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50 Years Ago - September 2006

From 'The Portmuthian' 50 years ago

We offer this new item in the hope that it will bring back pleasant memories. Each term certain items will be reproduced. The editorial is always an snapshot of the time; the list of leavers reminds us of the chosen careers of our contemporaries; the school notes help to set the scene; and a selected item of interest may provoke a reflective response from those directly involved. Perhaps O.Ps would kindly indicate if this exercise is worth while and whether or not the chosen extracts are among those they prefer.

Editorial

One of the weightiest and most enduring of the innumerable crosses which the Editors of a School Magazine have to bear is the distressing length of time between the closing date for the entry of contributions and that red-letter day in the annals of the School, the day of publication. This naturally renders the composition of an Editorial an especially hazardous task; for if we discuss at length any point of topical interest, the original issue will inevitably have been utterly forgotten by the time that our contribution to the thought of the world is unveiled to its critical public. If, on the other hand, we confine ourselves to vague eulogies or condemnations of anything which seems likely still to exist in five weeks time, we run the risk of appearing not merely platitudinous but inane. Unless some event of sudden, and yet lasting interest occurs, we are almost at a loss to fill the space which our printers so trustingly allot to us; and indeed this term little of the unusual has happened. We have received into our midst the usual throng of Third-Formers, who are regarded, as ever, with indifference by the Sixth Form, disdain by the Fifth, and crushing contempt and derision by the Fourth, whose memories of their own Third-Form days are all too painfully clear. We have also, as usual, been either shanghaied or politely coerced, according to our age and seniority, into declaring our religious beliefs at considerable length, and in some approximation to harmony; we have too, if our years are sufficiently mature, been induced to serve our Queen and Country, and to gain what we are optimistically told is "valuable experience for National Service." In addition to this, sublimely indifferent to the curses with which it is greeted, the boiler-mincing machine established in our new Science Wing has as before been happily engaged in producing that infernal din which is peculiarly its own. But all the same, despite the feeling which at some time or other all of us have, that the School is a Bedlam of violent activity and negligible result, of frenzied competition and elusive achievement, we know, all of us, that somewhere, somehow, good, sound, competent work is quietly and unobtrusively being completed. One of these days we must really try to do some ourselves.

Valete

DURMAN, R. C. (L). CI.VI. Entered Sept. 1947, left July 1956. House prefect, Nov. 1955. Inter-Grammar School athletics 1956. C.C.F. Army section, corporal. School scouts 1950-56 - patrol leader; School dramatics 1956. Canon Grant Memorial prize for divinity 1956. Left to be articled to the Town Clerk of Portsmouth.

ELPHICK, B. R. C. (G). Serv. VI. Entered Sept. 1948, left July 1956. School cross-country running VIII 1953-56; inter-Grammar School athletics 1951-56; Southern Schools athletics meeting 1956. C.C.F. Army section, corporal.

GEORGE, J. D. (S). Sc. VIA. Entered Jan. 1946, left July 1956. House prefect May 1956. C.C.F. R.N. section, A.B.; School scouts 1949-56 - patrol leader. Left for Southampton University.

GUYER, B. M. (L). Sc.VI (1). Entered Sept. 1946, left July 1956. School rowing 1955-56 - vice-captain 1956 ; chess club 1951-56 - captain 1955-56; Hampshire chess team ; School orchestra leader 1955-56 ; field club ecologist 1954-56 ; Bosworth Wright Memorial prize for biology 1956; Portsmouth major scholarship 1955. Left to read medicine at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

HIDE, D. W. (S). Sc.VI (1). Entered Sept. 1946, left July 1956. Cricket: 3rd XI 1954, 1956; School scouts: junior troop - patrol leader 1953; secretary field club 1955-56; committee, debating society 1954-56; School dramatics 1956; School orchestra. Left to read medicine at Bristol University.

PENLEY, R. D. (G). Sc.L.VIB. Entered Sept. 1946, left July 1956. Rugby : 1st XV and colours 1955-56; Hampshire public schools' XV 1955-56; School rowing IV 1956. C.C.F. Army section, R.S.M. Clarke-Jervoise cup 1955. Left for the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.

RAYNER, G. H. (S). Entered Sept. 1949, left July 1956. House prefect. Cricket: junior colts 1951-52; colts 1953; 2nd XI - 1954-56; captain 1956; 1st XI colours 1956. C.C.F. R.A.F. section, corporal: advanced proficiency Dec. 1955. Left for career in Industrial Chemistry.

STEPHENS, A. B. (W). Mod.VII. Entered Sept. 1949, left Dec. 1956. School prefect May 1956; House captain Sept. 1956; rugby: 1st XV and colours 1955-56 and 1956; athletics: inter-Grammar School meetings 1954, 1956; Hampshire Schools championships 1955; School swimming 1956. C.C.F. R.A.F. section, sergeant. School dramatics 1956. Left for National Service and career with Shell Oil Company.

TAYLOR, I. L. (W). Serv.Vl. Entered Sept. 1946, left July 1956. Rugby : 1st XV 1955-56; cricket 2nd XI 1954-55; athletics : inter-Grammar School meetings 1951-56; Hampshire Schools championships 1956; Southern Schools meetings 1955-56. C.C.F. Army section, L/Corporal. Left for career in H.M. Forces.

WALTON, J. D. M. (G). Sc.VIB. Entered Sept. 1952, left July 1956. House prefect Sept. 1955. Cricket 1st XI and colours 1956; School cross-country running VIII 1956; Killick cup 1956. Left for career in accountancy.

WHYMARK, A. S. A. A. (W). Sc.VIB. Entered Sept. 1952, left July 1956. C.C.F. Army section, sergeant. Middle School librarian 1956. Left for Loughborough college and a career with the English Electric Company Limited.

School Notes

We are very pleased to welcome to the Staff this term Mr. H. A. Hornby, who has come to replace Mr. Gibbs as Senior Physics Master, and Mr. D. I. Gordon, who has joined the English department.

It is with the deepest regret that we record the death on October 12th of a member of the School, S. J. MacGregor, as the result of an accident. We would like to express to his family our profound sympathy.

We offer our congratulations to the following on their success in the Scholarship and Advanced Levels of the G.C.E.: to R. N. Balmer, D. K. Haskell, J. H. B. Sheppard, N. J. Stone and D. W. Tipping, who were awarded State Scholarships ; to M. Fulton, P. D. Gaussen, D. E. Russell and K. R. Wilkinson, who gained Portsmouth Major Awards; and to C. J. Ayling, P. E. Clegg, R. A. Hawkey and P. J. Viggers, who gained Hampshire Major Awards. We congratulate also S. J. Buck, who has won a Royal Naval Scholarship to Dartmouth; R. D. Penley, who has gained admission to R.M.A., Sandhurst; and P. J. Spragg, who in the '0' Level of the G.C.E., gained passes in nine subjects, including eight distinctions.

The Sixth Form has heard the following Lectures this term: on September 24th, Canon H. A. Wittenbach spoke on a very subject-The Far East; on October 12th, Major Baker told us about the pressing question of Refugees, and illustrated his talk with a film; on October 26th, P. T. Haskell, B.sc.,Ph.D., F.R.E.S., who is an Old Portmuthian, spoke about Locusts, and showed us a film called The Desert Locust.

The Beginning-of-Term Service was held on September 21st, the preacher being the Revd. Stanley Cumpsty, formerly a Chaplain of the Cathedral, and now an incumbent in the Isle of Wight. On July 23rd the Revd. E. E. Curtis, Vicar of Locksheath, visited the School and read a paper to Vlth forms on Religion and Science; afterwards he answered questions which arose out of the discussion of his paper. On Sunday, November 18th, the Bishop of Portsmouth confirmed forty-two members of the School in the Cathedral.

On Thursday, December 6th, the School gave a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor in the Cathedral.

The Staff were "At Home" to parents of boys in the Third Forms on Wednesday, December 12th.

A School Dance was held on Thursday, December 20th.

Work on the new Science Block continues to be the delight of the School, and the bane of the Staff.

Prefects this term have been as follows:

GRANT: B. E. Job*, J. H. B. Sheppard*, K. J. Brewer, J. R. F. Appleton, R. C. A. McAllister, R. L. Simpson.

LATTER: A. McCallum*, J. P. Bennett, R. E. Johns, B. Renyard, P. F. Spencer.

SMITH: R. D. Tee* (Second Prefect), M. J. Hawkins*, D. C. Lewis, R. T. Richards.

WHITCOMBE: M. E. Shepherd* (Head Prefect), A. B. Stephens*, J. I. Frith'', A. J. Hayward, B. A. Wickens, D. C. Ferris, R. M. Gaydon.

*Demotes School Prefect.

Combined Cadet Force

The Corps has continued on an even course during the past year without any startling developments, but it is probable that in the near future the authorities will make some important changes. The syllabus for the R.A.F. section produces a marked tendency for the training to include a good deal of classroom instruction, and to a less extent the same might be said of that of the R.N. section. In this contingent we feel that these pitfalls have been avoided so far as is possible. But the job of the C.C.F. is to produce leaders and not technicians, and more opportunity for leadership training is to be provided. How to do this is at present a matter for much discussion. One suggestion is that transfers from the Basic section should not take place until cadets have passed Part II of Certificate `A.' Some contingents already have this as a "local rule", and it works well with them. But R.N. and R.A.F. sections might complain that this leaves too little time for "Special to Service" training. Against this latter point it is alleged that in any case cadets would have to do it all over again when they joined the Service. Another suggestion which has received considerable support is that the scope of Part I of Certificate 'A' should be widened, and should also include much of the elementary leadership training from the Part II Syllabus. Cadets would then transfer after Part I, as they do now. This would, of course, still involve a longer stay in the Basic section, but not so prolonged as that required by the first alternative. Changes in Part II Certificate `A' and both R.N. and R.A.F. Proficiency Part I would then enlarge the scope of the former and bring the latter two more into line with it. Anyway, by the time these changes are decided upon and brought into force, we hope to be in possession of the training pamphlets for the OLD Certificate `A' Examinations, which have been "in preparation" for some years now and might be ready when the examination is abolished

Guns

Big guns, little ones,
Pop guns and cap guns,
Machine guns and tommy guns.,
Bren guns and Sten guns,
New ones, clean ones,
Rusty 'uns and dusty 'uns,
Octagons and nonagons,
Deagons are polygons,
Double-barrelled shot guns,
Flash guns and grease guns,
Iron guns and steel guns,
A.A. guns - too many guns.

C.F.G. (1VA).

1st XI Cricket Team 1956

DANBY WILCOCKS J.D.WALTON STONEBRIDGE JONES E.G.DAVIES
R.D.TEE R.T.JOHNS C.J.AYLING J.PRATT I.H.B.SMITH

Junior Colts Rugby Team 1956

A.G.RUSSELL P.HANN G.P.GRIFFITHS SMART.N.J P.McREATH HYDE.G D.J.HATHERALL G.B.BOYES
S.S.SCARFF C.S.A.ROSS C.E.MUGFORD(vice-Capt) C.WOOD(Capt) P.T.S.WHITEMAN W.E.MULLINGER P.B.MIHALOP