1928 Sports day

Speech day 1918

Old Wokingians Association

A history of the Old Boys association and details of some notable ex pupils.

Obituary: Arthur Campbell

The colourful 'Tich' Campbell.

Second masters

Governors report from 1976

A report from the chairman of the school governors published in the final school magazine in 1976.

A brief history of the school

A brief history of the school published in the final school magazine in 1976.

1914 - School opens in September. Joshua Holden as Headmaster, with 48 boys and 3 masters.
1915 - School cadet corps is formed.
1916 - Houses introduced. North, south, east and west depending on where boys lived.
1918 - Old Boys association formed.
1919 - First issue of the school magazine (price 9d). 320 Boys on register.
1921 - A. D. Campbell becomes Second Master.
1922 - T. D. Threadgold , School Captain, becomes first boy to win Open University Scholarship. He was last of the original intake and in 1950 became the first old boy to be appointed governor. First Old Boys dinner, parents cricket match, French exchange.
1923 - Loop Road sports field bought for £450 to replace the recreation ground.
1924 - Parent's Association formed.
1925 - A. F. Pool becomes the first old boy to graduate (London).
1929 - The pavilion opens at Loop Road.
1930 - H. Stewart-Brown becomes Hon. Sec. of the Parents Association.
1932 - A. D. Campbell becomes Chairman of Woking U.D.C. The school motto 'Justly, Skillfully, Magnanimously' is adopted from Milton's tractate on education. The houses are renamed Drake, Raleigh, Hawkins and Nelson. J. Holden retires as head to be succeeded by W. J. Huggins.
1933 - School badge of a winged torch is adopted. Drama society formed.
1935 - Boxing introduced.
1937 - S. Swallow gains schools first open exhibition to Cambridge.
1938 - W. J. Huggins leaves to be replaced as Head by G. H. Lester.
1939-1945 - School shares with Wandsworth Grammar School.
1939 - A. H. Jones retires after 21 years service as master.
1940 - L. Walker, Physics Master, dies after 21 years service.
1941 - Air Training Corps formed. E. F. Hamer, Maths Master, retires after 22 years service.
1942 - G. H. Lester, Head since 1938, dies.
1943 - G. S. Humphreys becomes Headmaster.
1944 - H. Goldring, English Master for 24 years, dies.
1946 - 494 Boys on register.
1947 - E. W. Tong, Chemistry Master, retires after 21 years. First post war French exchange.
1948 - A. D. Campbell retires after 33 years. E. J. Leury, Maths Master, retires after 30 years service. Rigby Hardaker appointed Second Master. School play, The Merchant of Venice, taken to Norway and performed in front of the Norwegian Royal Family. New kitchen and dining hall opened.
1949 - R. V. Church retires after 31 years as producer of the school play. Stage curtains and procenium provided as a tribute to his work. The carved oak chair, table, lectern, bible and plaque presented as a war memorial bu members of the school, parents association and old boys is dediocated by Canon Banham.
1950 - H. Stewart Brown retires after 30 years of service. Electric organ presented by Mrs Lester in memory of her son is dedicated by the Bishop of Guildford. Staff/Parents receptions begin. School loses by one point in BBC Radio's Top of the Form.
1951 - G. S. Humphries leaves as headmaster to be replaced by M. P. Smith.
1953 - Mrs E. M. Botten retires after 35 years service.
1954 - First school trek lead by the Headmaster.
1956 - First German exchange.
1958 - New library opened.
1959 - K. Fudge takes over leadership of school treks.
1960 - School roll reaches 503. New chemistry block opens. School field at Loop Road extended over adjacent allotments.
1961 - M. P. Smith leaves as headmaster and is replaced by J. L. Goode. Canon Banham retires from the governing body after 33 years.
1962 - A. G. Evershed is succeeded by R. G. Beldam as Chairman of Governors.
1963 - School raises £614 in aid of World Freedom From Hunger. School loses by one point in BBC TV Top Of The Form. First ski holiday.
1964 - Jubilee fete and service of thanksgiving. J. C. Moore retires after 10 years of service, H. L. Savage retires after 16 years of service. First French exchange with La Chaux-De-Fonds.
1967 - J. W. Gray, head of Modern Languages dies after 24 years of service.
1968 - R. Root retires after 16 years service, G. H. K. Minney retires after 23 years service. Dr R. J. Otter, head of mathematics retires after 18 tears of service. J. Kirk, school caretaker for 19 years dies.
1969 - J. C. Everleigh, head of art retires after 35 years service.
1970 - R. G. Beldam retires from Board of Governors after 14 years of service.
1971 - 'Kite' is published, a 16 page photo-litho offset experimental magazine. L. C. B. Seaman, head of History Department retires after 11 years. C. J. Talbot retires as editor of 'The Wokingian' after 17 years.
1972 - Announcement made that school would close in July 1976. Miss J. E. Allberry retires after 21 years as school secretary. R. Hardaker, Head of Latin, retires after 31 years.
1973 - School closure announced by Secretary of State, later put back to July, 1977. A. G. Evershed MBE retires after 21 years as governor. He is succeeded by Mrs M. E. Richardson.
1975 - A. Le B. McGugan, Head of French retires after 17 years.
1976 - I. P. Alexander, Head of English retires after 31 years.
1977 - School closes after 63 years.

Staff 1914-1919

Includes all staff employed for over a year. When masters were called up for National Service only temporary replacements were allowed and these are not included. Note the number of women employed during the war years.

L. R. Davison 1914-1919

P. H. Holgate 1914-1919

H. Sharpe 1914-1916

W. E. Clarke 1914-1916

A. H. Jones 1914-1939

D. J. Darlow 1915-1921

A. D. Campbell 1915-1948

Miss J. S. Smith 1915-1935

Miss H. C. Stacey 1916-1919

Miss M. C. Pitcairn 1916-1920

Miss I. Capewell 1917-1919

Miss H. M. Mayers 1917-1919

Miss C. M. Bowen 1917-1919

Mrs K. M. C. Botten 1917-1953 (at 36 years the schools longest serving member of staff).

Miss D. Gilbert 1917-1920

E. J. Luery 1918-1948

R. V. Church 1918-1949

A. Alcott 1919-1926

L. Walker 1919-1940

E. Hamer 1919-1941

Headmasters and Second Masters

Headmasters
1914-1932 J. Holden
1932-1938 W. J. Huggins
1939-1942 G. H. Lester
1943-1951 G. S. Humphreys
1951-1961 M. P. Smith
1961-1977 J. L. Goode

Second Masters
1914-1919 L. R. Davison
1919-1921 D. J. Darlow
1921-1948 A. D. Campbell
1948-1972  R. Hardaker
1972-1977 D. J. Butterworth

Funeral of Horace Goldring

School sports day 1945

School sports day 1945 from the Woking News and Mail.

The Wokingian - January 1955

A scanned copy of the school magazine The Wokingian can be found HERE

506 Boys on the register, Mr K. Fudge joins the school and there are trips to Wales and Switzerland.

The Wokingian - Summer 1954

A scanned copy of the school magazine, The Wokingian can be found HERE

503 Boys on the register, along with the usual sports results there are details of school trips to Italy and France and the return of Roderic Coote an Old Boy who was at the time Bishop of Gambia.

1933 Prefects

1933 Prefects, photo taken in upper playground.

Reginald Hopper was killed in WW2. Roderic Coote became Bishop of Gambia.

First World War

As the school was only officially opened in September 1914 there were few boys old enough to serve in WW1, however a few masters either with the school, or to join later did see service.

BOYS

HOLBOURN, Cyril Ralph

Private 14086, ‘A’ Company, Inns of Court Officer Training Corps. Born 1900 in St. Helier, Jersey. Son of Major William and Frances Holbourn of ‘Redstacks’, Goldsworth Road, Woking. He enlisted in Woking and died of pneumonia at the OTC Training Camp at Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire on 1 November 1918 just 10 days before the armistice was signed. He was 18 years old and is buried in Brookwood cemetery.

LEWIS, Lionel Morley

Attended the County School 1914-1915. First enlisted with 20th Battalion London Regiment before transferring to the Royal Flying Corps but probably did not see active service. Died on active service in WW2. The only Old Boy to enlist in both wars. He was the son of Henry Lewis (a bank manager) and Jessie Lewis of Luton and was born about 1900.

MASLIN, George H.

Enlisted but did not see active service. Later held the post of Honorary Auditor for the Old Boys Association. He was born about 1898 in Woking, the son of James Maslin, a railway labourer.

PALMER, ?

Signaller. Royal West Kent Regiment. Badly gassed in France, October 1918. The only Old Boy to see active service in WW1.

MASTERS

ALLCOTT, Arnold

BSc, trained at University of Manchester Training College. Held Board of Education Certificate. Before the war he taught science at Hunter’s Bar Council School and Broomhill Council School in Sheffield, Chippenhan County Secondary School and Yeovil County Secondary School.

He saw military service from 1914-1919 and spent time as Chemical Advisor to First Army in France.

He was chemistry master at Woking County School (1919-1926) and later taught at Lord Wadsworth Agricultural College in Basingstoke and Borough Polytechnic.

CAMPBELL, Arthur Duncan ‘Tich’

Before the war taught at Netherthorpe Grammar School in Derby.

Served on the Western Front with the Sherwood Foresters. Taken prisoner by the Germans in February 1917, acted as an interpreter in the prison camp. Released after the armistice. Later taught Geography and was Deputy Headmaster for many years. Would often tell stories to the boys, always starting with the line ‘When I was a prisoner of war on the Hanover State Railway in Germany...’.

During the war the boys of the school sent a weekly food parcel valued at 'six shillings and sixpence".

DARLOW, David John

Trained at University of London. Appointed master at Woking in September 1915. Later during the war served as a drill instructor with the Royal Garrison Artillery for two and a half years. Later appointed Second Master. Emigrated to South Africa in 1921.

Worked with Arnold Allcott at Chippenham.

HOLGATE, Percy Henry

Taught in France before the war.

Served as a machine gun officer (Second Lieutenant) in France and Italy. French master, left Woking in 1918 to teach at Farnworth Grammar School in Lancashire.
OBITUARY

MOORE, Thomas Ivor

Born about 1859. Killed aboard a train in London on 13 June 1917 by a German bomb in the first daylight raid on England. Fourteen Gotha bombers carried out the raid at around noon. 162 people were killed and a further 432 injured mostly in the areas around Moorgate, Liverpool Street and the Barbican. Moore was a JP and chairman of the governors from the schools opening. He was remembered on a memorial plaque in the school hall.

JONES, Arthur Henry

Master 1919-1939. Active with the school rifle club and Old Boys association. Joined Royal Naval Air Service as a mechanic in 1917. At the school speech day in 1918 it was announced he was serving in Lincolnshire with the RAF. He survived the war.

ROOTS, H. S.

Served in both World Wars. Studied at Exeter College, Oxford. Appointed History and English master in 1921. Later sports master.

SHARPE, H.

Army.

'Tich' Campbell's gooseberry pie recipe

The ever colourful 'Tich' Campbell gives a lecture to the Woking Gas Company. Evidently he'd talk about the First World War at any opportunity. 

Old Wokingians Revived After The War

Woking News and mail reports the Old Wokingians revival in 1946 after suspension during the War.

Sports Day 1935

1929 Senior Football Team

The 1929 senior football team with the Surrey Secondary Schools Senior Cup. Photo taken in the upper playground.