""I Started in lower 5C >upper5c>5B>5A.
The school chef always seemed to be drunk when he had finished making the
staff dinners as he never caught on that we were always taking our share
during prep. Remember Stan who worked in the servery being balled out by one
of the staff for the lack of food.
The butter ration was always an issue as frequently people seemed to lose
theirs or have had it covered in salt.
My Arrival October 1959
I was the sole arrival at Kings that day; it was a late October afternoon, damp and misty. As the taxi drove off I remember being intimidated by the sheer size of the building that confronted me. Matron was standing in the huge entrance doorway ready to welcome me, I had now become Perkins2. Already the feeling of being a new boy became uncomfortable.
During my first dinner and after finishing my issue of marge and butter I was told that "Oi mate that's supposed to last you a week!" I was surprised to find that three other pupils from prep school namely Cameron, Crosthwaite and Hoare were here as well. I had left Hawkhurst Court with a reputation as being a bit of of a scrapper, sadly my standing was no longer of consequence. Dorm 54 was where I was to sleep, it had originally been the Sherborne's ballroom.
I was soon absorbed into the system joining Edington Ross and Lower 5C. Our form master was a Mr Noble who seemed to be quite tollerant. I can remember the intercom system by which we were listened to by JHM. To me this seemed very Orwellian at the time.
My first term was uneventful, albeit I discovered the estates game birds that were easy prey to my catapult. We used to pluck, gut and roast them in the woods to be readily consumed by us hungry boys. On occasion I would send a pheasant home to my grandparents in a biscuit tin which sometimes would arrive full of maggots. At this time I had not been caught by the estate keepers namely Jim Farrell and Foxy Saunders.
However my luck did run out several terms later when we were found hiding up one of those magnificent beech trees adjacent the middle wood. The keeper noted our names and we were duly reported to JHM. To this day I can still remember the feeling of dread when during that night the fire alarm sounded with the school assembling in the Great Hall. JHM glared and in a very stern voice said, "Would the four fools caught by Mr Saunders stand out." Needless to say we were in deep trouble culminating in a vicious hiding with a carefully selected cane delivered to our naked rears.
I did not learn from this and continued my pursuit of both fin and feather. One occasion I was caught red handed by the art master Alan Rosser stowing my air rifle under the floor boards in Upper 5C.I was again in trouble but got away with having an illicit weapon, as it was deemed that if the gun was taken away from the school no further action would be taken. I put this let-out down to the fact that I was good at art and was the producer of the film night posters. The air rifle was taken on exeat by Martin Cash never to be seen or heard of since.
The following term I was able to obtain from John Bennet an old Webley bolt action 410 this was used effectively but due to the loud report not that often this again was replaced with a folding Belgium doubled barreled 410 which was easy to conceal on one's person. In our pursuit for excitement we cycled all over the immediate Cotswolds chasing game; we even tried to catch deer on the Barrington estate.
Clive Sinclaire and I lassoed a heifer up the valley which took off with the pair of us hanging on for grim death. The beast was very much stronger than us so we had to release our hold after being dragged at speed some distance even through cowpats and nettles. There was no report of this escape so we were very relieved as no doubt it would have meant a hiding and expulsion.
These escapades and many more I recall, although chronologically may not be correct - I put that down to my age!
To be continued...Crump
I should have mentioned that my Grandfather gave me a copy of The Poacher's Handbook by Iain Niall one Christmas, which was probably the main reason for my keen interest in "field sports." I also had several adventures on the Windrush and Sherborne Brook with the "usual suspects". I am reminded that I had tried to tickle trout without any success but finally succeeded with both worms and spinners. We even at one time had our fishing line passed down through the trouser leg attempting to discreetly hook a trout; I remember it was in the quiet part of Bourton near the bus station that we tried this latest idea to no avail; I think Garry Yates was with me when we were chased off by a very angry resident.
Many years later Clive Sinclaire and I went on a camping holiday to Westward Ho, we seemed to have walked most of the way. However we did spend our first night on the banks of Sherborne Brook having fortuitously bumped into Foxy who allowed us to pitch our tent there. He did remember me and warned us not to take any fish, this we ignored and duly caught a brace of brown trout that became our supper and there is a photograph to prove our catch.
On one Summer's day our gang found in the Windrush a sunken duck punt that had seen better days and was probably used for shooting. We hauled this out and began to make the repairs over the period of several weekends, finally launching the craft and enjoying the Summer weekends navigating the river that passed in front of Barrington house.
We were having a great time until the Landrover appeared on the horizon. We hurriedly made downstream to a bridge and moored up by holding on to the inside of the bridge, the ends of the punt overhung the river. The Landrover and its driver had stopped in the middle of the bridge and he said that he would wait there until we landed. The person in question was the landowner a Col.Wingfield who had had a steel plate in his skull as a result of a WW2 injury. He was very angry and said, "One day I find the punt up stream and the another time downstream, and today you boys are in my punt." Although he had taken our names this incident was never reported - probably because we had repaired his craft.
Classic pupil teacher windups:
It was a warm and bright September's afternoon when we returned to Kings from our summer holidays. I remember that I been kitted out with a new uniform including
a blazer, suit and sports jacket from Daniel Neals or the Famous. This new kit was bought due to the fact that my height had increased by 3 inches during the
previous term.
It was not long before before our gang was looking to do something mischievous so it was decided that we would go scrumping in the school gardens for apples and
other fruit. We approached the estate garden from the lower wood and fields in an endeavour to hide our progress, you may remember that the garden had a very
significant solid wall which we had to scale. To access the fruit trees I was elected to crawl along the top of the wall and drop the " "forbidden fruit" to the
other boys.
This worked well until I lost my balance a fell and landed right in the middle of chicken "sh12" slurry that over the years had been disposed of in this area. At
first I could not understand why I was not in any pain. However the realization that I was now covered from almost head to foot in the proverbial and reeked like
you would not believe, added together with the new suit was now a serious problem for me. The howls of laughter that followed when I emerged over the wall was
not in any way helpful it only added to my predicament as I now was going to have to explain the soiled clothes.
It was suggested that to clean me up I should to take a shower fully clothed leaving the wet clothing in the boiler room to dry out. This operation was
successfully carried out and subsequently the dried clothes sent out to the laundry and dry cleaners secreted away in a linen basket. Well it did not end there
as when the suit came backed it had shrank considerably as it was one of those heavy grey flannel materials. Miss Gibson was not convinced that the dry cleaners
had ruined my suit despite my insistance that "I dont understand this what has happened". Another suit was ordered which ultimately my father had to pay for
which would be another score he would settle with me when he was next in the UK - that would have been a year or two later before he could confront me. However
there was no escape as he had a very good memory when it came to any unnecessary expense which I had caused.
To be continued Crump
I Can recall all masters and nurses:
J.H.Mosey,
Jefferson Winn,
Peter Thomas ENGLISH,
Micheal Airey GEOGRAPHY,
Peter Thompson.
Bob Wellings HISTORY,
Frank Gatesman MATHS.
Rutherford CHEMISTRY.
David Jamieson MATHS.
Powell SCIENCE.
J Clemo.FRENCH,
Walters SCIENCE.
Rosser ART.
Nurse Smith and Nurse Gibson.
To be continued......Crump.