“I must start off by saying I was thoroughly happy at school. I hesitate to say they were the happiest days of my life, as I am always happy. I think it’s an attitude of mind.

I was at primary school in Beeston with (Sir) Neil Cossons; his father was the headmaster. At the Entrance Exam, I was fascinated by the entrant next to me printing in ink while I was doing joined up writing in pencil. I think they initially thought I was copying, but we were doing different questions. For my Interview I remember going up the front steps, but not the interview itself. Before I started at NHS I was page to Lord Trent at the first-degree ceremony for Nottingham University in 1948 - there was a photo in the Evening Post.

For the first few weeks my elder sister, now Baroness Whitaker (for merit you understand, not by accident of birth or marriage), who was at NGHS, had to take me, much to her annoyance. We  caught the Barton 5X from Queens Road to Canning Circus and walked through down Raleigh Street. I was given 3d for the bus fare, but talked conductors into giving me half a workman’s return for 1 1/2d and spent 3d on comics every other day from the newsagent on Raleigh Street.

I started in the Prep in B2 with Mr Horlick, who always wore a gown. The long sleeves had a knot at the end with which he would occasionally flick people, and sometimes he threw the board rubber, never actually hitting anyone. One day in B2 I had my father sat at the back of the class monitoring a student on teaching practice. My father was Senior Lecturer in the Education Department at Nottingham University and several of the teachers were family friends who would occasionally appear at my parents’ dinner parties.

After A2 with Mr Horner I was given a Raleigh Lenton Sports 4 speed hub for entering Senior School. I was in White’s House and in Eric Tarry’s tutor set. 2L with Oswald Lush meant the interminable two parallel lines crossed by a transversal and French in an Irish accent. I remember Michael Watts, later a journalist and contributor to the William Hickey gossip column, being called up for singing outside when coming out of late lunch. I got a Detention Ticket for putting the classroom lights on with my foot. When I broke my arm cycling, I used to read comics hidden in the sling. My Latin never  recovered.

In 3Green with ‘Fred’ (Alec John) Walker, we sat at iron-framed desks on a stone/concrete floor. Someone at the back would slide across, then the whole row would move back, one at the front slide across into the space, and the other row would move forward, leaving a space at the back. Then repeat. Each stage of this had to be done, of course, while Fred was writing on the board. I’m sure he knew really, but he did sometimes get confused as to where people were.

6Sc1 were based in the Woodwork Room. We used to play darts down the full length of the room (perhaps 30ft). Jackie Mells worried about it. Cy Jackson took me into the chemistry room between the labs to tell me off for not doing any of three homeworks. We talked for ten minutes about inert gases and then he told me to look shamefaced as I came out. I got a Detention in the 6th form - which was unheard of - but I forget for what.  

I took ‘A’ levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, plus a general paper (‘O’ level), then went off to university and eventually Rolls-Royce forever (42 years). I am still continuing with Rolls- Royce now as Archivist to the Heritage Trust.

I was in the CCF Basic Section. In Budby one day we had eaten lunch by 10 o’clock and several of us drank from a stream. I was the only one who came to school the next day.  

Regular swimming in the Trent when even the fish didn’t had made me immune to everything. In my whole school career the only time I ever had off was for a broken arm, appendicitis, and when my parents poached the first few days of September for late (cheaper) holidays. I had a similar record at work: only 28 days in total in 42 years, despite 18 days’ off for one incident of severe leg damage.

In the Air Force Section I had a flight in an Anson from Gainsborough. In the Naval Section there were three annual camps in one year! One in Lossiemouth, one on board the Aircraft Carrier HMS Albion doing working up trials in the Channel, we had cabins under the flight deck during touch-and-go night practice. The thumps all night kept others awake, but I had been brought up during WWII between the main Nottingham to London railway line and the main road out of Chilwell Depot with all the tank convoys. Things that go bump in the night did not wake me up.

Cycling to school became automatic; I often didn’t really remember which route I had come, and it varied according to wind and rain. One time cycling up Denman Street a small child fired a brass stair rod through my front wheel, causing me to be catapulted through the butcher’s window. Not worrying about me the butcher set off chasing after the child, implements in hand. The bike was relatively undamaged; the spokes were a bit bent, but it was rideable.

My school friends included Bob Brownlow (we had the same birthday), Dave Torrance, Sid Banks, Dick Hallam, Dave Cox, Bob Salkeld, Neil Mitchell, Bob Halford and Barry Wardman. In 2nd Beeston Sea Scouts the school connections were Nick Stephens, Dave Lambert, Mike Morley, Tim Melton

and Ian Strecker (whose sister Judith ran the Cubs). Other High School boys were the sons of Nottingham University staff: Dick Roberts, Jeffery Flower, Edward Sumner, Frazer Alexander and Charles Chesters. I had some sympathy with Reg Thimann and David Towers: pupils in a similar position to me as the sons of school staff. At Rolls-Royce I met Charles Chesters and David Towers again, as well as Graham Pilkington (also from Beeston, near the station) and John Sadler. In amateur drama I met David Nightingale and Peter Gurd from school. At the library, through my wife, there was Stephen Best, John Davies and the wife of Eric Tarry.”