OPA Newsletter August 1964
New Series No. 6
August 1964
THE OLD PHAROSIANS’
NEWS LETTER
President: C. A HART
Secretary:
H. R. SLATER, Meadow Cottage, Sandwich Rd., Whitfield, Dover
1924 to 1964
Tom Archer came to the Dover County School in 1924, two years after coming down from Selwyn College, Cambridge. He has served under all the school’s Headmasters and may be said to bestride the narrow world of the school’s history by having one foot among those who rebuilt the school after the 1914-18 war and his other foot amid the expansion and activity of today.
During the second world war when the school was in Ebbw Vale he commanded the School Flight of the Air Training Corps, and when this was merged into the C.C.F. in 1951 he became its commanding officer. In 1950 he was awarded the Cadet Forces’ Medal. He retained command for twenty-one years until he was over sixty. Throughout those years many scores of boys have passed into service careers and many hundreds must have benefited in character, knowledge and experience.
During the war and for a few years after the war he took charge of the 1st XV at a time that many will recall as a golden age of our school’s rugby. He has always been interested in school games.
His teaching, as all readers of these notes will be aware, has been mainly in Biology. He hands over his subject with a higher standing and following than it has ever had before: and while many in medical careers will be personally grateful for his teaching, all his students will remember Tom Archer as having a warm sympathy for the individual.
After being Housemaster of Maxton (later Astor) House for many years, he became the school’s Second Master in 1952. With one ear he has listened to the Headmaster, with the other ear to his colleagues: while some deeper sense has measured the ground-swell of current feeling in the school. The present good-health of our school community owes much to Tom Archer’s measured sagacity and firm control.
He will continue to teach with us on a part-time basis, for the school has been bound into his life for forty years, and such ties must be gently, reluctantly broken.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING and DINNER
The ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held on Saturday, 19th September, 1964 at 6.30 p.m. at the Dover Stage Hotel.
AGENDA
- Read the notice convening the meeting
- Minutes
- Matters arising
- Treasurer’s Report
- Secretary’s Report
- Election of Officers
- Any other business
HAROLD R. SLATER,
Hon. Secretary
The Annual Dinner will follow the meeting at 8 p.m. The cost will be 16/- and dress is informal.
Reservations to H. R. Slater, Meadow Cottage, Sandwich Road, Whitfield, Dover (Kearsney 2033) by Thursday, 5 o’clock, 17th September, 1964.
The committee hopes you will make a special effort to attend this most enjoyable and informal function. The AG.M. itself is very short and there will be plenty of time to meet and have a chat with old friends.
CHRISTMAS DANCE
The Christmas Dance will be held on Tuesday, 29th December. 8 p.m. to midnight in the School Hall which will be gaily decorated by the prefects and the school caretaker promises it will be as warm as toast. A bar will be available.
Tickets, price 8/6 single, 15/- double, are available from the secretary or can be obtained from the shops of Eddie Crush, Alf Gunn or Denis Weaver.
We hope that all Old Pharosians home for Christmas will come along. As usual dress will be optional.
NEWS OF OLD BOYS
DAVID JOHNSON (1952-1959) joined the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. on leaving. Last October he went to Cardiff to take a degree in Electrical Engineering. One of the first persons he met was Roger Wright (1952-1958) who had been in his form and gone to A.E.I. and who is now reading for the same degree at Cardiff.
H. J. SMITH (1929-37) on leaving school took up an engineering apprenticeship with the English Electric Co. Ltd. After study at Rugby College of Technology and Arts he gained his B.Sc.(Eng.) and his Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering. In 1945 he gained his A.M.I.Mech.E. and secured a teaching appointment at Brighton Technical College. In 1952 he was awarded his A.M.I.Plant.E. In 1954 his book Worked Examples Engineering Thermodynamics was published. In 1959 he received the degree of M.Sc.(Eng.) and in 1961 read a paper on “Refrigeration” to the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. He is at present Principal Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Brighton Technical College.
He is married and has 2 sons and 1 daughter.
J. WOODHOUSE (1941-47) was ordained in the Church of England at York Minster by the Archbishop of York in 1962. He had earlier graduated from University College, London.
W. T. LOVELY (1912-18) took a B.Sc. at King’s College, London and then lectured at Loughborough Technical College. In 1924 he joined the staff of Merz and McLellan, Consulting Engineers, at Newcastle, being transferred in 1929 to London to supervise the installation of heavy high-voltage switch gear for London’s Area Grid. From 1930-39 he was in charge of the whole grid installation in London. During the war he was loaned to the Ministry of Supply and was responsible for the electrical equipment of ordnance factories in various parts of the country. From 1946-60 he was in charge of the southern region of his old firm and as well equipped power stations in India, South Africa and New Zealand. In 1961 he set up his own practice as a Consultant Engineer in London with an office in Kingsway. He is married and lives in Chelsea.
F. C. MASTERS (1923-28) joined Pickfords Travel Agency in 1930 and then five years later he went to sea as a Deputy Purser, serving 11 years in all. Throughout the war he was on H.M. Transports. In 1946 he became a Sales Executive with the Plessey Co. until in 1958 he was appointed Sales Manager of an Agricultural and Municipal Engineering Group in Lancashire. He was married in Cairo in 1944 and has one son.
H. R. W. WATKINS (1930-38) who was Head Prefect gained his B.Sc. (Hons. Physics) in 1940 from the Royal College of Science and Technology, London. In that year he joined the Royal Corps of Signals and served in N.W. Europe and the Middle East He was released in 1947 with the rank of Major and joined Courtaulds Ltd. In 1950 he gained his Associateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry and in 1957 joined Shell-Mex and RP. Ltd. as Head of their Operational Research Group.
J. K. THOMPSON (1922-31) mentioned in News Letter No. 2 was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in the 1963 New Year’s Honours List.
R A HARRISON (1938-42) served. during the war in the Royal Engineers, rising to the rank of sergeant. On demobilisation he joined P. Hawksfield & Son Ltd. and became technical representative for S.E. Kent. After six years he left for A T. Blackman & Son Ltd., Heating Engineers and on the formation of a limited company he became a director and Company Secretary. He is well known in amateur theatre, football and cinema circles. Recently a film he directed was chosen as one of the “Ten Best” amateur films of the year. He claims that one of his distinctions at school was that he was once called a cad by the Headmaster.
J. W. G. HOGBIN (1952-56) was called up on leaving but by 1961 he had been awarded his RA by the University of Nottingham. He was General Secretary of the University of Nottingham Christian Association and General Councillor of S.C.M. and Chairman of Programme Committee of S.C.M. 1960-61. In 1961-62 he was the holder of a World Council of Churches Scholarship (tenable in U.S.A.) and of a Fulbright Travel Award. He has now gained his Diploma of Education from Hertford College, Oxford.
R. P. HOLLAND (1947-52) served for two years in the RAF. mainly at Munchen Gladbach in Germany. He has worked on several newspapers, being when we last heard from him the chief reporter of the Folkestone Herald. He is married and has one son.
E. A. J. MERCER (1929-36) was for four years a student at Kelham Theological College before being commissioned in the Sherwood Foresters. He served in the Western Desert, being wounded at Alamein in 1942 and in Italy. In 1944 he was mentioned in Despatches. In 1946 he was released with the rank of Major arid returned to Kelham. The following year he was ordained at Chester. He was Assistant Curate at Coppenhall, Crewe until 1951, the Priest-in-charge at Herald Green for two years and Rector at St. Thomas’s, Stockport for five years. In 1958 he became Diocesan Missioner, Diocese of Chester, as well as Rector of St. Bridget’s, Chester and Officiating Chaplain to Chester Castle. He is married and has two children.
S. T. NEWING (1919-26) studied at the Royal College of Science from 1926-31, gaining 1st Cl. Hons. Physics B.Sc. and A.R.C.S. in 1928 and 1st Cl. Hons. Mathematics B.Sc. and A.R.C.S. in 1929 and 1st Cl. Hons. Geology Pt. I in 1930. In 1931 he was awarded the Diploma of Imperial College. From 1931-53 he was a lecturer at the University of Bristol and from then until the present day has been Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Mechanics. He is married and has two children.