Newsletter of The Old
Thorntonians Association (Clapham)
“Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them.” John Ruskin (1819-1900)
No
10 July/August 2009
Obituaries
Clive Young (1943-8): died 14 April 2009. [Apart from a reference in one of the
wartime magazines to his selection for the Second XI football team I have been
unable to trace any school-related information about Clive. If any OTs who knew him would care to drop
me a line with their recollections I’d be glad to publish them in the next
issue. Ed]
John Stanley Grist (1932-?): died 11 July 2009. [Again, I have very little information
about John’s interests/achievements
during his time at HTS, including when he left. Ed]
Donald W Pashley (1938-45, including 1939-41 at Chichester);
died 16 May 2009. His
wife, Glenys, writes: “Don
studied Pure Maths, Applied Maths, Physics and Chemistry in the Sixth Form. In
1945 he was awarded a State Scholarship which enabled him to become an
undergraduate in the Physics Department at Imperial College, London. He graduated with First Class Honours in
1947 and gained a PhD in 1950, working on electron diffraction. He continued as a Research Fellow in the
Physics Department until 1955, when he joined the recently formed Tube
Investment Research Laboratories at Hinxton Hall, near Cambridge. Here he started working on electron
microscopy, in close collaboration with physicists at the Cavendish Laboratory in
Cambridge. He co-authored a book with
four members of Cambridge University on “Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals”,
a book which is still used today and frequently referred to as “The Bible” of
electron microscopy.
He was elected a Fellow
of The Royal Society in 1968 and in the same year was appointed Director of the
T.I. Research Laboratories. This was
followed in 1976 by his appointment as Director of Research for the T.I. Group.
In 1979 he returned to
Imperial College as Professor of Materials and Head of the then Department of
Metallurgy and Materials Science (later to become the Department of Materials),
an appointment which he retained for 11 years until 1990. From 1986 to 1989 he was also Dean of The
Royal School of Mines. He retired in
1992 and was appointed an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow. His involvement in research continued and he
published his final paper, in collaboration with a colleague in the Physics
Department, a few months before he died.
Don was a modest man,
never seeking the limelight despite his distinction as a scientist. During the
16 years of Don’s retirement, he and Glenys enjoyed a busy life, travelling,
visiting their family in America and attending functions at the Societies and
Institutions to which Don belonged. The family has many very happy memories of
life shared with a patient and caring husband, father and grandfather.”
His school years have been confirmed by Nichola
Court, Archivist (Modern Records), Library and Information Services, at the
Royal Society. Donald has four entries
on the school’s pupil honours boards:
1947 – “BSc. (Lond.) 1st Class Hons”; 1950 – “Ph.D. Lond.”; 1951 –
“Senior Research Fellowship, Dept. of Scientific & Industrial Research”;
and 1968, recording his election to Fellowship – “F.R.S.”
Terry Sharp, also 1938-45, recalls that he and Don
played in the Second XI football team as goal-keeper and left-back
respectively.
Memorial Plaque
The formal rededication of the plaque (now resting
in the Principal’s office at Lambeth College) will be held at 2.30pm on Saturday
31 October 2009 in the College’s recently opened Sixth Form Centre. The Reverend Deborah Matthews, minister in
charge at St Paul’s Church, Rectory Grove, Clapham, has kindly agreed to
officiate. Further details have been
sent to all OTs who donated towards the appeal fund. If any other OTs also wish to attend, please contact Ted Hayward.
Membership
Currently 115, including three Associates. The full list is displayed on the website; a
copy is attached, primarily for the benefit of those without an e-mail address
or access to the internet.
Sixth Reunion – 26 September 2009
The usual advisory notice is attached. Please complete and return the slip, or
telephone/e-mail Ted Hayward, if (but only if) you plan to attend.
Second OT/OC meeting
Another “mini-reunion” of OTs
evacuated to Chichester will be held, at the High School for Boys, at 10.30am
on Thursday 8 October 2009.
Terry Sharp is once again acting as co-ordinator for former HTS pupils
wishing to attend, the current line-up being, in addition to himself: Don
Appelbe (1938-43); Monty Clarkson (1935-42); Les Garrett (1938-42); Peter
Lawson (1936-41); Harry Spence (1940-4); and Doug Ward (1938-45). Contact Terry on 020 7223 5102 or at 10
Wakehurst Road, London, SW11 6BY if you’d
like to join the group.
Where Are They Now?
Stan Hill (1948-56)) would like to hear from anyone who knows the whereabouts of his contemporary Stuart Hughes. Stuart was School Captain in 1955-6 and went on to study at Nottingham University, graduating in 1959 with a BPharm degree. Stan adds that they were both Flight-Sergeants in the ATC and did much together, but their most memorable experience was when the Squadron visited the First World War battlefields in Belgium. The visit concluded with a parade at the Menin Gate where Stan as senior Flight-Sergeant laid a wreath, and Stuart, as School Captain, laid another on behalf of the school.
An aviation theme from Don Paterson
(1955-62): At the age of 17 I was nominated by the ATC
Squadron Leader, D C Williams, to attend a selection board at RAF White Waltham
as the 1351 Squadron representative for the year, competing with other
representatives countrywide for a month’s trip to the USAF in America.
I did not get the major prize but was given the opportunity of an
overseas flight to Singapore with 511 Squadron RAF Transport Command. Departure was on 24 March 1962, and I was
given leave by the school to attend.
On 23 March I made my way to RAF White Waltham to be kitted out with
tropical uniform and other equipment. I
was then taken to RAF Lyneham and boarded a 511 Squadron Bristol 175 Britannia
C1. I joined a crew of six – Captain,
Co-pilot, Navigator, Engineer, Signaller and Air Quartermaster – for the
flight, which would take SAS troops to Singapore en route for action in
Malaya. My role was to assist the
Quartermaster with looking after and feeding the soldiers, and for long periods
when not busy I was allowed on the flight deck with the pilots.
Leaving Lyneham we flew to and refuelled at RAF El Aden (Libya), RAF
Aden (now Yemen) and RAF Gan (Indian Ocean island), finally touching down at
RAF Changi (Singapore) two days later. While in the cockpit at 21,000 feet I
had fantastic views of the Alps. Total
flying time was nearly 24 hours, at
about 350 mph.
I spent two days in Singapore and the crew showed me round (including
the red light district!). In those
days, with open sewers in some streets, it wasn’t the clean city of today.
My return flight, on a different aircraft, was uneventful to RAF Adam,
but during take-off on the last leg and while I was on the flight deck one of
the four engines failed, and the pilot feathered it. As the plane could easily fly on three engines, the pilot
returned to El Adam and, before landing, tried to dump most of the fuel. However, the dump system didn’t work, so we
flew around the Mediterranean for five hours before returning to El Adam.
I then had an extra two days at the base while a new engine was flown
out from Lyneham and fitted. During
this time the RAF kindly took me to visit the war graves at Tobruk. While watching the engine change I saw an
American fighter jet make an emergency landing after the canopy had been
shattered by a bird strike.
On 1 April 1962 I returned to Lyneham following my brilliant experience
and some nine days away from school.
Another contribution from John Jones
(1963-70): I’d
be interested to know whether the school choir was very active in other
members’ time. It certainly was under
Mr [F L] Taylor in my day. Most boys
hated music., of course, but I was on of the few boys who liked it. I did O level Music and
followed the
syllabus up to Advanced level, but stupidly I didn’t take the exam as I was
already doing three other subjects.
At Christmas the
choir and a number of teachers would go to four London hospitals and sing
carols to patients, either on the wards or standing in the stairways. We were given tea and sandwiches at each
hospital, so by the end of the day we had had quite a feast!
From the Pages of The
Thorntonian
Summer 1951:
THE HEADMASTER
As foreshadowed in our last issue, our Headmaster
has decided to retire. Mr. W. D.
Evans,. M.A., was educated at Kelly
College, Tavistock, Devon, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was a
Wrangler in the Mathematical Tripos of 1908.
After lecturing for some years at University College, Southampton, and
at Manchester University, he became successively Senior Mathematics Master at
Aske’s School, Hatcham, and Headmaster of Hanley High School, Stoke-on-Trent.
He was appointed Headmaster of Battersea County
School in 1927 and in January 1929 the school occupied its present premises,
with the name Henry Thornton School. Of
the original school, then in Latchmere Road, the only survivors on the Staff
are Messrs. Gribble, Jeremy, Bramble and Cooper. The last-named was the first of Mr. Evans’ many appointments in
his task of reinforcing the old school to fit a new building to serve an area
poorly endowed with Grammar Schools.
Soon, under Mr. Evans’ guidance, the new Henry Thornton School won a
high reputation for examination results, which have been extraordinarily good,
standing out well above those of the average Grammar School.
The multitude of decisions that he had to take in
the early stages is mentioned elsewhere, and the sight of a morning parade of
the school is self-evident testimony to his success in them. As a Headmaster he is noteworthy for the
happiness of his school and staff, his clear-cut and quiet decision, and the
very smooth working of the organisation.
Though
primarily a mathematician, he has proved to us to have a deep sympathy with,
and a profound knowledge of, Arts subjects.
He lectures to our VIth on Comparative Religion and readily takes
classes at any school level in Latin, German, French, English, or Economics,
sometimes much to the surprise of older boys who find his range disconcerting.
Scholarships
to London and the older Universities have been regularly won by all three
Advanced Courses, two of which, those in Arts and in Science, he himself
inaugurated. Many and varied School
Societies were begun during his time, and on the games side he appointed the
first master with a Half-Blue to run Lacrosse, began, and played, the game of
Fives, while a feature of Sports Day has always been his judging of the
Tug-o’-war.
Some
more personal and detailed reminiscences will be found on another page, and
there only remains for us to express the great sense of loss which we shall all
feel, to tender our thanks, and to wish him a long and pleasant retirement. [The author of this piece
is not identified, but would probably have been either Mr Jeremy or Mr
Cooper. The “reminiscences” mentioned
in the last paragraph will appear in a future newsletter. Ed]
Autumn 1959:
Commemoration Service
The
annual service, which the whole School attended, to honour the memory of Henry
Thornton was held at Clapham Parish Church [ie, Holy Trinity, North Side]
on Tuesday 10th March, Thornton’s birthday.
The Rector, Canon A. C. Raby, preached the sermon. After welcoming us to the church, he drew
our attention to the east window, which depicts William Wilberforce
standing; John Venn, the rector in
Thornton’s time, kneeling; a slave, and in the background slave-drivers. Some of the history of Clapham, he said, was
revealed there, in this reminder of the anti-slavery cause for which Thornton
and Wilberforce had worked. Canon Raby
described its beginnings in the agitation against the slave trade carried on by
the converted naval officer and slave trader, John Newton, whom John Thornton,
Henry’s father, supported in his work.
Newton, becoming friendly with Wilberforce, had advised the latter to go
to the Thorntons at Clapham. So it was
that Wilberforce and Henry Thornton joined the Clapham Sect in the long
struggle to outlaw the slave-trade; it
was in the fine oval library of the Thornton House in Battersea Rise that the
leaders of this movement met. They
crossed the Common to sit, like the boys, in that very church, where they were
said to listen with rapt attention to Venn’s sermons, delivered from that very
pulpit. On 19th January, 1799, during
the time when England was constantly expecting to be invaded by Napoleon’s
mighty army, Colonel Henry Thornton of the Home-guard
of
those days carried into the church the regiment’s colours at the head of a
solemn procession, and parading to the altar, where the colours were blessed by
John Venn, dedicated himself and his men to fight the forces of Napoleon, on
Clapham Common if necessary. Canon
Raby, reminding us that the past is still with us, praised the zeal for justice
which inspired Henry Thornton, who saw behind the appearance of things in his
own life-time, made his vision of truth, and
worked that it should be fulfilled: he
was willing to die for what he believed in.
The rector closed his sermon by
asking us to try, in our own lives, to emulate Henry Thornton and his friends.
March
1929: WILLIAM
WILBERFORCE
William
Wilberforce was born at Hull on August 24th, 1759. He was not a diligent scholar, although he went to St. John’s
College, Cambridge. At the University,
left by the death of his grandfather and uncle the possessor of an independent
fortune under his mother’s sole guardianship, he was somewhat idle, though he
acquitted himself in the examinations with credit.
In
1780 he was elected to the House of Commons for his native town, his success
being due to his personal popularity and his lavish expenditure; there he renewed his acquaintance with Pitt
which was begun at Cambridge, and which now ripened into a friendship of the
closest kind.
In
1784 he made a journey to Nice with his friend Dr. Milner, and this changed his
outlook on life a great deal. In 1787,
after his return, he formed a society for the Reformation of Manners.
It
was about the same time when he met Clarkson, and began the agitation against
the slave trade, Pitt entering heartily into their plans and recommending
Wilberforce to undertake the guidance of the project, and thus, while Clarkson conducted the agitation throughout the
country, Wilberforce too every opportunity in Parliament of exposing the evils
and horrors of the trade. In 1786,
however, a serious illness compelled him to retire for some months from public
life, and the introduction of the subject in Parliament therefore fell upon
Pitt.
A
few relatively important motions were carried between 1788 and 1791, but it was
not until 1807 that the efforts were crowned with success, the slave trade
being abolished that year.
Wilberforce,
however, was still not satisfied and sought to secure the abolition of the
slave trade abroad, and the total abolition of slavery itself. Unfortunately his health began to fail in
1825 and he was forced to retire from Parliament.
In
1833, the year of Wilberforce’s death, slavery was abolished, the slave owners
receiving £20,000,000 as compensation, Wilberforce saying just before he
died: “Thank God I have lived to
witness the day in which England is willing to give £20,000,000 for the
abolition of slavery”.
J.Dodwell
F.
Archer
Teaching
Staff
As
promised in issue no 9, here’s the first list, with the names, etc – as far as
this information is still readily available – of staff who held substantive
appointments in the 1920s, including those, presumably the majority, who
transferred directly from the predecessor school, Battersea County, in
1929. The next newsletter will attempt
to identify those who served in the 1930s and 1940s, including the wartime HTS
masters based at Chichester High School for Boys as well as teachers from other
local schools who temporarily joined the staff of the Emergency School at
Clapham.
“The Grammar Schools and The
Future”
The Editor has traced a copy
of the above article, written in 1959 by Mr D B Gaskin (Head Master, 1951-6),
who had by then moved to a similar post at Moseley Grammar School,
Birmingham. Contact Ted Hayward if
you’d like to see it.
(excluding temporary appointments)
|
Arnold W Smith |
Head Master (1918-1927) |
|
W D Evans
|
Head Master (1927-51) |
|
|
|
|
W
R Baggallay |
Geography
(1920-?) |
|
R
S Bramble |
Physical Education (1925-58; succeeded Harlow) |
|
W J Cooper |
English, Latin (1928-62, and subsequently
part-time) |
|
L B Cundall |
Geography
(1921-?) |
|
G W Dix |
Art (1921-24; re-appointed from 1925) |
|
Mrs M A J Earp |
Mathematics (1919-?late 1930s) |
|
C W Gribble |
French (1920-54) |
|
R Harlow (Sgt-Maj) |
Gymnastics (Retired 1925) |
|
J Hart-Smith |
Chemistry; Senior Assistant Master from
1912 (1902-1937; died April 1946) |
|
Mrs Hart-Smith |
? (1911-14; 1915-19) |
|
C E G Jeremy |
History; and Asst Master and Deputy Head
Master (1919-59; also pupil, 1909-13,
at the original Battersea Polytechnic Secondary School; died 5.9.62) |
|
W R John |
History, Economics (1918-49; succeeded
Hart-Smith as Senior Master in 1937) |
|
W
Morgan |
English (1921-?) |
|
G
S Purkis |
French |
|
G F Quarmby |
Art (1918-25; succeeded by Dix) |
|
G F van
Raalte |
Latin (1925-8) |
|
P S Richards |
French, English (1924-5) |
|
F
G Small |
Physics (1920-37) |
|
H
A Smith |
? |
|
J
A H Spofforth |
English, History (1905-36) |
|
W
M Taylor |
Mathematics (1909-32) |
|
W S Williamson |
Handicraft (1916-36; succeeded by Rawlings) |
|
|
|
|
M McQ Bennetton |
School Secretary (1925-61) |
*Including
those at the pre-1929 County Secondary School, Battersea, and subsequently
renamed Battersea County School; and as far as their names and subjects can be
identified/confirmed
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Editor welcomes contributions for future
issues. Please post or e-mail them to
Ted Hayward, 31 Linfields, Little Chalfont, Amersham, Bucks HP7 9QH; ted.hayward@btinternet.com
Association President: Jimmy Hill OBE Website: www.oldthorntoniansclapham.org.uk