King Henry VIII Grammar School

Here is a picture taken of Upper 4s, the lads who passed the 13+ exam from 1954. An old school colleague, Alan Gibbons, has unearthed this school photograph of pupils of one class King Henry VIII, Coventry - are any still out there or any sons, daughters and grandchildren? Back row l to r as I can remember: Bob Garrett, Ken Archer, Alan Davey, Bob Cook, Norman Lines, Andy Miller, Cave, Tony Poole Second row: Colin England, Alan Riding, John Smythe, Ken Archer, Duncan McGrory Front row: Riley, Bob Cole, Alan Hewitt, Smith, Duncan Jenkins, Form master J. Swan? Ken McLachlan, Robert Toye, myself People I cannot place: John Conquest I understand D Jenkins and D McGrory are sadly no longer with us

Duncan Jenkins was, if I remember right, captain of school rugby the year I started (1959). Very popular guy.

Well that photo was a year before I started but I immediately recognised Duncan Jenkins and Norman Lines, both of whom I knew well later. And I already wrote this in post 1472 : "Duncan Jenkins and I were in up and down crummy bedsits in Longsight, Manchester when we were at UMIST doing an MSc in machine tools, he was the year before me. I knew him at school and at a youth club, he found the place for me. He was Herberts and I was Coventry Gauge (Matrix). That was around 1970-72, we played a lot of squash together but lost touch afterwards as I stayed up north after meeting my wife Pat. I also knew Norm Lines the water polo star when we were in the same class at the Lanchester. " Another great guy, didn't he win every swimming race going at school? Norman, if you are on here please send me a message.

Walking along Spencer Avenue last week and never noticed how nice these old Henry's railings were as they are now buried within the bushes. The sections that were on the wall going around onto Warwick Road were removed for the war effort - you can still see the iron 'stubs' where they were cut.

Slim: As an Old Coventrian I just had a shudder of horror when I saw you refer to someone as 'EK'. I'm sure you can recall what it meant. You may even recall getting your maths book back with those initials at the top of the page next to a number which coincided to the 50 'lines' you had to do for the next lesson. Right, I'm just off for a self-isolated lie down to recover.

MisterD-Di, I hadn't made the connection before. I spent many hours with the Dr., in one of the 'attic' rooms at the Spencer Rd end of KHVIII - the old kipper on the blackboard light trick elicited the question "Can any of you boys smell fish?" to which we all dutifully responded "No Sir".

That reminds me of the Latin lesson, not with EK, but with Pip. Some of the rougher guys in the class, who I didn't get on with, cooked a tin of baked beans on a little meths stove in one of the desks and handed them round on slices of bread. Pip asked what was the strange smell, and everyone thought he would prowl around until he discovered the cooker. But, noting that the workers were tarmacing the street outside, I suggested that might be the source (sauce?), and he accepted that. I got a bit more respect from those guys from that day on!

Sorry, MrD-Di, I did not mentally connect EK with the EK you refer to. EK and I were ships that passed in the night, teachingwise. The same can be said of several others, Droob, Harris, Tramp... Our paths never crossed through my whole time there. With one exception. We had wet timetable one afternoon, owing to atrocious weather. Dr K had been assigned to our class, thirds or fourths I think. He sat at the raised table in room 13. Apart from initially telling us to be quiet and get on with our work (homework), whilst he did his marking, I can't remember him saying anything all afternoon. So I never formed an opinion of him, good or bad. I do remember his heavy foreign accent, which did not make him easy to understand. And I can still picture that old Oxo tin on the edge of the desk!

And, I was the unlucky lad whose desk was chosen as the impromtu kitchen. As I recall the Latin class had their lesson with "Amo Pippen" in my form room. Despite being advised to put a padlock on our desks, it seemed little effort was required to set up stove and heat the beans. I discovered the discarded tin and remains of the beans strewn across my books. I don't remember making much of a fuss but I do remember being presented with a replacement dictionary a few days later. I assumed it was fairly normal for fuzzers to suffer this kind of inconvenience and looked forward to the day I might get up to my own pranks!

How amazing that we should have had this shared experience and link up after all these years! That would have been about 56 years ago! At least now you know who spilled the beans, and I know that my story wasn't just something I dreamed up!!

I don't remember a teacher called Pip. I think the cooking incident was about 2 or 3 years before my time there, by which time he must have left. I must have had a relatively tame school life, as I cannot recall anyone ever cooking in a lesson. That might explain why, although we had old wooden desks, we were not allowed to keep anything in them. Instead, we had to keep all our books at home, and bring to school, on a daily basis, the books needed for that day's lessons. And some of those textbooks were darned heavy! I always regarded attending school as a punishment. What I do remember is the old wooden desks in Tic's art room (105?). In the fourth year, I found that the compartment, supposedly empty, of my desk contained a paper bag with some discarded cheese sandwiches. As the weeks went by, it caused amusement that the sandwiches were still there, becoming increasingly mouldier and smellier. Throughout the year, each week additional foodstuffs were placed in other desks, just to add to the smell and alleviate boredom. Art lessons were never taken seriously, just an excuse to mess about. E.g. when Tic was out the room (a frequent occurrence, as he probably found teaching us boring), one lad announced to the class "and now, for my next trick..." then promptly karate-chopped an open tube of Reeves yellow paint which was on Tic's desk. A dollop of the stuff shot out and went all down another lad's blazer. Tic seemed oblivious to all this tomfoolery. Or he wisely chose to ignore it!

I seem to remember 105 was Joe Soap's (Stevenson's) room? Could you mean 110 which I seem to remember being Gasper's?

Slim: Pip = J B Young-Evans bohica: Gasper? Do you mean Jasper, ie J W Watson?

It could be room 110. Used by Piggy too, I believe, for art. It was directly above room 13, our form room in the thirds. It was deafening when the class above scraped their chairs back and forth across the floor. Never heard of anyone called Young-Evans.

Can't recall the number but Joe Soap's art room was along the main first floor corridor - climb the stairs to Piggy Shore's office, turn right, and was along there on the right (ie overlooking the playground, not Warwick Road). Pip's featured on this thread several times, if you're interested