King Henry VIII Grammar School

Hi Rufford, hope you are well. These coincidences keep on coming - Mike Wall is of course my brother-in-law, unfortunately his wife died of a rare cancer some years ago. Mike lives in Chelmsford not far from us. I don't think he viewed his time at KHVIII in a good way but in those days teachers could be difficult! I see in the picture Alfie Crocker the best teacher I ever had although he could be a terror if he thought you were slacking or being smart! I adjudge him and HH Cork as developing and overcoming my fear of public speaking by encouraging us to give lectures on subjects of our choice as well as occasionally taking a class in the laboratory when they were my House Masters in VI Sc.I and II. Many years later when my job consisted of travelling the world speaking at scientific seminars and universities on the subject of Electronic Ceramics, I often wondered how they were. I eventually made F.R.I.C. I wish I had been able to tell Alfie that! Regards

Hi Slim Hope you are well I am having a problem in working out when you were at KHVIII. This is due to the name Courtois (mentioned in your post) as I think there were several Courtois who were at KHVIII during various times. As you can see I was at KHVIII from 1949 to 1956, but the Courtois I knew is he the same one you mention as teaching PE and often wonder what happened to him. Perhaps you can help me? Regards

There were two Courtois brothers - Pete (JPC Courtois) born 1940 and Geoff (GPC Courtois) born 1941 Pete was a good cricketer, and Geoff became the teacher

Hi Red Many thanks for the information, no wonder I was confused as they were both at school when I was but I was 3 to 4 years ahead of the brothers. I may have got mixed up with the cricketing prodigy Alan Gordon who was just starting to demonstrate his talent when was in my last year. I wonder if he made it into senior cricket? Regards PS. He did Warwickshire no less!

Alan Gordon - wikipedia He is mentioned on this forum on the Black Horse pub, Exhall thread

Hi Red Excellent information, and so speedy! How do you manage to remember all this information? Cheers

In this case, I remember the Courtois brothers, and I knew Alan Gordon

Lesley and Alan Gordon lived at Exhall. I think Les is still around though I haven't seen her for a while. I spent many an interesting hour talking to Alan in his pub. I believe before he and Les took the pub on they managed a Forbuoys newsagents.

Hi DrPhil - I hope you are well too. I was last in contact with Mick quite a few years ago, we were both still working and he was in Stockport I think - or maybe that's where he went when he first left Cov. Before he left we used to cycle out to the main north-south railway for trainspotting, I think it was a lane near Shilton, we'd sit on the bank above the tracks under a road bridge. MR : I had an email exchange with Pete only this week, he is well and so is Pam. I knew Alan Gordon too. Two people from my class I would like to trace are Neil Porter and Mick Tyler (his brother was a teacher). Pete thinks Neil may have died but I have not been able to confirm it.

Thanks, rufford155

Thomas Kolisch is still well and alive in Woking.

Hi Tom, Glad you are well. Hope you have seen my posts especially our form photo. John Perkins (rufford155)

Hello Alan Gibbons and herberts lad :- Duncan Jenkins and I were in up and down crummy bedsits in Longsight, Manchester when we were at UMIST doing an MSc in machine tools, he was the year before me. I knew him at school and at a youth club, he found the place for me. He was Herberts and I was Coventry Gauge (Matrix). That was around 1970-72, we played a lot of squash together but lost touch afterwards as I stayed up north after meeting my wife Pat. I also knew Norm Lines the water polo star when we were in the same class at the Lanchester. I have no idea if either of them are still around.

Geoff and his parents had houses in the Riddings. They were descendants of J.E.Hickman, known as 'Flyer' who won the National Cross Country Championships in 1886 and 1887 leading Coventry Godiva Harriers to silver medals. In 1894, the Godiva Club split, with Hickman heading the new club, Coventry Harriers.

Many thanks to Midland Red for his recent email about my last post - sorry for the error which I never considered being a problem with posts made many years ago coupled with my increasing age! But I will repost this as a new thread post Both KHVIII and the Central Hall were important for me in my time in Coventry, I enjoyed my time in school (mostly) not however Len Leathers, Long Lou**y, Latin lessons, double period on Wednesday morning being particularly hard to take - why did the Romans never use the word "the"? As I was 6 weeks into a term when I started in 2A I had much catching up to do! At the beginning of the next year I was demoted to 3D and met a different order of teacher (Dr Kolisch hair pulling!, Maxie Gordon - I was in his "Magic Garden" quite often!) The Central Hall, however, was always a joy. It had a youth club - snooker, table tennis, and pretty girls all in a row so to speak! My best friend at KHVIII was Malcolm Simpson who lived near me on Allesley Old Rd and he persuaded me to join the club. Girls I remember were Gill Blantern, Paula Preston, Sandra Hatton, Pat Hooper, Marilyn Jones, Hazel Adcock, Deirdre Willbond etc. and more. I also met many boys of my age, principally Brian Meads, also BB members John Foster, Lance Evans and others who I did not know well who I met at other Central Hall groups, Brian Birkenhead, Pete Evans, Barrie Slater etc. I believe Lance married Paula but I am not sure. I am sorry to say both Malcolm Simpson and Brian Meeds both passed a way some time ago, both of them married girls from the Central Hall. Cheers