King Henry VIII Grammar School

Another "sagelike" exposition Inkers re acquisition of nicknames, perhaps not as prevalent among the staff in my days. I can only remember "Geoff" Vent (perhaps that was his real name). The Head "Old Man Burton" always struck terror in me as a newcomer, when the only punishment he ever referred to was to appear to take great delight in imposing the sentence "He will be beaten", which seemed to have an inference of being "taken away" to some form of torture chamber (al la NKVD) and returned a derelict imbecile, but there was one fully fledged "Piggy" or "The Ig" (I think that was used by those who spoke the local vernacular, i.e. nuffink, likkle, kekkle etc. without an "ing" in site - perhaps there were really inhabitants of the "gutters of the back streets of Coventry" as adduced in apparently a majority of pupils by "Holy Joe" - who taught RI and was probably imbued with righteous faith that position entitled him to). I can give authority for the usage of nicknames in the teaching profession at large. In that my father was a school teacher at a secondary modern school in the city. When war broke out, he evacuated a large number of boys to a place called Polesworth, and naturally my mother and his children accompanied him. Classes were held in the village hall, including some being supervised (not taught) by my mother. In the afternoon, if the weather was fine pupils were taken on a "nature walk", father leading and mother rounding up the stragglers at the rear. The story she related to me was: I caught a couple of them (her lads) hiding behind a hedge. One of them said "watch out there`s `Old George`" She said "Less of the `Old`"

With Scotford I always assumed that since his initials were FLS that it had somehow mutated into Fossil. Pretty much as Chapman whose initials were RC was known as Arsey Chapman. Paul Nutt's name lent itself to his rather obvious nickname and I could never understand why with the surname of Nutt you'd christen your kid with a name beginning with P.

Jeff Vent was indeed his real name

Jeff Vent - were his initials J.B.Vent if so should have realised! "P" Nutt - we had a chap in our class called P. Green

JBV

Special Edition: In Which Droob And The Beak Have A Heart To Heart Droob: "Good morning, Headmaster." The Beak: "Stop shouting, Droob. Your are in my study, not on stage at The Royal Opera House." Droob: (quieter) "Is this any better, Headmaster?" The Beak: "No. There is still too much volume emanating from your vocal cords. The glass within spectacle frames is not meant to crack in that manner." Droob: (quieter still) "Perhaps this is satisfactory?" The Beak: "Only if you want tinnitus to plague you for the rest of your days." Droob: (whispering) "And now?" The Beak: "One hundred and forty decibels, give or take." Droob: (silent, whilst contemplating what to do next) The Beak: "Now then, that is a vast improvement." Droob: "But I didn't speak a word, Headmaster." The Beak: "And therein lies the lesson, don't you think?" The End.

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In my time 63-64 Chapman who taught physics was called Zulu. Bumped into him later in Kenilworth church where he was a sidesman. I recall Pop Cork always scratching the back of his hands. He used to live in Malthouse Lane Kenilworth where he died about 5 years ago.

Chapman lived in Malthouse Lane, though I didn't know Pop Cork did. I used to deliver the evening paper to the Chapman house.

Another one who springs to mind is Crumb Morgan. I believe he taught Latin? Though I was never taught by him, rumours persisted throughout the school about a rather unsavoury habit he had with rhinotillexis.

Howard Cork lived at 150 Malthouse Lane

There seems to have been something of a Kenilworth 'Mafia' of teachers at KHVIII. As you say, Chapman and Cork were both in Malthouse Lane, 58 and 150 respectively. Others from that era were Bugsy Leachman (Borrowell Terrace), Ernie Shaw (Blackthorn Road), Froggy Irwin (Ash Drive), Taffy James (Woodcote Avenue) and Bert Stanger (Southbank Road). I wonder if a teacher's salary these days would run to a decent property in a premium area like Kenilworth.

RC Chapman taught us Gen Sci in the fuzzers. One of my classmates said he was ARC's nephew. RC was a quiet chap, who never got excited about anything. We next met years later in the 6th, when he was our "set leader", and took us for group meetings first thing Friday, when it became apparent he was into religion. He told us he had been an atheist when a young man, but later saw the light. KRM took us for Latin in the 5th. That's when I lost all interest. Virgil and stuff, completely different to everything we'd previously been taught. KRM always had his biscuits on the desk, with "crumbs" everywhere. One day, he accused some of the class of copying each other's homework, a serious crime. (Nowadays, the management term is syndicated approach.) He said "I can pick it out, you know!"

Have all the above passed on, I wonder? I knew Froggy lived in Kenilworth, but not the others. A lot of Warwick Uni lecturers live there.

Taffy James lived just up the road from us when we lived in Woodcote Avenue. There were four of us who went to Henrys who all lived in Woodcote Avenue, three of us in the same year. Teachers Mike Kerr and Dave Greatorex also lived in Kenilworth. I didn't know Shaw and Stanger did too, though we all knew where Bugsy lived. It would seem I'm wrong, but I always thought Irwin lived in Leamington Spa. He was always on the 517 I think it was on the rare occasions I caught the bus into school.