My Three Years At Reedham

A Memory of Purley.

I recall walking past the gate-house with my mother on a Tuesday afternoon in March 1950. I was to start my lustrous career there for a period of three years, leaving in March 1953.
Starting there was an real shock to the system. I was eleven years old at the time and this was the first time in my life that I living under the roof of people I didn't know. Up to that time I lived with my parents, brother and sister and if and when we went on holidays etc I was always in the company of a family member. I remember seeing the actual school looking gray and forbidding as I got closer to it. Music has been and still is, a big part of my life.
Before going to Reedham I had lived in South Croydon and attended Bynes Road, Senior School. At a school concert I played a piano solo to quite a stunning reception by the audience. On the strength of that the school principal, Mr. Oliver, entered me for a pianoforte entrance audition to the Royal College of Music in London. The prize was a full scholarship there for six years.
I duly sat the audition and was told that I was on the short list. Before I heard the result I was at Reedham.
One morning about a fortnight later the house-master on duty was dealing with mail distribution. He blew a whistle and we all stopped what we were doing while he called out the names of boarders who had received mail. My name was amongst those called. I went to the table where the letters were laid out, received mine from the house-master who said, 'congratulations Donnan, you've won the scholarship.' Although pleased with my success I was really narked that I wasn't the first one to read it for myself. Mail both outgoing and incoming was vetted by the staff, a policy I never really took to.
News of my success went around the school and I was referred to as 'professor.'
I found music made me a lot of friends and quite oftwen I was allowed to play the chapel organ for weekly school assemblies. I used to attend the College on Saturdays.
Although the first term was a difficult period of adjustment for me, I survived and at the end of three years I was almost sorry to be leaving the place.
I recall on my last day there just on three years later I walked down the drive to the gate-house where I stopped, looked back and saw ghosts of myself and mum walking up that drive for the first time.
In 1964 I migrated to Australia under the Ten Pound Assisted Passage Scheme. I landed in Sydney in May at the age of 26. I met my wife within a few weeks and got married not long after, in September 1965, in fact. Quite a few of my comtemporaries came to Australia at different times, settling in Sydney and other parts of the country.
I still have fond memories of Reedham.