On Wednesday, 14^th July, the OW team played the RGS team in the Annual match for the Duncan Moore Trophy in memory of Duncan Moore who had played for the school 1st Team regularly in 1995 and 1996. The OW team consisted of the following:

Bobby Dix (capt) (1994-2000) Sajid Zaib (1982-1988)

Richard Royce (1990-1996) Andy Francis (1990-1994)

James Nicholas (1994-2000) Jason De Gelas (1991-1995)

Oli Clark (1997-2003) Nick Robinson (1997-2003)

James Anderson (1997-2003) Ian Wagge (1975-1981)

Russel Bowry (1995-2001)

Bobby Dix writes as follows:

The RGS 1st XI won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast conditions. The Old Boys quickly got into their stride with runs coming freely throughout the innings, mainly thanks to Nick Robinson's quick-fire century. Contributions were made right down the order, which allowed the Old Boys to reach 260 all out in the 40th over. The home side were forced to consolidate after Anderson and Nicholas took a wicket apiece, and quickly fell behind the challenging run rate. Despite several promising partnerships and a fighting hundred from Luke Walker the RGS were unable to keep up with the pace, due to the nagging bowling of Ian Wagge and Russel Bowry. The RGS eventually fell forty runs short, allowing the Old Boys to take the Duncan Moore Memorial Cup for a third consecutive year.

After the game a barbecue was organised for the teams.

It would be good next year if there were enough players to play two matches. Whether you played for the School 1^st or 2^nd Team, or are just a keen cricketer you would be most welcome. Contact your friends. It would be great to see a number of you back at the school. The date of the fixture will be published early in the New Year.

On the same day the OWs had a golf match against the RGS Staff. Unfortunately for various reasons the numbers involved were lower than last year but it was a very enjoyable occasion. The results were as follows: OWs STAFF Mark Forrester (1958-1963) versus Ian Gould Martin Priestley (1955-1963) David Chamberlain WIN Paul Dolphin (1969-1976) versus Ian Wilson Doug McIndoe (1973-1979) WIN Joan Allen Trevor Woolliams (1985-1991) WIN versus Will Phelan Steven John (1962-1970) versus Roger File Peter Price WIN Mike Moffatt The OW team won 3-1. We are planning another match for next summer. Details to be published early in the New Year.

and making up a table at the Dinner?

It has been suggested that the following should have a Reunion at the Dinner:

C.J.Andrew, A.Barratt, M.J.Bevan, D.J.Bowler, C.J.Coles, R.F.Darvill, J.Dixon, D.R.S.Fowler, N.P.Hampton, N.A.Harley, R.Hill, J.W.Hume, G.H.King. P.R.Lavender, A.J. Mole, G.A.Monaghan, S.G.Newman, B.A.Oliver, D.R.Parker, A.J.Prickett, A.J.Rainbow, J.S.Reid.

Form-teacher: A.J.MacTavish

Two of these have already said they will come. If you are on the list, please contact me. If you know anyone who is on the list, please ask him to contact me.

If you would like to get friends from your form, or a shared activity to join you at the Dinner, but have lost contact with them, please contact me and I will put their names on this website.

Further details will be sent out to those who are members together with the Annual Magazine in January, and will be published on this website.

1. If you are a member of the OW Club and did not receive a magazine in the spring this year, it may be that you have moved and have not told us your new address. Please let me know this and you will receive a copy of the magazine.

2. If you are not yet a member of the OW Club, and would like to join, please click here.

3. If you would like to buy receive a copy of the Wycombiensian, the school magazine, which has just been published, please send me a cheque for £5.

The following are also leaving at the end of the Summer Term:

Anne Smalley, Graham Burford, Oliver Godfrey, Richard Atkin, Ruth Ling, Ann Howarth, and Mike Howarth. Tributes will be paid to Anne Smalley and Ann Howarth, who were both at the RGS for 15 years or more in the next edition.

Ed. When you were at school, do you remember yourself or anyone else giving an unusual reason for being late? Please let me know.

Dear Ian,

I saw this in today's (25th May) Lloyd's List - I guess it was reported elsewhere but as it has a RGS connection, I send it to you:

"THINGS maritime return to Christie's auction house tomorrow with the sale of a rare Second World War Dunlop human torpedo "Clamy Death" helmet. The helmet was worn by Lieutenant Ian Fraser VC, one of only four Royal Naval Reserve personnel during the Second World War to win the UK's highest award for gallantry.

The helmet was part of the uniform of the X-men, who pioneered midget submarine warfare, and Frazer was awarded his VC for a daring raid on the Japanese heavy cruiser Tako."

Rgds

John Burns (1970-1975)

Ed. Many thanks, John, for this information. If anyone sees information about OWs anywhere, please let me know.

I think I was going to email you before with my details. Here they are. If you would like to put them on the website I would be delighted. I'm still proud to have gone to the RGS.

"In the last 10 years I have done and seen quite a lot, most of which I will not go into here. However, I have lived in London for about 6 of those years and am now living in Maidenhead preparing to go and live in Japan. Having studied Japanese for 4 years now, I am just about getting quite good! It's great to see that now the RGS offers Japanese to its students.

Four years ago I became a Christian whilst I was living in London. Since then I have been trying to figure out God's plan for my life and I feel that He is leading me to Japan to share the gospel there. I know that I wasn't the most driven academic scholar during my time at the RGS. In fact I spent most of my time in the tuck shop, as I remember! But since I became a Christian I have been studying the Bible, obviously, but also Japanese and I have become a bit of an amateur theologian. I guess I have found a purpose to study.

I have worked in the computer industry in Cisco support, gaining Cisco certification along the way. I hope to work in Japan in Cisco / networking areas, but the main reason for going is to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Japanese.

Andrew Levicki

Dear Mr Clark,

I am not sure how one could do it, but would anyone at the school have a list of the chaps that joined 708 Squadron ATC in the mid to late forties?

At that time a Major Boardman Reed liaised with the school and took a number of us to Bovingdon and Chalgrove, where we ate wonderful, non-school food (including bananas) and went up in US 8th Air Force planes.

With D-Day parades coming up, I went on the Web and plonked his name into Google. Lo and behold, he had written a book, in which we were mentioned, and I had a long chat with him by telephone. At 91, he is as sharp as ever and had his last solo flight at age 86.

Thank you for your help.

Robert C. (Bob) Huntley

Ed. If you were a member of the 708 Squadron ATC and remember Boardman Reed, or indeed Bob Huntley, do contact me.

It was 1955, and it was winter. The snow fell, four inches of it, virgin, pure, transforming every roof and wall and bush. We arrived in excitement. The whole atmosphere at school was electric. At 9 o’clock assembly, the Headmaster, ‘Boss’ Tucker, laid the law down as he always did on such occasions. There would be no snowballing within fifty yards of the buildings, and he made ominous hints as to what would happen to anyone found breaking this edict.  In those days, there was a tradition that the prefects would take on the rest of the school in a snowball fight at lunchtime. At about 1.15 pm, we emerged at the double from the Prefects’ Room at the end of the Gym Block. We knew our appearance would immediately encourage a flight of snowballs, and we wanted to get fifty yards away from the buildings as quickly as possible. We formed up in the middle of the field. The prefects were organised and relatively disciplined; there were about 40 of us. The rest of the school who turned out numbered about 300 and were totally disorganised. The other 300 - 400 boys kept well out of the way elsewhere.

The pattern of the battle was standard. It was a clear lesson how a small team can survive against great odds. The prefects kept in a tight group, protecting the Head Boy, the Deputies and one or two other senior people who were obvious targets. Prefects had the power of slippering for minor offences, -at least, the Head Boy and Deputies did, - and a number of the middle school were on the field to get their own back. Small groups of them would try to isolate leading prefects and give them some fairly rough treatment. The prefects would sweep down in pincer movements in return and roll over known rogues in the 5th forms (Year 11’s). Small boys would run about like gnats, occasionally scoring a hit on a prefect and immediately being swatted in return. It was all good- natured and the senior prefects intervened if anyone went too far.

Afternoon school started at 2 pm. Ten minutes before that time, the Head Boy, Barri Jones, called his 40 men together and conducted a fighting withdrawal to the Prefects’ Room. As we approached the building, he called to our opponents that we had finished. Most stopped throwing snow and broke off. One or two persisted. We ran in, knocking the snow off our clothes, and slammed the door. Two snowballs thudded on the panels. That was outrageous. Barri threw the door open to see who had done this and a number of us prepared to follow him. At that instant a snowball arrived with a very fast, flat trajectory. It punched straight through the top centre of the six small panes in the door. The same door is still there today. Glass shards showered over us and the piece of coal, which had formed the centre of the snowball, skidded across the room. An instant later there was no one in sight outside the Prefects’ Room.

After the initial shock, we set to clearing up the glass. Barri went off to report the matter to Sam Morgan, the Deputy Headmaster. He returned to say that Sam had gone with him to Boss, and that Boss was absolutely furious. In fact, he was sending two of our number with a note round all forms telling the boy who had broken the window to report to his study immediately. We did not feel that this would achieve much. We felt that Boss’s anger had clouded his judgement. He would lose this one. But we underestimated Boss. He knew what he was doing. The stakes were high, but he was not one to blink.

Twenty minutes later, I met a fellow prefect near the Library (now the Drama Room). He had been one who had taken the note round. "Guess what? Boss has sent for every form to report to the Hall (now the Library) in turn at five-minute intervals. Every single form except the Upper Sixth. He and Sam are coshing everyone!"

Now that caning in schools is illegal, the RGS slang term "coshing" for caning has died out. Even then I could hardly believe it. I had to witness this unique sight. If Boss was in this mood and doing things wholesale, it was probably unwise to go past the Hall doors. One might get dragged in and given the treatment. I went up to the top corridor. In those days the top corridor was open to the old Hall. With books under my arm, drawing myself up to my full height, I walked slowly along until the Hall came into view. Without hesitating and as if in deep academic thought, I passed the opening, taking in an incredible sight. Boss and Sam were standing one on each side, near the stage. Two rows of boys were lined up from the doors below me. Each boy at the head of the column bent over and one or the other administered two sharp strokes, and the boy walked back down the Hall watched closely by those in the queue. Apart from the swish of the pairs of strokes, there was total silence, except for the odd quiet instruction from the teacher who had brought the form from the classroom. I realised afterwards that boys were trying to get in the queue for Boss. He might be furious, but he was not a golfer like Sam who had a very strong swing.

Everyone was caned - boys who had been in the Library all lunchtime; boys who had been at music practice; who had been kept in by staff; who had avoided snowballing because they felt it was childish; who had gone home to lunch and were not on the premises. No one was spared. The estimate was that about 680 boys received two strokes. And the interesting thing is that there were no complaints. It was a different world then. Nevertheless such a mass caning was unusual enough to be reported in a brief news item in the Sunday Express the next week. And at the end of the year, on Speech Day, Boss referred to the business in his report to the governors and parents. He was speaking from the stage of the old Hall, where the canings had taken place. Speech Day then took place on an afternoon in the last week of the summer term. All boys were on the premises and there were many displays and demonstrations. The prize-winners were in the Hall with the parents and the speeches were relayed by a PA system round the buildings. Usually no one outside the Hall paid a great deal of attention. However on this occasion, Boss made a reference to an incident in the winter that had left Mr Morgan and himself with aching right arms - and a cheer went up from one end of the building to the other. It was a very different world...

A J MacTavish Form 6M3 (1955)

Ed: A different world indeed! Are you one of the 680 boys who were caned? Do you know of any who were caned? Father, grandfather, friend? How about having a 50^th Anniversary Reunion of those involved at the Annual Dinner? What were your memories of the occasion?

Dear Ian,

I believe you like to receive tales, stories, reminiscences from the past. I do have a few but I won’t bore you beyond one. Pilljey’s "Elastication", we called it. This involves the one and only, the great P.L.Jones (hence Pilljey) and this tale will be familiar to anyone who had the privilege of having Pill for Maths. The story goes like this.

Should any boy be so unwise as to misbehave in class, and especially should he violate his basic rule in Algebra, the following would take place:

Pill would advance upon you, a beatific smile upon his face, his bone dome shining, and take his position alongside you. Then he would fish in his waistcoat pockets and produce an elastic band. This he would stretch between thumb and index finger of each hand as far as it would go short of breaking.

Next he would place one end of this highly extended instrument about one millimetre from your earlobe, holding the other end at full stretch. Then he would intone as follows:

The first thing in Factorisation

is to take out everything COMMON

And you know what happened with each and every "TWANG". Believe me they smarted! You can be sure that Pilljey’s instruction would be rigorously observed by the student in the future of every case, regardless of whether or not this particular matter had been the cause of Pilljey’s activity or not.

Pilljey and the other Masters of that era gave me the finest education, together with the associated necessary discipline any boy could ever have had, a combination that has stood me in excellent stead all my life.

Cheers and all the best for all at the RGS

Ian Fairnington

John tells me that he has put the 1964 school photograph on his website. So if you were at school in that year you may want to see if you can recognise yourself 40 years ago! Please click! Many thanks, John!

The following poem appeared in the school magazine in 1970:

I must go down to the RGS, to the neo-Georgian tower,

And all I ask is a crusty teacher droning for an hour,

And the desk’s creak and the pen’s squeak and the BA gown shaking,

And a grey fog on the master’s face and a sore backside aching.

I must go down to the RGS, for the call on the rugby field

Is a foul call and a shrill call that lets no skyvers yield.

And all I ask is a biting day with the dirty ball flying,

And the flung mud and the sharp sweat and the scrum-halves crying.

I must go down to the RGS, to the Sergeant’s snappish bark,

To the hot brown clothes and the drill-parade and all that Army lark.

But all I ask is an easier sum from the algebraic ogre,

And loud TV and a sweet dream when the long prep’s over.

Ed. Can you write a parody of John Masefield’s poem, "I must go down to the sea again" about the RGS in your decade? Please send in your version for publication?

What appeared in the School Magazine in 1994? If you were at school then, do you remember any of the events or characters mentioned below? If you were at school earlier than that, what differences do you notice between then and the time you were at school?

In the Boarding House reports we read of Uplyme still in existence in 1994 with Mike Davies as the House master and John Edwards as the House Tutor. Among those mentioned are James Baker, Chris Coster, Miles Nurnberger, Darren Mills, Peter Northage, Martin Wallwork, Rupert Stephens and William Richards. (Ed Have any former members of Uplyme got any memories of the House?) Of the clubs, activities and societies, over 60 boys represented the school at chess, over £3000 was raised for the Benevolent Fund, the Islamic Society was founded, the Christian Union and Forum met regularly, the model Aero Club had 36 members, it was Mike Smedley’s last year as Head of Music and organiser of all the Music Society’s activities, and the Room 30 Computer Network and that of the IT Centre were friendly rivals.

If you wish to make any comments on what is published in the newsletter or write anything for publication, please contact the Editor Ian Clark, whose email address is ianrclarkuk@yahoo.co.uk

Stop Press:

The RGS Parents’ Association invites you to join them for a lively fun-filled evening at the Auction of Pledges, hosted by Eric Knowles on Friday 24 September at the RGS. Please contact the school for further details.

The next newsletter will be published on 22^nd September. Have a good summer!