 | Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
| Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
Nick Bryant
Notes by Nick BryantAfter several jobs of mainly short duration from Car Salesman to Insurance Clerk, I joined the Metropolitan Police Service for the following 31 years, serving mainly in Central and South London. I married at 24, had three children and lived at New Malden, Surrey.After my first retirement during 1997 I became, "The Sheriff of Richmond Park", running a small team of officers of The Royal Parks Police. That was an amazing job, getting paid to stroll around a quite delightful place. Major Crime there was someone scrumping mushrooms!
Sadly I was widowed in 1995 but six years ago met the lovely Lyn. We have been married for three years and live in Henfield, West Sussex, a truly lovely small market town. I retired fully two years ago and I now devote my time to a huge garden, my first grand daughter and doing voluntary work in the community.
Memories by Nick BryantIn truth I have few memories of Rutlish. I arrived there with Norman Green, Norman Boon & Robin Skardon from Links School, Tooting. We were the only four to pass the 11+ and all came to Rutlish. I haven't seen or heard of any of the above since school and am looking forward to meeting them again.Rutlish was, in my opinion, very poor for many. The majority of the teaching staff, although great characters (Hathway, Tank, & King come to mind), were dinosaurs and were no doubt at Rutlish because no one else would employ them. On arrival I was put in class 2D. From the outset most teachers considered the C & D classes were the less able pupils and very few ever managed to elevate themselves to the A & B classes. However my main ambition from an early age was to leave school and this I did asap at 16 with 2 "O" Levels ( Bit of a suprise that, I didn't think I would get any!) I wanted to learn to play a musical instrument and was keen to join the orchestra. I wanted to play the clarinet. I remember queuing to be allocated an instrument. By the time I got to the head of the queue all that was left was a French Horn, battered, bent and complete with resident spider. I never could play the thing, split my lip on it and never did play in the orchestra. I remember trying woodwork. I was impressed by the canoe that apparently had been under construction for so long that parts had woodworm. Result, I made a toothbrush holder. Then I tried art. I wanted to be a new Piccasso but was given a square of brown lino and a sharp knife and told to make a linocut. Result, cut hand and a few days off school. I took art up again later as I found that we were allowed lots of free time, as were the girls from a nearby school that I met in John Innes Gardens and helped with their sketches. Latin was always a mystery to me, what did come after "amo"? It also became very dangerous. Yes I too was there at the famous "Tank & the milkcrate incident." It was all caused by a boy (or boys) who were hiding in the cupboards behind the blackboards, making noises and remarks throughout the lesson until he finally cracked. Usually all one had to dodge was a thrown ruler, lump of chalk or blackboard duster, he was not a very good shot. Who amongst you remembers how many bricks made up the wall of the gym? I recall many happy hours, "lined up" by some prefect or other. I had a charmed life really, only visiting Blenkinsop twice for a taste of the cane. The first time was (who remembers it better than I do ?) when one of the flower beds in the quad suddenly blew up due to a thunderflash exploding. I did not run as fast as the others and got spotted. The second time was at the end of term when everyone was throwing rolled up bits of paper at all and sundry. Silly me picked one up and lobbed it at a prefect who fell to the ground. It was only then that I realised that there was a U2 battery inside the paper! That was thrashing No.2.
Nick Bryant
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