Old Boys, Girls and Teachers Guestbook

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Welcome to the Guestbook
Feel free to add messages relating to the site and the school. The only rules are: real names only, no personal attacks and no unrelated messages (inappropriate messages may be edited/withdrawn without warning).

It would be appreciated if you gave an email address, where you now live and said when you were at the school, but you don't have to.

Plase note that if you click on an email address below you will need to replace ~DOT~ with . and ~AT~ with @ in your email program. The Guestbook presents these this way to avoid email address harvesters collecting your email addresses from the page. I know it's a pain, but it's very much better than the alternative.

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There are 500 messages in the guestbook
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Viewing messages 351 to 360

John Orton (1961-67) | john~AT~thedowns43~DOT~fsnet~DOT~co~DOT~uk

I just wondered whether any old boys might be interested to know that I've written a book about Shields - its based on the memoirs of 'Jock' Gordon who joined the Shields Police after fighting in the Great War, became a Sergeant and retired after the Second War - his son Tommy went to the High School - I think he started in the prep? school as he was nine when he got in. I came to know him in later life as he was a noted ragtime/jazz pianist. He let me have his dad's memoirs and they spurred me on to write the book - its called 'The Five Stone Steps' - most of the older contributors will not need me to say why. Its 'faction' - fiction based on fact and is illustrated with pictures from the South Tyneside Historic Images Site - (well worth looking at if you've not come across it before) The stories give a fascinating inssight into life in Shields a century ago. As it's self published you won't find it in bookshops but its available on line and those living in Shields can buy it from the South Tyneside Library shop.

Mon 29-Dec-2014 10:51 - Portishead, nr Bristol

Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Mike,
Apropos of Alex's latest.
Just when I'm attempting to sound professorial, one of these darned Aquariuses has to throw a spanner in the works. I should have known better. I live with one!
Neale.

Thu 25-Dec-2014 00:27 - Victoria BC Canada

Michael Lawrenson 1946 | lawrenson~AT~hollyburn~DOT~plus~DOT~com

Hi Mike

We got back about a week ago after a short break in Yorkshire to find that Ed had managed to breathe life into the site with contributors queuing up to have their say. The guest book had been quiet over recent months and I suspect one of the reasons is that the old brigade, who contributed so much in the past, are probably suffering from reminiscence fatigue and they look forward to the day youngsters in their 50s or 60s take over. We wait in eager anticipation…

Good to hear from the old crowd and to know that they are still going strong. Here in Fife we’re getting ready for the festivities but of course there are the usual inevitable hitches. I managed to pull a muscle in my back a couple of days ago and I’m now even slower and creaking more than usual. But, much more serious, our dishwasher went into some sort of electronic coma yesterday and no one can come to fix it until next week and we have hordes of grandchildren descending. OK, there are only four but you know what I mean! (I think I know who is about to be drafted in as dishwasher-in-chief, pulled muscle or no pulled muscle)

A Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2015 when most of us will cross that 80 line!

Wed 24-Dec-2014 09:57 - Scotland

Alex Patterson '46 - '51 | alexpatterson~AT~videotron~DOT~ca

Hello Mike,
I can’t let Neale’s message go without comment. I have a bit of a cold and was feeling pretty miserable about being 80 in the next few months...I think I might be one of the oldest in the ’46 intake...but after reading Neale’s message I felt positively suicidal!!
Apart from anything else Neale even spelled his name incorrectly in the address line. I felt sorry for old Hardy, but even sorrier for Sassoon. What a misery, finding nothing better to write about than his observation of Hardy going “dotey” (losing one’s marbles).
Then I realised that this was one of Neale’s practical jokes, lulling us into a false sense of gloom and doom before ending with a cheerful Christmas greeting.
I must say I’m feeling OK and while I don’t care for the maturing process, I can tolerate it a bit better than Sassoon. As for gaining new wisdom, I think that can be a cheerful challenge to be faced everyday. I started painting again and writing...I’m 70,000 words into my third novel. Haven’t finished the other two yet...I’m going to turn them into unrelated parts of a trilogy. I’ll have to live until I’m at least 105 to finish all my plans for the future. But my immediate plans are to enjoy the next few days with our whole family here in Georgian Bay at our daughter’s new home the garden of which runs into the lake.
I’ll close now and once again wish you Mike, and you Neale, and all the other readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year,
Regards from a mild (plus 10 C !!!)
Alex

Wed 24-Dec-2014 02:57 - Montreal, Canada

Nele Backhouse | nealebackh~AT~gmail~DOT~com

Hi Mike
Here we are at the end of another year.How the years fly by!
We of the 1946 entry will be heading into our eightieth year in 2015. Is this the decade when all will be revealed, I wonder, and we will acquire true wisdom. Maybe I should be asking Ed. I'm guessing he'll be tackling his nineties next year.
I'm trying my best to acquire true wisdom but as soon as I learn something new I tend to forget it fairly quickly. I even tried reading Steven Hawking ,he of the parallel universes and Theory of Everything. Where's Scratcher Aichieson when we need him!
Maybe Fred Grey would be the consoling voice.
This is a poem he might have recommended from the "Selected poems of Siegfried Sassoon" describing a visit he made to the home of poet/novelist Thomas Hardy in the latter's declining years.

At Max Gate.

Old Mr. Hardy, upright in his chair,
Courteous to visiting acquaintance chatted with unaloof alertness while he patted
The sheepdog whose society he preferred.
He wore an air of never having heard
That there was much that needed putting right.
Hardy, the Wessex wizard, wasn't there.
Good care was taken to keep him out of sight.

Head propped on hand, he sat with me alone,
Silent, the log fire flickering on his face,
Here was the seer whose words the world had known,
Someone had taken Mr. Hardy's place.

Merry Christmas Mike and to all the gang who assemble here!

Tue 23-Dec-2014 01:08 - Victoria BC Canada

Bruce Graham | bsgrahamZPIPEPIPEY~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Just to keep the conversation going.

During the school half-term break in October we had our two granddaughters aged 13 and 11 (and their mother) to stay for a few days and decided to take them to see South Shields. Living in the home counties the north east is a foreign country to them. As their mother said "It's part of your heritage".

Having arrived, and after showing them the house in which I was born (111 Quarry Lane) the next place we went to was our old school.The girls were very impressed with the way the old and the new had been integrated.

Other parts of the tour had mixed results.

Marsden Bay - what a disappointment after their mother's very fond recollections from her own childhood.

Fish and chips for lunch - big thumbs up.

Cleadon Park (perhaps all of the town parks, I don't know) had no flower beds, no putting green, no tennis courts. Budget cuts?

However, the big star of the trip was a visit to the Roman fort area. What an amazing site this now is with all of the restoration and reconstruction that has gone on, and presumably more to come.

With all of that Roman heritage quite literally on our doorstep I don't remember being pointed in that direction in the first half of the 1950's.

Finally, it was great to see the input from Bill Egner's granddaughter. Perhaps she can provide further information concerning her father and grandfather.

Anyway, the compliments of the season to anyone reading the guestbook,

Sat 20-Dec-2014 19:10 - Ruskington, Lincolnshire

Alex Patterson | alexpatterson~AT~videotron~DOT~ca

Hello Mike,
It’s just started to snow here again and apropos of absolutely nothing I thought I’d drop a line before the mayhem of Christmas activities kicks in. We’re lucky that we’ve finished all our shopping and we’re in the wrapping phase right now. We’re heading off for lunch in a few minutes, but before I go I’d like to wish you and all your readers and correspondents a “Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year”. I would have added “wealthy” but it seems a bit crass.
I’ve enjoyed perusing the Great War entries in the Admission Register on the site, and as I went through it I couldn’t help noticing the misfortunes of one ‘H. Wylie’,...his name was Hubert. On the page listing soldiers who had been wounded, his name appears four times!!! He wasn’t the luckiest of men. I don’t know who kept the register, but the entries for ‘H. Wylie’ were very casual, viz.
Arm Accident in bomb throwing practice April 1916
Head Bomb (slight) Sept 1916
Knee (Some) Jan 1917
Abdomen Palestine Mar 1918

I note that his brother wasn’t so lucky and didn’t return from the war. He was 17 when he went to war, Hubert was 19...very young men. We owe them the debt of gratitude that they deserve and all our serving military personnel and those veterans who survive today. I hope our children and grandchildren will not be called upon to put on uniforms and fight in foreign lands.
Sorry about that. I wandered off topic, which was to wish you all that you hope for and that health and contentment are high on your list.
Lang may yer lum reek and best regards from Montreal,
Alex Patterson, 46 to 51

Thu 18-Dec-2014 22:55 - Montreal, Canada

Bruce Graham | bsgraham~AT~btinternet~DOT~com

Ed

First of all. I think we have you in the colonies to thank for the weather we are currently "enjoying" in the UK. The incredible news of early winter storms across the north american continent - with snowfalls of up to 6 feet or more - makes our memories of 1947 pale into insignificance.

You are correct, and Mike is correct, that the younger generation (would someone please define "younger") corresponds in a way that may not include historical information such as we are trying to preserve.

When I was in my 30's 40's and early 50's I was still looking forward to what might be achieved. The boring old f***s who got in the way were a distraction and it was only when I became one that I began to look back at all of the things had gone on in the background in terms of education and character development.

Which probably explains, in part, why there are so few responses from the younger generation - whatever that is.

Maybe, just maybe, there may be some response.

Thu 11-Dec-2014 19:03 - Ruskinton, Lincolnshire

Edward Forster | r2edforster~AT~live~DOT~ca

Disappointed at the lack of messages to the guestbook, the younger ones must just be texting & using Facebook.
I notice that neither my name & brother William's name are in not in the boys list. He was there from 1943 to 1950 & became school captain & the a chartered accountant & Durham county treasurer, anyway allthe best to you Mike & all from the old school.
Ed. from a stormy Island.

Thu 11-Dec-2014 10:35 - PEI Canada

From Mike T: Thanks Ed

I'm a bit disappointed too, but such is life I guess. As for your and your brother's names not being in the list, that's because you're not on any of the photos. You're both in the admissions register, but privacy laws prevent me from publishing that online (I plan to publish earlier admission details at some point very soon now).

From a blowy and snowy Rothbury.

Wendy Caroline (nee Egner) | gmwkc~AT~telkomsa~DOT~net

Hi just found you website. I am the granddaugher of Mr W E Egner who was the headmaster from 1955 to 1976. My dad, Geoffery Egner, was also a pupil at the school. ( you have a few photos of him on your photos page). Great to see these photo and share them with my children. Thank you!

Sun 30-Nov-2014 18:31 - South Africa

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