15 March 2009

Masters in 1954 - Kindly supplied by John Piper




Many thanks to John Piper for supplying the photos and some of the names ... other names were provided by, Peter Smith, Ray Elliott, Ian Baldwin, John Scott, John Lankester, Richard Dearnaly and Doug Clews.
Although some pictures are 'duplicated' in the 'Masters' Album, the decision has been made not to delete any, our thanks and appreciation going to those people who posted the originals.

12 comments:

  1. A picture is worth a 1000 words, and here we have also a 1000 individual memories. Thank you dear colleagues

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  2. Hi Scotty ... How are things in Brissie ?
    Reading some past comments, it is interesting to note that some of the memories of each master appear to be common to all students, but many students obseved or felt things that others perhaps didn't ... I suppose it depended on whether you sat at the font or the back of the class maybe !!!
    Doug from WOZ

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  3. My Grandad before his hair went white! What a nice surprise to get in an email!

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  4. What a great photo journey down memory lane. It is a testament to their longevity and commitment that even though these are 1954 dated photos, when I attended Peter Symonds 1967 – 1972, 15/28 of this group were still teaching. These included the following masters who I had classes with:-

    “Pa” Watts (History) – “on the bloomin’ fiddle again”, a real down to earth man.

    “Pongo” Cox (Biology) – “for you laddie” – could have an occasional mean streak in him (forcing buys to sit on the leg of an upturned lab stool or making them eat chalk), always got on well with him and used to buy rare stamps at his house.

    “Tom” Pierce (English) – great storyteller, emotional man at times.

    “Oink” Griffin (French) – “come along now, we have a lot of work to do today” – quite a high strung man.

    “Chalky” White (Math) – great math teacher for me, with those dexterous fingers.

    “Tweedy” Harris (6th form – Pure Math) – monotone voice, took a lot of stick from his students.

    Ted “Crow” Taverner (Geography) – “told you before” – very good teacher, inspired my interest in Geography, that I probably should have taken at “A” level, along with History and Economics (Peter May – always had most interesting discussions with him). Instead after “O” levels, I yielded to peer pressure and took Chemistry, Biology, and Pure Math with Statistics at “A” level, none of which proved to be my true calling, or really held my academic interest.

    Also there during my time, Mr. Cooksey, the deputy head with the slicked back hair, who never taught me, but was always lurking outside class windows to drag out and reprimand boys with what he considered to be long hair violations.

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  5. Great Memories. Good exercise for the brain is to try to think who is not in the gallery. I was at the school in 1957 so Doc Freeman had already been followed by Jock Shields but other names come to mind:
    Fergie Ferguson (Chemistry), Cosher Bray (maths and PE), Ollie (I dont think it was Ossie!) Osbourne (carpentry). I still have a five inch long tapered piece of wood which was supposed to be a spade scraper. I told my children it started out as a dining room table but every time I made a mistake I had to plane out the error and so it ended up being just five inches long.

    Spider Webb (Latin) joined early in my time and taught me how to win at Trivial Pursuits as his end of term quiz games were great fun.

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  6. Hi Peter 'P' ...
    Well, 'Fergie' was indeed at the School in my era ('44 - '50) and, in those days, taught only General Science as far as I can remember ... he was an excellent, well liked and well respected Master, remembered by quite a few !!! ... there are several Masters from my era missing from the Gallery, but, alas, I fear there is little chance of tracking down any photos of them, mainly because so few people had cameras in those days and even if you did, film was virtually un-obtainable and Panoramic School Photos had not been heard of ... such a shame !!!

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  7. Further to Peteline's comments :- .... not forgetting Mr. I.G. Smith French teacher and renowned chess and bridge player. If only I had attended his bridge lessons (sigh)

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  8. After leaving School in 1954 I found my way to New Scotland Yard on the Embankment in London and as a lunchtime diversion would stroll towards Charing Cross before returning to work, except for the day I stopped in at the park where artists were displaying their work and you can imagine my surprise at seeing a collection of work signed JLN, naturally I stopped and admired what was on show when a voice rang out 'What are you doing here young Scott'' Startled I managed to have a conversation and later sitting in my office could not wonder what I had done to be remembered as my Artwork left a lot to be desired. After National Service I returned briefly to the Yard but never saw him displaying again. Remembered with affection! John Scott 1948-53.

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  9. He taught me German but far more than that he developed in me a desire to travel and is undoubtedly the reason I finished up in Australia. Thank you Ernie for trips to The Rhineland, Lake Lucerne and Italy. John Scott 1948-53.

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  10. That would have been a surprise indeed, John, but what a lovely one ... my thanks will forever go to JLN for teaching me how to draw and my memories are of a great and patient teacher, as well as being a very nice man !

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  11. Tom Pierce renowned in my world for a visit one weekend (rode my bike from Eastleigh) to St Cross sports field to watch him play but most of all our weekly gardening foray to the 'plots' just past the Fives courts, and I wonder if that is what has speared my interest in growing for food

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