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Garth Fletcher gets in
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January 15, 2007
| Hi Michael,
I was there, from 1953 to 1958,
along with you and Finney, Wildbore, Baker, Tomlinson, Parish, Blore, Jackson
et al. I too was in 1X, 2X etc. up to 5X, after which, with a handful of
'O levels' I went off into the wide world!
Here are some memories;
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| Garth pictured 1954, 1958 and the
present |
With his wife, Ros
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'Fletcher, my cat knows more French
than you!' An astute observation by Mr Topliss during a French lesson.
(The cat, of course, may have had a better teacher!)
Shaking ink on aforesaid French
teacher's jacket during lesson - not only me, we all did it.
'At my last school, all the pupils
would stand when my wife or I entered the room.' Statement by Mr
Pritchard aka 'THE GROWTH' (maths, Form V). Of course, the next time
he entered the room, we all stood, much to his embarrassment.
Someone 'shot' a ball bearing from a
catapult through the windscreen of Bert Fossey's (parked) car. Excuse
- 'did not deliberately hit the car sir, I aimed at a boy.'
Total, complete and abject fear of 'Robbo'.
Stood me in good stead later All of the screaming Drill Instructors,
PTI's etc whom I encountered in the RAF, were mere pussycats compared
with Robbo. He once told us that there were crosses down near the
river, marking the graves of boys who he had killed. I think I
believed him!
Adrian Wildbore (Wilb) had a verruca
which seemed to last for ever. This excused him from all forms of
exercise. Do you know if he has recovered from this yet?
Bert Fossey calling us all 'filthy
guttersnipes' because we had thrown mud from our soccer boots all
around the classroom.
'Beware the ides of June!' - G B
Swaine. 'Don't you mean the ides of March sir?' - bright pupil. 'No,
June, that's when you take your 'O' levels! - GBS. This wonderful man
was also prone to walking into the classroom and booming 'June 1958',
again as a warning about 'O' levels.
Having to go into the art room and
try and 'draw' (Who was the Art teacher who wore the beret? [Hawksby -
Ed]) My skills at this were about as good as my French!
Re. some coarse fun with characters
from books we read in 'Lit' with Ron Cooke, I think Roger Finney was
responsible - 'That's a nasty un Sebastian' and 'That's a thick un
Dikon!'
Who always said 'What about our
Alf!'. (Hint. He is pictured with Wilb on your website.)
Having dancing lessons in the dining
room/gym with a pretty lady in preparation for the 'Fifth form dance'.
Poor lady must have had the most trodden on feet in the county!
Seeing 'Titch' Harris being chased by
'Mr Lipp' because he (Titch) had been cheeky.
The totally unprintable observations
on life given by Bill, the portly park keeper. (What a shape he was!)
'Pop' Hanson telling us that 'graphs
are wonderful things', but never explaining what they did, what they
were used for etc.
Hurling a magnetised piece of iron
round the playground at Abbey Street to demonstrate that such
treatment reduced its magnetism. Practical science at it's best!
The cavernous Chemistry labs at Abbey
Street, where you could pull the Bunsen burner off the end of the
tube, turn the gas on and blow down the tube to put out all the other
burners along the length of the bench. There was also a big Kipps
Apparatus in a fume cupboard?
Having to 'do' woodwork - about as
good as my French and Art, with a teacher who had part of a finger
missing? (Is this true, or have I imagined it? [It's true]) Didn't we
make a matchbox holder? (Would not do that now would you?)
Garth Fletcher
PS: Did I read that you were planting a
tree in memory of Tomlinson - if so may I ask what happened?
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Garth's post school life
Career advice from Boss Swain, circa August 1958 ‘You
have six ‘O’ levels; if you do not go into Form VI, you should go into
Accountancy or Banking.’
Duly became an articled clerk in small Accountancy firm
in Derby. After 12 months, began to realise this was not for me, and
after much argument with parents, paid to be released from articles in
September 1960.
Joined the RAF in the hope of seeing some foreign
countries. Signed on for nine years. Became an Air Radar Fitter, and
worked on V Bomber radar. During nine years, was posted to:
· Shropshire
· Wiltshire
· Lincolnshire
· Warwickshire
I did actually get a two week trip to Malta when our
squadron took part in an exercise there. My last posting was to Gaydon,
in Warwickshire in 1963. This tended to be a long posting because it was
a Maintenance Unit for my particular radar equipment, and I remained
there for the rest of my nine years. I decided to make use of such a
long tour at one station, and went to the Lanchester Tech. in Coventry,
and got an HNC in Electrical Engineering and Electronics. I Left the RAF
in September 1969, and joined a company in Leamington Spa which
manufactured control systems for pipelines/water treatment works etc.
I remained with this company (Serck Controls Ltd.) until
I decided to retire in 2002. During this time I had many different
positions, including Section/Department management, System Test, System
Design, Project Management, Training, Project Engineering. Having
different jobs, and working under a variety of different owners as we
were bought and sold was really like moving and working for different
companies. During my career at Serck I worked in:
·
Russia
·
Ukraine
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Hungary
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Czechoslovakia -all during the height of the ‘Cold War’ in the 1970’s
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Turkey
·
United Arab Emirates (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah)
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India
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Sabah (Borneo)
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Scotland
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Wales
·
Northern Ireland
All of this travelling was exactly what I had joined the
RAF for, and did not always come at convenient times!
I have to say that so far I have enjoyed every minute of
retirement, and at no time felt any longing to return to work, though a
limited hours part time job has not been ruled out completely.
Garth Fletcher
January 29, 2007
garth.fletcher@virgin.net
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