First Day Of School

A Memory of Egham.

First Day of School
Arriving at Egham Hythe Infants School, aged 5, and being placed in the care of Mrs. Spenser. There I remained for one entire term. Most of the faces in the classroom were new. Some of the names heard for the first time. Rex Aldwinkle, Richard Howard, Christine Addison, Jennifer Shore, Christine Vass. I am amazed that I remember these names as we were only in the same class one term. Mrs. Britton was the Headmistress. Wherever I went she seemed to be there. Was the school really that small? At break I learned about cigarette cards. I am now in my fifty third year of collecting them. I own over one million of them. Brooke Bond had just started issuing cards in tea packets - Frances Pitt's British Birds. And then it was Wild Flowers, Out into Space, Bird Portraits, British Wild Life and so on. Well I have them all, every variation ever issued, different papers, different backs, error cards. And I have all the foreign issues too. South Africa, Rhodesia, Ireland, Canada and the United States. I have all the albums too. With the cigarette cards as well, my collection fills two rooms in my house. And it all started that fateful day in 1954. I wonder if any readers recall this period of our lives. Is anyone else still collecting?

I enjoyed Egham Hythe School. The lessons were very interesting and I always flourished. There seemed to be a much richer environment than at home. Yes that day started a journey that ended 20 years later when the Duchess of Kent conferred a Doctor of Philosophy degree on yours truly, and along the way the Queen Mother conferred a Bachelor of Science degree on me at the Royal Albert Hall. What a debt of gratitude I owe not only to Mrs. Spenser, but to Mrs. Edwards, Mrs. Corney, Mrs. Nicholls, Miss Brown, Miss Greene, Mr. Radford and Mr. Bullock. What wonderful teachers. And Miss Denyer and Mr. Hooper who taught Music and Sports.

I used to live in Stephen Close and we all walked to school. There were so many of us coming from the Council Estate. It ended up that there were four of us from Stephen Close in the same class. Along with myself there were Chris Simkin, Jeff Hall and Janet Bavage. In the same year from Stephen Close there were Carol Hollick, Jennifer Usher, Malcolm Waine, Robert Phillips, David Bolton, Joey Griffith, Mick Tedder, and George Wells. And from the Estate were Roger Aldworth, Christine Powell, Valerie Yorke, Elizabeth Devey, John Hooper, Keith Capaldi, Ronnie Scammell, Andy Kirton, Terry Cox, Mick Costello, Richard Howard, David Hart, Christine Hayes, Bob Woodcock, Roger Prior, Nicholas Jones, Pat Kimber, Marilyn Cutter, Paul Orchard, Susan Hammond, Angelina Bentley, Jennifer Shore, Jean Parfitt, Hazel Markley, Brian Hill, Christine Addison and more whose names escape me. Stephen Close must have provided 10% of the intake in 1954, and the Estate close to 50%. No wonder that all of the extra classrooms were added.

Sadly I only know the whereabouts of only a few of those contemporaries. Malcolm Waine and Tony Courtney are in Hampshire, Penny Andrews is in Scotland, Chris Simkin is in Fareham, Paul Edwards is in Egham, Richard Howard is in Datchet, Valerie Yorke is in Lincolnshire and Paul Orchard is in St. Leonards. How enjoyable it would be to meet them all once more. How about a 50th Anniversary Reunion for the class of 1960 in 2010?
Posted: 09/02/2008 00:22 by Keith O'Brien