It was in February 1951 that my family moved to Bideford and I joined the Third Form of the Grammar School. I quickly came to learn of the school’s long history, culture and standards. Much of this was immediately apparent from the honours’ boards, the large number of photographs lining the corridors, the trophy cabinets, the number and range of extracurricular activities, the strict uniform code and the discovery that the teaching staff wore gowns.
By the time I left school to enter the Civil Service in the early Spring of 1956 I had become the Senior Prefect (complete with an ear-tickling black tassel on my cap), Captain of Strange’s House and Quarter Master Sergeant of the school’s cadet force. I was also Chairman of the Debating Society, a member of the dramatic group and had caps for rugby and cricket although I’m afraid my scholastic achievements were really rather on the modest side.
Within a couple of days of starting work Bob Whitefield invited me to join the Old Boys’ cricket club. I was only too happy to accept, partly because I already knew some of the team and partly because I had always enjoyed playing against them in the annual match on the School’s Open Day.
A number of our away matches were played in some splendid locations, including grounds in the Valley of Rocks in Lynton and on the low cliffs overlooking the beach in Bude. We always took our games seriously but never lost site of the fact that we were playing for pleasure and enjoyment. Aided no doubt by the after-match visits to a local pub, the spirit and camaraderie could not have been better with humour and a sense of fun being a vital part of the team’s make up. The fact that I can remember the names of so many of the team after more than sixty years is surely proof of this. Apart from Bob there was Ray Sawtell, Clarie Metherill, Trevor Beer and Derek “Motto” Mounce: there were the three journalists, Bruce Hocking, then with the Bideford Gazette but later to become the anchor man on Harlech TV’s nightly news programme, Phil “Scoop” Day, who was with the Express and Echo, and Derek Bidgway of the North Devon Journal Herald: and that’s not to forget Mike Goss, Bill Wren, Edgar Slade, Johny Williams and Bob Harding. Although I went on to play a reasonable standard of club cricket in Cardiff and Exeter, and was captain of my team for a couple of years, the days playing for the Old Boys were the happiest of my cricketing life.
My working life began in the local tax office in Bideford and I went on to spend the whole of my career in the Inland Revenue. The job took me to Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Torquay and London where I worked in Head Office, which was then in Somerset House, the City and a number of other locations. Having acquired the necessary legal and accountancy qualifications I ended my career as a Controller, one of the top thirty or so positions in a Department of well over 60,000 staff.
In my last posting I looked after over thirty Districts in the City. These were responsible for the taxation affairs of the country’s major financial institutions and many of the nation’s largest companies, some operating on an international and often global scale. One of the last tasks I was given was to review the way in which the Revenue handled these major cases. Our methods had remained largely unchanged since long before the Second World War and I had to create and establish a completely new structure for the organisation of this work whilst also devising and introducing new working methods to ensure that we secured the right yield from the country’s largest taxpayers. It was hard work but hugely satisfying.
Living near London had many good sides despite the high costs and the time spent on the daily commute to the office. We saw many of the major new theatrical productions not long after they opened in the West End and were able to watch the Royal Ballet perform on a fairly regular basis. We also visited London’s major museums, galleries and exhibitions, enjoyed the pageantry the capital has to offer and were invited to two Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace as well as to Trooping the Colour on Horse Guard’s Parade and the Ceremony of the Keys in the Tower of London.
In short, we took advantage of so much that London has to offer, including some of the many sporting events in the capital. We frequently spent a day at Lord’s during a Test Match or when one of the various finals were being played there and also watched the occasional County cricket and Test Match at the Oval. There were visits to Twickenham and, for my son, attendance at a Cup Final at Wembley. For a good number of years we were fortunate enough to have tickets for Wimbledon, usually on Centre or Number One Courts, and saw three Finals.
My main hobby for some forty or so years was photography. I converted a spare bedroom into a darkroom complete with wet and dry benches, a print-washing sink and a wall-mounted enlarger. Apart from being Secretary and then President of my local club I was asked to do a stint as Chairman of the Pictorial Group of the Royal Photographic Society. Several of my prints were published and I showed in and judged a number of international exhibitions.
When I retired, I returned to golf after an absence of twenty-five years. I had never been more than an average mid-handicap player and the passing years had taken their toll. The natural deterioration in hand-eye coordination and the inevitable loss of suppleness as I became older together with the fact that my arms now had to navigate their way around a rather larger girth made this a hugely difficult task. It meant that I remained no more than a run of the mill club golfer. Despite this, my club did me the honour of asking me to be its captain for the year 2000.
My wife, Ida, née Crocker, was a Bideford girl. We had one son and two grandsons. Ida and I enjoyed travel. We visited places as far apart as Chile and China, Vietnam and Venice, Syria and Spain, Morocco and Myanmar whilst we also cruised down the Nile and toured Russia, the Middle East, India, East Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Norway, Nepal, Cuba, South Africa and New Zealand along with a few other countries as well. Our favourite destination, one we kept returning to, was the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland, perhaps because that was where we spent our honeymoon in 1961.
No autobiography can help but seem self-congratulatory or boastful and I apologise if that is the case in this instance. That said, I feel it is important for us to record as much as we can about the old school. Before long I shall be no more than a memory to my family and friends and, within a few more years, Bideford Grammar School, its long history, its pupils, its staff and its Old Boys will have become just another closed chapter in Bideford’s own and even longer story: let us make this chapter as complete as we can.
