Chapter Two

     I and my brother Dennis, four years younger than me, after taking the scholarship exam from Winchmore elementary school, went on to an excellent grammar school, Southgate County. There we studied under the eagle eye of a wise and learned Headmaster, Thomas B. Everard, Cantab, MRCM, LRAM. In additional to normal subjects, he offered us opportunities to pursue music, drama, literature and art. There was a school orchestra, yearly music and drama festivals and a production of a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera each autumn. I remember well playing St. Joan in an extract from Bernard Shaw’s classic, at a local Eisteddfod.

     The school had a wonderful collection of fine original paintings, loaned by Sir Philip Sassoon which we were encouraged to search out and name. Added to this, each morning at Assembly, he would read out a quotation – either prose or poetry and for those interested, an opportunity to find the context. This was my special interest and together my mother and I would search the libraries to find the answer. My library today contains some fine leather bound books I won as quotation prizes. It is from this that my love of words has grown.

     Because of the dedicated teaching by Mr. Everard, he attracted other talented teachers to the school. They brought added talents whether it was on the sports field, in the orchestra or being able to relate to the problems of their students.
     In those days, most children left school at 14 years of age but if you went to a Grammar school, you had to agree to stay on at least two extra years. Mr. Everard arranged our schedules so that we took our General School and Matriculation exams a year early, when we were 15 or less. He explained this would give him at least one year to begin our education. Thus it was that before the age of 16, in the 6th Form Commerce, I learned to type, mastered shorthand, bookkeeping, basic economics and office routine as well as speaking reasonable French and German, in addition to continuing normal school subjects.

     My brother early on decided he would be a scientist so he chose the 6th Form Science and this lead to his very successful future career as a Space Scientist with NASA at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. I had a business career more in mind.
     Life was not all study however, we had fun too. I went roller skating at “Alley Pally,” (the Alexandra Palace nearby), played hockey for the school team. I also enjoyed athletics and took part in the annual sports day, in the 100 yards sprint and the long jump event.  I regularly camped with my Girl Guide Company. I even went to an International Camp in 1936 at Chamonix, on the slopes of Mont Blanc. That was a memorable occasion – twelve girls in a bell tent, each from a different country and speaking different languages. An unexpected August storm hit the camp one night, blowing all the tents down and carrying them yards away up the mountainside! The resultant chaos was a veritable tower of Babel. We all spent the night huddled together in a farmer’s barn until we could rescue the tents spread over the countryside, the following day.

     It was there that I first learnt about meditation. Chef Bricka, the French Guide Captain in charge of that camp, sent us after lunch each day to go quietly away, alone to meditate. A tranquillising practice I have found useful on so many occasions since then.
     My parents were keen for me to learn to play the piano but although I spent hour after hour practising and passed several exams of the Royal Academy of Music, I could never remember a tune or play a note without music. My brother was the real musician in the family. However, my music teacher entertained many foreign students during the summer holidays and it was there I acquired my interest in foreign languages and of course the chance of meeting French boys, including one, Rene Cadier who many years later turned up in a most unexpected place on a very historic occasion.

     The discipline and the teachings of my early years as a member of the local Baptist Chapel convinced me to remain a virgin until I married. This may seem very naïve these days and in retrospect, I wonder if it was worth it or the best thing to do. Of course, we had boy friends, changing them from time to time. Neither did it mean that from the age of fourteen we would not permit intimate caressing but we never talked about what we did and with whom we did it. I remember fondly twilight trysts near the Leg of Mutton pond in Palmers Green with the favoured boy of the week.

     The modern generation imagine we behaved differently from them. Although we knew nothing about sex and our parents never discussed such things with us, we found out about it in our own way.

School Days

Bridging the Centuries 

By Eileen Younghusband