Favourite teacher

[Mid A 15]

I think he left (maybe under spurious circumstances) at the end of my 3rd form / LE so 1994/5 I think

Do tell! By PM if more prudent!

[Ajarn Philip]

Chris Read, yes, that was his name. Quiet (unlike Burr), but a good guy to have around the house (unli - oops, perhaps not). I think he used to tell us the occasional ghost story in the dorms, one of which was about a bloke with a wooden leg. I was in the lower dorm, and you could hear the thump of whatever he used when he told the story upstairs.

In my 3rd year in Ma A we made the occasional feeble effort to scare the living daylights out of the squits, telling the odd story ourselves (probably very badly), banging on the radiator, and hanging things out of the upper dorm window so they'd rattle against the windows below. We were such sweet children <sigh>... Perhaps Andrew Harrison remembers? If not, it just goes to show how pathetic our efforts were.

I only found this site a few days ago, and I have to say I'm wallowing contentedly in the nostalgia. I consider myself very lucky to have gone to CH, and all sorts of fond memories are coming back. Thanks, one and all.

[cj]

He did indeed used to be called Harry...

In fact, when he started teaching at Ch in 1992, there were some teachers who still called him that (I think Mr McCall maybe one...)

When did he leave / retire?

He was a junior housemaster in Mid A for part of my time there.

Then he went off to Maine A. He was known as Crud in my day - such a charming nickname! I had him for Maths on my UF. A double lesson consisted of being set work to do, and then him disappearing (allegedly to visit a local hostelry) while we got on with things. We were always quiet - being near Mr Rowley's French room was a huge incentive. He, Pattison and Dobbie were big mates.

[Great Plum]

Yes, I do remember him setting prep at the start of the lesson which I was able to do generally during the lesson!

[Crippen]

When I was in LHunt B, my mum really fancied the enigmatic charmer and King of Dining Hall Killer Fry, and yes, Ajarn Philip, he reminded me of Gregory Peck too, with a quality of quiet strength and reserve. At the time, I heard the name 'Killer' came from his having to despatch German soldiers silently, with a knife, in WW2, and that this haunted him for many years.

As for the inimitable Louis Bardou, two of his phrases were "a dog on a hot tin roof", and "put the cat among the biscuits" among many other gems. He'd mark your exercise book with ever more frantic and heavy circular use of the red biro, writing "NONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!" and once succeeding in ripping right through from page 3 to the back of the book. I never saw it, but he'd occasionally show an old film of him around town as a mod in the 60s.
Him and the more scary Mr Farrar were jointly responsible for me getting A in French O level when I thought I'd get a C or D.

Richard "Pinkie" Palmer
introduced me to a lifelong interest in jazz, wore amusing desert suits and claimed that actress Susan George once mistook him for Robert Redford in Harrods, shouting "Robbie! Hey Robbie Redford!" in an American accent (she's English). He was a great laugh, and we'd always manage to divert him from properly conducting our A level English class by "Derek & Clive'ing" the lesson, describing any Shakespeare character as a c**t, therefore going on to discuss the much more worthy subject of Peter Cook.

[Richard Ruck]

Richard "Pinkie" Palmer
introduced me to a lifelong interest in jazz, wore amusing desert suits and claimed that actress Susan George once mistook him for Robert Redford in Harrods, shouting "Robbie! Hey Robbie Redford!" in an American accent (she's English). He was a great laugh, and we'd always manage to divert him from properly conducting our A level English class by "Derek & Clive'ing" the lesson, describing any Shakespeare character as a c**t, therefore going on to discuss the much more worthy subject of Peter Cook.

He introduced my year to the delights of Derek and Clive, too, for which I remain eternally grateful.

[michael scuffil]

A note on some of the above:
I remember the day Killer Fry got his nickname: as junior housemaster in ThorntonB he ferociously beat a boy (maybe two) who giggled during prayers. This was actually rather out of character. (He kept in his study a Japanese sword, surrendered to him by an officer of equivalent rank. This was irresponsible, as a junior housemaster's study was used for things like music evenings, and the sight of the sword was too much for adolescents dying to see what it would slice through. It's amazing it didn't slice through someone's arm.)

Pop Beaven spelt his name thus: "Beaven is to heaven as bell is to hell" he would always say. He had a reputation for pedantry. When his wife said she didn't like sugar cubes because they took too long to melt, he said (publicly): They don't melt, they dissolve.

Peter Brotherton had been engaged to a nurse. He broke it off at a point felt by many to be inexcusably late. He was popular because he wore jeans (in his study) at a time this was unheard of for masters. Outside, he wore very swish suits (that was pretty unheard of, too).

And who were my favourite teachers:
the late David Jesson Dibley, the late Tim Law, the late Michael Cherniavsky.

[michael scuffil]

And the late David Herbert.

[Crippen]

Trivial point: did anyone apart from me think that sleepy Tom Keeley spoke like DJ John Peel? No? Just me then...again.

[Mid A 15]

Trivial point: did anyone apart from me think that sleepy Tom Keeley spoke like DJ John Peel? No? Just me then...again.

THK was a Brummy and John Peel was a Scouser and I've heard others say the accents sound similar but to me there seem to be quite marked differences.


Imagine John Peel on Sounds of The Seventies suddenly shouting "The Heel!" "The Heel!" as Tom was wont to do at Rugby matches.

That will test it!

[michael scuffil]

Ron Lorimer - sorry people but I can't get excited about him. He didn't like non-conformists.

I gather Lorimer was a pillar of the establishment in his later years, but when he first arrived he was a non-conformist himself. He was believed to be the first teacher to sit down at lunch on the dais without a jacket.

[michael scuffil]

Trivial point: did anyone apart from me think that sleepy Tom Keeley spoke like DJ John Peel? No? Just me then...again.

THK was a Brummy and John Peel was a Scouser and I've heard others say the accents sound similar but to me there seem to be quite marked differences.

THK's accent made him a figure of fun to start with (he joined the staff the year after I arrived, I always think of him as a "new master"). His classroom had to be redecorated after his first year, there was so much ink on the walls. His habit of taking catnaps during lessons didn't help, nor his famous outburst to a noisy class "Stop keep talking!". He married an attractive dietician.

[michael scuffil]

My favourites? Gad Malins, David Jesson-Dibley; big debts to Bill Armistead, Gordon Van Praagh and Pongo Littlefield.

I think Littlefield would be amazed to find himself in this rarefied company. (And probably vice versa). Actually, this is the first good word I've ever heard about the man.

[J.R.]

Ron Lorimer - sorry people but I can't get excited about him. He didn't like non-conformists.

I gather Lorimer was a pillar of the establishment in his later years, but when he first arrived he was a non-conformist himself. He was believed to be the first teacher to sit down at lunch on the dais without a jacket.

I think Mr Lorimer joined the staff a year or so after my induction to Prep B. I'm sure he taught me Geography for a while. I wouldn't have called him a non-conformist, though. I don't personally remember him on the dais without a jacket, and the Coleridge B dining-table was right next to the dais !

[John Knight]

>> and the Coleridge B dining-table was right next to the dais !

Oh! And I always thought the table layout matched the houses...
Peele A at the dais end down to Prep B at the Counting House end.
When will I ever stop learning.
John.