Number 25 Summer 2015
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Number 25 Summer 2015 Etcetera 25.indd 1 11/05/2015 18:25 Editorial Contents Ken Waine was one of the first people I met 3 Favourite Teachers Remembered when I first arrived at Glasgow Academy. 4 Anecdotage It was May of 1980 and a rather anxious PGCE student arrived at the school office to await my 10 Anecdotage letters interview. The Academy has always liked to ensure 11 Book review that the responsibility for interviewing potential new recruits is spread evenly across different departments. 12 Academical Club I knew that I had to meet the Rector and Deputy Rector, the Head of English and so on but it was the 16 Announcements man with the military bearing in the airforce-blue uniform who made me most nervous. 20 Westbourne Section Rachel Teggart, then Rector’s Secretary, assured me 22 Working for Vogue that day that Ken’s bark was very much worse than 23 Memories of the Great War Ken Waine: former Head of PE and his bite. What she hinted at then, and what I - in Games, Contingent Commander of common with hundreds of others - later discovered 26 Obituaries the CCF, Senior Master and President was that beneath that sometimes forbidding exterior of the Academical Club (1985/86) lay the most generous of hearts. 31 Picture Post Although I was possibly the least-promising rugby coach he had ever come across, he set about teaching me all the stuff he knew. And that wasn’t just about rugby. It was about how to be a schoolmaster, about how to set an example. Many of his phrases still resonate with me today. When a young member of staff arrived at Saturday games without a tie, his reaction was classic Ken Waine. ‘We expect the boys to wear uniform on Saturdays,’ he said. ‘If the boys have to do it, the masters have to do it.’ Although Ken and Elspeth both grew up in Lancashire, when they moved here with their young family in the late 1950s, they set to work to make Glasgow - and in particular Do we have your e-mail address? Glasgow Academy - their home. In everything he did, Ken set an example for others – It’s how we communicate best! boys and staff – to follow. As Stewart McAslan, another former colleague, has pointed out in his tribute, ‘He was in touch with the parent body, Academicals, generations of boys and staff. He influenced many staff even after he left because he was a strong man of Keeping in touch principle and he provided longevity.’ Ken’s influence was strong because his roots in the The External Relations office is situated community went deep. in Colebrooke Terrace. Former pupils are News of his passing at the age of 91 has brought tributes from his former pupils. Ken has always welcome to pop in for a chat and look been justly called “a wonderful man”, “really fair and very encouraging”. One former round the school. Just give us a call to arrange pupil who discovered the real character of the man was the boy whose father had recently a time. Our address is Colebrooke Terrace, died in tragic circumstances. As a 12-year-old angry at the unfairness of life, he chose Glasgow G12 8HE and you can contact us on to take his anger out on Wing Commander Waine, his Contingent Commander, by 0141 342 5494 or at [email protected] swearing loudly at him at CCF parade in front of the whole school. What happened next The Glasgow Academical Club took him by surprise. 21 Helensburgh Drive, Glasgow G13 1RR ‘Rather than chastise me, he ran after me to the art department where I had run to hide. President: Douglas Robinson There he showed a sensitivity and kindness that I have never forgotten. He exhibited a E-mail: [email protected] polar opposite to his normal persona that will always stay with me. That day Mr Waine Secretary: Stuart Neilson helped me deal with my grief there and then more than you could possibly imagine. I will Tel: 07771 845104 be forever grateful for the kindness and sensitivity he showed me that afternoon.’ E-mail: [email protected] The Academical Club pavilion Ken was a lovely man and a great school master. He was universally respected by all with whom he came into contact - whether they were small boys at school or the many is available for functions. rugby-playing Academicals who helped him celebrate his 80th birthday in style with a Academical Club’s London Section celebratory rugby match at New Anniesland. Secretary – David Hall, 20 Cadogan Place London SW1X 9SA As the Chronicle at the time of his retirement said: ‘Ken was everybody’s friend. And we Tel: 020 7235 9012 shall miss him.’ E-mail: [email protected] I know I certainly will. Like us on Facebook; join us on LinkedIn A full tribute to Ken will appear in the next edition of Etcetera. Former colleagues, friends and those he taught are respectfully invited to submit their reminiscences and memories for that edition. 2 Etcetera Etcetera 25.indd 2 11/05/2015 18:25 Favourite Teachers Remembered Ernest Dowson Late in Form 3 I was struggling with Greek but had been scoring good marks in French and Latin. Naturally my parents were concerned and decided to consult with the Rector, Dr Roydon Richards, who in turn referred them to Chris Varley who had been teaching me French. It was recommended that I drop Greek and start German from scratch – bearing in mind that my performance in French had been good. I was transferred to the Form 3 German class which was taken by Ernie Dowson. He very sensibly asked John Garland, who was a good friend both at school and later when we both studied at St Andrews University, to act as my guide. Maybe that was where the skills John never needed to use the belt in our class his final act was to make Widow possessed as a very good teacher were but who willingly lent it out to younger Twankey (played by Jock) the Duchess developed! Anyway, thanks to Ernie’s teachers who needed it to punish of Kelvinbridge! very well-balanced and methodical mischievous young boys. He was also approach to grammar, vocabulary, It was Andrew McMurchy’s photo of very friendly and followed with keen written translation (both from German the CCF officers in the mid-fifties which interest our progress not only in German to English and English to German) plus prompted my very happy memories of a but also in other subjects. He was also plenty of reading and oral practice, and very good teacher who left the Academy very active in rugby, the Army section lots of nurturing support from both Ernie in August 1958 to take a well-deserved of the CCF, in the Masters’ cricket XI, and John Garland, I found myself sitting promotion of Head of Modern and in taking part in the comedy of and passing Higher German in Form 5 Languages at Walsall Grammar School. Jock Carruthers’ Christmas pantomime. after two years. I recall his playing the Emperor in a Henry Murray Humphreys (1959) Ernie was a firm disciplinarian who production of Aladdin one year, when SciTech Appeal ‘Dodo’ on course to raise This thought was engendered by Hamish On re-reading this before committing to £1.9m Richardson’s contribution in your last memory, it is notable that all the stations The success of the appeal in the last issue... cited – except for the last two, all finish two years means that £1.6m has now ‘sk’. I do not know for how many years been banked for the Saunders Centre David D Ogilvie taught the subject I cannot speak for others, but I have development. More pledges have been of Geography at Glasgow Academy, never had the opportunity of making use made and we now expect the appeal to but according to Hamish Richardson’s of or imparting this knowledge. raise a total of around £1.9m. dates he was still teaching 20 years after And I wonder how many others can We are hugely grateful to all members the time I left – and he was no spring also reel off the names of the three main of our community who have generously chicken when I came under his tutelage. rivers of Siberia – the Ob, the Yenesai, donated. The building remains on track It is a sobering thought, therefore, that and the Lena, in that order from west and on budget and will be handed over every one of his pupils left school with to east? Another pearl of wisdom from by Dunne, the construction firm, in the knowledge of all the stations on the ‘Dodo’. June. Trans-Siberian Railway. After 70 years of These remarks are in no way a criticism Every gift – large and small – is helping learning this vital information, I can still of his teaching, as I found the time spent to make this remarkable facility a reality. recite a good part of it – Omsk, Tomsk, in his classroom (except for the detention If you would like any information on Novosibirsk is one section, and Irkutsk, periods which he administered) among how you can support the appeal before it Chelyabinsk, Krasnoyarsk and Harbin all the most rewarding of my schooldays. closes this term, please contact Mark on feature somewhere along the line to the [email protected] / 0141 342 5494 terminus at Vladivostok. Jim Cunningham (1949) Etcetera 3 Etcetera 25.indd 3 11/05/2015 18:25 At the equivalent of the end of the Anecdotage school day, we headed for the bus stop on Great Western Road to catch the An Escapade by a Timid Chap buses that we would have ordinarily taken home.