Recollections of Masters: 1950-1959
In the second of our series of recollections from ‘The Berts’, a group of five who were at School between 1951 and 1959, they recall some of the masters from the time.
An article has already been published about our activities involving explosives, rockets and other pyrotechnics. As recollections they are subject to some haziness due to the mists of time. For this we crave your indulgence. We would ask others who attended St Albans School during these years to submit their recollections as well.
Headmaster W T ‘Stoker Bill’ Marsh
The nickname arose because he had apparently been in the navy but no one knew which rank. He seemed to ‘own’ the School - feared by masters, students and parents alike. He gave the impression that he would have liked St Albans to do better at sport, but somehow he couldn’t find a way of combining this aim with his ideal of academic achievement. Sport always seemed to lag behind academic attainment (measured in those days by the number of Oxbridge placements) and the CCF. Bert 2 has the recollection of being summoned to his office after the ALevel results were out. He had achieved the first S-Level mark in Biology that the school had ever achieved and was expecting some form of congratulations. All he got was “Come in. I find it very difficult to understand how someone who can do so well in one subject can manage to fail Physics! Good-bye.” Marsh set the academic standards (and achieved nearly all of them!) and also imposed the strict discipline and standards needed to make the School work so well.
Mr P Avery
He coached rugby and was a 2nd Lieutenant in the CCF.
Mr D ‘Triangle’ Billingham
He taught Latin and looked after the CCF Signals section. His nickname came from the shape of his head. He had a pointed chin and rather a flat head. He owned an early Morgan three-wheeler.
Mr C T Bloxham
PT, sports in general, swimming, History, English and Geography. A threatening phrase he used if someone misbehaved was “There will be blood on the moon!” He had an Oxford blue for rugby and trialled for England before damaging a knee,which ended his playing career. He selected and coached the School 1st XV which at one time was captained by Bert 3. During a match at Bishops Stortford Bert 3 suffered an injury, which it was thought might have been a broken neck. He was shipped off to the local hospital for medical attention. Mr Bloxham called in on his parents that evening to tell them what had happened, to reassure them, and to explain that their son would not be returning home that night. In fact a neck vertebra had been cracked. It was not often that we saw the human side of masters.
Mr ‘Bummer’ Brown
Taught Physics at A-Level.
Mr O C ‘Ozzy’ Buck
He taught French and ran the RAF Section in the CCF. He was an RAFVR officer and had tales from the war, which he would relate to us in lighter moments.
Mr Burton
He was our first music master. He was rather a boring and not very good teacher. He seemed to have too many favourites and toadies. He was drowned saving a boy during a swimming trip. This happened at the medieval fishpond in the grounds of Gorhambury House, near the A5 to Redbourn.
Mr ‘Doc a Doc’ Coles
He taught classics.
Mr ‘Diver’ Davies
It is recalled that he came into 1C early in 1952 and the Abbey flag was flying at half-mast. He wrote on the board "Le Roi est mort" - George 6th.
Mr ‘Jock’ Faulkner
He had been a PTI in the RAF and came when the new Gym was opened in 1955. He was a hard taskmaster. On one April Fool’s Day some lads turning up in kilts! Jock got his own back by making them do hand stands against the wall for ten minutes. During gym sessions and sports training he would close all the windows in the gym so that we got used to exercising with depleted oxygen!
Mr K ‘Laddie’ Finley
He joined the school at the beginning of our 5th year. He only seemed to teach RE (Religious Education) but had a Full-Blue in Athletics from Cambridge and so Marsh thought that he was a worthwhile addition to the school. Bert 5 has a photograph of him coming second to the Rev Nick Satcy in the Varsity match 220yds at the White City having previously won the 100yds. He also competed for British Universities in the World Student Games, as did Bert 5, in 1959 in Turin. He had a thin, almost gaunt, face and a rather intense nature. In RE he kept telling us about someone called Jahweh, which most of us never understood until many years later. In case everybody else has forgotten Jahweh is a name for the God of the Old Testament as ransliterated from the Hebrew consonants YHVH. Isn’t education wonderful?
Monsieur ‘Froggie’ Garnier
Our main French master, in more ways than one. He had a wonderful range of quaint Anglo-French phrases and our task was to keep count of the number of specific Froggie-isms that occurred during any particular French class. One of the experts in this task was a lad at the back of the class in the Classics section (Webb?) who used to ask specific questions designed to prompt the maximum number of Froggieisms in the reply. A great skill, unique to St Albans School. During our time at school a mischievous item appeared in a local newspaper advertising his services as a gardener (see Pryke). He did not appreciate the joke!
Mr ‘Happy’ Heather
He never looked happy and hence the nickname. He had a son in our year – John Heather.
Mr ‘Gabby’ Hayes
He taught physics. Doing specific heat experiments he talked about using a "copper calowimiter in an owdinawy tweakle tin"!
Mr Denis Holman
He taught History, was an Oxford graduate and played rugby for Richmond.
Mr Peter Hurford
After the death of Mr Burton, our first music master, a young Peter Hurford arrived. He had just been appointed as principal organist in St Albans Abbey. Rather like Owen, Hurford was another inspirational teacher and music became an interesting and enjoyable class. He turned out to be the finest organist in the UK and went on to an illustrious career. We realised early on that he was very good and were rather proud of him, in a funny school-boyish kind of way.
Mr G F Jarry
He taught Latin and had what was regarded as a very unfair way of marking. He started with a total mark and subtracted one mark for every mistake. This meant that we sometimes ended up with a negative mark. Very demoralising. However he managed to get Bert 2 through Latin O-Level, which was no mean achievement!
Dr Keefe
He taught Chemistry at A-Level. He arrived at the school when we were in the 5th or 6th form. He came to the school having previously been a Chemist in Industry. He was a very knowledgeable chemist, but not a very good teacher.
Sgt Major ‘Killer’ Kilpatrick
Not a master but he had an influence on everyone in the school. He was one of those key people without whom the school could not function. He had been the youngest CSM in the Scots Guards. He acted as the School Caretaker and lived in the premises down by the Armoury.
Mr F S ‘Slab’ Marshall
The nickname arose because he always had one hand in his trouser pockets. He taught the top level Physics. Under his tuition Bert 3 gained an S-Level in Physics.
Mr Miles
He taught several subjects and was a secondary Latin master to G F Jarry. He also coached some of the school rugby teams. He was a Roman Catholic and held morning prayers for Catholic boys, which included Bert 3, in a room in the Abbey Gateway. They, and other non-C of E, were known as “Heathens”. He is remembered for reading us stories from some interesting books, including authors such as P G Wodehouse and Damon Runyon, when we had a spare/free period. We found this much more interesting than his official lessons. It is believed that he had flown De Havilland Vampires during anearlier part of his career. During his time at school, he belonged to the RAAF and flew Gloucester Meteors. It is believed that he ‘buzzed’ the King Harry playing fields during Saturday games on more than one occasion. He rode a very large, oily and slow revving motorcycle, a 1000cc Vincent ‘V’ twin, which was usually parked by the toilets in the lower playground and admired by many a student.
Mr Owen
Mr Owen arrived at the school when we were in 3rd/4th form as a young Welsh English master. He immediately established himself as one of those inspirational teachers whom you always remember. He did not teach from a text book and did not seem to take much notice of the curriculum. He encouraged everyone to write creatively - not just the bright ones - and found something to praise in everyone’s homework. He got us all to stand up in the front of the class and speak on a subject of his choice for two minutes. We then found that he thought it was fun if we managed to start on the given subject and end on a completely different one, as long as we accomplished the changes seamlessly and with style. He was so good that Bert 2 even contemplated changing from Science to Arts. In those days we were not allowed to mix Arts and Science subjects at A-Level. Unfortunately he did not stay very long at the school. He left after 1 or 2 years to go and teach in Uganda. Whether he did not like the school or the school did not like him or was simply an idealist, we never found out.
Mr B ‘Barry’ Phillips
He arrived in about our second year and taught History. He had been Head Boy of the school earlier and had the uncanny knack of remembering everyone’s names. He was also an officer in the CCF.
Mr G E ‘Percy’ Pryke
A tall thin man who seemed quite pompous and self-important and was certainly inordinately proud of his rank in the CCF. He followed (Major) L G Walker as commanding officer of the CCF and was promoted from Captain to Major. It was well known that he was a Mason. He seemed to have favourites whom he invited home for tea. His car, a Ford Prefect, was advertised for sale in a local newspaper by a mischievous student. (See Garnier)
Mr ‘Daddy’ Read
Deputy Headmaster. He taught either History or English. He was quite a small and ascetic looking man, but was understood to be a good teacher at the higher levels in the school.
Mr J B ‘Jim’ Roberton
In the Lower School Jim Roberton took General Science and although he was the only Biology Master in the school this workload prevented him from offering O-Level Biology. If anyone wanted to take Biology they could only sign up for A-Level in the 4th Form. Bert 2 was one of those students who joined his small A Level Biology classes, together with the Dowse brothers, Clutterbuck, Bigg and one or two others. Hill joined later when he had convinced Marsh that he wouldn’t sit the Oxbridge entrance examinations and intended to go to Agricultural College. Bert 2 had enjoyed his general science classes in the Lower School and thought that he was one of the most ‘normal’ masters in the school (not all that difficult if you take the others into account!) and an extremely good teacher. He also seemed to be a much under-rated master by the school, possibly because he was rather quiet. Bert 2 and Hill gave his reputation a considerable boost when they achieved the first two S-Level grades at A-Level in Biology ever obtained in the school. One of the reasons that Biology was becoming a more exciting science during this period was the discovery of the structure of DNA by Crick & Watson in the 1950s.
Mr ‘Pin-Head Pete’ Sawyer
He taught French.
Mr ‘Scruffy’ Schofield
He took Mathematics in the senior school. He had a son at the school. It was understood that he was a ‘conscientious objector’ during the war and so was relieved of any military service.
Mr ‘Rocket’ Stevenson
He took French. Bert 1 and Bert 5 were in a group who went to Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland with ‘Rocket’ and ‘Laddie’ in 1956. There were then ten Swiss francs to the pound! He also took a group to Paris. On this trip Bert 4 shared a hotel bedroom with Alan Macrae, Mike Richardson, and Bert 1. Bert 4 recalls taking it upon himself to buy a bottle of rum from the concierge of the hotel next door, and a saucy magazine from the newstand outside. He rejected the ones on display andasked for something more exciting from under the counter, which duly appeared. He returned to his room and no sooner had the magazine been opened than Rocket burst in and confiscated it, explaining that “We wouldn't want to be caught at Customs with it would we?” He had a smile on his face, though, and didn’t find the rum so it wasn't too bad.
Mr E W ‘Bob’ Tanner
The school Art master, a big man and a great character. He genuinely seemed to like all of his students, and almost everyone responded similarly to him. He was a lovely man. Art was not a subject that could be taken at O- or A-Level and so Bob, as one of the oldest masters in the school, was tolerated by Marsh. Bob made art enjoyable and tried to encourage everyone, even those who had very little artistic talent. He had a very large art classroom upstairs in the main building. He had a phrase that he used to show appreciation of a piece of student artwork. “Have a fizzy kiss!” He and ‘Beery’ Webster were good friends and drank together. ‘Beery’s’ death upset him a lot.
Mr Tahta
Taught Further Mathematics and is mentioned by Stephen Hawking as his inspiration. It was Tahta who started the Higher 6th Form Special Maths Set. Hudson was part of that set from our year and Bert 2 remembers being invited to see the computer that they had built under Tahta’s tutelage - an amazing achievement in the 1950s.
Mr L G Walker
He taught Geography and was the officer commanding the CCF when we arrived at the school. He ran the school shooting eight, of which Bert 4 was a member.
Mr A H ‘Hot Ass’ Warburton
An excellent Chemistry master who was completely unflappable. He got most of the Berts through Chemistry A-Level. He played the guitar well.
Mr J O W ‘Joey’ Webb
He taught mathematics. A phrase he often used was “I am no respecter of persons”. We never knew what this meant until years later. He had a habit of throwing a softish board wiper at boys he thought were not attending. Bert 3 recalls that he caught one such missile as it flew past aimed at someone behind. It was totally a reflex action and Joey looked so surprised. He died in a fire at his home.
Mr ‘Beery’ Webster
He was the form master of 1c and taught History. At lunch-time he and Bob Tanner strolled across to a local hostelry and in the afternoon his breath gave away where he had been. He had an unusual way of determining rank order for the reports. He had us all standing up in class and we were arranged in mark order around the classroom. We then counted ourselves off from the front. That gave us all a rank order. When this was done we walked past his desk at the front and reported to him our name and rank order, which he noted against the register. Allowance was made for boys with equal marks. ‘Beery’ was in the medical/ambulance corps during the 1st World War and during some rare, free periods he told us many stories of what happened during that horrific war – something that not many people would speak about. One story was about how the Germans admired the British sense of humour, which seemed to allow them to survive the brutalities of the war better than the Germans. So the German High Command commissioned some cartoons to be sent to all the troops. One of these showed some German soldiers taking shelter in a ruined and derelict house with walls full of shell holes. The caption underneath read ‘Zey must have very large mice around here!’ (In German, of course). Beery was a lovely man – kind and gentle – but he found it hard to retain control of classes. We all played him up unmercifully, as only 12 year-old boys will do! He had a very prominent Adam’s apple with a single long hair on it, which dusted the knot of his tie as he spoke. One day during our later years we were all shocked when his premature death was reported. We somehow felt a collective responsibility for his death.
Mr ‘Wet Bath’ Westgarth-Walker
A large man with a booming voice. He taught geography and coached rugby.
Mr Wheeler
He taught French. He lost an eye to a German 88 while in a tank during the Western Desert campaign. He told us once how, seeing a dead donkey in front of his unit’s positions, he put a bullet through it to relieve the boredom, only to regret it immediately afterwards because the wind was blowing towards him.
Mr J Willé
He was the senior Mathematics master and took the double A-Level in mathematics group. He also coached athletics.
Summary
It is worth saying that, despite all their idiosyncrasies, or lack of them, all the Masters at St Albans School during our years were a uniformly good and fair-minded set of teachers. An aspect which helped the easy relationship between masters and students was the fact that most of the punishments were imposed by the prefects - lines, detention, and beatings (in those days) - and so the masters could leave much of the disciplining of students to others. We have enjoyed compiling this document with one recollection triggering off others as we discussed them or circulated them by e-mail. At an early stage we met up at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks for a leisurely lunch and a long afternoon of planning. Others of our number are working on articles about the CCF and sport.