Richard Johnson - Raleigh House 1934 - 1940
Richard attended Shoreham Grammar School, first as a day boy in 1934, then later as a boarder from 1936 to 1940. Richard died in 2010 and he had been writing his memoirs. The following excerpts, in which he describes his time at Shoreham, have been kindly provided by Richard’s son, David.
Shoreham Grammar School
1934
We rented a house near the beach at Shoreham-by-sea in West Sussex, half way between Brighton and Worthing. Whilst there I went to Shoreham Grammar School, where both my brothers were boarders. My reading, writing and maths were at the same level as the remainder of the pupils in the class I was placed. Although on that occasion I was only to stay there for six months, I won a first prize in one of the races for the younger pupils on Sports Day at the end of the summer term: I laugh to myself as I think of that race, a sack-race! The prize was a Frog flying model aircraft with an elastic-band wind-up engine, wings that detached, made of very light silver coloured parchment as was the fuselage.
The town of Shoreham-by-sea was split into two by the river Adur. Our house was across the river on that part of the town facing both the river and the sea. There were two ways to cross the river, one was the bridge on the main road leading to Worthing about five miles to the West, or the Pedestrian toll bridge located about the centre of the town. I used to cross by the toll bridge whilst my brothers went the longer way round on their bicycles. The number of houses in that half of the town next to the sea was large and that side also had its various shops. The beach, as most of the other ones nearby, was not sandy but a mass of stones which made walking down to, or from, the sea something to be done in slow motion. Luckily none of the stones had sharp edges. The usual wooden breakwaters to be found on many beaches had plenty of barnacles on the lower parts of their structure and one had to be careful of those. Nevertheless, it was fun to swim there especially if the water was calm. But the water was always cold!
The school had boarders and day-boys. Whilst my parents rented the house both my brothers also became day-boys but we all had lunch at the school. The school’s dormitories, Matron’s surgery and sick-bay etc., were on the first floor over the class rooms, gymnasium, house-rooms and offices. The smaller children, amongst which I found myself, had two separate classrooms in their own building next to the tuck-shop and the chemistry laboratory, the latter being located in an entirely separate single storey building. The school premises and grounds formed a complete large square with a road all round it. Opposite the main entrance, across the road, was the school’s chapel. Morning services were held daily prior to classes and on special occasions. Another nearby building was also owned by the school; this was an old building used for music lessons, the various small rooms on its two floors were equipped with upright pianos. Official music exams were held there once a year for those boys taking music as an extra subject. The lighting in that building was still primitive, gas lights with mantles The School’s main buildings originally housed Lancing College when that school first opened.
The larger part of the “Square” was taken up by the parade ground where the School’s Officer Training Corps trained and paraded, normally every Saturday morning, with the usual inspection by Major Jones, the Commanding Officer, who also taught French and some other subjects. On occasions the corps with its own military band, consisting of drummers and buglers at the front, would march through the town and on to the main road, either towards Hove or to Worthing. The senior members of the corps also had shooting practice in the shooting range. Sometimes route-marches were held, across country.
Apart from the school’s square in the centre of Shoreham it also owned a large extent of land, about a mile away, where the playing fields and sports pavilion were located. A variety of sports were played every Wednesday and Saturday afternoons unless a visiting team from another school was playing us at home that afternoon whereupon the whole school would turn out to cheer our first team. At Shoreham football was played in the winter and spring terms whilst cricket was played in the summer term. Mr. Kirkman was the Headmaster and he was very well liked by all.
1936-40
In the last term of 1936, when I was nine and a half, I was back at Shoreham Grammar School but this time as a boarder. The boys were divided into “houses” and these were named after English Admirals, each “house” having a different small round coloured-enamel lapel badge; my “house” was “Raleigh” and its badge was blue. I found myself in the same “house” as in 1934 and therefore was not without some friends when I rejoined the school.
Francis and I (Philip had long since left the School) went down to Shoreham-by-sea by the special school train from Victoria Station in London. Our heavy luggage consisting of trunks and tuck-boxes had been sent down earlier by Carter Paterson, then one of the principal road transport companies in Great Britain. This luggage was usually at the school before our arrival, Francis and I walked the short distance from the station to the school, carrying our suitcases and coats. As I had never been a boarder, once in the building, Francis took me to the Matron’s surgery and left me there with her. She sent for one of the “Raleigh” boys and asked him to show me where the dormitory I had been allocated to was, where my bed was situated, and generally explain what the different bells were for, getting-up bell, breakfast bell, etc. He told me who the “house” prefects were and gave me a lot of other information as well.
The school uniform consisted of a black blazer with a lion embroidered in white on the top pocket, grey trousers, grey sweater with white and black stripes around the neck-line, grey socks, light grey shirt, black shoes, a grey, white and black horizontally striped tie and the peaked cap was of black and white triangles with a black covered-button at the top where the triangles met. The cap also had a lion at the front embroidered in white whilst the school prefects´ cap had a tassel hanging down from the covered-button. Whilst the older boys wore long trousers the younger used short trousers and as elasticised waist briefs were then apparently not available for youngsters we couldn’t wear belts but had to use braces, to hold up both trousers and underpants. These underpants had two tapes sewn on either side at the front and one tape in the middle at the back: before buttoning the braces to the trouser-buttons on the inside of the trousers, the ends of the braces had to pass through the tapes on the underpants!
That first evening as a boarder I met many of those I had known in 1934 and also some of the new boys. I had been placed in the same form as my friends from 1934 for which I was more than pleased.
The dormitory I was in was on the second floor of the school building nearest to the centre of the town. The size was enormous, having three rows, each of ten beds, each bed having room for the boy’s trunk in front of it and alongside the head of the bed a wide chest of drawers which could be used as a desk. Two of the rows of beds had their backs to the wall and between them and the centre row there was ample room for a further row if need be. The ceiling was very high as were the windows which could only be reached by a long ladder. These windows were opened and shut by the usual cords. At the far end from the entrance to the dormitory. some five metres from the nearest beds, there was a row of about thirty washbasins along the width of the room and here the windows were far lower so in the summer one had a good view of the school grounds, Very near to the basins there was an emergency fire-door, one of many existing in the school. Alongside that door was another leading to the bathrooms etc. Lights-out was at 21.00 hours in the winter and at 21.30 in summer (but we normally carried on to about 22.00). As was customary in the majority of English schools, we were known by our surnames and not by Christian names. As Francis was still at school he was Johnson 1, and I, Johnson 2.
On Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, those boys over ten years of age who were not listed for any games or activity of the Cadet Corps, could ask for permission to go out of the School and into the shopping area. We were allowed out as long as there were two of us and that we kept out of “out-of-bounds” areas. I used to go with whichever friend cared to go out for a couple of hours. We nearly always chose a Saturday as it was after lunch on that day of the week when, as we lined up to leave the dining hall the duty Master, with reference to a ledger would give us our weekly pocket money. The first stop would always be Woolworth’s where we bought packets of salted peanuts, sherbet and crisps. We then proceeded to the river bank to sit down if the weather permitted and tucked into our purchases. We were also allowed to purchase one comic a week and I used to buy “The Hotspur”, exchanging it for others as and when I could. I and a boy called Hunt won a prize once from one of those comics.
That Christmas (1936), my first away from home, I and a few other boys were unable to leave for the holidays as we were in sick-bay with German measles. We had quite a wonderful time, good food (not that the school food at other times was anything but good!) and when finally allowed out of bed we played various games and ultimately went for walks about the town, river and port. It was during this “holiday” that I was rather amazed to see the school cleaners throwing wet tea leaves, masses of them on the wooden floor of the main school entrance hall. The main entrance opened up onto a very large square hall with wide passages leading off to the left and right. All the floors were of wood, not parquet but well worn planks. The wet tea-leaves formed quite a thick layer. I was told they would leave the leaves on the floor until the next day (and would we please use another way up to the sick-bay) when they would sweep them away and proceed to utilise floor-polish on the newly stained floor. Following that they would buff up the floor with a large metal and wood block, covered with layers of thick canvas and cloth, pulled and pushed around with a resultant well-polished dark floor. I understood they did that every holiday and that the floors stained in this way would last out the whole term.
In March 1937, being 10 years of age, I was allowed to join the school Cadet Corps, which I did. The Cadet uniform, for the younger cadets, consisted of: army jacket with brass buttons at each side and top pockets, and to do up the jacket, khaki shirt, army green woven belts with brass buckles etc., short khaki trousers, puttees and black boots. Puttees were long strips of khaki woven cloth, kept rolled up like bandages, which had to be wound round and up ones legs over the socks. The older boys wore long trousers but they also wore puttees, over the legs of the trousers and up to just below the knee. We had to polish all the brass items on our uniforms every Friday evening, after prep, ready for the Saturday morning parade. It was great fun, especially the rifle drill, but marching round and round the parade ground with the band banging away, on their drums and blowing into their bugles was often quite boring.
In the Christmas term 1939, some senior boys from Westminster College, in London, were evacuated for short time to our school in Shoreham. We were surprised at their school uniforms: dark grey trousers, white shirt with starched collar, no tie, and instead of a blazer a black frock coat with tails, these flapping behind them in the wind as they rode their bicycles.
One day that same term we had some free time in our classroom with no master in attendance. Sitting at my desk I carved ’Mr. X is a spy’ on the wood panelling next to me. Once it was done I realised that it showed up quite a bit although the letters were not big. With some ink on blotting paper I tried to cover the carved letters so that they were not so obvious. Some days later the math’s master walked up and down between the desks. When he came up to mine he stopped and, pointing at the carved message asked who had done it. I replied that I had, expecting the worst (corporal punishment was still the order of the day). All he said was “Mr. X won’t be coming back”. To this day I sometimes wonder whether he was dead, was ill or was a spy!
At School we had all been issued with Civilian Gas Masks packed in, and to be kept in, its cardboard box. One was supposed to take it with you on going out. We were instructed on its use. Ghastly to wear for a long time and, thankfully, they never had to be used, talk about claustrophobia.
Shoreham Airport was small and used by a flying school and a charter company using small ’planes of the De Havilland Rapide and Tiger Moth types. When war broke out the charter entity ceased operations and only official flights took place. At odd times of the day, but more often at night, from our dormitory we could hear the Lysanders taking off or flying overhead to land. Lysanders were small single engine ’planes taking four or five passengers and used mainly to take VIP’s about on their jobs or to land and/or pick-up persons from fields in France and, later on in the War, in what became German occupied France.
Richard Johnson