David Elston (FS 65-70) has kindly forwarded the following reminiscences:

“I much enjoyed Charlie Lambert’s rather eclectic recollections of St Bees in the last Bulletin, not least because I had a rather minor part in his production of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, which he produced so skilfully, with Ken Davis’s superb portrayal of Thomas Becket. The setting, in the Priory, was absolutely perfect, reeking with atmosphere, not least when the four knights burst in (including Michael ‘Jonah’ Allen on fine form), and came storming up the nave. I also recall John W. Roberts (FS) did an excellent review of it for the next edition of the school magazine.  

I was also rather flattered that Tom Tuohy kindly included a reference to me in his arboretum, which I will visit when life returns to something a bit more like normality. It sounds fascinating and such a great thing to do.

Those contributions led to my recalling some similarly eclectic and lighter memories of my own time at school from 1965 to 1970.

I had a rather bigger part in the sixth form play in 1970, ‘Poor Bitos’ by Jean Anouilh (in English, fortunately for players and audience alike), which I greatly enjoyed, and was produced impeccably by Chris Whitby. Tom Kelly had a fairly minor role, a butler, but managed to upstage the rest of us comfortably.

I regard myself as having had an ‘interesting’ sporting career at St Bees. My older brother John was a pretty competent all-rounder at most sports, so unfortunately unfounded assumptions were made in my first year by others as to my own potential prowess for junior house matches. The one thing I could do well, however, was run fast. At rugby I became a fairly high risk winger. If I managed to catch the ball, I could sprint to the try line and on a good day score a try, but there was always a risk that I dropped it or knocked on. Later in the sixth form, however, I did become a regular on the Third XV, Anthony Dearle’s team, and we had some good results. We played Wyndham Comprehensive on one occasion (their 1st XV), at Egremont; after about ten minutes of the first half at a line out, a rather serious looking Anthony beckoned the Wyndham referee and had a quiet chat, as he had noticed Wyndham were fielding sixteen men, one of whom sheepishly ambled off. We won, something like 37-5, (so perhaps we should have let Wyndham have their sixteenth man).

I was really not cut-out for cricket, having extremely limited, in fact, no ability at throwing, batting, bowling, catching or fielding. (I was also scared stiff of the ball flying at me, although I never admitted to that but refused point blank to go in the slips.) So I was transferred to the athletics team, which I was cut out for, (I could long and high-jump as well as run) and really enjoyed that in the summer terms under Tom Rice. Furthermore, unlike cricket, which seemed to run on for hours with little happening, athletics was just an hour of hard work then off for a shower. We had another Wyndham incident. Wyndham organised an athletics match with a few other schools, including St Bees. One of my best distances was the 440 yards and I managed a scorching dash that afternoon and won. Indeed, the Wyndham master timing the race said my timing looked like a junior county record, which was great news. However, after about twenty minutes the position was clarified; it transpired that the groundsman had for some reason inadvertently set out the 440 at about 425 yards. What a shame.

I greatly enjoyed the choir. When I moved from being a treble, Brian Howard, the music master, decided I was a baritone so could try moving to the basses or the tenors. It was agreed I would start by joining the tenors, of whom the most prominent was Anthony Dearle. After a week or so he said he thought I would make a decent tenor, and added confidentially, ‘Besides, amateur basses are two a penny.’ That settled it for me. I was really pleased when Sunday services were transferred to the Priory, with its magnificent Henry Willis organ, which Brian took through its paces and we sang some really good anthems, the best of which (in my view) was Parry’s ‘I was glad’.

Anthony, of course, became the Foundation House Housemaster and in my last year I was his second Head of House (the first being John Dunn). I was (and still am) heavily into classical music, a real plus point as far as Anthony was concerned. One Sunday morning he came into the study I was in and asked somewhat conspiratorially, ‘I’ve heard Brahms’ second piano emanating from here twice in the last week’ (almost as though this might be a breach of school rules) ‘I take it you do know his first?’ (as though not knowing it might be a further, more serious breach.) I confessed I did not know the first. ‘Oh,’ said Anthony in surprise, ‘well, that is a mistake, you’d better come up to my study now and I’ll lend one of my versions.’ Not for the first time I was to benefit hugely from his musical knowledge and generosity in lending (and occasionally giving) me LPs from his vast collection.

Anthony was much liked as a housemaster and knew exactly when to turn a blind eye, when to allow a bit of latitude, and when to draw the line. Occasionally, some of us would have a surreptitious pint or two at the Dog and Partridge in Sandwith and I wondered whether his lack of detection of these forays was a sign of turning a blind eye, or perhaps on occasion the whiff of beer was obscured by one or two of his pre-prandial glasses of ‘dry sherry wine’.

In my last year Anthony decided to make me Vice-Captain of the 3rd XV. I don’t think there had been a Vice-Captain for the Thirds before (or since probably), and certainly it was not based on sporting merit (as even Anthony accepted that some of my tries were achieved through ‘brinkmanship’), nor do I recall making any contribution in team leadership in that exalted capacity (indeed in a game against Whitehaven Grammar School one of the team firmly suggested I keep my voice sotto voce during line-outs (I threw in) as I was in danger of inadvertently creating class warfare). I think it was because I was a tenor, Head of House, loved classical music and was by then Head of School and so Anthony decided this added some additional status to his beloved Foundation South, although I doubt anyone but the two of us really noticed this important honorary appointment.

In September 2014 my wife and I had an excellent trip to St Bees for Old Boys’ Day, at which Joan Lees named the refurbished pavilion after her late husband, Geoff, Headmaster for seventeen years.  She was on terrific form at ninety, the sun shone, the school looked at its best with the new and highly motivated Headmaster, James Davies, who gave us all great confidence. We stayed at the Pheasant Inn at Bassenthwaite along with Joan and a few others, the Pheasant being refreshingly unchanged since the memories of 1960s Sunday lunches with parents. It was a lovely weekend. It was something of a shock therefore to hear only six months later of the school’s closure. I decided to call Joan to tell her the sad news. She had already been advised and told me, ‘When I heard I was absolutely gobsmacked,’ before adding, ‘actually, that’s the first time I’ve ever used that word in my life.’

Gobsmacked? I think we all were.”

 

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