Hi guys, forgive me for trying to bring up a subject that "died" a few years ago. I was born and grew up in Forest Hill 73 years ago, from 1955 to 1960 I went to Holy Trinity Primary/Infants School, Dartmouth Road, and then 1961 to 1967(?) I attended Forest Hill Comprehensive School.
I remember being interviewed by Dr A Howard, the then headmaster who put the fear of God into me despite being such a gentleman! I was selected to join Newton 6 in Form 1.3. During that first year I remember a fiction film being shown at school in which one scene showed Mr Babcock being crushed under the school library (does any one remember that?).
The reason I am bringing this up now is because last night I couldn't sleep, my brain was working overtime remembering my youth, so I went to the pc and found this site at 0405hrs this morning. Some of the old postings brought back many memories of past masters, e.g. Mr Dave Stanbury - deputy head, Mr Francis, Mr Nage - maths, Mr Dawes - english (another man that scared me!), "Count" Ashby, Mr "Eggy breath" Kemp - metal work, Mr Phillips - physics, Mr Kelly (& Mr Harris) - art, Mr Haswell pt/geography(?), Madam Davies - french (what a babe!).
My school chums included Andrew Rebbeck - Newton (born musician), Alan Bowman - Drake, John Fford - Newton, Francis DeSmet - Shakleton.
Some of my fondest memories include a house trip to Dinant in Belgium which was cut short due to a lad drowning in the river (I still dream of thesight of his body being dragged up onto the shore), and of year five and being able to choose your sport, I went for sailing at Ravens Ait on the Thames, and later through that connection helped construct a brand new "Mirror" dinghy at school, which was excellent fun.
I will end here and would like to hear from anyone who can share such memories of those "halcient days", and I use term very losely. By the way my name is Ed Owen.