Archibald
McLonen Campbell
One of the best remembered teachers of the 1940's and 1950's was Archie Campbell.
He was a teacher with a fine sense of humour although; woe betides anyone who laughed during a lesson. The penalty for such behaviour was usually 200 words; invariably the word he selected was a multi syllabled noun such as, Insubordination or Procrastination. Because of this alternative to the cane he left an indelible impression on the mind rather than the hand or the bottom. Not that Archie was totally opposed to corporal punishment; if he felt the misdemeanour was of such magnitude that words were inadequate he would apply a steel rule forcibly and painfully to the miscreants hindquarters. These heinous criminal acts included the breaking of a pencil point!
He was born in Jarrow in 1905 and had a great love for the town. He remained faithful to Jarrow for most of his life. (See 'Archie and Jarrow', further on.) Upon leaving school at 15 years old he started working as a Pattern Maker in Palmers Shipyard before becoming a Handicrafts teacher in 1929.
His first teaching post was at the Jarrow Junior Instruction Centre, known colloquially as, 'The Dole School'.
Apart from a spell in Wisbech, East Anglia, during the 1930's, his entire teaching career took place in Jarrow.
I'm not sure where he taught during the years between Wisbech and JCS. Nor do I know if he served in the forces; I suspect his profession, teaching being a 'reserved' occupation, precluded him from call-up.
He began at JCS as a handicraft teacher in, I think, the mid 1940's, progressing to science, maths, and other related subjects. Len Stephenson says, that Archie was at JCS when he started in 1945. Len recalls that, during woodwork lessons, if he spotted a pupil planing too zealously, Archie would look over the top of his glasses and say: 'What are you trying to make boy, matchsticks?' He was also, on occasion, in charge of the school football team.
He left JCS in 1955 and subsequently became headmaster at Jarrow St. Peters School.
This also coincided with Archie taking a more prominent interest in local politics as a member of the Labour Party and being elected as a councillor.
1963/4 he was Mayor of Jarrow and, in 1966, he became an Alderman. In 1975/6 he was again appointed Mayor, this time of the recently created Borough of South Tyneside.
He was later honoured as a Freeman of the Borough.
He was also a magistrate and I imagine that many a pupil who'd felt the wrath of Archie descend upon him at school felt a sense of déjà vu when he went up before the beak and saw him sitting imperiously on the bench. I would like to think that any of his former pupils who had committed a felony were from St. Peter's rather than JCS!
Archie married, Rita, in 1934 and they had one son, Anthony, who now lives in Toronto.
Rita died in 1996 and Archie passed on two years later aged 92.
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THE DAY I NEARLY KILLED ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL
By Sinclair Gordon
One
day when I was leaving school, I jumped into a borrowed Nash Metropolitan car
(made by Austin) and thundered off down the street. The road was very busy and I
did not see Archie pedalling his bike close to the kerb. I swerved at the last
minute and, unfortunately, Archie fell off his bicycle and landed in the gutter.
The car was an open top convertible and I remember looking over my shoulder and
seeing him staggering to his feet. Luckily, he wasn't injured and his bike
wasn't damaged. However, the chain had come off and a very kind young fellow
called George Watt helped him to put the chain back on the sprockets.
The
next day, as you can imagine, I was very apprehensive about going to school but
when I saw him, he was a true gentleman and did not mention the incident at all.
Years
later, when we became really good friends (I used to service and repair his car)
he often reminded me of the day he thought his number was up.
**************************************
Archie
and Jarrow
By
Sinclair Gordon
Archie
had a PhD. in whiskey drinking and I am sure this was one of the reasons why he
lived until he was over 90. He absolutely loved Jarrow and when he was Chairman
of the Governors at Ellison School, he interviewed three people for a teaching
post.
All
the candidates had a South Shields address and he asked them why they wanted to
work at a Jarrow School. As the teacher rep. I listened carefully to the answers
given. They more or less said that because of the very short distance from South
Shields to Jarrow and the fact that Shields and Jarrow were in the same Borough
of South Tyneside they did not consider this a problem.
On his deliberations at the end of the meeting, Archie concluded that the three candidates gave the wrong answer. The correct answer, claimed Archie, was the fact that "Jarrow is a nice place." I was just about to have a good laugh when I realised that he was deadly serious. He really did have a great love for Jarrow.
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Ronnie
Amos, Archie Campbell and the Balaclava Helmet.
By
Lance Liddle
It
was winter, outside it was snowing, and, if you were sitting next to a broken
window, it was also snowing inside.
Ronnie
Amos was sitting next to such a window.
Archie
noticed that Ronnie was wearing a Balaclava helmet.
"Amos,
do you think we are about to re-enact the Crimean War?"
"No
sir," replied Ronnie.
"Then
why are you wearing a Balaclava helmet?"
"I'm
cold sir."
"Cold
Amos? Cold?"
He
looked to where George Watt was sitting next to a warm radiator."
"Are
you cold, Watt?"
"No
sir."
"See,
Amos, Watt isn't cold therefore you aren't cold are you Amos?"
Deciding
that discretion was the better part of valour, Amos replied,
"No
sir."
(George
Watt first brought this story to my attention.)
**************************
Archie
the Sportsman
By Ron Niven
Archie was a keen supporter of Newcastle United and I remember discussing the 1952 cup final with him; Ronnie Neesam was also present. Ronnie thought that Jackie Milburn had scored two good goals but Archie disagreed. He said that, one of them was a bit lucky. Ronnie said, he had watched it on television, whereupon Archie, speaking with the voice of authority, said, "I was there ma bhoy" - end of subject. Although he was keen on football I got the impression that cricket was his first love and he did seem to know a lot about the game.
He was keen on extra duties outside of school hours and would often stand in for Ollie Overton for school football games on Saturday mornings. Archie was at school camp with us in 1950 and it was there that I first noticed his love of cricket.
I can remember him playing war with George Turner who had been given the job of looking after his velocipede (bike) and George had taken off the front wheel to mend a puncture, but had forgotten to tighten the nuts properly. Fortunately Archie noticed this before riding, although I'm sure he thought that George had done it on purpose.
Archie didn't have a lot of luck cycling did he?
*******************************************
These are but a few memories of a well remembered teacher. During the course of my research I came across vague references to Archie and a Victor Barna table tennis bat, the expurgating of a story by Rider Haggard to avoid a mildly sexy passage and an event involving a fire escape! Sadly we will have to save these revelations until a later date.
(Thanks to Sinclair Gordon, Ron Niven, Len Stephenson, George Watt and the Shields Gazette for the above information)
Lance Liddle June 2004
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
Amos and Archie Show
by George Watt
Those
who failed to witness the following happenings may doubt their authenticity but,
as they say, 'Truth is stranger than
fiction…'
Outside one of the windows in 3t classroom on the upper floor was a 4" diameter pole which ran vertically parallel to the building.
The prime purpose of this stainless steel structure was to act as a fire escape; presumably the fire regulations were less stringent in 1952. It also had a secondary purpose; it was used as an unofficial form of rapid transit for those wishing to occupy pole, no pun intended, position in the queue to get on the school bus.
As Fred Mathews and I lived within walking distance of the school we had no need to take up this option and, on this particular day, despite using the more conventional method of departure, i.e. the staircase, we were out of the main building first.
We decided to stay and watch the 'suicide slide' from the confines of the rain shelter/bike shed.
First
man off was Wyndham Cuthbert who descended quickly and stylishly.
He was followed by Mac Rigg whose exit was accelerated by an accidental
push due to George Chambers practising a Nazi salute.
Outside a crowd had formed, giving verbal acknowledgement to the more able descenders and hoots of derision to the less capable such as Colin Carter who claimed the circumference of the pole was incorrect. Curious as to the growing volume, Archie Campbell emerged from the handicrafts building. Sensing that this was an occasion where words alone would not suffice, he brandished his trusty steel rule. From the shadows there also appeared two prefects, Sinclair Gordon, and Charlie Plant, who promptly, 'felt the collars' of Cuthbert and Rigg.
Malcolm Reid joined them, although not before Archie had applied a stroke of the steel rule (for good measure?) to his retreating bottom.
Les
Maddison, who had also reneged from going home by Tube, joined Fred and I to
watch as the excitement mounted.
Because of Archie's presence, we now had a situation where those at the bottom of the pole were trying to get back up and those at the top were continuing to be helped on their way down by George Chambers who was now practising the goosestep.
Ron Niven, and Brian Smith were both apprehended by Archie.
"I'm surprised at you, Niven," he said. So were we!
John Taylor, who some years previous had lost part of his little finger, now faced losing something even more vital to his existence - his head! Snack Turner came down on top of him with such force as to knock the horn rims from John's glasses thus creating a new style of spectacle that later became popular with grandmothers.
Our spectacle continued, I am told, in the upper room. Casey, who had served his country nobly during the war and had more VC's than the senior football team had medals for coming in second, remonstrated with Herr Chambers about his goose stepping. He, forcibly, demonstrated the correct way.
Back out on the pipe, last as always, was Ronnie Amos.
"Up here," commanded Casey … "Down here boy," ordered Campbell.
The boy was not for turning, he couldn't - he was stuck.
Jean Stephenson and Joyce Henery thought Amos was trying to rescue a cat - as if!
When they found he wasn't, they lost interest. The girls then remarked, with suggestive glances, on how heavy their books were. Fred and I promptly forgot about Amos - for all I know he may have still been up there when the school was demolished, does anyone know? -
George Watt June 2004