King Henry VIII Grammar School

In the fuzzers, a prefect spoke to me at the bus stop in Warwick Road, for not wearing my cap. I explained that my cap had gone missing that day from my bag. He said he would have to report the incident to Piggy. I was duly summoned to his office. I expected to be in serious trouble, but he was very benevolent, nay, avuncular about the matter, despite his fearsome reputation. My cap was found wedged between a radiator and the wall in Foghorn's room (103?) by some joker. Fortunately, my name was on the label, as required by school rules.

A couple of things spring to mind after reading that. I recall the teacher's son becoming a prefect, he was a very quiet, shy lad who would run a mile if anyone said 'boo' to him so it was certainly a grace & favour appointment. I remember the prefect badges too. They were enamel versions of the school badge, the senior prefect one was distinguishable by an 'S' above the middle arrow. I was never actually a prefect, of course, but I did acquire one of each of those badges in my 6th form days. I believe I sold one of them when I left but have no idea what happened to the other one. The prefects had special caps with a gold/yellow ring on top, while the senior prefects had a red peak and tassel, and did look totally ridiculous. I don't recall ever seeing a gold tassel for head boy but you may well be right about it. By about 1968 or so, the uniform changed for the 6th form, boys could wear a grey jacket and were no longer required to wear a cap, and I think prefect caps must have been abolished at that point. There was also a 6th form tie, which I still have, which was dark blue with little school badges all over it. I do also recall the school detention when Herbie stormed out of assembly and demanded everyone return at 4.00 for a school detention. For some reason the joss stick incident seemed to push him over the edge, and there were all sorts of enquiries made during the day to discover the culprits. I knew who was responsible, some friends of mine, but they were never uncovered so it was all back at 4.00. Herbie went off on a rant about how they could have destroyed some 'priceless' bible while everyone stood there in silence, some trying to suppress their laughter. It was actually the second such assembly; in my first year, which I believe was the year before you, he went off on a similar rant about finding 'undesirable literature' in the school. It was actually a copy of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', which by 1971 when I left was actually in the school library. I always thought the humourless Herbie was in the wrong job. His pompous, po-faced demeanour would have been better suited to becoming a bishop.

I was on the '69 intake. IIRC, the rules on caps were that they had to be worn until the end of the 3rd form. Skermer saw a group of us across Warwick Road and shouted at us to put our caps on. We flicked him the 'V' and scarpered. For the next few mornings, he stood watching everyone go into assembly trying to identify us.

Two things spring to mind from soooooo long ago The school introduced a version of the cap with a bigger peak, in an effort to stop boys wearing a very small cap with a very small peak, perched on the back of the head (and to make them impossible to fold up and put into the blazer pocket!) - I believe those boys that the school deemed to 'qualify' for the new version were required to attend a 'fitting' to ensure that the cap was adequately large enough to cover the whole of the top of the head. This would be c.1963, and I believe that it was not very long after this that it became no longer compulsory to wear a cap (the comment above from bohica may answer that!) Regarding 6th form attire, my memory suggests that grey suits were acceptable in place of blazer and trousers, but I don't know what the regulations, if any, were for that

Hi MR, I wore a grey suit in the 6th from about 1968 until I left in 1970. We tried to push the limits for the lightest grey possible, but I think a white shirt, black shoes, grey socks and KHVIII tie was regulation. I seem to remember that the 6th tie was an alternative design with multiple shields instead of a single shield. I was once required to write an essay after hours in Piggy Shore's office with a couple of my classmates when our socks were deemed to be of too light a shade of grey. The title of the essay was "Sartorial Elegance"!

Thanks, MR, that sounds about right. It's amazing (as Willie pointed out to us, aged 64), that one never stops learning. After 56 years, I've learned something I didn't know. 1963 was the year I joined the junior school. My cap was like everyone else's - it had a normal, i.e. small peak, so I folded it up and it went inside my blazer pocket. Midway through the year, a neighbour's son, being younger, joined Transition. His cap had a humungously big ugly peak, about three times the length of mine. It stood out like the proverbial sore thumb, and drew attention to him. Now his family were, let us just say, rather haughty, and having inherited his parents' outspoken views, he soon gained the reputation of being a snob. The big peak was reminiscent of those ugly American baseball caps, now favoured in the UK by the criminal fraternity, along with built in hoods and woolly hats. A lot of boys at the time, assumed, incorrectly, that it was "typical of him to have an extra long peak, probably tailor-made at a cost, as if to say I'm bigger and better than everyone else".

There was definitely a rebellious undercurrent during my time there, especially from the older boys; e.g. brown shoes instead of black, and crew-necked pullovers to obscure the tie, or lack of tie. My contribution to this anti-authority stance? I once put on a red pullover, thinking it would not be noticed under my suit jacket, as I stood at the back of the hall. Wrong! Piggy called me up to the stage, and I explained that my grey one was in the wash, so the red one was the only pullover available to me. Piggy was obviously used to feeble, contrived excuses, and with a wry grin told me to wear my grey one tomorrow, then addressing the whole school, said "if everybody dressed like you, the whole place would look like a circus!". I had to walk back amid thunderous laughter from everybody. I felt quite famous.

Too true. I suffered school dinners for two whole years in the junior school, but never again. My recollection is: thin, transparent tasteless gravy; custard - similar constitution, colour more off-white than yellow; plain, boiled potatoes, just about cooked, devoid of taste; once a week, "splodge" - finely minced particles of meat in a hot aqueous solution - we called it splodge as no-one ever managed to work out what was in it; once a week, "afters" was a bowl of bright purple semolina, with a shot of red jam reminscent of a dollop of congealed blood - made me feel sick, it did; drinkside, merely water from a glass jug, which you had to pour into a yellow plastic beaker, and drink quickly before it all leaked out, since every beaker had a hole in its base, administered by a compass or divider point; and suchlike. I will not argue that the above cuisine would not have provided sustenance to anyone who was in danger of starving to death, and saved their life, but it did not appeal to me. The plus side is that each meal cost a shilling (5p to today's youngsters), which was quite reasonable even back in the 60s.

Hi Slim I well remember school dinners or rather the lack of them. One was enough. As my mum was a very good cook and I was not too far from school by bike ride I mainly went home and back in the very reasonable dinner break (1.1/2 hrs then). I do have one bad memory. I used to go sometimes to the then new experience of Chinese Restaurants which were ok but one day I didn't have time so I went in the nearest place I could find. The meal was bad, worse than school. I began to feel ill in the afternoon and went home. The next thing I knew I was in Gulson Road Hospital with a bad case of yellow jaundice. This was compounded by 'germ on the liver' and I was two weeks in hospital and several weeks at home recovering! Soon after, the place I ate at was closed and shutdown. Cheers Dr Phil

SPLODGE! - I thought I had heard the last of that. I've had easier nightmares. Dreadful stuff, and it was one of the better meals. I suffered a couple of terms of meals before persuading my parents to let me take sandwiches. I often used to take dripping sandwiches, some of the better off pupils seemed to pity me. They didn't know what they were missing.

I'd like to issue a correction to my recent post. I suffered school dinners for only one year, not two as stated on 28-8-15 (which the more observant will have clocked). For the rest of my time (sentence), I took "sandwiches", officially, which meant I could go wherever I wanted at lunch, sorry, dinner time. Whilst against school rules, I was never challenged in nine years!

Slim, my memories are slightly different from yours on the subject of lunchtimes. I soon gave up on school dinners too, deciding that I would prefer to take sandwiches. There was a sandwich room which was the annexe alongside the school hall where there were benches and tables for the sandwich brigade to eat. I remember that more and more lads were abandoning the appalling dinners, a fact that the school also noticed. So they introduced a fee for using the sandwich room. It was 15/- per term, the equivalent of three weeks school dinners, for which they provided nothing. No plates, cutlery, cups, water, not a thing. This led to a change in arrangements for many, myself included. The choices, officially, were school lunches, the sandwich room, or going home for lunch. I believe you needed a note for the home option, which I got. At that point you could do what you liked. Many ate sandwiches around the school, although you avoided getting caught eating in the rooms used as lunchtime common rooms, 7 & 8 as I recall. I had a few options. Sometimes a few of us would go and eat our lunch at the home of a lad who lived in Park Road. The station buffet was ok for sausage & chips, then there was the Wimpy Bar in Trinity Street. Once a week it was into town for Fishy Moores. If we saved our lunch money we sometimes had the businessmen's 3-course lunch for 6/- at the Sunflower House in Station Square. In the 6th form we had graduated to the chippy in Bloomfield Road, the sandwich shop in Albany Road, or the Albany pub for a pint. One thing I never did, of course, was to actually go home for lunch as I lived in Binley. The bottom line is that the school just didn't have a clue as to the whereabouts of a huge number of people at lunchtimes. Completely irresponsible, of course, especially by modern standards.

On this photo, Jeff Vent and Geoff Courtois are on the left hand side of the front row - 1970s I believe

Circa 1949 I believe I recognise Messrs Scotford, Vent, Edwards, Shaw, Jenkins, Liddiard, Kolisch, Rose, Shore, plus Miss Robson (Mrs Cramp)