William Ellis School

Post date: 24-Apr-2021 17:49:33

William Ellis Grammar School, Gospel Oak, NW5

Many of the boys who hung around the Witches, and their brothers, went to William Ellis Grammar School. This is how we lunched.

Lunch at William Ellis School. Luncheon et decorum est!

CLOSE UPS OF THE ANNUAL SENIOR SCHOOL PHOTO 1962

Staff are seated in the front row (as well as prefects, also gowned, wearing striped ties)

WE Senior School 1962 showing Tony Barnett, Steve Goldblatt, John Duchin

WE Senior School 1962 showing Dave Stevens

WE Senior School 1962 showing Phil Howe, Alfred Levy, Paul Ernest

WE Senior School 1962 showing Jonathon Steele, John Rush

WE Senior School 1962 showing Mick Parsons

Here are some of the staff

This Mr 'Spike' Armit, deputy head and in charge of discipline. His subject was maths and despite being greatly feared he was a good maths teacher and established a good and humourous rapport with the class. "You haven't got the brains of a gnat, boy!" was one of his sayings. I studied with him (PE). The other man is a recognisable teacher too - but his name escapes me.

Mr Nelkon, physics teacher, c. 1960. It was said that if you connected up some of the apparatus the way he suggested in his 'A' Level physics book it would explode. He was the wealthiest teacher at school and drove a red Bentley.

Mr Whorwell taught chemistry. The chemistry was inspirational. It was a combination of good teaching and a deep interest in its applications (bombs and drugs). I recall making Amyl Nitrate in the lab (cook up amyl aclohol, nitric acid and something else) breathe in the vapour from the hot beaker and then run into the chemical store and hang on to the shelves with you hands as your body conviulsed and you almost passed out!

1960, Mr Harding, teacher of English. He was quite inspirational. I learned to appreciate Shakespeare and modern poetry including the WW1 poets through his classes (PE)

1960, Went went behind Mr Harding

1960, Mr Herrick. Latin, in Room 4. I studied Latin but was asked to leave after the 'O' Level mocks. I was awarded a score of 2% (well everyone knows amo, amas, amat) and it was actually a rounding up of 3/200.

1962, Mr Thomas, maths teacher. Having passed 'O' Level maths a years early in the 4th year, I sat next to John Rush for A/O maths in the 5th year. I failed that alongside English Literature, Geography, French. He probably passed! And I'm a bloody mathematician!

1962, Mr Nelkon (Physics) and Brigadier Benamy (Economics) at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill. Benamy was the lynch pin of the CCF (Combined Cadet Force). He taught economics among other subjects. Tony Barnett reports that everybody in his class failed economics - something was definitely wrong!

1962, Mr Pond, our much revered biology teacher at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill. " Funny thing boys, half of the chloroform evaporated overnight! Isn't that strange?" I think he knew what we were up to! He had fought in Burma in WW2 and survived. This alone deserves an accolade! He had a wry sense of humour and treated us with respect. He was a great teacher, and my failing 'A' Level Zoology was nothing to do with him. Decades later, after he had died, Tony Barnett met his daughter and was able to tell her how much we liked and respected him.

Sid (Major Baxter, head) and Spike (Mr Armit), at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill, 1962. Read more about Sid and the Secret Service Scandal at William Ellis School elsewhere on this site.

Spike (Mr Armit), at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill, 1962, with a bank of boys spectating (and probably expectorating) in the background.

Mr Wadsworth, Botany, at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill, 1962. A nice chap - gentler than most! He taught botany, which Tony Barnett, Peter Sayers and Philip Howe studied with him. One lunch hour, in the spirit of boyish fun, we bound Tony Barnett with rubber hose to a lab stool and put him in the small garden outside the lab window. The heavens opened and Tony was sitting there getting more and more drenched when Mr Wadsworth noticed, and opening the door leaned out and said "Don't be so silly boy, come in at once". In response Tony stated the obvious "I can't, Sir, I'm all tied up!"

1962, William Ellis sports day, Mr Kelly and Mr Brawne. I seem to recall Mr Kelly taught chemsitry and was a decent bloke. But I may have him muddled up with another tracher.

John Rush at William Ellis sports day, Parliament Hill, 1962. A strapping lad!

William Ellia Rugby 1st XV team, 1962-63 with the captain John Rush in the middle. Is that Steve Jeffreys a knights move away top left (dark hair)? The teacher is Mr Brawne I believe. Thanks to the Old Elysians site from whom this picture is sourced.

1962, Tony Barnett (3rd from left) running on Sports Day. He did it to earn the house points by participating. I forget which of the 6 houses Tony was in, Cumberland, Crockett? Peter Sayers and I were in Blythe House.

1962, Tony Barnett recovers after winning house points by running

Alan Shoobridge high jumping at William Ellis school games, 1962. He could have been a contender!

1961, Philip Howe, having a fag at the Cafe on the Heath near William Ellis School. Is that Alan Shoobridge t left and Mic Parsons to right?

1961, Tony Jackson, Peter Sayers, in the Canteen. Could that be me (PE) extreme left?

1962, Paul Ernest, William Ellis canteen. "More pud? Haven't you had one already?"

1962, Paul Ernest, William Ellis canteen. No dob of custard overlooked!

1962 Stephen Goldblatt, Alan Shoobridge, in William Ellis Schhol classroom

1962 Alan Shoobridge, Stephen Goldblatt, in William Ellis School classroom (rear view)

1960, Sean Sayers, Roger England, Joe Whittaker, Pete Joffe in school uniform (the elder brothers' generation)

1960, Sean Sayers, Roger England, John Danes, Joe Whittaker

William Ellis School prefects in 1958, with headmaster Sidney Baxter in the middle with his son, John Baxter and Vogel to the right, seated.

During 1956 or 57 after I joined the school I got talking to the sixth-former John Baxter about my interest in chemistry and he took me on a tour of the labs. He demonstrated what happens when you chuck a chip of pure sodium and potassium metal into a sink full of water. The potassium skitters across the water boiling the area of immediate contact and burning with a lilac flame. It reacts with the water to form potassium hydroxide releasing hydrogen gas which ignites because of the great heat of the reaction. But beyond the bare facts of chemistry the sight is amazing, wonderful, inspiring! I loved chemsitry for the dramatic changes you could make - reactions, explosions, bombs, fireworks. Later the chemical explosions go off in your head! I always felt warm towards John for his kindness and interest in a junior lad - he was the head boy - perhaps in the next year - as in the photo. It was said he score 102% in his Applied Maths A Level paper (a technical possiblilty if you score the full 17 points on 6 questions). . A brilliant student he went on to Cambridge I think. Sadly a couple of years later he died in a car accident. Understandably it affected his father badly.

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.

Images of Jim Corbett. This first was taken at Crowborough CCF Summer camp in 1972 after finishing at WES and shortly before he joined the Territorials. The second one is much more recent taken just before he retired on the roof of the Mercy University Hospital Cork where he was Chief Operating Officer.