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1962-1965 Mandalay Primary School 1965-1969 Victoria College Preparatory School 1969-1976 Victoria College SchoolVictoria College School
This is a boys only school. The headmaster at the time I went there was Mr Martyn Devenport. Entrance was gained only after passing a College entrance examination (separate from the 11-plus). If you came from Prep, you remained in the same house. There are four houses at Victoria College, named after old Victorians who distinguished themselves in the First World War, each with a distinctive colour. Mine was Braithwaite (green). There were also Bruce (blue), Sartorious (red) and Dunlop (yellow). Junior School The first two forms formed the "Junior School", where you had one form teacher, and also a head of the Junior School. My form teacher was Mr Robert Tilling, who is a well-known local artist, and he also was the school art master. The head of the Junior School at this time was Colonel "Jack" Fearon, who also took the top (of three sets) of French (my set), and was the only master I ever came across who acually used caning as a form of punishment. (I was never caned, however). Later Geoffrey Powell took over. Jack Fearon took a group of us to the Opera House to see Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" from the "gods" - the upper gallery. This was my first experience of Gilbert and Sullivan, and I enjoyed it very much. The Junior School held its daily morning assembly in the Howard Davis Hall, part of the school build from a donation by T.B. Davis. This took the form of hymns, prayers and readings from the bible. History: My first history teacher was Stephen Lucas (nickname "Spike"), who later formed a famous "double act" for after-dinner comic turns with L.A. "Dixie" Landick. He later began one of the afternoon activities for the Upper School, Island Field Studies, which explored the islands geology, archaeology and history (over three terms); he encouraged me to present a project with text and photos on the archaeology of Jersey which gained me the Raph Mollet Prize for Local History. He had a great sense of humour. I still remember a well-known local advocate, then a schoolboy, swinging on a branch of a tree. "There is S- the simian", he dryly commented. Later, we had Derek Cottrill, who used to enliven lessons periodically with extracts from Maucaulay such as "The Black Hole of Calcutta". A small group of us helped him after school hours with the filing of documents in the old building known as "The Temple", and it was from this important collection of school documents that he obtained much information for his history of the College. Latin: The Latin teacher was H. Salt, affectionately known as "Noddy" because of the action of his head when conjugating Latin verbs. He retired after my first year. We were the last year to do Latin at College, using Wilding's Latin Course for Schools as our textbook. After that, we had Paddy Blomfield, who use to end the odd lesson with a "Lions and Christians" game. Finally, we had Geoff Powell, who also organised a "Latin Trip" at Easter to visit Rome for those who were interested; it dropped down to four of us, but it was still worthwhile to see the vast Colliseum, Hadrian's Villa and the Vatican, amongst other sights. Ronald Youngs, the head of English at College, met us there one day to take us round an art gallery, and I can still remember the sight of him as he stopped the traffic - a bowler clad Englishman, in suit, waving an umbrella at the cars to stop as he weaved his way on. One of my classmates used to look over the shoulder at my friend John Hallam if he found a translation difficult. John was very clever, and able to rapidly translate the correct text in the front of his book, then placing a new text at the back. A classic text on the death of Caesar, duly copied by the cheat, was amended to read "Caesar, armed to the teeth, went into the Senate House..." and continued likewise! Mathematics: The mathematics teacher in my first year was Geoffrey Powell. There were three sets in mathematics, and I was in the second set. The "new mathematics" had begun with set theory, Venn diagrams, matrices and the like, all of which were most appealing after the endless sums on currency, weights and measurements. At the end of the year, I came second in the year in mathematics, beaten only by John Hallam (who later became a close friend); I was moved to the top set for mathematics, taken by Charles Green, whose nickname in the school was "Gloop" for reasons lost in the mists of time. Charles Green also took a small group of any interested boys on a Saturday morning to various sites to explore Jersey's local history; he kindled my interest in such matters, which led to me joining the Societe Jersiaise Juniors, along with many of my friends. He also ran the school Junior chess club, which I attended for a while, and I still visualise him with a chess board, puffing gently on his pipe, while he played. He also organised inter-school chess matches, and I remember one game against Hautlieu (when they were still at the Rouge Bouillon site) and one against Elizabeth College Guernsey; the Guernsey boys flew over, but because of fog, we each put one up for the night at our homes. After Mr Green retired, we had a new mathematics teacher, Mr Christopher Phillips. A brilliant Welshman, he was still studying for a Ph.D., which he obtained while at the College. He also took a small group of us to Highlands College, where we were able to type up programs in Basic, Algol and Fortran on a teletype terminal (on punched tape). We would connect to a Honeywell computer in Manchester after six, and feed our programs through and run them. All primitive by today's standards! Later, the head of mathematics, John Le Breton took our classes. He was keen shooter at Bisley with the College C.C.F. and an inspiring mathematician. Mathematics and science made use of the slide rule and logarithm tables; pocket calculators were just starting to appear in the sixth form, but could not be used in examinations. Science: The first science teacher we had was Brian Tricker, a very brilliant man who played a major role in designing the new science block. He developed a joint science course in IXL binders (which we lugged around), which dealt with physics, chemisty and biology. In biology, we fed and weighed and watched the breeding of white mice - long before sex education became standard to curriculum. He also encouraged a group of us to try experiments. One involved measuring the rate of descent of a weight. It was tied to a piece of school toilet roll (the hard variety like tracing paper), and this was attached to a spool, with a brush dipped in ink on a spring. The ideas was that as it fell, the oscillations drawn by the brush would enable us to determine the rate of fall. Of course, we needed a high place for a good result, so he duly took us to the top of one of the school towers. It was a windy day, and the wind duly blew the descending toilet roll of course. An entire length of it broke away, wrapped itself round the tower for a few minutes, then took off in the direction of College House! Mr J.J. Dawson ("Bat") took chemistry and physics later. He also helped Dixie Landick with the school scout troop. He was given the nickname Bat after he cut his finger, and was spotted sucking the blood away! One of my friends was apt to crib some results from myself and John Hallam, and we told him the white fluffy residue after an experiment with a bunsen burner was technically known as "philosopher's wool". He duly wrote it down! Mr Smith took over from chemisty. He disappeared for a year to work in a bank, came back to teaching, and left again. The final teacher we had was Arthur Hill, who was also active with the Junior Societe Jersiase. I remember when a test was being done to investigate an unknown white compound, which looked like salt, and some boys were so convinced it was that they tasted it. He told everyone to gather round, told them that it was a stupid thing to do in case it wasn't salt, and then, with great relish, said that it actually wasn't salt after all! Fortunately it was a harmless chemical, but I can still remember the horrified look on their faces he told them! Physics was taken first by Mr Blython, who gained the unoriginal nickname "Monty" after the series "Monty Python's flying circus". He was always dropping the odd letter - so that "metal" came out "me-al" with the "t" missing. Later we had Fred Lang, who had a reputation for a ferocious temper. Once, as sixth formers, we had taken shelter from the rain at lunchtime in the science block. Two youngsters also came in. Fred snarled at them "What do you think you're doing here? Don't you know you are not allowed to come in until five minutes before lessons?" The two boys, quaking, left hurredly. Then he turned to us, and I wondered what would happen. "Carry on, gentlemen." he said. The last physics teacher we had was the head of physics, Ed Le Quesne. He was firmly committed to Oxfam, and would lend us books by E.F. Schumacher ("Small is Beautiful" etc) to try to inspire us to look at the type of help the third world would be best suited for. At the end of each term in the sixth form, on the last day, we would bring in cakes, and he would make coffee, heating the water in a beaker on a tripod above a bunsen burner! Scouts: I joined the school scout troop (11th Jersey), under the leadership then of Dixie Landick, then J.J. Dawson. We met after school at the scout hut, and had a variety of activities, some of which were to gain a scout standard (which I managed to do) and an advanced scout standard (which I left before getting). The scout standard award involved a number of different tasks (cooking for the troop, giving directions, simple first aid, etc) each of which was ticked off a little card. Quite different from today's scout awards with their colourful badges. I remember Dixie telling us that we should learn the College anthem (entitled the "College Carmen"), which was something all Old Victorians could recite whenever they met up. I wonder how many could now! I certainly could not; I found it a distincly unmemorable piece of pseudo-Latin verse (it did not scan well like Ovid's "Tristia", for instance) But let the reader make up their own mind about the " Carmen Caesariense". We had a camp locally, where I remember scrubbing pans blackened with soot from a camp fire until they gleamed. We also had an Easter trip to the Lake District, stopping at Bath on the way up and back, and staying at a Scout hut for visiting troops just outside Keswick. The minubus was lifted into the hold of the mail-boat (this was before car ferries), and lifted out at Weymouth. In the lakes, we had a number of interesting walks with a trained guide (not a girl-guide!) to the very top of Helveline and Skiddaw and down again. Some characters: The College porter was Frank Lewis, and he would be outside the main College building, ringing his hand-bell at ten to nine, to call the boys to registration. It was rumoured he had as much say about how the College was managed practically as the Headmaster. A short man, he had a fiery temper when roused, and would give you a "blast" , not just a piece of his mind! He also presided over the school swimming pool in the summer holidays. This was open to pupils and their families, provided that Frank got a few packets of cigarettes! Some time after his death, I noticed his name in the Book of Remembrance at Gouray Church. The other notable swimmer was "Pop" Horn, who hobbled about on his stick, and always gave the impression that he would brandish it at anybody needing discipline. Yet in the pool, he swam with a strong confident stroke. He surpervised boys who wanted to obtain a swimming badge for survival - I remember passing my Bronze one, which involved, among other matters, underwater swimming for 100 yards. He also organised and looked after all the O-Level and A-Level arrangements. Group Captain "Joe" Holmes took me for English, the second set, as my writing ability (but not my reading ability) at school was poor. He was a cheerful character whose smiling countenance masked a true war hero, although he never boasted or mentioned his war work. He was a nice man, but not much of an English teacher. We did not learn much in his lessons, as he would simply tell us to work through a set book, and work on his Open University degree! My parents were concerned at this and sent me for extra coaching after school with Alice Omissi, whose sons obtained notable success at College and after. Later we had Mr Mason, who was a much more inspiring teacher of English, and also in charge of the senior Chess club. The Reverend Thacker, a mild mannered man who always reminds me of a TV vicar type, took us for Religious Education; hwoever, when he put on his leathers, and got onto his motor-bike, he become (in the manner of his driving), a Hell's Angel! He also took the confirmation class at lunch time for those of us who were going to be confirmed in the Church of England. This took place one day in the Great Hall, with the visiting Bishop of Winchester, with our families present. I think it was probably the last time it happened in College. Later, I decided to take a scripture O-Level (which was extra, not on the curriculum at all any more) and was generously coached by Geoff Powell. I got the O-Level, and to my surprise, was also awarded the Hudson prize for Scripture that year. Physical education was first taken by Reg Nicholle, a large man with a deep, booming voice. As at treat, at the end of each term, he would let us play "Pirates" in which the apparatus (mats, horses, benches, ropes, etc) would be spread out randomly, and one boy selected to catch the others. As he caught one, they would be a pirate with him, and try to catch the others. Great fun! The other memory, I have of Reg is when Reverend Thacker was ill, and Reg took over the class. He asked us if we wanted either to write an essay, or listen to him tell us a personal tale of the sea, and how he was nearly shipwrecked off La Rocque. Needless to say, we did not write that essay! Another time, we heard the tale of the priest of Chaussey. Sport: Sport was divided into three terms. Winter was always football, and I was usually shivering as right or left back, a position in which one was supposed to largely stay still in defense. Spring varied between athletics, hockey or cross-country. Having tried the first two, I found cross-country by far the best, as it usually took the form of an amble round the Jersey countryside, peppered with anecdotes from the sport's master. Summer was cricket or swimming, the covering over the pool not having yet been built. Cross country was my best sport - in the official school cross country race, I managed to be 25th, 5th in my house, and gained House colours. Uniform: The school uniform was a black blazer with the school badge, yellow stripes on black tie, and grey trousers. Later the blazer was replaced with the current version with yellow trim, but oldsters who disliked it had the option (as I did) of wearing a grey or black suit instead. The school tie could be replaced with special versions if you achieved a degree of sporting success. There was a tie with green, blue, red or yellow lions on it for House colours, and a brighter variant of the main tie for School Colours. I still remember the enjoyment of being able to wear the House Colours tie - I still have it at home! Prefects and Punishments: There were two kinds of prefect - house prefects (a lesser order!) and school prefects. I became a house prefect in the sixth form, but never made it to school prefect. It was a moot point whether house prefects were allowed in the prefects' common room. Usually, it was fine, but occasionally I was chucked out! The duties of a school prefect were varied, and included making an orderly entance and exit of boys to assembly, and keeping the assembly quiet until masters arrived - an impossible task! House prefects were largely concerned with house assemblies, and litter. Punishments varied - there was caning still in use when I arrived, although it had ceased by the time I left. Then there were lines set for learning or to be written out. Finally, there was staying in after school for an hour or two - which was termed "book". There was "Junior book" or the main "Book". In the sixth form, a friend of mine and myself were once too noisy outside an exam room, and although we were in the sixth form, we were given "Junior book". The work was obviously too trivial for us, so the master in charge let us do our homework instead!