The Almondburian: July 2021

The ALMONDBURIAN

Celebrating 100 years of The Old Almondburians’ Society of King James’s School, Almondbury

(Opposite):

This sketch of the former Clerk’s house next to Almondbury Parish Church was by former School Governor William Foxley Norris (1859-1937). See photograph on page 36 and article on page 46.

The ALMONDBURIAN

Editor: Roger Dowling July 2021

A word from your Chairman

WALTER RALEIGH

IT will not have escaped your notice that this special centenary issue of The Almondburian is dated 2021 and not 2020. Sadly, the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic, from which we are slowly starting to emerge as we go to press, put paid to celebrations of any sort during the past year. But now, at last, we are able to make positive plans

for the future, and top of the list is of course the delayed Centenary Dinner which will now take place on Saturday, 20th November; see page 18 for full details.

A number of projects that have been on the back burner because of the Covid pandemic are now moving forward once more.

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

I have good news with regard to the Archives. I have renewed contact with Robert Clegg, one of the Archivists at the West Yorkshire Archive Service who had brought the Royal Charter back into School. He has offered, on behalf of the WYAS, to take over responsibility for the School Archives and to catalogue the contents free of charge. By the time you read this, the WYAS will hopefully have collected all the material from School and taken it to their Library. They will then commence the long task of cataloguing and indexing it.

Of course, there is much to be done before members can go online and search the Archives from home but I feel we are at last making real progress. May I ask all of you that have material from your time in school to let me know if you would like it to be considered for inclusion in the archives? The archivists at the WYAS are keen to see the ongoing development of the archives through additional material.

Some more pleasing news has been the completion of the Westgate development (see article on page 44). This again has taken far longer than planned through no fault of the builders but at last all nine properties have been signed off and tenants are beginning to move in. It was rather disappointing that Kirklees refused the Trust permission to call the development something linked to School. One suggestion had been ‘King James’s Court’ which I thought would have been wonderful. Unfortunately the request was refused and the houses are going to be numbered with the addition of A, B and C after them. A strange de -

cision. As a result of this you will see from Colin Bamford’s article that he feels strongly that we should do something to link the School with the development. His suggestion is that the nine new properties plus the house which was already rented out, and one where Harry Taylor lived when he first moved to Almondbury, should be given names linked historically with the School. If you have any suggestions please email me at walter.raleigh@oas.org.uk; we hope to announce those chosen at the Annual Dinner in November.

You will see from the article by principal Ian Rimmer on page 22 that your thoughts are also welcome on a possible name for the new teaching block at the School, due to be completed towards the end of the year. Again, drop me an email with your suggestions.

One project that is currently delayed for reasons outside our control is the restoration of the ‘Big Tree’ seating near the top of the former Bunk (see article on page 59). The new seating will be positioned around an existing tree located too close to temporary classrooms for us to be able to make progress until the classrooms are removed following completion of the new teaching block. However, it does give us time to appeal for funding assistance for this project, expected to be in the order of £5,000. Any financial assistance members can offer will be greatly appreciated by the OAS and the School.

On a more positive note I am delighted to inform you that with all

printing costs covered our latest book No beating about the Bush is now in profit. Many thanks to all those who became subscribers and enabled the book to be printed. I look forward to meeting Dave Bush at the Annual Dinner in November to congratulate him on the success of his book. There are still a few copies left which, I’m sure, will be sold at Dave’s book-signing at the Dinner. Well done to all those involved in the project. I particularly enjoyed the account of the

career of Philip Goldsmith in the March issue. The fact that he was brought up in a house which backs onto my house in Thorpe Lane made it even more interesting. Sadly, Philip’s brother, Robert, has recently died: his obituary appears on page 71. Along with a third brother who also attended King James’s, they must have made their parents incredibly proud as well as being fantastic ambassadors for our School. n

Old Almondburians’ Society Calendar

TENNIS

Longley Tennis Club from 7.30 pm. Further details: page 68.

OAS QUIZ NIGHT

The Woolpack, Almondbury on Wednesday, 6th October 2021 at 7.30 pm. Details: page 20.

HERITAGE DAY

King James’s School opens its doors to the public as part of the national Heritage Weekend. on Saturday, 18th September 2021. Details: page 20.

ANNUAL DINNER

This year’s Annual Dinner, postponed from 2020 because of Covid-19, will a special one to mark the centenary of the founding of the Old Almondburians’ Society in its present form. The dinner will be held on Saturday, 20th November 2021 and an application form for tickets is enclosed in this issue of The Almondburian. Further details: page 18

FOUNDERS’ DAY SERVICE

This new-style event will be on Friday, 19th November at 2.00 pm. Further details: page 20.

DATES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 2021

Executive Committee meetings are usually held on the first Monday of each month. The remaining dates this year are:

Monday, 5th July

Monday, 6th September

Monday, 4th October

Monday, 1st November

Monday, 6th December

For the past year, meetings have been held by Zoom and this will also apply to the meeting on 5th July (7.30 pm). If Covid-19 restrictions are removed during the summer, meetings will revert to the ODH at School at 6.00 pm. However, we are looking into the possibility of all future meetings having a Zoom capability to enable those who cannot be there in person to participate. We will report further on this on our website www.oas.org.uk and in the next issue.

The OAS celebrates 100 years

WALTER RALEIGH

King James’s School has changed beyond measure since the OAS was set up in its present form in 1920. But the aims of the OAS remain the same as our present chairman looks back on its milestones and its achievements.

1 The Society comes into being

ALTHOUGH there was a small ‘Old Students’ Association’ in the 1880s, it was not until the arrival of headmaster Taylor Dyson in 1913 that moves were made to resurrect the Society in is present form. On his second night in School he was visited by three former students, Harry Aston, George Garton and Harry Sykes who sought his permission and encouragement to reform the Society. Unfortunately the outbreak of the Great War prevented any real progress being made and it was not until J D Cardno and J Wilkinson approached Taylor Dyson in 1920 that the Society as we know it, was officially reformed. It is, of course, this date that we use to celebrate the Centenary of the Society.

Sadly, by this time, 41 Old Boys had died

in the Great War, including Harry Aston who had visited Taylor Dyson with the initial idea to re-start the Society in 1913.

Shortly afterwards a meeting was held in School for those interested, a constitution was drawn up and official positions were filled.

There were three aims of the newly formed Society in 1920 and they were:

 To uphold the honour and status of the School

 To provide a means of contact between members and School

 To provide assistance to the School including, where appropriate, the use of Society funds to support projects approved by the Committee.

These have remained the objectives of the

2 Great War memorial and ‘Mousey Thompson’ bookcase

IN January 1920 a decision was made in London to have a permanent memorial to those who had lost their lives in the Great War.A new memorial or Cenotaph was built

in Whitehall and it is therefore no surprise that one of the first decisions which the new Society committee made was to have some sort of memorial in School to those who had

died on the battlefields of Europe. Memories of the conflict were still raw and with the Government decision that none of those killed were to be repatriated for burial in Britain, members were desperate to have a focal point to record their pride yet great sadness at the loss of their friends.

Various designs were considered and eventually a bronze memorial tablet was produced with the names of the 41 men who had died in the war. After a service in All Hallow’s Church, where lessons were read by Old Boys, including Craven Cudworth who had visited Francis Marshall in 1888 with the initial idea for an Old Boys’ Association, those in church walked down to the School to see the plaque unveiled on the wall in the Big, where it remains to this day.

After a ‘war to end all wars’ some twenty years later the world was at war again resulting in World War Two and with it the tragic loss of some 35 local former students of our old S chool. Once OAS members had returned home from their theatres of war, the

idea of another memorial to those not returning was high on the agenda of the Society. This time the Society decided upon something which could be used but also act as a memorial to those killed. It was decided to ask the master craftsman from Kilburn in North Yorkshire, Robert ‘Mousey’ Thompson to design and make a memorial bookcase. Together with this, the much respected ArtTeacher, Edward ‘Teak’Akroyd produced a beautiful book made of vellum with the names of those former students lost in the war, written by his own hand.What a sad but proud task this must have been, having taught if not all, most of the boys, in his long spell of service at the School. 3

Battles to ensure the School’s survival

OVER the years, the OAS has been involved in two major campaigns to secure the School’s future.

BATTLE NO 1

In January 1946, the first instalment of the Huddersfield Development Plan was

made public. Amongst its conclusions was that ‘Almondbury Grammar School is too small’ and that its name should be transferred to a new school to be built along New Hey Road in Huddersfield. It was suggested that the existing school should be turned into a secondary modern school, a proposal that

roused general opposition from the general public and galvanised the OAS into a spirited and ultimately successful campaign of opposition.

Leading the campaign was OAS Chairman ‘Ike’ (Irvin) Chambers, who had attended the School from 1918-1923. Fellow members of his team included R T Parkin, C Scott, G D Shires and J L Gray, and they began by sending out 1,000 circulars to Old Almondburians and others, seeking signatures of support. In due course, Gerald Dobson, who had joined the School as a boarder in 1916, became a leading member of a subcommittee which drew up a petition that was submitted to the Minister of Education; fortunately their campaign was helped by a visit from HM Inspectors who expressed the view that there was in fact no legitimate reason why the School could not be expanded on the present site.

In June 1948, Gerald Dobson – accompanied by fellow Old Almondburian Ben Wortley, Professor of Jurisprudence at Manchester University – presented their carefully reasoned case to the Ministry of Education. Huddersfield’s proposals were rejected and the School was saved.

BATTLE NO 2

In the early 1960s a new Labour Government was elected with local boy HaroldWilson leading them as Prime Minister. A ‘wind of change’ began to blow through the country and Education was an area that felt the first draught. The Government declared that it wanted the 1944 Education Act to be repealed and replaced by one that required all Local Councils to introduce a system of ‘comprehensive education’ This would see all children at the age of eleven attending one

local Secondary School and the old system of Grammar Schools and Secondary Modern Schools confined to the dustbin of history.

As a result in 1966 Huddersfield Borough Council voted to change the way education was organised in Huddersfield and their proposals were developed so that by 1970 draft plans were put out to public scrutiny.

The plans proposed a number of newly built comprehensives to serve the growing Huddersfield district. These purpose built schools were to be in Almondbury, Newsome, Rawthorpe, Crosland Moor and Salendine Nook.

The four Grammar Schools were to be dealt with in different ways. Greenhead Girls Grammar was to become a mixed Sixth Form College on its present site. Huddersfield Girls High was to be lost and its facilities incorporated in a new comprehensive to be called Salendine Nook High. Huddersfield New College was to become a new Sixth Form College as was King James’s in Almondbury.

Whilst a majority of people in Huddersfield felt the change would be a good one there was a loud vociferous minority who could not bear the thought of losing a treasured 350 year old school.

Inevitably the Old Almondburians’ Society became involved and they were determined to fight for its existence as a Grammar School. The OAS set up a committee to fight for the status of the school to be maintained. Michael Dyson was elected Chairman of this ‘Status’ sub-committee and they used all their experience and links with influential people in Huddersfield to fight their cause. OAS members began knocking on doors to

rally support for the old school. Our present Treasurer remembers finishing work for the day, having a quick bite to eat and then setting off to gather signatures for a grand petition. In the end some 9,260 signed the petition which was pre sented to the Coun cil. It was debated, but not surprisingly rejected by the Coun cil.

Some in the OAS felt the organisers should look into the possibilities of keeping the status of the school by going indepen dent but others felt the fight was not yet lost.

A darker cloud came over the School when a Conservative Government was elected which they thought would be more sympathetic to their cause. It looked at the proposals put forward and they agreed with the principal of introducing Comprehensive Education in Huddersfield. The Education Secretary, a certain Margaret Thatcher, however, did not pass the plans presented to her as she felt the town had no need for three Sixth Form Colleges.

There has been much deliberation as to why Mrs Thatcher refused to agree to the plans. Depending which side of the argument you were on you either thought it a green light to close King James’s altogether and use the small, out of the way site as a Teacher Training Centre or as some sort of Special School for Huddersfield children. If you were a supporter of the Grammar School system it was Mrs Thatcher saying “keep the School as a Grammar School”, in much the same way that Heckmondwike

kept its status as a Grammar School amidst the sea of comprehensives.

Whatever the real reason behind the decision the campaigning continued with letters being sent to the Examiner on a daily basis. Such were the numbers sent that by mid 1973 the Examiner said it would no longer accept letters on this topic until a final decision had been made. Eventually, Mrs Thatcher agreed to accept the Huddersfield Borough proposals in the summer of 1973 in order to allow the introduction of comprehensive education in Huddersfield in the September of that year.

To a great extent the OAS together with other supporters of the School, accepted the compromise of the change of status to a Sixth Form College and they stood down their efforts to keep the School as a Grammar School. Some, however, such as Membership Secretary Edward Germaine refused to give up the fight and were fiercely opposed to a change of status which allowed girls to be educated in the old school.

But that was not the end to the story. Within months Mrs Thatcher’s view that Huddersfield could not sustain three Sixth Form Colleges in the Borough was proved correct. 16 year old students were simply not willing to catch two buses each day to go to school in Almondbury. It was so much easier to catch one bus into town and walk up to Greenhead.

The axe appeared to be hanging over the School once more so once again the OAS organised its defence. Meetings were held,

voices were heard and letters, once again, began to appear in the Examiner.

By now Huddersfield Borough no longer existed as it had been absorbed into the new local district of Kirklees. It was now Kirklees that had to face the problem and they solved it amicably, for most people, when they invited King James’s to become a 13 to 18 Upper School. Though it would be out of its catchment area it solved the problem Kirklees had caused by not building the new school of Shelley High large enough for all who wanted to

go to it. Children from Kirkheaton, Lepton, Grange Moor and Flockton would now be brought to King James’s School. Not an ideal solution but one all protagonists bought into.

Now, some 50 years down the line, the success of this decision has to be measured by the fact that the ‘new’ comprehensive in Almondbury has closed and once again King James’s is serving all the children of Almondbury. It is an ending for which all those campaigners from the past years can be delighted and proud.

4 The new cricket pavilion

THE project began with our committee sitting down and thinking what it might do to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the School in 1958. As most of the committee were keen sportsmen it was not long before they began to discuss the possibility of replacing the old cricket pavilion which had been used

for almost eighty years since the days of Francis Marshall.The old pavilion was most definitely ‘not fit for purpose’ by the 1950s and any cosmetic work would have been a waste of money.

After much head scratching, Old Boy Brian Pollard came up with some original sketches for the committee to view and discuss. The supportive Borough Architect became involved and so by late 1957 the project began with an initial estimate of £2,000.As it was to be a special birthday present for the School the Council agreed to fund half of the final costs.

As the completion of the Pavilion came closer it was realised that the costs had spiralled to almost £4,000. Fundraising of a nature not

previously known was needed, and fast! The School and Society organised a School Fair and blessed with good weather raised over £1,000. The Society then began contacting members and a further £800 in donations was added to the fund.With the opening date of 5th June 1958 fast approaching, something needed to be done so that the Pavilion would be ready for the big day. The Committee of the Old Almondburians’ asked for volunteers to see the project through. Costs were renegotiated with the builders with an amount

being knocked off the bill if the Society could take on the responsibility of the painting of the Pavilion. For days teams of OAS members could be seen painting the Pavilion so that by the prescribed date the official opening could take place.The result was a magnificent new cricket pavilion that was the envy of clubs all over the district.

The Pavilion was officially opened by the Countess of Scarbrough in front of a large and appreciative crowd of boys, parents, staff and Old Almondburians.

Sorting out the School’s ancient trusts

AFTER the founding of the School in 1547, rich local benefactors left parcels of land, property and financial bequests to the School. In 1922 the S chool was taken over by Huddersfield Corporation and these assets became the responsibility of the Council.

In 1975 a group of Old Almondburians and staff decided they would form a cricket club for students, staff and OAS members to play and take advantage of the lovely little ground on Arkenley Lane, with its fine pavilion. There was a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ to allow the new club members to use the site for a peppercorn rent on the understanding that the Pavilion would be ‘taken care of’.

For the next 20 years the Old Almondburians’ Cricket Club flourished. But then a new Head and Bursar were appointed and nationally something called ‘Local Management of Schools’ was introduced into the school system. Now

Heads were responsible for their School budget. This was not simply teaching staff but all ancillary staff including groundsmen. As a result they saw that the OACC were not paying the market rate for use of the facilities and this needed to change. As the Pavilion was not being used by school on a regular basis the Council, presumably with School support, suggested it should be pulled down to prevent damage or vandalism by local youths.

As the Pavilion had been paid for partly by OAS members, a number of Old Almondburians’ Cricket Club members decided to look into the legal status of the Cricket Club, pavilion and picturesque ground. Over the next few years Graham Cliffe and Nigel Priestley, two members of the OACC, spent hours of their time and energy to get to the bottom of the problem.

They found the land the pavilion was

built on was not School or Corpora tion land but land given in trust hun dreds of years ear lier. Moreover, they found that the Kirklees Council had neglected its obligations to man age the trust and provide proper records and returns to the Charity Commission.

This led to the Charity Commission carrying out an inquiry into the Council’s administration of the charity and in March 1999 a Report was published which heavily criticised Kirklees Council. Eventually the threat of legal action forced the Council to accept the offer of a meeting to discuss the problem and possible compensation for years of mismanagement of the School’s Trust Fund. The meeting finally took place in 2004 in the George Hotel, the scene of so many historic meetings regarding the history of Huddersfield.

The meeting lasted for fifteen hours before a deal was reached. The result was the Council was forced to offer a very

substantial financial settlement to compensate for the mismanagement of the Trust Fund since they took over responsibility for it.

This, and the other assets, have been used by the new King James’s School Foundation to support School in many ways over the past 20 years. These have included the provision of a School mini-bus, financial assistance in the setting up of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and, most, recently, the provision of retractable seating in the gymnasium. None of this would have happened without the efforts of the OAS and in particular Graham Cliffe and Nigel Priestley.

Bringing the story up to date, the Foundation’s considerable financial assets have enabled it to fund a large building development in Westgate (see story on page 44) which will provide a guaranteed income for the School for many years to come. 6

Helping the School to achieve Specialist Science College status

FOLLOWING the arrival of Robert Lamb as the new Head in 2003 it was clear that the School needed a massive injection of cash to get it up to the standards expected of a school in the 21st century. As

the science laboratories were in the most desperate need of an upgrade, it was decided to apply for Specialist College Status which, if successful, would provide major funding over a five-year period.

Bob Williams, an Old Almondburian and former Chair of the OAS,who was a specialist in writing applications for government grants, became involved and by the summer 2003 the application was completed. However, in order for it to be submitted the School had to raise £50,000. The Foundation gave £25,000 and local businesses became involved which added another £15,000 to the pot. The Old Almondburians’ Society then donated £5,000 and contributions were made by individual members, leaving School to raise the final tranche through activities including a Sponsored Walk to Castle Hill. There was a great response with some students raising as much as £100 - a magnificent effort which allowed the application to be sent in September 2003.

In early January 2004 we received the welcome news that the application had been successful, resulting in an initial cap-

ital grant of £150,000 and extra funding of £100,000 for the following five years. As a result, the laboratories were totally refurbished and the IT equipment in School was fully updated.

Celebrations to mark School anniversaries

WITH its remit to ‘uphold the honour and status of the School’ it has always been traditional for the OAS to take the lead in organising events to mark anniversaries of the receipt of our Royal Charter in 1608.

It is not surprising that Taylor Dyson, with his keen sense of history, set the ball in motion with proposals for a ‘great annual rally’ on Founders’ Day on the Sunday nearest 24th November.The first such Founders’ Day service was on 24th November 1929 when over 200 ‘old boys’ foregathered from

all over the country to process up the hill to Almondbury Church. The sermon was preached by Rev Foxley Norris, an article about whom appears on page 46.The tradition has continued to the present day, invariably preceded by an OAS Dinner. Special additional events and activities have usually been organised to mark the more major anniversaries. Here there is only space to refer to two: the 350th anniversary of 1958 and the 400th anniversary of 2008. Many Almondburians ‘of a certain

age’ will still remember the former, which was marked by the successful campaign to design and build the magnificent new cricket pavilion opened by the Countess of Scarbrough on 5th June 1958 (see page 10). There was a sell-out Dinner at Huddersfield Town Hall and various other celebration events including a Field day on 12th July (inevitably spoiled by rain) and a Dance in the evening.

But the more recent 400th anniversary celebrations of 2008 are of course the ones that still linger vividly in the minds of most OAS members. Planning for this started in September 2006 when the OAS invited anyone with a love of the School who would like to be involved in the Centenary celebrations to come to a special meeting later in the month. We expected a dozen and almost 30 turned up, all with a wish to get involved. In due course, an anniversary sub-committee was set up to prepare the detailed plans.

The first project was a calendar including historic pictures of the School; some 2,000 were produced. After many meetings and discussions we also created a display about the history of the School which

could be viewed by members of the public at Ravensknowle Museum.

In June 2008, the School was given national attention through a live broadcast of the BBC Radio 4 programme Any Questions in which – appropriately – one of the panellists was the Education Secretary of the day Ed Balls.

We invited the School drama teacher, Kathy Brooke-Benn to write and get the children to perform a pageant based on the School history similar to the famous one of 1936. This was performed on 18th, 19th and 20th November.

On 21st November an amazing Fireworks Display was held on the School’s allweather area. For this, we were massively indebted to ‘Master Blaster Pastor’ Rev Ron Lancaster of Kimbolton Fireworks, who had attended the School from 1942-1950. The evening concluded with food and drink provided by OAS Cricket Club members. What a night to remember!

And so to the Dinner and Founders’ Day, the centre piece of the celebrations. Held at the Galpharm Stadium, the sell-out Dinner was attended by 400 OAS members and guests, and a fine array of speakers was led by BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson. The following day it was marvellous to see Big Tree yard packed with former students who then processed up St Helen’s Gate to a packed Almondbury Church.

But this was not quite the end of the celebrations. Thanks to OAS member Christopher Mann we were

able to arrange a special visit to the School by HRH the Duke of Gloucester on 25th November. It was a wonderful event with

civic dignitaries as well as the Royal party spending time looking round the School and viewing the charter.

The Taylor Dyson Library

TAYLOR DYSON retired in the summer of 1945 just as the Second World War was ending. By now he had seen the School through two major conflicts and he was ready to hand over the leadership of the School to someone new.

He had served for over 32 years and had proved to be both a wonderful teacher as well as an incomparable leader. He had also shown a great ability to appoint the right staff at the right time.

In his spare time he had also become an author and expert on local history in Huddersfield. He gave talks and presentations on various topics and in 1926 wrote the definitive Almondbury and its Ancient School from which Gerald Hinchliffe drew much of his background information in his History of King James’s Grammar School in the early 1960s.

Over the years Taylor Dyson built up a major collection of books regarding the local district and so it was no surprise when in 1954 he gifted them to the School. At first they were stored in a book cupboard off the Small but the OAS felt this didn’t do the collection justice and so were determined to provide an area worthy of the valuable collection. Taylor Dyson’s old study, more recently the Prefects’ Room, was chosen as a suitable venue for the books. Beautiful book-

cases and cupboards were built in and the collection found a worthy home until 1973. In all there were over 550 books some of which had been added to Dyson’s collection by Old Boys who had found an interest in local history.

However, as the survival of the School was in doubt and it kept changing its status it was decided to move the Library to a place where its treasures could be accessed by a larger audience. They were given up to Greenhead Sixth Form College to use but later an interest was shown in the collection by Huddersfield University where they were forming a local history section around the history of the town and Rugby League.

As such, under the guidance of OAS member John Broadbent, the books and documents were taken to the University Library where they have been catalogued and carefully stored and have been available for study from 2008.

It is a suitable place for the collection and one with which Taylor Dyson would have been particularly pleased. As a 14 year old boy he had travelled daily to the Technical College, later the University, for three years between 1897 and 1900. From here he had gone onto Manchester University from where he graduated early in the new century.

Services to OAS members

AN important role of all societies is to support its members. It’s one that the OAS has always taken very seriously.

Central is the need to communicate and since the early days we have circulated regular Newsletters to keep members in touch with the latest developments and initiatives. In recent years, the technology of desk-toppublishing has enabled us to produce the current full-colour magazine The Almondburian which nowadays goes out to members all over the world three times each year.

A further development over the past 25 years has been the internet and the OAS was quick off the mark in exploiting this new technology. Recently the OAS website www. oas.org.uk has been updated and greatly expanded: see the article on page 65.

In the early years, social events such as dinner dances formed an important part of the calendar. Nowadays, these have become less fashionable, though the annual OAS Dinner continues to receive ongoing support. This year we plan to move the Founders’ Day service to the Friday afternoon before the Dinner so that more pupils are able to participate (see page 20).

A fixture for close on 50 years has been our annual Quiz Evening master-minded by Keith Crawshaw in which teams drawn from the OAS and the School battle it out for the honour of becoming Brains of Britain (or Almondbury at least).This year’s Quiz Evening is on 6th October (see page 20).

An OAS activity we’ve revived in recent years has been the annual ‘OAS Outing’,

with visits in successive years to the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft and to Holmfirth Vineyard. In due course, we’re hoping to organise a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the impressive John Smith’s Stadium, but this will of course have to await the ending of Covid-19 restrictions.

It cannot be denied that Cricket and Football are no longer a feature of our OAS calendar. It’s hard to realise that in its heyday, the OAS ran no fewer that four football teams and two cricket teams. Now there are none.

However, the annual golf competition for the Gothard Cup (below) is alive and well, and both Badminton and Tennis continue to be played each year by keen OAS members.

Direct help to the School

WE have always given high priority to the provision of direct support to the School, both in a financial sense and in offering our services to meet specific needs.

Over the years we have sponsored timetable cards, pens, pupil rewards and bookmarks, and we have also supported School drama productions sponsoring sound and lighting systems.

In 1993 we bought two English oak display cabinets and in 1995 we provided funding for KJS bins around the School. In 2000 we made a major contribution towards the tennis court project.

The OAS has sponsored the Jessop Prize for many years and since 1993 we have sponsored theYoung Old Almondburians’ Prizes. Also, a number of individual Old Almondburians sponsor School prizes or offer their professional services.

A significant project in recent years has been to help the School in the production of the historic ‘Timeline’ now obn display in the main pupils’ social area. We have also been actively involved in the updating of the various honours boards around the School and the House Shield. Another project has been the reinstatement of the original Dartmouth Medal, the dies for which had been retained in the archives.

Another important new OAS initiative has been to arrange for the School to become fully involved each year in the national ‘Heritage Weekend’ when buildings not regularly open to the public open their doors for guided tours.These have proved very popular and we have been delighted that it has been possible to arrange for the School’s ancient Charter to be on display as an additional attraction.

The Old Almondburians’ Society has supported and worked with the School through good times and bad over the last one hundred years and we look forward to continuing to develop this relationship further in the years ahead. Floreat Schola, Almondburiensis!

Annual Dinner 2021

Saturday, 20th November

POSTPONED from 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s Annual Dinner marks the centenary of the founding of the Old Almondburians’ Society. It will be held at the school on Saturday, 20th November, at 6.30 pm for 7.30 pm.

This year’s speakers will be poet, author and former diplomat David Morphet (1951-58) and former teacher Bob Field (Staff, 1973-89).

The ticket price this year will be £29.50 and an application form for tickets is included with this issue of the magazine. Alternatively, you can purchase tickets online at www.oas.org.uk/ dinner.php. Please be aware that when the Annual Dinner is held

Book signing

at the School places are limited, so early applications are recommended.

We are already aware of a number of members who plan to stage a re-union of their year at the Dinner and it is not too late to make similar arrangements if you feel inclined. Such occasions are always enjoyable, so those with a special anniversary this year should consider starting to organise their class re-union as soon as possible.

A special guest at this year’s Annual Dinner will be former head of Latin and Deputy Head Dave Bush who will be travelling up from his home in Porthcawl to sign copies of his book Beating about the Bush.

School tours

Informal tours around the School will be available before the Dinner.

The scene at the successful 2019 Annual Dinner

This year’s guest speakers David Morphet (1951-58)

THERE cannot be many Old Almondburians with as many successful disparate careers as David Morphet.

He left KJGS to gain a Double First in English at Cambridge. He entered the Diplomatic Service in 1961 and in due course became a private secretary to Michael Stewart and George Brown.

Later he moved to the Department of Energy, working in Paris and Vienna, and he was in due course seconded to Midlands Electricity Board as deputy chairman. Joining the private sector in 1989 he held senior positions in Balfour Beatty and BICC. Following the privatisation of British Rail he led the Railway Forum.

Today, David is best known as one of the UK’s most highly respected poets. He has published 16 collections of poetry under his own imprint Notion Books.

Bob Field (staff 1973-1989)

A graduate of Hull University, Bob Field gained a degree in French and German in 1972.

He came to KJGS in 1973 to teach French with Dave Gregson and in 1976 he introduced German. When King James’s lost its Sixth Form in 1989 he moved to Greenhead to teach French and German and, recently, beginners’ Italian. Bob still teaches on a part-time basis.

He is a keen sportsman who played to a high standard of non-league football with Bradley Rangers in Huddersfield. He was fully involved with football at KJGS taking over the coaching responsibilities of the First XI and generally assisting sports master Ken Ireland. Bob organised the staff football and cricket teams and was

instrumental in the formation of the OAS cricket section.

Founders’ Day 2021

Friday, 19th November

FOUNDERS’ DAY 2021 will take a new form.The traditional Sunday morning event has not been well attended in recent years and has also presented problems in terms of School participation. This year’s event, at Almondbury Parish Church, will be at 2.00 pm on Friday, 19th November 2021. Plans are being finalised as we go to press, but it is hoped that form representatives from all the lower school forms will be taking part, and parents will also be invited. We’re also hoping that there will be musical contributions from the School.  The service will be preceded by the usual procession up St Helen’s Gate. Final details will be published on the OAS website and in the November issue of The Almondburian.

…and don’t miss these other upcoming anniversary year events

Heritage Day 2021

Saturday, 18th September

WE shall again be participating in the national Heritage Open Days event when the School will be open to visitors on the morning of Saturday, 18th September 2021.We again hope to arrange for the Charter to be on display.

Quiz Evening 2021

Wednesday, 6th October

THIS year’s Quiz Evening, later in the year than usual because of the Covid-19 pandemic, will be at theWoolpack in Almondbury at 7.00 for 7.30 pm onWednesday, 6th October 2021. Ideally, we require eight teams of three or four members and their guests. It is appreciated if teams can be entered in advance, but everyone is welcome to turn up on the night in what is always a very enjoyable occasion. Quizmaster: Keith Crawshaw.

Restoration of ‘Big Tree’ Completion date to be announced

WE’RE planning to mark the Centenary by providing replacement ‘Big Tree’ seating around an existing tree in the playground area. We hope this project, towards the cost of which we welcome contributions, will be completed towards the end of the year. See article on page 59.

ANDREW HAIGH

SINCE the last magazine was published, we have been delighted to welcome two new members to the Society: l Katie Patel (née Golden) attended King James’s School from 1990-95 and is now resident inWallington, Surrey.After leaving King James’s, she progressed to Greenhead College to study A-Levels in Music, Spanish and English Literature, before moving to London to read Music atTrinity College.After graduating with a B.Mus. in 2001, Katie remained in London as an instrumental teacher and gained a scholarship to complete her Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music from 2003-05. Having greatly enjoyed teaching peripatetic instrumental lessons, she enrolled for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the Institute of Education at University College London, gaining Qualified Teacher Status in 2007. Since then, she has taught at Carshalton Boys’ Sports College, South London, becoming Head of Music there in 2016. Katie says she was encouraged to join the Society by Dave Bush after reading his excellent memoir.

l Benjamin John Walker (1993-98), now resident in Ingbirchworth.

We are also very pleased to welcome back a former member: Abigail Stahelin-Hall (née Stahelin, 1991-96), now resident in Storthes Hall.

Sadly, since the last magazine was published, we have learned of five deaths:

David Utley (1940-45) in Westonsuper-Mare, on 22nd September, 2018

Martin Harrison (1962-69) in Harrogate on 6th February, 2021

Robert Goldsmith (1935-41) in Scarborough on 28th February 2021

David Robert Haigh (1958-63) in Totties, Holmfirth at the beginning of March, 2021

John Michael Rothera (1945-53) in Basingstoke on 5th April, 2021.

For the few members who do not pay their subscriptions by standing order, please remember that your £10.00 subscription for 2020-2021 fell due on 1st September last year. Thank you to those who have recently brought their subscription up to date; however, if you do receive a letter with this magazine pointing out that your subscription is not up to date, please do send your payment without delay. It does make life much easier if you can complete the updated standing order mandate that accompanies the letter and return it in the envelope provided. Alternatively, you may renew online, using PayPal or a debit or credit card, by visiting www.oas.org.uk and clicking on the ‘Join/Renew Online’ button.

Writing for The Almondburian

We are always pleased to receive articles for possible publication in the magazine. As a guide, a typical article is around 1,500 to 2,000 words and suitable illustrations are also welcome. Articles should be in .doc, .docx or .pdf format.

The editorial email address is: almondburian@oas.org.uk.

old almondburians’ society @oasforyou

From the study

KJS Principal Ian Rimmer sees uncanny similarities between the challenges of today and the ones he faced in 2016

HOW different my life was this time last year!” This was the opening phrase in my article exactly five years ago, but it applies equally well today. At that time, I was reflecting on my first year since being appointed Principal. I recall discussing the challenges that lay ahead: “ …changes to the school buildings and campus and to the ICT infrastructure are just the start.We must also react to the changing demographic and the issues faced by many children in our care today.”

Should I set myself up as a fortune teller or is this simply the well-known cyclical nature of education? Well, I am not claiming mystic qualities, but I also don’t believe the uncanny similarities between the challenges we faced in 2016 and 2021 can be attributed to educational cycles alone. And one thing I didn’t foresee was Covid.

Since I last wrote, in January, we have navigated eight weeks of remote learning. I am delighted to report that King James’s School, as with many other schools, was much more impactful in its delivery and monitoring this time around. Student engagement was strong, although sadly not universal. Some families struggled unsurprisingly with IT access, despite our distributing over 200 devices

Receptionist Jax Psomas turns poet: “Surrounded by boxes of Track & Trace Making sure I'd covered my face Bagging up kits, form by form This now seems to be the norm To ensure our pupils use this tool Then Covid-free when they come into school.”

IAN RIMMER

to disadvantaged homes. Nevertheless, despite this gargantuan effort, the inevitable fact is that most students will be behind in their learning, so one of the next challenges for us is to try to fill the gaps.

We have also had to organise and carry out Covid lateral flow tests for around 1,000 children and staff three times over, before arranging the roll-out of home testing. No mean organisational feat, delivered with support from a number of parents, former students

Tracey Brook

and friends of the School.Without them, we would have struggled to succeed, as this was happening whilst school was running at full capacity!

We have also learned of the processes for awarding Centre Assessed Grades forYear 11.The 55page Ofqual guidance document (just one of twelve sets of instructions issued by Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) and Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ)) sets out a bewildering plethora of requirements: ‘Make sure the assessments used to determine grades are robust’,‘Make sure all students have equal access’,‘Make sure grades are in line with previous years’, ‘Makes sure there is no bias’ – to name just a few.

And so, to the aforementioned ‘changing demographic’. How did I know, five years ago, that we would be asked to absorb 120 students from a local school that has just closed? Let’s face it, this was always going to be a real challenge. But, doing it during a pandemic has made it ten times harder, for it is so difficult to get to know the students when you are required to be socially distant or wear a mask; success in such a venture will always depend fundamentally on building positive relationships. Equally the children haven’t had chance to witness the real King James’s experience yet.

And as for the ‘changes to the School buildings and campus’, well at least ground has finally been broken on the site of our new 10 classroom block*. As I write, we should see

the last of the more than 230 lorry-loads of earth being removed.Then begins the foundation work and the securing of the embankment behind the new building. The internal works are due to begin on 1st June.

In the next issue, I hope to be able to report on plans to expand the dining hall, create a new Science lab and enhance the flow around the School.

This time five years ago, I posed myself the question, “So, do I regret taking it all on?” I also recall I said that “I can’t pretend there haven’t been one or two moments when I have wondered what I have done, but that’s inevitable in any new role. And there can’t be many roles in which you are more exposed! It has been said many times over that being a Headteacher is the loneliest job in the world. But I am grateful to the many colleagues, who have backed me, for without their help the task would be insurmountable. I am indebted too to the parents, Governors,Trustees and friends of King James’s, who have also expressed their support.”

Never a truer word has been spoken. I wonder, assuming I am still in post, what I will say in five years’ time! n *The new block will need a name in due course. What would be your suggestion – and why? Ideas welcome.

Nicola Ramsden

The diggers move in: building work starts on the new 10 classroom teaching block at the rear of the School

Classroom commentary

ABBI TERRY ( staff )

The wellbeing of pupils is rightly given top priority in modern schooling. Never has it been of greater importance than during the present Covid-19 pandemic.

THE Senior Leadership Team at King James’s School have different roles and responsibilities. I oversee Personal Development, which is a range of areas such as careers, wellbeing, enhancing cultural capital and diversity.

Although all school staff and their roles have been affected by the pandemic and lockdowns, I would argue that Personal Development has been significantly impacted and that Coronavirus has made things very difficult and complicated.

I have always been proud of the enrichment that we have been able to offer our students, such as working with outside agencies, being able to join clubs and groups and being able to go on trips to places that they might not usually have the chance to visit. This was especially important for students who were not as wealthy as other families. The pandemic put paid to that in so many ways …

Suddenly there were restrictions on clubs and groups and so students missed out on meeting with friends who they had something in common with, learning new skills, exploring interests and having the chance to do something they enjoy away from the academic curriculum.

Wellbeing has also been affected significantly by the pandemic and that has been felt by the whole school community. We are incredibly lucky at King James’s that our pastoral provision is fantastic and that we can support students through our wellbeing mentor, welfare officer, our Special Education Needs department as well as Pastoral Leaders, Assistant Pastoral Leaders and Tutors. Even so, this is a national issue that we will continue to hear more and more about as we (hopefully) return to some form of normality. It is not just the students who have struggled though – many of our parents and our staff have also found the lockdowns difficult due to financial problems because of jobs, anxiety and worry about their own health or their loved one's health.

Careers

The area that Personal Development has been affected the most is careers. My predecessor, Sean Kelly, had implemented different careers-based events that I continued to develop alongside the school Careers Team. This would include the Careers Convention where we would have visitors in school from a range of apprenticeship providers, workplaces, Post 16

colleges and universities for students and parents to meet with and discuss their options for when they leave us. We also had mock interviews and our Business Breakfast where our students interested in apprenticeships would meet with local employers and find out more about the roles. The biggest event of the careers calendar is work experience and from the looks of it, this is the event that has been impacted the most. Our students would normally do two-week placements in July, but all indications are that the class of 2019 will be the last ever group of students to do face to face placements. The longterm impact of the pandemic is that the businesses that would normally offer placements to students are simply unable to and so we are now having to investigate virtual work experiences for students.

I am not convinced that this would be good for our students, and I feel that they will miss out on what is a valuable experience. I still remember my own work experience as a 4th Year and as terrifying as it was, I gained a lot from it. It makes me sad that this could be no more for the next generation of King James’s School students. n

Students have completed work experience in a range of sectors and have travelled far and wide including placements abroad. Work experience offers them the chance to learn more about preferred professions.

‘Business Breakfast’ usually takes place in January when students can find out more about apprenticeships. Businesses and organisations meet students to discuss applications and the roles of apprentices.

Farnley Lines

MY last two contributions have been dominated by my book No beating about the Bush and Covid 19. Sales of the former appear to have slowed although I am still negotiating the film rights; dream on, DB! However, changes relating to the pandemic have been gaining pace of late. As I write, the shackles are slowly being removed and the exchange of Covid cartoons less frequent. These have often been brilliant. My favourite remains the one depicting a professional footballer who has just received his jab and is rolling on the floor while clutching his leg.

We too live abroad

Most readers will know that following retirement we moved to Porthcawl. One

DAVE BUSH

thing that this pandemic has brought home to us here in Wales is that we live in a separate country. The United Kingdom? Quite simply this has not been the case. When we were eventually allowed to travel outside our immediate locality the Welsh/English border was a real frontier. I should mention that when tight restrictions were in place, on sunny days Porthcawl was heaving and not with locals. There was little social distancing on the promenade. As all amenities were closed, including the funfair, there was little to do except ‘promenade’ and enjoy the sea breezes.

So travel throughout Wales became possible but our family in England could not visit us nor we them. Crossing the Severn Bridge or rather ‘The Prince of

Social distancing: One half of Boundary Lane, Saltney is in Wales and the other half is in Cheshire

Wales Bridge’ was a non-starter. This ban provided numerous amusing but ludicrous situations, especially in North Wales. In Saltney the border ran down the middle of the street so it was, in theory, illegal to cross the road to speak to a neighbour living opposite. I also heard of a golf course that has three holes in England and fifteen in Wales; unfortunately for the Welsh the only entrance is in England. Truly bunkered or did some ignore the law?

Being one who has always tried to stick to the rules, the temptation at least to bend them has been very strong. One reason is that I have consistently felt that each of our four leaders has sought some selfglorification and emphasis of their independence during this crisis. I have tried to feel empathy for Our Great Leader, Mark Drakeford, especially as he is a classicist, but his lugubrious countenance and ultra-cautious approach make it difficult. It has been suggested he would make an excellent funeral director. That’s all probably unfair as, after a slow start, Wales has been a world leader in its vaccination programme. We’ve had our two jabs and want to resume our travel plans! We feel we have lost eighteen precious months and when you are an octogenarian, realistically you have to wonder how many years you have left.

Pop-up professors

Perhaps it is a sign of increasing years but one form of amusement which Margaret and I have invented for ourselves is

to see how many ‘pop-up professors’ as we term them , we can count in a thirty minute TV news bulletin. They have proliferated enormously during the pandemic. If their specialism is an area which can be understood only by consulting a large dictionary add a bonus point. When I went to university in the late 50s university professors were indeed a rare breed and confined themselves mainly to their ivory towers. This led me to do a little research which revealed that they now number some 23,000 in UK universities, males outnumber females by three to one and less than 1% are from an ethnic minority. There’s a long way to go before equality is achieved. Just to add to the fun, by autumn Warwick University has plans to give all 850 of its academic staff the ti-

Lugubrious: First Minister Mark Drakeford has adopted an ultra-cautious approach to Covid throughout

tle of ‘professor’ in some form. We have a number of professors in our OAS ranks; perhaps they would like to express their views in the next issue.

The last word on Covid 19. (Bird watcher that I am, I have to be careful not to repeat an embarrassing error I once made by writing ‘corvid ‘.This was first spotted by son Alan who wittily replied ‘Those pesky crows get everywhere’. Family footnote. Alan officially retires at the end of May. A son retired? I must be getting old!)

I digress. Rereading sections of my book, I am aware that I frequently refer to my stressed state and to that ‘tight- under- theribs’ feeling. I was much amused by one reader who suggested the book should be sponsored by Nytol. On seeing the conditions under which NHS staff, for example, were working day after day, it made me consider my own time was comparatively easy and that I was perhaps guilty of excessive self- pity. My guilt is increased when I hear about the challenges Ian Rimmer and his staff have to face as they make every effort to return to some degree of normality at KJS. What an admirable job they are doing.

OAS Annual Dinner 2021

Still, let’s be positive. Surely this

November’s dinner will go ahead and will be a great occasion. I have every intention of attending especially as there seems a real possibility of a Grand Reunion of my last Latin group and others who left King James’s School around the same time. Those of you who have read the book will appreciate how Little Miss Nose Stud has become quite a celebrity. I think every effort should be made to track her down and invite her as a guest. I must add that I agreed to attend only after being given an assurance by the OAS Executive Committee that the speeches will be kept to a minimum. The main purpose of the evening is surely to meet past pupils and colleagues and this time there should be so many. I shall be incandescent if this is not possible. There seems also an excellent chance my dear friend, Jack Taylor, will be there. I shall be signing copies of No Beating About The Bush should anyone wish to buy one on the evening but an advanced order is advised as there is a limited supply of the first edition left. Should anyone have bought an unsigned copy and wishes to have it signed on the evening then do bring it along. See you there. If unable to attend then raise a glass to our very special school and society.

CROSSWORD by Hérisson

Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 30th September 2021. Prize: 12 months’ free OAS membership

ACROSS

9. Spread havoc – kit with broadcaster for 16 (11)

10. Odd spirit. (3)

11. 16 – mandolin owner? (7)

12. 16 – Sir Gordon having lost points somehow. (7)

13. Queen exiting 28’s work. No trick! (6)

14. Give half of Gorden Kaye show to Blanchett. (8)

16. Stop fellow serving drinks. (6)

18. Optimum, while in the very bottom. (6)

22. 16 is sublime composed with no leading musician. (8)

24. Store – American 16. (6)

27. Reserve support. (5,2)

28. 16 girl, fuddled with ale. (7)

29. End a note returned. (3)

30. Repair – no hassle for a change. Not a 16. (11) )

DOWN

1. Desert back in Panama, Catalonia. (7)

2. Maastricht arrangement without empty threat shows presence. (8)

3. Sick in standard support. (6)

4. Botox injection has poison in it! (5)

5. Navigation tool wrecks real boats. (9)

6. Regard falls for remedy from optician. (3,5)

7. Nothing in ‘Heather Symphony’. (6)

8. Strengthen misshapen mop in jar. (7)

15. Bringing up the bodies, perhaps, buying urn in pieces. (9)

17. Damaged mid/small ponds. (8)

19. A little boy swallows insect. (8)

20. Normally, we object in relaxed manner, losing head. (2,5)

21. Allots like indicators. (7)

23. 16 supporter with ship. (6)

25. Join twisted tinsel. (6)

26. 16 – 5, real disaster. (5)

The winner of Crossword by Hérisson (March 2021) was Timothy Cliffe

BACK AT THE SCHOOL

A key KJS husband-and-wife team

ROGER DOWLNG

Behind every successful school, its pupils and its staff is a support team whose efforts can easily be taken for granted. We talk to two members of the KJS team: premises manager KEITH RAMSDEN and his wife, business support officer NICOLA.

IT’S the middle of March, with the country – apart from schools which have just gone back – still in the throes of lockdown. Thank goodness for Zoom, I think, as I switch on for the third session of the day.

“You’ll need to turn the volume down on account of my loud Yorkshire rasp,” says a disembodied voice from my loudspeaker. As the picture comes into focus, I see that the owner of the voice is sporting one of the finest beards I have seen for years. I fleetingly wonder if it’s a crossed line and I’m talking to famously noisy Yorkshire actor Brian Blessed.

But no, all is well, and having turned the volume down as requested I establish that I’ve successfully made contact with King James’s School premises manager Keith Ramsden

Sitting alongside him is KJS business support officer Nicola.

Keith and Nicola Ramsden are a husband-and-wife team without whose efforts

King James’s School would quickly grind to a halt, and I was keen to learn more about their work behind the scenes.

Born in Dalton, Keith went to the ‘other’ Almondbury school – Almondbury High School – and then, following a family move to Lepton, Shelley High School. He worked initially for Howarth’s, the grocery firm that had originally started off in Huddersfield

Photographs: Nicola Ramsden

Market. Then he moved into engineering and worked for Selwyn Smith’s (now Shepley Spring Water). By this time he had met his future wife Nicola whose father had set up a boiler maintenance business and this led to engineering work there for several years. Keith subsequently set up his own successful company manufacturing marble fireplaces.

A number of changes of circumstances led to part-time maintenance work at Holmfirth High School following which Keith was delighted to see a full-time vacancy as assistant caretaker at King James’s School in 1996.

“Clive Watkins was headmaster at the time,” Keith told me. “He said that because of lack of funds very little maintenance work had been done at the School for many years.” Looking round the School, it was clear to Keith that it definitely needed a face-lift.

“I think that Clive realised that because of my practical background I could do a lot of the work myself,” said Keith. Four years ago the then headmaster Robert Lamb invited him to take on the position of Premises Manager. As a ‘handson’ man, he was initially cautious.

“It’s a different sort of job,” Keith explained. “Premises Manager is more of a management role with budget responsibilities, and I’m not the pen-pusher type!”

Keith said that sometimes one has to undertake projects around the School about which staff may have differing views, and this can occasionally cause friction. “But my philosophy is that the bottom line is the needs of the School, and these must always come first.”

Looking after the School’s premises is a two-man operation: Keith also has a caretaker, Dublin-born Tony Hyland, who replaced Bob Farrell when he retired reluctantly – at the age of 75 – a couple of years ago. It’s a day that starts early: Keith arrives just before 7.00 am to start opening up in readiness for the arrival of students and staff.

“Then, it’s always a busy day ahead trying to catch up with all the projects on hand – endless emails, letters and phone calls. The job these days has become more that of a project manager, getting contractors in to provide quotes for work on the School’s latest requirements.”

Some of the projects are fairly small, like general repairs, new doorways and partitions and the like, but Keith does not flinch from taking on larger projects.

“The School has a real shortage of under-cover areas for pupils and the Principal came up with the idea of free-stand-

Blowing his own tuba: Keith learned to play as a schoolboy at Shelley High School

ing covered areas, initially in the courtyard area behind the Schoolhouse. We looked into this and came up with a simple timber-framed structure which has been so successful that we are now about to start work on the third shelter to the same design.”

In addition to new projects, a major part of the Premises Manager’s day is taken up with issues relating to the maintenance of the existing buildings. Bearing in mind the fact that some of these are listed buildings over 200 years old, I wondered what challenges this presented.

“It’s a constant headache,” said Keith. “But it’s a pleasurable headache and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I

love the old buildings and my mission is to restore them all to the condition they were in when they were originally built. This is a very special school and there are not many like it.”

Keith is critical that the School was ‘bashed to pieces’ by uncaring and ill-conceived repairs in the interests of economy in the 1970s and 1980s.

The older buildings are of course always a problem, and keeping them watertight isn’t easy. Roof repairs have often been done ‘under guarantee’ over the years – but getting companies to honour the guarantees is difficult and often impossible. To demonstrate the point Keith told me of a roof leak in the Schoolhouse

Under cover: one of three timber-framed shelters recently constructed around the School

that has been ‘cured’ repeatedly in all the years he has been at the School, but still remains.

“But at last we’ve found the problem,” said Keith. “Tony and I decided the only way to solve the problem was to go up there and investigate it ourselves. And we’ve found the leak at last – after 28 years!”

A major new project, involving outside contractors, is about to start: the teaching block at the back of the School that will enable it to accommodate additional pupils from Almondbury Community School.

“There’s been a slight delay because of Covid-19, but it should be finished by the end of the year, ” said Keith. “We’ll then be able to go ahead with the OAS project to provide new seating around the old yew tree located very close to the present temporary classrooms.”

A man of many parts, Keith has retained a love of music, having originally been taught to play the tuba in his schooldays. He took it up again in later life, joining Scissett Band with his son who played the cornet. Then he taught himself bass guitar and became a member of a punk band, practising after hours in the wooden KJS classrooms in Fenay Lane. This led to the formation of a tribute band to the reggae-influenced punk band The Ruts which performed in local pubs and clubs.

Keith is also a keen on-line PC game enthusiast, having become hooked on ‘Space Invaders’ in the 1970s and ‘Super Mario’ and ‘Zelda’ in the 80s.

He is also been a very keen birdwatcher who enjoys the outdoors – whatever the weather.

Acheerful mother of three, Keith’s wife Nicola is herself a former KJS pupil. A local girl, she was educated initially at Dalton Junior School and then at Rawthorpe High School. In 1978 the family moved house to Kirkheaton at which point she joined KJS as Nicola Beaumont on 3rd July. After a year at Greenhead College she left school in 1981 to take up a position at the local supermarket chain Hillards. In due course she married Keith and they had three children, Aiden, Liam and Leia.

Business support officer and former pupil: Nicola Ramsden

“In 1999 I applied to KJS for a parttime classroom support assistant post working 9.00 am-11.30 am in the classroom and worked in the school kitchen over lunchtime,” she told me. “This dual job role was only short term as I then was offered extra hours supporting students.”

Nicola also went back to school herself at this point and attended evening classes to re-take her English and Maths GCSEs.

“This was well worth doing and I was happy and relieved to pass both with flying colours,” she smiled.

She worked in the Special Educational Needs (SEN) department at School for eight years: it was very much a learning experience for her as she hadn’t done the job before. However, she found it invaluable and eye-opening.

Nicola then applied successfully for the print room post of Reprographics Manager, a role which has since broadened into the position of Business Support Officer.

“I love my job, which has such a varied range of tasks,” she says. “It’s a job that also enables me to self-manage my own workload, which has expanded in range over the years.”

It’s a busy job. Nicola starts at 8.00 am and usually has to deal with a long list of emails fol -

Can this really be Dorm 4? Today the Print Room, it’s difficult to imagine that it was once a dormitory and later a classroom for 30.

lowed by chats with teachers about print requirements. The rest of the morning is spent dealing with a whole range of print jobs which can include pupil handouts, booklets and assessment examination papers. After lunch there’s always a lot of routine administration work. Three times a year, Nicola produces a comprehensive full-colour KJS Newsletter, distributed to some 1,000 parents and other readers.

Away from the office, Nicola takes a keen interest in family history research. A pleasing link with King James’s School is that for many years her mother worked for Jarmain & Son, the chemicals company originally set up by the great George Jarmain who taught at King James’s Grammar School from 18521876 and was responsible for the very early Chemistry taught at the School. As a youngster in the early 1970s Nicola would often cycle there on her bike and help with the filing. Nicola’s father, a ser-

vice engineer, used to maintain the Jarmain boiler plant.

Nicola’s family history research has also revealed that the great George Jarmain himself witnessed the marriage of one of her distant relatives – a great-grand-aunt – at Almondbury Church in 1848. Nicola thinks the groom may well have known Jarmain as a result of having attended his classes at the Mechanics Institute. Another surprising discovery is that she has a distant cousin at KJS: Ian Gatenby in the PE department, with whom she has worked for the past 20 years.

Nicola also shares Keith’s love of music, and is a big fan of the reggae and pop band UB40.

“And there are always lots of things to do at home,” said Nicola. “We have a large garden at our home in Kirkburton and last year I sowed a wildflower meadow in the lawn the results of which should be appearing soon. I’m also trying my hand at growing potatoes for the first time!”. n

Link with the past: Nicola was delighted to discover that famous KJGS chemistry teacher George Jarmain witnessed a forebear’s wedding in 1848. Her mother worked at Jarmain & Sons in Kirkheaton and Leeds for many years.

Every picture tells a story

The Almondbury Parish Clerk’s House

THIS rare photograph shows the historic house, sadly demolished around 1907, that formerly stood almost opposite the Woolpack, very close to the tower of Almondbury Parish Church.

The house was built in 1765 by Mrs Jane Fenay, a descendant of Nicholas Fenay, one of the ‘gentlemen of the parish’ who petitioned for our School Charter in 1608. Daughter of another Nicholas Fenay, the last male heir, Jane Fenay suffered a poignant tragedy. She had, at the age of 23, become engaged to be married but on the eve of the wedding her betrothed fell into a well near the White Bear Inn at Wakefield and was drowned. A substantial heiress, she received several offers of marriage, none of which she accepted.

Instead she devoted her life to helping the needy and founded a benefaction which became known as the ‘Almondbury Poor Charity’.

Canon Hulbert refers to the house in his Annals of Almondbury of 1882, at which time the occupant was the parish clerk and sexton Mr W Garner. Of particular interest is the prominent tablet on the front wall of the

house sternly bearing the injunction: ‘Built by Mrs Jane Fenay for the Parish Clerk, who is not to sell any ale, wine or strong liquor’.

Hulbert also ominously records: ‘…the Cottage is picturesque in itself, but stands in the way of a proposed avenue of trees or street of buildings, reaching to the Cemetery Road, which would display the west side of the Church Tower as its terminus; and the Cottage might be advantageously rebuilt, adjoining the School Terrace’.

In fact, the house was demolished rather than rebuilt, though the tablet was saved and is now located on the wall adjacent to the church tower. n

Kirklees Image Archive

Adventures in the Republic of Yemen

ROBERT HIRST (1966

- 1973)

The name ‘Yemen’ means ‘flourishing Arabia’ but sadly the country is better known today as a place of strife and famine. Robert Hirst lived there with his family for several years from 2005 . This is his story.

Igazed out of the small window as the Yemenia A340 commenced its descent towards the capital of Yemen, the historic city of Sana’a. All I could see was a night sky which was empty, inky black. My wife Mary, our teenage daughter Felicity and I were en route from Paris, heading into the unknown, to live and work in a country much misunderstood, desperately poor and very troubled. Seven hours previously we had boarded the plane at Paris Charles de Gaulle T1, but this might well have been a thousand years away. This was a different world to which we were

heading, a different culture and a different life.

As we continued our descent, the lights of a large sprawling city came into view. Anticipation heightened. We were almost there. My wife and I were excited, anxious, unsure of what lay ahead. Our daughter was frankly terrified, not only did she not like flying but she had heard thatYemen had the highest concentration of automatic weapons of anywhere in the World.Would she be safe? She didn’t speak Arabic, how would she make friends?

Touchdown was heavy (Yemenia pilots are a bit gung-ho) and as we bowled down the runway I saw dozens of Russian military

Robert Hirst, pictured here with his wife Mary, graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nottingham University in 1976. He has spent most of his career working all over the world in international oil and gas exploration and production. He is currently HSE & Risk Manager for Australia Pacific LNG, a major supplier of liquefied natural gas to Asia.

Robert and Mary have three children.

aircraft and helicopters lining the airfield, many of them in pieces. It was like a wrecking yard for cold war military aircraft. Turns out that Sana’a airport is officially a military base with commercial aircraft allowed to land as a secondary issue. I wish somebody had told me that.

Disembarking from the laughingly named ‘First Class’ cabin, we were surprised, this was August in the Arabian desert, why was it freezing? Why was the air so crisp and thin? Well Sana’a sits in the chain of mountains which run the length of the eastern flank of Yemen, it is one of the highest capital cities in the world.

At night, even in summer, it is very cold. Sana’a is officially at altitude and that, as we were to discover, has its challenges.

We were bundled into the scruffy terminal building in which was a maelstrom of people shouting, waving arms, officials yelling unintelligible instructions to nobody in particular. Heathrow T5 this was not. More like Entebbe. Thankfully we had been appointed a ‘fixer’ who eventually got us our very impressive entry visas and we picked up our baggage (I was pleasantly surprised that it hadn’t actually gone missing)

and headed for the beaten up Toyota bus which it later turned out was pretty typical of general transport in Sana’a.

Bowling down the highway at a teeth chattering speed towards the historic city of Sana’a we had our first taste of the real Yemen, the true birthplace of Arabia (Yemen was known as Arabia Felix which means ‘flourishing Arabia’). There was a lot of dust, the air smelt of sewage and the buildings which lined the road varied from fairly modern office buildings to tumbledown mud shacks.The roads were still fairly busy despite it being after midnight and there were a lot of very old and smoky lorries, beat up cars without any lights and ramshackle commercial vehicles. Frankly it was all a bit crazy.

I reflected on how this could have transpired. How, after a 30 year career in the UK, largely in North Sea oil and gas, did I end up agreeing to work in a country which most people knew only for the 2011 film Salmon Fishing in theYemen or – more sinisterly – for its links with Osama Bin Laden? Was I mad? Was it a mid-life crisis?

I remember Reginald Walker, my geography teacher at KJGS very fondly. He was a shy man who took quite a bit of wellintentioned stick from us unruly pupils. He loved sharing his knowledge of geography, but I don’t ever remember him telling us aboutYemen. Mr Walker, you didn’t prepare me for this! So when my employer, the

Ta’izz Al-Bayda Zinjibar

Al Mukalla

Al Ghaydah Yarim

Ray dah Shabwah

Fughmar

Saudi Arabia Iran

French oil & gas supermajor Total, suggested that I might like to consider working in Yemen I had to ask my wife, a Travel Health Nurse with experience of preparing people to travel to weird places around the world: “Where the heck isYemen?” “Why are you asking me?” she mumbled suspiciously. “Er, well ”

Yemen is a relic of the dawn of civilisation. It lies on the Silk Road, to the south of Saudi Arabia and the east of Oman, with the Red Sea on its east coast and the Gulf of Aden on its south coast.The city of Aden in the south of Yemen was once a strategically important British military stronghold and the architecture there is partly British; there is even a ‘Little Ben’ modelled on its bigger brother in London. By contrast, the

Al-Saleh Mosque, the largest in Yemen. It was inaugurated in November 2008 by the late Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The building cost some US$50 million to construct, a figure much criticised at the time when the country was suffering from major socio-economic problems.

city of Sana’a in the north is one of the oldest walled cities in the world. It is classically Arabic with not a hint of Western influence. In Yemen they speak the traditional Arabic language and the early customs of the Islamic faith evolved there. Yemen has one of the oldest mosques in the world which dates back over 1,300 years. In essence, Yemen is the birthplace of the old Arabian world and of early Islamic culture.

History has however not served it kindly. It is tribal, desperately poor, culturally troubled and suffers from indescribable social problems. It regularly comes out in the bottom five countries on social indices of gender equality, poverty, medical services and educational development. It is, however, as six years of living there was to prove, a culturally fascinating country with kind people, a deep and rich history, unique architecture and unique customs. But all this lay ahead of us…

Before we had agreed to go to Yemen, my employer arranged a ‘cultural briefing’ for us. Whilst this was well intentioned, it was frankly useless.The consultant knew almost nothing aboutYemen, speaking about the more widely known countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. He did however suggest speaking to a contact in the British-Yemeni Society, a society of cultural

exchange in London. Coincidentally they had a meeting in the coming days so we arranged to go along and see what transpired. What an amazing evening! We were treated like royalty.We were introduced to some very influential Yemenis as “this young couple(!) who are going to live in Yemen” and we found out about the real Yemen from people who lived there and who understood the culture, and from British diplomats and industry leaders who had worked there. Every single person that evening touched us with their love and passion for this strange and misunderstood land. The abiding message was: “Go there–Yemen will touch your heart like no other place in the world”.We decided there and then to give it a go, so I signed the paperwork and agreed to start work inYemen during the summer of 2005 which was the time that the huge gas project there was ramping up (I will speak more of this incredible project later).

First Days in Sana’a

The creaking and cramped Toyota bus slowed down then turned into what seemed like a pleasant part of Sana’a. We drew up to a surprisingly impressive modern building which would be our temporary home until we found a house to rent. The large steel doors opened and we were allowed in by the guard, who I noted was carrying an automatic weapon, an AK-47 as it happened. I knew little about guns but knew enough to respect the simple but effective weapon developed by Mr Kalashnikov for use in difficult terrain (it is specifically designed to work when covered with dust and sand and maintenance is simple in remote locations). An AK-47 is able to cause a lot of damage in the wrong hands and I had heard that there were over 60 million of them in Yemen (yes really – three AK-47s for every head of population which is insane).

We were shown to our room which was enormous. It was actually quite pleasant and we fell into bed absolutely exhausted. The bright lights of the Champs Elysees seemed like a lifetime ago, not just yesterday, and we wondered what the coming days would bring! We woke up the following morning to the sun streaming in through the blinds.

Sana’a, with the Sarawat mountains beyond. Sanaʽa is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. With an elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft), it is also one of the highest capital cities in the world.

Opening them sufficiently to tentatively peek out we were encouraged to see a clear blue sky and what seemed to be the bustle of a fairly normal city business district, albeit with unusual architecture. What we did not realise then was the pleasant fact that Sana’a has the best climate of pretty much anywhere in the world.Typically Sana’a enjoys 340 days of continuous blue skies and sunshine annually, with daytime temperatures like a British summer and with overnight temperatures of around 18°C in summer and 5°C in winter. The problem is that it rarely rains which means that Sana’a, and indeedYemen generally, has a critically dangerous water shortage problem. I would learn more about this as our time inYemen progressed. Meantime we had to find a house in which to live and we had to get Felicity into a school, plus I had a new job to commence.

The city of Sana’a is home to over 2 million people, the vast majority of whom live in the sprawling suburbs outside the Old City are who are below the official world poverty line. Many of them don’t have med-

ical coverage, education, access to electricity and running water, nor do they enjoy even the most basic privileges of the modern world. But Sana’a does have wealthy people and the new mosque (built in 2008) is a marvel, albeit the US$50m could perhaps have been better spent alleviating poverty. Like a number of third world countries in which I have worked the rich are very rich and the poor are desperately poor.

After breakfast on the terrace, I gazed at the surroundings: Sana’a (like Huddersfield) sits in a natural bowl surrounded by hills (well, in the case of Sana’a they are mountains which rise to 13,000 feet).We then met our driver who was a cheery Yemeni chap who spoke reasonably good English and who was to take us, along with a French lady, to find somewhere to live and to arrange for Felicity’s schooling.

The School

Schooling is obviously critical for personal development and to prepare one for integration into society. I was very fortunate, perhaps more so than I realised at the time, but my own education at King James’s Grammar School prepared me for a lifetime of work and also left me with a love of many things. For that I have to thank headmaster Harry Taylor and his amazing teaching team, including Dave Bush who was my Latin master. For our youngest daughter it was vital to find her

Sana’a International School: daughter Felicity with a group of schoolfriends

the appropriate education in Yemen and this proved to be much easier than we had anticipated. Sana’a at the time had the Sana’a International School (SIS) which was the founding school of an organisation called QSI, an accredited and acclaimed set of international schools around the world. SIS was a beautiful school with a quality curriculum. Students were typically expatriates (including diplomatic) andYemenis, generally from wealthy or political families. The President’s daughter was in my daughter’s class which gave her the rare privilege of being one of the few Westerners allowed into the closely guarded presidential palace.

Felicity loved her three years at this wonderful school, but she had to leave in 2008 due to a deteriorating security situation in Yemen. She remembers her time there incredibly fondly. Sadly, SIS is no longer there, a victim (like much of Sana’a) of destructive air strikes in the aftermath of the Arab Spring of 2011 and the ensuing civil war which is still raging.

Housing in Sana’a

The search for a place to live in Sana’a was challenging to say the least. We were shown a number of houses, some of which were dreadful

Our Yemeni home for six years: the semi-circular stained-glass windows are a unique feature of local architecture

and one which was creepy. After a few frustrating days however, we found the house in which we were to live for six years. It was a traditional Yemeni house in the diplomatic quarter, with a large and beautiful ‘mafraj’ (social room) adorned with the stunning semicircular stained-glass windows which are a unique feature of Yemeni architecture. It also had a walled garden which was a rare asset and one which we came to truly appreciate as we did quite a lot of socialising with people including the British and the American ambassadors and their families. We had a separate guard house, because a 24 -hour guard was essential, and a rooftop verandah which overlooked the city. After painting and furnishing the house it looked marvellous.

lTo be continued. In Part 2 I will tell of my experiences of living and working in Yemen, some of which were immensely fulfilling, some of which were crazy,

.

We bid a sad farewell to the man who really cared about apostrophes

IT was pleasing to see that the death on 30th March 2021 of John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society, received prominent coverage in the national press. Although not a former pupil of King James’s School (for which, having been born and brought up in the south of England, he could scarcely be blamed), he would surely have commended not only our punctilious use of the apostrophe in our name but also our ongoing support for his noble campaign. [It is sad that Richards also never attended Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, the only school in the world with three apostrophes in its name and surely the true test of any apostrophe zealot].

APOSTROPHE CORNER’

A former newspaper sub-editor, Richards launched his society in 2001 and was soon receiving examples of apostrophe abuse from all over the world. Respected writers produced examples demonstrating convincingly that apostrophes performed a vital grammatical role. One such was Martin Amis who pointed out the world of difference in the possible interpretations of: Those things over there are my husband’s / Those things over there are my husbands’ / Those things over there are my husbands.

The society gained members from all over the world but it was an uphill struggle to give the apostrophe the protection it so clearly deserved. Richards battled in vain with retailers like Waterstones, Harrods and Selfridges who insisted that the apostrophe was an anachronism in the high-tech world of the 21st centurythough one that strangely presented no problems at all for Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s. However, he achieved a major success in 2013 when the Mid Devon District Council reversed its decision to ban apostrophes from its street signs.

By 2019 Richards had achieved the grand old age of 96 and not unreasonably decided that it was time to call it a day. “The barbarians have won,” he declared, generating such a surge of support that his website www.apostrophe.org.uk promptly crashed. It was soon repaired and continues to attract regular sightings of what much surely be by far our language’s most cruelly maltreated punctuation mark.

John Richards may no longer be leading the charge, but as the examples shown here clearly demonstrate, the battle must surely continue. n

Spotters: James Clayton; the Editor

Westgate development is finished

The chair of the King James’s School Foundation reports on the completion of a project to redevelop an asset to yield a substantial future income for the School

COLIN BAMFORD

ON 27th April 2021, the builder left the Westgate site, signalling completion of the scheme to transform this rather dilapidated but valuable asset of the Foundation.

The development has taken longer than expected for a host of reasons beyond the control of the builder, the architect or the Foundation. These reasons include bats, badgers, Kirklees planners, torrential rain, availability of building supplies, mains connections and of course Covid-19.

The good news is that the Foundation now owns

l Four new semi-detached properties

l A renovated terrace of four cottages

l A barn conversion with spectacular views over the Woodsome valley.

These nine properties are in addition to the former headteacher’s house and two small terrace houses further up Westgate.

My predecessor as Foundation chair, Graham Cliffe, has been the driving force behind the project. Graham convinced us that, from a strategic standpoint, proceeds from the development would produce a regular income for King James’s and other beneficiaries from the Foundation for many more years to come. Looking back, Graham was right. The bottom of Westgate has been transformed and has the full backing of English Heritage.

The underlying principle is that all the properties are to be let, ideally to professional tenants. They are being managed by Paisley Properties which has an

Job done: members of the Foundation pose before one of the new Westgate properties. Left to right: Andrew Haigh, Colin Bamford, Patrick O’Brien, Walter Raleigh, Janet Cockroft, Christopher Mann

Photographs: Andrew Haigh

outlet in Almondbury village; details are on :www. paisleyproperties.co.uk.

One disappointment is that the local authority has been adamant that all nine new properties should have a Westgate address. We were hoping to call the cul-de-sac ‘King James’s Court’ or similar to reflect the Foundation’s part in improving this important part of the village.

An idea that we would like your thoughts on is this. We were wondering about calling each of the new properties after well-known alumni, teachers or possibly after the School’s houses. I am sure this could be done discreetly in a way that would not upset Kirklees. If you have any suggestions, please let OAS chair Walter Raleigh know by 30th September at walter.raleigh@oas.org.uk. The top suggestions will be disclosed at the OAS Annual Dinner.

Finally, our thanks go to Hare Construction, Richard Turner, our architect, and to my colleagues Andrew Haigh, Janet Cockroft and Tony Haigh for sorting out things like kitchen units, carpets, blinds and so on. n

From the top:

l Site entrance next to Wormall Hall

l Rear of 13a (Joiner's Shop Extension),

7a and 7 Westgate

l Typical modern fully fitted kitchen

l Fine views towards Emley Moor or Grasscroft

The Rev William Foxley Norris

EDWARD ROYLE (1955 - 1962)

UNIQUE among the images of King James’s School which have appeared over the years in The Almondburian and other publications relating to the School is a romantically impressionistic sketch of the old School buildings, quite unlike the realistic line drawings found elsewhere. The artist wasWilliam Foxley Norris. On 24th November 1929 the preacher at the very first Founders’ Day (of the modern era) was the sameWilliam Foxley Norris.Who was he and what was his connection with the School?

As well as being a talented artist, Foxley Norris was vicar of Almondbury from 1888 until 1901, and a governor of the school from 1889 to 1901. His life can be considered under three connected headings: his distinguished career as a clergyman in the Church of Eng-

land; his support for the visual arts; and his interest in education.

Clergyman

Norris was born on 4th February 1859 in Buckingham and came from a clerical family. His father, alsoWilliam Foxley Norris (18251906) was vicar of Buckingham (1862-79) and then rector ofWitney in Oxfordshire (18791904); he was appointed an honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford in 1890. His father’s elder brother, John Pilkington Norris (182391), was also a clergyman, archdeacon of Bristol from 1881, who died four days after being appointed Dean of Chichester in December 1891.

The younger Foxley Norris himself had an even more distinguished clerical career. Educated at Charterhouse, where he won the Leech Prize in 1877, followed by Trinity College, Oxford where in 1881 he took a third-class degree in theology, he

A notable cleric, artist and educationalist who was a former governor of King James’s Grammar School and later became Dean of Westminster

(Left) William Foxley Norris’s drawing of the School dates back to his time as a governor in the 1890s

enrolled in the Leeds Clergy School for a year’s professional training, before being ordained deacon in 1882 and priest in 1883. He then served curacies at Eton (1882-5) and Chatham (1885-7) and became vicar of Shirburn in Oxfordshire in 1887. After only a year he moved to take up the position at Almondbury.

His appointment to Almondbury was not an obvious one, given that the patron of the living, Sir John Ramsden, was hostile to anyone tainted with High Church Ritualism. Norris senior had gained just such a reputation atWitney, introducing vestments into his communion services and celebrating from an eastward position – that is, with his back to the congregation.

Norris junior was to show himself sympathetic to such reforms, but perhaps this was not so obvious when he was young. He came to Almondbury in 1888 on the recommendation of his friend, the new Bishop of the new diocese ofWakefield,WilliamWalsham How, who also appointed Norris as his Examining Chaplain (1888-1917). How is described by one historian as ‘a safe pair of hands. He was of High Church leanings … but he abhorred some of the ritual associated with the Oxford Movement’ (Kate Taylor, Wakefield Diocese, p.9).This perhaps sums up Foxley Norris also, and the bishop’s support would seem to have been good enough for Ramsden. Walsham

How is probably best known today as author of the hymn For all the saints which is sung at Founders’ Day each year.

Norris stayed 13 years at Almondbury before moving on to a better-paid living as Rector of Barnsley. During that time he must have found Sir John Ramsden’s habitual indecisiveness and tendency to micro-manage increasingly frustrating. In 1859 Ramsden had proposed a new church in the parish at the bottom of Longley Park, and had offered £1,000 towards its cost, but with an unrealistic desire to emulate his mother who in 1853 had built St John’s, Birkby for £7,000. Nothing happened, and still nothing 30 years later when Foxley Norris arrived and attempted to revitalise the scheme.

But whereas he, and the Bishop, favoured a modest mission hall or chapel of ease on Mulberry Street, at least to begin with, Ramsden wanted his grander church despite being unwilling to pay for it.When Norris suggested an approach to the leading ecclesiastical Gothic architect of the day, Charles Hodgson Fowler, Ramsden scathingly dismissed Fowler’s proposal for a Perpendicular design as not good enough. Norris pressed on with an iron mission church, and a new but modest stone church – St Michael’s, now St Joseph’s RC church – was not opened until 1915, long after Norris’s departure, and after Ramsden’s death.

William Foxley Norris as a young man. Then resident at Ovenden Hall, Halifax, he was 34 when this photograph was taken.

Kirklees Image Archive

Norris’s career now took off. Having been appointed Proctor for the Huddersfield Archdeaconry (1893-1906), as Rector of Barnsley (1901-9) he also assumed the office of Rural Dean of Silkstone (1901-6), honorary Canon of Wakefield (from 1902), Archdeacon of Halifax (1906-17), Canon Resident of Wakefield (1909-17), Dean of York (1917-25) and finally Dean of Westminster from 1925 until his death in 1937, shortly after enrobing King George VI at his coronation.

Alongside these preferments came administrative responsibilities, among them Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation ofYork (1919),Vice-Chairman (1922-5) and then Chairman (1925-9) of the House of Clergy at Westminster, and an Ecclesiastical Commissioner. He played a leading part in the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, published in 1928.

Artist

Norris said of himself, “By nature I am an artist, by accident a dean.” He was a talent-

ed water-colourist and sketch-artist with a love for the atmospheric, including his Bits of Old Almondbury, from which the sketch of the School is taken. It is hard to realise that in that sketch of the ancient school, the building on the left (the ‘Big’, later the Library) was scarcely four years old when Norris came to Almondbury.

He was also active in encouraging other amateur artists as founder-president of the Huddersfield Art Society (1890), guiding and supporting the members as well as encouraging aspirant artists at the School. Later, in York, he founded theYork Art Society (1920) to promote public exhibitions of the members’ works and to encourage the practice of Art in the city. He was also founder-chairman of the Society of Parson Painters, and honorary chaplain to the Royal Academy (from 1925), where he exhibited some of his works. His son, Arthur Norris, also an artist, was educated at the Slade and later taught Art at Repton School.

Beyond this attachment to drawing and painting, Norris had a deep commitment to the visual arts more broadly. In his Christianity he could be said to have worshipped the Lord in the holiness of beauty as well as ‘the beauty of holiness’.While he was prepared to settle for an iron mission room in Almondbury parish, when he arrived inYork Minster he wanted much more as

A prolific artist, Foxley Norris’s paintings are in demand today. This watercolour shows villagers in conversation at Alvescot, Oxfordshire.

Lacy, Scott & Knight

he showed himself to be an efficient administrator and reformer.

In 1977 Reginald Cant, then Chancellor ofYork Minster, summed up Norris’s work as Dean:

“His main objects during his nine years at York were to bring the Minster into closer relationship with the diocese, to improve its finances in order to carry out necessary repairs to the fabric and glass, to provide better furnishings for the interior of the building, and to maintain and enrich its daily worship.”

(Aylmer and Cant, A History of York Minster, p. 540).

The medieval stained glass was in a bad state of repair and needed rescue, so Norris began a major campaign which lasted throughout the inter-war period to save this precious heritage for the Minster and the nation. A separate appeal was made to restore the Five Sisters Window as a war memorial to commemorate the women of the Empire – the first such memorial in Britain: it was unveiled by the Duchess of York on Midsummer’s Day 1925.

The many side-chapels in the Minster lay bare and unused so to raise funds he designated three of them as regimental chapels, using local craftsmen to restore them and supply painted wrought iron screens and High Renaissance altars, two of them in marble.The Zouche Chapel was also re-opened for worship; altars were placed in the crypt and the nave; and in 1923 the Lady Chapel was refurnished and embellished with a marble altar table and carved stone reredos, painted and gilded.Worship was also transformed, so

that theYorkshire Post would later state (with some exaggeration) that Norris had “desired to elevate the services of the Minster to the front rank of Anglo-Catholic practice”.

Sung Eucharist was improved, spoken prayers were replaced by monotone chants (better for Gothic acoustics) and new regulations were made concerning the vestments to be worn at celebrations of the Eucharist at different times of the year. New vestments were donated by Lord Halifax, and the High Church English Hymnal was introduced in 1919. Norris continued such work when Dean of Westminster, promoting the restoration of the Abbey’s medieval paintings and of Henry VII’s chapel as well as securing a grant from the PilgrimTrust to improve the Library and the Muniment Room. He also oversaw the complete rebuilding of the Abbey organ.

His respect for and understanding of the art and architecture of the past were manifested in his membership of the advisory council of the Victoria & Albert Museum,

The Five Sisters Window of York Minster, completed around 1260, is noted for its finely painted ‘grisaille’ glass set into geometric designs.

chairmanship of the Central Council for the Care of Churches, and Trusteeship of Speke Hall, Liverpool (now in the care of the National Trust). In recognition of his knowledge and commitment he was made an honorary associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. His artistic passions were also reflected in several of his publications, notably The windows ofYork Minster and their preservation (1920) and Decoration and enrichment in cathedrals (1927).

Educationalist

Foxley Norris was a committed educationalist, and in this he was following in a family tradition. His uncle, John Pilkington Norris, had been Inspector of Schools for Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire (1849-63) and then for Kent and Surrey until becoming a Canon of Bristol in 1864. Foxley Norris was himself Diocesan Education Inspector for Wakefield before his move to York in 1917.

His interests lay across the full range of schools, from Provost (1906) of the Northern division of the Woodard Schools (classical boarding schools founded to ‘re-Christianise’ England) at the wealthier end of the spectrum to a supporter of parochial National Schools for the elementary education of the poor – his book on Elementary Schools, in a series of clergy handbooks, was first published in 1904 and most recently republished in 2015.

At King James’s, he was one of six governors to appear before the Bryce Commission on Secondary Education (1895). The Commission’s conclusions with regard to the School were not encouraging:

“It is difficult to see what its future place will be in relation to the Secondary Educa-

tion in Huddersfield. Its geographical position makes it unfortunately impossible for it to become the secondary school of the town, and yet it has so many elements of a good school that it would seem a pity if it could not be able to develop into something bigger than it is now”.

Norris and the other governors disagreed and thought there was still a place for a school like King James’s. He even thought its rural situation a positive advantage, and many pupils who have experienced the delights of the Farnley Valley since will agree with him. Norris combined those rare qualities of an efficient and innovative administrator, and a romantic antiquarian with a strong sense of history and beauty – themes which emerged in his Founders’ Day address in 1929.

William Foxley Norris, Doctor of Divinity (1917), Chaplain to the Order of St John of Jerusalem (1921), Dean of the Order of the Bath (1926), Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (1934), died on 28th September 1937. His remains lie buried beneath the nave of Westminster Abbey. n

l Edward Royle is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of York.

A Scientist returns to the Arts

DR LES ORME (1961-1968)

Les reflects on his time at King James’s Grammar School, his medical training leading to a career in General Practice and the rediscovery of his talent for art, in conversation with former classmate RICHARD TEALE.

IT started with an email from Richard Teale suggesting that as this year will be the 60th anniversary of our year’s intake at King James’s, it would be an appropriate occasion to organise a reunion at the Annual Dinner on 20th November. In the course of subsequent email exchanges between us it emerged that retirement has enabled us both to rekindle our interest in art.

In the 1960s King James’s Grammar School provided a remarkable learning experience in many respects, but having a small annual intake of pupils (approximately 60) it could not offer the flexibil-

ity of timetabling and choice of subjects that most secondary schools are able to provide today. Progress through the years towards GCE ‘O’ levels required selection of some subjects at the expense of others, and a division in the sixth form into Arts or Sciences.

I arrived at King James’s in 1961 from Dalton Junior School with classmates David Richardson, Peter Sanderson, Steven Walsh, Michael Walker and Martin Wortley, all of us alphabetically consigned to 1 Alpha, based in Dorm 2 with Harry Gledhill as our form master. Like most of us, I suspect, I can remember the arrangement of desks and who sat where, and can still reel off the names in the alphabetical order called out ev-

One man and his dogs: Les Orme with his Bernese Mountain Dog Molly and (right) his pastel painting of the late Paddy, a Norfolk Terrier owned by Andrew Trotter (KJGS 1965-1971).

Form 3 alpha, photographed in 1963:

Back row: Martin Wood, Douglas Norris, David Lawson, Steven Walsh, Ian Robertson, Ian Smith, Peter Sanderson, Martin Wortley, Paul Wilson, Michael Kruszynski, Robert Pryor.

Middle row: David Senior, Robert Newbould, John Derham, Brian Steel, Tony Thorpe, Melvyn Smith, John ‘Bobby’ Brown, Michael Storry, Richard Wade, Dennis Taylor.

Front row: Derek Mowbray, Leslie Orme, David Richardson, Alan Prout, Reg Walker (form master), Peter Modzelewski, Graham Morris, Roderick O’Connor, Norman Pearson Absent on the day:  Selwyn Shaw, John Taylor, Richard Teale, Howard Thewlis, John Watson, Michael Walker.

ery day at morning registration. I was extremely fortunate, I had a flair for learning and found I was an all-rounder, was good at most subjects and enjoyed them all. Always vertically challenged, keeping my head down was never a problem, and until my contemporaries outgrew me, I could compete reasonably well at football, crosscountry and athletics.

I particularly enjoyed the first three years of studying Art with teachers Raymond Bishop and Rowland Wearing; however, after the third year, timetable constraints meant one had to choose between Art or Latin. At the time I felt that Art, like Music, was something – if one had an innate ability – to which one could return at some time in the future or in one’s own time. Latin, on the other hand needed to be taught, and Jim Toomey and Dave Bush were waiting to see to that!

After success in ‘O’ level examinations, I was confronted with a dilemma in choosing between Arts or Sciences for 6th form. I loved languages, geography and history, but also biology, especially zoology and human biology, and physics. I must confess that the careers advice offered by the School in those days was of limited benefit, and I had no grand calling or family tradition to follow. Parental and other family influences served only to confuse; my parents, on my behalf, sought the advice of Harry Taylor, whose opinion was that I should follow my instincts.

I recall writing to Jonathan Barton, an extremely bright contemporary who had left the School when he relocated to the Lake District, and whose opinion I respected, asking him what he would do. His wise advice echoed that of the Gaffer. My

n aive, simplistic, reductive thinking concluded that if I chose Arts subjects I might be looking at a career in the Law, or teaching; with Sciences (and a bias towards biological sciences) I could do zoology, microbiology, dentistry or medicine. Medicine offered a variety of specialities enabling me to keep my options open.

So, medicine it was, and hence Sciences was the route to follow. I was privileged to study under Jack Taylor (biology), Cecil Gill (physics) and Leslie Mallinson (chemistry). However, I sensed a note of disapproval from some of the Arts subject teachers, and can still recall the surprise and disappointment of Fred Hudson (Geography) at my decision.

Our academic year was the first to trial Oxbridge entrance examinations prior to doing ‘A’ levels and I was lucky to be offered a place at Clare College, Cambridge, starting in October 1968, studying Medical Sciences. In hindsight, at the age of 17, soon to be 18, I was far too young and immature to appreciate and

extract the best of what a Cambridge education had to offer, and in truth was somewhat overwhelmed initially. In his welcoming address the Senior Tutor informed us how privileged we were to be able to partake of the superb educational facilities of the venerable institution that was Cambridge University, but we were to be responsible for getting the most out of it. Lectures and practical sessions would be provided by the University, the college would appoint a Director of Studies for each of us and tutorials would be provided on a one-to-one basis. Examinations would be set at the end of each academic year; pass them and you would be invited to stay on, fail them and you would be requested to leave. Self-directed learning was the ethos, and we were encouraged to question, to challenge and to debate.

The college-based system ensured that we mingled with students of other faculties rather than just other medics, and good and lasting friendships were forged with historians, geographers, (Simon Duncan ex-KJGS 1960 intake who had applied post ‘A’ levels also started at Clare the same year, studying Geography), economists, engineers, even lawyers! Martin Wood, my classmate and friend from KJGS, started at Christ’s

Clare College, Cambridge: Les Orme’s room in his final year was in the attic at the corner of the south and west elevations, affording views over King’s Chapel and the river.

College the following year and went on to enjoy a stellar career as one of the country’s leading barristers specialising in Family Law. The same Jonathan Barton to whom I had written for advice, was a contemporary at Emmanuel College, where he studied English and went on to an extremely successful career in television news production and journalism.

After the relatively spoon-fed approach that had characterised my years up to A level this was an abrupt change of gear! One adapts quickly however, and after an unforgettable three years there and a Cambridge degree to my name I elected to pursue my three years of clinical studies at Edinburgh University. In the early 1970s, there being no clinical medical school at Cambridge, the vast majority of medical graduates dispersed themselves amongst the various London teaching hospitals. Had I failed to get into Cambridge, Edinburgh had been my next choice; hence my decision not to follow the flow.

In contrast with the liberal, tutorialbased, college-orientated Cambridge education, Edinburgh provided a more constrained, very structured but rather rigid approach that did not welcome questioning or challenge, but which did

imbue a sense of rigour and thoroughness to one’s clinical approach which was to stand me in good stead for my entire career. I am eternally grateful for this, as – I would like to think – have been my patients.

During the years of clinical study students were required to undergo elective periods spent in a clinical environment of the student’s choice. Mine were spent at the still relatively new Huddersfield Royal Infirmary (HRI), at the time a state-ofthe-art hospital. It was equipped with piped gases, a purpose-built operating theatre suite and coronary care unit, wards were laid out in four-bed units with plenty of single rooms and a sitting room per ward, and there were phlebotomists to take the patients’ bloods. Most importantly, it was staffed by a team of superb general physicians and surgeons, excellent teachers all, from whom I learned much more than on the stuffy, traditional ‘Grand Rounds’ conducted by their over-specialised Edinburgh counterparts processing up and down the out-dated Florence Nightingale wards. It was therefore an easy decision, having qualified as a doctor in 1974, to spend my pre-registration year at Huddersfield, during which time General Practice Vo -

Huddersfield Royal Infirmary in 1975: Les Orme in the unlikely role of Father Christmas. His wife Kate (ringed) was a staff nurse in the Paediatric ward.

cational Training Schemes were established.

I had by now concluded that General Practice was the speciality best suited to my personality and skill set. Even when at school, and through my student years, friends and colleagues seemed to want to confide in me and ask my opinion on matters that were troubling them. Without quite knowing how or why, I must have seemed to be an approachable, non-judgemental individual in whom they felt they could trust. Those are some of the very qualities that I regard as being essential for a General Practitioner, along with endless patience, tolerance and an interest in people and their problems. And of course, a desire to help: being prepared to act as the patient’s advocate and to seek the best course of action and the best clinicians and facilities on their behalf.

The three years of Vocational Training, involved a succession of six-month postings in General Medicine, Obstetrics and

Gynaecology, Paediatrics, General Practice (Kirkburton), Accident and Emergency, and again General Practice (Slaithwaite and Lindley). As was the case during my pre-registration year, those hospital posts required one to be on-call on alternate weekends (day and night) and on weekday nights, in addition to the normal long working days. That in turn necessitated living and sleeping in the hospital doctors’ mess as one needed to be available at very short notice for emergencies. Those long hours were demanding and put a considerable strain on one’s domestic and family life. It was no coincidence in those days that so many doctors married nurses – they were often the only members of the opposite sex we saw or with whom we had social interaction. More importantly, nurses understood the nature of the work and the vocational aspect of the job. So it was that

I had met Kate, my wife of 46 years, when she was a student nurse at HRI, during my student elective attachment.

Les was much involved in the creation of the purpose-designed Shepley Health Centre, located in Jos Lane, close to the centre of Shepley. It opened in 2005.

It greatly enhanced the attraction of that hospital to me! Our marriage, in July 1974, was timed so that after a brief honeymoon we could take up residence in hospital-owned accommodation ready for my first day of work as a junior doctor on 1st August 1974.

Much attention has been focused of late on the reliance of the NHS on overseas-trained personnel and how we have come to rely on the European Union to supplement the NHS workforce. However, my experience was that we were reliant on foreign nationals long before the UK was a member of the EU. Student nurses were regularly recruited from Malaysia and pre-EU Ireland. Sharing the HRI doctors’ mess in those years, and making life tolerable during those long hours on-call, was a veritable League of Nations of colleagues; surgeons from Iran, Iraq, New Zealand, Syria (trained in Moscow) and Surrey; obstetricians from Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, India, Mauritius and Manchester; physicians from Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Bermuda; orthopaedic

surgeons from Greece, Australia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Nottingham; anaesthetists from Sri Lanka, Scotland, Canada and Cork; and trauma surgeons from Poland, Afghanistan, Armenia and Aldershot. And we all mucked in together and got along famously!

Coinciding with the completion of my vocational training in 1978, a vacancy arose in the excellent Shepley practice run by Dr Martin Dey and Dr Richard Buxton, which I was offered and readily accepted. Over the following 36 years it was my pleasant task, in partnership with those superb GPs and their equally dedicated successors, Duncan Shaw and Neil Hopkinson, to provide general medical services to three generations of the residents of Shepley and surrounding villages. n

To be continued.

l In Part 2 in the next issue of The Almondburian, Les will describe how he was given a box of pastel pencils as a 40th birthday present which generated an enthusiasm to explore any innate artistic ability neglected since his schooldays.

The Almondburian Poets

THISpoem appeared in The Almondburian at in Autumn 1973, at the height of the uncertainties regarding the future of the School. Headmaster Harry Taylor had retired, soon to be replaced by Alan Conley, and numerous long established teachers had moved to pastures new. After nearly 370 years, King James’s Grammar School was to cease to exist. The School was now officially ‘King James’s College.

It was a deeply upsetting time for everyone involved, and in his acrostic poem sixformer ALAN DONKERSLEY gave vent to the feelings of many.

POEM ON POLICIES

Governmental Policies

Retard our progress

And

Millionic forces

Master minds.

Alive and well-to-do Require to do well.

So

Closely-failed children

Have yet another chance

On the Communist horse

Objections over-ruled?

Let’s away with successful histories: Send in the Bandwagon for the Blind!

Large brandy’?

Incidentally, Veronica’s at Roedean and Eton’s claimed Nigel.

Of course, you can Never beat tradition.

A J Donkersley, 6 Arts

l According to his contemporary Bryan Hopkinson, Andrew Donkersley was a ‘natural rebel’ and although not academically gifted he had a creative mind and love of language. He left School in September 1973 to become a trainee journalist with the Huddersfield Examiner, later moving to the Blackpool Gazette and, in 1985, the Wolverhampton Express & Star.

After a brief spell with the Derby Evening Telegraph, Andy rejoined the Express and Star where he worked for two decades, covering the city’s busy crown court. He later joined the Express and Star’s sister weekly Wolverhampton Chronicle before leaving the company in January 2006. He was described by a colleague as “one of the ‘old school’ of reporters, with an instinctive nose for a good story, paired with a generous measure of humanity and kindness”.

Sadly, Andy died in 2008 at his home in Shifnal, Shropshire at the early age of only 52.

Restoration of ‘Big Tree’ seating

There can be few Almondburians who do not have fond memories of the hexagonal seating around ‘Big Tree’ in the main playground near the top of the bunk.The tree and the seating disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1997.To mark our Centenary, we plan to provide a replacement – and we need your help.

IN our November 2020 issue, we told the sad story of the demise of ‘Big Tree’in 1997 despite the efforts of The Old Almondburians’ Society who had received assurances from tree experts that with judicious pruning the tree was ‘good for many more years’. For well over a century, the ancient sycamore, with its slatted hexagonal seating, had provided welcome lunchtime shade overlooking the ‘bunk’.

The OAS has pledged to provide replacement stone seating around the base of an existing tree not far from the location of Big Tree, at a cost of £5,000. Contributions from OAS members will be greatly appreciated, and the names of donors will be recorded on a plaque to be located on the base of the structure. Many members will find a BACS payment the most convenient way of contributing: our account number (‘The Old Almondburians’ Society’) is 00814458, sort code 53-61-07. Please give your full name and mark your donation ‘Big Tree’.

Alternatively, if donating by cheque please complete the form below and enclose it with your contribution.

Our sincere thanks if you are able to help with this project.

Location of original Big Tree

FROM

ACROSS THE POND

A Yorkshireman’s view of America

CHARLIE STARKEY (1968 - 1975)

Things often look different when viewed from afar.We invite our man in the US to give us his personal perspective on some of the issues and questions of the day

QWHY are Americans so interested in the British Royal Family?

Charlie’s view The Crown, the ongoing fictionalised TV tale of Liz and her clan, has proved to be an internationally popular hit, particularly here on the wrong side of the Atlantic. A similar fascination with Harry and Meghan’s devolution from the family Royal, fuelled by a headline-hungry media operating on a relentless twenty-fourhour news cycle, has also continued unabated. To some it’s been a welcome diversion from reading about the latest Covid-19 death tolls around the world.

The articles of The United States’ foundation ‘democratically’ (if you were a white male) repudiated the British system of rule by kings and

The historical television drama series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II has been one of Netflix’s biggest-ever successes

queens; yet despite having cast off the shackles of colonialism themYanks just can’t seem to get enough of the Windsors.

Safely independent from direct British political influence since 1776, Americans can now view the royals from afar as an ongoing fairy tale, a modern soap opera of princes and princesses living in palaces and castles, their whims being catered to by coteries of servants and footmen. Or footpersons.

Maybe there’s an attraction to that sense of constancy, centuries of historic bloodlines

America’s closest thing to royalty?

John F Kennedy and his wife Jackie

compared with the younger nation’s continuing four-year cycle of hit-or-miss elected leaders.

Even so, from time to time

The New World has seemingly been happy to manufacture/celebrate the occasional dynasty of its own: I’m old, so for me it’s the Kennedys that first come to mind. Embodying the image of youth and vigour, JFK’s charismatic presence was undeniably bolstered by that of his glamorous wife Jackie, and the First Couple became the closest thing America had to royalty. A New Camelot, they called it at the time. Until, tragically, it wasn’t.

The Kennedys didn’t come to power by an accident of birth or by divine right; by employing wealth and influence accrued from successful ventures in finance, movies, and liquor imports, the Irish Catholic family bought and clawed their way into politics. They earned their success the American way.

In America there still exists a perception of British reserve and RP civility compared with, say, the uninformed brash vulgarity of former President Trump. However, the late Duke of Edinburgh's (may he rest in peace) many off-the-cuff remarks about ‘colonials’ and other nationalities might challenge that perception.

The duty of public service, international fame and inevitable press scrutiny has always been the price to pay for a public-funded lifestyle of immense wealth and privilege. Bearing that in mind, how can poor Prince Harry now conceivably portray himself as

a figure deserving of sympathy because of his and his wife’s spats with reporters and paparazzi? After the Duke and Duchess of Sussex opted out of performing ceremonial duties on behalf of their country, should they have expected to remain on the royal payroll? After decamping from Great Britain the couple were initially forced to slum it at the Canadian home of billionaire American media mogul Tyler Perry. Fortunately, the wealth bestowed upon Harry by his late mother Lady Diana Spencer (the daughter of an earl who inherited a 13,000-acre estate), plus an inheritance from the Queen Mum, allowed them to buy a mansion in one of the most exclusive enclaves of Santa Barbara, California. Then in March Harry landed a position with US billion-dollar tech startup BetterUp as its Chief Impact Officer: “My hope is to help people develop their inner strength, resilience, and confidence.” I wonder how many other interviewees he had to compete with for that job.

Several news stories have somewhat tarnished the Crown’s image of late. Apparently tired of shunning publicity, in the televised March 2021 interview conducted by their new neighbour Oprah Winfrey the couple alleged that members of the royal family had made openly racist comments

regarding Meghan’s lineage. If the accusations are bona fide then that’s appalling, and that holds true for any act of racism. Incidentally, as a callow youth Harry was famously photographed at a costume party wearing a swastika-emblazoned Nazi uniform, but no doubt that indiscretion could be forgiven as nothing more than boyish high jinks from a less PC era.

At the time of writing, widespread coverage of the Meghan & Harry saga appears to have temporarily supplanted the slightly more sordid reports of Prince Andrew’s friendship with the late multimillionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his close friend Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew’s unrepentance and his failure to cooperate with the FBI investigation into underage prostitution among the rich and powerful has become, perhaps, a topic even too toxic for royalists to contemplate.

Despite all of the recent bad press, including a new investigation by The Guardian newspaper into the power of ‘Queen's consent’ (HM’s constitutionally questionable ability to influence parliamentary decisions), after a lifetime of unwavering service to the country Queen Elizabeth II appears to have retained her popularity and

March 2021: Harry and Meghan are interviewed by their ‘new neighbour’ Oprah Winfrey

the grudging respect of all but the most cynical anti-monarchists.

The loss of her husband in April no doubt increased public sympathy for her. Expiring just shy of his 100th birthday, Prince Philip narrowly missed out on receiving a congratulatory telegram from Her Majesty.

As long as she continues to Keep Calm And Carry On it seems unlikely that Britons will choose to dismantle the muchmaligned institution any time soon and the Windsor family will continue to be a source of fascination in America and around the world.

However, après-Liz, its future is anyone's guess.

QHow do Americans think their Government has coped with Covid-19?

Charlie’s view Initially, President Trump appeared to have no road map; even during a deadly pandemic his main goal continued to be the unravelling of his predecessor’s legacy.

The states of NewYork and New Jersey were initially impacted badly by the virus. NYC was an early major hub where hospitals and medical staff were quickly overwhelmed, partly because the administration failed to deliver a cohesive response. Almost daily,Trump contradicted the country's chief scientific medical advisor, immunologist Dr. Fauci, claiming repeatedly that the problem would just “go away.”When Dr. Nancy Mes-

sonnier, a prominent respiratory scientist with the CDC, voiced dire predictions for the surging pandemic it triggered a stock market dip which resulted in her sudden disappearance from coronavirus task force press briefings. Trump turned his own recovery from a bout with the virus into yet another photo op by dramatically yanking off his facemask on the White House veranda as if to prove he was superhuman.

In 2021 when President Biden took over, he immediately announced a mandate to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days. His aim was to try and heal the country both physically and spiritually, but with such a politically and philosophically divided country his vision of a better, kinder America will be difficult to achieve.

Immunising millions has been a huge logistical challenge for a nation the size of the United States: with different rules for each State, the rollout was at first ridiculously inefficient, with vaccine distribution divided between hospitals, vaccination centres, and supermarket and pharmacy chains. Citizens were asked to register online or in person to receive their jabs at these locations, but many locations were overbooked, resulting in long wait times and even cancellations.

Vaccines were initially in short supply, with eligibility based on age and underlying health conditions. However, after President Biden doubled his vaccination goal, by

mid-April many States extended vaccine coverage to everyone over the age of sixteen. There remain several major problems: the science deniers, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, and the portion of the population burned out from lockdowns who flaunt the recommended safety rules.There is a real concern that this will endanger the ‘herd immunity’ goal. Some rural residents have to travel long distances to get a shot, and a large percentage of white evangelical Christians and Republicans are refusing the vaccine – and the wearing of masks – for a variety of reasons, including a perceived ‘violation of their freedoms’. Schools and colleges have opened, closed, opened and closed again during the pandemic, frustrating both students and parents.The early relaxing of restrictions in parts of the country has fuelled the spread of more virulent Covid19 mutations and currently we are experiencing a third or fourth wave, starring the robust UK Variant – a much less popular import than Downton Abbey or The Crown.

It’s May and I’ve had both of my Moderna shots. Let’s just hope the reopening of restaurants, bars and public places here in the US will be managed more carefully than earlier attempts. I enjoy a nice, overpriced room-temperature draught beer as much as the next Brit, but it’s hardly worth a trip to the emergency room. I might just stay at home for a wee while longer. n

Back to the drawing board

Roger Sykes (1946-1953) revisits some of his favourite drawings

This sketch was one of my earliest contributions to the Huddersfield Examiner ‘In and About’ column in the 1950s. It is so familiar to every Almondburian – and so significant to the columns of Old Students on the annual Founders’ Day celebrations each November.

As usual I found that the best viewpoint is somewhat risky – towards the middle of the road – but in this case it was a confluence of several roads. To the left is the road to Castle Hill, where I was born, behind was St Helen’s Gate and Fenay Lane and to the right what was once a narrow road to the village. There waited the No. 30 trolleybus to Huddersfield and in my case, the far end of the route in the West Riding.

I look back with a certain nostalgia at the wonderful electric trolleybus and can remember the acceleration with pleasure – and the great entertainment when the poles came off the wires!

On the right, as one walked past the memorial towards the trolleybus terminal, there was a row of old houses. One of them was also a ‘front room’ shop where a lady sold lemonade to waiting students. She suggested it was quicker to just pour it from the bottle – and it gushed down the nose. She caught out quite a few first year students; I can still hear her laughter!

This sketch presented a problem of perspective. The focal point was the memorial but the background church tower had to slope slightly away to indicate height and distance. But now that the trees have grown, no-one has to look upwards and be distracted from the memorial!

The choice of the prominent location in the village was significant for a memorial – but how good that it has survived and been well maintained. It is fascinating to see the changes after nearly seventy years.

Almondbury War Memorial

New look for OAS website

THE EDITOR

The OAS website has been updated in the past few months and members will hopefully find it easier to navigate and more comprehensive in its content.We pick out some of the many changes.

THERE aren’t many good things to be said about Covid-19, but as many readers will confirm it’s been a great opportunity to get jobs done that one has been putting off for years.

That’s certainly true of the OAS website www.oas.org.uk which I had been intending to update for many months but somehow never seemed to have the time.

I was quite surprised when I looked at the files and found that some of the pages dated back as far as 2006 – which is a long, long time ago in these days of new technology. For a start, we were still all using desktop or bulky laptop computers, running Windows XP which we used to think rather good after the

lack-lustre‘Millenium’ edition. Mobile phones were still brick-sized and the Android operating system had yet to be invented. No i-phones either – the Apple launch was not until 2007.

Online shopping was also in its infancy. In 2006, online sales represented only around 3% of total retail sales in the UK; today it’s rapidly approaching one-third, as the rows of empty shops in Britain’s high street only too readily confirm.

The rapid growth in the use of mobile phones and – in recent years ‘smart’ phones – has dramatically changed the ways in which we use the internet. Back in 2006, only around 10% of visits to search engines

were from mobile devices.Today the figure is approaching 60%, which means that those surfing the internet no long click carefully from page to page but swipe rapidly down seamless internet pages on their phones and tablets.

It’s therefore not surprising that the OAS website was more than due for an update which I carried out during November and which was launched on 1st December. So what’s changed?

The most immediate difference is a new typeface - for those who are interested in such things it’s called Zilla Slab and it was launched in 2017. It comes from a good pedigree: it was originally designed for the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to ‘to keep the Internet a global public resource that is open and accessible to all.’ I hope that you will find it clearer and more legible than the ageing Verdana font that it replaces.

The Home page has been expanded with new, larger illustrations and now includes a summary of the aims of the OAS, a short history of the School and an account

of the Charter and its re-discovery in 1952.

The Almondburian page provides ‘flip-the-page’ links to every issue of The Almondburian since July 2009, together with other links to selected magazines from 19681975, and you can also read in full the very first issue dated January 1886.

The Photographs section has been expanded, with some 50 pictures from 1865 to the present day over nine pages. Similarly, the Drawings page shows three pages of drawings of different parts of the School over the years.

The Interviews page contains nearly 40 interviews conducted between 2006 and the present day. Amongst the early ones is one with the Arkenley Lane dairy farmer Arthur Pilling (1928-31) who recalls that former headmaster Taylor Dyson often visited the farm and was particularly fascinated by the milking machines. Former teacher William Braide (1936-39) talks extensively about his three years at the School which he describes as ‘the happiest of my whole teaching career’. Music also features in the interviews: you can hear wonderful singing

from former international baritone (andTown footballer) Jeffrey Neilson Taylor (1940-47), and some great pieces from the Temperance Seven, a top group of the 1960s in which John Watson (1948-53) used to play banjo.

Sadly some of those interviewed arelonger with us; they include former History master and OAS stalwart Francis Bareham. I must confess that History was never my favourite subject at school, mainly because Francis was so keen on what he called his ‘slip tests’ at the end of each lesson to see how well one could remember one’s dates. I always failed these miserably so I couldn’t resist turning the tables when I interviewed Francis by subjecting him to a History slip test of my own (well, wouldn’t you?). I was secretly pleased that Francis’s memory was almost as bad as mine, thought it was tactful to help him along at times.

A new 400th Anniversary page summarises all the activities organised by the OAS to mark that splendid period in 2008. I was quite surprised to be reminded that there were no fewer than 13 different celebratory events over a seven-month period, which reflects great credit on the OAS joint chair-

men Paul Balderstone and RichardTaylor and the special ‘anniversary team’.These culminated in the celebratory weekend from 21st-23rd November 2008 about which the Anniversary page includes a new short video.Winding the clock back 70 years there’s also a new Pageant page dedicated to the famous event in 1936 with its fine programme with cover design by former Art master Edward Akroyd.

On the new Who’s who pages you can see nearly 100 accounts of the past careers of former Old Almondburians submitted to us over the years.There’s also a form you can use to tell us what you have been up to since leaving the School.

If you’d like to wander round the School from your armchair, take a look at the new link to the excellent ‘Virtual tour’ which will revive old memories and also show you the many changes that have taken place over the years.

Finally, if you get lost scrolling the many pages help is to hand: there’s a new Google-powered Search facility. Just pop in a few search terms and the answer will appear as if by magic. n

Tennis

ANDREW HAIGH andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk

IN the absence of any badminton season due to Covid, the Old Almondburians’ Tennis season started early. We returned to Longley to play tennis on the first Thursday that Covid restrictions permitted: 1st April. Whilst the end of March saw lovely warm and sunny weather, it goes without saying that 1st April was cold and windy. This didn’t stop four intrepid souls turning up to play tennis: Robin Merchant, David Parry, Matthew Booth and Andrew Haigh. Matthew served the first deuce game of the year, whilst David served the first double fault – followed soon after by the first ace.

The second week was no less cold and windy and Matthew’s place in the line-up was taken by Neil Gledhill although, as he stripped to reveal an OACC shirt, we did won der if he had turned up to play the correct sport!

It is just as well that this photograph was taken on week two, for by week three Neil did not make such a pretty picture. You may recall James Daly, who used to play badminton with us before he went soliciting in Bury. Perhaps that would read better if I said that he went to

practise law. In any event, he is now the duly elected Member of Parliament for the Bury North constituency and he has a dog. The reason that I mention this is that Neil was dog-sitting and took the aforementioned dog for a walk. As they walked through the woods, said dog spotted a rabbit and chased it, ensnaring Neil in its lead as it did so and causing him to fall over. This resulted in grievous injury, the visible aspect of which was a burst lip, which caused him to miss week three of tennis. All due credit to Neil, he did manage to turn out for the socially-distanced bottle of beer on the decking at Longley which, in the absence of any open hostelries, always follows tennis. However, James will no doubt be hearing from Neil’s legal team in due course.

Thursday evenings continued to be unseasonably cold, restricting refreshments afterwards to just the single bottle of beer before we all froze completely. Indeed, o ne week Robin dispensed with the traditional beer and turned up armed with a flask of coffee and a hip flask instead. The contents of the hip flask were shared and were most welcome.

By week six, the inclement temperatures had got so bad that we were playing tennis in a hailstorm!

I’m told that it was entirely unconnected, but there were only two of us turned up to play the following week.

However, brighter times may be on the horizon. Hospitality venues should be re-opening, so we may even be able to go back to our usual post-tennis or badminton venue of

Almondbury Conservative Club, thereby thawing out over a beer instead of just getting colder.

There are plenty courts available on a Thursday evening at Longley, so if you would like to come and join us, then please do. There is a guest fee of £3 per week payable by anyone who isn’t a member of Longley Tennis C lub and we pay an additional £1 per week to the OAS to cover the cost of balls and, if we use them, floodlights. n

Neil Gledhill, one of the original OAS Cricket Club members, is still a keen badminton and tennis player

YOU WRITE …

The unusual death announcement of 1973

From: Robert Hirst (1966-1973)

Iwas reading some old copies of The Almondburian on the OAS website (including the very first one) and I ventured then to read the Oc tober 1973 issue which covered the period when I graduated from KJGS to go to Nottingham University. It was also the period when Harry Taylor retired and when the School lost its ‘Grammar’ status to become a College.

I still remember the angst caused by this transition of school status and I know that some teachers (Sid Chapman was one) were very upset by what happened.

But I missed a poignant note hidden Bryan Hopkinson, an editor of The Almondburian at that time comments:

Yes, as I recall I sneaked it in at the last minute as an act of defiance. But I was also fair-minded and, just above this ‘death’, in the ‘births’ section you will find ‘1 September 1973 – King James's College’. It is just possible (I don’t remember clearly) that Alan Thomas permitted the death provided we also recorded the birth.

I don’t remember anybody commenting on this at the time when the magazine came out. But we were a conservative

in the Obituaries section of that issue. The third death announcement is to ‘King James’s Grammar School [16081973]’.

I found that incredibly moving even though it happened nearly 50 years ago. I wonder how many people saw that in the Obituaries section of that issue?

I also wonder who the editor was at that time because it seemed like a brave but very subtle thing to do.

Brisbane, Australia

generation who hated the change. Elsewhere in the same edition* you will find an acrostic poem we allowed in that was even more subversive.

*See The Almondburian Poets on page 58 of this issue.

l In fact, King James’s College was itself destined to have a fairly short life: after only three years, the School became a co-educational comprehensive. Ed.

Obituaries

Robert Goldsmith CMG

(KJGS 1935-1942)

An outstanding international diplomat who always retained his Yorkshire roots

We report with great sadness the death of Robert Goldsmith who passed away peacefully at home in Scarborough on the 28th February 2021 after a valiant battle with dementia.

He was born in Almondbury on 28th November 1924 to Stanley and Ida Goldsmith, the eldest of three brothers. He joined King James’s Grammar School in September 1935 and excelled both academically and at sport, especially football and cricket. At the age of 16 he lost all his hair which never grew back and whilst this happened at a very traumatic age he accepted it with fortitude and welcomed the fact that he never needed to shave.

Bob was conscripted into the army after a year at Manchester University and was taken prisoner in Caen, Normandy in 1944. He was rescued by the Americans in 1945, suffering from malnutrition. Once he regained his strength, he went to St Catherine’s College, Oxford where he gained a 1st Class Honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics .

Bob joined the Board of Trade in 1949 as an administration officer and visited many countries. He met his first wife Eileen in America and the couple married in Virginia. They had two daughters: Angela who sadly died aged six months, and Alexandra.

In 1972 the UK joined the Common Market and Bob was appointed Deputy Head of the European Delegation in Brussels. In 1974 he was appointed Companion

of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), an honour of which he was rightly proud.

Eileen died whilst they were in Brussels and over time Bob found a new love, Marguerite, who became his second wife in 1978. He subsequently joined the European Commission and became Minister for aid projects. His first post was to Madagascar, where his aid projects helped the country to such a degree that the president made him a Commander of the National Order of Madagascar. Bob then moved to Papua New Guinea after which he retired to live in his beloved Yorkshire.

Bob Goldsmith loved cricket, Huddersfield Town Football Club and horse racing. He joined Byfleet Cricket Club in the early 60s and was opening bat for the 1st XI, later becoming President. He followed the progress of Huddersfield Town wherever he was in the world and his brother Philip took him to see them play on his 80th birthday.

His other great love was horse racing. He loved the thrill and the excitement, and took his daughter Alexandra to as many racecourses as he could. In the March 2013 issue of The Almondburian , he wrote a tongue-in-cheek article: Exclusive: how to beat the bookies .

It is hard to sum up the life of such a remarkable and accomplished man. He was charming, charismatic, diplomatic, witty, admired and respected by all who knew him.

He leaves behind his beloved family; daughter Alexandra, two stepchildren Belinda and Samson and several step grandchildren. He will be missed, leaving a void that can never be filled but memories that will always be cherished.

Robert Goldsmith, born 28th November 1924, died 28th February 2021 aged 96.

l Our thanks to Alexandra Coulson.

John Rothera had a unique claim to fame: he is the only Old Almondburian whose name appears on any good map of the world. Rothera Point is the location of Rothera Research Station, Britain’s largest Antarctic facility. Rothera supports a wide range of British Antarctic survey, and international collaborative science programmes.

Brought up in Crosland Moor, John entered King James’s Grammar School in September 1945. After three years at Leeds University, he applied for the position of Surveyor with the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS). His first sight of the Antarctic came on 27th December 1956: he found it ‘very impressive’. The royal yacht Britannia was in the area at the time and John found himself with the unexpected responsibility of serving pink gins to Prince Philip and his guests.

Based on Horseshoe Island, John spent

John Michael Rothera (KJGS 1945-1953)

Almondburian geography-lover who lent his name to an Antarctic research station

two years undertaking an extensive survey of Marguerite Bay and the Arrowsmith Peninsula, all travel being undertaken by dog sledge.

The British policy at the time was to name Antarctic geographical features after surveyors and geologists who had undertaken work in the Antarctic.A few years after leaving FIDS, he was delighted to be informed that a particular rock and ice point on the coast of Adelaide Island had been named Rothera Point. Soon afterwards, it was decided to build a new base in Marguerite Bay, now known as Rothera Research Station.

After leaving FIDS, John entered the town and country planning profession. His first post was as planning and research office with Dorset County Council. At this point he met his future wife Margaret whom he married in Weymouth in 1964. After five years, he moved to a planning post with Basingstoke Development Group; during his six years there the population of Bas-

ingstoke and immediate surrounding rose from 26,000 to around 100,000.

Following local government reorganisation in 1974, John became Head of Forward Planning and Design in the newly created Basingstoke Borough. He retired in 1996 and devoted a great deal of time and energy to his garden. He and Margaret, long-time members of the Ntional Trust, also travelled widely and shared their love of classical music and opera.

Although he had been unwell during his final year, John’s death at only a few days in hospital came as a great shock to his faily and frtiends.

John always spoke warmly of his time at KJGS. In particular he attributed his lifelong interest in Geography to the ‘truly inspirational’ teaching of Fred Hudson. His love of travel also owed much to the annual school trips to France organised by ‘Reg’ Addy.

John Michael Rothera, born 17th January 1934, died 5th April 2021 aged 87.

Martin John Harrison (KJGS 1962-1969)

Cultured man of integrity who devoted his life to Arts, Humanities and Education

Martin Harrison died from complications of COVID-19 on 6th February 2021 at Harrogate District Hospital.

It feels very peculiar, and somehow wrong, to be writing Martin’s obituary. We’ve been best friends from the age of 11, when we both entered Harry Gledhill’s first form in September, 1962. We’ve maintained a continuous conversation ever since. I choose this tense deliberately, because I’m still

talking to him, mostly about sport. (He is weirdly optimistic about the Terriers’ prospects next season.) On our last Zoom conversation together, he was typically rueful but upbeat about having contracted the coronavirus. I have a jaunty “Still here!” text from him right here on my phone, sent two days before he died.

Martin was an only child. He grew up in Quarmby with his parents Leslie and Lillian in an odd-shaped, end-of-

t errace house perched high above Milnsbridge. He went to Paddock Junior School.

He fancied himself as an athlete and liked to brag about breaking Derek Ibbotson’s school record for the half-mile. More properly he was a scholar and artist. He wrote poetry and songs and played guitar and made loopy left-handed art and always seemed to get the lead role in school plays. He did well academically (except he was lousy at maths and science) and won the Dartmouth Medal for the best A Level results in 1969. Then he went up to Christ’s College, Cambridge to read English. After a brief stint as a stage manager for a small theatre in London he came back to Huddersfield and did FE teacher training at Holly Bank. Then from 1974 to 2000 he taught at South Trafford College in Manchester, eventually becoming its Director of Arts and Humanities.

Martin ended his career as head of Vocational Education at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, which since he was a neo-Marxist pacifist struck me at the time as an odd career move. In truth, Martin felt a stronger connection with the young soldiers in the program from similar backgrounds to his own than with the military brass with whom he ran the place. And, typically, he ran a weekly poetry group for his staff during his lunch hour.

During the pandemic he started a Zoom poetry group for friends and former colleagues that I belatedly

joined. At that first meeting, six of us recited Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner together. At our last gathering, we all chose a modern poem. Martin’s choice was Bob Dylan’s Visions of Johanna . I recall that I bought him Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits album for his 21st birthday.

At his funeral service, Martin’s friends and family repeatedly paid tribute to two of his qualities—his honesty and his kindness. I would conflate those as his integrity. Martin Harrison was a person of great integrity.

Martin is survived by his mother Lillian, his wife Carol Willis and their children Dan and Amy.

Tony Cape (1962-69)

Martin John Harrison, born 25th February 1951, died 6th February 2021 aged 69.

Four great OAS publications

A History of King James’s Grammar School is the official history of the School covering the period 15471963. The author of this 284 page hardback full of reminiscences and anecdotes was historian and former KJGS pupil Gerald Hinchliffe.

£10 plus P & P

Morning Assembly gives a fascinating and often humorous account of former Headmaster Harry Taylor’s life and includes, in facsimile form, 100 prayers –ancient and modern – which he assembled over the years for use in School assemblies.

£10 plus P & P

An Illustrated History of King James’s School in Almondbury was originally published to mark the 400th anniversary of the Charter in 2008. A full colour hardback recording 400 years of history, packed with illustrations throughout. £10 plus P & P

No beating about the Bush is the final year diary of former deputy head Dave Bush, who retired in 1996. A detailed day-today account of life at King James’s School with detailed and often amusing accounts of school life 25 years ago. £15 plus P & P

website www.oas.org.uk.

If you prefer to pay by cheque, please make it payable to the Old Almondburians’ Society and post it to Andrew Haigh, R D Haigh & Co, Oakhill Road, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6 1SN.

Chairman

WALTER RALEIGH

15 Thorpe Lane, Almondbury HD5 8TA Tel: 01484 308452

Email: walter.raleigh@oas.org.uk

Secretary

ANDREW HAIGH

2 Arkenley Lane, Almondbury HD4 6SQ Tel: 01484 432105

Email: andrew.haigh@oas.org.uk

Treasurer

KEITH CRAWSHAW

5 Benomley Drive, Almondbury HD5 8LX Tel: 01484 533658

Email: keith.crawshaw@oas.org.uk

Media Editor

ROGER DOWLING

Orchard House, Oughtrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire WA13 0RD

Tel: 01925 756390/07815 601447

Email: almondburian@oas.org.uk

Assistant Media Editor

RICHARD TEALE

The Sycamores, 239 Huddersfield Road, Thongsbridge, Holmfirth HD9 3TT Tel: 07810 313315.

Email: richard.teale@oas.org.uk

KJS Representative

ABBIGAIL TERRY

King James’s School, St Helen’s Gate, Almondbury HD4 6SG Tel: 01484 412990

Email: abbi.terry@oas.org.uk

Website: www.oas.org.uk

The Almondburian is distributed to OAS members free of charge. Price to non-members: £3.00