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Teachers
1947 - 1952 Firstly, Mr Arthur Owen was a wonderful teacher who’s subject was General Science. He had a passion for all the sciences and an even greater passion to fire us all with the same wonder of the Universe that he had. He was the most patient man I ever met and facing us lot every day, he certainly needed it! He yearly would decorate his laboratory with a wonderful selection of pulley mechanisms which he used in teaching Mechanics. When his back was turned we would re-arrange them so that they no longer fitted the worksheets he had prepared. He never batted an eyelid and simply ‘blackboarded’ a new set of worksheets. I could go on all day with tales like this, but at the end of the day he taught us far more than was expected - doing it our way. Mr W.R. Mitchel our Art Master was equally patient in keeping the paint on the paper, rather than on ourselves and was the inspiration of a wonderful frieze that was displayed around the main hall of the boys building. It ran all the way around the hall and depicted the History of Wandsworth from the Reed Dwellers of the Wandle to the building of The Surrey Iron Railway. I wonder if it was taken to the new school. It would be a shame if it wasn’t. There was also a master named Mr Church. I can’t remember his subject, but I do recall he drove an ancient motor cycle that was always backfiring up and down Merton Road. Sometimes it broke down and he arrived late at school – we all knew when he arrived and I think he enjoyed the noise of all the boys cheering him in, sometimes in assembly, sometime during class. Mr Ted Colloff was known by the boys as ‘Killer Colloff ’ and was like most of the masters, unafraid of administering ‘trouser dusting’ when required. Mr Harry
Taylor was known by the boys as ‘Pop’ Taylor and taught history which we
thought was at ‘first hand’. When he retired, the boy’s contribution to
his retirement present was £25, which at the time was more than a months
average wage! His classes were the loudest and rowdiest that you can
imagine and we loved him to bits. His replacement was another Mr Owen who
I am afraid was not of the sterner stuff required to stay for long at the
Elliott. He did impress us in one way, among his ‘training aids’ he had a
complete set of hand-knapped flint tools which he had made himself. |