Hoots from the Archive - The MGS of Eric James: Project Update

In November we launched a new project to collect memories and information on Eric James's time at MGS - the focus is on both James as a person and High Master, and the School during his tenure.

We have already received a range of written responses on MGS Life and via email, and I have also recorded an interview with an Old Mancunian. Old Mancunians from as early as 1944 and as late as 1961 have contributed. We are interested in all recollections, both positive and negative. Recollections of Eric James himself are welcome, but also of any aspect of MGS life.

Here are few of the many recollections we have received:

"When I was a ‘sprog’ in 1961-62 in 1c, Lord James walked down the drive and explained to a couple of us, for no reason, that ‘antidisetablishmentarianism’ was the longest word in English."

**********

"I came to MGS in 1954 having passed the entrance exam. Coming from a state primary school, I felt somewhat inadequate in a class of intimidatingly bright kids, many of whom came from better off as well as ‘privileged’ backgrounds. Just before the first form list came out, my form master warned us not to expect to be ‘top of the class’ as we might have been in our primary or prep. schools as there were lots of other bright boys in the form. He meant well, but it didn’t do much to improve my confidence. However, things changed after my first interview with Eric James. One of the things he did was to see and sign the (termly?) reports of all the pupils – quite a task I think, but to me in retrospect it showed a personal commitment to the well-being of the boys in his care and the standards he set for the school. I was called in to see him about my report: he looked at it in front of me and, before he signed it, commented that mine was the best report he had seen. Whether this was literally true or not, it gave me a great confidence boost, the effects of which, in retrospect, I think were probably long lasting."

**********

"This first comment is less positive. The staff must have known about Billy Hulme. He was certainly a really excellent language teacher. He also had a wry sense of humour that showed up in comments such as “you’ve as much chance of passing GCE as a celluloid cat being chased through Hell by an asbestos dog”. But as those who have been taught by him know, he would not be allowed to practise in a boys’ school today. The pleasure he got from boys missing an accent on a French word or making a slight error in the German word order! Times were different then, but I still wonder why the staff room was apparently unconcerned about his ‘dotty wallop’ scheme."

**********

"Lord James of Rusholme waltzed into a chemistry lesson,  dismissed the teacher, asked a pupil "What are you studying today?" and got the answer "Ammonia". "Get out your notebooks and take this down" he commanded. "Ammonia is a bright blue odourless gas that is insoluble in water" he dictated, authoritatively. Then he waited, with a straight face, to see how many boys would write that nonsense down, unquestioningly. Most did. It took a while before anyone dared to put up a hand to suggest that he was wrong. "I am disappointed that you were so slow to contradict me. Next time you hear me say something that is manifestly absurd, I expect you all to object, immediately." He then continued, faultlessly, with everyone trying to spot another falsity."

**********

“Meals were 1 shilling and tuppence but mostly I spent my dinner money on barmcakes in the Pavilion or on cornets from Siv, with lots of raspberry in the middle of the ice-cream.”

**********

"Coming from a council estate and mixing with wealthy kids was a disturbing experience and I had an inferiority complex which weighed me down deep inside. Looking back, this seems very strange because now I am extremely proud to have been a Brooklands Council Estate boy from Wythenshawe."

**********

"Oftentimes, I would see Eric James in the lane, and he would always greet me by name. I could be mistaken, but I got the feeling that he took a personal interest in my progress through the school. I thought that perhaps I exemplified the type of student from a poor home, that he strove to benefit the most. I was one of the examples that demonstrated his vision."

**********

"Mr. Solly Clynes was my chemistry master and a great inspiration, Mr. Plackett taught physics, Mr. Minns taught zoology and Mr. Morgan botany. We also had zoology and botany from Mr. Speight. He was a strange man who unfortunately suffered from a duodenal ulcer. He used to send one of the class to get his special lunch from the canteen which he then ate in the classroom. We use to tease him a lot but he was a good teacher. The school had a separate part of the building in a quadrangle for science sixth. Outside was a large greenhouse and I spent much of my lunch breaks and other spare school time tending to the exotic plants there."

**********

"When Tim Edwards went off to be a headmaster, Lord J. asked me to become editor of Ulula.  He didn’t tell me how lively 1961 would be. I asked him to write the review of Bert Parnaby’s production of The Happiest Days of Your Life, in which he demonstrated his sense of fun (See the summer, 1961, edition of Ulula.)

And then I put together a set of articles for the Autumn, 1961, edition that involved several conversations. The only time his response to a question was, in my opinion, unsatisfactory was when I asked him why MGS was still a school for boys only: he wasn’t interested in the issue. (Years later, he had acquired the reputation of being the British vice-chancellor who was most supportive of female students.)"

**********

"MGS didn’t just educate the mind through languages, history, maths and science etc. It also helped develop our abilities to work with our hands. What I learned there in the woodwork and metalwork workshops has served me in good stead, and certainly helped make my DIY and subsequent house modernisations more presentable than would have been the case otherwise. Without Mr. Poole’s exacting training, the wooden staircase I built in our old Welsh farmhouse wouldn’t have fitted as well as it did (and I doubt if I would have even tried to embark on that project…). Moreover, having had experience of workshop practice gave me real credibility when interacting with workshop staff in the universities and laboratories where my working life has taken me."

**********

I don’t know about now, but morning assembly then began with gown-clad masters walking into assembly to appropriate organ accompaniment. We thought it particularly appropriate one April 1st when the pupil who played the organ struck up with “The Entrance of the Gladiators” (a tune well known then for its use in circuses) as the staff marched in. The Chief took it in good heart: on reaching the podium on stage, he just remarked – did I see a slight smirk on his lips? – that we’d had our fun and should now get down to normal business.

**********

"Eric James’ boldness and vision made an enormous difference to my life. I got to know him in his sixth form ‘religious instruction‘ classes, effectively wide-ranging discussions of morals, ethics and life, and in the ‘Berkeley Society’ after-school meetings he and Donald Halewood ran which were much the same thing but more relaxed and less time-constrained. He was a true educator, a breath of fresh air in a stuffy era, expert in taking the scales off boys’ eyes and showing us the importance of thinking things out for ourselves, not just following convention."

Thank you to all the Old Mancunians and former members of staff who have shared their recollections with us so far. All will be retained in the archive. Please contact me if you wish to share your own memories - archives@mgs.org