A O Holt Allop’s / Beevor’s 1933 – 1936
I was in Mr Allsop’s House in 1933 – 1936.
The School was the centre of the Universe to us and were largely unaware of what was going on in the outside world. No cinema during term time, no TV, wireless was unreliable – just a crystal set, we had no newspapers.
Football, hockey and cricket came and went. Fridays if I remember correctly was OTC day. During the Summer I remember a camp somewhere – could have been Catterick. Most days we marched somewhere and took part in ‘war games’ and then came back to camp for the evening meal. On one occasion a dozen or so boys, probably a bit bored, found a rubbish tip of empty fruit cans and lids. They picked up the tops and spun them along the side of a hut at boys of another school. There was quick retaliation and a lethal battle was only stopped when Regular troops arrived.
Mr Allsop (affectionately known as Loppa) had the answer for minor infringements of discipline. He would give a boy a bucket and knife and tell him to fill the bucket with weeds from his lawns that surrounded the House.
There were two rooms where we spent our spare time, and doing Prep. Seniors had one and Juniors had the other larger one. In the winter evenings there was a large coal fire in each room, on which we were able to cook sausages and baked beans mostly. There were wooden lockers on each wall – one on top and other below in which we kept our Schoolbooks and ‘tuck’. The rest of the room was taken up with five large tables.
Food was acceptable but uninteresting. For the first few terms, a new boy would be a ‘fag’. Carrying out chores including cleaning the taps and basins in the changing rooms also running errands for the Prefects. Learning about ‘dress’ rules was daunting, for instance, all buttons on a jacket had to be done up. It was only Prefects who had all the buttons undone. The straw hat was worn square to the ground only later could you have it at a jaunty angle.
Mr English, who taught French, had quite some reputation when it came to latecomers to his classes. The boy would be told to leave his books on a front desk and go to the rear of the classroom. For protection, the boy would clasp the back of his head with his hands as he made his way to the rear of the classroom, as text books and note books were hurled at his head. It happened to me on several occasions. This went on, unchecked, for a great number of years. In fact, I understand that his behaviour only stopped long after my time, when the Headmaster came across two boys sitting on the stone stairs, clutching their books too terrified to enter the classroom.
Punishments were meted out by Masters using a ‘Potty Bat’ – which consisted of a cricket bat cut down to about six inches from the handle and canes that were used by the Housemaster and Prefects.
The Elstree Airfield was always a great joy to visit and we could wander around the parking area unhindered, peering into the small cockpits and of course, watching many pilots making a tricky take off or landing. Someone invented a tiny aircraft about eight feet long. It did not last long and was banned from the skies.
In about 1934/5, I’m not sure of the year, an open Ford two-seater arrived during the Summer Term and stopped outside the old Chapel. A number of boys were on the pavement – probably en route to the Tuck Shop. The men, quite young in ‘Black Shirts’ belonging to Mosley’s political party began to harangue us. After a few minutes some hefty lads of about seventeen turned up and helped them out of the car, carried them to the swimming pool and threw them in. Meanwhile, the car was overturned and pushed in to a ditch.
I have to end, I’m afraid on a rather sad note. In 1933/34 Jean Pierre Sussel came to Mr Allsop’s House for twelve months. It was really to learn the language. We became great friends and whenever I had Sundays at home after the morning service, he came along too. In the summer of 1937 he invited me to stay with him for a week in Paris and visit the International Exhibition. The German and Russian stands faced each other. Both were enormous buildings in stone, one was topped by the Russian factory worker holding a hammer and sickle the point of which was aimed at the Nazi symbol topping the other building on the other side of the boulevard. I had a great time.
When war broke out I joined the 11th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (Honourable Artillery Company – B Battery) Territorial Army in March 1939. My father was in the same Battery HAC in 1915. I returned to England in 1946 as a Staff Captain Royal Engineers from General Headquarters, Middle East.
Jean Pierre Sussel had had a different war; I received a letter from him in 1945. He had served in the Navy in Casablanca, but returned to France in 1940 working for the French Intelligence Corps for General de Gaulle. He was arrested in 1943 and spent 2 years in different jails and then was moved by the SS to Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. He was rescued by the Seventh Army and in May 1945 returned to Paris and was reunited with his family who were all safe and well. He said, “I don’t quite understand how I am still in life. I feel alright”.