From Gordon Wheatley - Bude Cornwall
Thank you very much for your letter and all it contained sorry that I’m not computer literate. Anyhow I hope this finds you well and that I can add any memories that will interest you and the others.
Briefly, I was born in 1929 in Bell St. Hebburn. My elementary school was Hebburn Quay School – like JCS now demolished.
After I’d passed for the Central, for some reason or other, I’d had to go to Clegwell for a few months so I had to stick in to show that it wasn’t a fluke that I’d passed for a higher school!
During the war we collected shrapnell and occasionally came across the nose of an incendiary bomb. We had a brick shelter in the backyard and my sister and I (she went to Jarrow Secondary School) slept there during and in anticipation of the air raids.
I remember the distinctive drone of the German bombers and at times the bombs they used had a whistling effect as if it was heading directly for you. On one raid a land mine was dropped on Glen St, Hebburn, and after the all clear, my father took me to see the damage and I recall the smell of the dust and soot amongst the debris.
At school we had swimming lessons at Jarrow Baths. The edges of the baths were too rounded, for my liking , for diving from. Wallsend baths were much more acute so one could establish a good foothold.
The head master was Mr. Younson he always wore a gown as did Jewell and so also, I believe, Jerry Wright who taught French. There was Jones for English, Giles for Science, Knaggs for metalwork and Pop Richardson (?) for woodwork. We were led to believe the latter had a metal plate in his head from a WW1 wound. Big Bill Ramsey was our maths teacher and I guess I’m being a bit chauvinistic when I recall him once coming into class and remarking he’d just come from 3c adding, ‘Talk about dumb blondes and blind cuties!’ Those words seemed to indicate he’d had a tough time with that class!
He, Ramsey, was also supposed to teach scripture but, as often as not, he would tell us to get our maths books out.
At this time of year, December, we would have practice dance lessons, boys and girls, in preparation for the Xmas dance/party. The Bradford Barn Dance was a good form of introduction for the boys and girls the older prefects of both sexes joined in to help us get over our embarrassments, it was a much more innocent society then it seemed. I was shy at dancing with a girl called Dorothy Dobie who came to JCS with me from Hebburn Quay School. I believe she quit school to move to London then from there to New Zealand or Austrailia and no doubt married abroad.
Due to the upset of the war and the lack of a sports field there was no school football team as such.
A Hebburn colleague of mine and long-term friend, Alan Jardine (he was in the commercial stream whilst I was in the technical. There was also an Oxford stream for the brighter pupils – Dodds and Wray are two that spring to mind) and I formed a team. Alan was secretary and arranged the fixtures.
Among the teams we played were Ryhope High School and Heaton Grammar School.
Our results were poor and we didn’t have a proper strip making do with white shirts and blue or black shorts. We provided them ourselves and travelled at out own expense.
Our first meeting with the Heaton School was a disaster losing 8-0 but they had a lot of 6th formers and they played their strongest side. However on the next game, once again played away due to our lack of a sports field, the result was 0-0. I think they fielded a weaker team but I knew my part, I played in defence, and my attitude was, ‘They shall not pass!’ and I relished the result.
Names of the team I remember;- ‘Polly’ Taylor, Cyril Lennox (Capt), Forrester Lynn, a namesake of mine, Tommy Wheatley and Anderson.
In my class were Robert (Bob) Klotz who went on to be a big wheel in Blyth Power Station, Jimmy Gray who I believe ended up as a draughtsman at Hawthorn Leslies, Alan Irwin (deceased) of Jarrow who was a manager at Parsons, John Moody, McKay, Archer and the others mentioned in the football team (Alan Jardine died aged 64), Jackie Kellie (deceased 2002) I was fortunate to meet up with Jackie again in later life and enjoy the odd pint in the Lord Nelson, Monkton. He was a Chief Engineer (marine) in steam.
George Garbutt shared a desk with me and , 12 years after leaving school, we met up for a drink in San Fransisco. He took me to his home in Marin County for a meal. At the time he drove a Straight 8 Black Buick like what the gangsters used to go in for. His wife said the only thing it couldn’t pass was a gas station! He was also a Chief Engineer (Marine) Diesel.
Like you, Lance, I appreciated my time at JCS and thought the layout of the building was very good with the lower classrooms leading off the hall and the upper ones off the balcony. The science lab and it’s adjacent, tiered, lecture room was all sensible plus, of course, the workshops.
I passed J2 at school but, owing to my father’s illness, I had to leave before taking S1 to start work.
I passed S1 at Jarrow Grammar School evening classes then took a course in Naval Architecture at Rutherford College, Newcastle being an apprentice draughtsman at Hebburn Palmers.
I recall the launch of the Dominion Monarch, my father being a shipwright was offered the job of ships carpenter but his health precluded it..
The Monarch of Bermuda went on fire whilst I worked there.
I did two years National Service in Egypt and Iraq with the Royal Signals.
I now live in Bude, Cornwall.
I’ve had a lucky life and seen most of the world. My mother is still alive aged 98.
I remember one Speech Day the girls choir sang Strauss’s melody ‘Voices of Spring’. It was very well performed and whenever I hear this my mind goes back to that occasion.
Gordon Wheatley (JCS 1940-1944)