Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

i can remember some budding young hackers who used to routinely sabotage montys lesson by having some sort of program pop a picture to his bbc computer monitor.

what was the name of the second master who used to fall asleep in the middle of teaching latin? it was very rare that people had the guts to try to sneak out once he had nodded off though!

He was called Mr Keeley, and was a big fan of the Lord of the Rings (he would read it out loud as a 'treat' at the end of term). I wouldn't have minded but Frodo's interminable journey to Middle Earth wasn't a patch on the madcap antics of Caecilius.

There were stories about Mr Keeley starting teaching one lesson, setting some work, falling asleep, that lesson ended, class left, new class came in, he wakes up and started where he left off in the previous lesson......
Having not been taught by him, I've no idea if these were true.

What an interesting bunch of teachers we had though?!?

I certainly remember some of the best - Mr. (Sean?) Mason for Physics (young, positive, enthusiastic about science), Mr. (John) Stilwell - 'cello teacher (cracking chap, always great with the praise and encouragement, but also clear when I'd not practiced from one week to the next!) and lots of others (I'll gloss over the ones who (in my opinion at the time) weren't so good!)

J

My favourite was smeggy. Let's forgo the rather nasty odour and concentrate on the fact that he taught very little maths. He was the side-track king !! Subjects we managed to get him to waffle on and on about for hours included : the bus service on the Isle of Wight, the layout of his flat, how the nose-cone on Concorde worked and my particular favourite - the time he got shot by a riccochet. I actually went down 2 sets because of him but I learnt sooo much more in other areas....

He was a fantastic teacher in some ways - some off-the-wall, and thinking strange thoughts.
I particularly liked that he'd built his own home PC (or sorts!), and his traffic cone theories.....cracking!

He also taught me Xeno's paradox - about the arrow that's fired at you never hitting you! I use that one in the maths coaching I do to get kids thinking.....works wonders!

Still at the school and ?teaching I think?

He's definitely the guy who inspired me indirectly to go and do an Engineering degree.....thanks Mr O!
J

marty wrote:the "master" to whom you refer was EJ Wolstenholme,

No - that's not the Zob I was thinking of - I think I remember Wolstenholme, and he was a lot more cuddly. This Zob was rather authoritarian, a housemaster, and quite feared - hmmm - can't get the name though.

Smeggy is in his final year this year...

Of course, other long time masters have recently left at the end of last year: Jeffers, Shippen and Hackett...

Arrow fired at you from 100m away.
Travelling at 25m per second.
Should take 4 seconds to get there?


In 2 secs it travels 50m.
In 1 more second it travels another 25m
Next 0.5 seconds it travels another 12.5m
etc.etc.etc
It always has to travel half the remaining distance in half the previous time.......hence, it never hits you!

J

It's one of those unsolvables as far as I'm aware - hence being known as a paradox....

J

jtaylor wrote: Computing was certainly regarded as a very very geeky thing - little did people know how important computers would become and how essential to most careers a basic PC knowledge is these days.
J

- GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!

paddy wrote:

marty wrote:the "master" to whom you refer was EJ Wolstenholme,

No - that's not the Zob I was thinking of - I think I remember Wolstenholme, and he was a lot more cuddly. This Zob was rather authoritarian, a housemaster, and quite feared - hmmm - can't get the name though.

I might be able to help here. I was in Maine B from '68-'71 and then in Middleton A from '71 until I got thrown out in '74. (I now live in Virginia and work in New York for what it's worth). The housemaster in Mid A was called Ron Lorimer and he was an absolute a..hole. His nickname was ZUP after he entered a classroom one day with his fly undone and had to do it up quickly and not very surreptitiously. Hence the sort of onomatopoeic nickname - possibly confused later with Zob?

O'Meara's nickname at the time was Dolly for no reason anyone could shed any light on. Kiff was indeed tea and flab was butter, or marg anyway. Bockers were indeed catering staff or groundsmen, one was called 'Dick the Knocker', again the reasons if there ever were any escape me. Tom Keeley was a very popular guy, mainly because he gave sh-t to everyone without exception. Finally, sorry to hear Tom Jeffers has retired - he was a really good guy and I remember the day he started. I never thought Shipton would ever go, he'd been around since God was a boy.

Hope this is of interest.

Simon

Tom Keeley used to often park his car outside chapel in the evening and then fall asleep in it. Think he had that sleeping disorder, narcolepsy?

Simon Kerruish wrote:The housemaster in Mid A was called Ron Lorimer and he was an absolute a..hole. His nickname was ZUP after he entered a classroom one day with his fly undone and had to do it up quickly and not very surreptitiously. Hence the sort of onomatopoeic nickname - possibly confused later with Zob?

Fascinating. By the time I had Mr Lorimer for geography on my Third Form, he had shed that nickname and was no longer a housemaster. He wasn't exactly a pussycat, but he was one of the more fun (or should that be easily distracted?) masters. His were some of the most interesting lessons of that year - I'm not sure our class learnt any of the geography syllabus, but we did learn how to really shine our shoes (rub a heated spoon over them after the polish) and how to use balloons in interesting situations (though I can't remember any specifics...!).

eloisec wrote:Tom Keeley used to often park his car outside chapel in the evening and then fall asleep in it. Think he had that sleeping disorder, narcolepsy?

This is a change from his practice during chapel in the early 70's of hanging out on Big Side with a flashlight to catch anyone skipping the service. (As in, 'get a life'). He'd then report them to their housemasters who would do nothing. I think the general view was 'it's nice to see Tom enjoying himself'. Maybe this exhausting activity caught up with him in the end. Or maybe he did get narcolepsy. My father-in-law has it and once fell asleep while opening a Christmas present.