John Heslop (SH 40-45)
has provided the following reflections stimulated by a previous issue:

“Looking through the Bulletin and reading amongst other things the obituaries, it distresses me that I knew four of them. Lt.Colonel K.G.Allen, who, as Corps Cadet Officer, we all knew would have an army career. Stephen Potter, who unfortunately had to have serious knee surgery very early into the 1945 cricket season (the only time we ever beat Mill Hill, thanks to a leg bye with Donald Heaton and I at the wicket). Thom Postlethwaite (whom I knew from Seascale) and finally Major Geoffrey Costeloe. I have taken them out of order because Geoffrey died here in Victoria and Hil Wilson (FN42-44) and I were able to go to his memorial service, at which we became reacquainted with his wife Betty and one of his sons who lives in Calgary, Alberta.
 I see that later on in the Bulletin my name is mentioned by Miles Craston. Now since he is a very modest chap, I think I should provide a short run down of his career after leaving school, something he will not supply. After leaving St Bees, ‘Mylie’ joined the RAF, becoming a flight engineer in heavy bombers. He once told me that he was the least ‘mechanical’ person one could meet, yet he qualified and flew bomber sorties. After the war he went in for hotel management and trained in France, where he not only became fluent in the language but also met his future wife Monique. From there he went to Accra in what was then the Gold Coast (Ghana), where he managed the government hotel. Realising that Nkrumah’s days were numbered, he became assistant manager at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa and shortly afterwards became its manager. From there he was relocated to Montreal to become Vice President of Canadian National Hotels. Later he took over an hotel at Honiton in Devon for a short time before he and his wife and family settled in France in the Cognac country.
E.J.Priestly also gets a mention and I recall that it was Mrs T.A.Brown who taught us history, not TAB. My lasting impression of John was his habit every morning in B dorm of knocking seven bells out of his toothbrush against his towel. I remember too his twin brother Michael, particularly as he was the only boy in the school who learned Greek. He was taught by Dr Learoyd (‘The Dak’), who also did me a great favour by coaching me through school certificate Latin to the required standard for Oxford.
Next comes Rex Vinycomb, whom I have known since I was aged four. He was nearer my sister’s age (those who were in School House in the winter term of 1945 may remember her – alas she died in 1983 aged 57). The last I saw of Rex was when he came to a party in our old vicarage at Great Bookham (where Jane Austen’s uncle was rector) in aid of the R.N.L.I. in 1960. Finally, referring back to John Craston’s famous 1941/2 rugger team, I could not remember the fifteenth member of that side. The mystery was solved when we visited Joe and Pat Noble a few years ago. Joe recalled that it was Stan Martland, one of eight colts in that celebrated team.”


The St. Beghian Society, St. Bees School, St. Bees, Cumbria, CA27 0DS

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