REMINISCENCES OF WEDNESBURY BOYS HIGH SCHOOL (1947-1954) Introduction.

1947 was the year in which I took the 11+ examinations to decide if I was qualified for high school. I remember we took a couple of IQ tests and then English and Maths tests, all being written in the assembly hall of my primary school, Clothier Street School in Willenhall. I passed and obtained a place at Wednesbury Boys High School (W.B.H.S). At first, I didn't want to go because my two best friends had both failed the 11+ and were going to the Central Secondary Modern School in Willenhall. Luckily, my family took the appropriate measures to change my mind. I remember one evening my Uncle Arthur took me into the front room of my grandparent’s house and gave me an ultimatum. He told me that if I didn't go to W.B.H.S, then they were planning to send me to the Royal Orphanage School in Wolverhampton instead. That decision, or some other factor, changed my mind and I decided I would go to W.B.H.S. in September and hopefully make new friends there. My sister has recently informed me that she thought my reason for choosing W.B.H.S was because I found out they played rugby at the Royal Orphanage School and not football! Anyway, during the summer, we visited Horne Brothers Ltd in Wolverhampton to obtain my school uniform and football strip and I was delighted to find that the strip had similar colours to the Wolves! 1947-48. Form IA One day in September I therefore started in Form 1A at W.B.H.S. I travelled by trolly bus from Willenhall to Walsall and then caught the Wednesbury bus from the bus stand by the Walsall War Memorial. I got off the bus at St Paul’s Church and walked down St Paul’s Road to the school, one of about 55 new boys starting that day. Inside the school we were directed to our designated form rooms, boys whose surnames started with letters between A and L to Form 1A, and boys whose names started with letters between M and Z to Form 1M.

After over 60 years, it is difficult to remember even the names of many of my form mates, but I have tried to do that by looking at the 1948 school photo posted on this website http://oldwodens.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/pho48_fullm.jpg and then showing the photo sections for those boys I think I recognise. These photo sections are shown below. Some of the boys are from the “M” form. My apologies to those who I have missed, or misidentified, or were perhaps absent on the day the photo was taken!!

Ken Burke, Sidney Malpass, Donald Peacock, John Maynard?, Brian Baker.

Tony Carter Bill Jones, ?, Marsall Turton, Keith Baddley

Alan Amos, Harry Perry?, Allan Smith?, Roy Harper. Brian Cooper, Gerald Blakemore

Sidney Richards, Gordon Holt, Victor Lucas, Roger Cole, Derek Croft.

Donald Crutchley, Donald Pace, Brian Nicholls, William Smith.

Tommy Kirk, Brian Foley, Maurice Green, Bill Callaway.

Tom Hutchinson, Sydney Guest, Anthony Foley. Fred Kibble, Len Sanford, Tony Hurley.

Ken Preston, George Orme?, Geoffrey Plant, Louis Allen, Brian Plimmer.

Derek Ashley Joseph Jackson, Sam James.

The form room for 1A was off the same landing as the staff room, with its back windows overlooking the tennis courts. I found a desk at the back of the room and waited for the room to fill with my classmates. Our class were then taken down to the hall for the first morning assembly of the term. After all the forms and teachers had taken their places, Mr. Kipping entered through the front door and everyone stood. He occupied a desk at the side of the room, alongside Mr. Hatcher, who was deputy headmaster at this time. After a short service of hymns and prayers, Mr. Kipping made some school announcements and then we proceeded back to our form rooms for the first lessons of the day.

Our first year courses and masters were as follows: Art Mr. Legge English Mr. Taylor French Mr. Smith Geography Mr. Smith History Mr. Taylor Maths Mr. Turner Physics Mr. Hopkins

I think Mr. Hunt joined the school sometime in 1947 or 1948 as the physical education instructor.

At the junior level, several masters covered different subjects; hence we had both Mr. Taylor and Mr. Smith for two different subjects. There was also occasionally a

substitute teacher and I remember we had a woman for part of our French lessons. She insisted on giving people French names to use in our attempts at conversational French and so my name was “Bernard”. This led to me acquiring my nickname by which most of my classmates will remember me. Gerald Blakemore looked at me one day after a French session and said to me “You don’t look like a Bernard; you look more like a Barney”. I don’t know whether he said that because of my Irish surname, or for another reason. Anyway, that is the nickname that stuck with me for the rest of my school career.

I don’t remember much about the actual lessons themselves; just a few characteristics and habits of the masters. Mr Smith had an extremely loud voice and the command “Burke, sit down” would probably echo around most of the adjacent rooms and corridors. Mr. Turner (Joe) always addressed us as gentlemen: i.e. “Please, gentlemen, let us have less noise”. I always thought he had a lot more respect for us than many of the other masters. He had also been a fine cricketer in his youth, I think playing for one of the minor county teams: Wiltshire.

Mr. Kipping gave us some instruction on playing chess, perhaps on days when the weather made t unfit for us to go outside to play games. We used to pair up and play chess against each other and “The Boss” would walk around saying “Get your bishops and knights out”. There was also a chess club that met after school hours and Mr Kipping used to play a dozen or so boys in the lunch room, all at the same time, and gave a sixpence or a shilling to any boy that beat him. I don’t think many did. From memory, I think Bill Callaway was the best player in our form and represented the school in chess matches.

One of the other distractions in the 1A form room was the passage of the “Dudley Dasher” several times a day along the rail track behind the school. This was a push pull tank engine plus carriages that ran between Walsall and Dudley. For those without watches it was one way of knowing how time was progressing. Also, at lunchtime, those of us interested in railways and collecting train numbers could walk down St Paul’s Road to the Bescot engine sheds. There was a sewage works part way along the road with its characteristic aroma and, in those days, open conduits through which the effluent of the sewers was clearly visible!

First formers at W.B.H.S. were called ‘fags’ and were often tormented by some of the older boys. There was an old hut in the playground with a space between it and the wall of the building, where some of the older boys used to round up the >fags= and put them in what they called the Acrush hole@ during the mid-morning break. This went on for a few weeks until, one day; I refused to go as one of the older boys was pushing me towards the Ahole@. He started to hit me and I retaliated and landed a lucky punch on his nose, which began to bleed profusely. Of course, that meant a teacher had to be involved and we were both hauled before the headmaster for fighting and given detentions.

I made friends with two boys in the 1M form from Wednesfield; Len Sanford and Sidney Richards. They travelled almost the same route as me from school. We had to catch a bus to Walsall from the stop on Wood Green and then a bus from Walsall to Willenhall, before walking through the town centre to the Wednesfield bus stop, where we parted company. If we had money to spend, in winter, we stopped at the roast potato cart by the station in Walsall in winter, or, at other times, at a cake shop for a 2d cake (cream horns or almond slices), or sometimes for chips at a fish and chip shop. From where did we get money? Well, of course, we received pocket money and money for

running errands for people. However, I also remember earning money from people attending the Willenhall Greyhound Track, close to where I lived. Some people parked their cars on a piece of near-by waste land and we would offer to look after their parked cars, while their owners went to the races. After the races were over and they came back to the cars and found them in good shape, we would be rewarded with a three penny bit, or a tanner, or maybe even a shilling if the bloke had won a lot of bets!

After leaving my friends at the Wednesfield bus stop, I then continued walking down Stafford Street to Wednesfield Road and onto Clothier Street to my grandparents’ house. Soon after I started at W.B.H.S., my grandfather asked me what classes I was doing. I listed them off; Art, English, French, Geography, History, Mathematics and Physics. On hearing the latter word my grandfather said AGood, yo’ll know how to mak a bottle of fizhic (that being a Black Country term for a bottle of medicine at the time) and I wo have to fetch it from the doctors@!

1948-49. Form IIA In September of 1948, I returned to W.B.H.S. as a second former and to a new form room. Our class now occupied the room between the office and the changing rooms, on the ground floor at the front of the school. We added the subject of German to our curriculum and some of the masters teaching the courses changed. Mr. Ede was now our History teacher and Mr. Wainwright taught us Physics. One day, while we were writing a test in English, Mr Taylor, who was sitting on the radiator at the front of the class suddenly collapsed and fell to the floor. This was I think the beginning of a serious illness for him and I seem to remember we had a succession of other people teaching us English, until Jimmy Ladkin showed up either during this or the next school year. This was the year that we had Mr. Kipping for two courses; German and Divinity. The emphasis in German was very much on learning grammar and using the correct word order in sentences. This approach probably reflected his scientific background. We also had to learn verses from poetry and the opening lines from Die Lorelei by Heinrich Heine have stayed in my memory to this day. “Ich weiss nicht, was sol les bedeuten, Dass ich so traurig bin …”. The only thing I remember from the spoken side of the subject is trying to pronounce “ich”, when I received the following advice from the “Boss”; “It is not ick, boy.… Get some phlegm in your throat and say “ichh…” His pronunciation stays in my memory as like someone getting ready to spit! Although I only stayed in the German class until I dropped it in favour of chemistry in the fourth form, what I learned in the 2 years did me in good stead when I worked in Germany as a second year university student.

In Divinity, we usually studied different chapters of the Bible with the “Boss” (or “Ezekiel” (another nickname we used for Mr. Kipping) explaining the text and giving an interpretation. Each boy in the class had to read three verses out loud as part of the lesson. The order of the readings were chosen by the class monitor, so that it paid to keep in his good books, so that you were not chosen to read three verses with long lists of nearly unpronounceable names! Mr Kipping was also fond of quoting part of one of the quatrains of Omar Khayyam to us after catching us in a misdemeanour: The Moving Finger writes; And having writ moves on, Nor all thy piety nor wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line Nor all your tears wash out a word of it. Another memory of the Boss at this time was to see him dash along the corridor outside our form room, when he had spotted some misbehaviour outside the changing rooms or in the crush hall. Talk about the speed of light! I have not written yet about the sports activities at the school. We had two physical education (PE) classes per week in the school hall with Mr. Hunt. The classes started with gymnastic exercises, progressed to jumps and twists on gym equipment, but what I enjoyed most were the games of handball we played at the end of the sessions. On Thursday mornings, the lower forms went for swimming lessons at the Wednesbury Baths in the town centre. I remember how cold it was in the winter months and, on many mornings, steam would be rising from the surface of the water. Those who had an excuse not to go swimming were recruited to work in the headmaster’s garden doing a number of chores.

A couple of times a week, the A and M forms played each other at football or cricket, depending on the time of the year. The school houses also played each other at football or cricket on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. I seem to remember I played for the Willenhall house junior football team during my second year. I remember in particular one Saturday afternoon playing on a rainy and muddy day on the field alongside the headmaster’s garden. With no showers or baths in the school, just wash basins, it was difficult to get clean to travel home and the conductor almost didn’t let us on the bus! Talking about football reminds me of what was probably the highlight of 1949 for me; that was going to see the Wolves play Leicester in the F.A. Cup Final at Wembley. My older sister and I travelled to London on a football special from Willenhall station to Euston. From there we went by tube to Wembley station, where my sister left me and I joined the people heading towards the stadium. Jessie Pye scored two goals and Sammy Smythe scored one for the Wolves, who won 3-1. It was quite an adventure for a 13 year old boy to be in a crowd of almost 100,000 and even better when my favourite team won! After the match, I rejoined my sister at the tube station and then visited relatives in London, before returning to Euston to join the football special train back to Willenhall at midnight. Although all the fans were obviously celebrating, I don’t remember any damage, or wilful behaviour on the train. How times have changed! 1949-50. Form IIIA When I returned to W.B.H.S. in September of 1949, our form was in the same classroom. We added the subject of Chemistry taught by Mr. Hopkins to the courses taken. Mr. Hopkins was a tall silver-haired man and I remember we nicknamed him “Long John Silver” after he injured a leg and appeared on crutches. One of his favourite mannerisms was to raise both his arms, if he wanted us to open the windows during lab sessions when we were preparing some of the more noxious gases.

Geography was now taught by Mr. Hatcher and Mr. Gill taught us Physics. Mr. Hatcher was rather an imposing individual as expected of a deputy head. I enjoyed his geography lessons, particularly those on map drawing. It is interesting for me to realise that I have spent quite a bit of my subsequent career in map preparation, not the physical and topographical maps of geography, but maps of the variations of the earth’s

geophysical properties, such as the earth’s gravity and magnetic fields. I do not have any real memories of Mr. Gill, probably because at that point in my life my main scientific interest was chemistry rather than physics.

Mr. Ladkin was now our English instructor and we continued German and Divinity with Mr. Kipping. “Jimmy” Ladkin was an interesting individual with a handlebar moustache, who I think had recently come out of the RAF. He was an exciting teacher, always challenging us to consider new ideas, but reminding us to write using the rules of English grammar. He lacked the conservatism of some of the other masters and I always felt he was “one of the lads”. I have been able to identify the following third form boys on the school photo for 1950, http://oldwodens.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/pho50_fullm.jpg The photo sections are shown below. Some of the boys are from the “M” form. There are many others who I recognise, but whose names I have forgotten. Again my apologies to the latter, those who I have missed, or misidentified, or were perhaps absent on the day the photo was taken!

Maurice Green, Victor Lucas, Sydney Guest, Tony Hurley, Don Crutchley.

Sidney Richards, Louis Allen, Brian Plimmer, ?, Tony Carter, Tommy Kirk.

Sammy James, ?, Len Sanford, Max Williams?, Don Peacock

Ken Preston, Geoffrey Plant, Sidney Malpass, William Smith.

Gordon Holt, Tony Foley, Brian Foley, Marsall Turton, Donald Pace.

Derek Ashley, Gerald Blakemore, Brian Baker, Roger Cole, Ken Burke, ? , Tom Hutchinson.

Brian Cooper, Fred Kibble, Roy Harper, Joseph Jackson, Keith Baddley, Bill Callaway, Alan Amos. I think it was in this school year that two other boys joined our class, although I couldn’t spot them on the school photo for 1950. They were Graham? Onions and a cockney lad, whose last name was ? Davis, I think.

Some of the masters who taught IIIA Mr. Hatcher, Mr. Kipping, Mr. Ede, Mr. Smith, Mr. Legge, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Gill?, Mr. Ladkin. (I am not sure about the identification of Mr. Gill because he was only at the school for a short time)

Mr. Denham, Mr. Powell, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Coatham, Mr. Mangan.

One other photograph I have from the third form is of the IIIA football team that I found while looking at old photos on a visit to my sister. It was probably taken in the autumn of 1949.

Back row: Roy Harper, Brian Cooper, Brian Foley, Don Crutchley, Fred Kibble, Sam James. Front row: Ken Burke, Sydney Guest, Tommy Kirk, Louis Allen, Tony Hurley. Looking at some of my classmates from Willenhall on the photos brings back memories of occasions when the buses stopped running because of the thick fogs, particularly in the winter months. Because it would be much further to walk along the bus route through Walsall, the Willenhall boys would head along Myvod Road, through the back streets of Darlaston, past factories and canals, to our various destinations in Willenhall. There usually was a gang of us, all assuming we knew the way, and I don’t actually remember ever getting lost! Our classes continued very much the same as in the previous year. The addition of chemistry to our curriculum did encourage a few of us to prepare our own fireworks, which in those days could be made from chemicals purchased from chemist’s shops. I also remember iron filings could be obtained readily from the waste heaps of key and lock shops in Willenhall. Because fireworks for Guy Fawke’s Night were in fairly short supply in these post war years, our amateur efforts were a useful supplement to the entertainment around the bonfire. Another incident that I remember from this school year was during the conker season. While walking back to the school from the Wednesbury Baths one Thursday, I and a couple of friends spotted a horse-chestnut tree in Brunswick Park loaded with fruit. We immediately went inside and using what ever rocks and stones we could see lying

around threw them up into the tree to dislodge the conkers. Unfortunately, while we were doing this, we were spotted by one of the park attendants, who started to give chase. We immediately bolted out of the park to the south side and lost our pursuer somewhere in the residential streets. Luckily for us, we had removed our school caps, so that he was not able to identify our school and I do not remember any repercussions. The doffing of school caps was a common occurrence in walking from the baths, because we were not supposed to stop and buy and eat food along the way. This didn’t stop several of us going to a fish shop in the town centre for a serving of chips and I think there was also a meat shop where 1d dips were sold; a slice of bread dipped in the gravy from the meat they cooked and sold by the slice. Lunchtime was the major break we had during the school day. It was also, of course, a time to catch up with homework required for afternoon classes! Many boys brought their own lunch to school and, after eating it, we would often go outside for various activities on the playing fields. If it was raining, or perhaps really cold outside, we would play card games such as Pontoon, or a version of shove halfpenny on the desk top. My memory of the latter was that we had converted the game to one of football, with pennies being the players and the halfpenny the ball, with goals chalked on each end of the desk. We flicked the pennies with our fingers. This ws a very simple version of the table football game; Subbuteo, which was very popular then. 1950-51. Form IVA I think we changed classrooms in this year to one of the rooms in the prefabricated building behind the chemistry lab. I am not sure whether this happened at the beginning of the school year, or later; I just remember taking classes there. This was the year in which we had to decide to continue to take Chemistry or German. I chose the former. Mr. Smith was replaced by Mr. Mangan (Sam) as our French teacher. Sam was an interesting character, who had a high regard for European culture and couldn’t understand us “Black Country louts”, who chased a leather ball around the field, instead of following the pure pursuit of athletics! Nevertheless, he was an excellent teacher and I have benefited significantly from the grounding he gave me in French, having lived most of my life in a bilingual country. Another memory from this year was that we had Mr Denham replacing Mr Ladkin for our English class once every two weeks. Mr Denham had a system set up for disciplinary purposes that you were allowed 4 misbehaviours before he would put you in detention. After 2 weeks the record would be cleared. Since, we only had him for classes every 2 weeks; it was easy for us to use up to 3 offences in one class, because we would not see him again before the slate would be wiped clean! I think he eventually realised what we were doing and changed the rules for our form. The Christmas season of 1950 was the first opportunity that I had to work as a temporary postman in the Willenhall Post Office to help with the delivery of all the extra mail. We made three deliveries a day and even a delivery on Christmas morning, when many people gave us tips, or at least a mince pie! It was also a source of money and I used my wages to acquire a bicycle with the great help of my form mate and friend, Derek Ashley. Because there was purchase tax on an assembled bike, I purchased a frame, wheels, tyres, chain wheel, gears and handle bars separately and Derek and I built the bike in my backyard.

Derek also taught me to ride, even surviving a collision as I wobbled into him on my first tentative ride to Short Heath! Most weekends from then I would spend cycling, although I rarely, if ever, cycled to school. I visited many places in the Midlands and nearby Wales in this way, on roads that were nearly devoid of cars and trucks. Most Sundays, you would see cycling clubs riding as packs of riders along the highways. In the summer months, we used geared bicycles, but in the winter months many of us changed to fixed wheels for extra control on slippery roads and the constant pedalling kept us warm!

The finished bicycle .

We were also maturing as individuals and the office girls travelling on the buses were becoming of more interest. I remember I changed my walking route in the mornings to the Walsall bus, so that I could chat to a girl walking to catch the bus to Bilston Girls High School. Youth clubs and cycling clubs also gave us the opportunity to mingle with the “fairer sex”. It was the practice in those days to push or pull the girl riders up the hills as a way of becoming acquainted! This was also the year when I became a bit of a rebel in protesting one of the rules of the school. It was the practice for every boy in the school to be entered in three events

for the annual sports day and to participate in the heats. Many boys were not very athletic and felt humiliated when then finished 30 or 40 yards behind the winners, or could only fling the javelin a few feet. I therefore walked one of the heats for the 100 yards with two of these boys and we finished the race in a dead heat a couple of minutes after the winner crossed the finishing line. There was thus no way to decide who was second and would proceed to the next heat. Anyway, the three of us were hauled up before the headmaster and admonished for showing disrespect for the school. We were also banned from the following sports day. Many of the individuals in our form were talented in athletic and other pursuits. Sammy James, Don Crutchley and Fred Kibble I think were playing for the school’s first football team. Bill Callaway was representing the school in chess. Derek Croft was a talented musician and played the clarinet at school concerts and also I seem to remember him playing the piano for school assemblies. There were probably many other talented boys who I have unfortunately forgotten. So far, I have not written anything about cricket. This is probably because I was only mediocre, at best, at this sport. I was not very good at batting and I was a left arm spin bowler. One day, I remember, playing in an interclass game, I dove to make a catch in the slips and missed the ball, which hit me in the eye instead. I ended up going to the Eye Infirmary in Wolverhampton and having to wear a patch over my eye for several weeks and receiving the title of Pirate Barney from many of my form mates. The school had marvellous facilities for cricket and a scoreboard with rotating wheels that allowed the display of the batsmans’ scores and the total to be changed as the game progressed. I think I was told that Mr. Kipping had actually designed and been involved in the building of the scoreboard. Anyway, it was greatly admired by people from visiting schools. I supported the Warwickshire County Cricket club and Eric Hollies, a spin bowler, who played for England was my hero at this time. They won the Championship in 1951 and beat the West Indies touring team during one exciting match I watched at Edgbaston. 1951-52. Form VA Our class now occupied the room between the back of the assembly hall and the chemistry lab, on the ground floor at the back of the school. This was the year when many of us would be take the GCE (Ordinary Level). Most of the masters were the same as in form IV, but we did have a change in Physics to Mr. Goodyear (“Satchmo”). The latter was a dour Yorkshireman, who suffered no nonsense in class. I believe Mr. Goodyear’s nickname was derived from his resemblance to Louis Armstrong, because many of us were jazz fans at this time. Mr. Goodyear was however a friendly individual and I remembered he gave me considerable assistance with a new hobby I had chosen; short wave radio. I built my own short wave receiver and enjoyed listening to transmissions from all over the world and receiving QSL cards in reply to the reception reports I had sent. For our English literature GCE paper, we had to study set topics. I remember that the Shakespeare play was “King Henry IV, Part 1” and the poet was John Keats, but I cannot remember which novelist we were assigned. I also remember reading a lot of Bernard Shaw’s plays in Jimmy Ladkin’s classes. To try to improve our proficiency in French, Sam Mangan encouraged us to put on a play by Molière. I do not remember which play it was and the only contribution I remember making were the three sharp

knocks on the stage floor before the curtains opened. Apparently this was a tradition adopted by travelling players in France to announce the play was starting and to make sure the stage was sturdy enough to bear the weights of the actors! Sam also introduced us to the works of Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant and Zola, as he tried to expose us other cultures. I do not remember specialising in any specific topics in History and Geography for the GCE and I guess we just completed the syllabus in Chemistry, Maths and Physics because no new topics come to mind. This was also the year when many of us were contemplating future careers and to help us make choices we had Wednesday afternoon works visits to local companies, such as Cadburys, Stewart Crystal and Rolls Royce. The sample chocolates were enjoyed on site at Cadburys; I still have the glass swan given to us as a sample by Stewart Crystal but, alas, my garage does not house a Rolls Royce!

Mr. Turner was the careers master and I think visited each boy in his home and discussed their future plans with parents or guardians. In my case, it was during this visit that he advised me that I should stay on in the sixth form to prepare for a university education in science or engineering, if I wanted to follow my expressed interest in the oil industry. I owe a large debt of gratitude to Mr. Turner because he obtained a “Rotary” scholarship for me to stay on in the sixth form, as both of my parents were dead and I was being supported financially by my two older sisters at this time. This was again a year I worked as a temporary postman during the Christmas season and I remember I was bitten on the back of the leg by a dog as I walked down a path after delivering some letters. Most of my wages this year were spent on the purchase of a 2 ¼” film camera, with which I took most of my photos included in these reminiscences. I also remember developing my own films and making contact prints. 1951 was the year that I managed to be selected for the school’s 2nd eleven football team. I remember playing away games at Bilston, and I think Brewood , but my downfall came in a home game on a Saturday afternoon. Rather luckily, I scored a goal on a volley from outside the penalty area and did a Robbie Keane type celebration along the goal line. Unfortunately, my demonstration was spotted by Mr. Kipping and on the following Monday morning I was summoned to his office. The Boss gave me a severe telling off for my excessive celebrations and then noticing the length of my hair told me I wouldn’t be allowed to play again until I had it cut. This was the era of jazz bands and long hair was becoming fashionable with the band players and also the fans, of which I was one. I therefore rather obstinately dug my heels in and refused to comply and lost my place on the football team. However, it did lead to me becoming interested in Cross Country running, which Mr. Hunt had just re-established as a sport at the school. Unfortunately, this was a year when I ran a little wild, along with some of my colleagues. I remember after we had written our GCE papers, we were still expected to attend regular classes and do lessons. One afternoon, a few of us went absent from the classroom and hid in the cricket pavilion, where we played cards and some of us smoked cigarettes. Of course, we were caught and put under even stricter disciplinary control. The protest cumulated on the last day of term, when some boys took their exercise books and burnt them in a fire outside our classroom. A collective punishment for all the people from our form was to write a letter of apology to the headmaster, before we would be permitted to return in the sixth form.

However, rather than end this fifth year account on a sour note, I will report on another practice that I have just remembered. This was the end of term tradition of having an end of term assembly, usually singing “Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come” and then going to shake hands with all the masters, who lined up around the staff room and bid each boy good wishes. If we were brave enough we also ventured downstairs to shake the hand of the “Boss”. In the summer holidays, I spent some time working in a car spring factory in Wolverhampton. I also went away with Derek Ashley and another boy, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, for a holiday in Blackpool. We stayed in an attic room in a boarding house and thought we were the “bee’s knees” in our “zoot” suits and flashy ties. I remember visits to the Tower Ballroom and Pleasure Beach and going to see a film featuring Gene Krupa, who was one of my favourite jazz musicians. I passionately wanted to be a drummer, but I never progressed past the stage of drum sticks and a practice pad! 1952-53. Lower 6th Form.

In September, I returned to W.B.H.S. as a member of the Lower 6th Form. I was in the Science program, taking Chemistry, Physics and Applied and Pure Maths. Mr. Hopkins, of course, was the Chemistry master and Mr. Goodyear continued to teach us Physics. In Maths, Mr. Turner was responsible for Applied Maths and Mr. Rae was the master in charge of our Pure Maths instruction. Mr. Rae was the only new master in this group and I remember him as a very enthusiastic teacher, who quickly filled the blackboard with derivations of mathematical relationships, which left some of us strugglers in maths staring in amazement! Over the subsequent two years of instruction, he gradually brought us up to a level of understanding that allowed us to finally understand the assigned curriculum. He was also a keen musician and I think took over the choir master responsibilities from Mr. Mangan. Some of my colleagues, who had intentions of going into dentistry or medicine, had to attend evening sessions at Birmingham Technical College, because W.B.H.S. did not have a biology teacher at this time.

In order to make sure we had a rounded education, several of the other masters gave us short courses in topics such as psychology and philosophy. Jimmy Ladkin encouraged our interest in English literature by providing books by Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence and George Orwell, to name just a few authors, and requiring us read at least 6 books per term. The books were housed in a cupboard in our form room because some of the books would not have met with the approval of the headmaster, if he found them in the school library. There was a rumour that the “Boss” particularly didn’t like the works of D.H. Lawrence! This was all good preparation for the General paper in GCE, which we were required to sit to accompany our science subjects. Our form room was on the landing next to the staff room. Because this classroom was also used for instruction to the Arts students, we often spent our free periods in the school library. I remember one day seeing one of my colleagues reprimanded by the “Boss”, because he had one foot raised on top of one of the bookcases. His plea that he was only demonstrating a step from a ballet he had seen the night before only fell on deaf ears!

I was still involved with the school’s Cross Country running team and remember several of our races against other schools. We ran in a snow blizzard at Bilston, and on a wet soggy day at, I think, the Handsworth Grammar School course. Our home course went away from the school in the direction of Bescot and included two foot bridges over the railway tracks towards the end, which used to surprise our opponents who were expecting the essentially flat course to continue. I also represented the school in the half mile at an Inter Grammar Sports meeting at (Newcastle-under-Lyme?), having cycled there in the morning from Willenhall. It was my first experience of running in spiked running shoes and I remember on the first bend of the race, I was spiked by one of the other runners and did not finish in the first three as I hoped to do. Anyway, it was good experience and certainly improved my performance in the distance events at the subsequent Sports Days at the school. Whilst in the sixth form, I went on the school trip to Switzerland. I remember on landing in France, three of us went into the bar at Boulogne railway station. There were not the same age restriction in France for the consumption of alcohol and there was a pretty barmaid behind the counter. I had a 20 franc note given to me by a relative and was eager to spend it and have some refreshment for our train journey. I negotiated with the barmaid to buy a bottle of wine. She poured me a sample in a glass and it tasted good and she then took a bottle of wine from beneath the counter and assured me it was the same wine. I purchased the bottle and took it on the train to share with my friends. However, when we opened it up as the train rattled across France, it tasted like vinegar and I realised I had been duped by a pretty face! Below are a few photos of people taken on the trip. I have tried to identify as many boys as possible, but although I recognised some of the people from lower forms, many of their names have long since disappeared from my memory.

Terry Prince, Keith Dent and Bill Jones on ferry from Folkstone to Boulogne.

Brian Foley rowing on the Oschinensee Bill Jones rowing on the Oschinensee

Ken Burke on Schynige Platte. ? and Bill Jones on Schynige Platte.

Two lower form boys in glacial cave ? Horne and St. Bernard dog

Mr. Smith and Mr. Coatham on left, Brian Foley on right plus several boys from lower forms. 1953-54. Upper 6th Form. From the 1954 school photograph, I have been able to identify the following colleagues of my final year at W.B.H.S. There are other boys from the lower sixth, who I recognise, but do not remember their names and others who I think were absent on the day the photo was taken.

Bill Jones, Victor Lucas, John Norwood, Brian Foley, Roy Thomas?, Keith Dent.

Terry Prince, William Smith, Sidney Malpass, Ken Burke.

Brian Nicholls, Sidney Richards. Another memory from sixth form days was the great interest in car racing. Bill Jones owned his own vehicle and attended the various car races in the country. I remember going to Oulton Park with Bill one day and enjoying the day away from our studies. Bill was great fun to be with and the comedian and mimic of our class. He often mimicked the various masters, including the “Boss”, but I don’t remember him ever being caught in the act! I also remember a superb performance by him as “Queen Victoria” in a debate between historical characters in the Sixth Form Discussion Group. The latter group was a valuable part of our continuing education. Each sixth former made presentations to the group, or participated in debates on topics of interest to them, or topics which were of current interest. I remember making a presentation on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, whose preparation enabled me to extend my knowledge of the geography and history of that part of Africa. It was also good experience for those of us who were not accustomed to public speaking. Those boys who were not staying on for a third year in preparation for the scholarship exams for entrance to “Oxbridge” colleges had to decide which universities to apply to for admission. In those days, provisional acceptance required interviews at the chosen universities and a day off school to travel. I enjoyed trips to the chemistry departments at the University of Bristol and Liverpool and to mining engineering departments at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield. I finally chose the University of Leeds and the rest is history as they say! Final thoughts. What contribution did my education at W.B.H.S. make to the rest of my life? Well not only did it provide me with the knowledge and skills to pursue a successful career in science, the lessons learned on the playing fields and in interaction with masters and boys were an excellent preparation to living in the wider community of university and beyond. The interests sparked in Geography and History classes have been satisfied by worldwide travel and fieldwork in places stretching from the Canadian Arctic, to the jungles of Borneo, to the hills of New Zealand. The political awareness awoken by debates and interaction with masters and boys from other backgrounds has been a useful attribute as I have moved and lived in new countries. The introduction to literature has lead to continuing pleasure in reading books and essays as part of my social activity.

Arte Marte Vigore The school motto, which I loosely translate as; Skill, Courage and Energy, (not having the benefit of Mr. Coatham’s tuition, except on the football field), probably sums it up for us Old Wodens. W.B.H.S gave us the skills and courage to pursue our dreams, and as long as we supplied the energy, there was little we could not achieve.

Ken (Barney) Burke. January 24, 2010.