Hello,

I attended St Edwards from 1945 to 1949.

Among my classmates were:-

Danny Bolton,  Malcolm Wadlow, Barry Easy, James Hewitt, David Cubitt, Michael Wiseman, John Smith, Maggie Dawson, Beryl Webb. Jill Sutcliffe, all of who I particularly recall.

Our teachers were;-

The newly appointed Dr F Davies who brought with him some fresh approaches, one of which was that he encouraged the staff to wear academic gowns, he himself always wore his gown, collar and mortarboard at assembly each morning.

On the staff were the chain smoking Mrs. K.U. Perry who was one of the best teachers I ever had, it is to her I owe my love of books.  Mrs. D.M. Winslade who we had for maths, we used to ask her questions completely unrelated to maths, and get her sidetracked off the subject. She used to refer to our efforts as 'Red Herrings'.  There was Mr C.M. Jones who took us for art and geography and spent his spare time making cricket bats.  Mr Clarke, newly out of the RAF who sported a large holdall bag bearing his former rank (Squadron Leader). He measured our worth mainly on sporting prowess.  There was a very young Mr. Folland an ex Sub Lieutenant R.N. who used to mimic Danny Kaye.  Mrs D. Hale who called a spade a shovel!  We had a music teacher whose name escapes me, he sported a cropped haircut, wore baggy tweeds and taught us Russian marching songs about the 'Steppes' and 'Bold Red Army Heroes '; we all suspected (rightly) that he was somewhat left wing and was trying to convert us. Our sports and science teacher (name gone again) was the proud owner of an old 1932 Austin Ten which he would drive at great speed in a cloud of exhaust fumes. Our woodwork teacher (name gone) took us into making cigarette boxes from plastic, a new material at that time and involved the use of ethylene di chloride as a solvent , heady stuff if you accidently inhaled it. (very non health and safety).

Behind the Quadrangle building was a large piece of rough ground (later temporary class rooms were erected on it). In the winter this would become waterlogged and freeze over. We would arm ourselves with suitable sticks and broom handles and with a puck fashioned in woodwork, we would play our version of ice hockey with teams of up to twenty or more.

Happy days indeed.

 

Our time was immediately after the war and most of the staff were either returning servicemen or older teachers who had been brought back for the duration of hostilities. Everything was in short supply and most things rationed. We had all come through the bombing and had spent much of our school-time in and out of bomb shelters; hence our education was a little sketchy to say the least. But we soon made up for lost time. The war for many of us was a bit of an adventure, collecting shrapnel, regimental badges and insignia.

Plane spotting and watching dog fights in the sky. Hanging around the gun sites at Fairlop Aerodrome, watching planes take off and land and of course plaguing the Yanks for Hershy Bars. By 1945 and the end of the European War (Japan and the Far East had continued) we as eleven year olds were quite a handful for any teacher to cope with, but cope they did and the respect that youngsters had for authority in those days, soon returned things to normality. Although it was not unknown for Dr. Davies to use the 'Cane' . Others had their own particular ways of getting your attention; Mr. Jones favoured a metre rule brought hard down on the desk top of a dozing pupil. Mr Clarke had uncanny aim when throwing a blackboard rubber at an inattentive boy. Another favoured the well aimed plimsole. The ladies in the main stuck to detentions and writing lines.

Yet truancy was practically unheard of as was answering back or arguing with an adult.

There is a particular matter which still rankles with me after all the years have passed, that is in respect of a small number of boys who were the 'inmates' (I use the word advisedly) of a local Children's Home, possibly Doctor Barnado's Homes. These lads attended St Edwards but stood out from the rest of us due to the fact that they were all dressed alike in grey jumpers, grey shorts and socks and black shoes, all wore identical canvas belts with a clasp which resembled a snake. They were decent kids who had lost their parents for various reasons, the war in a lot of cases. We treated them no differently to ourselves. I recall however a particular occasion when  a teacher  was holding forth and lecturing one such boy, during which she constantly referred to him as 'A Homes Boy' using that title in a derogatory manner. She also tended to refer to pupils from  academic streams 'A'  'B' and 'C by that grouping. I recall having started in 1B as the staff did not have my record and then soon being transferred to the 'A' Stream (1 A') when they found I did have a few thoughts in my head. The teacher however still referred to me as a 'B' Boy for some weeks after I had transferred to the higher class. I don't suppose it occurred to her she was a bigot nor would she ever think an eleven year old might pick up on a matters like that. But that was 1945 and I can't say that I like today's 'correctness' any better, the pendulum has swung to far! But why did they have to dress the poor kids all alike, they had no imagination at all, they might as well have tattooed 'I am an orphan' across their foreheads.

A report from 1946......................................

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of

Anne Duncalf