Back Row: Peter Ballinger, Richard Clarke, Anthony Warder, Roger Yates, Ian Westwell, Simon Pinchbeck, Alan Botham, Barry Martin, Ian Masson
Middle Row: Tony Gott, Tony Hair, Bob Scott (Capt.), Peter Orton, Philip Whirledge, Paul Johnson
Front Row: Noel Butler, Mark Osman

Back Row: Roy Eaton, Chris Leason, Neil Sutcliffe, Alan Tindall, John Cartwright, Ian Westwell, Simon Pinchbeck, Paul Campion, Robert Cockeram, Ian Masson
Middle Row: Richard Clarke, Simon Rowley, Bob Goodall (Capt.), Stephen Murphy, David Mayger, Paul Johnston
Front Row: Noel Butler, Stephen Laxton, David Hill

Back Row: Alan Botham, Paul Brewer, Ian Bentley, John Cartwright
Front Row: Tim Stubbs, Roger Yates, Graham Coleman

An account of the school during World War I Years would be very welcome.

By now, Mr. Robinson had been replaced by Sydney Wilson as headmaster. The school had ceased to be independent and was now a state run school but had a good name for sound, solid work.

The number of boys at the school had now reached three hundred for the first time. It now had a full staff allocation and could be considered to have completely recovered from WWI.

Click here to view large image

A few schoolmasters the likes of Herbert Pitchford, Joseph Hammond and George Cooper can be seen at the outset of their careers, little knowing that there would soon be another major war, or that they had such a long association with the school ahead of them.

Back Row: Michael L Smith, Philip Shelton, Robert Longman, John Tucker, Donald Bauer, Paul Stockbridge, John Freeman, David Noble
Middle Row: Steven Wilcox, Chris Dytham, William Bradford, Peter Clemson, Iain Gray, Steve Hackett, Anthony Hardy, Michael J Smith, Stewart Cumpstone
Front row: Bernard Buckley, Kelvyn Bailey, Clive Smith, Nicholas Foston, Graham Loasby, G.E. ‘Fanny’ Radford (Form master), Ken Jordan, Bob Brooks, Glen Cooper, Kevin Fisher, Keith Foster

Back Row: Graham Howlett, Adrian van Daesdonck, Alastair Sutherland, John Chamberlain, Peter Shotton, Mick Street, Nick Pallett, Steven Elson, Peter Fisher, Philip Bell, Brian Moran, Brian Bond
Middle Row: Andrew Brown, Stephen Hadley, Howard Moore, George Sheldon, Barry Leedham, Stuart Arnold, David Jackson, John Bisbrowne, Robert Street, Dave Kennedy, Richard Hodgkins, Dave Field
Front row: Leo Howe, Robert Gould, Thompson, Andrew Vanables, David Bell, John ‘Jim’ Redmond (Form master), Philip Noble, Roy Bradley, Roddy Haigh, David Williams, Geoff Holden

Back Row: Robert Bull, David Clark, John Shilton, Ian Sutherland, Alan Newton, Mark Franklin, Andrew Woodland, Kevin Crisp, Christopher Dawes, Ian Haynes, Andrew Cheadle, Steven Lakin
Middle Row: Frank Burrows-Flowers, Graham Starmer, Chris Jerram, Ian Derrett, Stephen Taylor, ‘Doris’ Irving, John Wiggins, Brian Davis, Quentin Cubberley, David Glossop
Front row: Wall, Richard Hayes, Sam Williams, Ian Dilks, Andrew Livermore, Ron Illingworth (Form master), Peter Sherratt, Graham Parkinson, Charlie Holden, Bob Barnes, Rory Butler

My time at the school was spent from 1968 to 1973. Looking at this picture of most of the teaching staff taken in 1970 still conjures up some vivid memories some forty years later.

Back Row:
01. John Andrew (Tinman) – [Metalwork], 02. Colin Bagshaw (Bogwash) – [Physics], 03. John Long – [Latin], 04. David Wyatt – [Spanish], 05. John Sneyd – [Physics], 06. Alan Brewerton (Doc) – [Chemistry], 07. Robin Langton (Bumble) – [English/Literature], 08. Graham North – [History], 09. John Armstrong (Louis) – [Maths], 10. Alan Cure – [Geography], 11. John French (Frenchy) – [PE], 12. Chris Aylott – [Maths], 13. Michael Green (Ma) – [English/Economics]

Middle Row:
01. Barningham – [Office], 02. M02, 03. M03, 04. Chris Shepard (Shep) – [English], 05. Peter Dawe (Jackdaw) – [Music], 06. Harry Smith (Brab) – [Maths], 07. G.Davis (Taffy) – [Woodwork/Eng.Drawing], 08. Alan White (Chalky) – [English], 09. Brian Luckett (Chinner) – [Chemistry], 10. Robert James (Jessie) – [French/Latin], 11. Coates – [Office]

Front Row:
01. Walter Chadbourne (Walt) – [Physics], 02. Victor Roebuck (Vic) – [PE/English], 03. Ellick Ward (Ernie) – [French], 04. Hugh Wood (Woody) – [French], 05. Geoffrey Henton (Gaff) – [Geography], 06. Bill Gillion (Beak) – [Maths] *Headmaster, 07. Ron Illingworth (Ronnie) – [Geography], 08. Norman Jones – [Chemistry], 09. Ray Crowther (Joey) – [Biology], 10. Percy Barratt (Butch) – [History], 11. Elizabeth Radford (Fanny) – [Divinity/French]

* grey simply donates that they did not teach me in the ‘B’ Class.

The school was split into four houses; Wellington (Maroon), Clive (Green), Drake (Blue) and Nelson (Black). So we each had to have a house sports shirt in the appropriate colour.

The wooden shields themselves took pride of place in the main hall with two either side of the main school shield.

Looking at the House Shields rekindles the thoughts of how Clive looks somehow out of place and would be more fittingly depicted as a white shield with a green cross. I have not been able to find any genuine heraldic reasons to relate the four crests to their associated historic figures, neither have I been able to identify any other example where the same combination of shields is used so their origin remains a slight mystery; hopefully, I will be enlightened one day.

Seen here are two of the original wooden wall crests from the area in front of the library. While every effort has been made to restore the images, no attempt has been made to ‘graphically restore’ the conditions of the actual crests, which I remember being in much brighter condition.