Memories of the School, 1964-1970

It is a salutary fact that 1964 is over fifty-five years ago. My memories are those of a school-boy – a deliberate choice of word reflecting the times.

I am not a social historian so I will be circumspect. That apology notwithstanding, it is relevant that I note:

The early ’sixties saw the introduction of non-selective education. This introduction pressured the educational system of the day – selection by open public examination (the ‘grammar school system’).

The late ’sixties saw the age of majority reduce from 21 years-of-age to 18. This meant that some of my fellow VIth-formers became legal adults.

During the ‘sixties, there was a background of inspirational science and engineering. To a generation of schoolboys, the Gemini and Apollo spaceprogrammes were exciting, wide-eyed, scientific and technical achievements of pure optimistic exploration: cold-war motivations and politics were distant and abstract.

So, I’ll come clean: I am a ‘techie’. My memories, here, are those of a schoolboy of my time and who is now retired from a career as a government research scientist in the forefront of cyberdefence which, in 1964, was something not yet even thought of.

In 1964, the School was a single-sex, state grammar school: I was awarded my place after a selection exam (the

‘eleven-plus’). I remember not quite understanding that my selection was something special.

June 1968 saw my GCE ‘O’-levels – and also my 15th birthday. I’d realised that pure mathematics was my joy and forte: I entered the maths sixth. Within a term, I’d had the opportunity to attend a weekend ‘taster’ course in computing at the University of Loughborough. The School had five places on the ‘taster’ course with interest from ten boys: it was decided to draw lots; I drew the fifth, and last, lot …

I left my School, in June 1970, to enter the University of Sheffield. Software engineering was a newly recognised, nascent discipline; there were no chips; there was no web; the Information Age was yet to come. And we hadn’t recognised – didn’t have vocabulary for – cyber-threats to personal privacy and to national interests nor for the consequential needs for cyber-security.

In June 2013, I retired.

My first memory of the School remains powerful. During the induction day, I felt immediately at home. The induction briefings were welcoming; the masters were understanding of a nervous new school-boy; the atmosphere was terrifically positive. I had a strong feeling of déjà vu, remembered vividly to this very day. Importantly, I remember also – and equally vividly – an odd apprehensive feeling that this seemed like it was going to be fun: challenging, demanding even, but fun.

The word ‘school-boy’ is important. We were most definitely treated as ‘schoolboys’: the School had to prepare for changes to come in 1969/70. Other customs fell under pressure: Forms I and II wore a different short-trousered uniform; we were addressed by our surnames; we addressed each other by surnames too, and this lead to a culture of nick-names; we attended

School on Saturday mornings to July 1968, the ‘sting’ being that this meant an extra evening’s ‘prep’ on Fridays! The Combined Cadet Force was dis-banded about the same time.

The masters were always considerate to the boys even when they’d spotted you had a weak subject: mine was Latin. I remember my Latin masters’ patience: that’s another story but I was clearly not destined for the Classics VIth! However, along the way: I had met an analogue computer; I had been ‘wow’ed’ that I understood Euler’s result eIπ = -1 inter alia; and I had met my first storedprogram digital computer (a huge ICL 1900).

I remember with great fondness the extra-curricular clubs.

It was in the Science Club that I saw my first laser (guest lecturer, 1969, so cutting-edge stuff); although, a separate chemistry lecture went humorously wrong – voluminous polymer foam overflowing off the lab bench!

In the ’sixties air-travel was less usual, so our School trip to Switzerland was by sleeper-train. My 1968 diary notes: ‘the train … arrived in usual British custom - 20 mins late - but we were off’ whilst ‘we arrived at Martigny - in Swiss custom - dead on time’. Our selforganised trip, Easter 1970, to Germany, by car, was going fine until we got separated from our German master’s car; he was holding the passports and, importantly, the foreign currency – not good when you’re still several miles from Rüdesheim Youth Hostel and the ‘petrol-low’ light has come on! film! chemicals!! and a converted storeroom off a physics lab) on signing-out the key from the Physics master but otherwise unsupervised. I forget how we started the School Archery Club with visiting coaches from a local Tettenhall club.

Externally, there was Scouts. The School had its own troop – the 4th Wolverhampton (Grammar School). I remember well a character-building camping trip to Yorkshire which was disastrously rained-off by torrential rain that inundated every tent we had: soggy abandonment.

Finally, careers advice. The emphasis was on the choice of university / course. In 1970, with an apparently buoyant economy, careers advice at School did not indulge in deep analyses. The School Careers master had given me this advice:

Find something you like doing: find someone to pay you for doing it [after Whitehorn]

Some activities were supervised by prefects. For example, extra-curricular House track-athletics (my preference over cricket!), House cross-country (much preferred to football!!) and House choirs. These were part of a friendly House rivalry: the cock-House Competition was keenly fought.

Other activities were conducted individually – for example, as VIthformers, a friend and I would use the photographic dark-room (photographic

I had. I did. Told you it was going to be ‘challenging, demanding even, but fun’.

Tim White – formerly, until retirement:

T A D White OW BSc(Hons) CEng

FBCS CITP MIET AMIMA

[dstl] Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Malvern and Porton Down Salisbury

Ministry of Defence UK