His teaching was so good I do wonder if this was like Tommy Cooper’s magic act-all wrong on purpose to engage the audience. Herby didn’t usually wear a fez, though! Johnny Layton left in my 4th year, next up being Jock Pearce. An intelligent man, couldn’t teach without a textbook, and one of those great […]

His successor as Dept. The Head was Herby Sill. He looked like a dead ringer for what Moody would have looked like if the latter had a spark of humanity or humility in him, or had been programmed as such on Planet Zorch! Herby was a good cricketer & excellent chessplayer, but slide projectors, cine […]

“Johhny” Layton taught us in 1R & 2W. All that matters about him that he was young and quite good-looking, which would account for his possession of a truly stunning Swedish wife a couple of years before Peter Sellers made these a de riguer fashion accessory! 3N, we started with the Head of Dept., Ernie […]

I always suspected geography masters all came from Barking, now I’ve had it confirmed. I never had a sane one in my 4 years of it at MGS. It was the last choice of subjects for O levels we made, at the end of 4N. You dropped 2 out of Woodwork/Art/Music at the end of […]

We had a slightly different performance one day; Mr M said to the boys who were late “You’re only first year, aren’t you?” He then took a slipper out of his briefcase. This was weird. Not only was the plimsoll enormous, perhaps size 12; but, unlike the ordinary slippers used for punishment, which were well-used […]

sometime later our friend W was called out to the front, and the procedure was repeated — well, almost. Of course, he was wearing long trousers. Mr M wasn’t amused: he opened his desk drawer, pulled out a leather belt, and gave W a hefty whack on the backside. It was hard enough that W’s […]

This is a tale of my first year at grammar school, and our geography teacher, Mr M. In those days, one of the school rules was that the first year should wear short trousers. This rule wasn’t really enforced, and indeed there was one boy in our class, W, who was in long trousers from […]

At our school you had to go up some stairs to the heads office,his secretarys office was opposite on a narrow passage. The proceedure was to knock and tell the secretary that you had been sent up for punishment and for what reason, she then had you wait as she informed the head. You were […]

On each occasion I had to report to the punishment room in the evening, dressed only in underpants, bedroom slippers and dressing gown. I was then ordered to remove the robe, lower my underpants and grasp my ankles with my hands. The cane cracked down with real severity, wringing yells from me and making me […]

  Borstals obviously had a “Punishment Room” as well Corporal punishment was a prominent feature, and my persistent disobedience earned me repeated sessions with the cane. I often received eight hard strokes on the bare bottom and twelve strokes was not uncommon. These were invariably well laid on by a well-built officer and hurt severely, […]