During the summer of 1948 a letter arrived explaining that it was obligatory for boys attending the School to wear the school uniform when travelling to and from school and participating in any school activity.

The letter listed precisely which clothes I would need and the two shops that were authorized to sell them. Shortly afterwards mother and father and I took a trip to Griffin and Spalding, at that time Nottingham’s leading Department store. We found the school outfitters section tucked away in a very low traffic area of the store. Displayed therewere the crests of the schools that G & S were authorized to supply. Sure enough the High School’s three black birds inDame Agnes white lozenge were there and an elderly gentleman beamed at us when father said, “My son is a new boy at NHS. We have to outfit him”. At this the old man loaded us up with 2 gray flannel shirts, one black and white striped junior school tie (which I still have), one pair gray woollen shorts, one black blazer with school crest on pocket, one black woollen cap ditto, one black and white rugby jersey, one white rugby jersey, one pair of black wool rugby shorts, one pair black cotton PT shorts, one black and white school scarf with house color (mine was blue) and two pairs of calf length gray socks with black and white stripes round the tops. And as if this were not expense enough the old rogue talked mum and dad into buying a gray flannel suit with short pants and a tailored jacket for special occasions such as speech day and Founder’s Day. I believe I wore it 4 times before I moved into long trousers. Poor father blanched when the salesman wrote out the bill. It consumed most of the fee he had received from being the executor of his Uncle Will’smodest estate - a cramped Victorian townhouse in Belgrave Street, Derby.

I felt very self conscious in my brand new school uniform as I walked down Manor Road to catch the bus to Nottingham to begin my first day at school. It was highly regarded because you had to be bright to be accepted and the fees were high. As soon as I reached the bus stop and saw two other boys wearing the same uniform as I was I felt more at ease. When the bus arrived we all rushed upstairs because children did not have to stand up and offer their seat to an adult if they were upstairs because standing was not permitted on the upper deck. The downside was that smoking was permitted only on the upper deck which, on rainy days when the windows were shut tight, became a toxic chamber of second-hand smoke. At the time no one was aware how bad exhaled tobacco smoke was for non-smokers

Two boys from Ockbrook who were in the same year as I had been in the School Preparatory Department since they were 8 and they gave me a bad time for a week or two. Fortunately there were two older boys also living at Ockbrook who were prefects and instructed my tormenters to stop teasing me on the bus. One of these contemporaries eventually became School Captain and Captain of Maples house. I became Captain of Coopers.

Each morning the whole school excluding the Preparatory Dept. (8 –10year olds) assembled in the Player Hall. Each class occupied three assigned rows of ten chairs and the form master sat in the side aisle beside his form. At the far end was a raised stage with massive green velvet curtains. Emblazoned on the pelmet in the center was the School’s crest – three blackbirds in a white lozenge bordered in black and under it the motto “Lauda Finem 1513”.

On the stage, beneath the school crest was a large oak table with a high-backed chair upholstered in red leather. On either side of the table were smaller oak chairs also upholstered in red leather. In front of the right hand chair was a lectern and on it a bible. Beside the steps at the right side of the stage was the console for the organ whose pipes were at the other end of the hall surrounding the choir loft above the vestibule through which you entered the body of the hall.

Forms began to assemble shortly after 9:00 a.m. The prefect assigned to read the daily lesson sat in the chair behind the lectern. Promptly at 9:15 a.m. the Headmaster strode into the Hall wearing his MA gown and carrying his mortarboard, hymn book and notes. At this the prefect stood up. This was the sign for everyone to stand while the headmaster Mr. C.L.Reynolds,MA Cantab. strode down the side aisle, climbed the steps to the stage and took up his position behind the table facing the assembled boys and their form masters, also wearing their academic gowns.

He then announced the number of the hymn, which the music director, Mr. W.V. Todd or the organ scholar then played on the organ. The entire school sang the hymn in unison reading from the hymn book for schools that each boy had to purchase and bring to assembly. At the end of the hymn when all were seated, the prefect stepped forward to the lectern and read the lesson for the day. Then all stood while Mr. Reynolds, who was a devout Methodist, read appropriate prayers for the day. After that the handful of boys who were excused attending the morning assembly on religious grounds joined their respective classes. Mr. Reynolds then read out the daily announcements. No dialog was allowed. He then put on his mortarboard, which was the signal for the prefect and everyone else to stand up while he walked imperiously out of the hall his gown billowing out behind him. Each form then returned to their form room to collect the books that they would need for their first three classes.

Classes were only held on Monday and Friday afternoons.Tuesday afternoon was reserved for mandatory sport, Wednesday afternoon was for military training (almost everyone joined the school cadet force), Thursday afternoon was free unless you were selected for inter house sports which almost everyone had to play. There were four classes on Saturday mornings so you could go home at 12:30 unless you played for a school team that competed against other schools. I played rugby in the winter and rowed in the summer. The other sports that the school played were cricket, tennis and athletics.

On Tuesdays if the playing fields were frozen and too dangerous for rugby or if we had colds we had to run the cross country course through dreary suburbs and then past derelict coal mines and other decaying relics of the early industrial era. It was miserable at best, especially on wet days but the thought of a hot shower at the end kept us going. The journey home involved a three mile municipal bus ride into town, a ten minute walk across downtown Nottingham to the bus station from where the public buses for Derby and the west left and then a 40 minute ride to our village. The first 30 minutes were through suburban sprawl but at Risley, the bus emerged into gently rolling farmland with dairy cows and hayfields, hedgerows and Oak trees – no row crops.

Sometimes we fell asleep along this stretch but fortunately there was a bump where the road crossed the Ock brook at Barron’s Nursery. It was a godsend that always woke us up in time to get off at our village. We rarely got home before 5:45 p.m. And after getting home we were expected to do three hours homework each night. Fortunately the long bus ride gave us 40 minutes next morning to catch up on math problems or French and Latin vocabulary.

Each school had its own distinctive and easily recognizable uniform so if you misbehaved adult passengers could report you to your school principal – a very serious matter. So in general we did not fraternize with students from other schools, even from the girls schools. At 11 or 12 it was sissy for boys to talk to girls whom we could not understand and did not trust anyway. Girls were unpredictable and could not keep secrets. Fee paying schools were generally not co-ed in those times so we were desperately shy and awkward in high school especially during the first four years. After we reached the age of 16, the schools made some effort to allow boys and girls to begin to interact socially.

We had joint functions with the Nottingham Girls High School, which was a separate foundation but conveniently situated just across Arboretum Street from ours. The girls had a private back gate that gave them access to the Arboretum Park. We could go in through the public gate and the more precocious boys and girls would meet in the secluded Chinese Bell Garden at lunchtimes to talk. Of course this led to a good deal of teasing from colleagues who were less successful at attracting the sought-after girls.

The Music Director recognized this need and offered voluntary, after-school classes for the choirs of both schools to practice together. The pieces were light hearted and fun. I still remember choruses from Iolanthe and the Pirates of Penzance. The girls came over to our school and trooped into the music room, their azure blue overcoats a striking contrast to our black and grey uniforms. We stared at them which they of course tried to ignore but everything calmed down after we started to sing together and Mr. Todd addressed them just as he did us, as if gender made no difference which was for me a novel idea.

When we reached 17 and were preparing for the advanced level of the School Certificate those of us who were doing chemistry needed to prepare for the practical exam. Volumetric analysis was a key part of that exam but the school timetable did not allow for sufficient practice. So we stayed later on Monday nights to develop our titration technique especially with burettes and pipettes. This dovetailed nicely with the Monday evening ballroom dancing classes that began at 6:00 p.m. In those days ballroom dancing was a necessary social accomplishment even if, like us, you only learned the waltz, quickstep and foxtrot.

The classes were held in the girls’ gym with their two gym mistresses  emonstrating the steps to the accompaniment of a record played on an old phonograph. Then one of the mistresses would take the boys and demonstrate the steps we had to learn while the other mistress did the same with the girls. Then automatically all the boys retreated to one side of the gym and all the girls to the other. The instructors then said “Now boys, choose a partner” whereupon the boys surged across the room each trying to get close to the most attractive girls who were of course snapped up first. Once we had found a partner the mistresses came round and checked our position. Most couples were standing too far apart. Then the scratchy old gramophone started to play and we had to dance. When the music stopped we could not wait to retreat to the security of our colleagues on our respective sides of the room. Then the command came again, “Now boys, choose a different partner this time” and the same music and embarrassment started all over again. On the flip side, if circumstances required you to dance twice with the same girl in a single evening this was perceived to be a budding romance and opened you to all kinds of teasing from your friends.

Sgt. Maj. Fell maintained discipline in the gym class with a tennis shoe which could really sting through our thin shorts. Discipline outside the school was largely in the hands of the Prefects. These were senior boys whom the teachers judged to be of good character and had leadership qualities. To my surprise I was made a prefect the first year I was eligible – my second year in the sixth form. Prefects wore caps with black and white tassels and a silver cap badge. But as they were always six formers, they were not obliged to wear caps when travelling to and from school. If any member of the Sixth form saw a boy misbehaving on his way to or from school, such as eating an ice-cream in public or not wearing his cap, he was required to take the boy’s name and write it in a book. This book was kept at the foot of the stairway to the Prefects room in the tower. Each Friday morning the prefects held a court and could summon from their classes those boys whose names had been noted in the Book to answer the charges against them. One prefect presided and was assisted by four others. All had to agree on the punishment awarded and the presiding prefect had to write formal notes of each case in a ledger. Usually the punishment was to write out the relevant school rule 50 or 100 or even 200 times. For repeat offenders the court could award up to three strokes with a cane about 30 inches long. Corporal  punishment was not immediate; the boy was allowed three days to appeal to the headmaster if he felt it was unjust. Few did because the head could give up to 6 strokes himself and did if he considered the appeal frivolous. The Prefects administered uncontested beats themselves, some enthusiastically, others less so, but you could not shirk this responsibility. Each prefect had himself received an inaugural beat on his appointment as a prefect so that knew what one felt like. The School discontinued corporal punishment in the1980s.

The chance to attend NHS completely changed the prospects for my life. Not only did it provide an excellent education but opened a vast new world of exciting opportunities soon to be within my reach.

Both the staff and the senior boys were our role models and we were encouraged to compete not only in schoolwork but also in sport. The masters coached us and I represented the school in rowing and rugby. Others organized field trips and for linguists exchange visits with boys from Annecy, France. My horizons broadened immensely and my confidence grew.

Because there was so much expected of us, we learned to use our time effectively. That helped me get into Cambridge which was another horizon expander. But without the years at NHS I would never have had that opportunity. At school I learned that to succeed you need not only knowledge but also integrity, perseverance and the desire to do everything that you attempt as well as it can be done.