The School in the War Years:
By Messrs. Wills and Flynn
Geoff Wills writes:
Preparations for war
As early as 1938 measures were underway to prepare for war with the construction of air raid shelters adjacent to Kingsham Road (still in situ!) At the time of the Munich Crisis in Sept 1938 school was suspended for 4 days for year 3 and above who were employed assembling 10000 respirators. The school was also cleared to act as a billeting station and for possible evacuees from London. The Munich Agreement, however, brought a return to reality.
By August 1939, with war imminent, teachers were recalled early from their summer holiday and the process of creating a clearing station out of the school was again underway. Prefects and staff acted as billeting officers. When the boys returned to school there were air raid practices, gas mask inspections and equipping air raid shelters with water buckets, candles and water jugs. The Head issued instructions to be followed in the event of an air raid. Mr Watson was to be seen in the observation post near the school tuck shop and on the school field on air raid lookout duties as soon as war was declared and for much of the war.
The school shared its accommodation with Henry Thornton School from Clapham, evacuated from London from 1939 until 1943. Interestingly, Jimmy Hill of subsequent football fame was a pupil, and two members of staff who stayed on at CHSB after the return of Henry Thornton in 1943 were Messrs Haill and Collins.
Sharing a school brought a strong rivalry and frustrations, some healthy competition and, naturally, occasional sparks flew. Notwithstanding this, E. Wilson, Henry Thornton School Captain spoke of “great friendships and friendly rivalry” between the schools in a charming letter of thanks to the editor of the Martlet on their return to Clapham.
Old Boys in the Armed Forces
A Roll of Service of Old Boys was started and maintained throughout the war listing the growing number of old boys serving in the Armed Forces. By the end of hostilities in 1945 a total of 430 were known to have served and some twenty received decorations for distinguished service. Occurring frequently in the Headmaster’s Notes in The Martlets for the war years are references to the tragic loss in action of old boys serving in one of the Services. A Memorial Service was held in 1948 and the Memorial Plaque in the Entrance Hall of the old school lists the names of 61 old boys who gave their lives.
The School helps out
Throughout the war the school regularly subscribed to appeals and collections were made for Poppy day, Red Cross POW fund, Merchant Navy, etc. Senior boys were asked to volunteer for work with the Post Office during the Christmas period and at other times of the year boys were encouraged to assist on local farms. In an attempt to alleviate one aspect of the shortages caused by the war a scheme was started whereby second-hand articles of school uniform from boys who had outgrown their clothing or had left the school were sent to parents unable to locate item of uniform.
Sports activities
From the outset in 1939 sports activities were seriously curtailed. At first, Football was largely confined to playing repeated matches against the Henry Thornton School. No hockey matches appear to have taken place. Similarly, cricket was restricted in the summer of 1940. The cricket notes in The Martlet for July 1942 comment that “so far we have had a very successful season in spite of difficulties due to haymaking on the ground early in the term” Despite the constraints imposed by wartime conditions, the Annual Athletic Sports continued to be held in June throughout the war years. However, from the autumn of 1943, the situation began to improve with increasing opportunities to play former opponents.
Formation of ATC Unit
In 1941 the school responded to the appeal of the Air Minister for the formation of flights in units of the ATC for boys 16-18. CHSB became the 3rd. Flight of the No.461 (Chichester & District) Squadron that had its HQ based at the school. Through affiliation there was close co-operation with RAF Tangmere. Mr. Stephenson was appointed as Flt. Lt. i/c the Flight and Messrs. Marwood, Pasquill, O’Brien, Lambert and Harvey were made Flying Officers. The school tuck shop was set aside as a store and a room allocated for Flight recreational use. Older boys from both schools were encouraged to join. In the autumn of 1941 the Flight was divided into two Sub-Flights (A & B) to provide for established and new cadets. For training purposes cadets were divided into two groups: (1) Air Crew and (2) Ground Staff. All cadets learned administration, drill, PT, aircraft recognition and Morse code. In addition, according to their group category, cadets learnt something of aircrew duties and ground trades.
In addition, there were occasional talks to the school by visiting Service personnel. This was probably intended to give the boys an appreciation of the contribution being made by the different branches of the Armed Forces and also recognised that the war would not be over quickly and that many of the older boys would be called up on leaving school.
Clubs and Societies
The outbreak of war had seen the complete suspension of after-school activities in order to accommodate the guest school and to enable boys to get home as early as possible during the dark period of the year, which was compounded by the blackout regulations. This largely remained the situation until the autumn term of 1943 although the Chess Club had been revived in 1941. With the easing of the enemy threat there was a resumption of some school societies and the appearance of others. Mr. Ashton revived the Choral Society in 1942 and Mr. Buxton restarted the Orchestra. A Musical Appreciation Society was formed and some former clubs and societies reappeared and operated over the remaining period of the war – Debating Society, Scientific Society, Field Club (1944), Physics Society (1943), Chess Club.
As a consequence of the aviation interest generated by the war a Spotters’ Club made its appearance in the autumn term of 1942. Activities included talks, aircraft recognition, model making and producing its own magazine ‘Aircraft’. Members were able to take the National Association of Spotters’ Clubs tests in aircraft recognition and obtain certificates. By the spring of 1943 members were assisting American soldiers to learn aircraft recognition. The club appears to have ceased after the conclusion of hostilities.
Accommodation problems
Throughout the period of the war the accommodation problem remained acute. Initially, there was the need to accommodate the Henry Thornton School (until 1943) and this was compounded by the steady increase in the number of CHSB pupils from 380 in 1939 to 658 in 1945. Every available space area (including the Changing Rooms) was put to teaching use. By 1942 a Staff room built for 10 people had to accommodate 32 from both schools. Even after the return of the Henry Thornton School to London the continued growth of the school created considerable accommodation problems necessitating classes in the Library, Hall, Dining Room, Locker Room and the Dark Room. The ATC and Recreation Room was converted into a temporary form room. The strain on staff was considerable.
Staffing problems
Obtaining teaching staff was a continuing problem. Inevitably some members of staff (e.g. Smedley, Stables, Colgan) were called up for war service and the problem of teaching cover was compounded by the unavoidable illness and consequent long periods of sick leave required by some members of staff e.g. Messrs. Pelham & Holland. Staff shortages necessitated some members of staff having to turn their hand to teaching other subjects e.g. Marwood & O’Brien to Physics. In some cases temporary staff appointments were necessary to meet the teaching requirements. It is a tribute to all those staff that the school was able to maintain the standards it had set and boys continued to enter and succeed in the public examinations.
Wartime conditions undoubtedly imposed constraints on both staff and pupils and so, in some ways, changed the nature of the normally expected experience. As the war progressed to its now expected favourable conclusion and in May 1945 the school was allowed to take two days as a Victory holiday. Life at the school during those difficult years must have been a memorable experience for the boys.
Patrick Flynn writes:
The high point of the ATC year was a dinner held at the Unicorn at Eastgate in Chichester. The masters who were officers in the Corps were there and the head master honoured the event by attending. The Unicorn was the favourite hostelry for the Royal Air Force men from Tangmere so it was easy to arrange for us to be addressed at the dinner by two of the RAF officers from Tangmere who spoke of their experiences as fighter pilots in Spitfires. The second pilot to speak was the well-known and renowned Johnnie Johnson who was then 26 years old; he and his friend had decided to arrange some entertainment after the dinner for us. A pianist played and then two young women appeared and danced to the music. They were scantily attired by the standards of the time, wearing short skirts and close fitting tops, although today their skirts would only be regarded as miniskirts. At the end of their act the young women danced around the sides of the hall to behind the top table behind where the head master was sitting and then they both leant forward and kissed him on the forehead, leaving bright lipstick marks. This act of lèse-majesté was loudly applauded by all of us as Dr Bishop tried to remove the lipstick marks from his head.
NB
Air Vice Marshall Johnnie Johnson CB CBE DFC died in January 2001 aged 85. He graduated from Nottingham University in Civil Engineering but volunteered for pilot training at the start of the war his first posting being under Douglas Bader at Tangmere. He shot down 38 enemy fighter aircraft making him the most successful RAF fighter pilot of the war. His 19 war medals and his flight logbooks were sold in December, 2001 for a record £241,500.
