Post date: 14-May-2020 08:44:40

The headmaster of William Ellis encompassing the period 1956 to the late 1969. and possibly beyond was Sidney Baxter.

Sidney Baxter, Headmaster of William Ellis Grammar School

This is a close up of the annual school photo of the senior school. I don't recognise any of the boys, having left 2 years earlier, but some of the staff are in a row behind the boys sitting cross-legged in the front row. They are L to R , X (female), X, 'Spike' Armit (deputy head and maths teacher), Sidney Baxter, X, Mr Nelkon (physics), Mr Whorwell (chemistry), Mr Herrick (Latin), if my memory serves me correctly.

Many of us at William Ellis school and beyond, among the Witches crowd, shared a youthful outrage at the injustices (especially racial) and military foolishness of the day. In particular the South African Apartheid regime was monstrous and murderous, as is now universally acknowledged. Also nuclear weapons seemed the most stupid way to protect world peace. Sixrty years on I look at that youthful idealism with pride! We were right then and we are still right, although folly and greed have put many other challenges in front of us. Little did we know that the horrors of genocide would be revisited on the peoples of the Earth many more times - the Holocaust was not a pemanent lesson. How could we realize that industry and waste could threaten the very existence of continued life on the planet? Not yet had the greed been unleashed that allows less than a hundred people to own more than half of the wealth of the world, and continue to do so by condemning billions of their fellows to poverty and servitude!

As pictures elsewhere on this site show, we were active in demonstrations and protests. This sometimes figured in the press.

The Sharpville massacre led to angry protests in the UK. I certainly joined in.

The Daily Express of 28 March 1960 shows protesters including John Rush and Peter Gottlieb being chase by the police after the demonstration, which the authorities wanted to clamp down on. The paper's tone is one of mockery.

The Daily Sketch of 28 March 1960 show John Rush and another warding off the police after the protest. The paper ignored the heavy handed policing in order to castigate the protesters. The paper's views are decidedly anti-demonstrator, ridiculing the protests and boycotts that ultimately forced the racist regime to stand down. As is often the case, they chose to focus on the presumed effectivity of the protest rather than the injustices we were highlighting and opposing!

The political activities of schoolboys could not fail to seize the attention of Sidney Baxter, the Headmaster of William Ellis School. It became pretty clear that he very strongly disapproved of such action.

Sidney Baxter had reached the rank of major and was said to have served in military intelligence during the war. It seems most likely that he had maintained contacts with the secret services. In 1960, the year following the British general election, William Ellis School had a mock election. Four candidates stood representing the Communist, Conservative, Labour and National Front (fascist) parties. John Rush stood for the National Front, but only for a laugh as he himself was left-leaning in sympathies and was a frequent attender of protest marches and demos (as photos on this site attest). Joe Whittaker stood as the Communist candidate on the "Vote Communist and annoy Sid" ticket.

When the results were counted up the Communist candidate won (I believe I voted that way myself). Sid Baxter the Headteacher was not only horrified and furious, but he suppressed the results (they were never officially released) and very likely contacted the security services to tell them he had a bunch of communist students at his school. This was very much the cold war period, when the nuclear 'deterrent' was supposed to stop the Soviets blasting us out of existence. Only a year later the Berlin wall was erected.

However a number of the parents of boys at William Ellis School, and parents of friends of the boys, were politically active, and included a number of MPs. When news leaked out that the (democratic) mock election results had been suppressed and the secret service were involved, questions were asked. Indeed questions were asked in the House of Commons. In Parliament the matter was handled rather discreetly, and neither the school nor Sidney Baxter were named, although their names had been plastered all over the newspapers the preceding month. The key issue was that of the secret service vetting schoolboys as enemies of the sate.

The full debate can be accessed via https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1960-07-18a.205.0

School Pupils (Political Inquiries) – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 18th July 1960.

Mr William Griffiths , Manchester Exchange

I am very relieved to be allowed to deal with this very important subject, to which I am glad to see the Minister is here to reply. On 2nd June, I put a Question to the Minister of Education asking him about the activities of the security forces as they related to pupils at school. From the exchanges that took place in the House on that occasion, it seemed to us that the Minister made two statements which, at least by implication, widened the matter considerably, and thoroughly alarmed hon. Members on both sides of the House, besides teachers, parents and a wide section of the Press.

What he did was to admit that security forces approached headmasters of some boys and girls who had left school. Secondly, he implied that a headmaster could, as he called it, give advice on "the facts of life"—in this case the warning by the headmaster that the holding of certain political views might be damaging to their future employment prospects.

Subsequent to our discussion on that case, the headmaster of the school concerned, whilst denying that he had been approached by security officers about any boys at present in school, admitted that he had been approached by security officers. According to The Guardian of 3rd June, the headmaster said that "security officers ring up to ask what a pupil's politics were while he was at school". He continued: It is a practice I do not hold with. In future, I will not reply to them. I will say only this about that case. I—I am sure many hon. Members share my view—am grateful to the headmaster, first for frankly acknowledging that secret police had approached him, and secondly for courageously saying that he would not reply to them in future. He gave an honourable lead to other members of his profession. I also agree entirely with his next comment, which according to the same newspaper was: Questions about the political views of boys of school age should never be put. The parents who thought inquiries were being made of children at present at the school were mistaken, though it was perhaps understandable that they should have thought so, because of the way the matter was handled. I leave that particular school there.

Two questions remain about the Government's security policy in general. First, do the secret police in fact make inquiries about the politics of children still at school? Secondly, if they do, can it be justified? Further, are the admitted inquiries—the Minister does not deny these inquiries—about former students justified?

The replies from the minister were fundamentally to deny everything unless it could be proved otherwise, and then prevaricate and waffle. So different from today!

The media had not been so inclined to cover the affair up.

Cutting from Daily Express of 3 June 1960.

The question as to whether Sidney Baxter called in the Secret Service because of the election result or whether they came of their own accord (on the basis of their own information) is not definitively answered. However, since the election results were suppressed how could the Secret Service know unless informed by Sidney Baxter or somone else party to the secret results? (The papers suggest that a member of staff might have been unhappy with the suppression of the results and the calling in of the Secret Service, and so leaked the information to the press. But who called in the secret service?)

Apart from this, would the coincident wearing of CND and AA badges by students (which was banned by Baxter) have been a sufficient provocation for the Secret Service to get involved? It seems unlikely, although they doubtless would have been monitoring those who attended political protests and could have traced some back to William Ellis. However, a later matter suggests that despite the denials and whitewashing Sidney Baxter was the initiator of the Secret Service involvement.

As I learned from Sean Sayers (below) during the student occupation of Warwick University around 1970 many secret files were opened. This revealed the following two letters.

In this first letter Baxter secretly contacts the Vice Chancellor of Warwick University to let him know that one of his students applying in 1969 is politically active, and as he sees it, a dangerous radical. He advises rejection.

The reply make it clear that the applicant has been rejected. Although the reasons are not stated it seems likely that the private communication was a significant factor.

The letters have been retyped to protect the anonymity of the student, but I am assured they are authentic. (See https://senatehouseoccupation.wordpress.com/documents/warwick-registry-files/)

This exchange is deeply problematic because, in particular, it may have thwarted a young man's career plans to become a molecular scientist. This is in direct contradiction of Baxter's duty to help his students progress on in life according to their abilities. More generally, the student's political leanings are not the business of the headteacher, and certainly not a matter for censure and private intervention. We lived in and continue to live in what is purportedlly a free society with freedoms of association and belief enshrined in our rights. Such actions are those of an authoritarian state and its supporters, such as the communist states of East Germany, USSR and China (what an irony!).

Later it emerged that several of the parents of William Ellis school boys, and parents of other friends from the Witches, had been under the scrutiny of the Secret Service during much of the 1950s and 1960s. Freedom of Information disclosures reveal transcripts of several parents' and their friends' telephone conversations, and strange interpretations of mundane conversations as coded subversive communications. There are also incorrect rumours and innuendo about their affiliations and political plans written in their secret dossiers, based on entirely unconvincing evidence. As Juvenal asks Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who watches the watchers themselves? Clearly they are not reliable enough to be left unsupervised and without independent scrutiny.

On a personal note, I flunked out of William Ellis School in 1963 with only 5 'O' Level passes, and failed my 3 'A' Levels in Pure Mathematics, Chemistry, and Zoology (during my Zoology practical exam I was over 1000 miles away in Tangier with Tony Barnett). This failure was entirely my own fault as the school teaching was pretty good, if rather old fashioned and teacher-centred. After a year as a dustman in 1963-64 (Refuse Collection Officer was my official title) and two years redoing my 'A' Level studies and exams I gained entry to the University of Sussex, one of the most popular of the day, October 1966. My parents were so pleased that when I got back from Afghanistan in September they gave me an entirely unexpected gift of £100! Whoppee! The full student living grant was £340 per annum (outside London), and the cost of new Hillman Imp car was £440, so this was a serious bonus!

On arrival at Sussex, I found that one of my fellow undergraduate students was a very pleasant young woman named Pippa Baxter, daughter of my old headteacher. She was an acquaintance from Hampstead and she had attended South Hampstead High girls school. I asked her to tell Sidney Baxter, her father, that I finally completed my 'A' Levels and got into Sussex University in 1966. I expected that he would be pleased to hear that one of his earlier, failing charges had pulled himself together and finally made good! To my surprise Baxter wrote me an angry letter demanding to know about my achievements and castigating me in quite disagreeable terms for not informing him! My inference was that he really had little if any regard for me at all, but wanted to enter me onto their roll of honour as another one of their successes, despite it being all my own work (and due to the teaching at the City of Westminster College). I was furious at his cheek and tone and didn't reply! (Paul Ernest)

Sean Sayers adds first hand knowledge to my account of the secret service affair!

During the General Election of 1959, the school held a mock election. A friend (Joe W) stood as the Communist Candidate with the inspired slogan “Vote Communist and annoy Sid” (the headmaster). A group of us threw ourselves into his campaign. It worked. Much to the annoyance of the Headmaster, he did remarkably well, even though the Communist Party had no significant support in the area.

The Headmaster, Sidney Baxter, had been a Major in the Army, as he liked to remind people, and was viscerally conservative. He was alarmed by the growth of left wing views in his school. Many of us wore CND badges which were inconspicuous and caused no problems. But then we were offered a box full of Anti-apartheid badges for free. These were large and loud. A friend (Roger England) and I collected them from the AA offices and we handed them out to our friends and anyone else who wanted them. Suddenly everyone in the School seemed to be wearing them. The Headmaster was furious. He called a special Assembly of the whole School and announced that he was banning the wearing of all political badges. The next morning he summoned every member of our year, the Lower 6^th, to appear before him individually in his Office and he asked each of us whether we were members of the Communist Party. I refused to answer and asked him why he was asking this question. He replied, “because MI5 makes enquiries” – he actually said that! – not only to me to others too. A parent of one of the pupils had connections. A Member of Parliament tabled an urgent question about MI5 operations in Schools. The following morning there were banner headlines in the national newspapers, “M.I.5 in School. Headmaster talks of security checks as a storm breaks in Commons” (D Express, 3 June 1960), and Press reporters were camped outside the School. The Headmaster did not deny the stories and rode out the storm. We weren’t allowed to wear badges any more.

This wasn’t the end of Baxter’s battle to save the nation from the left-wing threat. In 1970, long after my time at the School, during a sit-in at Warwick Univ students discovered documents proving that the Admin had been keeping files on the activities of left-wing students and staff. Copies of these documents were published, sparking sit-ins and protests at univs all around the country (inc Kent).[1] One of the documents that came to light was a letter from Baxter to J B Butterworth, Vice-Chancellor of Warwick Univ,:

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

William Ellis School, Highgate Road, London NW5

17th February 1969

Dear Sir,

re: Course No. 37220, Molecular Science

I write to you concerning the application for entry in 1969 of ……. of this School. I find it necessary to add to the comments made on the UCCA entry form concerning his preoccupation with student politics. He is now a committee member of the London Schools Action Group, engaged in the organising of protests and demonstrations concerning School Government, etc. His name appeared in the Times Educational Supplement of the 10th January, expressing his intention to embark on militant action when necessary.

I felt that it was important that you should be aware of this in making your decision. I would prefer this communication to be treated very confidentially, and should be pleased to receive your comments.

Yours faithfully,

(signed) Sydney L Baxter, Headmaster.

(WRITTEN AT FOOT OF THE LETTER: REJECT THIS MAN. J.B.B. )

[1] E P Thompson edited a book on the affair, Warwick University Limited (Penguin 1970).

Andrew Moss writes:

In late 1959 Joe ran as Communist Candidate in the mock election at William Ellis and got seventy votes; enough to rattle Sidney Baxter, the headmaster, known universally as Sid, to the point of incoherence. Then the school became overrun with Anti-Apartheid buttons. Sid panicked and called in MI5 and everybody in the lower Sixth was summoned one by one into his office for an interview in which they were asked whether or not they were members of the Communist Party. The head boy, Peter Jefferys, Joe’s somewhat stiff and do-goody cousin and son of James, rightly told Sid to fuck off. Since the William Ellis parents included MPs and hard-core political activists like [Name of Parent redacted], questions were rapidly asked in Parliament and stories written in newspapers and Sid retired with his face red. Even at the time we knew he had gone too far. This was England and you were entitled to your political opinions, more or less.

Brian Green writes, on a more personal note:

I applied for admission to William Ellis, coming up on 11 years old, in 1953. I was interviewed by the then current Headmaster, Mr. Francis Lockwood. I had a good feeling for him in the interview. He was liked and respected, with the reputation of being a kind, good and fair man, by both the boys and staff. I was accepted for admission. But soon after he left, and was replaced in my first year by Mr. Sydney Baxter, MA. The longer I attended William Ellis, the more I disliked Mr. Sydney Baxter, and so did most of the boys I knew, I don’t know about the staff. I viewed him with growing fear, scorn and suspicion. I thought at first, this was perhaps engendered by my working class anti-authority, anti-establishment rebel antennae going up. This certainly was reinforced on hearing later, that not only did he have a Double First in Mathematics from Oxford or Cambridge University, but he was also an ex Guards Officer, (yuck). The epitome of British conventional orthodoxy. But I already disliked him before I knew these facts about him. I left in 1960 at eighteen years old, and none too soon for me. Later at twenty years old or so, I revisited the school for an Open Day, about two years after I left.

I entered the Cafeteria for some Lunch, and there he, Mr. Sydney (bleeding) Baxter was, cloaked in all his gown and glory. As I took him in, I had one of those moments of crystal clarity, which I have been blessed with throughout my life. He was being addressed by Mr. Armit, the Deputy Headmaster. Mr. Armit was known as “Spike” to the boys, partly due to his punitive habit of spearing them with a searing and often humiliating acidic sarcasm if displeased, and for also being known as a strict disciplinarian and martinet, as was Mr. Sydney (bleeding) Baxter. He, Mr. Armit, had one of those long narrow pointed noses, slightly reddened at the tip, as if a dripping drop was going to appear there at any moment. Though he was not outwardly bowing and scraping, while wringing his hands, to the piercing vision of my inner eye, Spike inwardly resembled the character out of Charles Dickens, Uriah Heep, who actually did so. What a vile pandering of obeisant fawning. What a lathering of slithering bootlicking. (Yuck). As if this was not putrid enough, transferring my gaze to Mr. (bleeding) Baxter, I saw he was as bad or worse. He was complacently basking in this unctuous toadying slime, soaking it all up, glorying in it, puffing himself up and preening, as if it was his rightful due. What a disgusting exhibition. I was instantly transported from repulsion to revulsion. This was purely visual, the words only arriving retrospectively, many years later, as I matured.

I was I guess, like Dickens, seeing the Victorian grotesques that surrounded him, with the pure wordless vision of a child, that strips away the social veneer, revealing in this case, Mr. (bleeding) Baxter’s naked self-centered social climbing egoism beneath. I also came to

understand the initial root of my earlier growing suspicion and dislike. He was always exhorting us boys, regarding the necessity of achieving athletically and scholastically. He would be so often preaching to us, about behaving in other ways that would burnish the image of the school to the outside world, and never behaving in any ways that might tarnish this aforesaid public image. All ostensibly, as a contribution to the greater glory and public status, of the School. My retrospective realization was, that this actually all was for contributing to the reflected greater glory and public status, of Mr. Sydney Leonard (bleeding) Baxter, MA, to give him his full title. What a hollow phony glory hound. This faint, albeit reeking whiff of sanctimonious hypocrisy, was stinking in my as yet not fully formed nostrils, from the very beginning.

_______________________________________________________

Out of fairness, having condemned him roundly, I should perhaps give a more balanced view of Sidney Baxter and the school - Paul Ernest

Sydney Baxter MA. Headmaster William Ellis School 1953 - 1976. A great supporter of the CCF and a former Major in Intelligence working at Bletchley Park with the 'Ultra' team during WW".

Obviously Sidney Baxter had served his country well during the time of the Second World War. And that was truly a time of crisis for this country. Although his loyalty to his country and his nationalism may have made him somewhat overzealous in guarding national security as he saw it, there is no doubt Sidny Baxter was sincere. Although it was very much aligned with the establishment, William Ellis school was in many ways a good and well organised school. Most students achieved well and went on to higher education. Some of the credit for this must go to the Headmaster Sidney Baxter, who ran the school 1953 to 1976. The authoritarian structure of the school was pretty standard for grammar and indeed public schools of the day, which William Ellis Endowed Grammar School, to give it its full title, emulated. There was music, drama, a film club, and some of the teachers were quite inspiring. The CCF - Combined Cadet Force - combing army and airforce cadets - was greatly valued by some boys and staff, although the Witches lot and the left wing lot that I celebrate on these pages, looked down on it. There was even a gay underground at the school, as I found out when I tried (unsuccessfully) to join the Printing Club. That was important at a time when an evil law and homophobic climate led to terrible injustices and did untold damage to gay men.

Certainly some of the teaching was inspiring. I enjoyed maths with Mr Armit, was very enthusiastic about chemistry (Mr Whorwell and others), biology and zoology (with Mr Pond) and found inspiration in English literature with Mr Harding. I was turned on to Catullus in Latin, although I failed the subject, enthused about the Hunza valley in geography with Mr Smith, was entranced by hearing Bach and early music with Dr Prinz. Although excused from the terrifying Mr Wren's Divinity class in the 4th year as an atheist, I returned voluntarily in the 6th form when the subject turned to philosophy. In other words, I did find intellectual stimulation there, and that is surely one of the highest functions of schooling.

In addition, I made many of my best and lifelong friends there, as is documented in this website.

The Benemy Dining Club - which continues - celebrates the more military side of William Ellis and its staff and old boys. They post this

Welcome to the Benemy Dining Club Website named in honour of the Late Colonel FWG Benemy who commanded the William Ellis School Combined Cadet Force (after a glittering military career which took in both the Khyber Pass, D Day and post war Berlin. The site is intended to interest any member of any cadet or Territorial Unit or indeed anyone who happens by and who might be of like mind....

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Please note the Benemy Dining Club Annual Dinner 2015 was held on Thursday 26th November at the Tower of London !......See News Section for more.

If you have any images likely to be of interest to us then please make contact at your convenience using the contact tab on this w

Formal Group from Pirbright 1960. One of the few pictures of Col Benemy and the also highly respected Capt J Jackson who died in 2006 at the age of 84 having survived the Dieppe landings.

website at www.elysiansclub.co.uk why not pay a visit !

From the Benemy Dining Club website - https://www.benemydiningclub.com/

A notable staff supporter of the William Ellis School CCF was a Mr Douglas Pond, celebrated by Benemy Dining Club. Mr Pond was a much loved biology and zoology teacher. A font of knowledge and a very tolerant man. He had a good sense of humour and a good way with us boys. We did not know about his war record at the time.

Lt A D Pond (Captain Pond in the CCF), known to generations of WES pupils as 'Dougie' Pond won the MC with the Chindits in the War. He never spoke of it but his daughter Elizabeth has given permission for us to reproduce his MC citation here. Elizabeth would also like to hear of your memories of her father who sadly died in 1986. Send them to us at benemydiningclub@yahoo.co.uk and we'll pass them on.

Douglas Pond's Millitary Cross Citation

06/02/07

Lieutenant A.D. Pond M.C.

Transcript of Military Cross Citation

Brigade

14th Infantry

Division

3rd Indian

Unit

1st Bn The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment

Date of

Recommendation

18 August 1944

Regtl. No.

220616

Rank and Name

Lieutenant Alfred Douglas POND

Action for which commended :-

Lieut. Pond commanded a rifle platoon in 1st Bn the Bedfs & Herts Rgt (61 Column), from start of operation until he was evacuated as a result of wounds towards the middle of May 1944. On 20th April 1944 61 Column was given the task of discovering enemy dumps and destroying them in the INDAW area. It was further instructed to cause confusion among the enemy by making them believe that a strong force was operating against them. Divisional Intelligence reported 2000 Japs as composing the garrison. Lieut. Pond was ordered to operate for four days in the area immediately SOUTH of INDAW. His tasks were to discover and destroy dumps known to exist in this area and to kill Japs. He took his platoon from Column Battle HQ on 21 April 1944 and was due to return on 24 April. Within half an hour he entered a village discovering a Jap camp kitchen and five Japs. These he immediately engaged killing one and wounding three. He then carried out a search of the village without discovering further traces of the enemy. Thinking he had accounted for the enemy in his locality he carried on with his patrol leaving the village by the northern exit which led out to open paddy and thin scrub. Heavy fire was suddenly opened on his platoon by Japanese in dug-in positions on the far side of the paddy. The sudden unexpectedness of the firing caused two of his sections to break for cover in the village. Placing one section in position, personally, to keep down enemy fire, he walked back to the village where he collected and reorganised his men. His calm and collected behaviour obviously helped enormously in restoring his men’s confidence. By this time, the enemy realising the strength of his patrol, were commencing an encircling movement to his right flank. Placing himself at the head of his two sections he rushed them across some open ground to a position from which they were able to counter the threat. Then again returning to his original position he withdrew his first section , led the way along a chaung which brought him to the enemy’s rear at close quarters, This attack caught the enemy by surprise and they fled. Four enemy dead were counted and it was estimated that several other casualties had been caused to the enemy. He carried on with his patrol but the enemy had obviously been warned. For the three days his platoon was continuously sniped and making sudden contact with Jap searching parties. So determined and decisive were his actions that in every case the enemy was routed. Cover consisted only in clumps of scrub with large paddy fields intervening. During the whole of this time there was no moon and consequently all movements were carried out by day nearly always under enemy observation and, frequently, enemy interference. Lieut. Pond was able to identify two large petroleum oil dumps. One of which he was compelled to enter in order to produce an accurate sketch map, having first killed the sentry and caused the remainder of the small guard post to disperse. By the morning of the fourth day his actions had so aroused the area bordering on the southern outskirts of INDAW that he was compelled to fight his way out to the cover of the jungle, a distance of four and a half miles. His patrol produced excellent results, having pinpointed two dumps, a hospital and MT park (subsequently shot up by 16 column) and definitely killed 17 Japs for the loss of one seriously injured and three slightly injured from his own platoon. This officer had carried out many patrols with precisely the same coolness and determination. His own excellent behaviour under trying circumstances inspired his platoon. Later his platoon was ordered to block the INDAW-NAMKIN railway to cover the left flank of the Brigade which was crossing from south to north. While getting into their covering positions, contact was made with a small Jap railway patrol. During this action he received wounds in the head, left arm, left side and foot.. despite his injuries Lieut. Pond refused to relinquish command of his platoon to the officer sent to relieve him until he had carefully explained the situation and furthermore had conducted him to the positions of his two forward sections. Lieut. Pond displayed on all occasions the highest qualities of leadership, bravery and extreme devotion to duty.

Honour or Reward

Military Cross

Signed By

Major General W.D.A. Lentaigne

Comd. Special Force.

General G. Giffard

Commander-in-Chief 11 Army Group

(London Gazette 26.04.1945)

Another view of William Ellis School

Jim Corbett

Paul Ernest recently wrote to the Old Elysians Club about his recollections of the school on the early sixties. I have read the various pages he suggested on the Witches Cauldron website which I found fascinating. Some of the recollections I read with wry amusement, some with sadness and some with a sense of deja vu. It is nonetheless a real period piece

I was a pupil at William Ellis from 1965-72 and was briefly school captain while I was seeking to improve one of my A level grades, and spent the time making silly radio programmes which was great fun. I too was taught by, Armit, Pond, Whorwell, Benemy, Eddie Marsh, Roni Lean and Reggie Paine (woodwork since 1936!). I revered them all.

I was there during the Warwick incident and Sid Baxter (the headmaster) had the whole school into the hall in batches to explain himself. Very well I thought. My Dad was quite left wing but he always got on very well with Sid Baxter and was completely satisfied when as Chairman of the Parents Association he had a personal meeting with Sid on the whole issue. Sid was certainly Conservative but it might interest you to know that in the 1966 and 1970 mock elections he forbade anyone from standing as National Front or Communist although there was an independent who was actually a CP member in 1970. Labour won on both occasions.

It is a strange feature of the left wingers and literati at WES that they were all absolutely convinced they were under secret service observation. Oh how it thrilled them! In my own limited experience it was never true. MI5 were mostly interested in finding the traitors in their own ranks. MI6 were quite busy countering the KGB and worrying about the Red Army sitting on the West German border. Both organisations had much better things to do than worry about the vivid imaginations of a bunch excited schoolboys! I should add that I know that Paul is certain of such involvements and I also know from my own experiences elsewhere that the security services did (and probably still do) make enquiries, especially where the IRA were suspected.

One thing we now know for certain is that the KGB certainly did penetrate much more deeply than we thought at the time with many household names on their payroll in one way or another. The Chinese secret services seem to be doing the same thing now. I suppose that investigating the child as a route to finding out about the parents might happen but in all honesty this sort of ‘MI5 are tapping our phone’ stuff was usually more a fantasy than anything else, if for no other reason than that you wouldn’t be able to tell even if they were tapping you!

In one respect I fear I may be responsible adding credence to the ‘Sid as Bletchley Codebreaker‘ story for it was I who wrote the piece about it on the Benemy Dining Club website which I also run. I was told the story by Lawrence Halstead who taught me classics (unsuccessfully) and later headed the School’s TV dept. He succeeded Benemy as officer commanding the CCF despite being the most physically unco-ordinated person I have ever met. I was a keen member of the CCF and later the Territorial Army and I got to know Lawrence very well, we became quite close friends and I would often show up at CCF camps and exercises at his request years after I had left the school. We lost touch to some extent when I got married but I saw him occasionally for a ferocious curry. However he was also a Walter Mitty character who would tell one stories because he wished they were true not because they were, I’m not sure he knew himself which was which. He died too young about 20+ years ago.

We did check out the Bletchley tale as far as we could (which is not very far) but no one could corroborate it and the London Gazette entries don’t help because even now they don’t list Bletchley Park in an individual’s entry. We were told by a member of Sid’s family that as far as they knew he spent the War in the Royal Artillery and had no knowledge of his possible involvement at Bletchley. But because nothing could be proved either way we left it in the piece on the website for fun if nothing else. So I am delighted to see Lawrence’s piece of whimsy being used to justify what might be a largely baseless accusation. Of such are legends made.

Your recollections of the druggy and pre-hippy beatnik days of William Ellis came as an interesting but unexpected take on the school of the early sixties. It was slightly before my time but chimes with events in the mid to late sixties, not just the Warwick University stuff but also the death of a sixth former from a heroin overdose. It was all very sad. I’m not sure of the precise details but his death sent a shock wave through the school. Sid once again addressed us in smaller groups and one could tell that the whole staff were physically shocked. Things like that simply didn’t happen at William Ellis, it was as if they were all affronted that their view of what a typical Elysian was (especially in the sixth form) had been destroyed, of course by the sixties that typical Elysian hardly existed, perhaps he never had. Indeed the education was pretty liberal and we were all encouraged to question our own opinions and those of others, so WES was never a philosophical strait jacket in my time anyway, although I accept there are many who will disagree with me.

There was a half-hearted ‘search for the guilty’ because it was believed (rightly) that there was a group of dope heads and that poor old Gerschel was not alone. In fact Sid Baxter told me himself a year or two later that the one aspect of the affair, which had hit him pretty hard, was the way many of Gerschel’s friends knew he had a serious problem but none of them had tried to get help for him nor expose him so that he could be helped. I suspect Sid had absolutely no conception of why such events and practices occurred. In fact I know he did not. One member of the sixth form at that time was a certain Hugh Cornwell, later of the Stranglers, and I cannot listen to Golden Brown without being whisked back to those days, although I never partook of anything more psychedelic than Glen Morangie and nicotine myself.

Another completely different event which did take place during my time was the bomb on the stage. One Friday morning the CCF was having a Range Day at Purfleet ranges. We always looked forward to this as we didn’t get to fire live ammo very often. We left the school early and when the coach arrived at the range Col. Benemy was hustled off to take an urgent phone call. When he returned he had us all lined up and said some sort of bomb had gone off at the school during assembly. No one had been hurt but it was thought that maybe someone in the CCF had the knowledge to create such a device so he had been instructed to search all our pockets and bags. He obviously found this distasteful but he did it and he found nothing. Surprise, surprise. The miscreant was eventually nailed. It was a not very regular member of the CCF who was not attending the range day. He had purloined a thunderflash from our scanty supply in the CCF armoury together with a small amount of fusing cord. With this fairly unreliable equipment he had managed to get the thunderflash to go off in a dustbin at the back of the stage during assembly. Apparently it made a huge bang but Sid maintained his sang froid and ordered everyone to stay where they were while investigations began. One of the teachers, or so I was told later, guessed that the bomber would head to the nearest toilets to hide till the dust settled and he did indeed apprehend a fifth former there. Through various bits of circumstantial evidence suspicions were significantly aroused and he confessed fairly quickly. The axe fell quite promptly but I don’t think he was prosecuted.

One miscreant who was prosecuted was a boy who had been slung out in the fourth form because he was lazy and ‘a bad influence’ ! Together with one of his friends he was apprehended by a policeman in the early hours having smashed his way into the armoury (which Elysians of this vintage will recall as being sited in the flat roofed asbestos hut immediately adjacent to the rear exit of the school on to Parliament Hill Fields- only the concrete base now remains). Apparently using just a sledge hammer they had managed to break into the hut (not difficult) then get through the heavy and multi-locked door (very difficult) by busting a hole in the clapperboard wall beside it (very easy) then get twenty or so old Lee Enfield rifles and a sten gun out of the chained and concreted racks (very difficult). It must have taken them ages. In court he said that it had been his plan to sell them to the IRA, whether or not the IRA would have been pleased to get them is another matter. I think he got three months.

The next morning a select group of CCF types (myself included) with Military Policemen armed to the teeth set out in a convoy and transported all remaining arms to a very secure (and historic) armoury in Central London. The school armoury was rebuilt with much steel sheeting etc but was not used for very long. As the Northern Irish situation deteriorated and following another cadet force armoury raid at Highgate School (which WAS the IRA) all the useable weapons were withdrawn to central secure storage where they probably remain today for all I know.

Perhaps I have digressed somewhat from the Witches Cauldron topics but I have put a link to the Witches website on the Old Elysians Website with a Health warning lest any of our older members should have a heart attack!

Received 26 January 2022.

To go to the Old Elysians Club Page use the link https://elysiansclub.co.uk/index.html

Response by Paul Ernest

Jim Corbett offers a lively personal account of his days at WIlliam Ellis school during the period 1965-72. Tony, I and several others left in the Summer of 1963. Peter S and Philip Howe stayed on an extra year (3rd year 6th Form) to complete or resit 'A' Levels or 'O' Levels, so we were all gone before Jim arrived, he being substantially younger than us.

He paints a vivid and sympathetic account of his days at William Ellis which perhaps is a nice balance to our experiences and views.

One area I would take issue with is that of the involvement of MI5 and the secret services. It is all too easy to dismiss suspicions of being followed, having one's phone tapped, or being investigated as being down to paranoia. Apart from the details recounted above, several of our extended group of friends, some at William Ellis, and some at other schools had parents that were confirmed subjects of secret service investigation. The evidence for several such enquiries were obtained via the Freedom of Information act. Good friends obtained transcripts of phone tapped conversations between their parents and their friends. These adults were being investigated because they were members of groups like the Communist Party of GB, Anti-Apartheid, CND, etc). The released data included whole files on target individuals including transcripts of phone tapped conversations and speculations about what the casual chats between mothers on topics like dinner, cooking, sewing, social events - the files question what these everyday chats might conceal, what their true subversive meanings were. This was both laughable and sinister.

Unquestionably MI5 and the security services did target some of us and our parents (not mine).

A teacher remembered: Agnes Clough

Agnes Clough was an important figure in the editor’s recollection of his opening years at William Ellis from 1962,

where he stayed with Biology up to ‘O’ Level, taken in the summer of 1967. The time corresponded with the later part

of Miss Clough’s time at the school. Agnes’ teaching style was idiosyncratic, a mix of deadpan seriousness (with little

room for perceived frivolity or any display of too obvious lack of interest in the topic of the day) and asperity, which

the editor, for one, could not fully read. The feint trace of humour which he now recalls leavened what the class

generally thought to be a strong disposition towards ‘teacherly’ sarcasm, which hinted at steel in discipline which few

of us thought it prudent to ‘tempt’. Good pedagogy, perhaps, and, for the editor at least, one not to be overlain by

experience of Miss Clough’s teaching beyond ‘O’ Level. The memory of the classes includes her regular opening of the

class with the return of home work, with fairly vicious disdain when it fell markedly short of the standard she

required. The single fisted crumpling or ‘execution’ of an offending article, at arm stretch, with a suitably proximate

waste bin, into which the paper dropped with a clunk, comes to mind. This still forms a slightly spine-tingling but

strangely precious personal memory. Miss Clough may well have recalled, later, the dead Mallard (seriously dead if

not thoroughly putrefied) which one of her more enthusiastic acolytes brought her from the margin of the Second

Pond on the Heath one afternoon. Wrapped in a sopping postal bag, he was convinced (at least as he averred to his

friends) that she would be overjoyed to switch the subject of the coming class to an unscheduled dissection. Her

classroom consistency, as to method and manner, always gave the class what it expected (if not, perhaps, what it

desired!). Predictability had its virtues to the pupil. Everyone knew what the experience of a class by ‘Aggie’ would be

like: measures could be taken to accommodate and even (dare I say it?) enjoy it, as it consumed another forty minute

fragment of the day. It certainly forms part of the remembered patina of one student’s time at the school in those

years. A photograph of Miss Clough in her WES days is presently absent from the school and Club collection. Can

anyone remedy this omission?

Source Elysian Journal November 2014 p.12