David Morley (FS 54-59) says:

“Just a note to say how much I enjoyed reading the Bulletin. I especially enjoyed the Headmasters’ address, which shed light on the many excellent changes that have taken place over the past fifty years. One that caught my attention was the mention of tutors. In my day tutorials were given to top students, in Greek for example, while lesser mortals had to fend for themselves. I am involved, through Rotary International, with a non-profit organization in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in which we have taken the very poorest kids, including some from the city garbage dump, and enabled them to go to school. In return we ask the older kids who do well to tutor those who are having problems, and actually arrange training to facilitate their doing so. The result is remarkable. Vertical links are developed within the student population and bullying is much reduced; there was some of this in my day, notably by one or two of the prefects. These days I enjoy one morning a week as a volunteer helping Grade 4 students who are a bit behind with their reading.

I was pleased to see that St Bees is now teaching Spanish, and with a teacher whose name suggests that she may be Spanish. That’s wonderful! I am proud to say that I have learned the language in the twelve years since I retired and can chat reasonably well now.
     
I also enjoyed the obituary of Stephen John Mills, the geologist. Having worked in mining exploration, and living as I do some five hours from Calgary (considered a short distance in Canada), I would have loved to have met him. I have also visited almost every Canadian battlefield, including those of the Boer War, and it would have been interesting to compare notes. I think he would agree that the role of Canadian, New Zealand and Australian soldiers in both wars is not well appreciated in Britain, suffice  to say that the sound of Canadian voices was, in both world wars, a good enough reason for the enemy to reinforce their lines.

Although I took full advantage of the freedom granted at St Bees to cycle with my friends into the Lakes and explore the area on foot, I made very little impression at St Bees in study or in sport, although I was quite happy to participate. I think that today they would say that I had a mild case of attention deficit disorder, and indeed I could be quite inept socially. I left with (5) O-levels to go and work on farms for two years, then to Seale Hayne Agricultural College, where I did (just, and by sweating blood,) gain a National Diploma. Upon graduation I left for Canada where I ended up, at 28 yrs. of age, going to the BC Institute of Technology and studying mining technology. By this time I had matured and enjoyed study, although it was never easy, and graduated as a Mining Engineering Technologist, with an average of less than a single percentage point behind the gold medallist. There were one or two staff at St Bees (Mr Lyall was one), who seemed to understand me better than I did myself and offered a few words of encouragement. One of the odd things I did at St Bees, especially in view of the fact that I was not very good at physics, was to go off by myself to a sort of hobby-hut located at the north end of the site, and construct a four-valve radio from a kit! It was many years later that I passed amateur radio exams and received an operator’s licence, and a company I worked for did an aptitude test on me and determined that I was in the 98th percentile in mechanical aptitude! I kept moving along and ended up as the Assistant Manager at Fort Steele Heritage Town in SE British Columbia. I was responsible for the restoration and repair of the old buildings, the live steam railway, various wagons, farm machinery, and a herd of Clydesdale horses. Also, of course, the utilities, and the general maintenance of the place; a live theatre, a bakery with a wood-fired oven, a newspaper office, and so on! It was a dream job and, twelve years ago, provided me with a pension. Looking back I have to say that life has been good.”

Please click here to see a series of photos sent in by David, particularly relating to scenes at Fort Steele.

 

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St Bees School,    St Bees,    Cumbria,    CA27 0DS.

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