Mr & Mrs Whicker

[Rogernoble]

Rolf and Kathleen Whicker

Rolf Whicker was born on 10th March 1902 and baptised on 4th May 1902 at St Thomas's, Birmingham by his father who was the rector. His father died on 10 October 1913 when Rolf was eleven.

He was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School which would probably account for the fact he was a Wolves supporter.

It was then on to Corpus Christi, Oxford to read classics and law and it was here that he met Frank Bannister. He went on to teach at Furzie Close School and then at Clevedon House School on Ilkey Moor until in 1934 Frank Bannister persuaded him to join him at Hillside, Reigate.

He was a talented sportsman and represented Corpus Christi at tennis, hockey and football. As an amateur he also went on to play semi-professional football.

On the 14 August 1934 he married Kathleen Mary Lloyd, the younger sister of his Wolverhampton Grammar School friend Sam Lloyd in Wolverhampton.

The Whickers acquisition of the school is told in some detail in the first edition of the White Star magazine elsewhere on this web site.

It is only with fifty years senior management experience that I have begun to fully appreciate the extraordinary input that the two of them made. Rolf was the Headmaster, bursar, teacher, groundsman, sports coach, keeper of the detailed sporting records and one fears much else. Somehow he also found time to be a special constable in the war. Robin Whicker still has his warrant card and police medals. Kathleen was housekeeper, stand in cook, piano player and piano teacher and when circumstances demanded matron and first form teacher. She was also the Sunday joint carver as Robin explained his father was not very good at it. Under all this pressure how did they run such a succesful school?

Their main aim was, of course to get us through the Common Entrance Exam. I have to confess I had always thought this was not a major problem until I read about the Lancing headmaster's speech at prizegiving in 1960. He reported that with a thousand more applicants than places, the exam was very compitetive. My misunderstanding is easily explained by the fact that the White Star reports show the vast majority of us breezing through the exam and getting to the school of our choice.

The sports record is no less impressive. Despite Hillside being much smaller than our opponents the school always seemed to be punching well above it's weight. A few of us have discussed this at various times and there is no doubt that the basic skills were drilled into us. We all remember endless catching practice, bowling at fag packets, trapimg footballs etc. Rolf also makes the point we were generally fitter than our opponents as well, no doubt helped by the mavellous grounds to run around in and regular practice matches. What is also clear from the White Stars is that Rolf was walking around with a detailed SWAT analysis in his mind on all of us and is pretty critical of any shortcomings we had. I suspect he worked hard to overcome or work round these.

I was perhaps better placed than most to really appreciate Hillside. My parents had disappeared to Hong Kong when I was eight so I only saw them in the summer holidays. I had been left as a boarder at Barfield where I spent the next three years.

Suddenly my parents, in Hong Kong, were presented with a letter advising them that Barfield were no longer taking boarders and my poor old uncle George was racing around trying to find someone to take me. The only place he could find was Hillside. Rolf did not get much of a bargain as I was academically a year behind everyone else as a result of a nasty case of polio a few years earlier which had left me paralysed from the neck down and I was stiil weak physically. With some trepidation I started at Hillside. The schools were like chalk and cheese. At Barfield I felt I had existed and no attempt had been made to address the missing year but at Hillside I was soon thriving. Within two weeks Rolf hauled me out of class and said he needed to sort out the missing year. I was frogmarched to the next class. By the time I left two years later I had not only caught up the year but finished top of the sixth form. On sports I was soon lapping up the extraordinary culture at the school and a year later found myself in the 1959 second football eleven (played 4 won 4). In my second year, no doubt helped by spending most of my annual visit to Hong Kong in the swimming pool, I became the school swimming and diving champion before winning my colours in the most successful football side Hillside produced (played 14, won 13, drew 1). Rolf had changed me from the shy introverted young boy he had inherited into a confident outgoing young man. I will be forever grateful.

The Whickers were if my experience was anything to go by, producing a Rolls Royce education and should have been making a fortune. However it seems to me their motive was truly vocational and I have got the hint of several occasions where parents got into difficulty a very understanding attitude was taken on fees. Interestingly Johny Reed recalls:

"Hillside was an amazing place to inspire its pupils, be that in sport or intellectually.  It created, for me anyway, a lifelong interest in almost everything.  And the dedication of the Whickers and the other masters was considerable.  I remember my father telling me that it was the only educational establishment he had ever come across where the parents actually banded together to suggest to Mr Whicker that he put the fees up. History does not relate whether their proposal was accepted!" Robin recalls this and said his father would have nonoe of it.

I suppose in the end it is in the proof of the pudding. At the time that I write this we have traced 171 of the 380 boys at Hillside. Of these there are two MBEs (Mike Goodridge and Richard Compton Hall) and a Distinquished Service Award (Nick Pedley) all from the Queen. On the sporting front there are three hockey players with national team honours and a Bisley Champion. Not a bad record!!! Certainly as I have traced people it is clear that most of us have gone on to successful careers. What shines through in the notes on old boys at the end of each edition of the White Star is the enormous pride Rolf felt in what his "boys" were achieving.

Roger Noble