Edward Malins

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Richard
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Edward Malins

Post by Richard »

I read the thread on Michael Cherniavsky with much interest and enjoyment and would encourage similar threads about other masters. EG Malins would be another excellent subject, but I cannot do full justice to him. Yet I can start the ball rolling. Some of his former senior pupils or Mid B boys of the right vintage must have many more things to say.

I was in his English class in a lower form, but even that single year’s experience made me realise that he was a most remarkable man and superb teacher. He used innovative teaching methods, for example once dividing the class in groups of Trade Unionists who had to hold a meeting, to treat a relevant issue of our choosing with roles for each one of the group. After preparation each group presented its ‘meeting’ to the class. He also taught some history and I remember Burke and the French Revolution.

Some points about him:
- Allegedly his university qualification was a third in modern history from Oxford, a surprising start to a successful career as senior English master (appointed by HLO Flecker).
- He was an accomplished musician (especially piano and harpsichord and perhaps other instruments too). Sometimes his harpsichord was brought from his home on Two Mile Ash (?) to Big School, or elsewhere, for a recital. I recall his imposing presence as harpsichordist and member of the school orchestra, which played for a Big School performance of Purcell’s opera ‘King Arthur’. He, and all the non-pupil members of the orchestra, including Pip Dore the conductor, wore 17th century costume, with wigs, etc. ‘King Arthur’ was the most ambitious CH musical production up to that time and this may still be true.
- He had spent a year at a school in the USA (very exotic in the 40s) and as a result there was a series of visiting senior boys at CH at from Phillips Academy at Exeter (a very exclusive US private High School).
- He returned, I believe, with an American wife Mitzi (then equally exotic at CH, as was her name)
- Their very beautiful daughter had a severe speech impediment, I understand.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by michael scuffil »

I remember him from the Entrance Exam, when he went through my essay and in effect said that all the advice given by my primary school teacher was rubbish.

Before my time he'd been (it was said) in the CCF. Furthermore, it was said that he would occasionally turn up on parade on a white horse. I have no idea whether this was true.

I remember a lesson (UFA) when at the start he wrote on the board 'I have lost my voice' and the lesson was conducted largely in silence, because voicelessness somehow is catching.
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Martin
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by Martin »

EGM was certainly in the CCF in the late 40s as Capt. Malins, and presumably that was his World War 2 rank. Does anyone know what he did in that war?

The story about the white horse on CCF parade is true, but EGM was not involved. However he was the sort of person who could have carried it off. An OB named BK Wallace (Col A, 1918-24) has written the following about the OTC (Officers’ Training Corps, the predecessor of the CCF of our days)

“As recruits we were trained by RSM Couchman, late of the Buffs. … At one time our CO was Capt. Clough. One day he decided that he should be mounted when taking the parade. As we stood at attention, he appeared riding the horse that pulled the mower on the playing fields. To our delight, while he was issuing instructions, the nag started to munch the grass on the parade ground. Most unmilitary! That was Clough’s last ride on parade.”
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by postwarblue »

EGM was my form master in LE and UF in 1948-9 & in GE & Deps 1950-2. He was one of the form masters I rated more highly than others, but I don't remember anything in particular about the lessons. For the rump of 1949-50 we were handed over the CO Healey, don't know why, a very dull teacher by comparison. In the summer of 1951 we 'did' the Great Exhibition and EGM took us all up to Hyde Park where the original site of the Crystal Palace was marked out on the ground, and then to the V&A where various objects from the original exhibition had been rounded up for display.

EGM was also, before he went to Mid B, junior housemaster of Col B and as such produced 'Trial by Jury' as our house play with himself on the piano. He also produced Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus' as a school play with Arthur Dyball in the title role (I was the Good Angel, I think I had two lines).

As D Company CO Malins did come on parade on horseback and I always hoped the horse would entertain us by decorating the Lamb asphalt.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by Kit Bartlett »

E G Malins served in the 47th Cavalry Regiment in WW2 , hence the equine connection. In the 1947 Coleridge House play "Augustus does his bit" by George Bernard Shaw one of the lines as to which regiment a character had served was transposed by John Gale to 47th Cav. to much amusement. Did not EGM have two children and was he educated at Malvern?
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by Kit Bartlett »

E G M did appear on a horse at the beginning of a Corps parade on Lamb asphalt as he announced in a loud voice " I am your commanding officer" and proceeded to give a pep talk.
I also remember him saying once that it would not take the class very long to absorb the details of a particular set book as he had done this on his way into Horsham from CH. One boy asked him if he had been driving at the time which amused him considerably. His car registration w as AUE 132, an Austin.
He was wont to use the word "Lud" quite frequently. His nickname was Gad
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by keibat »

I have a slightly different take on Edward Malins. I was in his English class for 2 years, I guess (LF & UF?), & thoroughly enjoyed our lessons. But then my mother, also an English teacher, intrigued by my enthuisasm, asked me to tell her more concretely about his teaching - & to my acute embarrassment, I could hardly reconstruct anything at all about what we actually DID in the classroom. Whereas when I later studied under David Jesson Dibley, there was a clear pedagogy in operation. So I've been left with a suspicion that what EGM had was charisma without solidity. Maybe this is unfair - maybe he inspired pupils who would otherwise not have responded to literature positively - but that's what I'm left with.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by michael scuffil »

It is curious that one of the few actual memories I have of Gad teaching concerns Keith the author of the previous post. We had had to write a story in the style of the 18th century (this was the UFA, i.e. third year), and Gad commented that he liked the authentic manner in which Keith combined the tense-shift etc. of indirect speech with the inverted commas of direct speech. I don't know why I remember this; it is hardly profound.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by sejintenej »

keibat wrote:I have a slightly different take on Edward Malins. I was in his English class for 2 years, I guess (LF & UF?), & thoroughly enjoyed our lessons. But then my mother, also an English teacher, intrigued by my enthuisasm, asked me to tell her more concretely about his teaching - & to my acute embarrassment, I could hardly reconstruct anything at all about what we actually DID in the classroom. Whereas when I later studied under David Jesson Dibley, there was a clear pedagogy in operation. So I've been left with a suspicion that what EGM had was charisma without solidity. Maybe this is unfair - maybe he inspired pupils who would otherwise not have responded to literature positively - but that's what I'm left with.
As opposed to the bland teaching of 'The Scottish Play' by another teacher, a result being that I never want to see or hear of a play again - pure boredom. I actually got an outside 'get through it' book after I failed O level in July and passed in December.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by geoffreycannon »

The ball rolls! Fabulous stuff. But this should be positioned under masters and staff, not 'general'. Won't others miss it... Filofreak, Brazil,
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by keibat »

michael scuffil wrote:It is curious that one of the few actual memories I have of Gad teaching concerns Keith the author of the previous post. We had had to write a story in the style of the 18th century (this was the UFA, i.e. third year), and Gad commented that he liked the authentic manner in which Keith combined the tense-shift etc. of indirect speech with the inverted commas of direct speech. I don't know why I remember this; it is hardly profound.
Michael, the things you remember! I have no recollection of this what-so-ever (hyphens representing emphatic drawn-out speech).
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by J.R. »

geoffreycannon wrote:The ball rolls! Fabulous stuff. But this should be positioned under masters and staff, not 'general'. Won't others miss it... Filofreak, Brazil,

Your wish is my command, Geoffrey !!

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Re: Edward Malins

Post by Kit Bartlett »

Two further reminiscenses about the above named.
He once called out "Shame" at a debate when he disagreed with a statement by one of the speakers.
He once rejected a wine at a dinner table and called for another.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by rockfreak »

He told me I could write at age 13 when I turned in an essay on some mundane subject or other and it stayed in my mind when I made a rather belated entry into magazine journalism many years later. I too remember his lessons as being pleasantly unstructured. On one occasion we had a debate in which we had to defend rock n' roll as a music. The speaker made the point that every age had its popular dance music and that the older generation had had the Charleston. Gad acknowledged the point with a languid gesture, and the class looked agog at him, visualising a younger Gad doing the Charleston. I've often felt that some teachers crave an audience and would have gone into showbiz in other circumstances. Gad might have been Noel Coward.
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Re: Edward Malins

Post by alterblau »

In the writings about EG Malins so far, only his military, equestrian and intellectual qualities have been mentioned. There is more to add! I was in the school Colts (under 16 rugby team) in 1954 and 1955 and our coaches then were Kit Aitken and Gad Malins.
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