St. Nicholas Grammar School, Northwood

Very sad indeed to report the passing of Ian Clarkson in February of this year. Ian taught mathematics at the school from 1967-72. He also ran a number of school sports teams, notably the cricket 1st XI and was Kevere, then Kings Housemaster.

He left us for Commonweal, Swindon and later taught at Marlborough College.

I have included a local newspaper link from July 2000, when he moved to Marlborough College and reflects on his time in teaching, and also a link to a newsletter announcing his recent passing.

His widow, Carolyn, tells me they had happy memories of St. Nicks and some will remember both Ian and Carolyn from our ski trips to Einsiedeln and playing cards in the hotel in the evenings. Ian carried on teaching in retirement - computing, bridge, bowls and family history.

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/.../7402226.three.../

https://faringdondistrictu3a.com/

Photos on this site - Cricket 45 (1st XI), Cricket 46 (Staff vs School, including scoresheet), Staff Photos (Spring 1968)

John Boston left these memories and updates back in February but I omitted to post on this page. I hope you had your Spring pub lunch, John. 

When I started at St Nick’s in September 1956 I was arbitrarily put in the D stream, where I resolutely stayed for the next 5 years, despite the best efforts of the founding staff. My five particular friends were Peter Hilburn, David Goodwin, Tony Barker, Michael (Fuzz) Piears and Mervyn Peck. The ‘Gang of Six’ stayed in touch over the years until Peter died in 2001. Mervyn went to live in Bahrain where after many years of ill health he died in early 2023. Michael retired to Portugal although he was a regular visitor to the UK when he, Tony, David and I would meet up when we could. The last time we did so was in November 2018 since when we have lost both Michael and Tony. So now it is just me and David meeting up for a pint and a natter 2 or 3 times a year. Our next pub lunch will be in the Spring when we will raise our usual glass to Absent Friends – not only from amongst our own group but to all those we knew at St Nick’s and with whom we came into occasional contact over the years.

Looking at the website I was struck by the 23 February 2023 photo – I can just smell the wet, muddy rugby kit even after all these years. There is a pupil photo taken by Ian Parker, stated to be 1957/58. I am sure it is Clive Mitchem second right, but he looks older than he would have been if the date is correct so maybe a year or two later? I am certain I also remember some of at the other faces, particularly the person third right but his name escapes me.

Greg Powell remembers Tony Westray:

We were in the same year  ( 1959 onwards ) but very different classes, Tony in the A stream for the higher flyers, perhaps best characterised by the offer of French and Latin  while in the C stream it was French and metalwork, a less than subtle indication of our potential future occupations.

Our connection  was in the sports teams. It was in Rugby where Tony excelled as a powerful inside centre in tandem with the very swift Martin Cook  It was a formidable team as various school magazines record. It had that first priority, a strong pack,  comprising a front row of Colin Knight, Max Parish and Geoff Horn. Two huge second rows in Alan Trueman and Roger Alleyne and a backrow of Dave Lockwood, Ian Jones at number 8  and Chris Prior.

The ample ball they provided was well utilised by scrum half Geoff Lucas and the standoff Rob Speck but it seems in memory that the focal point and scorer of try after try was Tony who powered his way through the opposition backs and then kicked the conversions.

Whilst some memories can be attributed to the great significance of an event in life  many others are mundane moments that remain crystal clear when so much else is lost in the haze of barely remembered years . So here are two of Tony.

We are the last two left on a rain drenched mucky field after practice and chatting while Tony practised his goal kicking in that strange fashion of the time, the ball perched on a small mound of mud and the kicker making a straight approach and unleashing the boot in a most unnatural awkward attempt to propel the ball in an equally straight trajectory. I think I was collecting the ball and returning it  for Tony to have another go. I wish could say I suggested, “why don’t you try a curved run up, like a footballer“ but that came later along with long hair.

The other memory must also have been a practice session but this time cricket. The two of us hurling a cricket ball as hard as we could onto the slip cradle, a curved wooden slatted device, and then hurling ourselves to catch it,  just great fun.

On sports day I turned up to watch and can simply recall what in memory was Tony’s domination of the year group.

Just returning to that rugby team for the sake of completeness its star in the first year was Seymour on the left wing who seemed years older and seemed to score whenever he got the ball. In the 3rd and 4th years Barry Craske had joined the school and was on the left wing (Martin Cook tells me Seymour had musical interests that he pursued instead of rugby), I was on the right wing trying to keep up with Westray and Cook, and Jim Scarlett was full back. So often we came off the pitch and it seemed that Tony had won the game for us.

We met again only last year and had lunch with Geoff Horn, Chris Prior and Dick Wyse and of course promised ourselves future meetings. I am sure Tony could have recalled so much more and I wish we had had those opportunities.

I've done what I said I wouldn't do - I've used 3rd party software. Google does not provide any smart ways of entering comments, so I have used an add-on provided by "Padlet". It's not perfect but it's a start, and it's free. There is a new Comments Page and a new Memories page in the main menu. I have copied all the Headmaster stories, Memory Lane stories and old Comments Forum posts onto the new pages. You can Reply to posts and you can Like posts, you can remain anonymous or you can create an account. I have no doubt I'll be messing with the style and the format, but it's there and it's available.

If you have any school memorabilia, please think of others. Scan it and email it, I will add it to the site. Or send it - everything sent in over the years has now been lodged with Hillingdon Library Archives. We have an Archivist / Collections Officer allocated to our account and I will ensure anything submitted ends up in the St. Nicholas Grammar School Records archive. It goes without saying that none of us are getting any younger - so do it now.

This morning we heard the sad news that Mr. Elwyn Cox passed away yesterday, 26th March. He started teaching at the school in 1964, leaving us for Harrogate GS in 1974. He sacrificed an enormous amount of his free time for the school and, as a consequence,  he features in many, many photos, annual reports, tour reports, training camps and school trips. And we recently added the superb staff photo from Spring 1968. HERE

Very sad to report the passing of Tony Westray. There are many photos of Tony on these pages. Tony was a stalwart of the Old Boys and a fine all-round sportsman. As well as the Old Boys, he also played rugby for London Welsh Dragons and for a short while he played in France with Grenoble. 

I've added a few links to the TV programme "Press Gang", parts of which were filmed at the school between 1989 and 1993. They can be found near the top of the Links page.