 | Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
| Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
Peter L Watts
Notes by Peter WattsI left Rutlish with not very many "O" levels and no idea how I was going to make my way in life, I did one or two odd jobs, before joining Westminster Bank in 1965. I specialised in trust work and was sent to Jersey in 1972 to do a special project in relation to trusts for Natwest. When they tried to send me back to the UK after 2 years, I decided to stay and joined Hill Samuel, Merchant Bank. I learned later that the reason I got an interview with Hill Sam was that one of the Directors in Jersey was an OR, Ivor Leslie Chambers.
I travelled extensively in the middle east and far east between 1983 and 1988, and every now and again I stumbled across somebody from the old school who had gone out east to make their fortune.. I stayed with Hill Sam until 1988 when I joined a small Trust and Company administration company called Continental. The staff purchased the business from the New Zealand owners in 1990. I still work full time. In the interim I married and have three sons, a musician, a designer of film sets and a trainee actor. I am still a member of Surrey County Cricket Club.
Memories by Peter WattsI was a keen wicket keeper for school teams and one of the few that attended Alf Gover's cricket school in Wandsworth. On a good day Ken Anderson, who was a former Rutlish boy and a teacher, would drive a few of us to the cricket school (Alf Gover's, on a Tuesday, in his recently acquired Mini). Ken was good guy who whilst we were still in the 2nd and 3rd year composed, one Christmas, little ditties about various people. One I recall was about Bryn Martin, who was not Welsh and to my abiding memory another was about me and the fact that although I was not very fat, I knew how to hide behind a cricket bat. God was I proud to have been singled out.How about the geography master who was reported to say to one poor soul who did not know the answer to a simple question "you boy, you're barren, just like my wife, and god knows I've tried".(Ed: this would have been Johnny Walker) I was captain of the under 15's cricket team. On a return trip as we, the older boys, made our way home by Rutlish coach, singing somewhat fruity songs, Simmons, the history teacher, told me to report to him on the following Monday. He was miffed that the under 12 or 13 on the coach were being taught rude songs. I duly reported and told your man that whatever he did I would deny he had whacked me. He whacked me in any event and I told everyone that he had let me off with a dressing down. Our relationship changed from then on. It was reported that the guys in the year above us had a a large amount of manure delivered (dumped in the driveway) of Harry Hathway. The deputy head, who was known as Matthew Bolton (Bobby Oulton). All you had to do was to get him talking about his travels in France, and a whole maths lesson could disappear without reference to any figures, other than his mpg!! The head master was known as Champ, short for champion the wonder horse. A shorthand cartoon of Champ in profile was available to all. He walked home every lunch time across the playing fields to eat the lunch prepared by Mrs. Champ, a person who I have no recollection of ever seeing. There was a Latin teacher called "Butch" Kelly" who realised that he was flogging a dead horse so far as the class I was in was concerned. Keith Ashfield had made in clear to Butch that he was not interested, so he sat at the back and did his homework in relation to other subjects. However every time Butch came across the latin word volare, he would interrupt Keith's homework and ask him what the word meant. "To fly sir", said Keith, "Thank you Ashfield" said Butch, and then Keith got on with his homework. I also remember one end of term (probably just before Christmas) when in the lunch break before the final gathering in the Hall, a mass of us had been out in the field playing football. Needless to say shoes were covered in mud and as we filed out of the final assemly the prefects en masse undertook a shoe inspection. Those who failed the test were immediately kept in detention for some considerable time. In those days before mobile phones it was not of course possible to notify Mum and Dad that instead of getting home at four it was more likely to be six, and by that time it was very dark. Mums and Dads complained vigorously and prefects were, it was rumoured, warned as to their future conduct. Barry Stuart Moore (Baz) and I sat next to each other in the first year. That was probably 2D (I never got out of the D stream) (Ed: it would have 2A). Our class teacher was "Elvis" Brenchley, a young recently qualified teacher, if I recall correctly, who was still impregnated with the ideals gained at teacher training college. One of the very first things he got us to do was to write a report of an historic event in the style of a newspaper article. Baz used the by-line Wayne King, and set, there and then, the tone for the rest of his time at Rutlish. Behind me sat Richard Nicol, who taught me the rudiments of chess. I still play. Speech nights were held at Wimbledon Town Hall. One year we were lectured by the local MP, Sir Cyril Black, who ended up in prison, or otherwise defrocked, for doing something he never mentioned in his speech to us!! The truth of the matter was that Rutlish was trying very hard to be something that it wasn't. It pretended that it was a "minor public school". with a vast range of "houses" just like a real public school. The teachers were either living in the past (Reg Thrasher, Bobby Oulton, the Geography teacher, whatever his name was) or kidding themselves that Grammar Schools still had a future, despite social developments. It is sad to read that so many of those who like me joined in 1957 did not get a decent education. I was never going to be the brightest kid in my year of intake, but frankly I now know that I, and I guess a lot of other who joined at the same time, had a lot more potential than Rutlish, in its then form, was ever going to develop. Do I look back upon my school years as the best years of my life? Well I'm afraid the answer is no. I do not. The truth is that they were not the best years of anyone's life. The question is a sham, just like Rutlish was. However as I get older I find I look back upon them with some fondness. But that is just a function of age.
Peter L Watts
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