Leightonian 1913 12
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE SCHOOL BAND. TLhc Xeigbtoman, VOL. VII. DECEMBER, 1913. [No. 57 EDITORIAL. ^PHE IMP is a very useful person, in that he will run messages * with alacrity ; but he has a cheeky side that discounts his value considerably. On this particular evening he has perched himself on the head of the sofa in the Common Room, and is doing his best to ruffle the temper of the Editor. "Have you anything more for this number ? Is it full ?" "Yes, and sent to the printers, thank goodness." "Then you won't have to fill it with your own stupid " (A well-aimed ruler prevented him from ending the sentence.) When quiet was restored and the pain assuaged by gentle massage, he began again :— "Well, what have you got in it ? Are there any pictures ?" "Yes, there are three illustrations—(the Imp never could call things by their right names)—and two of them are the work of a boy in the Camera Club." "Ah, that looks well, doesn't it ! But what about the articles ? Are they worth reading ?" "Of course they are, or they wouldn't appear in "THE LF.IGH- TONIAN." Our readers are very critical, you know." "Oh! I know that all right, guv'nor. Many's the spelling mistakes I have had pointed out, but I allays says that's the printer's THE LEIGHTONIAN. fault. It's their place to spell; ours to provide the matter, Ahem !" "My dear Imp, your help is valuable ; but not in that direction. Your work in life is to run errands ; not to criticize.'' "Oh! that's true enough. But constant reading gives one a literary taste, and I must say I think our Magazine is a bit stodgy. Why don't you print a short story ?" "For the very good reason that no one writes one. Our essayists haven't the imagination for it. You see, the 'F.ncyclopoedia Britannica doesn't help much in this line. Still, our contents-bill this time is a good one. Take, for instance, the notes on Grove House School, Tottenham." "Oh ! I daresay they are racy. But why should they appear in THE LEIGHTONIAN ?" "Don't show your ignorance, my dear Imp. Haven't I told you, times without number, that Grove House, Leighton Park, is the lineal descendant of Grove House, Tottenham, and that some of the Old Boys of the former are Governors of the latter. Then, mind you read the "Visit to the Zoo.' " "Oh ! 1 suppose that is merely a description of snipes and toads and pond life in general ?" ' 'Oh ! no, it isn't. It partakes rather of the nature of an allegory. But I expect it is beyond your impish brain.'' "Can't say, not having read. But don't forget Boxing Day— (he rattled some coppers)—and Christmas. I suppose you'll wish everybody 'A Merry Christmas.' " "Wisely spoken, Imp. We will unite in wishing all: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !'' NEW BOYS. V. R. L. Nisbet, Newcastle. Lower V. R. D. Buchanan, Ealing. F. Sotomayor, Cordova. Lower IV. C. Ransom, Hitchen. THE LEIGHTONIAN. NEW OLD BOYS. J. M. Bickerton, 88 Rodney Street, Liverpool. R. H. Cook, Wensley House, Woodford Green. T. W. Hopkins, Moor Allerton Hall, Leeds. D. ]. Malcomson, Mayfield House, Portlaw, Co. Waterford. C. Smee, 18 Canning Road, Addiscombe, Croydon. PREFECTS. P. S. Cadbury (s{ prefect), appointed September, 1912. E. S. Harris, H. L. Edmonds, 1913. D. G. Walker, A. P. D. Penrose, C. R. Day, H. W. Ransom, A. F. Grierson, A FEW NOTES ON GROVE HOUSE, TOTTENHAM. 1828—1878. A PAMPHLET has recently been printed giving the names of the boys at Grove House, Tottenham, and I have been asked —as the son of a father who was at Grove House, Tottenham, and the father of sons at Grove House, Leighton Park, to write for the LEIGHTONIAN about my old School. The list, reprinted by Edmund Shorthouse, shows that Grove House School began in 1828 with Thomas Binns as Headmaster. He was succeeded by Thomas Hunton in 1849, and by Arthur R. 6o THE LEIGHTONIAN. Abbott in 1860, the School ending in 1878, when about 450 boys had passed through the School. Very many well-known names in the Society of Friends and outside occur in the list, but the most distinguished, having earned world-wide fame through his beneficial work for the human race in regard to Surgery, is JOSEPH LISTER, who went to the School in 1841, was made a Baronet, and after- wards became Lord Lister, living till February of last year. In glancing through the list one notices the names of Tuke, Benson, Bevan, Lloyd, Birkbeck, Leatham, Backhouse, Gurney, Pease, Forster, Crewdson, Sims, Sturge, Fry, Hanbury, Fox, Stacey, Barclay, Lister, Gillett, Peckover, Hodgkin, Fowler, Water- house, Tylor, Bowley, Shorthouse, Priestman, Ashby, Crowley Howard, Braithwaite, Rowntree, Crosfield, Pim, Ford, Godlee, Bright, Tindall, Ellis, Crosfield, Goodbody, Palmer, Albright, Wilson, and many others. Among politicians William Edward Forster, as the author of the Education Act in 1870, when School Boards were established and education was made compulsory, is a well-known man. The Rt. Hon. J. A. Pease, another old boy, is Minister of Education at the present time. Other Members of Parliament include Samuel Gurney, Edmund Backhouse (first M.P. for Darlington), Sampson S. Lloyd, Arthur Pease, J. N. Richardson, C. B. McClaren, Right Hon. G. W. Palmer, J. A. Bright, W. L. Bright (sons of John Bright), Albert E. Pease , and the Right Hon. J. W. Wilson. In addition to Lord Lister, three others have become members of the House of Lords, i.e., Lord Peckover, Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Lord Abor Conway, and Lord Emmott, Chairman of Committee of the House of Commons for some years. Baronets include Sir J. E. Barlow, Sir E. B. Tylor, Sir Rickman Godlee, (President of the Royal College of Surgeons), Sir Robert Nicholas Fowler, M.P. (Lord Mayor of London), and in addition to these Sir A. E. Pease and Sir J. B. Dale became Baronets on the death of their fathers. In the Society of Friends we find Clerks of Yearly Meeting who were educated at the School, e.g., George Stacey Gibson and Henry THE LEGHTONIAN. Lloyd Wilson ; Clerks of Yearly Meeting Committee of Ministry and Oversight: William Dilwyn Sims, George Satterthwaite, and J. B. Hodgkin. Other names well-known for the good work they have done in many directions include Dr. Thomas Hodgkin, D.C.L., Wilson Fox (one of Queen Victoria's physicians), Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., Robert Barclay (author of the '' Inner Life of the Society of Friends in the Commonwealth", F. F. Fox (best skater at Tottenham in his day) ; Fielden Thorpe (Headmaster of Bootham School), John Edward Wilson (Chairman of the F.F.M.A.), George Gillett, Charles Tylor (joint author with Edmund Backhouse of "Early Church History"), Robert Wilson (for many years President of the Keswick Convention), and Joseph Henry Shorthouse (author of the historical remance "John Inglesant", a favourite book of Mr. Gladstone's). It may be interesting to note that five of the present Board of Governors of Leighton Park School, as well as the Secretary, are old Grove House boys, and four of the Board are old L.P.S. boys. The connection between Grove House, Tottenham, and Leighton Park is more than a sentimental one, inasmuch as the fund available on winding the School up at Tottenham was utilised to build Grove House at Leighton Park, so that one is in direct succession from the other. There are still some few living who were at Grove House in the days of Thomas Binns, and a great many in the time of Thomas Hunton, and possibly some of them might be able to give an inter- esting account of the School in their time. In later days the games were well developed. The great difference was that at that time separate games had not been thoroughly organised for younger boys, so that there were not the same facilities as there are now for boys to learn to play games with others of a similar age. Hockey was a special feature of the School, in a large playground, with walls on three sides, quite elaborately organised. No portraits of former headmasters or old boys' names on mahogany boards, as in the School House dining-room, adorned the old School. The 62 THE LEIGHTONIAN. only names, as far as I recall, were painted on large panels in the main corridor, of those who had passed the London matriculation examination—most of the Sixth Form going up for it each year, with a success in the 1st B.A. occasionally by a boy who stayed on longer. Of assistant teachers probably Charles Ashford will be remem- bered by every boy who was under him as an exceptionally good master in mathematics and physics, or "natural philosophy," as it was then called. Our thanks are due to Edmund Shorthouse for reprinting the list of boys, as it should be of interest to many in the present day to be reminded of the names of some of those who have belonged to Grove House of former days. The Friends' Meeting House was more than a mile away, and the School used to march there by two and two, the tallest boys first, gradually decreasing in height to the shortest. There would be about fifty boys altogether, of which three or four would be quite six feet in height. Top hats were worn by all. The meeting was a fairly large one, and besides frequent visitors, e.g., Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, included William Bell, well-known in the Lake district, Mary Stacey, Joseph Forster, Dr.