Gervase Dodd (FS 56-61) recalls the following staff:

“Rev. Moule, who along with most other masters was called on to supervise cricket matches on weekday afternoons, was known for starting off his games with the injunction ‘Let us play!’ 

Tony Dearle, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the European railway system ensured that no school trip every got lost, rode a large and noisy motorbike he christened "Boanerges", which he explained, were the ‘Sons of Thunder’.

John Hall, a heavy smoker, seemed to be able to produce a freshly-lit cigarette from his jacket pocket before the last syllable of his lesson had died away. He was fond of the double entendre of which physics was able to provide several. Amongst the more repeatable, and guaranteed like the rest to score a hit with teenage boys, was the axiom that ‘Every couple has its moment’. I bless John Hall for putting me off the Reader's Digest forever with the put-down ‘The Reader's Digest? Tinned strawberries in the strawberry season!’

Sam Parkinson, who seemed ready at the slightest prompting to depart from the French syllabus and go off on one of his lengthy shaggy-dog digressions, of which  the most famous and probably the longest was ‘A Day in the Life of a Madagascan Ferryman’, complete with anthropological details and diagrams on the blackboard. I recollect that the ferryman did nothing but lie on his back by the riverbank while his long-suffering women did all the work.  But it took about 30 minutes to explain this. As SP's French exam results were pretty good, it's obvious he knew very well when he was being tempted into a story.

P.F. Williams (M 48-58),  who had terrific style, including a selection of woollen ties in single pastel colours: ‘if you want to hear the sound of an "O", dahlings, say it over a lavatory bowl!’

Philip Lever (M 46 - 67), head of Meadow House in my time and who got me through German “O” level in one year: ‘Ein Pfad, the unfortunate word for a path.’ ”

 

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