Index

Cap Badge reproduced by kind permission of Howard Woolcock 1962
Ties from the memorabilia of Jack Thynne 1957

The very last piece of our Old School
see Photos section and below article for more information

Denis R Munnery (1927-2009)

RJTS OBA is sad to announce the death of Denis Munnery who passed away suddenly last Sunday evening, the 24^th May. Tom Slaughter and Roger Marples were particularly shocked by this sad news as Denis had attended the OBA 2010 Reunion Committee Meeting at Bletchingley Golf Club just 3 days before on Friday 22^nd May when he was in his usual good form.

Denis came to The Tech from Merstham Council School in 1941 joining Form1A. Following his time at Redstone Hill and National Service in the RAF, his career was in the Buildings Contracts industry. In later life he was to become a prominent member of the City of London Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers holding, at one time, the post of Master.

Denis made contact with the present RJTS OBA in 1997 when he answered a letter in "The Surrey Mirror" seeking Old Boys of the Junior Technical School. From the outset Denis was encouraging and enthusiastic about the aim of reviving the memory our great school and it was all done with not a little good humour. This was particularly so when we organised a Wartime Tech OBs reunion at The Lakers in 2003. Of course from then on in he became our Wartime OBs Monitor. He was absolutely dependable and we will personally miss him greatly.

Denis was married to Ethel (Ethy) and they brought up their family in Merstham. It should be noted Denis had two younger brothers who also went to The Tech, Donald 1B/1946 and Michael 3N/1954. Both Donald and Michael pre-deceased Denis some years ago.

Tom Slaughter and Roger Marples Co-Presidents, RJTS OBA 26^th May 2009

Tom Slaughter and Iain Pickering are in the middle of an extended investigation into OBs who died during WWII. I have added to the small list that has been on the web site for some years now the names of those fallen OBs who they have discovered during their investigation. The Roll of Honour tally now stands at 33.

We are keen to add to this list and Tom, Iain and Roger are intending to put together a small book detailing the OBs who died, where they fell and any other details that we can determine from official, or unofficial, records that have been examined so far. The publishing date for the book is planned to co-incide with the next All School reunion which, as you know, is scheduled for May 21st 2010.

Should you know of any OB who should be in our RofH or can fill in some of the detail missing from our listing, then please do contact Tom on 01 372 276900 or his email address.

Despite my energetic battle against spam, which I lost, I have had to change the email address for OBs to use should they wish to make contact with me on any matters pertaining to RJTS. The new email is rjtsoba@sky.com and should be used in place of my previous one r.marples@virgin.net which you should delete from your email client address book.

KOB or SOB?
As reported elsewhere, the action on retaining the last piece of the Old School is hotting up. Two ginger groups have now been formed; the first being rallied under the banner of Keep Our Brick or KOB and the second who have called themselves the Save Our Brick or the SOB group. In actual fact it doesnt make too much difference what the ginger group name is, providing that the BRICK doesnt get cast into Gurneys Brook. After all there isnt too much difference between being called a KOB-ber or a SOB-ber, but retaining the BRICK should be a priority to all OBs. Pleading, and some times impassioned, emails are being received by your Co-President Tom Slaughter (email address below) as keeper of the BRICK, so keep up the pressure please. As usual there is no charge to belonging either group.

Tom and I have just completed an update on the Masters & Mistresses (there were only two but they were Misses) who taught us boys and girls at the Tech and Technical College. We would be pleased if you could look at it and tell us if you see any errors or omissions.
We try to be perfect but its a difficult task!!!!! Thanks.

After many requests your Committee has been seriously considering organising another All School Reunion some time in early 2010. The last one, in 2006, was the famous 80/40 reunion to celebrate the 80 years from when the school first opened and the 40 years since it closed its doors to the youth of the area. The reunion was deemed a great success, with a considerable number of OBs meeting up again for the first time in many years. To refresh your memories of this great occasion see the 2006 All School Reunion report in Archive Section and don't forget the pictures in the Photo Section.

This next reunion we will call the 84/44 using the same basis of accounting as we used for the 80/40. Hope you all agree!

Quite frankly the Committee was very pleased with the 2006 reunion and although we thought that we wouldn't hold another one until 2011, we have to face the fact that all RJTS OBs are getting older so your Committee has decided that we should go for one earlier. The reason we are planning so far in advance is to give our overseas OBs, and those OBs living in the far corners of the UK as much notice as possible so that they can, hopefully, make their holiday/travel arrangements to be with us at the time of the Reunion. We had a splendid Overseas and Distant OBs representation last time and hope, at this reunion, we will have even more.

The date has now been agreed, Friday May 21st 2010 from 12:00 to 17:30 hrs, as has the location, which is Bletchingley Golf Club where in 2006 we had such a good time and service. This time we have advised the Golf Club that there will be in excess of 170 OBs including their wives and partners attending and correspondingly they will be allocating the whole Club to us. This should mean that we wont be turning some late applications away, as we regretfully had to do in 2006. The moral is to get your application in early to ensure you are at the next great RJTS reunion.

I will be putting up postings to keep you all in touch with our plans and how they are progressing. At some time early in 2009 you will be contacted by your Form Monitor to let you know the details and allow sufficient time for your personal travel planning.

All the facilities that we offered to the 2006 attendees we will be offering again, such as information on accommodation, road routes and leisure facilities.

The Moving Finger Having Writ Moves On
Which OB doesn't remember the "bloodied" mark on the far wall of the Woodwork room above the machinery? My Woodwork master was Mr Samways but at the time the accident happened it was Mr Bentley and the boy who lost his finger was Ernie Toombs sometime after September 1941. The accident was recalled to all the new intake of boys to demonstrate what could happen if you your attention was diverted when operating any of the woodworking machinery. I am pretty certain that Mr Samways used to repaint the mark each year so that it was really blood red to add drama to the caution. Whether Mr Bentley did the same I will have to wait to be told by the OBs of that era.
Have just heard from Mike Ellson (3W 1954), who now very happily resides in Tasmania, that he was present in a woodworking class in 1955, when Mr Samways removed his finger on the very same saw table that Ernie Toombs had lost his finger in 1941. Clearly that saw table has a lot to answer for!!!!!!!!!!
I await confirmation of this (bloody) event from classmates of Mike.

After a run of almost 5 years the excellent book on RJTS, written as a labour of love by your Co-President Tom Slaughter, has come to an (almost) end. Tom wrote the book to record the history and activities of the School, its Pupils and Masters and in this he has produced an outstanding literary work which all OBs will be proud to have on their bookshelf, if only to answer the inevitable question that a grandchild would ask such as "which school did you go to Grandpa" or "was your school a nice one"? There will be no reprint so if you have a book hang onto it and your survivors can expect to see it on Antiques Roadshow with a phenomenal valuation, sometime in 2040!!!!

To date 545 books have been sold, 290 by Tom personally. The final unsold pair have just been located in the Redhill Centre for Local & Family History plus a 'return' from a RIP OB. If you want one get onto Tom asap, as they won't be around for long.

3 to NZ; 1 to South Africa; 2 to Oz; 1 to Florida; 1 to Georgia; 1 to New York; 1 to Seattle; 1 to Alberta; 1 to Saskatchewan; 3 to Ontario; 2 to France and 1 to Spain.

Not bad really, as with a total of 2900 boys passing under the wrought iron archway over the imposing entrance and steps to the schools' front door, it works out as 1 book per 5 OBs (almost). Well done Tom and I am certain that all those who have a copy will treasure it.

The OLD BOY'S ASSOCIATION

Don't forget that ALL former pupils, including the Commercial Girls, St Vincent Girls and Teachers will have automatic Free
Life Membership of Redhill Junior Technical School Old Boy's Association or RJTSOBA, with Associate Membership for
immediate relatives being very favourably considered.

So you are all Life Members no exceptions! Data Protection will be adhered to and we will only pass on any information with your
permission.

GENERAL INFORMATION
In a few instances a pupil may have been placed inadvertently in the wrong school year and there may be some odd surnames
or forenames which have been spelled incorrectly . Hopefully, these have been kept to a minimum but should you consider
that an error has occurred or that you can offer more information on a particular teacher, pupil or any of the girls who attended
RJTS please email Roger on rjtsoba@sky.com with the correct information

ANOTHER WEB SITE
One of our OBs, Bill Marsh Admission Year Spring Term 1937, has put together a web site reflecting his personal memories of
his time at RJTS. An interesting read as it shows a totally different environment to that which many later OBs experienced. I
suspect that as the Tech was in its foundling stages, it suffered a from a lack of identity and purpose but in later years this was
dealt with and some of the less savory elements had been severely suppressed by the Teaching Staff. Certainly the vast
majority of OBs will remember the School with affection and praise the manner in how the Teaching Staff dealt with anti-social
issues. You can visit Bill's site by clicking on the following link (or paste it into your browser) http://marshkent.freeservers.com/rjts/rjtsinterent.html