Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2018 | Page 34

Interview
apartment in Wootton Bridge, John still
has a vivid memory of the day that his
eight year-old self and his older sister
Th elma were put on a train by their
parents, for the long, unsettling journey
away from their home in Wimbledon,
south London.
“It was very frightening for us, of course”
he recalls. “I remember our parents being
told to stand back from the train as we
were herded aboard by the lady we called
‘Th e Commander’. It was a very long train
journey and we had no real idea where we
were going.”
Silver lining
However, it wasn’t long before the
curious young John began to discover
that there were distinct advantages in
being away from his usual home and
family routines.
“It gave me much more freedom than I’d
ever been allowed at home” he recalls.
“We were billeted at a boarding house
with a Mr and Mrs Jones, who had no
children of their own and took on fi ve of
us altogether. I suppose because they were
foster parents, they weren’t quite as strict
as our own parents, and we were allowed a
lot of freedom to do as we liked”.
In fact, because of the sheer numbers
of children who were evacuated to the
seaside town, its schools couldn’t provide
full-time schooling for all of
them, so they ended up having
either morning or afternoon
lessons, leaving them plenty of
free time for adventures.
Th ese included some of the
scrapes that John describes
in his books, such as coming
across a German spy hiding
out in a tunnel under the
Bristol Channel, and exploring
a spooky abandoned chapel
that was reputed to have a
resident ghost. Th ere were
also the friendships the
children made with local
fi shermen, who regaled
them with colourful tales of
shipwrecks and spectres.
John admits that whilst
his stories may have been
somewhat embroidered,
they’re based fi rmly on real-
life events.
“I think that adventure
stories are a very good way to teach
children – much better than presenting
them with dry facts and fi gures” he says.
And John should know, for he spent a
lifetime in education, including 25 years
as a headmaster - eight of them as Head
of Ryde Juniors from the late 1960s to
mid-70s, and then 17 years as head of a
school in Croydon.
John and Sheila
Marrying in
Wimbledon, 1958
34
www.visitilife.com
Back to the
classroom
So how did a boy who
wasn’t that keen on school
– and in fact, was delighted
when he only had to spend
half days in the classroom
because of the war – end
up as a headmaster who
worked in education for 40
years?
John admits that his
schooling suff ered badly
during his 18 months as
an evacuee, and when he
returned to London at the
age of 10, his mother was
‘devastated’ to see how far
he had fallen behind.
“I didn’t re-adjust to
school very well when I
got back home, and was
miles behind” he says. “In fact I failed the
11-plus.”
However he was lucky that the
Wimbledon secondary school he
attended was a good one, and gradually
he was brought back up to speed and
began enjoying his lessons. In fact he
ended up doing so well that he got a
place at University – although he couldn’t
take it up immediately as he had to do his
National Service in the RAF.
Frustratingly, during his service, the
compulsory term was extended from 18
months to two years - but by what he
describes as ‘a stroke of luck’ he saw an
advert for trainee teachers, which were
“I think that
adventure stories
are a very good way
to teach children –
much better than
presenting them with
dry facts and fi gures.”