Back row (left to right): RC Cobb, PNE (Pat) Collins, DJ (David) Hall, AR (Andrew) Jackson, DJ (David) Moore, BD (Barney) Payne, CL (Clive) Simmons, JC (John) Saunders, RB (Richard) Hipgrave
3rd row: DJ (David) Morris, R (Roger) Davison, SC (Simon) Lambert, CDJ (Chris) Edwards, JC (John) Dixon, RA Moore, CD (Chris) Hardy
2nd row: JR Trayhorn, SVT (Stephen) Arnold, IM (Ian) Orme, C (Colin) Grafton, CP (Chris) Menmuir, CM (Mick) Rose
Front row (left to right): JW (Jonathan) Everett, CJ (Chris) Marshall, JR (Jerry) Darvill, SR (Stuart) Weyer, AN Lee.

I have no need to ask anyone the surnames of people in this photo as they remain firmly imprinted on my memory. The forenames are a bit hazy in some cases, so I would appreciate some help with those (and my thanks to Richard Hipgrave who has contributed in this direction). This is form 2E, the youngest class in the school in the academic year 1963/64. Our form-master was (of course) Mr M M ("Taffy") Davies, who always presided over the youngest class in the school. Most of us arrived at the school aged only ten, with the youngest of all, Andrew Jackson, not turning 11 until April 1964. In Bucks in those days you were allowed to sit the 11-plus examination a year earlier, and Form 2E was mainly composed of boys who had successfully crossed that hurdle.

The 1963 Grey Book lists two other members of form 2E who do not appear in the photo. PA Davis was in the class for a term or two, appearing in the Gilbert & Sullivan production of 'Ruddigore' along the way, but at some point during the school year he left. The other boy missing from the photo is SD (Stuart) McLean. He had been a School House boarder and actually started at the school during the previous summer term. But I believe he became very homesick (I think his parents were in the USA) and abruptly left the school (evidently some time before this photo was taken).

We were the first new intake to move into the brand-new buildings at the front of the school (and so never suffered the 'Stalag Luft' privations of the Uplyme 'Terrapin' huts, told to us in gory detail by 'three-bugs' and older brothers). Brand new desks and freshly plastered walls were the order of the day. The slight downside to this was that every mark on walls and furniture would be instantly noticeable. We were soon warned of the dire consequences should anybody be tempted to leave his initials behind for posterity. The vandals amongst us simply had to wait two years for the time when we were moved into some hideous classroom in the prison-like 'Gym Block' corridor, with its doleful photos of Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition, and where acts of vandalism were less likely to be traced to the perpetrator. As with all new buildings, there were teething troubles, and maintenance people occasionally interrupted lessons as they tried to fix non-functioning venetian blinds and central heating. But just having such things as central heating was quite new and exciting to those of us used only to 1960s council houses (with no upstairs heating) and chilly Victorian primary schools. As the man in the Monty Python sketch might have said: "Central heating? Luxury!". As well as an education, the RGS gave me my first experience of all-day warmth (well, except on games and gym days, of course).

I may add a few more reminiscences of 2E at a later date...

Any comments on the above? Email

 

Return to Main Page