King Henry VIII Grammar School

Pop never taught me officially, but stood in for Hough in one lesson when Hough was off sick. I always got on well with Hough. I was good at physics, and Hough once complimented me on a drawing I had done, "I couldn't have drawn it better myself". But Hough's standards weren't good enough for Pop. During the said stand-in, Pop walked round the class, and when he got to me he stopped, then bawled "TOO SMALL! Can't get accuracy with small diagrams. DO IT AGAIN!". I got the impression he was full of anger and hated all boys. Like some of the other masters. He also drove to work in a Vanden Plas "limousine", unlike the others, who had ordinary cars. Like Kolisch, who had a little Skoda. Then there was Tic, who managed to squeeze his 6 foot plus frame into a bubble car. And Harding, who had a motor scooter. It broke down one day, and he pushed it all the way up Spencer Avenue/Road.

Krum's nickname was indeed based on his initials, KRM. It didn't begin to do justice to the desiccated nature of his personality, however. Occasionally he would break off from the serious business of attempting to humiliate pupils who made a small mistake in their understanding of Greek prose to indulge in a self-pitying moan about how if his scholastic career hadn't been interrupted by the outbreak of the second world war he would have become an Oxford don. When I arrived at Oxford myself, the war didn't seem to have harmed the career prospects of his contemporaries too greatly.

Ron Hough! How the hell could I forgotten that he lived in Kenilworth as well, seeing as his daughter Karen went out with my best mate Nick Dodd in the last 2 years of school. They lived at 55 Fishponds Road just down the road from me when we lived in Rounds Hill. I better explain that since I already said we lived in Woodcote Avenue. My parents were always moving house to try and climb up the social ladder as it were. We lived in 4 different houses in my time at Henrys 69-75. Clinton Lane and Woodcote Avenue in Kenilworth and then Wellesbourne! Wellesbourne, why the hell Wellesbourne? We hated it, my brother and I. Then back to Rounds Hill in Kenilworth.

Rounds Hill et al. I know the area well. I often wonder if Rouncil Lane was a corruption of the nearby Rounds Hill? In similar fashion to Leicester people mispronouncing Belvoir as Beaver.

As you say Chapman was very quietly spoken, almost menacing. We in 6Sc11 in 1963/4 thought he sounded to have almost a degree of a South African accent, hence Zulu. Pop Cork lived at the far end of Malthouse Lane, corner of Beehive Hill. in my years he had not a VandenPlas but a Vauxhall Victor FB.

Photo AFEdwards. Great photo. Had him trying to teach calculus etc in the 6th. Didn't change at all. I met him in the 80's at a colleagues funeral. Maybe he had descruffed a bit for the occasion.

The English Dept c'73/4 Sourced from the F/B KHVIII page 'Pope' Harris rear left, Dave Cooper front left and Jeff Courtois rear second right. Anyone name the rest?

I think the short pale fellow nestled in-between Bart Jenkins' thighs is Bill Shakespeare with Bunny Burrows (?) to his left.

The consensus from the website that posted the photo is: Back row, L-R: David 'Pope' Harris, Philip Shaw-Latimer, Geoff Courtois and Darcy Clark. Front row, L-R: Dave Cooper, 'Fred' Perry, Bart Jenkins, Tony 'Bunny' Burrows and Pete Rippon. I have to say that I have no memory of Shaw-Latimer or Clark, after my time. And I would never have recognised Perry (if it is indeed him) as he doesn't look familiar at all. Of these, I was taught for 2-3 years by Bunny, who was one of the few teachers who treated boys decently. Also, I remember being taught briefly by Cooper for about a term and he seemed OK.

The picture was taken after my time, but I do remember Courtois (although I always associated him with sport, PE and rugby, not an academic subject), Perry (who had sons, one in our year), Bart, Bunny and Rippon. Perry was the master of the aside put-down comment, e.g. "what's you name, boy?", "Little, sir", "yes, you look it". And he will always be remembered for his obsession with the libruary. "Pay atten-shun. Bhahdy-blahdy-blah in the libruary. Bhahdy-blahdy-blah outside the libruary. Bhahdy-blahdy-blah for the libruary. Bhahdy-blahdy-blah in respect of the libruary....." And so on. Agreed, Mr D-Di, Bunny always treated boys fairly, and had a sense of humour; one of the few. He told us that Mr Rippon was an exceptionally fast reader, and would often read a complete book of 200 pages or so in a couple of hours. I remember the name Harris vaguely (later called Pope apparently). In recent years I understand he has had health problems.

Forgot: the names I omitted are the ones I have not heard of.

Hi Slim. You are right, I'd never heard of those either. They are debating on the site where it came from as to what year it was taken and seem to think around 1973. It could not have been before 1971 as several of the English Department then would be missing. I can think of 'Moggy' Owen, the two Watsons (Tic & Jasper) and Menhenick. I was never taught by Pope Harris but encountered him through his Practical Welfare scheme which was an alternative to sport in the 6th form. Because of where I lived I was allocated to do volunteer work at the new Walsgrave Hospital on Wednesday afternoons, while some were lumbered with doing gardening for old folk. Pope was decent enough but you always felt he was a bit unhinged at times.

Moggy took us one year. He was fine as long as you kept your nose clean, as I did, unlike the class clown, with whom he had an explosive temper. Word was he (Moggy) was a Welsh boxer! I understand he was later "asked to leave", having beaten up a sixth former on the tennis courts one lunchtime. Tic Watson was art. I never associated him with English. I loved Friday afternoons: a double Tic period, i.e. messing about, splashing paint everywhere, a great way to end the week.

I didn't go to KHVIII school but I have made the 1000th post... Yipeeeee

I remember all those on the photo apart from Darcy Clark and Dave Cooper. I also don't recall Courtois teaching English. During my last couple of years at the Great Seat of Learning, (7374) Fred Perry was a sort of a 6th Form supervisor. This basically meant he hung around the 6th Form centre trying to ensure that no misdemeanours took place. I always remember him chastising our English group in the 6th Form centre once before a lesson (we had lessons in the small side rooms of the centre with small white one piece desks and chairs). A particularly talented artist had taken it upon himself to draw a pretty obscene (but accurate!) drawing of a young lady on one of the desks. Fred's response to this was 'I don't mind the occasional 'f*** off Fred' on a desk, but I will not tolerate sketches of this nature'. Not a bad answer I thought. Shaw-Latimer was a rum cove, we soon sorted him out and probably put him off teaching for life. As has been stated previously, Bunny Burrows was a decent chap.