.... whilst listening to my Ian Paisley LP's.
Freemasons and questions to answer
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
(I've removed the links to the unfinished separate website which a user had linked here, having taken some advice from RichardB re some of the content on that site, and based on past history of that organisation. Not sure about who the organisation comprises, or whether it's one person's opinion or what. Not convinced it adds to the discussion here, so keen to avoid red-herrings or side-tracking.
Hope that's OK with everyone - we're being careful to keep things on track!
J
)
Hope that's OK with everyone - we're being careful to keep things on track!
J
)
Julian Taylor-Gadd
Leigh Hunt 1985-1992
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Leigh Hunt 1985-1992
Founder of The Unofficial CH Forum
https://www.grovegeeks.co.uk - IT Support and website design for home, small businesses and charities.
- J.R.
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
Shame the nations rail service isn't !!!!jtaylor wrote: ↑Sat Jul 28, 2018 10:20 pm (I've removed the links to the unfinished separate website which a user had linked here, having taken some advice from RichardB re some of the content on that site, and based on past history of that organisation. Not sure about who the organisation comprises, or whether it's one person's opinion or what. Not convinced it adds to the discussion here, so keen to avoid red-herrings or side-tracking.
Hope that's OK with everyone - we're being careful to keep things on track!
J
)
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
The freemasons got me a place at CH. I passed the entrance exam (scraped in maybe), but needed an Oliver Whitby foundation scholarship to help my parents pay the fees, as my results were not good enough for as full scholarship. The year I applied they had 2 kids from the Chichester region (catchment for Oliver Whitby scholarships) who passed the exam. So the Oliver Whitby foundation, set up an interview with each of us, to choose which to fund. They (perhaps wisely as I didnt get on all that well at CH) chose the other guy.
My brother was already at CH, and he had a friend in his house who had a "guardian" (now deceased I believe), who was somehow involved with sending disadvantaged kids from London to CH. Anyway, this guardian was a well known free-mason, and well connected at CH. My parents knew this guardian through interactions with my brother's buddy. So they rung him up and told them that Oliver Whitby werent going to give me a scholarship. He said dont worry, I will have a word with Bob (Silett) about it. A couple of weeks later we got a letter from the Oliver Whitby foundation saying they had had a change of heart and decided to fund both applications this year. So off I went to CH, and had to war a silver badge thing on my coat to show I was funded by Oliver Whitby. Cheers freemasons- I guess.
My brother was already at CH, and he had a friend in his house who had a "guardian" (now deceased I believe), who was somehow involved with sending disadvantaged kids from London to CH. Anyway, this guardian was a well known free-mason, and well connected at CH. My parents knew this guardian through interactions with my brother's buddy. So they rung him up and told them that Oliver Whitby werent going to give me a scholarship. He said dont worry, I will have a word with Bob (Silett) about it. A couple of weeks later we got a letter from the Oliver Whitby foundation saying they had had a change of heart and decided to fund both applications this year. So off I went to CH, and had to war a silver badge thing on my coat to show I was funded by Oliver Whitby. Cheers freemasons- I guess.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
Forgive my coming belatedly to the conversation, on a very occasional visit to the Forum. I've never been very interested in the Masons; it always seems to me to be a self-help organisation linked to a load of syncretist twaddle. But with 60 years of hindsight I realise that AL Johnstone, 'Johnny', my not greatly loved housemaster in Lamb A in the 1950s-60s, was a mason. Or at least he had photos of the Royal Masonic School, Bushey (and of Downing College, Cambridge) on his study wall; and I think that the knocker on his study door was the crossed compasses. Again with hindsight, as a bachelor with no visible family and few friends, he might well have been an obvious candidate for this kind of thing.
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
I didn't know that Johnny was a Mason. The only staff member who I knew for certain was one was Dr Scott, because his son (who was in ThB) used to regale us with tales of the various altars he would set up. Was Rae a Mason? I ask because he, like Johnny, was one of those who carried Mrs Scott's coffin at her funeral.
Th.B. 27 1955-63
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
I don't know is the answer. But sometime in the very late 1950s/early 1960s Johnny bought a new car, which occasioned some envious comments from elsewhere along the Avenue. And Johnny and Bob Rae went off together on a continental 'motoring holiday'. Along with a third person, a Prep master whose name I can't remember, who was said to be "OC Culture"; and responsible for telling them what churches/buildings/paintings to look at. I don't know whether it was a masonic sortie. Or just three school-masters having fun together.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
It's funny how when you are young certain schoolmasters made you quake in your boots every time you saw them. Johnny Stein was one of those for me.
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
There are numerous anecdotes about Johnny and I'd imagined they'd all been told on this forum by now, but this is a new one.
Johnny clearly got lumbered with some unpopular jobs. He was master i/c chair-shifting (!) and master i/c welcoming new boys and their parents. I was for a time his grecian sidekick in both functions. I found it a bit odd being welcomed by him and two grecians in 1955, and performing the same function myself (still with him) in 1962.
Johnny clearly got lumbered with some unpopular jobs. He was master i/c chair-shifting (!) and master i/c welcoming new boys and their parents. I was for a time his grecian sidekick in both functions. I found it a bit odd being welcomed by him and two grecians in 1955, and performing the same function myself (still with him) in 1962.
Th.B. 27 1955-63
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
RDTS was an open Mason, I noted that he greeted parents with what we assumed to be a Masonic 'sign', IIRC, a sort of heel click and a raised palm. I was led to understand that he was, in the early 1980s, in the same Lodge as the Chief Constable of Sussex Police, and after Sir Barnes Wallis's Memorial Service at St Paul's, which the entire school attended by a chartered train, many rumours swirled that the police had done a drugs sweep of the School when all the pupils were away, and this was understood to have been arranged at an opportune moment. I am reporting that this happened, but that it was what was current as a rumour. RDTS also had some tales to tell about the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry, and other police tales, which he recounted to the Upper Dorm (2nd and 3rd Form) as comforting bed time tales of an evening. I have nothing to suggest that he or any other Mason on CH staff (or non-Mason) was in any way complicit in suppressing any enquiries into abuse, others may have information on the relevant steps taken and how Webb in particular was permitted to leave sharpish without the Fuzz on his trail for some decades.
Doubtless those in charge at the relevant time thought that Edward VI, the Wests and Sir Barnes Wallis et alia would have approved of their foundation/donations respectively being protected from any scandal, rather than the children being protected from abuse.
Doubtless those in charge at the relevant time thought that Edward VI, the Wests and Sir Barnes Wallis et alia would have approved of their foundation/donations respectively being protected from any scandal, rather than the children being protected from abuse.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
Carey...? Others included Tamvakis, O Meara and i think McLean...?DazedandConfused wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:36 pm I can’t think who else taught Maths- Sprosen, O’Boyle and a very young teacher who can’t have been more than about 23? To say he had crowd control problems would be putting it mildly.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
I'm not sure that there is a masonic heel click and raised palm. It would be more than likely the way he shook a hand.MrEd wrote: ↑Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:04 pm RDTS was an open Mason, I noted that he greeted parents with what we assumed to be a Masonic 'sign', IIRC, a sort of heel click and a raised palm. I was led to understand that he was, in the early 1980s, in the same Lodge as the Chief Constable of Sussex Police,
I also love how much power people think that the masons have and the conspiracies that they are involved in.
If it takes 87 muscles to frown, if i frown throughout the day, can that count towards my daily work out?
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Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
Carey! That was it. I remember during one of his lessons someone throwing a book out of the window and, when told to go and get it, then climbing out of the window after it.Pe.A wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:34 pmCarey...? Others included Tamvakis, O Meara and i think McLean...?DazedandConfused wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:36 pm I can’t think who else taught Maths- Sprosen, O’Boyle and a very young teacher who can’t have been more than about 23? To say he had crowd control problems would be putting it mildly.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
Lol. think i was told that by someone at the time. Rings a bell. To be fair, he wasnt the only one. Some of the stuff some of the teachers had to put up with was bad...DazedandConfused wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:56 amCarey! That was it. I remember during one of his lessons someone throwing a book out of the window and, when told to go and get it, then climbing out of the window after it.Pe.A wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:34 pmCarey...? Others included Tamvakis, O Meara and i think McLean...?DazedandConfused wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:36 pm I can’t think who else taught Maths- Sprosen, O’Boyle and a very young teacher who can’t have been more than about 23? To say he had crowd control problems would be putting it mildly.
Re: Freemasons and questions to answer
I think a worse fate befell Mr Carey's head of department than befell Mr Carey whatever his crowd control problems were!