King Henry VIII Grammar School

I remember Dave Barclay having a Morris Traveller. Many years later, during a discussion concerning the Morris Traveller, someone said that it was the kind of car a physics teacher would drive. I was immediately able to confirm this from personal observation! Dr. Kerr (Biology) drove a Mini - how he folded his statuesque frame into it should be an A-level maths problem!

Geoff Courtois has passed away a short illness

Sorry to hear about GPCC, one of the more pleasant Masters. Last saw him at the 'crease' while he was batting at the C&NW ground. I was surprised he recognised me as it'd been a few years since I'd left school.

I was evacuated to Napton during WW2, then moved to Measham, attended Ashby Girls Grammar School, then Ashby Boys Grammar School, then returned to Coventry in 1947 (after the bad winter) and continued at KHVIII until 1951 when I went to HMS Conway sea training school. Had to return to Coventry from Napton - whooping cough. Oh, I forgot, had a period at Polesworth.

A 'merger' with Bablake on the cards? - link Edited by Midland Red, 18th Dec 2020 5:21 pm (Copied to 'Coventry School' thread for onward discussion)

Yes,"we were the dump at the top of the hump, that Henry the chump did will"

The only car my father had was his red Skoda. He never had a beetle and wouldn't buy a German car. Funnily enough I have got a red Skoda Yeti now and it's the most reliable car I have ever owned. I guess someone will say "Like father, like son"

King Henry VIII Junior School has had a few different locations and is shortly to move back where it started. The location above is at 1 Belvedere Road where the Junior school moved to in 1941 after being bombed out of the main school building. I was there from 1941 to 1943 when I moved on to the main school. The photograph is taken in the back garden. A swimming pool is on the left, not used at all. Whilst there we had a 3 shifts system, of which you attended 2 shifts a day. The worst was if you had a day with first and last shifts. I've been asked why only the surnames are on the photo? Everyone used surnames, we only used Christian names with personal friends. Derek Skelcher covered some of this back in May 2017. I hope I've identified him correctly.

One morning, Snoz Wyley had been taking a chemistry lesson in the General Science lab, one of the old building rooms. They had evidently been doing an experiment which produced hydrogen sulphide. The overpowering stench of rotten eggs had pervaded the prep room, and was wafting all the way down the corridor to the library, much to the amusement of younger boys. Tringam taught me chemistry for the two compulsory years of the subject, so neither Snoz nor Alfie ever taught me chemistry. But Alfie Crocker took us for general studies, the first lesson in the afternoon of that day. I cannot remember what room we were in, but Alfie had noticed the smell. He did not criticise Snoz by name, but made his feelings known to us, about how it was a stupid experiment that should never be performed in a school laboratory. Well, he was head of chemistry. More recently, I have learned that hydrogen sulphide gas is poisonous (probably not too toxic as I'm still alive and breathing). I daresay elf 'n safety would preclude such experiments now. Like the thermite reaction that melted steel - we were all gathered round Tringam, and had no PPE whatsoever - not even goggles or dark glasses! And the white light was blindingly bright.

Hydrogen Sulfide is a killer! I worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia for a few years and there were many fatalities as a result of Hydrogen Sulfide leaks! As I understand it; initially your have the smell of "bad eggs" but the sense of smell is quickly overcome and you think the danger is gone. If you continue working in the area concerned you would quickly succumb to the gas and loose consciousness and death occurs soon afterwards. If you smell "bad eggs" get out of the area immediately, this was a golden rule for employees in Aramco! On a lighter note I used a pocket watch at school, because wristwatches stopped working when I wore them for a few days (I mentioned the "Geller Effect" in another post earlier). Our class had a demonstration of radio-activity with the assistance of a Geiger counter and a Strontium 90 sample ceremoniously kept in a locked cabinet and protected by a heavily lead-lined box. After the class was amazed by the counts obtained from the Strontium 90 sample everyone who had a luminous watch was invited to have a radio-activity count made of their watch as an indication of the level of radio-activity in the luminous paint on the dials (now banned!). Eventually I was persuaded to have my pocket watch tested and the result was substantially higher than the Strontium 90 sample. Unsurprisingly I became a person to avoid for a few days afterwards until the memories of my class-mates dimmed!

Hi Tom. Isn't Skoda owned by VW now, so 100% German? Cheers, John P.

I said HE wouldn't buy a German Car and in the 1960's Skoda wasn't owned by VW. I bought the Yeti and a Beetle for my wife at the same time. They have the same engine, same instrumentation and share many other components. Skoda was German engineering at a lower price and the Yeti was a perfect replacement for my PT Cruiser. The body was unique to Skoda and not replicated across the VW brands. Interestingly I found out that his father (my grandfather) had a Skoda Landau in the 1920s. Tom

There was also the biggest car, Pop Cork's Vanden Plas limousine, we called it. IIRC it was dark red. It used to be parked with two or three other cars in a high priority spot, a recess between the general science lab and room 6, which IIRC was where Bugsy Leachman lived.

Kitty Fisher - did a school "swot" on 18th century English history somehow make a tenuous connection regarding behaviour?