Shooters Hill Grammar School 1951 1959

A Memory of Shooters Hill.

I was there from 1951-1959. Some of the happiest days of my life. A day started with assembly with prayers said and some hymns sung. An awful cacophony of weedy and breaking voices. Various announcements were made including sporting achievements of the previous week. all the teachers and the Head were on a raised platform wearing their gowns. Some teachers wore their gowns in class.
I remember Babbage the Maths teacher, famed for his well-aimed chalk duster throwing. He could hit an errant pupil at the back of the form. Others I remember are one of the French teachers ( Loopy) Lloyd- so called for the metal plate he had in his head due to injuries sustained at Dunkirk,. Rudd and Faulkner- Gymnastics, Davies-German Harry Hanks- Headmaster, Platt- Chemistry, who he gave me his original chemistry book from 1919 containing formulas for gun powders, nitroglycerine, etc., and many others. All the teachers were characters. Many of them had nicknames, Dome, Emod, Tosser, etc for a variety of reasons.

Attached to the school in Red Lion Lane, there was a large sports ground, and another some miles away in Eltham where there was also an Old Boys Clubhouse. Our Cricket and Rugby teams were some of the best school teams in the South East and inter-house rivalry was intense. The four houses were named after 4 former teachers, Clarks, Leathers, Briggs, and Brodies, and one after Mr.Platt, nicknamed chalky White as he always managed to get backboard chalk all over him. Points were awarded for sporting and athletic competitions and for academic prowess. One afternoon per week was given over for team games, and two lessons per week in the gym. Saturday afternoon was used for ruby and cricket matches against other schools.

At the end of the year, various trophies and prizes were given to winners and once a year, hobbies, stamp collections, model aircraft and cars etc., and many others were displayed for parents to come and see one evening. Again prizes were awarded. Occasionally dances were held to which girlfriends were invited. There was also a theatre evening where different school years put on a play.

Discipline was fairly strict but the cane was used sparingly normally by the Head Master, Harry Hanks, and occasionally by some other teachers. I never heard any swear words in all my time there and the cane was used for offenses that today would appear trifling.

At the start of the third year, the then form master-Babbage called the smallest boy to his desk and told him to hold his hands out. He then gave the boy a whack on each hand with the cane saying 'You have one free bad deed but this a warning to the rest of you.' He never did use his free deed. Despite his menacing demeanor.He had a beard, which was pretty unusual then, he was by far the best maths teacher in the school.

A "fagging " system operated whereby some first formers were picked by prefects in the sixth forms to do odd tasks. It wasn't onerous. Induction for first formers sometimes involved being shut in the toilets, the hot taps turned on and removed, so you were steamed. It sounds horrendous today but nobody, including the sufferers, thought much about it . Some bullying occurred but it was very minor.
Most of the sixth form went on to higher education, and many to Universities. The outstanding scholar in my year was a friend, Brian Gaines . who won an Open Scholarship to Cambridge. To put this in context, less than 1 in 100 would achieve this. I believe he later held a Professorship at the University of East Anglia.

I was one of a group of close friends, Brian Worth, Alan ( Will) Warwick, Alan ( Charlie ) Gill, Colin ( Tubs ) Walker, and Ian Weeden. Ray Tilbrook and Graham Russell. We all played Poker on a Friday night, often well into the small hours and sometimes, when there wasn't a cricket or rugby match, through Saturday morning. Sadly only Colin and I are the only Octogenarian survivors today, June 2023.
Happy days
Alan Singleton