A Story From Walter Wears

Visitors to the Hebburn Website may be familiar with Walter Wears.  His memories of Hebburn in the 1920's and early '30s make for compulsive reading.  They can be found on the Hebburn site under 'Good Reading' then under 'Walter Wears Remembers'.  Strongly recommended.

What Walter doesn't say in his saga is that he is an ex JCS pupil who left the school in 1936 when Major Dawson was Headmaster.   Bill Ramsey was a teacher and Walter recalls that he always wore the same brown suit.  I wonder if it was the same suit he wore when I was there almost 20 years later? Walter, now aged 83, has given me a half-promise to put pen to paper and pass on his memories, I'm sure they will be well worth reading.  One little snippet he did give me concerned a young chap called Danby, a member of the well-known Hebburn Florist family.

Danby had put one of the school pencils in his back pocket then promptly sat down with the result that the pencil pierced his buttocks.  The teachers were hesitant to remove the pencil in case the lead broke and so it remained in the unfortunate Danby's arse.  Needless to say the youth was in great pain and the decision was made to take him to hospital and have the pencil removed by a doctor.  This they did

and the pencil was successfully extracted.  All's well that ends well you may think, alas not.  When he got back to school Danby was caned for stealing a pencil!

Lance Liddle November 2004