to tears with maths, and double maths was the bottom of the pit of despair, and when he would notice me dozing and leaning on the wall, and I am not a large person, he would shout out with subtitles, 'Hey you.... Goliath.... get off that adjectival wall!' ..... to which I'd say, sorry, can you run that one past me again, but this time in English? Well, I suppose I should have just got up and walked out to the front of the class but he had something wrong with his right arm and when he wrote high up on the blackboard..... and he wasn't actually Goliath either, he used to support his right hand by holding it up with his left, which is the intro to another lovely anecdote.... and since I've used the word left, this is an appropriate intro to another lovely incident which is an incredibly brave Lefty Wright payback moment ..... which I shall describe thereafter. The only person who ever helped me in maths was the lad who sat behind me was Richard Yates, whom I believe went on to study maths at university and because of him I actually managed to pass maths o level with a grade 5, even.... which was a shock to all concerned, especially moi!

In rugby we were now the under 13's and after having won both of our games at under 12 level we went onto greater successes until we reached the fifth form when we had to play with 6L and 6U. One of our team was my tight head prop, Roger Brookstein who went on to get a Cambridge blue and then after becoming a doctor played for Blackheath.... which also reminds me of an incident in a house game Tudor Vs. Beaufort when he was on the ground hogging the ball an' us Tutor heroes were basically kicking the S. H. ONE. T. out of him at he lay there prone, and the Shift gleefully blew his whistle and said, 'Penalty against Tudor for heeling the man! Yet again EPIC!

 

[farmerdave]

"Dan" Matthews was a Maths teacher. He joined the school in September 1959 and was my teacher at "A" level from 1959 to 1961 when I was in 6L and 6U. He got the description "Dan" because there was a TV series at that time called "Highway Patrol". It always started off with the actor Broderick Crawford saying, "Hi, my name's Matthews, Dan Matthews, I'm a cop".

 

[don wright]

Part 9:

At least I think so though it might be a duplicate of an original number 9..... so if it is. ,let's stay in the old school tradition and call it 9A.

Up until the 5th. form we had a great team and when on mondays Chums would read out all of saturdays' results, and while some of the rest had got a good bladdering he would say something like and the under 14's won 30-0. We always had a tough game with Moseley Grammar ..... sometimes due to their not exactly refereeing. And I remember a time when we had to play KEGS Five Ways and as we all went into the changing rooms the Shift pulled us all over and told us to give 'em a good hammering, 'cos he'd probably been down the bookies and had a bet on. House games were the most violent games I ever played in and in one I was watching from the touchline and it was Beaufort Vs Howard and the Beaufort stand off Rob Grant, their best player and a great cricketer too was storming down the touch line when the Howard full-back my mate, Andy Peet and not a rugby player but a swimmer, as Rob also was I believe, and had been press-ganged in to make up the numbers, came zooming across and must have thought, 'what's all of this tackling nonsense, I could get hurt here!' and promptly felled him with a crushing overhand right cross which Mike Tyson would have been aghast at ..... at which Rob went down like a sack of spuds and the ball rolled out of play. And then instead of calling the police, Mr. Thain gave a line out to Howard! Brilliant!!

And now the Lefty Wright incident I referred to earlier. As everyone knows us lot were not allowed in school in break-time and we all had to be out in the playground. Well, some boys had tried to get inside by way of the double doors which were by the metalwork room and the prefects were stopping them getting in and it developed into something like the sack of a city or the bit at the end of The Alamo when all of the Mexicans stormed in and put paid to Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie et al. So there were the prefects getting pushed back, 'cos they were about ten and we were myriad, when suddenly Mr Wright turned up and everything went quiet as he started threatening us with all kinds of dire punishments...... when a lone voice at the back, somewhere, suddenly cried out PEASANT!! which defused the whole situation and the playground rang out with mirth again! [Exit Mr. Wright, stage right! ] It must have been in 2L when the famous Soapy Hudson incident then occurred. A boy in the fourth form had taken a camera into a maths lesson and had photographed Soapy in various poses and when the photos had been developed was showing them to all of the class in another maths lesson and Soapy had caught them and had collected all of the photos up. He was having a great time enjoying all of them, when suddenly he saw the one where he was writing high up on the blackboard and supporting his right hand with his left. Well that did it..... he accused the photographer of laughing at his old war wound which was from WWI I believe and had the photos promptly sent down to Chums who later called the photographer down for a flogging.

And he told me himself that when he went into the head's study there was the head and Mrs Downey having a gander at the photos and having a good laugh, and when Chums saw him he said to him, 'I suppose you realise that I'll have to cane you!' To which he replies 'Yes, sir....' and was promptly given six of the best..... although in friendly sort of way!

End of part 9 [or 9A, as the case may be]

'INTERMISSION' ..... to be resumed at a later date.

 

[farmerdave]

I don't know whether it was the practice at most secondary schools but at KEGS Camp Hill many of the school masters had a nick-name. Hence Polly Bates, Spud Kober, Flossy Phelps, Pop Epsley, Froggy Fryer. In the case of the scripture master, a Mr. Brown, the surname also changed and hence he was called (behind his back) Holy Hovis. I have a photograph of the said gentleman, probably taken at a sports event. It was certainly not taken by me as I wouldn't have dared.

 

[Morturn]

I think it may have been common at a lot of schools. My friends mom wanted to see his teacher, he told her his name is Mr Scrachit. She calls at the school reception and duly asks for Mr Scrachit, to be told there was not such teacher. The receptionist asked what is your son name, to come back and tell her the teachers name is Mr Hitchcock....

I don't think she ever forgave him

 

[jmadone]

I don't know whether it was the practice at most secondary schools but at KEGS Camp Hill many of the school masters had a nick-name. Hence Polly Bates, Spud Kober, Flossy Phelps, Pop Epsley, Froggy Fryer. In the case of the scripture master, a Mr. Brown, the surname also changed and hence he was called (behind his back) Holy Hovis. I have a photograph of the said gentleman, probably taken at a sports event. It was certainly not taken by me as I wouldn't have dared.
View attachment 136554

As Don Wright stated in a previous post, our year always called him "The Punk". I found him to be an aloof and humourless man.

 

[Dave89]

Hi,

I've been looking for my copy of the Holy Hovis sports day photo
to give Don a treat, but farmerdave beat me to it!
I've just realised I couldn't post it anyway, as my scanner has packed up.
Nice to see it anyway.

Kind regards
Dave

 

[Dennis Williams]

I don't know whether it was the practice at most secondary schools but at KEGS Camp Hill many of the school masters had a nick-name. Hence Polly Bates, Spud Kober, Flossy Phelps, Pop Epsley, Froggy Fryer. In the case of the scripture master, a Mr. Brown, the surname also changed and hence he was called (behind his back) Holy Hovis. I have a photograph of the said gentleman, probably taken at a sports event. It was certainly not taken by me as I wouldn't have dared.
View attachment 136554

Hovis Brown....remember him well...here's my five pennerth..

But most of all, God with a comic sense of paradox he is not generally noted for, sent us the ultimate in a soft-target dummy to teach us his works. The Reverend 'Hovis' Brown. Complete with his dog collar and a lugubrious face like a hamster with toothache. Hovis followed a tradition of flakyscripture masters. His predecessor, Reverend 'Fido' Glennie, also had his weaker moments. There is an entry in the diary that says 'Played Glennie up today again. He threatened to put me in detention, but I talked him out of it". Gives you an idea of his lamentable crowd control skills.

Hovis was something to behold. I do not know what it is that makes pupils so good at spotting useless teachers, but whatever it was, 4A had it by the bucket-load. Les Barnes and DEP Smith had talents for taunting masters into indiscretions that would see them in Wormwood Scrubs in a trice were they repeated today. But in those days it was not important to get revenge via compensation. We were the aggressors, a hefty clump round the head was the spoils of war. If they lashed out it was a complete victory to us, game over. Pain was incidental and part of the game.

Hovis lost it big time one day. The usual disruption and chaos was playing out in a lesson that was due to be visited by a Schools Inspector. Hovis had threatened us with dire retribution, genital mutilation and the wrath of god if we cocked up in front of the visitor. He was sweating cobs

Enter Les Barnes, a well recognised Opsissimus insgistei: of the Black Arts of master intimidation. He was even known as SENRAB X for a while amongst his disciples. So, time for Plan B, a guaranteed ten on the Richter scale of mayhem. Briefly, the windows at KH were big metal picture types and quite high. to the ceiling. They closed by the action of two latches, the handle at the lower latch was connected to the upper latch by a four foot long steel rod and articulated joints. By removing the screw of the upper joint, when the handle was operated, the steel rod would pivot on the bottom joint and simply free fall sideways on to the window-sill. And by the careful placement of a big Jar of ink on a metal tray stolen from the canteen so that the tip of the falling rod struck the edge of the tray nice and crisply, the inkpot would then describe a perfect parabola through the air towards the window handle operator.

Enter the hapless Hovis closely followed by turdy-looking geek HM Inspector. "Gosh it's hot in here sir. What about opening the window sir?" Before he could answer Les had pulled the handle and stepped smartly out of range. Clang, bosh. Ink everywhere, gales of raucous laughter and foot stamping. Exit turdy bloke left with vague smile on chops. Not so on
Hovis. Realising he'd been well and truly had, before kick-off even, he screamed for the culprits. Stepping smartly to the front was half the class in a classic "I'm Spartacus" routine. Barnes led the stampede and was rewarded with an almighty biff round the head. Hovis flew at him all the more as brave Les started laughing in the face of his adversity. DEP Smith and myself rescued him as best we could and got detentions for our troubles. A marvellous day's sport. God, we were a cruel bunch of shits.

 

[Richard Dye]

I don't know whether it was the practice at most secondary schools but at KEGS Camp Hill many of the school masters had a nick-name. Hence Polly Bates, Spud Kober, Flossy Phelps, Pop Epsley, Froggy Fryer. In the case of the scripture master, a Mr. Brown, the surname also changed and hence he was called (behind his back) Holy Hovis. I have a photograph of the said gentleman, probably taken at a sports event. It was certainly not taken by me as I wouldn't have dared.
View attachment 136554

It was a practice at my school...……….Most 4th 7 5th form masters had nick names!

 

[jmadone]

Hovis Brown....remember him well...here's my five pennerth..

But most of all, God with a comic sense of paradox he is not generally noted for, sent us the ultimate in a soft-target dummy to teach us his works. The Reverend 'Hovis' Brown. Complete with his dog collar and a lugubrious face like a hamster with toothache. Hovis followed a tradition of flakyscripture masters. His predecessor, Reverend 'Fido' Glennie, also had his weaker moments. There is an entry in the diary that says 'Played Glennie up today again. He threatened to put me in detention, but I talked him out of it". Gives you an idea of his lamentable crowd control skills.

Hovis was something to behold. I do not know what it is that makes pupils so good at spotting useless teachers, but whatever it was, 4A had it by the bucket-load. Les Barnes and DEP Smith had talents for taunting masters into indiscretions that would see them in Wormwood Scrubs in a trice were they repeated today. But in those days it was not important to get revenge via compensation. We were the aggressors, a hefty clump round the head was the spoils of war. If they lashed out it was a complete victory to us, game over. Pain was incidental and part of the game.

Hovis lost it big time one day. The usual disruption and chaos was playing out in a lesson that was due to be visited by a Schools Inspector. Hovis had threatened us with dire retribution, genital mutilation and the wrath of god if we cocked up in front of the visitor. He was sweating cobs

Enter Les Barnes, a well recognised Opsissimus insgistei: of the Black Arts of master intimidation. He was even known as SENRAB X for a while amongst his disciples. So, time for Plan B, a guaranteed ten on the Richter scale of mayhem. Briefly, the windows at KH were big metal picture types and quite high. to the ceiling. They closed by the action of two latches, the handle at the lower latch was connected to the upper latch by a four foot long steel rod and articulated joints. By removing the screw of the upper joint, when the handle was operated, the steel rod would pivot on the bottom joint and simply free fall sideways on to the window-sill. And by the careful placement of a big Jar of ink on a metal tray stolen from the canteen so that the tip of the falling rod struck the edge of the tray nice and crisply, the inkpot would then describe a perfect parabola through the air towards the window handle operator.

Enter the hapless Hovis closely followed by turdy-looking geek HM Inspector. "Gosh it's hot in here sir. What about opening the window sir?" Before he could answer Les had pulled the handle and stepped smartly out of range. Clang, bosh. Ink everywhere, gales of raucous laughter and foot stamping. Exit turdy bloke left with vague smile on chops. Not so on
Hovis. Realising he'd been well and truly had, before kick-off even, he screamed for the culprits. Stepping smartly to the front was half the class in a classic "I'm Spartacus" routine. Barnes led the stampede and was rewarded with an almighty biff round the head. Hovis flew at him all the more as brave Les started laughing in the face of his adversity. DEP Smith and myself rescued him as best we could and got detentions for our troubles. A marvellous day's sport. God, we were a cruel bunch of shits.

Talking of windows I can remember that some of the classrooms at Kings Heath had high windows that were opened and closed by a long wooden pole with a brass hook on the end. During a geography (or maybe History) lesson in the second form, Geoff Saunders, a flamboyant master to say the least, decided that these windows should be opened. Grabbing the pole he then proceeded to swing it just above the heads of everyone in the class in between opening the windows. This was a great source of fun to gullible 13 yr old boys to see a master behaving in such a way. At the end of the lesson he left for his next class and said as he departed " Don't forget to close those windows". Someone grabbed the pole and attempted to mimic the flamboyant display of Geoff. However he misjudged his swing which resulted in him smashing at least two of the hanging glass lampshades suspended from the ceiling. The whole class was horrified about the repercussions that may occur but to his everlasting credit, the boy concerned immediately reported the mishap to the school office in order that the class would not be punished. I can't remember what the outcome was, whether he was caned or received any other punishment.

 

[JohnWish]

Back at Camp Hill at Camp Hill in the 1940's there was Mr Strachan (promounced "strawn" if you valued your life). he was my form master in 2B. He was a a smoker of Capstan Full Strength and would send one of us out to buy a packet for him. If you upset him he would charge you with a window pole or throw a wooden-backed blackboard rubber at you.

He scored a duck at pupils versus teachers. When he came in next day to mark the register, Stoot (silly boy) went "quack quack". He got a clip behind the ear. Next day or Stoot + father came in. Father and teacher left the classroom.

He was the only teacher I ever remember being given a present. He left at the end of the year. We gave him a cigarette case filled with his favourite brand.

I believe that he had been in Malaysia or such like during the war. There he caught malaria. Away from the Common Room teachers said they were afraid of him too.

 

[ellbrown]

Gate was open on the Vicarage Road and got this view.

 

[boringmike]

Talking of windows I can remember that some of the classrooms at Kings Heath had high windows that were opened and closed by a long wooden pole with a brass hook on the end. During a geography (or maybe History) lesson in the second form, Geoff Saunders, a flamboyant master to say the least, decided that these windows should be opened. Grabbing the pole he then proceeded to swing it just above the heads of everyone in the class in between opening the windows. This was a great source of fun to gullible 13 yr old boys to see a master behaving in such a way. At the end of the lesson he left for his next class and said as he departed " Don't forget to close those windows". Someone grabbed the pole and attempted to mimic the flamboyant display of Geoff. However he misjudged his swing which resulted in him smashing at least two of the hanging glass lampshades suspended from the ceiling. The whole class was horrified about the repercussions that may occur but to his everlasting credit, the boy concerned immediately reported the mishap to the school office in order that the class would not be punished. I can't remember what the outcome was, whether he was caned or received any other punishment.

Geof Saunders went on to beome head of K E Fiveways after being joint deputy head with Harry Greenaway at Camp Hill. I remain a great friend of Tony Jackson who was what we used to call caretaker but took on many responsibilities for all aspects of the School, he recently retired but has given endless memorabilia he rescued from the old school. The School runs in his blood.

 

[boringmike]

A school photograph at KEGS Camp Hill for Boys was taken every two years. It involved the whole school of over 600 boys and approximately 30 staff. A panoramic camera was used which would slowly scan the group and resulted in a photograph 3 feet wide and 8 inches high. A portion of the central part of the photograph for 1956 (sixty-two years ago this month) is shown. I forget some of the names of the Masters but here goes: From left to right: 1, forget; 2, Epsley; 3, forget; 4, Budd; 5, Drysdale: 6, Bates; 7, Tom Rogers (Headmaster); 8, Hollingsworth; 9, forget; 10, Brown; 11, Fryer; 12, Dai Thomas; 13, forget; 14, Saunders/Sanders. Dave.

Think Mr brown took woodwork later on and became known as"Harry The Plank"?

 

[boringmike]

A school photograph at KEGS Camp Hill for Boys was taken every two years. It involved the whole school of over 600 boys and approximately 30 staff. A panoramic camera was used which would slowly scan the group and resulted in a photograph 3 feet wide and 8 inches high. A portion of the central part of the photograph for 1956 (sixty-two years ago this month) is shown. I forget some of the names of the Masters but here goes: From left to right: 1, forget; 2, Epsley; 3, forget; 4, Budd; 5, Drysdale: 6, Bates; 7, Tom Rogers (Headmaster); 8, Hollingsworth; 9, forget; 10, Brown; 11, Fryer; 12, Dai Thomas; 13, forget; 14, Saunders/Sanders. Dave.

Am sure that is Geoff Saunders who later became Deputy Head before becoming Head at K E Five Ways.

 

[Dave89]

Think Mr brown took woodwork later on and became known as"Harry The Plank"?

Hi Mike

As far as I can remember he was doing woodwork in 1954, and was also known as Hovis.
The 'religious' one was from memory called Holy Hovis to distinguish them.

The Saunders at the right of the pic is definitely Geoff Saunders.

Kind regards
Dave

 

[boringmike]

Part 4:

Tom Rogers was put out to pasture, en route to the glue factory! Pleased as punch I was as Fat Al, our new headmaster as he became affectionately known, was a much nicer chap, although he did throw a wobble now again, but who doesn't? Mr Cholmondely had a labrador and at one rugby match where we were all standing on the touchline watching the dog. ....another one whom I decided had to be avoided like the plague and in consequence learned Latin instead of German, and was doing what it wanted do and was paying no attention as he was calling it, so I whistled out of the window of room number 1 on the ground floor and over came the dog immediately. Well, thinking no more about this as one would, there we all were, chatting away and enjoying life when in came the aforesaid Mr. Feast, which he probably changed to Faust when he apparently and promptly went to live in Germany when he retired, came storming in doing an impression of A. Hitler giving an impassioned speech at the Nuremberg Rally, screaming and shouting, 'Who whistled the dog!?' So I thought, 'Hmmm, well.... I certainly ain't gonna admit to this one!' and since he didn't have the local to back him up he eventually left the room in high dudgeon! What a strange fellow, we all thought..... definitely in need of a little 'anger management' course. He had this really clapped out looking old VW beetle with a split back window which we always thought was the first one to come off the production line in the 30's and had had one careful previous, careful owner

And one occasion when Fat Al looped the loop, which was pretty appropriate because he was a pilot in WWII and flew missions over Arnhem inter alia and was decorated with the Air Force Cross [which I only found out last year, see obituary: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Headmaster+of+20+years+at+Camp+Hill+School+dies.-a083971420] was when he came into room 1 [again] and there we all were writing the names of pubs we had been in all over the blackboard. Yet again, how strange, we all thought, but perhaps he'd had a bad pint in a pub once and since then all pubs were anathema!

end of part 4

Hi Don, one small point and not being pedantic Alan Cholmondeley was a tail gunner in WW2 showing his extreme bravery sat in a gold fish bowl waiting to be shot. He was a fantastic headmaster who had the discipline to silence a whole corridor of 300 boys just by his very appearance. He suffered bell's palsy which I believe may have been brought on by the stress of his military service. It is good to see you also hold him in high regard, as boys you take no notice of these things and tend to dismiss anyone over 30 years of age as a quirky old fool. I always remember the sniggers when the head would announce a "discotheck" using his training in classics to produce his own pronunciation. Camp Hill was a great school but totally beyond me accademically. My well meaning parents had me tutored to pass the 11 plus but when it was down to me at grammar school I was totally out of my depth and sank from day one. I was lucky that Mr Cholmondeley also placed value on other abilities as I turned out to have a reasonable ability at rugby which saved my bacon. I scraped a few O levels and was allowed to take an unheard of combination of only 2 A levels, Geography and Biology which I failed spectacularly but allowed me to spend 2 years playing rugby. A fantastic Headmaster.

 

[boringmike]

Looking at the '58 photo yes I'm sure you're right about Mrs Downing.

That is definitely Mrs Downing who later on lived in, I believe, a foundation house on the opposite corner to the Red Lion pub, she used to have one or two Pug dogs that she would walk in the school grounds. She was a lovely kind lady.

 

[boringmike]

Geof Saunders went on to beome head of K E Fiveways after being joint deputy head with Harry Greenaway at Camp Hill. I remain a great friend of Tony Jackson who was what we used to call caretaker but took on many responsibilities for all aspects of the School, he recently retired but has given endless memorabilia he rescued from the old school. The School runs in his blood.

Sorry, senior moment, Geoff Saunders was solus Deputy Head but when he left for Five Ways he was replaced by Harry Greenaway and J D M (Des) Wright who's son Chris also attended the school.

 

[boringmike]

That is definitely Mrs Downing who later on lived in, I believe, a foundation house on the opposite corner to the Red Lion pub, she used to have one or two Pug dogs that she would walk in the school grounds. She was a lovely kind lady.

Another senior moment, Mrs Downey!!!!

 

[boringmike]

I don't know whether it was the practice at most secondary schools but at KEGS Camp Hill many of the school masters had a nick-name. Hence Polly Bates, Spud Kober, Flossy Phelps, Pop Epsley, Froggy Fryer. In the case of the scripture master, a Mr. Brown, the surname also changed and hence he was called (behind his back) Holy Hovis. I have a photograph of the said gentleman, probably taken at a sports event. It was certainly not taken by me as I wouldn't have dared.
View attachment 136554

I feel that we should all take some action, my close personal friend is Tony Jackson who was caretaker plus many many other jobs at Camp Hill for 49 years and previously worked with his father at the old site. King Edwards runs in his blood and he has provided so much memorabilia for the school, he even climbed in the skips at the old site to rescue so many photos etc. but has had little interest from the school. He has so many memories having served under so many Headmasters and Headmistresses. He has written and continues to write a book on all his memories and I feel some action should be taken to preserve this memory, one of the secreteries at the Girls School typed it up in her spare time but no more, I want to help so that the manuscript is preserved or at best published and feel he should be interviewed, any ideas, please?

 

[ChrisM]

It would be a great shame if this material is lost. Am surprised that the School is showing little interest but I suppose they have other priorities. Has he tried their History Department, direct?

Seems to me there are two or three options, depending on the amount of material, the length of the text and the extent that further information needs to be drawn out of this gentleman, perhaps by interview.

1. A book. There must be members here who have had experience of doing this and could advise.

2. A dedicated website - more flexible than a book; unlimited in size; huge, unlimited potential audience; reasonably permanent; and (take it from me!) quite a lot of fun in creating. But no financial reward for all the effort, just the satisfaction of making some important history available to the world at large. In his position I should certainly go for this - but he may have other preferences/priorities, of course.

3. A dedicated thread in this Forum, showing the best of the material and perhaps referring back to book or website.

Please keep us posted on developments.

Chris

 

[Berrihert]

Dennis, interested to see your list of participants in the Grand Charity Soccer Match of Staff v The School. This was played on the 4th April 1960 and on the back of the list are caricatures of the staff. The back row is easy: Swinden, Thain, Cleak, Ridsdale, Matthews and Wright. In the front row I recognise DI Thomas (2nd left), Marsden (third left) and Harry Brown with pipe. By elimination the other three must be Jones, Watson and Tomkinson. I didn't know that you played soccer as well as cricket. I was quite good at chess which did help Howard House win the shield one year. Dave.

View attachment 126139

The instantly recognisable “Shifty’ Watson looking at list[ Alledgedly he was an ex-pro footballer who played for Sunderland] Di ` Thomas,Dennis Marsden and the legendary “Ted Jones’.who wore winkle pickers/socks with musical notes and an Italian suite.His orange haired ‘quiff’ like a teddy boy gave him the nickname, great French teacher got us all through the oralbecause he fancied the female examiner...!!!!!!The illustration was of course by the great Art Teacher Tony Appleby there were others which led to complaints.
’BJ’... Price.. started in 3Y 1957.

Dennis, interested to see your list of participants in the Grand Charity Soccer Match of Staff v The School. This was played on the 4th April 1960 and on the back of the list are caricatures of the staff. The back row is easy: Swinden, Thain, Cleak, Ridsdale, Matthews and Wright. In the front row I recognise DI Thomas (2nd left), Marsden (third left) and Harry Brown with pipe. By elimination the other three must be Jones, Watson and Tomkinson. I didn't know that you played soccer as well as cricket. I was quite good at chess which did help Howard House win the shield one year. Dave.

View attachment 126139

OK Dennis, here goes

September 1959.

So there we were Johnny Morrow and me, Donald Wright, standing a the 18 bus stop at the top of Parsons Hill, Kings Norton to go to Cotteridge and then to get the number 11 to Vicarage Road. Johnny and me knew each other from the cubs and so at least we each had someone to go with, as mommies and daddies didn't accompany their 11 year olds to their first day at grammar school then. I was the first boy from Broadmeadow School to pass for Camp Hill and Johnny was from Bell's Lane school. Don't really remember much about the first day, though we quickly found out that last years sherrins were out to give us what they'd got. We were both put in Tudor and into IM and classroom 7, at the top of the stairs leading down to the staff room and at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the music room. Our for master was Mr V C Brown, aka Greasy VC, Holy Joe, Holy Hovis or the one which stuck most of all 'The Punk!' who was the scripture teacher and it didn't take us long to figure out that he wasn't a very likeable chap. I remember my mom getting mixed up once and calling him Mr Hovis! For history we had Mr D I Thomas whom we soon discovered we had to be wary of, and my first memory of him was when we were being introduced to rugby and he was showing us how to take a penalty kick. When he put the ball straight through the posts and we all cheered, he just lost it and shouted at us to shut up, and where did we think we were anyway, 'Villa Park!?' My next recollection of him was when he started hitting Dave Mallett for some possible slight, and when we were all asked our names in class.

After coming from junior school and arriving at camp Hill as it was then it was frightening ..... particularly since some of the older boys looked to us like men. Tom Rogers put the fear of God into me so I was really pleased one day to see when he called a boy from the fifth form out in assembly by screaming out his name 'Fogarty ....Alan I thing his first name was, and as he came to the front of the hall you could see that he just didn't care one iota. He was my hero after that. We had the head for scripture and when he was going though the Exodus story, one little chap didn't understand how when Pharaoh decided to kill all of the male children born, this would prevent the Israelite population increasing..... to which his reply was 'You idiot..... don't you know that women can't have children without men?' when of course being 11 and it being 1959, none of us knew that this was the case since it was a closely guarded secret.

So as it goes in Latin, 'Quae cum ita sint .... since this was so..... we all, as everyone else had to, learned how to swim and not sink..... to keep our mouths shut with the bully boys and to wreak our revenge however we could. Right at the beginning in maths we were introduced to the concept of the right angle by our teacher one Mr. Hurst, aka Hairy, since he had fingers like a bunch of Fyffes all covered in hair, and when he bisected his straight line he indicated the right angle by placing it on the right hand side, when a little later on he indicated the corresponding angle on the left hand side, and asked what it was I though, this is easy, I know this one, and told him it was a left angle, he thought I was taking the mick, and promptly came down the row and battered me one. So I go my revenge thereafter by splashing ink from my fountain pen up the back of his jacket as he'd gone past me continuing to check all of the other boys work. It was great and caught on and we all had great fun until some bright spark put a bit too much effort into his ink flick and it went right up his back and over his bald head and of course he felt it. Epic.

I never got on with maths, because nobody ever told me what I could do with x when I found out it was -2 and it all just seemed like pointless puzzle solving to me when those who were good at it were considered geniuses, and all the rest of us who couldn't give a toss anyway were regarded as either lazy or idiots.... and what was the point in using letters when we had numbers. French came easy to me on the other hand, though I never liked having to speak it. I remember much later on Dennis Marsden Getting angry with our Birmingham pronunciation of j'ai with our elongated dipthongs shouting at us 'it's not jaaaai, its je [e acute] .... much to our enjoyment! Dennis was also pretty frightning when we were first formers, but later on we found out that he was a pretty good bloke. Dennis was the careers master and detention was held in the careers room . We all had to stand facing the wall in silence for an hour and once when I was undergoing my sentence I was looking at a careers letter on the wall addressed to M. Dennis Mardsden, B.A. ....... and some wag had added the letters S.T.A.R.D. after the B.A...... I found it hysterical and was hard put not to laugh.

To be continued:

by sheer co-incidence‘Hairy Hurst’ was my first form teacher in 3Y... we gave him a hard time really the ink flicking continued until the brave Lindsey Douglas. told him ‘please Sir you’ve got a blue spot on your head!’He always amusingly sensed when boredom was setting in... ‘You’ve all got that glassy eyed look’ he’d say ..in time for the bell.That yest marked a big change in the school there was a mad mix up of classes I remember my friend Richard Mottram[now Sir Richard] Lindsey Douglas who created Basil Brush and others who were to create mayhem in later years and chalkege the old traditions of the school whilst Fogarty and Bruce were early juvenile delinquents.. what followed were scores of them the notorious P.Green, Slim Lewis, Tony Winters and’Thug ‘Dewes to mention a few.It was the early sixties FFS !!so uniform and rules were flaunted In a more extreme way.[to be continued]. ‘BJ’ Price 3Y-5W 1957-62.

 

[Berrihert]

We had yet another reunion last year but numbers are falling ..anyone interested in the next one? i believe Johnny ‘Cassius’ Cleake js still alive and well.

 

[Dennis Williams]

We had yet another reunion last year but numbers are falling ..anyone interested in the next one? i believe Johnny ‘Cassius’ Cleake js still alive and well.

Really....I quite liked that man.....would love to contact him and tell him!

 

[pjmburns]

I feel that we should all take some action, my close personal friend is Tony Jackson who was caretaker plus many many other jobs at Camp Hill for 49 years and previously worked with his father at the old site. King Edwards runs in his blood and he has provided so much memorabilia for the school, he even climbed in the skips at the old site to rescue so many photos etc. but has had little interest from the school. He has so many memories having served under so many Headmasters and Headmistresses. He has written and continues to write a book on all his memories and I feel some action should be taken to preserve this memory, one of the secreteries at the Girls School typed it up in her spare time but no more, I want to help so that the manuscript is preserved or at best published and feel he should be interviewed, any ideas, please?

There seems to be an archivist. Try here:
https://www.schoolsofkingedwardvi.co.uk/foundation/archive2/

 

[jmadone]

The instantly recognisable “Shifty’ Watson looking at list[ Alledgedly he was an ex-pro footballer who played for Sunderland] Di ` Thomas,Dennis Marsden and the legendary “Ted Jones’.who wore winkle pickers/socks with musical notes and an Italian suite.His orange haired ‘quiff’ like a teddy boy gave him the nickname, great French teacher got us all through the oralbecause he fancied the female examiner...!!!!!!The illustration was of course by the great Art Teacher Tony Appleby there were others which led to complaints.
’BJ’... Price.. started in 3Y 1957.




by sheer co-incidence‘Hairy Hurst’ was my first form teacher in 3Y... we gave him a hard time really the ink flicking continued until the brave Lindsey Douglas. told him ‘please Sir you’ve got a blue spot on your head!’He always amusingly sensed when boredom was setting in... ‘You’ve all got that glassy eyed look’ he’d say ..in time for the bell.That yest marked a big change in the school there was a mad mix up of classes I remember my friend Richard Mottram[now Sir Richard] Lindsey Douglas who created Basil Brush and others who were to create mayhem in later years and chalkege the old traditions of the school whilst Fogarty and Bruce were early juvenile delinquents.. what followed were scores of them the notorious P.Green, Slim Lewis, Tony Winters and’Thug ‘Dewes to mention a few.It was the early sixties FFS !!so uniform and rules were flaunted In a more extreme way.[to be continued]. ‘BJ’ Price 3Y-5W 1957-62.

I recognise quite a few names from this post but they were all a few years older than I. As a first former (1M) these guys would have been in the fourth or fifth form. The name Fogarty seems to ring a bell mainly as name read out occasionaly in assembly ordered to attend detention on Thursdays after school. P(ete) Green I was acquainted with already as he and his family lived quite near to me as did the Eastwood (?) twins. Slim Lewis, now there's a blast from the past! Other names I recall from that era, Alfie Phillips, (?)Parker and Ray Letts, all of them prefects and I think Ray Letts was Head boy.

 

[devonjim]

It must be around 1954, school trip to Bernese Oberland, four class mates can remember names of three but not 2nd from right, he became head boy 1958, What was he called?

 

[jmadone]

It must be around 1954, school trip to Bernese Oberland, four class mates can remember names of three but not 2nd from right, he became head boy 1958, What was he called?

Sorry Jim, well before my time

 

[farmerdave]

Re #88, the Eastwood twins were David and Derek and a year below me. They each obtained five or more subjects at "O" level in 1960. Certainly remember the name "Fogarty" but not the person. Some boys had surnames that I have not come across since, e.g. Garratt-Reed, Rothera, Barnacle, Graham-Cumming.