Memories - Ken Adderley

Thank you to Ken Adderley (Five Ways pupil 1943-1950) for sending these great memories of his time with the school at Monmouth. Ken recently talked at a school assembly about his experiences and his presentation made a good impression, Ken told me:

 

 

 "I have been pleased to revise my rough notes of the speech I gave to school on their "evacuation day memoirs" which went down remarkably well. I am afraid it is rather short but my time was limited.

 Hope you enjoy reading it. It wold  be good to get some contribution from boys who joined the scout troupe, or enjoyed water sports. We were able to use Monmouth School's open air baths, where one of the prefects taught me how to swim! 

A FEW OF MY MEMORIES AS A FIRST YEAR STUDENT IN 1943

 

Arrival

 

By 1943 bombing by Germany to towns North of London had almost ceased.   So, some families considered it safe for their boys to leave Monmouth, preferring to be schooled back at Five ways.  So, by 1943 the school had become split between 2 sites: First year classes 1a and 1b were taught in Monmouth whilst classes 1x and 1y used the old school building in Birmingham.

 

In August 1943, the School kindly offered new boys a 4-week trial in Monmouth with the option of staying on when term started.   I was 11, the offer of a month’s holiday seemed quite attractive.   There was no grand procession along Broad Street as in 1939, but a motley group of new boys gathered at Snow Hill Station to take the 3 trains to Monmouth changing at Hereford and Ross-on-Wye.

 

Accommodation

 

No hotels were offered to the new boys but by 1943 accommodation comprised some home stays and seven hostels: three clustered in the town centre and four scattered in the surrounding countryside.   I was billeted at Inglewood along with 30 scholars of various ages, being looked after by Mr Holloway, the Head of English, and his wife.  Inglewood was one mile out of town along the Wye valley; a nice rural location adjacent to the school farm which had a small paddock offering plenty of scope for games especially the opportunity to learn touch rugby.

 

After Christmas I was offered a place at Summerville, a house run by 2 ladies – Mrs Bromilow and Mrs Bailey who each had a son in the upper school – one a sub-prefect and the other a house prefect. The latter only had authority at Sommerville.  We all had domestic chores to do.   I remember that in my patch of garden I was to grow garden peas.

 

Unusual features of School routine

 

Lessons were scheduled for 5 & half-days a week, but when weather permitted, the Head, Mr Dobinson, announced a half days holiday sometime during the week,  encouraging us to enjoy local attractions on our bikes - such the caves at Symonds Yat or Raglan Castle.  If the half day came on a Saturday, we enjoyed a whole day’s excursion.   I well remember one occasion when we boys from Somerville decided to explore the caves at Symonds Yat with a 3rd year boy taking charge.   Inevitably we got lost in these primitive caves and could not find a way out.  The other first year, Mickey Hurle began to cry. A second-year boy, John Charlton, put his arm around Mickey, and reassured him that we would find a way out. We did, and I live to tell the tale!  Charlton later became head prefect.

 

School Routine

 

As Monmouth School’s daily routine differed to ours, we dovetailed conveniently into available premises.  Typically, in the mornings our lessons were taken in church halls or community halls. Whilst Monmouth School used the school buildings on weekdays  from 8am until 1 pm, our school day was from 9am to 12 noon and from 2pm to 5pm. Lunch was taken back at the hostel, a cycle ride or 1-mile walk each way to Inglewood, wet or fine!  After lunch most of us used the classrooms and laboratories in Monmouth School. We had the main school hall for school assembly on Saturday mornings.    For half a day each week the timetable included an outward-bound activity: either working on the School farm or scavenging the Forest of Dean for dead wood, which eventually found its way to the school farm.

 

Some of us did stand on the touch-line to cheer on our first rugby team which steadily increased in stature over the war years, eventually beating Monmouth School in 1944 by 3-0.   After the war the School maintained annual fixtures against Monmouth School and Newport High School.    In 1949 and 1950 [when I was awarded my School Colours playing wing forward or hooker for the first team] these matches were memorable occasions, fixtures being either at home [at Portland Road] or away.   Despite the horrors of war, and occasional news of old boys being killed, the evacuation experience brought a new and wholesome dimension to one’s school-days.

Memories - Peter Hoff

I started at school in 1937. We must go back to Dobinson becoming head master in about 1933 and as a young man to be head master in those days at a school like ours. And he started Evenlode which is the school farm. It does come into it because that was the original place we were going to go. We went to the school farm actually for a couple of weeks, in the summer and each form or year had a fortnight there and then some other year went and we each had a chance of going there where we dug. Why I say it has some bearing, we were already into 'not being at home', like the kids are today. We went for a fortnight and nobody got on the mobile phone or anything to find out if we were alright and we were of that mentality when it came to 1938.

In 1938 we had this practice run where we thought we were going to get evacuated and at the last minute when we all assembled at Five Ways, they decided there wasn't going to be a war and we could all go home. Why I'm saying that is you've got to understand the mentality that happened a year later when we did it all again. And we hardly took any notice, "ah go on the farm, go somewhere away", we didn't know where we were going. However, they got us at school and we marched, as you've heard down Broad Street singing songs from respectable or not so respectable songs depending on what age you were, down to the railway station.

Now you've got to imagine there were 320 of us to start with and we'd got gas mask cases and we'd got a haversack and a luggage label with our name on it and that was all we'd got in the world. And we eventually got on a train, we didn't know where we were going, we didn't know anything but it wasn't so matter of life and death where you were going. You were going with the school, they'll be alright sort of thing. However we got on the train and eventually we arrived at this station.

Snow Hill Station

We were Birmingham boys and the little station looked as if it was behind the wood yard and it looked like it was something you played with in the spare room. It was all miniature! However, they marched us to the Rolls Hall where, you can understand how disorganised they all were because they were expecting a girl's school. They weren't expecting boys and the mentality those days was that boys were different from girls, "I don't mind a couple of girls but I ain't having a couple of boys".

However, we gradually went. You stood in Rolls Hall and they gave you a cup of something and you waited your turn. And you stood in your alphabetical order. My brother was a year younger and there was no thought in those days of putting brothers together, they just went Homer, Hollingsworth, Hoff. So Hemmings is next to me, standing there so they said "you two" and a lady appears and she was ancient to us, she must have been all of 25 or 26 and she was an unmarried lady and she lived with her father and she took us round to this cottage.

Now, I didn't realise what a life I'd led until I walked into this cottage and one of the first things she said to me, she wanted to show me, she was not an educated person but she'd got a certain amount of family knowledge she wanted to impart. So she said "Peter will you pass me that little box in that drawer there". And I reached into this drawer and I got this little box and she said "that's the thing for the gas mantle" and I put my hand in it. I'd never even heard of a gas mantle and of course the whole thing crumbled to pieces and they were like four punce each. "Oh!" so I said "I'm terribly sorry".

So we sat down and it is no problem for me to remember, we were in a house with gas, the tap was in the yard, the toilet we shared with 2 or 3 other cottages was a hole in a wooden thing, outside and a cold water tap. There was no lighting. Now I hadn't realised I'd lived in the lap of luxury for the first 12, 14 years of my life and I then got introduced to cottage rudimentary, absolutely the basics.             

1930's postcard of the Wye Bridge, Monmouth

And I was with this other gentleman, Hemming, who now lives in America and we're still in touch with each other, when you say this had a lasting effect, I'm in touch with him because we were billeted together. So Monmouth was a total shock. My mother and father somehow got the petrol to come down and see us and my mother said "well pack your stuff, you're not stopping here are you?"

So I said "yeah well we're all together and my friends are here".

"Oh!"she said "I can't believe it".

We must have been terrible kids because we expected electricity, we expected machinery, not what they've got now but similar and this went on until 1941 and I came home, back to Birmingham because I'd heard a rumour that the school was opening again in Five Ways, which had been a place where they issued ration cards up till then. But they were going to open the school so we came home and what accelerated our movement was that Birmingham had not been bombed. 

The first bomb we came in contact with, landed at the back entrance of Monmouth school on the road, it landed there before Birmingham. So we'd moved to a place where apparently they went down the river, the German bombers, because apparently they came up the Wye, or down the Wye, whichever way they came and went because that was their guidance and when they wanted to accelerate their departure they dropped the spare bombs and that's why there was one at the back of the school. So I pleaded the case with my mother and father that we'd been bombed and they weren't so terribly worried about us coming home. 

I came home early and went in the army, pretty well straight from school so I really didn't have the extensive history of what went on in Monmouth. But the school basically remained there until the end of the war and not many schools did, they mostly dribbled back to Birmingham or London or wherever they went. We were one of the only schools ever to live out the time.

We became friendly with the locals. I believe one of our lads married the girl from the garage, Hunt, and we were very friendly with the dairy product people, Walters, who were the milkmen and we integrated in a short period time. Of course I shouldn't imagine there were more than 5000 people living in Monmouth and the area and a couple or three hundred of us made quite an impact. 

When we got there, the first time we played Monmouth School at rugger, we got beaten 56-nil, then they beat us 36-nil the next year and still ran us ragged, 6-3 the year after that. Because they were good and there was one fellow who later captained Wales, John Gwillam, who had hands bigger than me. But I found out when I came out of the army that the last time we played them in 1945, we won, so at least if it didn't save our lives it increased our knowledge of rugby football.     

          

Five Ways evacuation to Monmouth by P.R.Watkins

Part Three

Soon after arrival at the suggestion of J.T.W. James the idea was mooted of acquiring some of the large empty houses in the town and using them as small boarding houses. This was adopted enthusiastically and gradually seven hostels were acquired. In 1941 the Government assumed full responsibility for them. By October 1941 when the last hpstel opened 130 boys were in what amounted to small self-contained boarding houses where they ate, slept and spent their leisure time. The Ministry of Health provided bedsteads, mattresses, sheets and blankets, whilst cutlery, cups and plates, cupboards and armchairs were acquired or improvised.

The first hostel was Inglewood, a summer boarding house belonging to the then Mayor of Monmouth, Councillor Bowen who moved out and lived over his shop in Monnow Street. It opened in September 1939 for 19 boys and was run by H.S.Thompson assisted by R.G.Scudder, the school porter and their wives. Inevitably, with the limited facilities and small rooms it was more a large family than a small school boarding house. Its original occupants were those who had had some difficulty in their billets. They all had bicycles and used to ride in a phalanx along the Old Dixon Road to and from school.

Inglewood was duly camouflaged , the windows were covered with splinter proof paint, wire netting and black out. It was from the top dormitory here that boys on at least one occasion escaped in the Summer after lights out to swim in the Wye near Dixton Road and to take advantage of the orchard of wild plums on the opposite bank.

Weston House in Monk Street was opened by parent Mrs Mason at the same time and held 13 boys. Cae Elga, a large 1920s house overlooking the Monnow valley was opened in January 1940 and was run for four and a half years by Mr and Mrs Frampton for 20 boys. Throughout its life great emphasis was placed on physical fitness. Every boy took an early morning bath at 7.15.

"All the year round the bedroom doors are left wide open through the night, whilst usually just before the boys are asleep, Mr Frampton comes round with a Dettol spray to disinfect our room" (1)

During the summer months all boys were encouraged to take their beds downstairs and sleep in the drive to the astonishment of early passers by. Cae Elga was also noted for the birthday-tea given to each boy. Sandroyd House in Monk Street was opened next for 19 boys and since it had name it adopted the names of its original wardens Mrs Sandey and Mrs Akroyd, two parents from Birmingham. On the ground floor were kitchens and dining-cum-common room and a bedroom for 5 boys. On the first floor a bathroom, two bedrooms each holding five boys and a bedroom shared by Mrs Sandey and Mrs Akroyd. On the second floor two further bedrooms, one for 4 boys and one for Mrs Akroyd's son also shared the sick room.

Leasbrook was the largest hostel, a huge ramshackle three-storied house in 5 acres of ground atDixton, holding 31 boys and opened in March 1940 by J.T.W.James. When he joined the froces, shortly to become Adjutant of the Young Soldiers Battalion of the 70th Welsh Regiment and subsequently Commandant of a Prisoner of War Camp, the Headmaster and Mrs Dobinson moved in. In the grounds were stables and outhouses which provided endless entertainment on Summer evenings and in the gardens a beehive which in 1943 produced 60 lbs of honey and was looked after by W.K.Davies who was a Sixth former who taught younger boys to control it after he left. At the end of each term, there was a breaking up party with charades, singsong and a treasure hunt.

Kingsley House accommodating 17 juniors and Sommerville taking 10 boys completed hostels. A number of the matsers whose wives had stayed in Birmingham were accomodated nearby in the Priory, a clergy house attached to the parish church.

(1) Five Ways Magazine No 74 Summer Term 1942 p. 1184

School Magazine Christmas 1939 - Tea, buns and Girl Guides

By the time the next school magazine was published in the Christmas term of 1939, KEFW school was well and truly ensconsed at Monmouth. The editorial introduction is by none other than headmaster, Charles Henry Dobinson himself:

"What will be the most vivid memories, in manhood's years, of the boys of Five Ways who evacuated in 1939? Will they recall the long trail a-winding, in formation of three's down Broad Street on a dampish grey September morning, everyone loaded like a pack mule, yet with the additional impediments of gas-mask and water-bottle : or the short walk in the scorching sun from Monmouth May Hill Station to the Rolls Hall, where tea, buns and Girl Guides refreshed, regaled and re-guided us? Or will they remember more clearly their life in the billets, St.Mary's spire by moonlight, boating on the Wye, feeding the pigs, shaking down the cider apples, sawing the logs, or eating roast potatoes at the Club?

Whatever their memories, there will be few, if any, who will look back with regret on a great adventure. Education is more than book-lore ; width of experience and change of environment can do more to develop mind and soul than many primers. A knife can not be whetted on clay ; it requires something sterner : nor can a fine character be formed without difficulties to contend with ; it cannot be reared on indulgence. And whilst the kindness of the foster-parents has in most cases been exceeding, the change has brought to every boy difficulties and sacrifices. The manner in which the sacrifices have been borne, and the difficulties surmounted, brings the greatest possible credit to our boys - and their parents. I do not believe that any earlier generation of boys would have responded to the transplantation better - if indeed they would have responded to it as well. There is nothing wrong with the spirit of our youth : if there be weakness, it must be sought further back.

So we have maintained our school life with a number fluctuating about three hundred and sixty, including a Sixth Form of well over fifty, and with the generous provision - an overwhelmingly lavish kindness - of every facility for school work, games and assistance, by the Headmaster and Governors of Monmouth School, we have a good term's work. Few can look back on this term with anything but satisfaction, and those few belong to the faint-hearted to whom, by the nature of things, life must bring a succession of regrets. For most of Five Ways, this has been a term bristling with difficulties which have been squarely faced, fairly overcome, and turned to advantage.

And now we face the rest of the school year - and greet the unseen beyond it - with a cheer!

C.H.D. "

Mr Dobinson was a man after my own heart - why say in two sentences that which can be crafted into a three paragraph treatise on the spirit of youth?

In spite of the upheaval and certain inconvenience of the evacuation, the high standards of the school magazine were upheld and somehow, from the rural isolation of wartime Wales, the editorial team maintained a surprisingly high level of adverts. Percy Wynne, portrait photographer of Broad Street had kept his usual spot alongside Moule & Co the school stationer and S. Metcalfe proudly claiming to be "the oldest established fruit stores near Fve Ways". Bassett-Lowke Ltd were still keen to sell model trains such as the L.M.S. Mogul in Gauge O for just the 3 . 17 . 0

Careers in navigation, 14 carat gold nib fountain pens, school text books and scientific instruments were all for sale and there is a marvelous full page advert for Boy's Own Paper, costing 6d every month, though I wonder if the sales strap-line instilled a sense of home sickness in the hearts of evacuated boys who read the advert:

"Dad! Don't forget - bring home my Boy's Own Paper"

The magazine content starts off with an obituary to former master, Mr Frederick Tyrie Sidney Houghton, a master from 1883 to 1916 and former chair of Birmingham Reference Library. This time there is far greater reference to the wider context of the world at war in the school magazine, starting with an update on the whereabouts and fortunes of four members of Staff who had joined the 34th Anti-Aircraft Brigade Company of the R.A.S.C stationed at Smethwick.

There follows an account of how the school spends its time in evacuation - mornings being spent doing P.T. and in football and Scouts (Mondays and Thursdays), art and music. Boys excused games go to the School Farm at Inglewood. As for evening time activities:

"Evening activities in which our boys take part include the Club, at which we are indebted to Mr Small for a bagatelle table for the juniors (the billiard table being reserved for the seniors!), the International Affairs class at the Institute, the Methodist Young People's Guild and the Confirmation Classes conducted by the Rev. Dawkins, Warden of the School Chapel. Every night the Big School is open for Private Study, for the Five Ways lending library, for reading, and for chess or other quiet games."

The author gives credit to Captain Elstob, Chief Billeting Officer and his Committee for their ceaseless activities for the well-being and happiness of the Five Ways boys.

Several new masters are welcomed to the school at the end of 1939 including Mr Wheatcroft, Mr Harrison, Mr M'Grath, Mr Richards, Mr Stilliard, Mr Dawson and Mr Tudor Davies, whilst Mr Frampton is welcomed back from ARP work in Birmingham. Elsewhere, there is a report on the visit to Monmouth of Miss Violet Horsborough, M.P., Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, who was introduced to a delighted Mayor of Monmouth (Alderman Howard Bowen) in front of the assembled school. Miss Horsborough observed how successful the evacuation had been and complimented the people of Monmouth for helping it to run so smoothly.

Another report describes the visit to Monmouth of the Lord Mayor of Birmingham (Alderman Edwards) who must have cheered the boys greatly when he suggested a celebratory day-off from lessons:

"Then, living up to the Birmingham tradition of generosity to children, he asked the Headmaster to give the school a whole day's holiday."

It is little wonder that the head prefect brought the meeting to a close by calling for cheers for the Lord Mayor!

The magazine continues with a miniature digest of topical utterances, which included this insight into German philosophical thinking of the day:

"It is no use London and Paris trying to beat about the bush. It would be more practicable if they cut out such concepts as humanitarianism, civilization, international law and international confidence from the debate"

Dr Goebbels.

There are several further descriptions of the journey to and subsequent life in Monmouth by various authors. The so-called Great Trek is documented in great detail probably for the first time, including reference to an unfortunate incident at Snow Hill Station:

"There is a short wait while one of the masters separates two first formers who are angrily fighting as to who is the owner of a solitary unclaimed gas mask on the platform. The matter is soon cleared up, however, when the master points out that the one boy has his gas mask hanging on his back".

Some things never change and I am certain that modern day teachers will instantly relate to that description of the typical 11 year old boy.

Another article contains a description of where the school's various masters were at the time they received the S.O.S. to return to school in readiness for evacuation. Mr Christian was in France, reviving his acquaintance with the French language, Mr Berends was also abroad though he was 'resting his nerves' on the advice of his doctor, Mr James was at St Ives, Mr and Mrs Greaves in Truro, Mr Mears at Sca Fell whilst poor Mr and Mrs Thompson were on honeymoon at Eccles.

The author offers reassurance to the unfortunate newly weds:

"We hope that in the near future international conditions will so improve as to allow them to resume their interrupted honeymoon".

The second world war was just under four months old in late December 1939, it would not end until the surrender of Japan in August 1945, nearly six years later. I wonder if Mr and Mrs Thompson ever got to complete their honeymoon?

Prelude to War - The Five Ways Magazine, Spring 1939

The Five Ways Magazine of Spring 1939 gives few explicit clues to the fact that by the end of the summer of that same year, the nation would be at war with Germany and the school would have been evacuated from Birmingham to Monmouth.

The advertising in the magazine is abundant and the style of the adverts as well as some of the products on sale help to date the publication. Young readers are encouraged to purchase (or persuade their parents to purchase more likely) a Len Hutton cricket bat made by Gradidges; a Flobot British built folding boat; a Basset-Lowke gauge 0 scale model railway train; or a carton of Bassett's original liquorice Allsorts ("everyone soon gets my trail" announces Bertie). For the more industrious student there is the Millionaire's Pen from Parker; school stationary from Moule and Co of Broad Street; or selected Scientific Instruments from Philip Harris & Co (also in Birmingham).

We might have expected to find hints about the impending global crisis in the editorial, but instead there is an ink sketch by the artist known as F.F. of a weary master leaning against his desk with the accompanying words:

"In the matter of the Editorial, I regret
I have had no inspiration, as yet
But since the cacoethes scribendi is dead,
Here's a portrait instead.

W.R.S.

The next few pages are taken up by a rich array of poetry, penned without doubt by aspiring young talent from amongst the pupils, followed by short stories and creative writing. One ode goes as follows:

May luck attend the magazine
And all the staff who serve it;
Good luck to all the editors
And surely they deserve it!
Zealously they serve, and well,
It's done with precision;
No magazine in all the world can
Ever equal this 'un.

G.C.B

One imagines the English master might have considered adding the comment "Shows great promise throughout... ending needs more work". Though perhaps the final line tellingly reflects the Brummagem dialect of these particular grammar school boys.

Glancing through these inspiring works of literature, one wonders what became of the authors, how many perfected their craft and became authors, novelists, researchers, journalists or editors?

The first big clue to imminent world events is a public information article from the A.R.P. entitled WHAT EVERY HOUSEHOLDER SHOULD KNOW and starts:

"In the event of an Air Raid, whistles will be blown in the vicinity of explosions as a warning that an air-raid is in progress. If high-explosive bombs are being dropped, Wardens will sound rattles to awaken all householders in the immediate neighbourhood."

The article goes on to describe three different types of bomb which "may be expected" including the Gas Bomb, the Incendiary Bomb and the High-Explosive Bomb and concludes with a resume of precautionary measures.

What is interesting is how this potentially alarming public information notice is slipped in between two short stories authored by pupils, one a ghost story about a deserted house and the second a tale of espionage set in 18th century Boston. The A.R.P announcement has no introduction or preamble, no explanation as to whom might be about to drop high-explosives on the homes of the school boys and their teachers and parents or for what reason. Very factual and understated, almost as if there has been a conscious policy to keep everything low key to avoid panic or a case of, in the words of Basil Fawlty, "don't mention the war".

The second section of the magazine contains reports about school activities, including a detailed review of the school G&S opera The Mikado performed during December 1938:

"It is difficult to avoid an excessive use of superlatives in giving one's impressions of a performance which will long live in the memories of those who were privileged to be present. The writer had the good fortune of being able to attend each evening, and his enjoyment increased in geometrical progression, until the final curtain".

But it is the next report which finally provides some interesting clues to the wider historic context of school boy life in 1939. Astonishingly, in January 1939, nine months before the start of war with Hitler's Germany, a group of boys and masters from Five Ways went on a ski-camp to Kassel and the hills of Sauerland in Germany. Under the stewardship of Dr King and Mr Christian, the group traveled by train and boat, then train again over the German frontier at Aachen and onwards into the very heart of Nazi Germany. The report is adapted from the log of D.Asdell.

An idyllic time was spent skiing, walking and climbing and German hospitality is described in warm and open-hearted terms:

"The young German people already there made us completely at home; our masters were chatting with Herr Schroter about old times; we played games and looked at journals, tentatively tried to sing but soon hushed it up - the Germans sang so well - then went to bed happy."

The report recalls the special warmth shown to the Five Ways group by their hosts, none other than the local branch of the Hitler Youth. Reading that name today, one can be forgiven for feeling a shiver down the spine as images of patriotic young Nazis vaulting and gamboling in front of the Fuhrer in Leni Riefenstahl's epic propaganda films come easily to mind. But in the context of the long, uncertain prelude to war, one can also feel a sense of deep poignancy for what must have been rare times of apparent innocence and optimism, when adolescent young men on both sides were allowed by fate a final opportunity to meet and bond as brothers united by the vigour of youth in the shadow of war:

"Our thanks are due above all to the Gebbietsfuhrer, leader-in-chief of the Kurhessen division of the Hitler Youth. We made our first acquaintance with him at a "Heimabend" in Willengen. In a large hall the Hitler Youth of the district and ourselves were gathered to sing and spend an informal evening. The Gebietsfuhrer had come especially from Kassel and welcomed us in a speech - which Dr King translated. We sang to him - "John Brown's Body", "The Mermaid", "Ten Green Bottles" - and strange to say he liked it! And from this meeting until the time we left Germany, he did all he could to make us feel happy."

The magazine continues with many more reports of school activities such as holidays at the school farm at Evenlode, lectures and school societies. The first meeting of the Foreign Affairs Society on February 15th took the form of a debate on the motion, "That this Society prefers Democracy to Dictatorship" with Mr Swale outlining the evils of Dictatorship whilst Dr King "dwelt on the deficiencies of the democratic electoral system and contrasted the whole social and economic organisation of a democracy with the efficiency of a totalitarian state. He concluded that the practical advantages of Dictatorship outweighed the high-sounding theories of Democracy".

Dr King may well have made a convincing case, but the motion was carried by a majority of 64 votes and we can feel relieved to say that democracy appears to have won the day. However, the antagonists were clearly not about to lie down and the report finishes: "At the next meeting of the Society on March 8th, Herr Heerde will state "The German Point of View" in the form of considered replies to written questions from members on recent happenings in Germany".

Whether messrs. King and Christian fostered genuine sympathies for the "German point of view" it is difficult to say conclusively just from this evidence, but as the neutral reader progresses through the pages of the school magazine of early 1939, it is certainly the case that they felt inclined to play devil's advocate on more than one occasion. At a meeting of the Literary and Debating Society in March 1939 the two men gave a joint lecture on "The aims and organization of the German Youth Movement" with Dr King stressing the priority of the Church over Youth Meetings in Germany:

"Another point made clear by Dr King was that there is no military training in the Movement, especially in the use of arms. There is no compulsion to belong to the Movement he added".

At the same meeting, Mr Christian gave a talk on the history of dictators.

"He spent a long time showing the merits and defects of such men as Richelieu and Napoleon. He also showed that the petty dictators of South America and Mexico can cause as violent a repercussion as the more powerful rulers. He ended an interesting lecture by giving the characteristics of the Movement".

Other societies who get a mention in the magazine included the Photographic Society, the Natural History and Scientific Society, the Fencing Club , the Boxing Club and the Chess Team. What is also interesting is that reports and articles from the Old Boys Club are included in the school magazine and just like the Five Ways Old Edwardians Association newsletters of today, there are some great anecdotes, including this light hearted memory from the 'Misty Memories' of old boy Clyde Higgs:

"Another landmark is the occasion when a class-mate fell from the back of an electric tram in Ladywood Road, and was reported fatally injured. For about three days our thoughts were with him - distressing thoughts, moreover - when he suddenly appeared in the class, bright and early one morning, as impudent as ever, none the worse for his mishap, and prepared to revel in the temporary hero-worship which was his due."

The magazine finishes with an article encouraging boys to consider a career in agriculture and some more adverts, two of which reflect the sign of the times in promoting careers in wireless operation and navigation. The very last advert in the magazine provides a lovely piece of miscellany to finish on:

"Giant Moths of the Jungle"
How to obtain and rear them in England
by Pentland Hick

This booklet tells you everything you need to know in order to be able to breed Giant Moths from all over the world, and to rear their very strange caterpillars.

Price 1 shilling - Post Free

Pentland Hick
Athol House, Scarborough

In the anxious build up to global warfare, it is comforting to know that Birmingham school boys were quite possibly preoccupied with breeding giant jungle moths in discarded Bertie Bassett cartons!

Memories of Roy G Griffiths (pupil from 1943-48)

The following article containing Roy's memories is from the Association Newsletter
No 58 December 2004

Yet another former evacuee, Roy was pleased with the photos and articles about Monmouth in the last newsletter. Roy came to the reunion and also brought a pile of books and leaflets relating to Monmouth for our archives, passed on to him by Robert Treppass.

An e-mail arrived after the reunion which said, “Thank you for all the hard work you put into arranging yesterday’s visit to Monmouth – including arranging the excellent weather! Chris and I both found it fascinating to meet others from so far back in time – I even managed to recognise one or two! The day went very well. It was a great pleasure to meet the Headmaster of Monmouth School (and his car) and we thought that he and his wife were marvellous to entertain so many in their house and garden. Similarly, the owners of Leasbrook were exceptional in entertaining so many, but I found it fascinating to revisit the house and garden which had so many memories. It was interesting to hear from the owners’ daughter that her bedroom was the same room that I and 10 other first and second formers occupied – she no doubt has a little more luxury than we did!

One question arises, however, one that no-one that I have talked to can answer – how was it decided who should go to Monmouth and who should stay in Birmingham? Whilst at the time as an 11-year old, I was not too enthusiastic at the thought of going, it soon became “home” and, at the end of that single year, I did not want to return, and indeed did not do so until the last possible moment, before the new September term began for all in Birmingham.

It was good to meet and talk to Gill Leake. She confirmed that her younger brother, Humphrey, was fit and well and told me of his achievements – I had heard nothing of him in newsletters. Recollections of him are of the rota for escorting him back to Leasbrook after morning day-school, and more to the point, forgetting to do so, and having to run back to pick him up and still have time for lunch before retruning to Monmouth for the afternoon session.

One final question arose from our visit – how did CHD travel between Leasbrook and Monmouth School every day that he was there? I have no recollections as to his mode of transport. Little details, but all adding up to an overall picture for the record.”

Rest in Peace Peter Coleman

I am sad to announce that just weeks after I visited Peter Coleman at his home and carried out the interview about his memories which I have been transcribing to this website, Peter became ill and died.

His funeral was at Carrs Lane United Reformed Church on 7th May 2008 and I understand that short excerpts edited from the interview by Peter's son David, were played during the service.

Peter was a lovely, gentle man who lived opposite me and my family with his wife Cicely on Aubrey Road in the Quinton area for many years. It was only recently I learnt he went to KEFW and more recent still that I found out he had been one of the Monmouth boys.

I will miss seeing Peter coming out of his home and I wish to convey my sympathies to Cicely and their children and grand children. I am very pleased to have had the privilege of recording his voice and his memories, both for this project about the Monmouth experience and also as a lasting record for his family.

Memories - Peter Coleman

"I was born in Handsworth and grew up in Wheeler Street in Lozells, a nice little community there but has since beeen more or less demolished. Then I went to an elementary school there, Gower Street and from there I went to Five Ways. Right at the beginning of the War, the day the War broke out, I was called up for Five Ways and kitted out as we had to be and went down to Monmouth"

"We arrived at a little station there, I think that's gone but I think it was called Mitchel Troy or something but it was in Monmouth and then we were taken to the Rolls Hall, Rolls named after the famous flyer and Rolls Royce. And there we were allocated our hosts and hostesses and my first hostess was named Mrs Pembridge (I think her name was) but after a while her daughter fell in love, or the chap fell in love with her ...or mutual, with a post man and she was educated at the girl's High School which was a posh school then, I was with a chap named Brian Clissold ...so we couldn't have the room anymore because she wanted it for her fiance and all that, so we were told to move and we moved up slightly at the edge of the town at an estate called Wyesham Avenue (Wye - the River Wye runs through Monmouth) and when I arrived there Mrs Ledgington, the hostess, was crying bitterly because her husband had been called up for the army and she wondered if he would ever come back you see. And I was crying too because I didn't like being uprooted from Chippenham Gate Street down by Chippenham Park, very nice.

We used to ...the River Wye was there and you could take the stones up and underneath were these gudgeons, these fish, it was a very nice park that was, of course they've driven a motorway right through it, right past a modern school where the students are trying to concentrate, and after that, my father entered the situation and unbeknown to me, without asking me whether I was happy or unhappy he raised some objection to me living at Wyesham Avenue thinking I might get the wrong accent or something, not that his was all that much better, and it was out of my hands... I was moved! Moved away from it, where I was quite happy, because of my father's intervention, all for best intentions I suppose but there we are.

"I was moved down to some digs in Mono Street, to Mrs Meredith at the bottom of Mono Street, it was an unhappy stay there and then I was transferred to Inglewood which was quite good, there were quite a few boys there and we used to sleep on paliasses on the ground and just below there, across the Dixton Road or New Dixton Road, you could run down to the meadow and into the River Wye, which we did, and there was an old church called Old Dixton Church round there".

"I remember one incident, I had been scrumping sweet chestnut trees and I was late, so there if you were late you were given a little job to do, peeling potatos or something like that. And after that I had a friend named Frankie (Francis) Barnett, nothing to do with the motorcycle of that name, and he said that, you see he lived at Mrs Little the butcher's shop in Moor Street, and he said she was looking for people because she'd had a double tragedy in her life, her eldest son joined the navy and he was in the conveying convoys and he was torpedoed and he drowned and that was that. And she also had another son, a smaller one, younger one and he was playing in the back yard of this butcher's shop and for some reason or other he was playing with a gun and the gun was left loaded, and he was playing about with his friends and he got shot ...dead!"

"And so, this was Mrs Little, she had a double tragedy and she wanted to fill up her life with something to do so she took four or five boys in to fill the gap and these boys, there was Francis Barnett who was a long-stayer and he told me about it and I got transferred there to my great joy because it was it was a butcher's shop, there was no shortage of meat or other products. In those days the cattle didn't have any offal, they seem to have been produced without any offal. These boys, Francis Barnett, Jammy James and David Jenkins, Gavin Gaves and one chap who became a doctor. Because there were so many of us suddenly we had to sleep in the same beds which was alright providing you got on with your bed fellow. It was very good there, getting towards the end of my stay in Monmouth but it was very good ...she was a good cook and on Sundays the bank manager opposite used to come over with a freshly caught salmon from the River Wye and she had the most wonderful mayonaise which I shall never forget. Her husband Mr Little, the butcher, rather large in size, he used to tease me about a crush I'd got on one of the girls at school and he used to say "what you want to do is to get some goose turd... that would be what she'd like"! I didn't know what he was talking about for quite a while. So, that was very nice there"

Prelude To War - A World Divided

In 1936 Mussolini and Hitler formed the Rome-Berlin Axis

During the early decades of the 20th century the most powerful nations of the world began to divide into three main politcal camps. Firstly there were those nations that were democratic, where the citizens voted their own governments, including Britain, the United States, France and other European countries such as Belgium, Czechhoslovakia and Sweden .

Secondly there were fascist countries such as Germany, Italy Japan and Spain - one-party states ruled by dictators. Thirdly there was the mightly communist state of the Soviet Union, meant to be run by the workers but in reality ruled by the tyrannical authoritarian Josef Stalin. Conflicts between these ideological states concerning territory and economic wealth led to the 2nd world war which broke out in 1939.

The first fascist state in Europe emerged when Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in 1922. By the 1930s there were fascist style governments in Spain, Portugal, Austria and Romania, but when Hitler's Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933 they took fascist ideas to their most extreme. A young Hitler had developed his ideas whilst in prison in 1924 where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a book which spelt out his theories that Germany needed strong leadership, a large army and economic self-sufficiency. In Mein Kampf Hitler also stated his more extreme ideas about supressing communism and exterminating the Jewish people.

When Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's Party (the Nazi Party) eventually came to power in 1933, he immediately began to build up the country's military strength and in 1936 he moved these troops into the Rhineland, an industrial area of Germany on the border with France and Belgium that had been designated a military-free zone after World War 1.

In 1938 Hitler expanded his dominion into parts of Austria and Czechoslovakia, thus breaking the Treaty of Versailles which had been signed in 1919 with the intention of preventing Germany from developing it's empire into neighbouring countries. Following these worrying developments along with the expansion of other fascist states, such as Italy's invasion of Ethiopea (Abyssinia) in 1935 and Japan's invasion of China in 1937, Britain and France formed a closer alliance - agreeing to help Poland, Romania and Greece should they be invaded by Germany or Italy.

In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, a Birmingham MP, was welcomed by the German people to Munich where he signed the Munich Agreement, agreeing to let the Germans lay claim to the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain insisted that the Agreement would guarantee "peace in our time" and an end to further German expansion.

Six months later, Hitler took over the whole of Czechoslovakia and in 1939 his attentions turned to Poland.