March 2015 issuu

The ALMONDBURIAN T H E MAGAZINE O F TH E O LD AL MONDBURIANS’ S OCIETY

March 2015

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IN THIS ISSUE

A word from your Chairman Annual General Meeting

Roger’s tram shelter gets a facelift Old flame leads to old volume Me and my cars Every picture tells a story Own up: who was the culprit?

Flourishing School activities From teaching to local government The Almondburian poets Pavilion update Adding another string to my bow Annual Dinner and Founders’ Day Farnley Lines Class of ’48 Cotswolds reunion Badminton Tennis/Cricket Football Terry’s Teaser From Almondbury to Pasadena …and back at the School Postbag Wanted: database volunteers Obituaries

(Opposite): This attractive scraper-board drawing of Fenay porch in the 1950s was by the late Brian Littlewood

The ALMONDBURIAN Editor: Roger Dowling

March 2015

The magazine of The Old Almondburians’ Society

A word from your Chairman

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B RYA N H O P K INSON

am retiring as Chairman after a good year for the Society.We have addressed the deficit we suffered in 2013-14, so that we are able to hold subscriptions at the same rate again for the ninth successive year. The Almondburian goes from strength to strength and regularly receives more material from you than it can use.And the 2014 dinner, the second at the School, enjoyed a wonderful atmosphere; the numbers attending each year still hover around 100, which is some 20% of the paid-up membership.

The committee would welcome your views regarding the dinner: we are convinced that it is right for this Society to hold its main annual function in the institution which gives 3

it a reason to exist, but we have heard a few views suggesting we should move back to a commercial venue.What do you think?

The number of people responding to our offer to receive theAlmondburian electronically rather than postally has been small but significant.This offer is still open, and I feel numbers are likely to rise over time: please contact the Secretary if you are interested.

And people who are receiving the electronic version might like to tell us what they think, too.

We have identified a gap in our operation: the regular maintenance of an active Facebook orTwitter account, which would help us to announce events and perhaps attract and keep in touch with younger members. If anyone out there sees this as an opportunity to get involved in the running of the Society, any member of the committee would be delighted to hear from you.

Thank you to the four members who responded to the Treasurer’s appeal to fund prizes at the School: everyone concerned appreciates your generosity.

It has been an honour to serve as Chairman of this Society again. For better or for worse, King James’s played a huge role in forming my character and shaping my life and, even though I’m grown up now and the School is very different from what it was, I can never forget nor erase the debt. I guess that’s how many of you feel too. For me particularly it feels good to hand over to Patrick O’Brien, whose help and guidance back in the 70s made a big difference to me, and I wish him well in the post.

OLD ALMONDBURIANS’ SOCIETY CALENDAR

DATES OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETINGS, 2015 The Executive Committee of the Society meets upstairs at theWoolpack in Almondbury, at 7.30 pm.

Dates for the rest of this year (all Mondays) are: 2nd March; 20th April; 11th May; 1st June; 6th July; 7th September; 5th October; 2nd November; 7th December.

Any member of the Society who would like to attend one of these meetings will be made most welcome.

ANNUAL DINNER This year’s Annual Dinner will be held on Saturday, 21st November. Full details, together with an application form for tickets, will appear in the next issue of The Almondburian, which is due out on 1st July.

It is always good to see members making a special effort to stage a re-union of their year at the dinner and such occasions are always enjoyable, so those with a special anniversary this year, members of the classes of 1945, 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985, 1990, 1995 or 2005 for example or, indeed, anyone else who takes a notion to do so, should consider starting to organise their class re-union earlier rather than later.

QUIZ EVENING The Old Almondburians’ Society Quiz will once again be held in the Conservative Club,Almondbury, this year on Wednesday, 29th April, at 7.30 pm. Generally, the contest is between around eight teams of three people. Members and their guests can enter their team in advance, or they are welcome to turn up on the night and participate in what is always a very enjoyable evening. Quizmaster, as always, will be Keith Crawshaw, and a light supper will be provided during the interval.

FOUNDERS’ DAY SERVICE The traditional Founders’ Day Service will be held the day after the Annual Dinner, Sunday, 22nd November, as usual. Full details will be announced in a future issue.

SPORT See reports (pages 44-46).

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Annual General Meeting

5th Januar y 201 5

The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the ‘Woolpack’,Almondbury, on Monday, 5th January 2015, officially at 7.30 p.m.,although it started fifteen minutes late due to the Secretary underestimating the time required to get the mushy peas for the supper up to temperature!

Attendance Bryan Hopkinson (chair) Andrew Haigh Keith Crawshaw Walter Raleigh Stuart Roebuck

RichardTaylor Patrick O’Brien Roger Dowling Mike Powner

Apologies for Absence Richard Hughes (another engagement), Melanie Barraclough (in Amsterdam), Maria Lijka (in New Zealand), Edward Royle (giving a lecture inYork), PeterTracey (inWhitley Bay),Alan Smith (in Brough), Hugh Lawson (travelling to France), Nich. Briggs (travelling back from London), Chris.West (boiler leaking) and Mike Gibson (in Brighton).

The Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting The minutes of the meeting held on Monday, 6th January 2014 were read and approved and there were no matters arising.

Chairman’s Report Bryan Hopkinson delivered a report in which he said that his main objective throughout the year had been to maintain the subscription rate at its present level and he would recommend that we do. Reducing the cost of producing the magazine through Roger Dowling finding a new printer has removed any question of a deficit.

The Quiz Evening was very successful, with seven teams taking part, the school being unable to provide one at the last minute due to very unfortunate circumstances. He thanked Keith Crawshaw for organising the event.

TheAnnual Dinner was another successful event, although there could have been more there.

He thanked Stuart Roebuck for organising the Founders’ Day Service, noting that it is constantly a challenge to keep this event going with enough people attending to make it worthwhile, although he said that it was particularly pleasing to have current pupils from the school performing at it once again.

The pavilion project is continuing; he had been attending meetings in his capacity as Chairman of the Society and no doubt his successor will continue to do so.

Another issue this year was the need to find a suitable new home for the archives, with 5

the school being the favoured location, and to ensure that they continue to accumulate.

This matter is now progressing.

In conclusion, he said that the Society is in good shape. It has been a routine year, but a good year.The membership is a year older and it is harder to recruit younger members; we need to develop a presence on social media, but do not currently have the skills to do so, so that is something on which we need to work.

Treasurer’s Report Keith Crawshaw presented the accounts for the financial year ended 31stAugust, 2014, noting that this year subscription income has increased slightly on the previous year, whilst there has been a considerable reduction in the cost of producing and distributing the magazine.This has resulted in an excess of income over expenditure of £1,737.63. Keith endorsed what the Chairman said about the cost of the magazine and, noting that we do have funds available at the moment, he felt that spending money on the archive would be quite appropriate.The Chairman noted that last year we lost money and this year we have made a profit, so the funds are there again. He thanked Keith for his work.

Membership Secretary’s Report Andrew Haigh reported that membership currently stands at 497, compared with 513 at this time last year, due to him having to delete sixteen members who, at the year end, were still in arrears since the previous September. Of the members who do not pay by standing order, 54 had not paid their subscription on 1st September, but he was pleased to report that this figure has already been more than halved, with 25 subscriptions for the current year presently being unpaid.We have been saddened to learn of the deaths of a number of members during the year; however, on a more positive note, we are pleased to have recruited seven new members during the course of the year.

Subscription rate for the FinancialYear commencing 1st September 2015 Keith Crawshaw proposed that the subscription rate remains at £10 per annum.This was seconded by Roger Dowling and carried unanimously.

Election of President It was proposed that Robert Lamb should be invited to continue as President of the Society.There were no President’s Remarks, due to his absence from the meeting.

Election of Executive Officers for 2015 The Chairman proposed Patrick O’Brien as Chairman for 2015.This was seconded by Walter Raleigh and Patrick was elected unanimously. Patrick O’Brien then took the chair.The other Officers were then elected as follows: Vice-Chairman Walter Raleigh Archivist Nich Briggs Honorary Secretary Andrew Haigh Ordinary Emily Briggs HonoraryTreasurer Keith Crawshaw Committee Martyn Hicks Media Editor Roger Dowling Members Samuel Atkin Chaplain Rev Stuart Roebuck Michael Powner School Representative (Vacant) ChristopherWest 6

It was noted that we had lost our loyal representative from the school, due toAngela Melling very unfortunately having to take early retirement because of ill health. The Society wish her all the best and thank her for all her help over the years. However, it was recognised that having a representative from the school is very important in maintaining a dialogue and that Angela’s retirement leaves a big gap that it is important to fill. Roger Dowling suggested that JennyAinger might be a good person to approach, since he had always found her very helpful. Andrew Haigh noted that she is an Old Almondburian as well and Walter Raleigh thought that was a good suggestion, since she runs the library and might make space for some information about the Society. It was agreed that Patrick and Walter would approach JennyAinger to take on this role.

Any Other Business Vote of thanks Keith Crawshaw proposed a vote of thanks to the retiring Chairman, saying that he had stepped into the breach again and had done a good job.

Date of Next Executive Committee Meeting The Secretary asked that the date be fixed for the next meeting of the Executive Committee.The first Monday in February is the norm and Monday, New Chairman: Patrick O’Brien 2nd February was agreed.

Annual Dinner The Secretary read out an Email from JohnAspinall requesting a change of venue for the 2015Annual Dinner. He cited a lack of atmosphere in the school hall, a location that is out on a limb and not easily accessible, a limited selection of beer and lager, and volunteer bar staff who are not as efficient as professionals.There was some discussion on this subject in which it was noted that all the other feedback to date since the return to the school had been overwhelmingly positive. However, it was felt that the atmosphere in the hall could be improved, perhaps by having background music, as suggested byTaste FineWines. It was also felt that the selection of drinks at the bar might be improved, perhaps by offering a lager, although a desire for real ale was one of the reasons for the campaign to move back to the school! However, it was agreed that the opinion of the membership could be sounded out before the 2015 Annual Dinner.

The meeting closed at 9.10 pm and was followed by the customary pie and peas supper.

(Signed)

A M Haigh Secretary

P O’Brien Chairman

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Overleaf:Annual accounts presented by B Hopkinson (Chairman); K Crawshaw (Treasurer); J A Swift (Independent Examiner)

INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR YEAR ENDED 31ST AUGUST 2014

2013

3149 1742 235 25 60 117 36 — 18 62 —

5444 2013

2013

Printing, Stationery & Postages: Magazines Printing 2022.86 Magazines Stationery/Postage 1195.12 Other Stationery/Postage 48.05 3266.03 Jessop Prize 25.00 Young Old Almondburians’ Prizes 60.00 Sundry Expenses 85.00 Paypal Charges 30.60 Email Costs 151.22 Loss on Quiz Evening Supper — Loss on Annual Dinner — Excess of Income over Expenditure 1737.63

5355.48

5049 22 99 20 — 7 1 — 246

Subscriptions 5187.00 Transfer from Life Membership Account 21.90 Interest Received 80.30 Surplus on Sales of Prints — Surplus on Sales of DVDs 28.77 Surplus on Sales of Ties — Surplus on AGM Supper 0.10 Surplus on Annual Dinner 37.41 Excess of Expenditure over Income —

5444

5355.48

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31ST AUGUST 2014 2013

Accumulated Fund Balance at 1 Sep 2013 8556.22 Add Excess of Income over 8556 Expenditure 1737.63 10293.85

18 Trophies 8 Stock of Ties 170 Stock of Prints Sales of ‘Morning Assembly’ Books 322.00 Less Cost of Stock 144.00 178.00 144 Transfer to Harry Taylor Trust Fund 178.00

Life Membership Account Balance at 1 Sep 2013 313.38 Add Interest 2.91 316.29 Less Transfer to Income 313 & Expenditure Account 21.90 294.39

2138 210 1041 130 494

KJS Development Fund Balance at 1 Sep 2013 2138.11 Add Interest 19.88 KJS 400 Merchandise 43.25 2201.24 Pavilion Appeal Fund Balance 360.00 Net Annual Dinner Receipts in Advance 235.21 Subscriptions in Advance 130.00 Sundry Creditors 203.00

12882

13717.69

18.00 7.66 170.00

—

Life Membership Account 313 Nat West Bonus Saver Account 294.39

KJS Development Fund 2138 Nat West Bonus Saver Account 8577 999 480 35

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12882

2201.24

Cash and Bank Balances National Westminster Bank: Bonus Saver Account 10636.04 Current Account 350.35 Paypal Account 3.66 Cash in Hand 36.35 11026.40

13717.69

Executive Officers 2015

Office President

Name Robert Lamb

Address King James’s School

Chairman

Patrick O’Brien

Vice-Chairman

Walter Raleigh

20 Almondbury Close Email: patrick.obrien@gmx.co.uk Almondbury Huddersfield Yorkshire HD5 8XX

Honorary Secretary

Andrew M. Haigh

Honorary Treasurer

Keith Crawshaw

Media Editor

Roger Dowling

Ordinary Committee Emily Briggs Members Nich. Briggs (Archivist) Martyn Hicks

15 Thorpe Lane Almondbury Huddersfield Yorkshire HD5 8TA

Contact Details Work Telephone: (01484) 412990 Email: staff.rlamb@kingjames.org.uk

Home Telephone: (01484) 533805 Email: walterraleigh@hotmail.co.uk

2 Arkenley Lane Almondbury Huddersfield Yorkshire HD4 6SQ

Home Telephone: (01484) 432105 Mobile Telephone: (07770) 220733 Work Telephone:(01484) 400032 Facsimile: (01484) 469567 Email: andrew@rdhaigh.com

Orchard House Oughtrington Lane Lymm Cheshire WA13 0RD

Home Telephone:(01925) 756390 Mobile Telephone: (07815) 601447 Email: roger.dowling@oas.org.uk

122 Kaye Lane Almondbury Huddersfield Yorkshire HD5 8XU

Mobile Telephone: (07771) 865330 Email: nichbriggs@hotmail.com

5 Benomley Drive Almondbury Huddersfield Yorkshire HD5 8LX

Home Telephone: (01484) 533658 Email: keithcrawshawrhb@gmail.com

17 Fair Street Huddersfield Yorkshire HD1 3QB

Home Telephone: (01484) 535999 Email: nickybriggs@hotmail.co.uk

12 Gernhill Avenue Fixby Huddersfield Yorkshire HD2 2HR

Home Telephone: (01484) 539409 Email: martyn.hicks@hotmail.com

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Christopher West

Samuel Atkin

Michael Powner

Chaplain

Rev. Stuart Roebuck

School Representative (Vacant)

Head Boy Head Girl

Matthew Lake Evie Clowes

7 Brookside Crimble Slaithwaite Huddersfield Yorkshire HD7 5BZ

Home Telephone: (01484) 843518 Email: cwest225@btinternet.com

45 The Fairway Fixby Huddersfield Yorkshire HD2 2HU

Home Telephone: (01484) 423365 Email: mikepowner@ntlworld.com

King James’s School

Work Telephone: (01484) 412990

24 Far Croft Lepton Huddersfield Yorkshire HD8 0LS

Home Telephone: (01484) 307124 Work Telephone: (01484) 665023 Email: sam.atkin@steadrobinson.co.uk

110 Hall Bower Lane Home Telephone:(01484) 306644 Newsome Email: sroebuck39@gmail.com Huddersfield Yorkshire HD4 6RN

King James’s School King James’s School

Telephone: (01484) 412990 Telephone: (01484) 412990

Badminton Section

Andrew M. Haigh

See ‘Honorary Secretary’

Golf Representative

Simon A. Russell

Tennis Section

Andrew M. Haigh

‘Phoenix Cottage’ Upper Hagg Road Huddersfield Yorkshire

Vice-Presidents

M.F. Dyson Bryan Hopkinson D.G. Armitage Paul A.G. Balderstone J. Amanda Taylor David A. Bush

Cricket Section

Jack A. Taylor

Independent examiner (Vacant)

13 Trenance Gardens Home Telephone: (01422) 376907 Greetland Email:jtaylor73@btinternet.com Halifax Yorkshire HX4 8NN

Home Telephone: (01484) 685365 Email: sarussell153@btinternet.com

See ‘Honorary Secretary’

K.G. Shaw Emily Comer J.A. Ward J. Richard Taylor Malcolm J. Taylor Graham Cliffe 10

Peter L. Burns Nicky Murphy Richard J. Green John M. Drewery James N. Taylor Robert Williams

Ian Shaw Nicky Briggs Keith Crawshaw Jack A. Taylor David Gary Croft

Roger’s tram shelter gets face-lift

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)E can’t claim that it’s a case of ‘cause and effect’ but the old tram shelter at Edgerton featured in Roger Sykes’s drawing in our last issue has now received the ultimate accolate: it’s been fully restored to its 1896 glory. In a £30,000 make-over,the grade 2 listed shelter has been repaired and re-painted in the old Huddersfield Corporation colours of vermilion and cream.

Huddersfield CorporationTramways operated a tram service between 1883 and 1940.

Huddersfield was the first local authority in England to operate its own tramcar services, as well as own the tramline.At first the trams were steam-hauled but the service was electrified in the early 1900s.The shelter was later used on the trolley-bus route and is still in use by bus passengers today..

Roger Sykes said “After we moved house from theAlmondbury district to Greetland near Halifax in theWest Riding,I was allowed to remain at the school because the clothing coupons had been spent on my new uniform.

“Also the daily journey was easy – being the full trolley-bus No 30 route fromWestVale to Almondbury. So that is why many of my sketches were along the route – such as Ainley Top and Birchencliffe and the Parish Church as sometimes the bus only went as far as the town centre.

“But I also practically lived on my bike in those days – and I remember sheltering in the Tram Shelter from an unexpected shower of rain when I rode over to draw the detail – always from eye level.Another school friend now living in Bangkok recently told me how he repaired his motorcycle in the same shelter one dark night!

“I bet the oldTram Shelter has quite a few stories too!”

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IT HAPPENED TO ME

‘Old flame’ leads to old volume Our contributor’s decision to pay a visit toWhitby to meet his old sweetheart led to a crisis in the trouser department – with a totally unexpected outcome

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JOHN GOODALL (1953 - 1960)

ESPITE the pre-eminence of lawgoverned processes in history,the element of chance often seems to play a decisive role in the way big events come about.(The assassination ofArchduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 springs to mind!). I think most of us can think of smaller examples from our own lives when some quite accidental occurrence has had a profound effect on us - for better or for worse.

This little story may not qualify for the history books or even as a memory indelibly etched in one’s consciousness but I hope you will find it amusing and that the outcome may be something of significance for the archives of the Old Almondburians’ Society.

For the past few years,my wife Heulwen and I have enjoyed taking our three grandchildren away with us for a week during the school summer holidays. The Yorkshire coast has been our preferred destination both for its intrinsic attractions and as it holds so many memories for me.

These arise firstly from the relationships that were estabOn the beach at Whitby in 1959: John Goodall and girlfriend Heather Taylor

lished during WW2 when my Dad was in the RAF, stationed at a radar installation on Boulby cliff (the highest point on the east coast of Britain). He was billeted with Mrs Bessie Leng in Dalehouse near Staithes and the friendships formed then have cascaded down the generations since.

Then my Mum’s sisters took one of the paths of 1950s social mobility from working as weavers in ColneValley mills to become entrepreneurs – if running guest houses and fish and chip shops inWhitby still counts in that category. My Mum and Dad had their summer holidays there gratis in return for helping in myAunts’ businesses whilst I had the opportunity to explore MulgraveWoods and hunt for fossils on the shore at Sandsend.

To cap all this sentimental attachment, my teenage sweetheart Heather (the Dalton dairyman Raymond Taylor’s daughter) was despatched by her family to work in a top

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Whitby hotel which got me on my bike in hot pursuit for romantic trysts on the beach at Upgang As is sometimes the wont of 70somethings, the urge to recapture exotic memories from one’s youth can induce acts of bravado! I’d written to my oldflame Heather to tell her of our holiday plans and been pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation from her and her husband for my wife Heulwen and I to join them for a coffee in their home on the West Cliff.

So, I took care to pack a ‘decent’ pair of trousers, shirt, tie and jacket but discovered when unpacking at our holiday cottage in Dalehouse that I’d not included a belt. I reasoned that you don’t turn up to visit your‘ex’ in danger of your trousers ending up round your ankles, so the day before the visit I took the bus down to Whitby to shop for a belt.

First port of call was the men’s outfitters Spaunton’s in Flowergate, who wanted £35.00 for a leather belt – and there was a ‘Sale’ on!

Making a polite exit I headed down the street to the MIND charity shop where the assistant offered me a‘unisex’ fabric belt for £3.00 – but just a tad too flamboyant for me.

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But I’m incapable of entering a charity shop without perusing the bookshelves and there in the non-fiction, tucked between the cookery and gardening books was THE ALMONDBURIAN 1931 - numbers 51 to 53 neatly bound in deep green rexine, and mine for the price of the big-buckled unisex trouser belt.

So if our archivist Nich Briggs would like my find for the OAS archives, it’s waiting here for you.

By way of postcript, I bought a smart leather belt (for £1.00!) in a Poundshop in Flowergate; the nostalgic conversation, coffee and homemade shortbread at Heather’s home were delightful and the visit ended amicably without any trouserrelated incidents.

I’m just left wondering how the bound volume of The Almondburian for 1931 found its way onto the shelves of a mental health charity shop in Whitby in August 2014!

We are always keen to expand our collection of early issues of The Almondburian. We are also working closely with the local studies department of Kirklees Library to fill any gaps in their collection of early issues and to provide them with current copies of the magazine.

Me and my cars

Motoring enthusiast PETER HINDLE (1949-1952) digs out some old photos My first AustinTourer,bought for £20,used for my last six weeks at Almondbury Grammar School whilst taking ‘O’ levels. My passenger was Roger Swires and we would blow our klaxon at the teachers as they trudged up St Helen’s Gate.

I pose in my school blazer at St John’s College,York during a Summer School course.

I bought my first Austin ‘Nippy’with the £100 I had saved whilst doing National Service. I fitted hydraulic brakes as in a Morris Minor, and it had a Ford 8 side-valve engine,much quicker

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than the Austin original. I was once ‘clocked’ at 70 mph on the A1. The speedometer cable from the Ford gearbox had a different thread from theAustin 7 speedometer clock so I never actually knew what speed I was doing.It’s as well that there were no MOTs in those days.I regularly drove this car to college at Egham,a 4½ hour journey with no motorways in 1959.

Me and my ‘Nippy’ outside 25A Quarmby Road where I was born.

My present pride and joy: a second ‘Nippy’ bought in 1962. My new wife Patricia and I proudly drove to Manchester Ringway airport on 23rd July 1966, the day after our wedding, to catch a flight to Ireland for our honeymoon.We were followed by friends in various cars, only to find that we were an hour late and were not allowed to board the plane.

But one of our friends was an air traffic controller and had a word with the pilot.We were ushered on board to applause and cheers from the passengers when the pilot announced that we were honeymooners.What a send-off!

Every picture tells a story

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A performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe in 1932

ILBERT & SULLIVAN productions at King James’s School were a tradition that started with HMS Pinafore in 1921 two years after Haydn Sandwell – a former pupil of the eminent Eaglefield Hull – had taken over as music master.The show was produced by professional actor Major Ernest E Hirst who was closely associated with the Gilbert & Sullivan performances for many years.

This photograph, published for the first time, shows the cast of the 1932 production of Iolanthe.The youthful performers are standing on the steps of the Great War Memorial in Greenhead Park designed by Sir Charles Nicholson, one of the country’s most well-known and respected ecclesiastical architects.

According to a report in The Almondburian, the production at St Patrick’s Hall on 10th, 11th and 12th March 1932, was ‘a great success’ making a profit of £25 4s 10d [equivalent to around £1,500 in today’s money].

St Patrick’s Hall (right) remained the home of the Gilbert & Sullivan productions for many years. Located at the junction of

Fitzwilliam Street and Arthur Street, it was regarded as ‘the finest hall in town’ and was used for a wide range of social and religious activities including dances, concerts and talks. Both St Patrick’s Hall and Arthur Street disappeared in the 1970s as a result of the new ring road development in the area.

Haydn Sandwell sadly died at the young age of only 39; his loss was a great shock to the School. His place was taken by ‘Happy’ Harry Gledhill, who continued the Gilbert & Sullivan tradition right up to the final performance at theTemperance Hall, appropriately of HMS Pinafore, on 26th, 27th and 28th March 1953.

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Own up: who was the culprit?

Our series‘TheAlmondburian Poets’demonstrates the creative talents of former pupils.But who was responsible for the brilliant‘Hitler’parody,asks our writer.

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ANDREW TAYLOR (1963 - 1970)

URING the Second World War, there was an Army marching song that mocked Hitler for being, as Peter Cook memorably put it, less than fully equipped in the trouser department.‘Hitler Has Only Got One Ball’ not only amused the troops but also reportedly infuriated the Fuehrer.

What is less well known is that there was, during the late Fifties and Sixties, a King James’s version of the song. It referred first – according to the generation of schoolboys singing it – either to Knocker (Mr Hockley) or Killer (Mr Walker), and then to Soapy (Mr Hudson).

These gentlemen, it should be said, were chosen purely because their nicknames had the two syllables that the necessarily anonymous poet required, and not

because of any imagined medical problems.

They were followed by very generous references to MrWestern’s, presumably because his name conveniently rhymed with ‘best ’uns’, and to the Headmaster,‘Gaffer’ (who was my father) rhyming neatly with ‘Jaffas’. It occurs to me now that it was probably because of this rather flattering line that the Headmaster, who certainly knew about the song, never to my knowledge complained about it.

But the question is – who was responsible for this classic of scurrilous literature?

He must now be in at least his seventies, and can presumably be assured of immunity from punishment. If he is too modest to admit to authorship, someone else must know. More than 50 years on, it is time we were told.

SUDOKU

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Difficulty: medium

7 3

Each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 to 9

5 6 17

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1 2 5 4 6 4 9 8 1 6 7 4 9 8 5 2 1 8 5 3 9 4 3 2

Flourishing school activities

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Former teacher and Old Almondburian JACKTAYLOR recalls the successful Scientific and Philatelic school societies of the 1960s and 1970s

READ with interest in the No- ciety, reflected in the membership and vember 2014 issue of the magazine frequency of meetings, I formed a‘Junior a reference to the ‘Scientific Soci- Scientific Society’. Several science teachety’. In particular, I recall the occasion ers and laboratory technicians over the featured in the accompanying photograph years helped in the organisation and runof the visit of the distinguished Old Al- ning of the two societies. mondburian, Sir Harold Himsworth, in Extensive minutes of committee and 1969. It revived memories of my involve- society meetings were kept and the books ment with the Society. recording these are currently to be found When I commenced teaching at King in the school archives.

James’s Grammar School in September Incidentally, I also inaugurated the 1959 a Scientific Society did not exist. ‘King James’s School Philatelic Society’, Following discussions with Charlie Gill, in 1960.Wilfred ‘Tex’Western had prethe then Head of Physics, I launched – viously held lunch time ‘Stamp Club’ thereby resurrecting – the ‘King James’s meetings on occasions.The Philatelic SoSchool Scientific Society’ in 1960. Over ciety proved to be a popular forum, at 20 or more years it was highly successful, lunch time and after school, for stamp holding regular lunch time and after- collectors from 1960 to 1975. Over the school meetings in the Biology Labora- sixteen year period the majority of Great tory, opposite the present dining hall. Britain mint and used definitive and comMeetings took the form memorative stamps of lectures, both internal were added to the and external, film school collection, along shows, quizzes, debates, with the relevant first demonstrations of appaday covers. As with the ratus and visits, both loScientific Societies, cally and nationally. One minutes were recorded. of our first visits was to The school collecthe then recently tion has remained doropened Windscale Numant over the intervenclear Power Station, ing years in the school now known as Sellafield, archives, awaiting valuat Seascale in Cumbria. ation and resurrection Due to the success of JackTaylor taught biology at King by any present day keen the‘senior’ Scientific So- James’s School from 1959 to 1997 philatelist.

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A LIFE IN THE DAY

From teaching to local government I had always been interested in politics so when I left King James’s it seemed a good time to become a councillor.Then,to my pleasure,I became Deputy Lord Mayor.

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DR ROGER L’AMIE (staff 1973 - 1993)

AM usually up by 7.30 am these to this area to seek better employment days though it was earlier when I prospects when I was about five. had my lovely dog Benji when I I went to Morley Grammar School was often out of bed by 6.30. I got into and then went on to Bradford University the habit of rising early when I used to where I was awarded a PhD for work on teach at King James’s – I had to leave the amino-acids, peptides and proteins rehouse by 7.40 to get to school by 8.30. lated to wool.This was sponsored by the It would take even longer today because Wool Textile Research Council. of the increased traffic and all the speed I didn’t go straight into teaching: for limits. It’s porridge for breakfast these just over two years, I worked as a redays; I’ve rather gone off bacon and egg search and development chemist atYorkthanks to the activities of the food police. shire Chemicals in Leeds.

I also avoid grapefruit as it disagrees with My first impression when I had my inmy medication. terview at King I was born in James’s was that the Boston in south Linschool had a very colnshire. As far as good site and seemed we can tell, our fama very civilised place. ily moved from But during the 20 northern France in years I was there they the early 17th censeemed to be contintury, probably beually rebuilding and cause they were on extending it. I was the wrong side of very sorry when they one of the wars of chopped down the religion of that peBig Tree, though I riod. All four of my Dr Roger L’Amie taught Chemistry, suppose there was no Physics, Computer Studies and grandparents were Mathematics at King James’s School choice if it had beHalifax people. I’m between 1973 and 1993. He is come genuinely danan only child and we currently Deputy Lord Mayor of the gerous.

City of Bradford. moved from Boston The interview was 19

Lieutenant Colonel Tressa Home of the Royal Canadian Air Force with the Deputy Lord Mayor at a wreathlaying ceremony at Oakworth, near Keighley

in Harry Taylor’s study and I always remember one question which would be dynamite today: “Do you like boys?” I think he’d have to ask a more tactful question nowadays!

In addition to Chemistry, I was asked to teach Physics because Alan Gaukroger had gone off on a year’s secondment. Les Mallinson was in charge of Chemistry.

Looking back, I think on the whole that the teachers at King James’s were decent people who were trying to do a really good job. Maybe one or two were rather steeped into the culture of the 1950s – but this may not have been an entirely bad thing. There was a period just before I went into teaching when they seemed to have the idea that no pupil could be allowed to fail. But the corollary is that no-one could be allowed to succeed. I think one has to accept that some children are brighter than others, though it isn’t easy to say this to their parents.

I worked closely with Les Mallinson and Alan Gaukroger, and they were excellent teachers. Dave Bush was a highly committed man who in many ways held the school together But a good role model for anyone entering the teaching profession would surely have to be Jack

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Taylor. He had the happy knack of being able to keep everything under tight control but with a light touch.

On the languages side, Patrick O’Brien and Dave Gregson were very competent members of staff. In history, I think one had to get to know Francis Bareham to recognize his inner strengths. He always seemed a very mild-mannered guy, but I believe he had fought in the Eighth Army in Africa.

Two other members of staff I’m still in contact with are Avril Dawson – a stronger character than you’d think – and Bernadette Stephenson, a very determined lady indeed. She told me that she once got a particularly gangly sixthformer to kneel down because she wasn’t going to look up at him while admonishing him. Knowing Bernadette, I can believe that! She would always go the extra mile for the kids who were prepared to work.

On reflection, I think I was a bit too laid back as a teacher. I did fairly well with academic youngsters but I might

not have been too good with the stroppier elements.

My life changed completely, of course, when I left King James’s in 1993.

I didn’t leave teaching immediately and for about six years I worked part-time at Shipley College, Saltaire. Meanwhile, I’d always been interested in local politics in which I’d played a minor role since the 1970s. I first stood for Bradford Council as a Conservative candidate in 2004. I wasn’t successful then but I stood again in 2007 and got in with a majority of 238. When I stood for a third time in 2011, the majority had risen to nearly 1,700.

For me, the appeal of being a councillor is that it gives you the ability to help local people and get things done in one’s own locality. Whilst I’m sure that some things need to be done on a regional or national scale, I’m certainly not convinced that Westminster always knows best.

The differences between the parties are not usually to do with what should be done but how it should be done.While I’ve been on the council, my two main areas of interest have been Planning and Education, the latter being a continuation of my teaching career. I always work on the principle that advice asked for is taken while advice given is often ignored.

At least an hour of my morning is taken up each day by dealing with the Chain of office: kept under lock and key since the unfortunate theft of the Lord Mayor’s chain of office in 1945

many emails that come in seeking help or advice. I think one of the biggest local issues around here is traffic congestion, the basic problem being that the road structure in Bradford has not changed much in the past 50 years while car ownership has rocketed. Another big problem is the relatively poor performance of many Bradford schools, many of which have very serious problems.

Another Bradford problem is that it is not good at promoting itself – there are plenty of good things happening here and we have a lot of very advanced firms.

Bradford University is also getting its act together much better nowadays.

The rest of my morning might well be taken up by preparing for an imminent planning meeting, or dealing with a variety of telephone enquiries. You always

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theft. Gold was of have to remember course in short supthat although peoply after the war so ple’s problems there was an appeal might not be a parin the press. Local ticularly big deal in people contributed the major scheme many items of old of things – a faulty gold – from pencil street light or holders and coins to whatever – it is military badges – very important to towards the rethe person who has quired 100 ounces. bothered to contact I don’t think they’d you. Everyone dedo that today. serves attention and I usually have a respect. light lunch and in Last May I was the afternoon I invited to become might well be out at Deputy Mayor of a function on behalf Bradford – I supof the city. These pose it’s a compliment that they ‘I get a lot of pleasure from painting and events can take a thought I was a rea- photography. On the whole, I’ve probably huge variety of done better in photography.’ forms. For examsonably safe pair of hands who would not bring the city into ple, I recent had to attend a ceremony at disrepute!The minute you put the chain Oakworth at the site of a Wellington on you are no longer Cllr Roger L’Amie: bomber that crashed there in 1944 with you are representing the City of Bradford the loss of six Royal Canadian Air force and you have to do that without political crewmen. Among those at the service were Lieutenant Colonel Tressa Home, prejudice.

The chain of office is carefully who laid a wreath, and her sister guarded by the city authorities and is Brigadier General Allen Home. It isn’t brought to me by a driver who remains every day you get to meet two sisters with it at all times. This is no doubt be- who are both senior Canadian Royal Air cause the Lord Mayor’s chain was actually Force officers.

By the time I get back home it’s time stolen in 1945 from the car boot of Alderman Kathleen Chambers, who was to think about my evening meal and I at that time Bradford’s first female holder must confess that I enjoy a good glass of of the office. Sadly, the chain was melted Merlot to accompany it. I’m not a big down and a man was sent to jail for the television viewer in the evening – mainly 22

news programmes, nature programmes and the occasional historical drama.You won’t catch me watching Strictly Come Dancing or The X Factor! I enjoy reading and I also get a lot of pleasure from painting and photography. I wouldn’t say I’ve got any great talent as a painter but I do find it very relaxing. Anyone who knew anything about art would probably regard my efforts as being rather amateurish daubs. On the whole, I’ve probably done better in photography.

My greatest love is music and I’ve got a pretty comprehensive collection of classical CDs, together with country and western and brass bands. It’s been one of

P

my most serious interests since my late teens. Sadly, I can’t play a musical instrument and I’m not even a very good singer. I remember that when I was at King James’s it was not unknown for the line of pupils next to me in assembly to edge further away.

My favourite composer is Mozart and I may well put a CD on before retiring for the night at around 11.00 pm. Someone once said that it you ever felt like putting an end to your life you should listen to some Mozart first. If you still felt like doing it, you should go ahead.

An interview with Roger L’Amie can be heard at http://goo.gl/GctpC3.

The Almondburian Poets

HILIP BROOK was one of the stars of the 1967 intake, and he submitted this little poem as homework in form 1A. The English master considered it so outstanding that he asked Phil to affirm that it was really all his own work, which he did. I’ve never forgotten it, and I still think it’s a wonderful achievement for a twelve-year-old.

Bryan Hopkinson

Once, a long time ago, when the world was quite new, An angel came down from the sky, And he painted each bird in a different hue, And he taught them to sing and to fly.

When he thought he had come to the end of the queue, And his paint-box was empty and bare, With a flutter of wings in a tiny bird flew, The angel looked round in despair.

Then he moistened his brush in the sparkle of dew, For he must have them finished by dawn, So from each bird he borrowed green, mauve, gold and blue, And the humming bird proudly was born.

‘The Humming Bird’ by PGH Brook, 1A The Almondburian, Summer 1968

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C

PAVILION UPDATE

Top sportsmen to support pavilion plans

ricketer RYAN SIDEBOTTOM, runner DEREK IBBOTSON and former Huddersfield Town footballer JON DYSON have all agreed to give their full backing to the pavilion project.

Announcing the news Graham Cliffe, Chairman of the King James’s Foundation Trust who are leading the project, said: “It’s really great to have the support of these leading local figures from the world of sport.”

The names have also been confirmed of the members of the Appeal Committee who will spearhead the fundraising activities in the coming months.They are: Colin Bamford (Professor Emeritus at Huddersfield University and former Chairman of Governors of King James’s School) Kim Clarke (Head of Physical Education at King James’s School) Keith Crawshaw (Treasurer of the Old Almondburians’ Society and Trustee of the King James’s Foundation Trust) Martyn Hicks (Old Almondburian, Company Director and originator of the pavilion scheme) Christopher Mann (Old Almondburian and Consultant in charitable fund raising) Ryan Sidebottom Patrick O’Brien (former deputy headteacher at King James’s School,Trustee of the King James’s Foundation Trust and present chairman of the Old Almondburians’ Society) Chris West (Old Almondburian and architect responsible for the design of the new pavilion).

The total cost of the pavilion is expected to be in the region of £450,000 to £500,000 of which around Derek Ibbotson half will come from the Foundation Trust. By April, the Appeal Committee is hoping to lodge an application for public funding/lottery money to Sport England, the body formally known as the English Sports Council that is responsible for grassroots sport in England.

Future plans also include a possible black tie Jon Dyson Sportsmen’s Dinner later in the year.

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PRIVATE PASSIONS

Adding another string to my bow I’d always wanted to play a musical instrument but never had the opportunity.

A move to Manchester late in life gave me the chance I was waiting for.

I

ROGER DOWLING (1952 - 1959)

GREW up to the sound of music in my childhood home in Almondbury Bank: it came from an elderly upright piano in our small living room. It wasn’t constant music; in fact, it was heard about once a week, invariably on a Sunday afternoon, when my mother put aside the cares of bringing up a family of four in the years after World War 2 to enjoy a few precious minutes of relaxation at the keyboard.

My mother was a capable pianist, the only one in our family.Alas, there were no thoughts of us children having piano lessons; money was tight for our working class parents and the little cash left over at the end of the week went towards our annual week’s holiday at a small boarding house in Bridlington.

However, the piano always fascinated me and I eventually taught myself to play simple tunes - mainly hymns - provided they only required the white keys. (For some reason the black keys always remained a strange noman’s-land). I also took up the mouth organ, and the pinnacle of my music-making came when one Photo: Brian Law day I attached my

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mouth organ to the piano music stand and devised the novel technique of playing both instruments simultaneously, a source of much merriment for other members of the family.

Fast forward 30 years. I was now married, with four boys, and I was working for the BBC in Manchester. Down the corridor was the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the privileges of the job was being able to pop into rehearsals whenever it took my fancy. I still nurtured the idea of playing an instrument myself, provided it had no black keys, and suddenly the idea was born: I would take up the violin. Only four strings – what a doddle!

Little did I know…

Fortunately, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra has lots of talented violinists so I tentatively asked if anyone would give me a few lessons. Luckily, one of the first violins – a player with remarkable reserves of patience and goodwill (surely no-one without these attributes would have persevered with such a slow-learner) – agreed to be my teacher and my great journey began.

Although my skills were rudimentary I must have made def-

Did you know?

A violin’s strings are normally tuned to the notes G, D, A and E. But in one movement of his Fourth Symphony, Mahler requires the leader of the orchestra to play solos using a second violin specially tuned to the notes A, E, B and F sharp.

The top note of a violin is difficult to define as the highest notes eventually become virtually inaudible. One of the highest notes demanded by a composer is in Richard Strauss’s Also sprach zarathustra which includes a shrill F sharp (2,960Hz) over three octaves above middle C. The ‘Lady Blunt’ Stradivarius violin was recently sold at auction for £9,808,000.The proceeds went to the Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Blind tests have shown repeatedly that ‘Strads’ and similar antique instruments do not always sound better than modern-day instruments. Indeed, these ancient instruments are rarely still in their original form, having usually been drastically modified to cope with the higher tensions of modern strings and with little of their original varnish still intact.

Violinists play their instruments in many different ways: with the hairs of the bow near the bridge (sul ponticello); over the fingerboard (sul tasto); by striking the strings with the back of the bow (col legno); by plucking the strings (pizzicato); and countless others. Unusually, in parts of Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino overture, the second violins don’t need to touch their violins at all and are just required to tap their music stands with their bows.

The violin owned by ‘Titanic’ bandleader William Hartley in 1912 was recently sold for £900,000. It was found in a case strapped to his body and experts said that the wood still contained salt deposits from the sea water.

inite progress and was flattered one day when my teacher suggested that I should acquire a little street-cred by taking a few ‘grade’ exams. It was a stressful experience, not helped by the fact that most other players awaiting their turn seemed to be wearing short trousers and already up to Grade 8 It was around this time that I heard that the proprietor of a local violin shop was planning to give a talk on violin-making. Remembering the family rapture that greeted the wooden toothbrush holder that I brought home fromTeak’s woodwork lessons, I felt sure that making a violin would present no problem at all.

Did you know that a violin has nearly 30 component parts? No, nor did I.The talk turned out to be fascinating and I learned many things that day.The principle of the violin is that when a string is bowed the vibrations travel down the bridge and are transferred to the back of the violin by a so-called ‘sound-post’, a small wooden dowel which is literally wedged in position inside the violin beneath the bridge.The back of the violin acts rather like the loudspeaker of a radio set and converts the vibrations of the string into an audible sound which is released to the world through the two f-holes or ‘soundholes’ which are such a distinctive feature of any stringed instrument.

The physical profile of the back of the violin therefore has a very profound effect on the quality of the sound produced by the instrument, as does the bridge and the precise position of the sound-post. Surprisingly, the top or‘belly’ of the violin has little influence on the sound; in fact, experimental instruments have been produced without bellies and the sound has been affected hardly at all.

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The back of most violins is formed from two wedge-shaped pieces of maple which are carefully glued along the spine of the instrument.The outside is shaped to the required profile using tiny thumb-planes and gouges, after which the inside is similarly shaped to produce a wall thickness of around 5 mm at the centre and 3 mm at the edges.The side-walls or ‘ribs’ of the instrument are also of maple, in strips about 1 mm in thickness.

The violin belly is quicker and easier to shape, being made of the much softer and more easily worked pine. Cutting the fholes is a test of the craftsmanship of the maker, and their precise shape has a marked effect on the appearance and character of the instrument.

An even bigger test is carving of the vi-

olin’s scroll and neck, made again from solid maple and presenting a real challenge to a maker’s woodworking skills.

Mass-produced violins are often varnished with a quick-drying spirit varnish.

Most makers, however, prefer to use an oil-based varnish, often of a secret and well-guarded formulation of which they are inordinately proud.

My first violin took the best part of nine months to make, using whatever spare time I had in the evenings or at the weekend. I then must have got a bit carried away (indeed, my wife began to think that perhaps I ought to be carried away) because I went on to make a further three violins. These were followed for no reason at all by a viola – the violin’s big sister – an instrument that I can’t even play and which has gathered dust on the wall of my study ever since.

I really went to town with my final violin, which I decorated by hand in the style of some Stradivarius models. Perhaps, if the glue holds out, my ‘Dowlingius’ will also be worth millions of pounds, though I somehow doubt it!

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The writer’s ‘Dowlingius’ model, ambitiously decorated by hand in the style – but sadly without quite the degree of craftsmanship – of some Stradivarius violins

December 2014: a full house for the Christmas concert presented by the writer’s Macclesfieldbased KEMS Orchestra and Choir

Photo: Brian Law

While I was busy making violins, my violin lessons continued until, one day, I was flattered to be told by my long-suffering teacher there was nothing more he could teach me. (Only later did I realise that I may have wrongly interpreted this message). And so, I decided to join a local orchestra to put my new skills into practice.

It was an eye-opening experience. I began to appreciate for the first time the astonishing skill of professional musicians who can sight-read complex contemporary scores as a matter of routine.

But all this was a long time ago. For many years, I have played in two orchestras, one of which also has its own associated choir – a source of further pleasure as it has introduced me to fabulous choral music of which I had previously been lamentably ignorant. It’s been a slow learningcurve, but one that has been a source of enormous pleasure over the years.

I should like to conclude this article by addressing those readers who might, like me, have often wished to play an instrument but have never had the opportunity in their younger years. My message is simple: take a deep breath and have a go. Ac-

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cept from the outset that, having started late in life, you’ll never became a top soloist: this is the role of the professional player of which the music colleges and universities produce vast numbers every year, all desperate to have the opportunity of performing with an orchestra.

Limit your aim to becoming a rankand-file member of the orchestra; in other words, a mere galley slave – admittedly not as much glamour but, believe me, just as much fun. You’ll certainly find that it will double your enjoyment of music, for you will be listening for the first time through the ears of a performer rather than just as a listener.You will hear passages that you never even realised existed, and you will marvel at the skill and inspiration of the composers who created them.

You’ll also find that playing in an orchestra is a great team experience – 40 or 50 players with the common objective of playing as well as they are able in order to provide their audience with an evening of great music. Surely it’s better than going to the gym twice a week?

So why not have a bash? It may be March, but it’s still not too late for a New Year resolution that you’ll never regret.

Annual Dinner

F

A ND R E W HAIGH

Andrew Haigh

ollowing an extremely successful open, nor all the lights on throughout the return to the school for the 2013 school.We can only apologise for this and Annual Dinner, the 2014 Annual we will endeavour to offer this facility in Dinner was again held at the school. It was the future and to be better organised! attended by exactly 100 Almondburians, However, those present this year did who travelled from all over the United enjoy another excellent meal, once again Kingdom, as well as Germany, Norway cooked by Andrew Hirst of Brambles in and the United States. Those attending Holmfirth. The menu comprised minespanned over seventy years at the school, strone soup, roast beef with roast red from entry in 1946 right up to the current onion, loin pork, and sage and prune stuffHead Boy, Head Girl, Deputy Head Boy ing, followed by sticky toffee pudding with and Deputy Head Girls, as well as a good Cointreau custard, a cheeseboard with number of former and current members olives and crackers, and coffee or tea. In a of staff.The Class of 1947, who numbered very nice touch, Andrew then came around eleven, had, most unusually, to share the the tables offering everyone a dram from prize for best attendance this year with the his collection of malt whisky.

Class of 1964, who were celebrating the The meal was followed by an enterfiftieth anniversary of their entry to the taining speech (see page 32) from Tony school and also mustered eleven. There Cape (1963 – 1969), who spoke at length was also a contingent of the Class of 1954, about the foibles of his former teachers, who were celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of their entry to the school.

The evening started with tours of the school, hosted by the Head Boy, the Head Girl, the Deputy Head Boy and the Deputy Head Girls. Unfortunately, these did not go as well as they might have done since, due to Top table l to r: Matthew Lake (Head Boy), Evie Clowes (Head a misunderstanding, Girl), Bryan Hopkinson (OAS Chairman), Brian Stahelin (Chairman not all the rooms were of Governors), Robert Lamb (Head Teacher) 30

Left: Tony Cape presents his Dartmouth Medal (inset) to Robert Lamb; Right: Head Girl Evie Clowes, who responded to Tony Cape’s Toast to the School

particularly Dave Bush and Jack Taylor, who were both present. He also presented his Dartmouth Medal, the last one ever awarded, back to the school to be kept for posterity, before proposing the Toast to the School. The Head Girl, Evie Clowes, made an excellent speech in response.

Tony then briefly proposed the Toast to the Society, to which the Chairman, Bryan Hopkinson, responded, before taking his seat at the piano to accompany a rousing rendition of the School Song to conclude the formal part of the evening.

There was ample opportunity afterwards for people to return to the bar to mingle and reminisce. Thanks are due to

one of our Vice-Presidents, Nicky Briggs, Head Brewer for Mallinson’s Brewing Company and also for his own Brigg’s Signature Ales, for providing a selection of his fine ales and for running the bar.Thanks are also due to Nicky for helping your Secretary to transport all the tables, which were very kindly loaned free of charge by Kirklees Stadium Development, from the stadium to the school and back again; this was hard work! The wines were provided

by Taste FineWines of Almondbury.

Once again the dinner can be considered to have been a very successful event that was enjoyed, I am sure, by everyone who was there.

Overleaf: Tony Cape’s speech in full

START PLANNING NOW

The 2015 Annual Dinner will take place on Saturday, 21st November. If you are thinking about organising a class reunion, now is the time to start. If you were really keen, you could follow the lead of Robin Merchant (1966-1973) whom we understand to be already preparing plans for a reunion of the Class of ’66 in 2016!

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‘

I should thank the officers of the King James’s School figured front and censociety for the kind invitation to tre. I fancied myself a rebel and scoffed at speak here this evening, but this the pomposity of its teachers, the outdatwould require me to begin on a edness of its traditions and the pettiness of false note.The truth is I badgered its rules. Leaving school felt like a jailthem for years for this privilege break. Finally free from that tyrant Bush! until they reluctantly gave in. No matter, I The affable but scary Harry Taylor! And bear no lasting grudge. the lunatic in the biology lab! Although I The fact is, ever since I attended my had thrived here, in my immaturity I defirst annual dinner here some twenty years nied any credit to the institution or its ago, I have hankered after the opportunity staff. However, I could not explain some to express my appreciation to the school, things, like staying in the boy scouts until and, in particular, to two of my former the sixth form, and even becoming a teachers while both are Queen’s Scout. How I began to still vertical. On seeing serious a rebel had I how both Bush and Tay- wonder whether been? No matter, I was lor look tonight, it gone from Huddersseems I may have got in Jack Taylor might field, and gone from just under the wire.

King James’s. What a be a fictional However, it was not relief! character, that always so. Although I Of course, nostallived in the UK for gia to set in with perhaps I had thebegan some eight years after passing years. I made him up. moved to the US and leaving school, I never thought to join the society or attend a din- did not visit Huddersfield for some twenty ner during that time. In fact, I once wrote years. During this long interval, I confess to the aforementioned Bush when he sug- I began to wonder whether some of my gested that I do so that I saw no point in fond memories were accurate, especially “propping up a bar with people I either those involving certain teachers. In particdidn’t know or didn’t like.” More on this ular I began to wonder whether Jack Taychurlishness later. It was only after renew- lor might be a fictional character, that ing my connection with the school later in perhaps I had made him up. Certainly, my life that I truly realized how much I value son, also called Jack, thought so.When he this place and the people who were my was little and had friends over whom he contemporaries. Indeed I feel a significant particularly wanted to impress, he would debt to King James’s School and my speak- urge me: “Dad—tell them a Jack Taylor ing here tonight is, in part, a way of repay- story.” ing that obligation.

And indeed, I had many, but they all However, when I left the school in seemed so unlikely. Was I embellishing?

1969 I did so with all the arrogance of a Did he really routinely ask questions by young man determined to cast off the pointing at one guy, looking at another, provincialism of my background in which and saying a third guy’s name, thus elicit32

ing three, sometimes contradictory answers at the same time?

Did he always call the hapless Andrew Gibson ‘Gibbons’, and once send him to phone for an ambulance when Gibbons claimed he only had one kidney? On catching David Harpin dreamily watching a football match on the distant playing fields, did he really send him out to check on the score? Did he always give instructions on marking a classmate’s test in the following way: “Three right:one mark; two right: half mark; one right: no mark; none right: no mark. Got it, laddie?” To confirm the accuracy of my memories, I asked my classmate Chris Graley to canvass the entering classes of 1962 and 63 as I was preparing this speech and soon received a veritable avalanche of Jack Taylor stories that confirmed my own recollections. I offer just a few.

Jack often had special names, or pronunciation of names, for chosen students in addition to his default “Laddie.” In my own year, Graham Carby was always ‘Garby’ and Gary Boothroyd was ‘Butheroyd’. During one biology lesson, the latter was taking notes from Jack’s dic-

tation and unwisely asking for clarification by repeating the question “Eh?” Jack tolerated this for a while until some threshold was reached and he invited ‘Butheroyd’ to step forward and lay his head down on the front bench, next to where he kept his fearsome meter rule. He then positioned the ruler against Butheroyd’s skull and proceeded to roll his dictation down the slope into the helpless fellow’s ear, past his outer ear and middle ear into the inner labyrinth. “Got it now, laddie?” Eventually a shaken Butheroyd returned to his seat and no further questions ensued.

Teaching sexual reproduction was one of Jack’s specialties. In one class he asked a fellow called Gelder to define ‘period of gestation’ and give an example. Gelder responded that the term meant the interval between the entry of the male organ into the female organ and the fertilization of the egg, which in elephants lasted eighteen months.

And then there’s the famous incident when Jack left some terminology on the board during a test series against Pakistan, which Jack and his pals used to watch on a clandestine TV in the prep room. One member of staff told Jack he found this helpful, because he assumed Vas Deferens and Labia Majora were Pakistan’s opening batsmen. Believe me, folks, I could go on all night.

I make my peace with Dave Bush and the ‘lunatic from the biology lab’ Jack Taylor 33

Although not partic- When Dave Bush ter, housemaster, Latin ularly adept at science, I master, English master invited me to and scout master. But was so grateful for the joyful experience of bi- join the Old Boys all this doesn’t really exology with Jack Taylor plain why our relationback in the that I explored taking ship was so intense, and the subject at A Level. to me, oppressive.

1970s, I had to often Alas, in this era it was The fact is Dave Bush not possible to combine say essentially, minded every aspect of arts and science subjects my involvement with “Get Lost!” in the sixth form, so I the school – every comchose a necessary alternative – Latin A level ment on every report card, every grade in with those two giants of comedy, Dave Bush every exam, every performance in every and Jim Toomey.

House sporting event, every lapse and failTolstoy atYasnaya Polyana! Pound at Ra- ure, and every success. In this I certainly was pallo! Bush at Porthcawl!The great modern not alone; something similar was true for sites of exile and pilgrimage! Like many many others. others, I have made the lonely trek to the Of course, I pretended to hate all this. redoubt overlooking the Bristol Channel, Stay out of my life! I wanted to shout.Why from which the brooding patriarch pens his do you care how long my sideburns are? Or broadsides. It took me a while to pluck up that I failed that calculus exam? Or that I the nerve – about 35 years to be precise – argued with that umpire when he gave me because to a significant degree, there is no out? (OK, I might have been out, but only distinction between my feelings about King just!) Or whether I should go in for this James’s School and my feelings about Dave badge or that award! I can make my own Bush – they are the same thing. It’s not sim- bloody decisions! Get off my case! ply that he loomed large in my experience All the while, I was secretly thrilled that of the school. He defined my experience of someone cared so much about me that he the school. And just as it took a while for would invest so fully in my welfare and me to sort out my feelings toward the success. In turn I sought out his approval school, so has it been with Mr. Bush, who above all others (why else did I stay in the was both my adolescent scourge and my scouts so long?), although I could not have protector. Some further context here may admitted this at the time, or for decades help. afterward. That’s why, when he invited me Destiny led us both into Jessop House, to join the Old Boys back in the 1970s, I and to a preference for the same subjects, had to say essentially, “Get Lost!” I had to English and foreign languages. Then there maintain the fiction that I resented all of his was the boy scouts. And then sports. And attention, that I needed to turn my back on that my arrival came just a year after his – Dave Bush and King James’s School in order we are a mere twelve years apart in age.And to grow up.The truth is the exact opposite so on. As an illustration, when I was in the – I needed to grow up before I could fourth form, Dave Bush was my form mas- appreciate all that Dave Bush and the school 34

had given me. Luckily, this did eventually happen.

Not that Dave was a cuddly sort. He was a stern disciplinarian, a fierce and vigilant presence. At the time, many of us felt this was excessive, even mean. But the truth again lies elsewhere. Dave Bush promoted the values of the school so untiringly because he would not risk leaving the responsibility to anyone else. He cared too much to worry about being popular – it didn’t matter to him.The consequence is he is among the most respected and admired figures to have ever taught here, and the proof can be seen in how many of us come back year after year to this event to stay in touch with him. I’m not the only one for whom gratitude toward the school and to Dave Bush are indistinguishable.

When Dave retired in 1996, like many others I wondered how this swaggering figure would spend his twilight years.

Something suitably macho, I thought – sword-swallowing, or perhaps running the bulls at Pamplona. So imagine my disbelief when it emerged from his turgid travelogues that he had adopted, of all things, ornithology! Trotting around the globe with his fellow crackpots, gazing lovingly through his binoculars at our feathered friends, checking off sightings in his little book! When I finally visited Dave and Margaret in Porthcawl and saw him with his granddaughter, my suspicions about his true nature were confirmed. Dave is a gentle man, a kind man, a man without a mean bone in his body.

But I want to end this tribute to the school and to my teachers on a more sombre note. Although I’m quite willing to join the chorus of regret about lost traditions since the heyday of the Sixties, I believe there were things about our school

culture that deserved to be abandoned.The truth is that King James’s School, in the era before its selective privileges were swept away, was an exclusive, intolerant, even a cruel place. It fostered a culture in which corporal punishment and random violence were commonplace, and where bullying was rampant. My friend John Graley tells of how much he loved his time at school, how he couldn’t wait to get up each morning and find out what was in store for him. I’ll bet many of us here tonight have similar feelings, counting ourselves winners in the contest of school and life.

Unfortunately, in my era, being a winner seemed to depend on the presence of losers, guys who were on the receiving end of all manner of physical, verbal and emotional abuse.To my regret, I took part in my share of that. I doubt that any of these victims have had anything further to do with the school, and no wonder. I trust that with the advent of modern, comprehensive co-education these pathologies have been discredited and proscribed, and that King James’s School is now a much safer place for students of all backgrounds and capacities.

So in the last analysis, what did King James’s School teach me? The expectation that I show up and do my best, the crucial contribution that kind and firm teachers can make to healthy adolescence, and the need for integrity, companionship and laughter. These lessons have stood me in good stead, and for this I will be forever grateful.

Did King James’s School really ‘foster a culture in which corporal punishment and random violence were commonplace’ in the 1960s? Let us have your views at almondburian@oas.org.uk.

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Founders’ Day

H

R E V S T UA RT RO EBUCK

ow spiritually satisfying it is that people are still willing to trudge up St. Helen’s Gate on a chilly Sunday morning in November to share in a Founders’ Day Service in Almondbury Parish Church. There was nothing chilly, of course, about the welcome at Church. In this interregnum period between Rectors, the Churchwarden, Mrs. Hilary Pollard, made us feel very much at home. Many thanks to her and to the Church organist and other members of the congregation who joined us for the service.

A highlight once again was the presence and participation of young people from the School. Matthew Lake and Evie Clowes, the School Captains, read lessons for us. Mr Ben Wilson, the Head of Music, brought several of his students to add to the service - a cheerful choir, two Andrew Haigh

skilful pianists and a young lady soloist with a lovely voice. Between 50 and 60 people were present to sing hymns, respond to prayers and share some thoughts about remembering.The service was brought to a close with a Blessing from Old Almondburian, Rev John Senior, and with hearty singing of the School Song and the National Anthem.

I wonder what the original Founders – Robert Kaye of Woodsome Hall,William Ramsden of Longley Hall, the Rev. George Crosland, vicar of Almondbury, Nicholas Fenay of Fenay Hall, Richard Appleyard of Over Longley and Robert Nettleton of Almondbury – would have made of it? We were giving thanks, of course, for the founding of the school, not just the founding of the Old Almondburians’ Society.

I think they would have been surprised that the organisation they started over 400 years ago is still rolling forward and I hope they would have enjoyed the service held in the ancient church which they would have known so well. And I hope too that the number attending Founders’ Day Services – Old Almondburians and current Staff and Students and their families – will continue to Head Boy Matthew Lake and Head Girl Evie Clowes lead the increase year by year. annual procession up St Helen’s Gate 36

Class of ’64 get together again

A

RMED with a total of 62 names made up from the original form lists for the 1964 intake plus others who had joined our year group later, Richard Geldard and myself began tracing and contacting former colleagues in early March. We now know the whereabouts of around 75% of the list (sadly we are aware of 3 who are deceased) and have been in regular email contact with some 33 of the group. Interestingly not everyone acknowledged our attempts to get in touch, whether by letter, email or message, which was disappointing and surprising. Presumably some didn’t want to be reminded of their classmates or experiences down St Helen’s Gate!

We know of representatives in Australia, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Spain, South Africa,Thailand,West Indies and Lancashire!

As expected, problems with illness, family commitments and other circumstances restricted the numbers of those able to make a reunion. However 11 of us met at the Woolpack on the Friday evening and 11 attended the Annual Dinner at School on the following day. This At the Woolpack, back row l to r: Andrew Phillips, Richard Geldard, David Poskitt, Keith Crawshaw, Paul Mitchell, David Ellis, Brian Nash, John Kent; front row l to r: Simon Russell, Phil Shaw, Bob Williams At the Dinner, back row l to r: Dave Sutton, John Kent, Simon Graley, Keith Crawshaw, Richard Geldard, Bill Best, John Hart, Colin Bradley; front row l to r: Brian Nash, Phil Shaw, Simon Russell

meant that 16 of our group were at one or both of the reunion opportunities. Larger numbers would have been desirable but the atmosphere on both occasions was excellent as the usual banter and reminiscing took over.

Those who were happy to share their contact details have had them circulated within the group so we have been able to put many schoolboy friends back in touch with each other again. Our aim is to try to find more missing members from our list in future and look forward to meeting again in five or ten years’ time in Almondbury to stir further memories of our times together.

Keith Crawshaw (1964-1971)

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Annual Dinner 2015 attendees

Surname Armitage Aspinall Bachas-Brook Balderstone Barstow Battye Beaumont Bedford Bellerby Best Best Bonser Bradley Bradley Bradley Brier Brook Burluraux Bush Cape Clayton Cliffe Clowes Crawshaw Dye Dyson Earles Eastwood Faragher Field Fisher Geldard Graley Graley Graley Green, C.B.E. Haigh Harkness Harrison Hart Hellawell Heptonstall Hicks Hinchliffe Holland Hopkinson Kent Kitchen

Forename Martin John Holly Paul A.G. Jonathan Roger E. Robin Godfrey Keith Andrew Bill Norris Peter David Colin Keith Jeffrey Norman David A. Antony James Melvyn Graham Evie Keith Jim John H. David B.M. John Marjorie Robert Peter Richard John E. Simon Andrew Christopher M. Terry Andrew Hugh Martin John John Michael David Anthony Martyn Ian Doreen Megan Bryan John D.Vaughan

Years 1968 1956 Dep Head Girl 1954 1966 1962 1968 1949 1947 1968 1964 1947 1948 1946 1964 1947 1947 1949 Staff 1961 1963 1947 1959 Head Girl 1964 1947 1948 1947 1950 Staff 1979 Staff 1973 1956 1964 1962 1964 1962 1947 1977 1963 1962 1964 1956 1949 1970 Staff 1966 Dep Head Girl 1967 1964 1963 38

To 1976 1961

Travelling From Nottingham Skelmanthorpe

1971 1954 1954 1952 1958 1988 1989 1962 1972 1969 1971 1970 1955 1983 1969 1969 1971 1962 1957 1975 1991

Almondbury York Asker, Norway New Mill Sowerby Bridge Almondbury Kirkheaton Fixby Skelmanthorpe Fixby Ballaugh, Isle of Man Farnley Tyas Chester Almondbury Northwood Knaresborough Nottingahm Longwood Matlock Fixby Thongsbridge

1962 1974 1969 1976 1957 1952 1976 1971 1954 1953 1952 1971 1953 1953 1954 1996 1969 1951 1966

1974 1971 1970

East Wittering, Sussex Chippenham, Wiltshire Holmfirth Shefford, Bedfordshire Honley Marsden Bradford Dronfield, Derbyshire Huddersfield Bristol Leeds Holmfirth Upperthong Almondbury Celle, Germany Porthcawl Florence, MA, USA Norwich Almondbury

Huddersfield Netherton Alvechurch, Worcs.

Lake Lamb Lawson Linton Makin McCarthy Morgan Morrison Nash Norris Oddy Oddy Parry Pearson Poole Prescott Priestley Raleigh Read Read Robertshaw Roebuck Royle Russell Schofield Searby Segar Sharp Shaw Shaw Smith Stahelin Stead Stead Sutton Sykes Taylor Taylor Taylor Taylor Taylor Thompson Thompson Tracey Turner Wade Walker Walshaw West West Wilson Withers

Matthew Robert Hugh John Chris.

Andrew Roger David Neil Brian Howard Doug.

Adam June David Norman J.C. Robin Martin Walter Rachel Jonathan Geoffrey Rev. Stuart Prof. Edward Simon Neil Richard John L. John F. Ian Dr. Philip H Alan Brian Gerald Gerald David Roger Ian Dennis Jack Jonathan D. John Richard James Andrew J. Stuart Helen Peter Ann Marcus D.R.H. Fanny L. Chris.

Sandra Ben Anthony F

Head Boy Headmaster 1954 1956 1954 1982 1956 1967 1964 1961 1982 1981 1966 1961 1962 1956 1963 Staff 1978 1982 1982 1947 1950 1955 1964 1946 1976 1947 1951 1946 1964 1947 Ch. of Govs.

1948 Guest 1968 1946 1961 Staff 1959 1971 1954 1963 1949 Guest 1956 Staff 1992 D. Head Boy 1951 Staff 1979 1960 Staff 1981 Staff 1955

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1961 1963 1961

Sheffield Holmfirth Mirfield

1951 1955 1962 1972 1954 1979 1953 1958 1954 1971 1952

Telford Newsome York Thongsbridge Almondbury Lepton Elsenham, Essex Leighton Buzzard Northallerton Almondbury Brough Lepton Lindley Lindley Ainley Top Failand, Somerset Chesterfield Greetland Almondbury Ossett Bidford-on-Avon, Warks.

Cheadle, Cheshire Cheadle, Cheshire Whitley Bay Lindley

1962 1970 1972 1969 1987 1986 1973 1966 1969 1963 1971 2010 1987

1956

1970 1953 1969 1997 1978 1962 1970 1956

1963 1959 1993 1966 1990

1960

Meltham Chigwell, Essex Cheadle Hulme Lascelles Hall Linthwaite Linthwaite Paddock Leyland Brockholes Fixby Louth, Lincolnshire Almondbury Liverpool

Torquay Honley Slaithwaite Slaithwaite Derby

Farnley Lines

I

DAV E BUSH

have written on previous occasions that on my travels, of which there are many, I always try to find an Almondburian connection, perhaps to justify my travelogue. This time it was on a holiday to Ireland. In a Belfast hotel Margaret discovered that one of our fellow travellers, Tony Shore, was from Huddersfield. He was an Old Collegian but I quickly forgave him that for he had Almondburian connections. His cousin, Robert Denby, a cellist, was perhaps the finest musician the school has ever produced for, as far as I know, he is the only one ever to have been a member of The National

Youth Orchestra.This must have been in the sixties. Robert has been in the States but I believe Tony said he has recently returned to this area.Anyone able to track him down?

The second connection was thatTony has worked with Dr George Redmonds in the production of a number of books on Huddersfield Local History. He was kind enough to send me a copy of The Place Names of Huddersfield* - an erudite and delightful publication - mainly because the cover (opposite) shows Old Almondburian, Michael Redmonds, walking along the canal bank with Brierley’s Mill and Turnbridge in the distance. Dr Redmonds also acknowledges the debt he owes to the famous Old Almondburian, Clifford Stephenson, who passed on to him his huge collection of local photographs and pictures.

Tony Shore, it turned out, was a HNC contemporary of ex KJS and Greenhead College languages teacher, Bob Field. Bob, a close friend and his lovely wife, Janice, have been coming regularly to Porthcawl since my retirement. I hope I have not lost count but I believe the October half-term was their fifth visit.Tempus really does fugit and my gast was indeed flabbered when they told me that it was their 21st Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated fittingly in a local up-market establishment.

Robert Denby (left) joined King James’s School in 1969 and was a regular performer in school concerts. In 1972 he won the open cello class which in the words of The Almondburian was ‘a remarkable achievement for a third-year boy.’

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*The Place Names of Huddersfield; 176 pp Published 2008 by David Shore £9.75 ISBN 978-0-9508526-9-0

The Annual Dinner then I have the strange And so to the main sensation of more and event in The Almondmore of my fellow burian calendar, the ‘runners’ passing me Annual Dinner. At and I am passing noone stage I did not body. At least three think I was going to people pushing bugmake it.This was not gies with child and cabecause I had travelled nine company go by. up on the Friday afterBy the end of the first noon through very lap many are entering heavy traffic, driving the finishing funnel. I rain and many miles have to keep going deof road works on the spite the suffering; M1 for my weary Greenhead Park Almondburian Michael Redmonds on state soon disappeared Old would not be a bad the canal bank at Aspley. in the warmth of my place to gasp my last. welcome at the ‘Haigh Hotel’ – the home The ‘funnel’ at last in sight, I undergo the of OAS Honorary Secretary Andrew Haigh final delightful indignity of seeing Eleanor – in Arkenley.What a delightful family they Haigh aged 7¾ race past me. are!

My finish recorded, it was back to the During the course of the evening Haighs’ home. Andrew was soon on his Andrew informed me that on the Saturday computer and to me, amazingly, all the morning the Haighs would be participating morning’s results were there in great en famille in the Park Run. For the detail. “The good news, Dave, is that you uninitiated this 5k run/jog/plod takes were first in the Over 75’s category; the place on Saturday mornings at 9.00 am all bad news is that you were the only entrant. over the UK and also abroad. I The even worse news is that the sole remembered I had seen this happening on entrant in the Over 80’s completed it six Porthcawl seafront. Despite my minutes faster.” protestations of ‘tiredness , a bit of a cold, The fact that there were still some 55 not been jogging for some time’ I participants behind me was some succumbed to pressure and Andrew soon consolation. had me logged in and registration card The afternoon saw me accompanying printed out. At 8.45 we had parked outside Andrew into the bowels of The John Smith Greenhead Park and when I saw the Stadium (latest name for what for many number of people moving towards the will always be ‘Leeds Road’). There he start near the tennis courts I began to manages the admissions to the soccer realise the size of the event. Around 520 ground in every aspect – quite fascinating participants! Well done Huddersfield! and most impressive. The resultant 0-0 We’re off - not too bad initially but draw with SheffieldWednesday was less so.

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At the Dinner: (Back row, l to r) Bob Field, Jack Taylor, Robert Lamb, Walter Raleigh, Anne Turner (Front row l to r) Marjorie Faragher, Sandra West, Dave Bush, Doreen Hinchliffe, Fanny Walshaw

but once inside the church, spirits were raised by another good attendance with musical performers from the school and their parents helping to swell numbers. As last year the service was beautifully conducted by our chaplain Rev Stuart Roebuck and it was particularly moving to receive the blessing delivered from his wheelchair by former chaplain, Rev John Senior. A light lunch and back the 250 miles to Porthcawl. As always plenty of time to reflect on a stimulating weekend. However, a word of warning. I do find this commitment increasingly demanding and therefore ere long I may decide to be present in spirit rather than body.

The fact that the game was over by 2.00 pm was a strange feeling for one brought up on the traditional ‘Saturday at 3.00 pm’ kick-off.

A dash to Andrew’s works office in Brighouse to collect items for the dinner and then to school for the final preparations. I drifted down around 6.45. First impressions were of a sea, or a pond of white or hairless heads but then a few younger members were spied. I know it is the perennial problem. ‘How do we bring the younger ones in?’ Again I felt the evening was a great success in that the food was very good, the main speech by one of my former star pupils, Tony Cape, outstanding and the mini staff reunion so rewarding. By ‘mini’ I refer to numbers not height. With Jack Taylor back this year there was no question of a vertical challenge. Additionally present were Marj Faragher, Sandra West, Doreen Hinchliffe and Fanny Walshaw plus other former colleagues who never miss. But no Patrick O’Brien who was on his beloved Bristol Rovers’ watch at Chester. In fact, there were quite a few regulars absent, all with sound reasons.

Founders’ Day To church on Sunday morning. Not many puffing their way up St. Helen’s Gate

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School visitors always welcome I cannot finish on a negative note so must look forward to more success for vastly oversubscribed KJS in 2015.As I have written before, if you have not had a chance to visit the school to witness its decor and hear of its achievements in such a variety of fields then do make the effort. I know you will be made most welcome …and be very impressed.

My next Big Birding Trip is later in the year. In the meantime off to Egypt. Any Almondburians over there? Plenty of ‘Carters’ in Huddersfield. Perhaps Egyptologist

Howard Carter has distant links?

Class of ’48 Cotswolds reunion

F

lunch at the Manor House Hotel on 15th October.

Organiser John Broadbent (1948-1954) said: “These events are always convivial occasions and by bringing the venue south it has been a pleasure to catch up with Old Almondburians who cannot conveniently travel to our lunches in Huddersfield.”.

OR the past ten years, the class of '48 have met for a well-supported reunion in Huddersfield.This year, for the benefit of those members living further south, the event moved to the attractive Cotswold market town of Moreton-in-Marsh where 16 Old Almondburians, wives and guests enjoyed an excellent

Present at the lunch were: John and Wendy Haigh, David and Pat Earles, David Anderson, Ian and Rike Tunnicliffe, John and Angela Watson, Ken and Allison Bottomley, Stuart and Helen Thompson, Gerald and Dorothy Stead, Chris and Anne Whiteley, Roger and Sheenagh Sykes, Peter and Patricia Hindle , Roger and Judy Dowling, Peter Bradley, John and Pat Ludlam, John and Jean Broadbent.

The School receives unexpected gift

In our November 2014 issue we previewed an exhibition at Dean Clough, Halifax of the paintings of Denis Bowen, who attended Almondbury Grammar School from 1934 to 1938 and later became one of the UK’s leading avant-garde painters. When his nephew Nicholas Bowen visited the School in January, he kindly presented the School with Denis Bowen’s painting Pennine Series, The Ridge 11 shown here in the proud hands of head teacher Robert Lamb.

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Badminton

I

A ND R E W H A I G H

andrew.haig h@oas . org.uk

Welcome new arrivals - but then we’re snowed off for a night

RECALL that, in the last issue of ‘The Almondburian’, my Tennis Section report waxed lyrical about what a good summer we had enjoyed and how little tennis had been lost to the weather. In this issue, I can report that the weather is not being so kind to the Badminton Section, with the last Thursday in January being lost to the weather - in the form of snow!

Until then, we had been enjoying a more prosperous season, with our ranks being swelled by a couple of new regulars in the shape of Mark Earnshaw (1970-77) and his son, Ben. Whilst we did miss Graeme Milnes (1957-65) making his usual pre-Annual Dinner visit from Cardiff this year, we were pleased to see one of our former regulars, Matthew Booth (1995-2000), return from his new home in Cambodia; not least because his magnetic personality causes players whom we haven’t seen for months to flock from far and wide, just for the

44

privilege of playing with Matthew once again. Unfortunately, because of Christmas, we only benefitted from Matthew’s presence for one evening this time.

Further reinforcements would be more than welcome.We play in the school sports hall on Thursday evenings during term-time, from 7.30 p.m. until 9.30 p.m., until our season ends on Thursday, 21st May. The fee is £7.00 per player, per week to cover the cost of court hire, shuttlecocks and showers, so please come along and join us.

Those playing so far this season are: Ian Daffern, David Parry, Hazel Parry, Neil Gledhill, Richard Green, Andrew Haigh, Mark Earnshaw, Ben Earnshaw, Emily Murphy, Nicky Murphy, Matthew Booth and Ron Jones.

Tennis

T

A N D RE W H A I G H

andrew.haig h@oas . org.uk

Only £4 per evening and that covers balls too. What a bargain!

until dusk, and anyone is most welcome to join us.

During term-time, it is possible to play badminton in the sports hall if the weather is inclement, although this is not possible during the summer holidays due to maintenance work in the sports hall.

The fee, to cover the cost of balls (and showers during term-time), will be the princely sum of £4.00 per person, per evening. Almondburian tennis is purely social, so why not come along and join us?

HE 2015 Almondburian tennis season will start on Thursday, 4th June and will run until Thursday, 27th August.

We shall be playing on the school tennis courts each Thursday evening between these dates, weather permitting, from 7.30 p.m.

Cricket

M

S T E V E S L ACK

s m_slac k@ya hoo.co. uk

Net practice under way – and we plan our presentation evening

ONDAY, 2nd February sees the start of indoor winter nets at Total Indoor Cricket Solutions (TICS) in Thongsbridge.

Players – new and old – are all thoroughly welcome to pit their skills against the bowling machine as well as the OACC bowling attack.

We’ll be holding our annual presentation evening at Grappolo Italian Restaurant in Lockwood on Saturday 14th March; arrangements are still being fi-

45

nalised but an excellent night out is guaranteed, with entertainment that was enjoyed by all ages last year.

OAS members very much welcome: contact Sam Atkin or John Headey for further details.

Football

T

DAV I D F I S H E R

d av idp fishe r@hotma il.co. uk

Early season promise for promoted Almondburians

HE Almondburians 1st YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE DIVISION 1 TABLE as at 9th February 2015 XI looked to have taken Played W D L F A GD PTS their new Yorkshire Colton Athletic 18 11 2 5 49 39 10 35 Amateur League Div 1 status in Leeds Independent 15 8 4 3 46 32 14 28 their stride as they won their Collingham Juniors OB 16 8 4 4 44 39 5 28 first four outings to sit top of Alwoodley FC Res 14 8 3 3 46 28 18 27 the league. However, as autumn Almondburians 13 6 3 4 41 27 14 21 took hold, results went the way Garforth FC Rangers 12 6 3 3 33 25 8 21 of the weather, taking a turn St Nicholas 10 6 2 2 26 9 17 20 for the worse to yield six points Gilderstone Spurs OB 12 5 1 6 39 46 -7 16 from seven games.This sees the Sandal Wanderers 12 3 3 6 32 38 -6 12 1st XI now sitting in fifth posi- Old Centralians 15 3 3 9 18 35 -17 12 tion, in what is turning out to Grangefield OB Res 12 3 1 8 19 33 -14 10 10 2 2 6 22 34 -12 8 be a highly unpredictable divi- St Bedes AFC 13 1 1 11 24 54 -30 4 sion, with shock results every Leeds Medics & Dentists III week. Consistency has been the YORKSHIRE AMATEUR LEAGUE DIVISION 3 TABLE as at 9th February 2015 problem, with injuries, other Played W D L F A GD PTS commitments and a regularly 14 10 1 3 59 24 35 31 Churwell Lions water-logged Farnley Tyas pitch 13 10 1 2 53 19 34 31 Old Centralians Res all playing their part. With half 15 9 1 5 55 45 10 28 Ealandians Res the season gone, it’s now all to 13 8 2 3 42 20 22 26 Farsley Celtic Juniors Res play for!

12 7 2 3 39 17 22 23 Bainbridge The Reserves are currently 12 6 2 4 32 31 1 20 Heckmondwike GSOB carrying the indignity of sitting 12 5 3 4 30 26 4 18 Norristhorpe third from bottom in Div 3. A 15 5 2 8 36 47 -11 17 Woodhouse Moor Methodists closer look at the table shows 16 4 4 8 30 38 -8 16 Old Modernians Res the relegation spots look more 12 3 4 5 27 27 0 13 Almondburians Res than likely to be claimed by the FC Headingley Res 14 1 2 11 25 50 -25 2* bottom two teams, who have Middleton Park Res 12 0 0 12 5 89 -84 0 two points between them (with bottom side Middleton sporting a bruising -84 goal difference from their 12 straight defeats). What Burians Reserves have in their favour is an abundance of team spirit, despite regular raids on their best performers by the 1sts. A mid-table finish seems a safe bet for this developing team.

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TERRY’S TEASER NO 14 Compiled by Terry Buckley (1948 - 1953)

Entries to the Editor (address/email: back cover) by 1st October 2015 Prize: 12 months free OAS membership 20

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ACROSS 7. Elizabeth’s hard, even requiting turbulance (3, 6, 5) 9. Inviolate reversal in murder case (6) 11. View of aide in the mess (4) 12. Gearsman goes awry – result: more than one boss! (8) 14. About to trace – do it again! (6) 15. Withstand mad sister (6) 16. Eroded in metal reverse (3) 18. Foolish football leaders go back out to America (7)

20

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19. Real mix up after a bright start, to be exact (7) 20. Beg to go back into the bank safe (3) 22. Total escorted being mixed up (6) 25. Corrupted, dribble about 50 less (6) 26. Lindburgh sounds like an old Scots vacuum! (8) 27. Smack fly about (4) 28. Put out, you and I side badly (6) 30. The part, for example, represented by the years 1797-1799 in the Eighteenth Century (5-9)

DOWN 1. He returns from the province (4) 2. Sounds like a very hot part of the week! (6) 3. Smart tart (7) 4. Sound landed gentleman used by Shakespeare’s carpenter (6) 5. Lax about bypass (6) 6. Not bad, for instance – where's the signature? (14) 8. Top and bottom of a determined move! (6, 3, 5) 10. Hand note to the police, and be hold, the evil eye! (8) 13. Fires ignition again for engineers and trollops! (8) 16. He forms a motoring organisation in the south (3) 17. Beast turned up in pickle jar (3) 21. Serpentine turn full circle in head complaint (7) 23. Regal turn south for drinks (6) 24. One hangs a material person (6) 25. Sets up the Italian in ‘Signs of Spring’ (6) 29. I’m in the South-West for the duck (4)

Name Email Tel

The winner of Terry’s Teaser No 13 (November 2014) was Peter Tracey (1956 - 1963)

Across 1. Crossword puzzle 8. Aspirin 11. Women 13 Ena 14. Ken 15. Tier 16. Let 17. Great 19. Springhead 21.

Isis 22. Hole 24. Forecastle 27. Going 29. Eli 30. Iran 31. Hot 33. Sen 35. Retro 37. Overdue 38. Thought for today Down 1. Charles the First 2. Spin 3. Oink 4. Downgraded 5. Ulm 6. Zeniths. 7. Express delivery 9. Peter 10. Raven 12. Eta 18. Throughout 20. Ire 21. Ins 23. Lugarno 25. Amuse 26. Trend 28. One 32. Tojo 34. Ergo 36. Tug

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PART ONE

From Almondbury to Pasadena

Banjo player JohnWatson was a member of The Temperance Seven in the 1960s. Now, as his current band Bill Posters winds up after 31 years, John explains how it all started.

T

JOHN WATSON (1948 - 1953)

HOSE who were at Almondbury though we were delivering a coffin. I later Grammar Sschool in 1949 may made stages that could be packed flat, first have remembered, after assembly a table top one, then the full, stand-inside one morning, my Punch and Judy show. I booth.

The Huddersfield Examiner did a piece made the various traditional characters after complaining, at the age of 11, of with a photograph which led to my AGS show – I must have been the youngest being bored.

No TV, no X box, no computer games, ‘professor’ at the school! The Mayor’s no mobile phones in 1947. My dear Rolls Royce picked me up one day so I mother suggested I made some papier could give my show at a local children’s mache figures. Always being fascinated by home. It was not entirely successful bethe iconic seaside entertainment presented cause, just before I did my bit, they had by a Professor (they always billed them- had a game involving dried peas, and selves as professors despite this carrying Punch proved to be a good target for their use as missiles. I later no academic qualifica- A trained graphic designer, John subscribed to The Boy tion whatsoever), I made Watson has also played the banjo the heads of all the usual and other instruments in a number Magicians’ Club of Prestatyn of bands over the years; these and learnt a few tricks, Punch & Judy characters included The Temperance Seven and together with fellow out of a sticky, malleable which achieved major UK hit class mate Peter Clark mass of torn paper and parade success in the 1960s. He lives in Teddington, Middlesex. did magic shows as well. flour and water paste Self-portrait Thus was my entry into that was then dried in show business. the oven. Mother made After Almondbury I the costumes for the figwent to the Huddersfield ures and the drapes for School of Art where I my stages. ‘discovered’ JAZZ big My first public show time. Seeing a live New was at Hillhouse priOrleans Band in the back mary school and my father and I carried the room of a pub and being orange box I had conimpressed by the tromverted into a stage, bone player, I was deterthrough the streets as mined that this would be 48

That’s the way to do it: the youngest ‘professor’ in the School proudly puts on his Punch & Judy show at the age of 11

my next step into the entertainment world. Our next door neighbour, whose late husband had been the local rag and bone man, had various musical instruments about the house. I hoped, after she told me that I could have anything I found in the attic, that there would be a trombone; but I could only find a banjo.

So I became a banjo player, joining a little band comprising clarinet, trombone, drums and banjo. Our first gig was in a pub in Elland. Not having any transport of our own we had to travel by bus and the drummer had to stash his kit under the stairs. Going round a corner, at the top of the hill down into Elland, the bass drum was catapulted into the road and somehow managed to turn, bouncing down the pavement alongside the bus and beating us into Elland before it came to rest. The drum had been constructed by a Polish prisoner of war at one of the local camps and was so well made that no damage was incurred to either drum or pedestrians.

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Barnes Wallis himself couldn’t have done a better job.

I then joined Keith Smith’s New Orleans Stompers, which also featured former AGS pupil Selwyn Hardy on piano as well as my first trombone hero Eddie O’Donnell.

Our resident Friday night venue was the Drill Hall at the top of Westgate; I had a BSA Bantam by then and the banjo was strapped to the pannier for the journey to and from Dalton. No more buses for me.

After four years at the Art School I was accepted for the graphics school at the Royal College of Art in London. It was the time of ‘Trad Jazz’ and we had a little band in the bar at college with a couple of other RCA students and any visiting musicians from other colleges who might drop by for a drink and a ‘blow’.

Based at the RCA at the time was a fine bunch of older musicians calling themselves The Temperance Seven, relatively unknown at the time except at the AA (the Architects Association not Alcoholics Anonymous), the other art colleges and the burgeoning jazz club scene.Two of that band, the trumpet player and pianist, would often join us on a Friday night session, so when their current banjo chair fell vacant I was on the spot, as it were.

In fact at that time there were five of us at RCA and two from other art schools, with just one working musician and a recording engineer, so in fact The Temperance Seven were ‘one over the eight'‘.

The band became ever more popular with bookings at Hunt Balls, country houses and posh hotels. It was at one of these, the Grosvenor House Hotel, that the resident band leader Sydney Lipton saw the potential of this eccentric band of

young musicians, playing 1920s tunes with a vocalist singing through a megaphone, and became our agent.

We recorded for the BBC a half hour radio show The Early Daze of Jazz. Then Peter Sellers requested that we should record the backing track to Ukulele Lady, on an LP he was making for EMI, with George Martin producing. This led to our recording You,You’re Driving Me Crazy. After an appearance as the mystery artists on Juke Box Jury, wearing our frock coats, wing collars, smoking large cigars and playing out the signature tune on phono fiddles and sousaphone, the record was voted a hit.

It quickly rose to number one in the

charts in Easter 1961 and the rest is history as they say. The demand for the band was then unreal with television shows including Sunday Night At The Palladium, the Royal Command Performance and bookings in halls and theatres all over the country.The record hit the charts just as I was about to take my finals and put up my show of three years work. Fortunately I had enough work from previous years to put on a good enough display to get a reasonable degree, as very little work was done those last few weeks.

We recorded further tracks with George Martin including our next hit Home In Pasadena which went to No 4 in the charts. Many people remember it as

One of the first publicity photographs of the Temperance Seven, after signing with the Sydney Lipton Agency. Note the banner at the back which celebrated 'The Bournemouth Temperance Society Centenary 1936'. John Watson, with his banjo, is on the back row, extreme left.

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Studio shot of The Temperance Seven, taken during recording of the band’s own series on BBC television in 1961.The vocalist ‘Whispering’ Paul McDowell later took to appearing in a white suit.

‘Oh, You Railway Station’, but that was just the first line of the novel verse.

George Martin then went on to produce the Beatles records, but it was we who had given him his first No.1.

Our trombone, alto saxophone, 2nd trumpet player and recording engineer John R T Davis was introduced as the ‘Sheik Haroon of Wadi El Yadounir’ (say it quick and you'll get it). In previous jobs he had been a fire extinguisher salesman.

At a concert in Cheltenham town hall, our trumpet player, ‘Captain Cephas Howard of the Queen’s First Foot and Moss Bros Secondhand’, pointed out some strange circular objects in the ceiling of our dressing room and suggested that they were probably a new kind of smoke detector. “Nonsense,” R T responded, “I'll prove it.”

Thereupon standing on a chair he blew clouds of smoke, from the large cigar that had been lit prior to our appearance on stage, into this device. No alarm sounded and he had just said, while still on the chair with cigar in hand, “There what did I tell you?” when suddenly the room was filled with firemen from the fire station next door. The Minerva radio smoke alarm was directly

51

linked to the station and they were not best pleased. The whole listed building had to be evacuated with the audience filing into the street, and the building was searched from top to basement in case there was another cause. A fine had to be paid, but the audience were amused when they were told the cause of the scare was the band’s cigars.

My own band name became John Gieves-Watson. This had arisen one night after playing at a party in a large country house.The band transport was fog-bound and while we waited for a hotel to be arranged, I volunteered to make some coffee.We were all still in band outfits and on entering the lounge in my starched wing collar, trade-mark spotted bow tie, morning coat, striped trousers, bearing in the family silver, fine china cups and pot of dandelion coffee, I was greeted by “Ah here’s Gieves with the coffee” – that is Gieves as in the long established gentlemen’s outfitters and not Jeeves as in P G Wodehouse, although I suspect they meant the latter. I was subsequently billed as ‘The Personal Manservant to the Keeper of the Eddystone Light’.

John Watson’s story concludes in the next issue of The Almondburian. An interview which includes extracts from some of the Temperance Seven’s biggest hits can be heard on the OAS website at http://goo.gl/RMwes8.

…and back at the School

T

HE School has taken delivery of a brand new minibus – thanks to the King James’s School Foundation Trust. “The bus will be a great asset to the School,” said head teacher Robert Lamb. “It will be used for a wide variety of out-of-school events.”

LLYear 7 students took part in A the annual ‘Hour of Code’ event organised by the organisation

Code.org. It gave them the chance to learn the basic concepts of computer science including computer coding and programming. The event was a ‘great success’.

Jenny Ainger

HE annual Presentation T Evening to celebrate students’ achievements took

place at Huddersfield Town Hall in November. The Mayor and Mayoress of Huddersfield, Cllr Ken Smith and Mrs Christine Smith attended the event along with students, parents, governors and Guest of Honour Peter McCann, Principal of Kirklees College.

Amongst the many prizewinners was Head Boy Matthew Lake who received the Stephenson Shield Prize for Public Speaking. He is shown here with Head Girl Evie Clowes.

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HREE of the strongest mathematicians from Year 10 T – Luke Detreaux, Robyn Almond and Jacob Anderson – spent two days last December with similar students from across the North of England at an enrichment event at North Chadderton School in Oldham. It was organised by the UK Mathematics Trust, an organisation set up in 1996 to advance the education of children and young people in mathematics. The three students took part in a variety of activities designed to stretch their mathematical abilities.

ING James’s School was represented in the English Schools Cross-Country Cup competition at Bradford Grammar School.There were a number of K excellent individual performances and the boys’ team, pictured above, reached the Second Round and narrowly missed taking part in the National Final in Cornwall.

Stop press

S we went to press, we received news that head teacher of King James’s School Robert Lamb A will be retiring at the end of the Summer term. Robert

was appointed in 2002 and the School has prospered since his arrival, resulting in King James’s becoming the most over-subscribed school in Kirklees. All Almondburians will wish him well for the future.

We plan to carry an interview with Robert in the July issue of The Almondburian.

53

IXTEEN drama students from Year 11 S kitted themselves out in army gear for their version of Macbeth for the Shakespeare Schools Festival at the Lawrence Batley Theatre. According to reports, the audience was ‘wowed by their dramatic interpretation, powerful sequences and extreme imagery’.Pictured l to r are Libby James, Mae Kitchen-Liston and Brittany O’Sullivan, with Connor Paga at the front.

AST November, students and L staff were asked to record on postcards the names of relatives or

friends affected by conflicts since 1914. These formed the basis of a special memorial display at the School; pictured here are Imogen Cargill and Ethan Wilson.

Mathematics students turned their hands to code-breaking, while French students watched the film Joyeux Noel telling the story of the 1914 Christmas truce.

P

ROFESSIONAL storyteller Sue Allonby paid a repeat visit to the School to share her love for traditional stories from the British Isles and abroad with Year 7 and 8 students. It helped them to have a better understanding of different cultures around the world.

A

GROUP of Key Stage 3 students travelled to Ravensknowle Park to plant a King James’s School garden.

It is as part of a newly created memorial garden behind the Tolson Museum to honour the servicemen and women who have lost their lives since the end of World War II.

Our thanks to Jenny Ainger and Nicola Ramsden 54

Postbag

YO U W RITE …

W

Next-door neighbour married Almondburian

From: James Clayton (1947-1951)

)HEN I was a young lad living at Newsome, I remember my family being quite impressed by the fact that one of our neighbours was to marry a nuclear scientist. Mr and Mrs Schofield had three daughters and it was the eldest, Audrey who was to be married to David Shaw. We learned that he was a family member of Shaws of Huddersfield, the pickling business, but had apparently chosen an alternative career.

R

Sixty-odd years later, imagine my surprise to see the obituary in the magazine and to learn that he was an Old Almondburian. I had no idea then that five years later I would join the same school.

If any reader still has connections with Audrey, perhaps they would say “Hello” from the boy (Melvyn) who lived next door.

Norwich, Norfolk

Studio 58: a confession

From: Simon Thackray (1965-1971) EADING the letters from David Utley and John Goodall )about )Studio 58 has stirred many memories. To describe it as a ‘café’ is really doing it a disservice. It was a coffee bar. It was my second home as it was for many other adolescents during that period when one wanted to be out ‘meeting girls’ but hadn’t yet sprouted enough facial hair to convince a publican that one might possibly in a poor light be mistaken for 18.

But most of all it was a safe refuge for Huddersfield’s truants. Why? Because it was upstairs out of the way and had absolutely no windows so there was no chance at all of being spotted by a

55

teacher, parent or friend of parent. It was a place where you could make a single coffee (plus 10 Embassy) last for hours with no disturbance from the Studio’s proprietor.

The only downside – back in about 1970 (I was 16) – was that the Studio didn’t open until 10am. This created a problem for the truant who had arrived on Byram Street at about 7.45am contemplating whether to get the number 33 bus to Almondbury. Having decided that actually KJGS could do without him that day, where to conceal himself safely until the Studio opened at 10 am?

I personally found the Merry England to be a safe haven and if there was some

desperation, then the unlocked main door of the parish church opposite the Almondbury bus stop offered sanctuary.

The trickiest bit was to then transfer at 10 am to the Studio without being spotted.

This usually required the removal of blazer & school tie and a brisk walk down New Street keeping one’s head down.

But once at the Studio, there would be the ‘usual suspects’ from many Huddersfield schools and the day could start. If there had been a truant officer (aka the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) he could have rolled up at the Studio mid-morning on a school day and had a field day!

Beckenham, Kent

Wanted: database volunteers

I

We seek a team to computerise historical student record card collection

N our archives, we have a remarkable alphabetical collection of over 2,000 historical pupil record cards dating back to the time of Taylor Dyson. The details they contain are sparse – but invaluable.

They usually give start and finish dates, family address and details of further education where appropriate.

We are keen to computise these cards so that they can be more readily accessed and searched. In technical terms, the plan – to enter the details into a standard Excel database – is very simple. But it will take time, and we are seeking a small team of volunteers to undertake this work in the coming months.The work can be undertken at home, anywhere in the world. We’ll simply post out a batch of cards to you.

If you are reasonably computer-literate and are familiar with Microsoft Excel, we would like to hear from you: editorial contact details are on the back cover.

56

Obituaries

G O N E B U T N OT FO RGOTTEN

Kingsley R Fox OBE (1935-1940) Mining specialist who became an elected mayor in Peru and has a bridge named after him Kingsley Fox was the oldest surviving member of the class of Form 5 (Latin) of 1939-40. He died in October 2014 at the age of 90.

Kingsley was born in 1923 in Kirkburton. From Almondbury Grammar School he went on to Leeds University where he gained a BSc in Mining. There he embraced academic and sporting life with enthusiasm, playing football, becoming a boxer and taking up golf, tennis and bridge. He also enjoyed dancing and it was at a university ‘penny-hop’ at University that he met Molly, who was to become his future wife.

After graduating from university in 1946, Kingsley joined the National Coal Board for a year as a mechanisation officer at a colliery in SouthYorkshire.Then, in 1947 and having married, the couple headed off to Peru for what would turn out to be the beginning of a highly successful career there.

There could not have been a greater contrast between the colliery in SouthYorkshire and the mines of Goyllarisquizga and Jatunhuasi, high up in the Andes at over 13,000 feet. Kingsley became Superintendent at the tender age of 28, a huge responsibility for he was in charge of two large mines, 1,000 miners and the welfare of their families.

Kingsley’s children, Jennifer, Stephen and Rosalind were all brought up there.

It was only when Jennifer returned to Goyllar in 2011, almost 50 years after Kingsley had left, that the legacy he left behind became apparent. It was as though Royalty had arrived when the people of Goyllar heard that the daughter of Señor Fox and her party were in town. The Mayor, his municipal team and some of the villagers turned up to greet, hug and be photographed with Jennifer and her party. The Mayor arranged a lunch in his office during which they produced from the archives the official mayoral books containing Kingsley’s signature: he had been the first elected mayor of Goyllar. The house in which the Fox family had lived had been turned into a museum in honour of Kingsley and the miners, and was known as Museo Fox. Jennifer was also 57

presented with a book written about Goyllar which detailed all Kingsley’s achievements during his time as Superintendent.These included the loan of men and heavy machinery to extend a local road by 20 km; the villagers were so grateful that a bridge over the river Cuchis was named after him and is still known as ‘Puente Fox’ (Fox Bridge).

Kingsley always said that his time in Peru was his heyday and could not believe that, (as he put it) “a young punk from Kirkburton” had had the great fortune to achieve so much and still have so much fun.

After 16 years in Peru, having felt he could achieve no more there, Kingsley went on to become General Manager of the Belize Estate & Produce company in what in those days was the colony of British Honduras. He and Molly threw themselves into colonial life and they enjoyed all that Belize had to offer, from boating and fishing to a busy social life when they often entertained such dignitaries as the Archbishop of Canterbury and minor royals.

The final stint of Kingsley’s overseas career came when he, Molly and daughter Rosalind moved to Guayaquil in Ecuador in 1970. He was Managing Director of a commercial subsidiary of Lloyds Bank International there and President of International Balsa Company as well as a director of five other companies. He was appointed the Honorary British Consul in Guayaquil for 11 years during which period he and Molly officially supported the British Ambassador in entertaining Princess Anne and Mark Phillips when they Goyllarisquizga were on their honeymoon and visiting the Galapagos. He received an OBE in June 1974.

A great traveller, he and Molly holidayed all around South America and the USA. After he retired in 1982 they also visited many other parts of the world including Japan, the Philippines, India, China and many countries in Europe. In later years, after he stopped driving, they cruised the Mediterranean and Caribbean and enjoyed many short trips around Britain by courtesy of a local coach company.

His memory for facts, figures and names was extraordinary and he was a very good public speaker both in English and Spanish which he spoke fluently.

Kingsley leaves his wife Molly, his daughters Jennifer and Rosalind, eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. One of his greatest sorrows was losing his only son, Stephen, four years ago but he was immensely proud of all his family and loved to bask in their achievements.

Sadly his health deteriorated over the last year but the immediate family were able to celebrate his 90th birthday with him and it was a memorable occasion. As always, he looked handsome and very dapper in a jacket he had bought in 1954 – it was a source of pride that he had always managed to keep his trim figure.

With thanks to Bob Goldsmith and the family of Kingsley Fox 58

Allen Ross (1954-1962) Brilliant academic and sportsman who became a well loved general practitioner Allen (Floss) Ross died on 29 August, 2014 at the age of 71, after suffering from a degenerative illness for some months. He had been plagued by arthritis for a number of years – a complaint he partly blamed on excessive weight training earlier in life.

Joining the School in 1954,Allen won the Gothard Cup for swimming in his first year, famously making up half a length to claim victory. He was a formidable goalkeeper in teams all the way through school, culminating in several successful years in the 1st XI. In those days goalkeepers could be shoulder charged, but Allen proved to be an immoveable object in green – as a Batley Grammar School centre forward found to his cost. A keen sportsman, he represented the school in every sport, including a number of games of cricket, where his round arm bowling style was occasionally effective!

Allen had the distinction of being the first Oxbridge ‘Blue’ to come from King James’s Grammar School. As a shot putter he represented Cambridge successfully in the Varsity Athletics match for three successive years, and also appeared for the British Universities against the USA. He had taken up shot putting at school as, having a mild heart murmur (medical opinion at the time decreed that active running was not allowed), he was denied the chance to run on Sports Day and so had thrown himself into field events. His school shot and discus records still stand, and are unlikely to be beaten. (On Sports Day, 1962, he narrowly missed his mother with his winning putt – 8.5 metres further than his nearest rival.)

Academically, Allen was always in the top two or three in his year – the subject did not matter, there were no weak links. After studying sciences in the 6th form he went up to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to read Medicine, finishing his training at Guy’s Hospital (where he was joined by his younger brother, John, also an Almondburian). It was during his time at Guy’s that he met his future wife, Nonny. After qualifying Allen took up general practice in Woodford, where he spent his whole career and, from the eulogies at his funeral, he was obviously a well loved and respected doctor.

It was a privilege to be asked to speak at Allen’s funeral. I was able to tell his family and southern friends something of his early life and the escapades that had helped to form his character. One of his grandsons commented that it was good to hear that ‘Grandpa was a bit of a rebel’.

I was very sad to lose my ‘old mate’ of over 60 years.A few weeks before his death I spent a lovely day with him in the hospital garden where we chortled over schooldays. He could still recite the names of 1 Alpha (1954) in register order, with no mistakes or hesitation!

Richard Taylor 59

Stephen Coward QC (1948-1957) Pupil who had an ‘horrendous haircut’ but became one of the country’s leading barristers John Stephen Coward came to King James’s Grammar School (we all knew it as Almondbury Grammar) in 1948 and quickly got the nickname ‘Sweeney’, probably because of a particularly horrendous hair-cut. At the end of the 4th year he stayed down and joined the 1949 intake. I was never able to understand this because a more cultured young man with a very wide general knowledge you could not find.

In the 6th form Stephen, Doug Kaye and I were inseparable and spent a lot of time hiking, usually over Bleaklow to Woodhead and Holme Moss, solving all the world’s problems as we went. On one occasion we went over in the snow roped together with a clothesline. Stephen’s enjoyment of the outdoor life was such that, the day after he passed his driving test, he drove us in his father’s heavy Humber Hawk on an expedition to the Isle of Skye – we camped at the foot of the Cuillin mountains but never saw them once, so thick and continuous was the mist.

Stephen was a leading light of the Jacobean Debating Society and his prowess as an orator was a clear pointer to his later career. He could have been an expert in clandestine warfare because his skill in concealing himself late at night in the school and his planning ability enabled a small group of us to remove all the furniture from the new staffroom and return it to the old one and play the innocents the next day.

When Doug and I went off to university Stephen elected to do his national service first and joined the RAF, requesting a posting abroad; in the event, he spent the whole two years in Lincolnshire.

After national service Stephen went to study Law at the University of London; he said that at his very first lecture he knew that the legal profession was the right thing for 60

him. The three of us continued to meet during vacations, usually at his house on Lockwood Road where we would stay until three or four o’clock in the morning, listening to music (mainly opera) or, again, solving the world’s problems.

Doug was the first of us to marry, followed by me, and for both of us Stephen was best man. In 1967 he married Ann and I attended his wedding in London.They had a family of four daughters one of whom followed him to the bar.

During his first few years as a lawyer he worked with the police, mainly lecturing at Bramshill Police College, but he wanted to be a barrister and eventually he joined chambers in London and worked on the Midland circuit. In his early years, like most of us, he did not earn a great deal but managed to buy The Grange, an imposing Georgian country house just outside Famous cases: Stephen Coward defended the bo’sun of the Herald of Free Enterprise Northampton. When we visited him there that sank in Zeebrugge harbour in 1987 and on his 40th birthday he was well established the Soham murderer Ian Huntley at the Old as a barrister and highly regarded by his Bailey trial in 2003. peers. As a QC he was listed in Who’s Who where he gave his recreations as ‘trying to grow calceolaria and a decent row of peas’. He was also a keen bird watcher.

During his long career he was involved in a number of notable cases – the defence of the bo’sun of the Herald of Free Enterprise and of Ian Huntley being just two. Before he retired he had become head of chambers.

In later life, because of medical negligence, he suffered a stroke which left him with impaired mobility and the need to use a wheelchair. After long legal proceedings the hospital admitted responsibility and agreed compensation. Sadly, towards the end of last year he fell from his wheelchair and broke his leg; later, in hospital, he died at the age of 77 following an embolism.

In November three Old Almondburians – John Broadbent, Doug Kaye and I – attended his funeral at Oxford crematorium.The chapel was full and, while the service was humanist, a number of his favourite hymns were sung.

He had a happy marriage and a distinguished career but I wonder whether he would have been most proud of the comment in his funeral notice in The Times that he was ‘adored by his grandchildren’.

David Heptonstall / Doug Kaye 61

John E Harrison (1953-1961) School chess champion who became a solicitor before being appointed a District Judge We are sorry to report the death in October 2014 at the age of 71 of former Huddersfield District Judge John Harrison. He had sat on the bench for more than 27 years before his retirement in 2008.

John Harrison was first chosen as a District Judge for Leeds and Wakefield in 1981 at the early age of 39. Three years later he got the chance to be District Judge for his home town and was delighted with the opportunity.

Having attended King James’s Grammar School he then went on to study law at Liverpool University.

He was articled at Eaton Smith and Downey in Huddersfield and having completed his studies at Liverpool re-joined the firm where he was to stay for more than 15 years, rising to become a partner in the practice.

John Harrison specialised in civil and family work. He was a very wellrespected Judge known for being decisive: he was much admired for his ability to get through a heavy list of cases well within the limits of the Court day.

Throughout his life John Harrison was a keen chess player. He was a member of the Chess Club throughout his time at King James’s and was secretary of the club in his final year. In 1956 he won the North of England Chess Championship and in 1958 he had the distinction of being selected to represent Yorkshire in the British Under-18 Championship. Later, he played with Huddersfield Chess Club and Holmfirth Chess Club.

Both he and his wife have been long time season ticket-holders at Huddersfield Town and he was also a staunch supporter of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.He was a member of Huddersfield Rotary Club and of Kirkburton Probus Club.

John Harrison was married to Judith in 1968 and the couple had two children, Selina and Philip. He also leaves five grandchildren – Sam, Ben, Violet, Lucas and Tom. Graham Cliffe 62

Now on sale

All who remember Harry Taylor will enjoy this new book about the School’s respected Headmaster from 1951 to 1973.

A well-known Almondbury figure, he was also a regular reader at All Hallows’ Church, the transcriber of the local parish registers, and one of the authors of a respected history of Almondbury. He played cricket for Almondbury Casuals, and earned a reputation throughout Huddersfield as a witty and entertaining after dinner speaker.

Morning Assembly gives a fascinating and often humorous account of 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.

Get your copy NOW!

Copies of Morning Assembly cost just £10 plus £1.30

pp*. Please send your cheque, payable to the Old

Almondburians’ Society, to Andrew Haigh, R D

Haigh & Co, Oakhill Road, Brighouse, West

Yorkshire HD6 1SN. Alternatively, you can order on

line at http://tinyurl.com/bw9ms88 or through any good bookshop.

*in UK. Mainland Europe: £2.70; Rest of World: £4.30 33 63

Chairman PATRICK O’BRIEN 20 Almondbury Close, Almondbury HD5 8XX Email: patrick.obrien@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 Editorial address: Orchard House, Oughtrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire WA13 0RD Tel: 01925 756390 Email: almondburian@oas.org.uk Archivist NICH BRIGGS Tel: 07771 865330 Email: nich.briggs@oas.org.uk Website: www.oas.org.uk

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/3ykffo3

The Almondburian is distributed to OAS members free of charge.

Price to non-members: £3.00