A CHRONICLE OF THE OLD BRIDLINGTONIAN CLUB NUMBER 53 • AUGUST 2018 - JULY 2019 2 – Old Bridlingtonian Club Old Bridlingtonian Club 2019 President . Tim Kench Roddy Watson 56 St Aidan Road, Secretary/Chairman. Bridlington YO16 7SN Tel: 07710 413975 Email: [email protected] Jim Ezard Assistant Secretary. Email: [email protected] Daren Wilkinson Treasurer . Tel: 07879 490500 Email: [email protected] Susan Shilladay 99 Marton Road, Archivist . Bridlington YO16 7PX Email: [email protected] Assisted by Garth Blackburn OB Editor . Vacant Martin Barmby Marketing Officer . Email: [email protected] Kate Parker-Randall Senior Staff Member . Bridlington School Old Bridlingtonian Club – 3 Old Bridlingtonian Club 2019 Alan Fumagalli Golf Secretary . 17 Bladon Road, Bridlington YO16 7DY Tel: 01262 678409 Paul Gibson 13 Beaulieu Court, Hillcroft Crescent, Membership/Subscription Secretary. London W5 2SL. Tel: 020 8998 6044 Email: membership@ oldbridlingtonianclub.org.uk Independent Examiner. Douglas Robinson School Liaison Officer . Vacant Committee: Barry Back, Mike Eveleigh, Todd Johnson, Neil Kitching and Mark Parker-Randall The Secretaries of the Branches will be happy to supply information on request. Cambridge Branch Roddy Watson, 56 St Aidan Road, Bridlington YO16 7SN Tel: 07710 413975. Email: [email protected] London and District Branch Paul Gibson, 13 Beaulieu Court, Hillcroft Crescent, London W5 2SL Telephone: 020 8998 6044. Email: [email protected] Sheffield and District Branch Eddy de Brouwer, 9 Den Bank Close, Crosspool, Sheffield S10 5PA Telephone: 0114 230 8691. Email: [email protected] North West Branch Andrew Calvert, 1 Anson Croft, Hambleton, Selby YO8 9QW Telephone: 01757 228156. Email: [email protected] www.oldbridlingtonianclub.org.uk 4 – Old Bridlingtonian Club OB Number 53 August 2018-July 2019 CONTENTS Editorial: Tributes to Mike Mortimore 5 Headteacher’s Report 8 Professional/Personalia 9 School Remembrance Service 10 CCF Signals Report 2019 10 CCF Report 2018/2019 12 RAF Window at Trinity Church 15 Robin Roe 16 Informal Reunion in France 18 Rock of Ages: Bridlington Spa 19 Spring Reunion Lunch 20 Annual General Meeting 21 Annual Dinner 24 Now No More (2018 version) 29 New OB Club polo shirts 31 Letter from Norman Feather 31 Old Bridlingtonian Notes: Births, Marriages, Deaths 32 Sheffield Branch Report 2018 35 London Branch Report 38 Manchester and NW Branch Report 42 Sheffield Branch Report 2019 44 Faces from the Past 48 Dates to Remember 50 Old Bridlingtonian Club – 5 Editorial Most of you will know that Mike Mortimore retired last year as Editor of this magazine, and many will have learnt with sadness of Mike’s death earlier this year. An appreciation of Mike appears beneath, alongside shorter tributes contributed by members of the Club. This, then, is the first time for 22 years that the OB magazine has not been produced under Mike’s stewardship, so on this occasion more than ever we are grateful to the professionalism and skill of our publishers, Positive Action Publications, and in particular to Sarah Dove, for guiding the magazine from a collection of disparate pieces on the editing team’s hard drive to the finished product you have before you now. Any errors or omissions remain, of course, entirely the responsibility of the editing team. IRW Mike Mortimore Sadly I was never taught by Mike, but my first close encounter with him was when Desmond Charlton used to regularly invite him to the CCF Adventure Training Camp in the Lake District – a little place called Lorton near Keswick. This took place during half-term holiday in the summer term. Cadets slept in old army bivouac tents, Jack Hargreaves slept in the back of his Bedford van – EHDC called it the ‘tin tent’. Mike and other adults had slightly larger tents. There were no toilets only the woods. Mike would shave and comb his hair with the aid of the wing mirror on the landrover. He wore some enormous boots, a safari-type jacket and was topped off with a large tropical-type helmet. Lunch was always sandwiches and the only drink was a swig of metal-tasting water from a WW2 water bottle. Desmond made us walk up a peak each day and I was not a very fit 14 year old. My legs ached! Evening meal was heated-up army compo rations – everything came in tins. The top of the tins were pierced and then placed in boiling water heated by a gas stove. Jack Hargreaves then gripped the rim of the very hot tin with a pair of pliers and thrust it at you, where you had to be ready with your mess tin. Mike always made jovial remarks about being served his evening meal with a pair of pliers. After leaving school I continued to see Mike at countless OB functions and often gave 6 – Old Bridlingtonian Club him and Cynthia lifts to these. Latterly Mike kindly delivered some wonderful talks to our church group in Harpham. His talks on a wide variety of subjects, including some well- known Old Bridlingtonians, became an annual event. He was due to give us a talk and tour of his beloved church at Boynton, in June of this year. Unfortunately, this was not to be. God Bless you Mike, we will miss you. John F. Wresdell (64-72) Further tributes to Mike Mortimore I was very sorry to read of Mike Mortimore's death. Please give his family my condolences. Peter Adamczyk-Haswell (1950) I was very sad to hear of MJAM’s passing and so glad I had a last chance to speak to him recently at a reunion. He taught me History for my entire seven years at School and was my form master as well. In truth I owe my nearly 40-year career in archaeology to his teaching: for that and much more I will forever be grateful to him, and to Bridlington School. Trevor Brigham (70-77) So sad to hear about Mike. He never taught me but always had my greatest respect for what he did for the school and the OBs. Please pass on my regards to his family for his tenacity and legacy. David Browning (66-73) Sad news. He was revered by many and will be sorely missed by all. Andrew Calvert (57-63) I have just received the OB email about the reunion in France, and with it the sad news of the death of Mike Mortimore. Mike was the teacher that I knew best from my three years at Brid School (62-65). Later, I went to his old college at Oxford to study history, and I owe it not only to his teaching but also his personal encouragement that I even considered applying there: I will always be very grateful to him. We kept in touch for a few years and I came across him again later in the ‘80s when I lived in Scarborough. And I’ve always enjoyed what he has had to say in the OB magazine. Ted Crofton (62-65) Old Bridlingtonian Club – 7 I’ve just read your very sad note about Mike Mortimore. What a great shame. He was a lovely man for whom I had a lot of time. He was my form teacher in, I think, form 3. I came across him quite a lot more recently since we were both involved in the Bridlington Talking Newspaper. Please pass on my condolences to Cynthia and the rest of his family. Stephen Davison (65-72) It was a pleasure to work with Mike on the production of the OB magazine during the last 10 years and I looked forward to his visits to our Driffield office immensely. We always had such interesting conversations, particularly on the subject of grammar and the demise of the apostrophe! He is truly missed. Sarah Dove, Positive Action Publications Ltd A great sadness for a wonderful man, who was and will continue to be a great inspiration for so many. David Evans (66-73) Very sorry to hear of the death of Mike Mortimore. He made such an excellent job of editing the Old Bridlingtonian that he will be hard to replace. He arrived at the school just as I was leaving and as the school has gone through its ups and downs and really become totally transformed in recent years, he has been a reminder of those earlier grammar school days. Like others on the staff, he was a breath of air from the south [not to disparage we northerners] and I hope that his widow, whom I believe came from the leafy environment of Windsor, will have support from Bridlington friends as well as the OB Club. John Metcalfe (49-57) Firstly, I would like to say how sorry I am to hear that Mr M.J.A. Mortimore has died. Now that he is sadly no longer with us, I feel I can safely begin a sentence with ‘firstly’. Over 50 years ago I presented him with what I thought was a well-written history essay which fell at the first fence. He pulled me up for writing ‘firstly’, rather than ‘first’ in the sequence of points I was making. “Spurr,” he said, “‘firstly’ (which he’d underlined in red) is bad English. You must always use ‘first’ then ‘secondly’ and ‘thirdly’ and so on.” I got no further in history than an O Level, although I’ve had a lifelong interest in the subject, and I chair an all-Ulster history body here in Ireland. The history ‘Jammy’ was obliged to teach us was too ‘political’ for me. I preferred the more social sort – what people were eating, wearing, reading, building, singing, and writing, rather than what kings and lawmakers were doing.