Ian Kjaer (kjær) - was a great nature lover. He and I used to trek miles looking for red shank, snipe and plovers. I remember him catching a snake and putting it in a preserving jar to take back to Denmark.
During this time a boy named Routledge from Wootton Bassett lived at a house called the Lime Kiln. (I remember this because we drew one in Chadwick's lessons). Routledge had a hobby of collecting cheese labels and it got completely out of hand, with many boys sending begging letters to firms in Europe. Adez sent one in French and the firm sent it back with spelling mistakes corrected, thinking he was English!
Ian Kjaer (kjær) had relations in Denmark who owned a cheese company. He managed to negotiate a large consignment to be shared around and I think this put an end to it all. [Labels I presume - not the cheese! Ed.]
The poem [referred to in (UD06/28) ) by Little John - it was put in by Mr Chadwick but whether he actually wrote it is debatable. I later saw it in a magazine and mentioned it to him but he did not comment. I think it may have been written by a friend at ICI.
Scouts at KS - were very successful and it was run by Mr Thompson who was also the deputy headmaster. Mr Benn was deputy scout master. We had 6 King scouts; I remember when they went to Windsor Castle to collect their awards from King George VI. For some reason they were allocated a separate room in the stable block above the science room. The ordinary scout meetings were held in a Nissan hut by the churchyard. There were three patrols, Peewits, Kestrels and Wood Pigeons. Two summer camps were held, one on Exmoor and the other in North Wales. One camp I attended was the North Cotswold camp at Upper Swell where we won the best troop award.
It all came to an end when Mr Thompson left. Rumour had it that he did not agree with JHM's corporal punishment regime.
Yes we did have ATC at KS; it was run by Geoff Perry. They used to have drill parades in the back yard by the tractor shed. There again, it all came to a halt when Geoff Perry left.
PS - It was great to hear that Patrick Delaney is in touch with the old boys. I remember the brothers well although I was junior to them. I think their parents were in Ceylon. Mike was a keen games man; Patrick was not. When JHM introduced compulsory games on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, Patrick persuaded JHM to allow a cycling club to be formed. He organised a cross country race which finished in the layby on the top road. Patrick won by a mile, cheered by a large crowd of boys. Perhaps Patrick could give us the full story about cycling outside the 10 mile radius!
An ordinance survey map was put on the notice board with a circle of 10 mile radius. Cycling outside the area was forbidden. I think Patrick extended this as rumours were circling that people were seen as far away as Cheltenham.
I was school cricket scorer for the seasons 1953-54, so this incident must have been in '54 as this was my last term at Sherborne. A pretty girl in diaphanous dress landed on the grass at the side of the score table, she appeared rather shy but the boys made up for this by pressing her for her details and giving their addresses on bits of paper; one or two were over persistant which I remember rather annoyed me at the time. She was invited to tea but whether she attended I can't be sure. She disappeared as quickly as she appeared, never to be seen again, it certainly was a talking point for days, girls were rare at Sherborne.
The reason there were no spectators was that the school was at tea, the teams had a second sitting with better food, which always
impressed the away team. I remember we had a good team at the time. Roger Davis, a stylish opening bat and wicket keeper 'Taffy' Eldridge from Pontypool, a fast bowler; Peter Bailey from Solihul, a good all-rounder - to mention a few.
Whilst doing National Service in the Royal Engineers at Long Marston in 1956 I met Peter at the Stratford Mop. I haven't seen or spoken to him since, I wonder if he is out there somewhere - if you are please get in touch with us.
"Taffy" Eldridge was only at KS for a short time and later married a girl from Sherborne and worked on local farms; but he died prematurely.