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February 2007
To download the February 2007 Newsletter click here. To download recent newsletters click here. |
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Introduction Annual Dinner
and AGM - Friday 27th April 2007 |
We welcome any comments on these menus. |
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Vincent Jackson Stirrup MSc. JP. was headmaster of Monoux for 23 years (1948-1971), more than half of the school's existence as a grammar school in Chingford Road. As such he was arguably the most significant leader the school has had since 1927. He had a formidable presence, and when he pronounced on anything, you knew he meant it. He had that ability to switch his demeanour in an instant according to the demands of the situation. He firmly believed that the passing of examinations, whilst important, was not the most important objective in the school's activities. As he said in 1950: "The training of the whole character and outlook is the school's most important work. The tendency of specialised university courses and of restricted school education is to provide experts who knew nothing of affairs outside their own particular field. We, in this School however, are attempting to give a broad cultural course in our Sixth Form. Leisure as well as work needs cultivated interests, were it to be used profitably. The Staff aim to train the boys for life as a whole, not just for vocation or for leisure. A balance must be attained between over-specialisation and the "playway" attitude. Teachers never look on their work as beginning and ending with the School sessions." Its first duty was "to preserve high academic standards, to give the academically best boys the best academic training. This must not clash with the training of character, the will to work is ultimately of more importance than a facile brain. Having had a scientific training, Mr Stirrup felt that it was important to provide a good general education to the Sixth Form scientists in spite of the exacting science syllabus. He was conscious of the need to provide some degree of alternative teaching. He therefore introduced a series of periods devoted to the arts to redress the balance. Interestingly it never seemed necessary to introduce a series of scientific sessions to redress the balance for the literally inclined. He was a strict headmaster, and many (not me I hasten to add) felt his cane on their bottoms, or was it the hand? However he was respected by all. There was certainly one occasion in 1963 when a few retaliated by putting his house up for sale, and applied on his behalf for Australian citizenship. I suspect he rather enjoyed the joke after the first shock, and the newspaper cuttings from the Sunday Express were given pride of place in his scrap book which is now owned by the Old Monovians. We had a lot of fun under his stewardship. Every time there was a general election, we had our own when aspiring politicians would stand on their soap boxes and the school was plastered with slogans. Things went a little too far apparently in 1960 (after my time) when a party supporting the rights of girls to become school members made much of its cause. The usual posters began to appear and to add spice the many of the females so represented were scantily clad. This was a step too far in the cause of democracy, and the party was banned. I remember the time when some idiot had spent much effort in dismantling a lavatory chain link by link. At morning assembly the whole school was faced with an incandescent headmaster who dramatically let fall the chain, link by link and demanded to know who was responsible. I shall never forget that deafening silence that followed. Needless to say, no one was caught. One suspects that as the years went on and the moves to comprehensive education became apparent, he must have begun to wonder. In 1962 he praised most warmly the quality of many young men transferred to the Sixth Form from local Secondary Modem Schools. They had determination and sound, well-balanced, and confident personalities and settled well into the disciplines of advanced work. But then in 1964 in his speech day report he concentrated on the problems produced by an ever-growing Sixth Form, which then numbered one hundred and ninety. As he said "It is both important and gratifying to note that not all these boys had come from our own Fifth Forms; seventeen boys from local secondary schools had transferred to our Lower Sixth this September. The large numbers had caused considerable difficulties in accommodation and had put increased pressure on members of staff. Then in 1967 the Headmaster called to mind the members of staff who had left since since the previous Speech Day and extended a welcome to new members of staff. When one considers the remarkable stability of the teaching staff over the previous thirty years it must have been a very sad moment. Finally in 1968 the Headmaster addressed his first speech day audience as head of the comprehensive school. He reported that 110 new fourth-formers were being assimilated in the School, and that they would accept and benefit from much that was to be retained of the customs and atmosphere of the grammar school. This would be achieved largely by insisting on every boy being treated as far as possible as an individual. Referring to the low values of students that had received great publicity: "such values", the Headmaster stated "are not ours. By inculcating discipline, integrity and honour, we hope to produce individuals and gentlemen, not the sheep-like hooligans one reads of in students' demonstrations." Mr Stirrup retired in 1971 and set up home with his wife Dorothy in Sidmouth, Devon. There he played an active part in the local community, becoming an organist in the local church. He died 17 years later at the age of 81. I can do no better than include the following tribute to Mr Stirrup on his retirement, written by Peter Couch.. V. J, STIRRUP,
M.Sc. J,P., 1948-1971 |
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| Art Roberts One of the beauties of the internet, and certainly something I have experienced, is that one can meet (electronically) people from the distant past who have completely disappeared from one's horizon. One such is Art Roberts. He is an American who lived in Walthamstow during the war, and with his family was sort of marooned when war broke out. His parents tried to send him to America, but the British Admiralty prevented that when the SS City of Benares was sunk. He entered the Monoux in 1944 joining Mr Belchambers' Form 1B, the same form my brother and I had entered. When the war ended in 1945 he returned to his native America to complete his education. After finishing his formal education in Los Angeles, he joined the Air Force in 1954 and after 16 months of training became a navigator in C-124 transport aircraft. After pilot training he flew C-135Bs and then C-141As. Both were large four engine jet transports. Later on he worked as an operations officer in a then super secret outfit called Task Force Alpha, in Nakhon Phanom (NKP) Thailand. Its task was to direct air strikes onto truck convoys on the Ho Chi Minh Trail which were detected via seismic sensors. He now lives peacefully in a small town called Vacaville in California. Just recently he has been writing about life in Walthamstow during the war for his local newspaper, The Vacaville Reporter, www.thereporter.com/lifetimes . He has given permission for inclusion of these writings to be included on the OM Web site where they can be viewed at www.oldmonovians.com/text/roberts.htm That's it for now. All contributions for the next newsletter welcomed with open arms. Don Anderson |
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