King Henry VIII Grammar School

Just for information... The Old Coventrians' Association AGM is on Tuesday, 9 June, at 6.30pm in the Jeff Vent Archive Room.

Seem to remember we used to meet at a place in the Quadrant - was it the Railwaymens Club? we used their billiard/snooker tables.

The Railwaymens' Club was (and still is) in Spon End. My uncle, an engine driver, spent much of his time in there years ago. Perhaps you mean the Quadrant Club which was an occasional haunt of mine at one time as an old friend was a member.

I`m sure you are right it was many years ago, when I first played for the Old Coventrians Rugby Club.(1950`s) I did know it as the Quadrant club, but why we were using it perhaps it was a wartime measure which continued after the war. Is/was the Quadrant club a membership of some profession?

The Quadrant Club was opened in 1918 as 'The Coventry Foremen's Association of Engineers and Allied Trades Limited Geoff Vent was a member of the Club perhaps this was the connection to old Coventrians. Alan H

It seems some of us missed out on our education. Green electricity box? There was a shelter for unmarried mothers/schoolgirls right opposite the school. I, for one, knew nothing about that until after I'd left. The only wagging it I knew about was PE. An older boy in the sixth told me the dodge (the "Adkins" of incense fame). Make sure you were absent for the very first PE lesson of the year. Kench compiled his own list for the register at that lesson, according to who was daft enough to turn up and give his name in. But if you weren't on the register list, you couldn't subsequently be marked absent if you weren't there! Simples. Later in the year, Kench realised quite a few were missing from his lesson, so he marched into the library (where I had gone to do some homework, to free up my precious evening time). At each bay he boomed "are any of you boys in my PE group?" I kept my head down, pretending I hadn't heard him. A close shave. I was informed that after my time, they plugged that loophole by the office issuing PE teachers with a list of attendees. Which of course they should have done ab initio. It says something about the system when a teacher doesn't even know who is in his class. But then, to quite a few teachers, we were just "you boy!". Another thing: all these 35 year old cougar teachers who bed young boys these days - where the hell were they when I was at school?

Hi Slim. The PE dodge you describe has the same principle as the green box scam. The advantage of the latter was that the groups and teachers taking them on games day varied every week which meant that, in practice, there was never any chance of getting caught. There was never much chance of me being in the library either, if I'm honest. Barry Kench has been mentioned before, of course. You mention this lad Atkins. Was he the one known as 'Chimp' because of his looks? There was another Atkins who I would doubt was involved in any mischief at all. Cougars? The nearest KHVIII got was probably Mrs Gardner.....

Thanks Disorganised1 - from Coventrians Alumni Brian Tompkins May 21st 1926 - May 27th 2015 Former pupils will be saddened to learn of the death of Mr B.J.P. ('Burt') Tompkins who, as head of department, taught History at King Henry VIII School for 24 years. He was 89 on May 21st this year and was proud to be in his 90th year. A Service of Thanksgiving will be held at St James's Church, Styvechale, on Friday, June 19th at 12.15pm., followed by a short service of prayers and committal at Canley Crematorium at 1.30. Donations, if desired, to Great Ormond Street Hospital or Royal National Lifeboat Institution, c/o A.J.Lloyd Funeral Directors, 38 Wallace Road, Keresley, Coventry CV6 2LX.

90 - a good innings (no pun). So he was in his forties in my day. Most of my teachers have passed on, and I always had the impression Bert was one of them. 90, eh. I have lost my parents in the past 2 years, aged 90 and 98 respectively. Bert was one of the better teachers, always fair, a bit strict, but predictable, not prone to explosive bouts of losing it, like some of the others. Mildly amusing at times, with some of his comments. A book was run on how many minutes into the lesson it would be before, having become exasperated at his failed attempts to impart historic information into our brains, he would utter his favourite phrase: "I dunno - might as well go outside and talk to a row of trees!" . Kept us alert during the lesson, it did. Well, a bit. Unfortunately for the relationship between Bert and me, history was one of those subjects in which I had zero interest; along with geography, scripture, essay writing, in fact anything fictional or imaginary, general studies, music, games, PE, biology (I was squeamish and nearly threw up when Bobby Gould brought in a dissected cow's lung, in an advanced state of putrefaction, on a plastic tray... as if anyone was interested). Come to think of it, most of the lessons taught, for which I, quite correctly, life has proven, considered would be no use in the real world after school; instead of important things. To wit the importance of money, NI, income tax, pensions, making your money work for you, mortgages, interest only, repayment, LTV, renting, BTL, flipping, R2R, HMOs etc. How to pay someone £30k without paying a penny tax, all perfectly legal, Guv. In the fuzzers, we had regular "tests". You marked someone else's paper, handed it back, then everyone handed their marks in when the teacher called your name out. My next door mate got 10, but called out "15, Sir". At the end of the lesson, Bert stood by the door, and collected everyone's paper in. He did check them. The next week, he bellowed "who's Featherstonehalghson?" (real name protected). My mate slowly put his hand up. Bert dug him in the ribs, castigating him for being dishonest, and put him in detention. The irony is that I only got 7 out of 20 in the same test, but was honest enough to declare it. He shouted "Eh?" When I repeated 7, he bellowed "You'll end up in the D form next year!". I need not have worried. I was in 2B, then got promoted to 3 alpha. The was one of my first victories, getting one up on the teachers. It was to prove addictive.

Indeed, not a bad innings, and as Slim alludes to, quite appropriate as Bert Tompkins was a very accomplished cricketer, better than most of the PE staff. Certainly one of the more respected members of staff from those days. Bert never taught me so my contact with him was limited. A friend of mine, possibly a contemporary of Slim, was in his history class and had many run-ins with him, mainly for similar reasons to Slim. This lad did an excellent mimic of the famous "Might as well go outside and talk to a row of trees" speech. He was also a wonderful caricaturist and did a splendid one of Bert stood on Top Green bellowing at said row of trees. The caption was "Done yer 'omework, trees? Course you 'aven't! Might as well go inside and talk to a row of Johnsons!" (Name protected....)

Ah, my memory cells have been jogged again; it was someone in the year above us, who did a brilliant impersonation: "deed yer do yer 'omework, Fortescue? Course yer didn't. Mart as well go outside an' talk to a row o' trees!" I cannot recall the name of the older lad, but I can remember Fortescue's real name (even though I never met him). It was a not uncommon trisyllabic surname. Before long, half the school was doing the trees impersonation of Bert.

I should add that the ubiquitous impersonation always included "Fortescue's" name. The poor lad. Famous (or infamous) for the wrong reason.

Why does an upper case E spring to mind?

And there's more. Years after KHVIII, a young understudy told me that while he was there, one class were nonplussed when poor old Bert [he would have been late 50s/sixtyish at the time] wandered across room 103 (103...?), opened the window and lectured out of the window in the general direction of Warwick Rd; i.e. he ended up literally talking to the trees! Ironic, sad really. He was obviously suffering some mental problem/s; he was reportedly off work for a long period after that. As one old codger told me when I was a whippersnapper, "life's funny, but it's not funny ha-ha".

The name I had in mind was a P rather than an E, Slim.