“Sam” Lambert
There was a teacher of wood/metalwork (and perhaps a little physics?) called Lambert. He was unusual in having a northern accent which we boys found hilarious, and it may have led to his nickname “Sam” by analogy with the monologue that goes “Sam, Sam, pick oop thy moosket”. (Was it Stanley Holloway who did that and similar monologues?).
Anyway, Lambert had a catch-phrase: “My way’s the right way” which may sometimes have been extended to something like “You should do it my way because my way’s the right way”. Because of the accent it came out something like “Mah weh’s the rart weh” – I can only approximate the spelling; and I have dim memories that, when a teacher of religion, I forget which one, told us the name of “Jahweh”, we had much amusement with “Jahweh’s the rart weh”.
Simple pleasures!
Ralph Lane
Ted Walker et al
I remember Ted Walker asking me if I’d ever read anything by D H Lawrence. No. He said he envied me. I didn’t understand. He explained “a treat awaits you” and that he envied anyone who still had the prospect of reading works by the allegedly great novelist. Well, now I have read some of DHL’s productions and I’m still trying to work out what all the fuss is about; but I am eternally grateful to all my French and German teachers for teaching me the languages of Hermann Hesse and Georges Simenon; even where I didn’t particularly like the teachers or they me.
“A treat awaits you”.
By Ralph Lane 17 February, 2005
George “Adolf” Ayling and Maurice “Henry” Hall
It was amazing to meet George Ayling and “Henry” Hall at the School lunch on Saturday 1st December. Rob Whitfield had emailed me earlier to say that George Aylwin (sic) and Maurice Hall had been at last year’s, but my poor old brain totally failed to make the connection. Somebody said Ayling is 86. He looked about half that. Hall looked about 20; and if his Christian name really is Maurice, it’s not surprising he worked on his “hard” image. More on that in another post soon.
For years I’d been meaning to post on Friends Reunited how he taught me to saw properly. Don’t look at the blade, he would say, look at the line nearer to yourself where the blade is intended to go in a few seconds’ time and you will saw straight. I can safely say there are shelf units which are standing and carrying weight because of that. And I was able to tell him so to his face.
Teachers of the Cinderella subjects had an uphill struggle because we were supposed to become leaders of society, not listen to music or saw wood; but if I have any musical appreciation, it’s thanks to George Ayling trying to fit a musical education into one period a week. Music, art and woodwork had to compete for very little time on the timetable.
In a minute I shall sit at a table I made myself and listen to music. Thank you, gentlemen.
Ralph Lane
“Henry” Hall
Does anyone else remember this strange incident? Henry Hall entered Dutch’s geography room, not, I believe, to teach, but to “cover” as they say, for an absent colleague. He was wearing a tracksuit. Not, you might think, a cosmic deviation from the School professorial dress code; but it was enough to evoke loud derisive jeers from a significant number of the class. That was the wrong thing to do. Hall gave a brief homily on the silliness and immaturity of reacting thus to something that was just slightly different, then called upon the jeerers to come up to the front and face the class. Some did, then some more. I guess the “invitation” was repeated a few times. Eventually, there were about nine penitents if my memory serves. They had to do a subsequent detention which involved some furniture removals.
One boy opined to me – goodness knows why he thought my solidarity worth having – that the whole incident had been provoked, not just by Hall, but that the staff were trying to engineer such incidents to create a pool of detainees because the furniture needed moving. Who was that paranoid conspiracy theorist? Parr, I think. Does anyone remember better than me?
The theory seems unlikely to me. How could Hall have guessed that the mere wearing of a track suit would evoke such a reaction? And what a risk he took in calling for confessions. What if no-one had come forward? Anyway, there were always plenty of detainees available for slave labour, and, if the job needed doing, boys would simply have been dragooned into doing it; furniture removals being just as much part of school life as anything else.
Ralph Lane
Bob Riley and Mr Huxtable were splendid maths teachers. I had Mr Riley for applied and pure maths and My Huxtable (he of the three wheeler, for Advanced Maths. Tony Horne and Tony Miles and I had Mr Riley for force-fed A levels in one year and learned how good they were.
Kate Anderson was a brilliant General Studies teacher. I remember asking her for a list of books I needed to read and I think that I still have it somewhere. She must have spent hours on it and she took Malcolm Livesey and me to Bradfield College after A levels; I can still remember a spellbinding performance of the Agamemnon in the rain in the open amphitheatre there.
By Marcus Wigan
Any pupils from RAF Tangmere 1950s and early 1960s? School trip to Chartres, Paris 1959
My name is Roger Collins and my father was stationed as aircrew at RAF Tangmere from 1957 to 1960 where I lived in Married Quarters. Sadly I left the School in 1960 as my father was posted to Aden and I was sent to King Edward’s School, Witley as a boarder. I used to travel daily by bus from Tangmere; several other pupils at the school were from RAF Tangmere. I am trying to trace a fellow pupil named Martin Vesey whose parents owned the Racehorse Inn by Petworth railway station. Does anyone remember him, please?
Roger Collins 25 June, 2014
Combined Cadet Force
Looking to hear from anyone who was in the CCF in the 1980s. I don’t know if there’s already a group on here but couldn’t find one anyway. Particularly anyone who was in the army section and or went to Folkestone camp around the mid-1980s
Alan Brewer 17 July, 2011
Old Cicestrians
I have been asked to drum up interest in, support for, and membership of, the Old Boys’ Association, recently renamed Old Cicestrians. At present, the membership is predominantly boys who left before 1960, and the committee is keen to recruit from us youngsters who left in the 1960s. I’ll be 60 next birthday; that’s retirement age for some, and I’m hoping that recreational nostalgia, as I have learnt to call it, can seem more attractive in retirement than in the hurly-burly of a working life.
Ralph Lane 20 March, 2008
Hello I am acting on behalf of my Dad, Peter Freeman senior; if anybody remembers him and would like to say hello then please contact me, Peter Freeman junior; he was a keen sportsman and spent twenty years in the army physical training corps; he was the army three miles champion for ten years on the trot and represented Hampshire amongst others. He is fine and only stopped running in the last two years.
Peter Freeman 23 October, 2007
Famous Pupils
Which famous pupils went to your school?
Friends Reunited (née Team) started discussion 9th Oct 2008 in Chichester High School for Boys
Various
Doug Bunn was interested in Show Jumping from an early age, and I remember he was on the carpet at least once for defying the Headmaster’s refusal for a day off school to take part in a Show. Doug was a member of the English Olympic Show Jump team before setting up the site at his home in Hickstead. He hit the headlines shortly after in the controversy over the two finger gesture involving Harvey Smith.
The following (all mentioned in Douglas Murgatroyd’s long piece) were all fellow members with me in a local Scout Group:
Bernard Price – as well as the achievements, mentioned he wrote several books including Bygone Chichester, Changing Chichester, Chichester the Valiant Years, and Sussex People Places and Things. He lectured extensively including tours of North America. He first made his name in TV on “Going for a Song”, but before that he was on Radio in “Talking about antiques.”
Dudley Smith – before becoming an MP he had a successful career in journalism starting at Portsmouth Evening News as a Sports reporter and graduating to the national broadsheet papers.
Chris Ticehurst – was a good friend of mine. I knew that Chris went into the Army, but lost touch and did not realise he had risen to the dizzy heights of General!
Don Weddell 2 May, 2002
Alick Dick
Reference by Douglas Murgatroyd to ‘Alan Dick’ was, in fact, Alick Dick. He was indeed Chairman of Standard Motor Co. and was still a well-known consultant to the motor industry until about twenty years ago. He cited the School in his “Who’s Who” entry.
Kim White 17 June, 2002
David Wood
David Wood who was in Lindsay Anderson’s film “If” with Malcolm McDowell. He came to the School for Speech Day or whatever in about 1969 and mingled with 6th Formers for a bit of a talk that lunchtime. I remember being very impressed with him and his striped blazer and neck-scarf, but surprised that he was allowed the chance to influence us, given the anti-school subject matter of “If.” He remains the only Old Boy itself famous for anything with whom I have ever been in the same room (I once stood in line behind the late, great Michael Elphick in the newsagents in St James’ Road in Chichester, but he went to the Lancs, so it doesn’t really count).
Alan West 27 January, 2003