I went to Cheltenham Grammar School from 1959 to 1965. I had been transferred from Bournemouth School, one of those bland educational establishments built in the fifties, to CGS in the Lower High Street which had originally been founded in 1574.
To start the Alice in Wonderland flavour of this most wonderful of schools, all pupils started in their first year in the Second Form, then the Third and Fourth Form. In their fourth year everyone went into the Lower Fifth, and by the time you reached 16 you were in the Upper Fifth. First Year (aged 17) of the Sixth Form was the Lower Sixth or First Year Sixth, and the Second Year plus any repeats went into the Upper Sixth. This meant that in 1959 I was in 4 alpha but by the time I reached the other end of the School I was in 6S2IVA. 6 (Sixth Form, obviously); S for Science; 2 for second year in the Sixth Form; and IVA, a course designed to study Maths, Physics and Chemistry. (IVB was Chemistry, Botany and Zoology) .
Clear so far?
Almost every teacher had their own nickname, and quirk. Some of them taught me, but some of the nicknames were universal through the School. (One, Mr Yeats, even became celebrated with a very rude nickname in the last line of the chorus of our School Song)
The Headmaster Dr Bell was inevitably Ding Dong, and his nose wanted to turn left. If he turned right, he became like a sailing dinghy gybing! He used his "dabber" (CGS for Mortar Board hat) to carry notices to be read out at Morning Assembly.
Most of the teachers were called by their first names to identify them, and "Sir" to talk to them, thus Fred Jessop, Bill Neve, Joe Curtis, and many more. But sometimes the names were shrouded in the mists of time. "Bim" Wright, who taught Chemistry, is a case in point. His son told me that when Bim first started, he borrowed his brother's leather briefcase with the gold letters CHRW. This soon became Cherry, and a popular song of the time was "Cherry cherry Bim". His deputy in Chemistry was a tall soulful man called Claude, because in his younger days he apparently looked like Claude Raines, (the Chief of Police in "Casablanca"). Mr Conway, that renowned Physics teacher was "Coot", and I have absolutely no idea why; Mr Latham (German) was "Burly" - partly because of his body shape and partly because of his use of the word "Burly" to excess.
One of the most loved teachers was "Bill" Neve (Music). He was a little effete, and HE WORE SUEDE SHOES, which in those days automatically made you a homosexual. After a summer break, there was a huge whisper around the School: "Bill's got married!" and he had!
Then there was "Ilt". This actually was his name. He was Illtyd Pearce. Hard as nails, he once played for Wales. What he played for Wales is open to debate, but play he did. He always ensured that we had our "daps" (plimsolls) and that we finished off with a cold shower.
Mr Pixley (RI) had a rare white area on one side of his dark grey hair, so he was called "Patch". To quote from the "Patesian", at lunchtimes he "blessed the cabbage". There was also "Monk" Edwards (French) and "Mrs Monk", or "Ma", his wife, who taught Physics.
And then there was Joseph (Joe) Curtis (History), who had been educated at CGS and Oxford. He then went out to Simla in India, before returning to CGS as a teacher. On cold days in Winter, he would wear Plus Fours to school. He also used to use Hindi a lot. He'd look at your work and say "Ucha Ooloo" (Good, boy) and if he was (usually mock) angry, a stream of invective came out which only people from the Indian Himalayas could understand.
Such were some of the teaching staff at CGS from 1959 to 1965.
