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At the risk of incurring libel and defamation suits, we publish here Pat Lyford's (C. 1949-55) affectionate recollections of his masters' nicknames and mannerisms...
"Reading John Page's three pieces about his time at Brighton, makes me realise how fortunate I was to have had masters such as he mentions and it reminds me of some of their nicknames and peculiarities or mannerisms!"
Bill Stewart: 'the Hun' or 'the Duke'.
R E Lester: 'Weed', hated cats and frequently used his water pistol or catapult against them.
T R Davidson: (I won't mention his nickname) often brought his pet barn owl into the College, where it would sit perched on the front seat of his car until he had finished teaching.
H B Davison (not to be confused with TRD): 'Dego', with his 10 words of French vocab each day.
Norman Frith: 'Nero'.
T A Hill: 'Blimp' or 'Tubby'. A remarkable man who was Head of Chichester in 1912 (I think), served in WW1 and returned to teach at Brighton after University and was still trying to teach me Latin in 1953 (De Bello Gallico Book V).
R L Farnell: 'Spits' (for obvious reasons - we tried to avoid sitting in his front row) "You cuckoo - it's 'different from' and 'opposite to'".
Tom Smart: a lovely man who always greeted us with " 'Allo boy".
D O Dykes: 'Daddy', exhorting the swimming squad to swim "40 length as fast as you can if not faster".
Leslie George Upson, RSM and shooting coach, greeting every "miss" with "Still travelling" - "Shooting team - I've shot 'em".
Lt.Col V G Smyth DSO OBE: reminds me of a Field Day when we discovered that stones from dates in our lunch packs were almost .303" and were excellent missiles to accompany the .303 blanks we were issued with - quite lethal!
The Reverend C J Peters: 'Holy Joe' or just 'Bill' - another lovely man.
H E Needham-Brown, who caused great consternation when Bill Peters announced someone's (Edward Finch?) banns of marriage, by leaving his organ seat to stand before the Padre's pew. Fortunately, he was not declaring a 'just cause or impediment' but that the organ had broken down!.
'Big Bill' or 'Jock' Campbell who introduced me to the glories of Schubert's "Die Schone Mullerin" on a wind-up gramophone in his drawing room in School House.
'Jock' Henderson, who taught German and who had travelled much in Germany before WW2.
'Bill' Lloyd: 'Pappy' - foot inspections in the dormitory.
Gordon Davis, 'Bouncer' who was "Blue Line", ice hockey correspondent of the Evening Argus. Always played "To a Wild Rose" on the organ with full tremolo, bouncing away on the organ seat.
F J Ormerod: 'Fijo' teaching physics in a bitterly cold laboratory above the engineering workshops.
Philip Dore: a great musician whose motor bike had a habit of catching fire in the front quad with him astride. Also had a marvellous technique of pushing in organ stops with his nose.
Peter Gough: marvellous producer of so many school plays. His hanging scene in "The Spanish Tragedy" was so realistic that the Headmaster's wife demanded that it be made less realistic! His wife, Daphne was the daughter of Lesley Banks, the actor, and designed and made most of the costumes and scenery.
Commander Head the Bursar and Miss Ball, who allowed us to use the Gestetner duplicator to print the Pelican.
Memories of Brighton College Archive >>
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