ORIGINAL MESSAGE

NAME: Guy Hewlett

DATE: 13 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-1962

I found this site after a friend of mine googled my name and up popped Martyn Day's photo of  "A visiting rhythm group" in Goffs Oak. I still remember that evening and how it kick started my career as a guitarist (not). But I did continue to play after that brief encounter with the music of The Shadows (I still can't play that riff from Apache) and took up American and English folk music instead. Had a lot of fun doing that for a few years and played at a large number of pubs and clubs around London and Norfolk. That was the heyday of the British folk scene and my guitar has been gathering dust ever since its demise. Now I am retired, I intend to start playing again, but no time as yet (after 10 years!). Thanks Martyn for putting that photo up on the site - great memories. Do you remember playing at QE? Was it Founder's Day or was it one of those open days we used to have (where boys could exhibit their hobbies)? Many thanks to our Webmaster for a fascinating site, evoking wonderful memories.

1st REPLY

NAME: Martyn Day   Then & Now

DATE: 13 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1953-63

I'm glad to hear that Guy Hewlett is alive and well and doubly glad to hear that he is about to pick up his guitar again. He is/was too good a guitar player to leave it gathering dust in an cupboard somewhere. We didn't really rub shoulders much because a) He was in a different year to me and b) He was taller than I was. My first memory of him was around the time that Buddy Holly died - 3rd February 1959. I can remember walking up the front drive into school and there was a tall guy with a guitar standing on the grass playing the intro to That'll Be The Day surrounded by other members of the guitar fraternity. They all spoke in a strange esoteric language of AC30's. Whammy Bars and Watkins Copicats. I was so impressed by all this that I bought myself a guitar and joined them.

2nd REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 15 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63

I do not recall myself much about a school orchestra nor guitar groups in my day, probably because I was not very musical apart from listening to Top of the Pops.  There is quite a lot elsewhere such as Thread 32 about school rock groups but I can find little about the old school orchestra apart from the master Mr Crofts involvement. Perhaps others have memories of this. I do however remember Hobbies Exhibitions at the school. These combined of course exhibitions by societies sanctioned by the school such as the stamp club (Patron Mr Winter) and others such as model railway exhibitions. All great fun! I recall displaying a collection of stamps on one of the themes laid out.(Great philosophers I believe). I presume such Exhibitions no longer occur but correct me if i am wrong in this. Maybe others also have memories of those days.

3rd REPLY

NAME: Ian Sadler  

DATE: 16 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1951-1958

Jas, the orchestra was started by Richard Shewell [see thread 49 ]. A brilliant teacher, he left the school at the end of the summer term in 1956 and after that it was run by the physics teacher Donald Fairbairn. Eric Crofts played the double bass and later the bassoon. It always amused me that it tended to be the science staff rather than the arts staff who kept it going. When I started in 1951 Derek Fry was in the sixth form and played the only viola, Richard played the only cello. It was always conducted by one of the boys. Richard told me that when he suggested to EHJ that he wanted to form an orchestra the response was very luke-warm - he didn't mind a bit of chamber music, but not an orchestra! The real point was that he didn't want a member of staff conducting anything - EHJ was the conductor (of the choir at the Christmas concert). So Richard went on a conducting course and came back and trained one of the senior boys (Bridges) to conduct. That was OK - EHJ couldn't be upstaged by a boy!

4th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 18 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63

Thanks, Ian, for information about the formation of the school orchestra. I read again your submission on thread 49. I knew that I had seen some information on the site somewhere and if i had remembered the thread would have replied there. Clearly Richard Shewell had just left when I joined the school in 56 or was just about to. I remember Eric Crofts from early years inviting me in for a drink some mornings as we both arrived early. I was a latch key child and used to leave home the same time as my Dad used to go to work, hence the early arrival. He also took me for biology in forms 3B, 4B and 5B. I must have learnt something as the position in form per school reports declares. When did the orchestra play? My memory is very hazy on this. Presumably sometimes for school plays and Hobbies Exhibition. When else and did it continue for some time? I understand that currently the school has a good reputation musically and has a couple of school choirs.

5th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 18 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63

There is not much about Donald Fairbairn [see reply 3] on site except that he taught Physics, was with the orchestra and was one of the representatives for Mr Finnett when he died. I am afraid that I cannot recall him. What was he like and are there any interesting stories concerning him, musically or otherwise? I was taught Physics by Gabby Hayes and chemistry by Mr Ambidge. I was surprised at my results in form as a non-scientist and one whose eyes glaze over usually in the midst of science talk. Of course I do remember EHJ as do all of my era,and especially his daily taking of Assembly with all that involved as regards singing. I particularly remember the Founders Day practices singing the hymns in advance of the great day. In singing Jerusalem we had to take care that it was "bring me my spear !" (pause) "O clouds unfold !" not "bring me my spearo!" I remember too the rivalry in singing between EHJ and Sam C0cks that is mentioned elsewhere on the site. All very amusing!

6th REPLY

NAME: Vic Coughtrey   Then & Now

DATE: 18 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1954-59

My lot went for the triumphal upward glissando of 'spearo' every time, thus driving EHJ bananas.

7th REPLY

NAME: Ian Sadler  

DATE: 20 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1951-1958

In reply to Jas [reply 4 above], in my time the orchestra played at the Christmas concert, usually at the beginning of the first half followed by various solo items, EHJ conucted his choir in the second half accompanied by an orchestra of few of the very good players in the school orchestra and some good local players from outside the school. There was often short recital type concert mid term in which one of the items was usally C0cks singing "Rail no more ye learned asses". I don't recall the orchestra being involved in the school plays.

I do remember one summer term (1956) evening event in which the orchestra and some solo items were in the first half and after the interval there was a short play produced by KHP Bailey, a thriller about some crooks who had stolen a diamond from an statue in an indian temple - at the end the satue appeared to claim the diamond - very well done. In the interval the audience were provided with refreshments - sandwich, biscuit, cake and soft drink! Apparantly Mrs EHJ said (in a very audible voice) that it was the best show she had been to at at the school. Naturally this didn't go down to well with EHJ as he had nothing to do with it.

I too remember to the exhortations not to sing "spearo". One year he came up with another one - "chariot of fire" not "charia tov fire"!

8th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 20 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 56-63

Martyn [reply 1], as one of the few OEs of my entry year on the site and the only regular one, I was interested to see photos of you at school and currently. I recognize you clearly on the former but not in the latter. Similarly is this the case with Stephen Giles, who came to QEs the year after and also from Boreham Wood. I would also like to send some photos to Vic of myself in schooldays and now but have not yet worked out the technology of the scanner at the library. I am not entirely computer illiterate and hopefully it will be one of my next jobs here.

9th REPLY

NAME: Nigel Wood  

DATE: 20 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: pupil 1957-64

Donald Fairbairn [reply 5] was not tall. He had reddish hair, I believe, and quite thick-framed glasses (which, according to a recent post, doubled as mirrors). I think he spoke with a slightly muffled voice, but I could be quite wrong. He had a certain panache, and you'd much more easily have guessed he'd served with the RAF than you would his Physics colleague, Gabby Hayes DFC. He was enthusiastic about Physics and explained things well. I can still remember him demonstrating the 'jumping ring'. I found it disappointing that he spent so much time away from his classes (away from us, anyway), presumably on orchestra business. In a way this didn't matter because, being destined for physical sciences at A-Level, we weren't going to be entered for O- levels in them. (What a wheeze!) I remember his getting remarkably angry when someone in the queue before the lesson muttered, as he passed, something I heard as "Mr Fairchild", an utterly innocuous variation on his name.

10th REPLY

NAME: Roger Nolan  

DATE: 21 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960-67

I remember Mr Fairbairn (I didn't know he was called Donald) as one of the two masters who volunteered to supervise boys who had paid their 10/-'s for use of the school pool during the summer holidays in my first year at QE [see reply 3 in Thread 65]. I can't recall who the other master was. I always felt it was kind of him to give up some of his free time during the holidays. I also remember that his son became a pupil at the school a few years below me.

11th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 21 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

Thanks, gents, for all your replies and the information therein. At this distance of time I do not seem to remember Christnmas concerts at all, though I have quite a vivid recollection of school plays performed. This reflects the specialist nature of concert playing, known by a few but double-dutch to the many. I recall there was very little time spent in DWs music classes (not past the first form). I have appreciated classical music since and look with envy at all those musicians playing in the Prom Concerts. I find myself shouting out "Oboe!", "Trombones!" etc at intervals just like our dear old music master now long gone. I even learned to play the piano as well as recorder with my daughter and guitar with my wife since leaving school.

12th REPLY

NAME: Adam Lines   Then & Now

DATE: 21 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 57-64

Nigel, I was in that queue, heard that comment and can, with reasonable certainty, attribute it to our mutual colleague Newman whose demesne in general and acerbic wit in particular now reminds me of a young Stephen Fry. Fairchild himself, as I recall, also had a neat bristle moustache and wore powerful tweeds but it was the heavy specs that most evoces his memory.

13th REPLY

NAME: Roger Nolan  

DATE: 21 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1960-67

The 5th reply put me in mind of Mr Ambidge who taught me chemistry. I remember he had a curious habit of sitting cross-legged Buddha style on the top of a bench in the chemistry lab whilst dictating notes to us. Occasionally he would produce an extremely old and tatty inhaler which he would use with a certain degree of flourish. Heaven knows what it contained. Two incidents come to mind concerning his chemistry lessons. On one occasion we were busily absorbing Ambidge's teaching when all of a sudden there was an almighty bang and a blue flash from the back of the lab. Some idiot had decided to see what would happen if he stuck each end of his geometry pair of compasses into the mains sockets which stuck up from the benches. Another much more enjoyable pastime in chemistry was to gather a large pile of Sodium Dichromate on the bench and light it at the end of a lesson. The pile would burn like a volcano but with a time delay and if you could time it right it would 'take off'.

14th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 23 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

Ian, [reply 7] I was interested to read your remark about Mrs EHJ approving a concert, which her husband had not organized. Whenever I see Dads Army on the TV, I am always reminded of EHJ when seeing Captain Mainwearing. Was Mr C0cks the equivalent of Mr wilson to some extent, with his treatment by EHJ equivalent to Mainwearing's to Wilson? Clearly Mrs EHJ did appear on occasions unlike Mrs Mainwearing and had something to say. The question of masters having a home life apart from school is an interesting subject but I rarely heard anything about it apart from going round Bop Wakelin's house along with others to play Diplomacy, as I spoke about elsewhere. There was a case when in a car one master's wife was rebuked for non-u behaviour for waving out of the car to people in the street.

15th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 29 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

Interesting to hear the replies about science periods at school. I too remember explosions in the chemical lab, often when Mr Ambidge had disappeared from view for some reason. I really enjoyed chemistry and heating up test tubes with different substances changing colour several times. I note from my old reports that I was even 1st in class one term, good enough for a non-science A level guy. I note that the strong science tradition continues and the 2012 results per the QE website for maths, further maths and pure science subjects stands at 279 out of 522 papers taken. Of course the classic subjects I took at A Level along with History have now disappeared. Our dear old HM EHJ really pushed for people to go on the Classics side. Why exactly I do not know, except for the feeling he wished to keep up with prominent Public Schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester. Maybe his book, which I have never read, on the school elaborates. I would not mind having a copy, though doubt if it is still in print. Maybe a campaign can be launched to reissue it, although this may already have been done. It is possible of course that he wished to make sure that teachers such as Tiger Timpson still had employment in our school.

16th REPLY

NAME: Stephen Giles  

DATE: 30 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Prefect basher 1957-64

I'd wager that Jenkins' world of classics [reply 15 above] provided absolutely no preparation for the outside world whatsoever. Things started to improve slightly I suppose, under his successor with the introduction of woodwork under the watchful eye of Mr Gould - I still have the scar on my left thumb from a time when he was not watching! Did any student ever leave QE with any idea of what to expect on a payslip - pretty important really!

17th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 30 August 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

In regard to the other classics masters one who taught us Greek and Latin was JW Finnett, who has prominence in another thread. as has Rev Up, who taught Greek. One other was of course Tiger Timpson, the Broughton housemaster. He taught myself and others Greek and Ancient History as did RC Burnell. Much has been made of his love of a pint at the local pub but why not after teaching us lot as well as being a housemaster. He was one of the few who gave advice about life outside the school. He always said if you want to see how to lose your money and avoid gambling go and see the offices of William HIll and where the money goes. Perhaps a strong piece of advice from bitter experience.

18th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 01 September 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

In relation to the classics masters in our classes in the sixth form no reference is made elsewhere on the site to one of the masters I had for Ancient History in 1962 and 1963. This was RC Burnell who was one of the younger masters. It is difficult to recall much memorable in his classes, especially after 50 years but perhaps other classicists may recall some. I know from the school reports he began by being very critical of my work and thinking. He ended by saying that I have worked very hard and shown great interest and considerable understanding. Just as well really for I obtained a Grade A in Ancient History A Level and a Grade 1 Scholarship Level Distinction. I am reminded of the old song : "It's so hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way" - a song I regale my wife with occasionally to which she replies:"oh yes! Of course!" Seriously we had to enter ourselves for the exams in those days and he did say to me "Who gave you permission to enter?" I was determined to prove him wrong and did so. Mr Burnell also taught me and others in earlier years in 1960 and 1961.

19th REPLY

NAME: James (Jas) Cowen    Then & Now

DATE: 04 September 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1956-63

Stephen, I do not agree about school needing to prepare for the outside world [see reply 16], a point you also raise in an ealier thread. It is like saying that you need to learn cooking at school, as some say, in order to be able to cook. I have cooked myself and my family many meals over many years, though have welcomed my wife and children cooking as well. It is just a question of starting and working at it and occasionally looking at a cook book or two for the finer points. I think most of the learning at school was self study anyway with some fine tuning maybe from masters. I certainly do not think students need an explanation of what is on a payslip, being usually pretty bright. What I think is more helpful for QE students who do not come from posh backgrounds and do not know what different professions involve is for people coming like Martyn Day did to say what working in the entertainment world is like, similarly for lawyers and accountants to come.

There are all sorts of topics that may be raised as to whethet QEs did in the past or does now prepare pupils for the outside world or whether it matters anyway. One tackles the many problems of the mental sort as they arise and I have found that those who have been trained in right thinking have a headstart. i always admired the logical thinking of our Baptist church pastor and church secretary, who both had degrees. In relation to practical physical skills they have to be mastered separately of course. In my gap year I worked as a plumber's mate and whilst at school some of us went with International Voluntary Service (IVS) to decorate old folk's houses at weekends. This has come in handy in later life.

20th REPLY

NAME: Glyn Day

DATE: 12 September 2012

CONNECTION WITH QE: Pupil 1959 to 1964

My brother, Martyn Day, recently brought this site to my attention. I have just viewed the photos in the Rock Gallery [see original message & first reply]. I recall being part of a 'band' called The Sapphires, with Colin Anderson, Brian Freshwater and Colin Young. Where are these guys now? I see that Colin Young is also in the photograph of The Vulcans. It is a coinsidence that I was also in a dance band, can't remember the name, with Alan Hoy. He played the keyboard and there was a drummer and lead guitarist. He and his wife, Sharon, became a very close friends, resulting in me working for his father's company in Tottenham and becoming God father to one of his children. I regret that I have lost contact ! I would be interesting to hear from any of the above mentioned.

VIC SAYS: thanks for bringing this thread back on track, Glyn !