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Summer
2014
OMT
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the boys were happily amused when they
were subjected to phrases such as: “Hand
in your bloody pieces of bumph.”
Two final memories of wartime were
an exam taken in the geography room,
during which the unmistakable rumble of
a V1 Doodlebug coming nearer was heard.
We heard the engine cut out, the sign that
the flying bomb was just about to crash
to earth, we held our breath waiting for
the inevitable explosion, but none came.
We never found out what had happened,
it must have glided further on and failed
to explode when it hit the ground and
after a while, with considerable relief, we
continued the exam.
There was also the trooping down to
the air raid shelters when a raid was due.
These shelters were in fact the heating
ducts which run under the corridors along
the main arms of the school building.
Someone was detailed to remove the
manhole covers in the corridor and we
filed down wooden steps into the ducts
which were just high enough to pass
along if you adopted a half stooping
position. The ducts were furnished with
wooden benches on one side on which
we sat until the ‘all clear’ was sounded. I
doubt if the school’s architect considered
that novel use of the ducts when he was
doing his design. Now, 70 years later, I
expect it has been forgotten.
Tim Shillam (Class of ’46)
A photo taken of the school Shooting VII on the ranges at Bisley in 1945. RSM Bell, Master in Charge of Shooting,
is pictured in the centre wearing glasses.
