McClure 1971-2021

Old McClurians remember the good (and bad) old days

I was placed in McClure in 1970, the very first year of the house’s existence. Something had obviously gone wrong with the timing as the new house for Murray and McClure wouldn’t be finished until 1971 so we were accommodated in a three-room temporary structure which we proceeded to demolish over the course of the year. Our first head of house was Jon Crook, the son of the Maths teacher, Ted Crook, and he faced a formidable task in creating - and maintaining - a cohesive house. As it turned out, he did a fabulous job and we soon had a distinctive reputation - enhanced by the fact that we had a few hard nuts in our midst.

“one of our number was expelled for shooting at

Those of us who arrived in 1970 were chosen randomly for the new house but it was clear that Murray were determined to rid themselves of their lairiest boys. This bad boy reputation grew and one of our number was expelled for shooting at squirrels with a crossbow in the Headmaster’s garden. Another hard nut bashed his arm with a hockey stick just to avoid sports because he had better things to do (robbing shops as it turned out). The house was also (as it turned out) a smoking house. As long as Jon Crook or, later, Michael Franks, wasn’t around, you could light up with impunity. The only danger was that an older boy might see you and confiscate your fags so that he could smoke them (this happened to me and I haven’t forgotten the name of the creep, though I shan’t disclose it here).

So, there we were in 1970 in our prefab hut which either was or wasn’t made out of asbestos (my money’s on was). Rough and ready as we were, we had a good esprit de corps. Indeed, in my second term, McClure won the junior house rugby sevens tournament. Now, I am a sports nut who measures his life in terms of great matches seen but this tournament - won by a team starring David Coakley, Jay Rosencrantz, Dick Haw, Altaf Noorani, Nick ‘Lips’ Morehouse and Dave Armstrong - remains the most exciting sporting event I’ve ever witnessed. When we were discussing it recently, Dave Coakley reminded me that I was McClure’s touch judge: in the history of rugby, no official ever cheered so loudly for one team’s tries.

Also, that term Michael Franks led us to third place in the interhouse drama competition as a result of which we (along with the rugby stars) were all awarded our house ties. The only problem was that we didn’t actually have a house tie. So a competition was held to design one and Tony Weavers won and was awarded a box of chocolates for his troubles.

I wasn’t the first person to be awarded a McClure tie (that honour went to Matthew Hodes and Jonathan Ripley) but, by dint of phoning the school outfitters on an almost daily basis, I was the first person to wear one. In a life that has seen more than a fair share of awards (for literary, theatre, television and lecturing), my McClure house tie remains my happiest achievement and I hung on to it until 2014 when it perished in a house fire. By the end of that first year, our prefab house was wrecked and we were ready to move into a purpose-built house alongside the boys from Murray.

As a house, we continued to excel in music, drama and (what you might call) intellectual pursuits but we never lost our sense of uniqueness: of being outsiders. It’s true that boarders referred to us generically - and dismissively - as Murray but we knew better…..we always did. Mitchell Symons (McClure 1970-1975) studied law at LSE made a career in journalism and broadcasting. He was a principal writer for the early UK editions of the board game Trivial Pursuit and wrote an award-winning opinion column for the Daily Express *****

I one of the first cohort to enter McClure - aka ‘the shed’ - in the car park from Murray House along with a group of six boys all old Belmontians and members of the 1969 Yearlings rugby team. At the time day boys were regarded as a sub species but I remember things did begin to change, primarily because we were good at rugby: we were the first day boy house ever to win an inter-house rugby tournament. We also organised the first Mill Hill School football team and whilst the team was predominantly day boys from McClure we did have a few borders in the side. Unfortunately, in those days, football was frowned upon. We had to organise our own fixtures through friends at other schools but we did manage to get Jonny Tyres the Biology Master, to be the token master in charge. However, he left the school unexpectedly (don’t ask why) and Hartley Heard took over. David Franklin, McClure’s first housemaster and the school’s 1st XV rugby coach, was not best pleased about the football team and got the goalposts removed from were far too formal. My abiding memory of McClure is one of being left to our own devices and whilst we felt we were ‘out in the cold’ the experience created a unique and unbreakable bond between some of us (especially those of us who went through Belmont, Mill Hill together and after school joined OMRFC) for which I am eternally grateful.

Of the 1973 McClure leavers few of us excelled academically but I think as people we were possibly better prepared for life after school. We were more independent, as we were so far from the main school, we had had to fend for ourselves: we used to go down to the Old Forge café at the bottom of Highwood Hill for lunch and no one ever missed us. We were the beginning of the day boy revolution which changed people’s perceptions of day boys once and for all. David Coakley (McClure 1970 – 1973)

Gears on the morning of our first game against Stowe. We played with jumpers for goalposts. Unbeknownst to him I had manged to get the 1st XV rugby shirts for us to play in but he never said a word to me about it when he came to see us play. I also managed to have a team photo taken of us on team/house photo day!

I spent nearly my entire school life in the ‘shed’ with the exception of my final year when we moved into the Sixth Form Centre. We all missed life in the car park, our new surroundings

I was at McClure from 1976 to 1981 I remember the McClure Christmas “Hog” when his ‘ropey punk band’ played about three songs before being quickly ushered off stage’. I am still in touch with the few OMs but they were in other houses. I have an old photo of us all in our common room in McClure circa 1980 in a box somewhere. It’s doubtful I can dig it out though!

Simon Clarke (McClure

1976-1981)

I could tell you about the house dinner we cooked at end of term and we all ended up very worse for wear and slept in the common room. Nigel Mendoza (McClure 1972 –1976) consultant neurosurgeon.

We interviewed a selection of McClure housemasters - and the first housemistress – to find out what it was like to be in charge of a new day house

David Franklin 1971 – 1975

Allan Prosser-Harries 1975 – 1986

Chris Kelly 1986 – 1989

Tim Dingle 1990 – 1993

Berinda Banks 1994 – 2006

Paulo Duran

Graeme Turner

Alison Bignell

2006 – 2009

2009 – 2015

2015 – 2018