Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

A brief summary of the last 28 years for any interested parties:

I arrived at CH when I was 22 and left when I was 41. Overall, they were good years which I look back on with great affection. That said, towards the end I felt standards had started to slip a little and I could see that I was in danger of becoming disillusioned. So, after 19 largely very enjoyable years, it seemed the right time to leave and fulfil my dream of living and working in Asia. What I learned at CH, with its many different facets, provided me with the best possible foundation for what followed, both in my life and in my career, and I shall be forever grateful for being given the opportunity to teach there. I left CH and went to Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar (KTJ) in Malaysia where I started teaching Maths (there was no DT). After five years as a housemaster I was appointed Senior Master with specific responsibility for the seven boarding houses. After 13 very happy years living and working in Malaysia I was looking for a new challenge and accepted a post as Senior Administrator at Shrewsbury International School in Bangkok. Being Senior Administrator (a role similar to that of a bursar) was not a job I enjoyed and, after two years I left Shrewsbury to take up a post in a small international school called St. John’s teaching Maths. Having held a senior post of responsibility of one kind or another for 25 years I thoroughly enjoyed only having to think about my teaching and it gave me a new lease of life. Four years later I moved back to Shrewsbury (as a Maths teacher) where I stayed for six years before retiring three years ago at 67. Looking back, I consider myself extremely lucky to have, literally, ‘lived-the-dream’, which includes visiting every country in South East Asia and a number of others in Asia. I am also lucky, at 70 years of age, to still be playing serious squash a couple of times a week and giving private tuition, which gets me out of the apartment, keeps my brain active, and enable me to spend time with young people.

Ken Grimshaw
khgatktj@hotmail.com

When were you in KTJ?

My husband worked for British Council, we were in Kota Kinabalu from 78 to 82, then Brunei from 89 to 92 with a direct transfer to Kuching where we were until 96. I think I knew some teenagers who went to KTJ from Kuching.

We feel privileged to have had our time in Borneo and loved it, though Brunei wasn’t the easiest posting. Luckily as a trailing spouse I was able to get a post as Head of Maths at the Anglican Mission School, St Andrews. If I hadn’t had that I think I’d have had serious problems avoiding the expat ladies circles!

I remember you well KHG as one of my house tutors for two years when you first arrived at the school.

You were down to earth and did what you could to integrate yourself into school life, albeit you were somewhat uncomfortable refereeing rugby matches given your football upbringing.

To me you were one of the good guys which I will always be grateful for. CWN was another such member of staff and I believe I may have been lucky enough to have had both of you in LHA when you first started.

I am struggling to see you as a maths teacher though!!

Welcome to the forum Ken. I remember you well as a house tutor in Leigh Hunt A (including 3 cracks from a slipper which no doubt I richly deserved).

You also taught both my brother Ben and me woodwork for our Design and Technology O Level which I greatly enjoyed (and got a Grade A as did Ben I think). You were a very exacting teacher who demanded extremely high standards and I still have a number of items I made in the Manual School which was always one of my very favourite places at CH. Metalwork, woodwork, technical drawing were my favourite subjects by far even though I was not, actually, terribly good at any of them (and I still can't plane a flat surface on a piece of wood)! Nonetheless I remain very grateful to you for what I was taught and also to Messers Stratton, Perry and Wyncoll (not quite sure if I remember his name correctly). Unlike Richard I can definitely see you as a maths teacher owing to the precision you always applied to the teaching of woodwork.

Like Richard, however, I agree that you were one of the 'good guys', particularly as it now turns out a number of your colleagues most definitely were not!

Best wishes

Andrew Loring

I remember you as running one of the most repressive junior boy’s houses regimes even by 1980s standards, such that by the time MaB boys went to MaA and into the arms of Crud they were desperate to be feral. And were.

So. Did you know that the Senior Management Team were incompetent and so ran MaB like a penal colony, or did you just guess?

You taught me woodwork when I was a Squit and you were a house tutor in MaB under Tony Waller.

I have very happy memories and still have the fish and the car.

You had high standards and were clearly meticulous in everything you did.

You were very efficient and brisk and seemed to do everything at 100 mph!

I was a little bit intimidated I don't mind admitting.

But you were a good teacher, very encouraging and genuinely complimentary if something was done well.

Looking back I realise you were a kindly man with high standards of common decency.

My main memory of you (from my time in LHB) is reports that you would roam Big Side with your dog which was trained to sniff out juvenile smokers. Nice to hear positive comments about the place from your time, and good to hear that it stood you in good stead. Squash was never really pushed at CH, the Squash Courts were almost like an abandoned building, just in terms of the feeling that they had been abandoned. A few initiates would play now and then, but it seemed to be not one of the sports that the School thought worthy (I am recalling my impressions of the time).

Any comments on 'Cherry' Perry? '30 degrees', he did his best to teach me technical drawing.

MrEd wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 4:45 pm Squash was never really pushed at CH, the Squash Courts were almost like an abandoned building, just in terms of the feeling that they had been abandoned. A few initiates would play now and then, but it seemed to be not one of the sports that the School thought worthy (I am recalling my impressions of the time).

Never known them to be used for squash but fives was compulsory for the juniors in Col A when I got there Died out petty quickly

I remember playing both squash AND fives.
Squash I Iiked. I could take or leave fives.

In the late 40s and early 50s both squash and fives were totally voluntary and popular. Perhaps fives was a little more popular because the house ‘games cupboard’ (will someone write about that?) owned fives gloves, available for general use. For squash one needed to own, or more often borrow, a racquet. A main reason for the frequent use of the courts was the enthusiasm of a few masters who encouraged boys to play. Two such masters and fives enthusiasts were Chinky Buck & Pongo Littlefield. There were others.

MrEd wrote: ↑Fri May 15, 2020 4:45 pm Any comments on 'Cherry' Perry? '30 degrees', he did his best to teach me technical drawing.

Another charming teacher from the Manual School; it was one of my absolute favourite places at Christ's Hospital and, as he was the Head of Deaprtment, I suspect its character was largely influenced by him. I think his background was in industry before he became a teacher. I was taught Woodwork by KHG and I also had some instruction from Norman Wyncoll (if I have his name correct), metalwork with Keith Stratton and Technical Drawing (as it was called then) with Mr Perry (was his Christian name Allen?). I don't think I was ever taught by the other metalwork teacher (Mr Williams?) nor by Mr Webb. Quite apart from Webb's criminality (which I didn't even suspect back then) he simply wasn't a very good craftsman or, at least, didn't demand high standards from his students - unlike KHG.
I think Mr Perry used to run a car-maintenance club at some time but it had ceased by my time. As a budding engineer I was quite keen for him to restart it but, for whatever reason, that wasn't to be though I seem to remember a stripped down Wolseley without bodywork that lived in or behind the Manual School.

loringa wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 8:28 am ... though I seem to remember a stripped down Wolseley without bodywork that lived in or behind the Manual School.

Behind the Manual School??? That's shocking, depriving pupils of one of the nearest smoking spots.

John Perry I think.
Met us off the train when I first arrived and took over our woodwork class when Webb left.
Seemed a very meticulous and decent man.

Hello Ken - Are you in touch with Ernie McCall by any chance?

TMF wrote: ↑Wed Aug 18, 2021 1:40 am Hello Ken - Are you in touch with Ernie McCall by any chance?

why....were you hoping to say hello...??