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Pupil's Tie |
Cap Badge |
Prefect's Tie |
Page
Counter:
Cap Badge reproduced by kind
permission of Howard Woolcock 1962
Ties from the memorabilia of Jack Thynne 1957
School Motto
"Let Cheerfulness Abound With Industry"
The very last piece of our Old School
see Photos section and below article - KOB or SOB - for more
information
The May 21st 2010 All School Reunion DVD
Those OBs who were at Bletchingley Golf Club on May 21st will recall from Toms' speech he indicated that a DVD was being taken of the days events and this possibility has now turned into a reality.
The filming and editing was undertaken by Barry Moncreiff - 1951- who has put it onto a DVD which you can now play either on your TV (if you have the appropriate connections) or your PC.
Tom and I have seen the DVD and believe it to have captured the essence of the day, with chapters on the Old School, the initial gathering, the speeches and some stills taken at the time. We think that Barry has done a great job and hopefully you will think so to. The occasion has been captured and you are most probably featured.
If you would like your personal copy of the DVD, send either a Cheque or Postal Order for 6.00 pounds to the address below :-
Barry Moncrieff
Silverbow Cottage
Little Carharrack
Redruth
Cornwall
TR16 5RS
EMail itsmonktr16@btinternet.com
Phone 01 209 821560
The price includes P & P - Disc - Case - Labels
If you are in contact with any of your class mates who aren't at the forefront of the technological revolution and don't have web access do let them know about the DVD. They will, I am sure, appreciate being made aware of its existence.
Roger Marples
Co-President RJTSOBA June 15th 2010
All School Reunion Report May 21st 2010
The sun shone
all day on the 131 OBs, 12 OGs and 42 wives/partners, 185 in all, who gathered
at 12:00 in Bletchingley Golf Club to celebrate the 84 years since our School
opened and the 44th year to its closing.
All OBs and
OGs were greeted by our Reception team - Dee and Jennifer- the wives of your
Co-Presidents, registered, given a name badge and a flyer illustrating the
school, some of its Masters and a list of Committee members. A welcome drink
was provided and then they got down to the serious business of catching up on
the past years since they had been together.
Just before
lunch Roger Marples - one of the two Co-Presidents - gave a welcome speech to
all who had made the journey to Bletchingley. In particular he applauded the
presence of Ron Jordan, entry year 1935, and Bertie House, entry year 1936.
Time was against welcoming all OBs and he apologised for this omission but
moving quickly to the other end of the scale he welcomed John Chadd, entry year
1962 - as the last of the 2 year course entry - on behalf of all
"young" OBs.
We had
international visitors from Canada, Jim Boseley 1940 - Ireland, Frank Dawe 1943
- Spain, John Smith 1951 - Canada, John Morley, 1953 - Brazil, Fred Kircup 1954
- and from Borneo, Roger Crowhurst 1954. All were greeted enthusiastically
especially Roger Crowhurst who during the intervening years after leaving the
UK had become the Headman of his local village and dispensed justice with a
fair and even hand on local domestic issues. Tom Slaughter and Roger Marples-
your Co-Presidents - were so impressed with his current life style that we
decided that Roger should be made Honorary Vice President for Malaysia,
Indonesia and the South China Seas.
On a similar
vein Bill Marsh 1942 was awarded Honorary Vice Presidency for North America for
all his good work in supporting the OBs Association. Currently Bill is not too
well so we wish him all the best.
In addition
to the International OBs, OBs from all parts of the UK had made the journey,
from Dorset, Gloucester, Bedfordshire, Hampshire, Warwick, Somerset, Yorkshire,
Rutland, Bristol, Oxfordshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire,
Hertfordshire, Cornwall, Cambridgeshire and Cheshire. All were heartily
greeted.
There were
also 12 OGs who attended, one even from St Vincents. A further 11 OGs attended
from the Commercial Department and they, along with the wives and partners of
the OBs, bought a nice level of sophistication to the gathering. Incidentally
many OGs married OBs and today we have 8 who had made this step
Masters were
in short supply but we had Eileen Knight and Chris Knight, the daughter and
grandson of Brickham - Mr Stone - as the representative of the Teaching Staff.
Roger took the opportunity to record the affection that all OBs held for the
school and its Masters, all of whom were exemplary in their dealing with the
pupils and dispensing their teaching experience.
Your Committee
who worked so hard in putting this day together were thanked for their efforts,
especially Tom Slaughter without whom the OBA wouldn't have taken life as it
was he who wrote the book on History of Redhill Technical School, with all 557
copies now having been sold.
Within the
gathering today and welcomed heartily, were three School Captains Fred Rivett
1954, John Wickham 1956 and Peter Sharp from 1963
Roger closed his speech by asking all present to toast the Old School, its Teachers and Tom Slaughter. This was enthusiastically done.
Following the
welcome speech a buffet lunch was served, the food was excellent quality,
varied and plentiful, and along with a pudding and with tea or coffee being served
to finish the meal, all enjoyed the repast.
After lunch
Tom Slaughter your other Co-President gave his speech to the now replete
gathering.
He commented
on what had been a long and eventful
journey since he started his research into the School in November 1996. The
first set back he encountered was that all school records were 'missing'
- no Admission Registers or School Log Books in the Surrey History Centre (The
Record Office then) or the Redhill Library. So it was a case of starting from
scratch and over the past 13 years the OBA has researched and created a
'Substitute' set of Admission Registers for all the 40 years RJTS existed
with 2300 names out of a possible 2600 boys who had passed the 13+ Junior
Technical Award being recorded. The 'missing' 300 are mainly Pre War entries.
For their help and assistance in compiling
this information some big "Thank You's" are very much in order. First
to the "Redhill for Local & Family History" where Jackie Johnson
and Arthur Hawkes, who are here today, and as part of their Millennium
Project encouraged me to write "The History of Redhill Technical
School" which was published in 2000. Redhill Junior Technical School has
now been firmly placed in the Educational History of Surrey.
A special "Thank You" to Roger
Marples who came 'on board' in 2000 who has worked tirelessly with me
especially administering this Reunion without a hitch and Roger and I
would like to thank our wives Dee and Jennifer for answering countless
telephone calls and for listening to stories told of our time at Redhill Tech.
Thank You Girls!
Despite Junior Technical Schools dying out by
the early 1960's we have found one other similar OBA flourishing.
Coventry JTS OBA is going strong, with a monthly programme of meetings,
and they send us Best Wishes for a successful Reunion.
A sad and inevitable part of the whole
exercise is the 'loss' of good friends and I have to mention just three:- Denis
Munnery (1941), a member of our Reunion organising committee a year ago,
died just two days after our first meeting to plan this reunion, a great
shock to Roger and myself. His good counsel and humour has been sorely missed.
Bryan Wright (1948) a personal friend of mine and a great supporter of our
Reunions over the years and John Weeks (1948-1962) a Teacher and a great help
in guiding me through the early research and who died in 2001.
The OBA has been successful and the key,
we believe, has been our 'informality'. All Old Boys, their relatives, former
Commercial Girl Students (1948 to 1965) and the Old Girls of St Vincent's RC
Day Continuation School (who were evacuated from London to spend their War
at The Tech), have 'Free for Life' membership of the OBA.
We aim to have individual Admission Year
Reunions from time to time in due course and with the support of our Year Reps,
so helpful with this Reunion, we foresee little problems in maintaining our
programme of Reunions. Tom commented wryly that "as I look out over a 'Sea of Grey-Haired 11+ Failures' I know it was a
mistake to close Surrey's 4 JTSs at Guildford, Kingston, Wimbledon and, of
course, Redhill". An immediate roar of approval met his
comment to which he replied that he was pleased to note the Conservative
Party is considering reintroducing Technical Academies in major Cities. Let
us hope they follow it through.
One disappointment is we have been unable to
find any of the Grandchildren (3 boys and a girl) of Mr FG Smith our first
Headmaster. Their surname, for the boys, is Munn. If anyone has any information
please pass it onto Tom.
Tom then produced
The Brick!!!!!!!!!!!!(see
above photo)
This small fragment is the only remaining
piece of the Tech and should be revered as Tom is of the opinion that some time
in the future using advanced DNA techniques the old school may be re-instated.
Tom was ever the optimist!!!!!
Our old School was outstanding and in the
words of Len Lane (1949), "The affection for RJTS that has been generated
by most Old Boys in their 2 or 3 year attendance at Redstone Hill is quite
remarkable". It IS remarkable, as shown by the 130 OBs assembled here
today after 50, 60 and even 75years since they left the school; a testament
indeed to a great institution.
Tom closed his speech by thanking all for
attending, their support and good wishes for the future of the Old Boys
Association.
All OBs and OGs were then invited to gather outside on the patio for a group photographs and further reminisces. Some photos of the occasion have been entered into the Photo Section of the web site but should any OB have more we would dearly like to have them. If you email them to Roger Marples at rjtsoba@sky.com he will check them out for inclusion onto the web site.
Time seemed to
race by and at around 17:00hrs many OBs bid their farewells to their old class
mates and started their journeys home. Your Committee were thanked profusely
for their efforts in putting on the Reunion; they play their part in organising
all reunions because of their affection for the old School and because they
enjoy the task. I know that I can speak for all of them when I say that it
isn't an onerous task at all.
Best wishes
to you all and we look forward to meeting you all at some time in the future.
Roger Marples
June 1st 2010
RJTS Roll of Honour
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.
Email Contact.
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.
Tom Slaughter's email address remains as jtmslaughter@btinternet.com.
Thanks and best regards to all our OBs.
Roger Marples
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 doesn't make too much difference what the ginger group name is,
providing that the BRICK doesn't get cast into Gurneys Brook. After all
there isn't 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.
Roger Marples 1951
Masters & Mistresses Listing Update
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.
Roger Marples
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.
Roger Marples 1951
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The OLD BOY'S ASSOCIATION |
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 savoury 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
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Co President Tom Slaughter 8 Forest Way Ashtead Surrey KT21 1JL United Kingdom Tele 01 372 276900 E-mail jtmslaughter@btinternet.com
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Co President Roger Marples 3 Hartswood Farm Barns Off Slipshatch Road Reigate Surrey RH2 8HD United Kingdom Tele 01 737 243666 E-mail rjtsoba@sky.com
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