Joan's two sons Michael and Parick went to Hillside so I will leave this to them:
Mike Wakely.
I have delayed (due to many other things on my plate) but would love to contribute to the information on Hillside in the 1940's. I have so many memories -- mostly very good. Pat has already written that his stay at Hillside only lasted about three years. My mother (Joan Wakely) was a teacher and Mr Whicker graciously charged us no fees while she was teaching there. She contracted polio and jaundice in about 1947 and had to stop work but I think the Whickers continued to be big-hearted and helpful.My memories are multiple and if I begin, it will take time that I cannot afford. I will get to it sooner or later -- or do give me a phone call (020 84021914) if you think it might be helpful.
- Sports days when I usually did well on the high jump. I once (only once) bowled out the cricket captain on my first ball (William Watson?).
- The swimming pool in the hotel in Godalming -- and the humiliation of just failing to beat Bobby Bell in the diving competition.
- Trooping down to town to watch the annual performances of Gilbert and Sullivan.
- Daily bus ride to school from St.Catherines (half fare for children -- 3d).
- Going to school in my mother's wonderful Austin 7 (OY 5341) -- which cost her £70.
- Walking down to catch the bus home, when we Hillsiders were assailed by the local youth as "Crownpits" kids (humiliation -- they tried to steal our caps).
- Mr Whicker's Latin lessons in the dining room -- Caesar's Gallic Wars book V.
- Visits to Dr. Fox's Woods (now Winkworth Arboretum) -- and a visit or two to Willie Watson's splendid home nearby.
- Catching (and eating) moths in the grass on the upper lawn (I think they made me ill). (What kids will do!)
- Climbing to the top of the splendid fir tree in the woods, as I was not allowed to do sports after being hospitalised for rheumatic fever.
- Receiving the Music prize at prize-giving on the lawn -- embarrassing as I just tied my hat to my shoe-lace and had to go up to collect the prize with my hat trailing my shoe.
Well done. Thank you for this. Were you not one of the selected few who 'played The Glasses' at an end of term concert? (for which Mr. White would set up a row of drinking glasses from the dining room and tune them, each with a different amount of water, then the selected glasses-musician' would play something on them with a teaspoon in each hand. An extra cracked glass was always selected and added as the last one in the row of the scale of glasses, to be struck hard by a teaspoon as the last note of the piece, shattering the glass and splattering the water over the front row of the audience, sitting on the floor, to roars of applause from the rest of the audience! One year the act that followed 'The Glasses' was a mime enacted by the most junior class to the reading of ;Richard Burnham's 'The Jackdaw of Rheims' by Mrs.Wakely (our mother), who had rehearsed the mime with her class. At the end of the poem, following the Cardinal's curse* the Jackdaw (Gethen, I seem to remember) keeled over 'dead' in the puddle remaining from 'The Glasses' finale, to the joy and further applause of the audience.
Harvey WhitelI played the Triumphal March from Aida on the glasses and smashed the last glass on the final chord!