riMJi © ermine &alkumjmc&jegpem KING EDWARDS SCHOOL CHRONICLE JULY, 1950 (Cfje 01H Cbtoarbtans' a&toctatton Telephone MID. 5209. 67B, NEW STREET, Telegrams BIRMINGHAM, 1. EDWARDIAN, BIRMINGHAM. O.E. MEMBERSHIP The Old Edwardians' Association exists primarily to maintain touch between the School and Old Boys and contacts between Old Boys of different periods. This purpose is served mainly through Honorary Membership, which carries with it the right to wear Old Edwardians' colours and to receive twice a year the Old Edwardians' Gazette, with news of the School and of Old Edwardians. The Association exists in the second place—a function whose importance has increased now the School is no longer in New Street— to provide a centre for Old Edwardians. The aim of the Association is that Old Boys living in Birmingham or passing through Birmingham may be able to meet friends in the Club Rooms—which provide all the amenities of the Ordinary Social Club. To attain this end there must be a large Membership, apart from Honorary Membership, a membership of Old Boys using the Club Rooms. To secure this, the cost of full membership is carefully graduated. The following is a list of the grades of Membership with the subscriptions : CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP For Members residing within 25 miles of the Club Building £3 3 0 But until the expiration of three years from the date of leaving School 1 1 0 and then for the next 7 years 2 2 0 Country Members 0 10 6 Members at a Residential University 0 10 6 Honorary Members 0 5 0 NOTE.—These amounts are reduced by half to Members joining after 1st July in any year, except in the case of Honorary Members, whose subscriptions are payable in full at any time. N. J. F. CRAIG, K. B. TAYLOR, Joint Hon. Sees. KING EDWARD'S SCHOOL CLUB HONORARY MEMBERSHIP OF THE SCHOOL CLUB (which includes a subscription to the SCHOOL CHRONICLE) is open to all Old Edwardians and to parents of boys in the School, and friends of the School, at a subscription of not less than five shillings per annum. It affords to Old Boys a means of keeping in touch with the School and at the same time of giving support to the School Club. Subscriptions should be made paj'able to " K.E. High School Club," and sent to the Hon. Treasurer at the School. CONTENTS EDITORIAL . 1 SCHOOL MUSIC COMPETITION NOTES AND NEWS . 1 MUSIC CIRCLE MR. J. A. NICHOLSON 6 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY LETTERS TO THE EDITOR : PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY . CAMBRIDGE LETTER 6 CIVIC SOCIETY OXFORD LETTER . 7 K. J. WERRING'S LETTER 7 GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY . TO THE FAR-EAST AND BACK ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY WITH THE ROYAL AIR FORCE 8 PHILATELIC SOCIETY GENERAL SECRETARY'S REPORT 10 ART SOCIETY . RUGBY RETROSPECT 11 THE CHRISTIAN UNION, 1950 CRICKET REPORT 12 THE CLOSED CIRCLE SWIMMING REPORT . 19 RAILWAY AND MODEL ENGINEER ATHLETICS REPORT 20 ING SOCIETY SHOOTING REPORT 23 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY CHESS REPORT 23 MODERN LANGUAGE SOCIETY ETON FIVES REPORT 24 JUNIOR DEBATING SOCIETY P.T. REPORT . 24 C.C.F.—ROYAL NAVAL SECTION ARMY AND BASIC SEC­ TENNIS REPORT 24 TIONS MR. BURGESS' HOUSE 24 AIR SECTION MR. DUNT'S HOUSE 25 SCOUT GROUP MR. LEEDS' HOUSE 25 THE BROADS, EASTER, 1950 MR. COPLAND'S HOUSE 25 GERMANY, EASTER, 1950 MR. WILLIAMS' HOUSE 26 THE LAKE DISTRICT, 1950 MR. NICHOLSON'S HOUSE 26 SHORT STORY MR. BIGGS' HOUSE 27 TARMAC, 1944 MR. PORTER'S HOUSE 27 " UNDER A STONE " THE LIBRARY 27 " THE INSTITUTION OF BAO-MIN DEBATING SOCIETY •28 OUR CONTEMPORARIES DEBATING CHARACTERS 28 STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS LITERARY SOCIETY . 29 HONORARY MEMBERS OF THE SCHOOL CLUB DRAMATIC SOCIETY 29 MUSICAL SOCIETY 30 s Ems C&toarb'g gkljool CJjrontcle Vol. LXV.—New Series. July, 1950 No. 315. EDITORIAL Treaty of the last war still awaiting the signatures of the Nations another world-wide " ESCAPISM carried to its logical conclusion : conflagration had been precipitated. The on a No. 19 bus this week every passenger but Cold War had already become the Hot War. one had his eyes glued to an newspaper And Carlyle's Nursery was sitting complac­ account of the Korea battles. The one—a ently in the back seat reading Stella and middle-aged man in a dark grey suit—was the Fairies. We were tempted to pose the reading a book called ' Stella and the Fairies' " most embarrassing and unfashionable leading —The Daily Express. questions. Whether, in fact, Universal Education had been neither universal nor We were also travelling on a bus this week— educative ; whether democracy ceased to be unhappily not a No. 19—when this journal­ democratic when the Syifioi; n° longer had istic gem caught our eye. At first we must any interest in it. confess to being a little puzzled. Not that it And all because our eyes strayed to the was in any way unique for a middle-aged man gossip column of a National Daily. to be reading frankly juvenile literature at What was the score anyway ? such an early hour in the morning. Dr. P.A.G. Jung could easily explain away that one. We were not even querying " smart grey suits," in these days of Burtonesque Hire Purchase. NOTES AND NEWS It was not a point at grievance that the author of this modern mythology chose to be shrouded for ever in the mists of anonymity. School Diary But when we made a rapid surview of the The Autumn term ended on Thursday, 15th passengers seated on the upper deck of our December. bus, we observed no such interest in the The Christmas holiday was enlivened by cables from Korea. But of course, it was not a three ambitious and successful social func­ No. 19 bus, and then again, we make no tions : On Saturday, 17th December, more pretentions to the status of national than 300 Old Edwardians attended the tenth journalism. Triennial Dinner—the first for ten years and The passengers on our bus, misty-eyed and the first in the present buildings. Then, on work-bound as they were, appeared to be Wednesday, 28th December, Allan Ayres more easily doped with the latest Test and his Band played music for dancing at the disaster, or the news of another stunt marriage Annual Prefects Ball, an event which could in the social gossip columns. Korea might well not help but be eclipsed by the magnificence be situated in the Far East for all they knew of the Old Edwardians' Ball a week later. or cared. But the state of the wicket at The Spring term began on Thursday, 12th Trent Bridge was of so much more vital January, and ended on Saturday, 1st April. interest, and she really mas pretty. Our state Half-term was taken on Saturday and of bewilderment turned to one of perturba­ Monday, 25th and 27th February. tion. Here were we on the Threshold of Life The School Play, Shakespeare's " King (as our paternal uncles are so often reminding Henry IV " (Part I) was presented by the us) our carefully mapped-out careers faced Dramatic Society in Big School on the with chaotic derangement, and nobody evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, troubled to follow the cause of the great 26th, 27th and 28th January.' The Committee disaster. Already the Editorial Plural had of the Dramatic Society announces that next donned their Khaki Drill in the mind's eye, year's School Play, to be performed in and City travellers were still reading of December or January, will be " The Test disasters and social small talk. The Tempest." more fertile imaginations had already seen A Joint Debate with K.E.G.H.S. was held us surrounded by the horrors of modern war, in Big School on Monday, 6th March. The trekking across some bloody battlefield of motion that " This House recommends the far-flung Asia. And still Test disasters and abolition of Joint Debates," was proposed social small talk comprised the spiritual food by G. F. B. Laughland, opposed by Miss and drink of the masses. Gaby Peierls, and was heavily defeated. It was more than just perturbing—we had The School Photograph was taken in become downright agitated. With the Peace brilliant weather on the South Terrace on 1 Saturday, 25th March. 411 copies were inspected the School's contingent of the ordered. Combined Cadet Force. The finals in the Music Competitions were In response to what they adjudged a held in Big School on Thursday, 30th March, popular demand, the Prefects held an informal when the adjudicator was Mr. Henry Haver- Summer Dance in Big School on Saturday, gal, Director of Music at Winchester College. 15th July. This venture, which attracted a The winners of the Open Classes were as large number of Old Edwardians, proved to be follow : Instrumental, A. J. Homer ; Piano­ socially successful and financially disastrous. forte, T. D. Thompson ; Organ, T. F. H. A half-holiday was granted by the Head Oxley. Master on the afternoon of Friday, 21st On the evenings of Friday and Saturday, July, the occasion of the first team final in 31st March, and 1st April, more than seventy the Cricket Knock-out Competition. The members of the Upper Middles, Removes and match was won by Mr. Porter's House. Shells, directed by Mr. R. G. Crow, presented As we write, the rain which has prevented the first full-scale Junior School Play— the C.C.F. Gymkhana, planned for Saturday, " Emil and the Detectives," by Eric Kastner. 22nd July, is still teeming in relentless The Athletic Sports were held at Eastern torrents.