The Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone

I started in Taffy's class in '53 and no-one can ever forget 'Killer'. My favourites were 'Spud' Peel, English, 'Willie' Watson, who was my form master for 2 years and taught English and French( he later left and took holy orders - I hope we didn't drive him to that!) 'Pixie' Nichols was a great physics teacher but best of all, though was Mr Beck - we called him 'Spider'. He was a proper disciplinarian but made Maths an exciting subject. My favourite Mnemonic came from him relating to Sin, Cos and Tan. He renamed the sides of a triangle as 'Facing', ' Touching' and 'Longest' so the phrase that I've never forgotten that links these is 'Folkestone / Lads, Team / Lost, Four / Two! It'll make sense if you remember your trigonometry!
BTW, I hope you weren't one of the evil third years that got me a detention by thrusting a bunch of fireworks in my pocket to avoid being caught with them by Prefect Butcher?

I see I'm a little slow in adding to reminiscences of Harvey Grammar in the early '50s but Straw Walker & 'Meet by Bobby's' got me excited. May I add "Daddy" Elston (did he not eventually become Head, after Ward?) our Chemistry teacher; Mr. Godfrey (Geography and Sports) - he could be a bit brutal; and God, yes, "Killer" with the little skull over his door and his ready use of the slipper: "Even from over here I can see that your FEET are dirty!" Oh terror. Ward, as HM, used to make his entry to Assembly with a dignified piano accompaniment - I suspect that even he was a bit intimidated by Killer. Then the gym burned down! I also remember that the school hired a dietician (I am really uncertain as to why) and it transpired that she was not quite the thing (i.e. misrepresented her qualifications) - nevertheless, what she might have lacked in knowledge of nutrition she appears to have had made up with other talents well perceived by certain of the school staff and several students (here unnamed and present company definitely excepted) got to timing these 'visits' to her private, her very private, boudoir: seven minutes in and out was, I believe, the standing record - and standing was likely the operative word. Can't remember the name of our delightful French teacher but I shall never forget his hairstyle - frizzy and lop-sided - he became enraged by the incessant repetition of the Christmas carol "Noel Noel Noel" in the room above his class - conducted by our Divinity and Music teacher (another name - please help me here!) and who could blame him? He was given to violent rages (which I believe were contrived) which quickly restored order. "Spud" Peel was our avuncular form-master - a kindly soul from another age. And there was "Musher" Roome - my superb mathematics teacher (where do this nicknames come from?). Yes, "Spider" I remember: he never taught me but, you are right, he was well respected. And there was the History and Literature master who delivered lines of Sigurd the Volsung and also Prescott's Montezuma in an amazing (and unique) voice: my abysmal homework; he read it to the class and exclaimed "... and here is a loomp, an actual LOOMP, of booter adhering to the first page ..!" I remember he detested the Daily Mirror and (figuratively) tore it to shreds in front of the class - page by page. Thank you for this chance to recall some distant memories!

Poly was a lovely man: I shall never forget one thing he said to me: I caught him hammering a screw into a piece of woodwork and I said "Should you do that?"
He replied "You shouldn't, but you do!"

Every time I hammer a screw I remember him!

Several days later and after not bringing those names to mind since way back then, I now recall that "Taffy" Howells was our music and Religious Instruction teacher: his was the class that sang "Noel, Noel, Noel" to drive poor Mr Watson (yes!) bonkers as he attempted to teach French to us dullards in the classroom below.

I remember we came in one Monday morning to find the gym had been torched over the weekend - it was that big all-wood building, painted black, to the left of the main school ( I think it has since been replaced by something very similar, which still exists). This seemingly put Killer out of a job but he was close to retiring age anyway - does anybody know what happened to him? There was a rumour that he'd been in the RAF during the war and had taught himself to fly spitfires - the rumour never told how many enemies he shot down. Was he not also alleged to have been a boxing champion?

I really can't recall the name of our biology teacher who inhabited a free-standing building on the opposite side from the gym - but I do remember he exhibited to us a skeleton called "Horace" - likely of a rather small pygmy or, more probably, done in plastic. I particularly recollect him reveling in the enunciation of the "Xanthroproteic test"!

I can also mention that I spent time in Dover Grammar - only briefly - when Booth was head. There was there a character who taught French (with a very English accent) and who was almost as dreaded as Killer - he even had a similar nickname but I don't remember what it was. Surely somebody can supply this.

An interesting aspect of school culture: at Harvey, if somebody in the class had committed a crime and the Head stood before the class to discover the name of the criminal (he, remaining mute), his classmates would 'help him out', with many turning to stare at him, or muttering his name under their breath. At another Grammar school I attended in the West Country, and in the same situation, the class would just stare in front of them and leave it up to the miscreant whether or not he made himself known!

I confess I had a chequered education but I deny any gross criminality.

The gym burning down was after my time but the school hall burned in my last year. Us 5th years had the task of moving the furniture in the dining hall for assemblies. 5B, my form, had the task for final assembly on my last day. 'Killer' marched us along the corridor and I was foolish enough to break into a 'goose step'. You can only imagine how enraged Killer became and told me to see him in the Gym after school. Such was the degree of respect for authority that I went! That was the only time I saw Killer laugh. He asked me why, on my last day, had I come to see him, then shook my hand and wished me good luck. It was also rumoured that he had a steel plate in his skull and a bullet lodged in his leg!
One of my Form mates often dozed off in class. Mr Godfrey became annoyed enough on one occasion to hang him out of a first floor window by his feet. Mr G suffered from 'Red Herring Syndrome'. If he was asked about his wartime experiences, he'd spend much of the period talking about them. That's why my geography is so bad!
Perhaps your biology teacher was Mr Charles who taught us first year Chemistry. While demonstrating the making of gunpowder, grinding the ingredients with a pestle and mortar, he started to say that you shouldn't grind too hard when the mixture exploded in his face removing his eyebrows which were about the only hair he had. He had his revenge a while later when we were doing an experiment which produced Epsom salts (MgSO4). He didn't tell us of the effects this may have on our digestive system, merely telling us to taste the result of our experiment, saying that it should taste salty. You can imagine 25 first years enthusiastically gobbling down spoonfuls of the stuff.

Good to see more coming from Folkestone.

A mention of the HGS tuck shop is worthy of a mention here I feel, as with all that learning there was a need to keep up the energy with the sweet stuff! It was run, I recall, by Mr & Mrs Stubberfield the worthy caretakers of the day.

As many sweets were still on ration in the early 50's, there was a ready black market going on selling any spare coupons that larger (or poorer) families had to offer to generate a little cash to purchase penny chews etc. This was operated in a regimented fashion by Mr & Mrs S!

Remember some of the competitive games in the playground? Five stones and rings's with clay and glass marbles.

Polly (Polwin) and his block planes and his adept use of flying wood offcuts to maintain discipline. Where were the human rights lobby in those days!

Straw Walker: thanks, yes it was Charlie all right, thanks - didn't he keep saying he was the only master without a nickname? He wasn't British as I recall, had an accent. I'd say he was a tad capricious so the gunpowder story doesn't surprise me. In those days we'd attempt to buy our sulphur and saltpetre in different chemist shops. I remember one of Godfrey's reminiscences too - he recounted how when he was in India (army of course) he'd be walking down the narrow pavement when a Sikh warrior would approach and how it was necessary, as a white man, to face him down and cause him to step of the pavement, to show who was who. Kind of an antique game of Chicken. Godfrey had a rather poor opinion of my cricket.

Meet by Bobbys - yes, I do remember the Stubberfields - the name hasn't come to my mind since the day I left.

Ahh yes, The Stubberfields. I loved their Devon Splits and would sprint down to the tuck shop to make sure I had one before they sold out. 4d worth of heaven which probably explains my girth now!

Meet by Bobbys - remember the game 'High Cockalorum' - wherein two teams of six or so would take turns to join in forming a long "back" while members of the opposing team, in turn, would run and propel themselves along the line of backs, landing with a thud as far forward as possible? Then there was a game where one fellow would sit on the shoulders of another and two such pairs would wrestle, one rider attempting to dislodge the other! What with Charlie's chemical experiments, Godfrey hanging people out of his window, Killer's thrashings and school dinners isn't it a wonder that we grew up to become the men we are today?
PS Not to mention school milk, laced with strontium 90, and now said to be the cause of a significant percentage of the prostate cancers found in our generation!

The big difference is that we were taught from a very early age to respect people and property and we'd never complain to our parents about the way teachers treated us because we'd probably be told that we deserved it! That's what made us the men we are today!

Careful fella's, with all this chest puffing going on you could crack a rib! Yes Macilrae I remember the game 'High Cockalorum' and the occasional broken arm it produced, also the neck wrenching game of warriors too; not games to be taken on lightly after a school dinner of cabbage and mince with prunes as afters!

Remember the assemblies when we would all patriotically 'sing' the old school song:- "Now we are gathered here shoulder to shoulder".........etc

'Six of the best' was also a character builder albeit a somewhat painful one! It could be given for just talking at the wrong time in class........I wonder what the reaction would be if this was so in today's schools? I well remember getting my experience of experiencing this for wiring up an induction coil to the metal handle on the languages class room. But it was worth it as I connected it up to a 9v battery as opposed to the recommended 3v one! SHOCKING !

Reading between the lines many of us on this thread must have passed each other in the corridors of the HGS.

When I was there only the Head was supposed to administer corporal punishment - we had Mr. Ward and he laid it on now and then and a surprising number of people would find they had something to do in the vicinity of his office when somebody was to be caned. Listening hopefully for howls and screams. Killer followed his own path and favoured an old slipper - this was given for the smallest excuse: one bloke just being caught smiling at the wrong moment. As Meet by Bobbys says, Polly could be a bit rough on occasion but we weren't scared of him.

Ah yes, the Harvey Grammar School song! A striking similarity to the Harrow School Song!

I was looking through old photo's and thought that this one might stir a few memories!

Wow! It certainly does bring back memories. Quite surprised that I can pick out all the various buildings. Killer's Gym with the changing room and showers, then the main building with the assembly hall behind (Was this before it burned down?) The dining hall and boiler rooms behind that and then on the right, front to back were the Stubberfields cottage, the bike sheds and toilets, the junior science room (Mr Charles's domain) and then the tuck shop. I hope I have it all right. I really don't have many happy memories of the place.

I wasn't happy at Harvey myself - I think that was my own fault: I was eccentric and I stuck out like a sore thumb and so got bullied. I did contrast that school with the one I transferred from in Dorset where I was extremely happy. Somehow Harvey at that time had a certain meanness of spirit - partially, the difference could have been because the Dorset school was 'mixed' - males are always more bitchy when segregated. I also don't think the Head at that time was a strong character - he was intimidated but the senior masters like Godfrey and Killer. The Head always sets the standard for the school. I wasn't there long - I left at 16 and went out to work for W.H. Smith but afterwards finished my "O" and "A" levels in Ashford and Folkestone Technical Colleges. Those were a great experience and we had a huge mixture of different nationalities in Folkestone: Thai, Greek, Kuwaiti, Persian ... we had an international club at the Tech and dances most Saturdays - the year was 1958. At Ashford they had an old chemistry lab but no Chemistry course - they allowed me to use the lab and I managed to pass my "O" through self-study. I have to confess I did abuse the lab a little and, together with Archie Argyhrou (later, the founder of the Acropolis), made some pretty loud and dangerous bombs which we detonated in the neighborhood. We could have killed ourselves - but, as you see, we didn't ...

I know nothing of this school but a great building ,and sounds like you all had a good time at school, well they are called the best times of your life,as for myself I can not say they they were. Well I did take afew days off,and paid of it later both from the school and my dad,Still feel it now.