Old Boys
We would like to welcome all Old Boys to our website.
In the future this part of the website will develop and, amongst other things, a message board will be made available where contact details can be exchanged. We will also be highlighting forthcoming events for ex-pupils and there will be galleries of photos of past happenings.
We are very keen to enhance our links with Old Boys, so do drop us a line via the contact facility below and let us know your news.
Do, please, have a look at the latest Old Boys' Newsletter and at the Yardley Court Roll of Honour.
Latest News:
Letter from Mr Tim Crofton (joined Yardley Court 1977)
I was looking at the school website after a long day in the office and felt I had to drop you a short note. I was at Yardley Court from 1977-80 before moving on to Tonbridge and Ferox Hall. Both my father (Philip) and uncle (Richard or ``Dickie``) were OYCs too.
I have nothing but fond memories of the old school on Yardley Park Rd -- especially playing rugby and football; being in school plays; dorm life and of course Mr John and Mr Michael. Whilst I don`t play so much rugby any more, my life has followed two paths that I found at YC. I have always worked in the theatre (as an actor, director, producer and technician) and as a teacher.
Mr John and Mr Michael have been very much in my thoughts this year as I have taken on the Principalship of an international school outside Victoria, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. I often find myself wondering what they would have said or done in a tricky leadership situation.
Often think of the boys I as at YC with and wonder how their lives are treating them and love to look at our 1st XV team photo of 1979, that takes pride of place in our hallway.
I look forward to receiving a copy of “Leap of Faith” and wish the best to YC and am thrilled that the old school continues to flourish.
Tim Crofton (YC 1977-80)
Michael Evans (left 1940) has contacted us to say he is now living in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
News from the Pages: Toby (2011) is enjoying life at Sutton Valence, and older brother William (2009) has just been signed for QPR!
Dear Old Yardley Courtiers
History of Yardley Court School, 1898-2010
The governors recently commissioned a history of Yardley Court School to be written and I am delighted to say that the finished product, ‘Leap of Faith’, is now available.
The book is full of old photos and makes a fascinating read; charting the history of the school from when it was first established in Yardley Park Road in 1898 as the feeder school for Tonbridge School to the move to Somerhill in 1990.
Written by local author Jane Bakowski, the book is for sale at £20 a copy if you can collect from school. Alternatively we can post to you for an extra £2.00 p and p. This cost reflects our printing costs and the school will make no profit from its sale. Please email office@somerhill.org if you would like to order a copy.
John Coakley
Headmaster
Letter from Mr John Luke (attended Yardley Court 1941-1946)
I shall enjoy reading “Leap of Faith”.
Eric was a great man. When he caught me burning a hole in a wooden litter bin with a magnifying glass he said “It is not what you get out of this school that counts, but what you put in”. There was no punishment.
I can see him clearly as I write and there is of course more.
Letter from Mr Martin Child (attended Yardley Court 1948-1953)
I was very pleased to receive my copy of “Leap of Faith”. It is an impressive production.
The reason why I, and my late brother Michael, went to YC was because my grandfather, Frank Child, had been Vicar of Tonbridge, and his daughter, Muriel Hooper, had taught for a little while at the school. I had a wonderful time there, and when I left I’m afraid I did not really have to do any more work right up to O’level because I had been so well taught (particularly in Latin by Mr Maurice).
I was in the cricket team with Roger Prideaux but even though I was number 2 and he was number 3, we didn’t often bat together (I often drove Mr Eric to despair rather than the ball to the boundary!).
My best ally on the staff was the great Sergeant Wood, partly because we were the only two Norwich City supporters. Of course he never spoke about the war and we had no idea at the time that he had been a hero of the Resistance movement in the Morvan region of France. His fairly recent death in Norwich was well reported in the local press.
One vivid memory is of 6 February 1952: we were sitting in the 6th form classroom (downstairs by the changing rooms – photo no. 21) when Freddy Forsyth rushed in shouting “the King is dead!”.
I was the victim in the bull terrier incident described on page 77, probably because I had the ball – we were playing yard football at the time. I can remember the shots and being carried up to the San; and later on to hospital to have the stitches applied. I still have the scar on my right leg and I haven’t really liked bull terriers since then.
There are so many great memories and thank you again for the book.
Martin Child
Letter from Christopher Parkinson (left 1955)
My older brother, Parkinson J came to Bickies into the Michaelmas term 1949. I came the same date but in 1951 and our younger brother Parkinson, D came there in 1954. We all went on to Tonbridge; Jonathan to Parkside; David and I to School House. I still have copies of the Yardley Courtier, school magazine [most but not all] for the years of my time there and also have a post-card sized photograph of the original school - if anyone wants a copy. I'm still in-touch with Charles Penruddocke who lives and works in Bermuda [in the insurance industry]. I also met Ralph Oxley [now deceased, sadly] in January 2010 - his family was very kind to us boys from the colonies. After Tonbridge, I went on to Birmingham University and graduated in 1964 with a BSc in Chemistry and joined Unilever at the BOCM plant [vegetable oils and animal feeds] in Erith, Kent for 3 years. Then to Reading as a marketing man in silicone chemicals for two years. Then on the business school at Cranfield University to get my MBA in July 1970. Four years in London in the paint manufacturing industry [including two trips to USA] and emigrated to South Africa in early 1975 [where my older brother was then living and working]. Went into the steel wire industry as marketing manager for North America; two trips round the States in '75 and then was sent here on December 1, 1975 for 6-months! And here I've been ever since; now married and with three children - a son and two daughters - and recently a grandson, too. I set up my own business in October 1984 - marketing / selling advanced technology filters made in UK and Germany and have happily supported the family ever since - still going strong - here in NJ. My older brother still lives in JHB, RSA. My younger brother David had a stellar career in the Royal Marines; then went round the world on his motor-bike for 5 years. Learned Spanish and became a hostage negotiator - the movie "Proof of Life" was based on one of his cases in Colombia. Tragically, he developed Parkinson's disease which slowly took its dreadful toll on him but he underwent 'deep brain stimulation' surgery to implant electrodes in his brain [without anaesthetic] and a battery pack in his chest. This and his 'pill' regime helped him enormously and in late 2006 he set sail on his yacht to go round the world - or at least as far as the Tonga Islands in the Pacific, where he was lost overboard - his Parkinson's Disease finally got him. But, as he said to me "I'd rather go out in 5 years of activity than in 10 years waiting for a dreadful end." And he got his wish. Some 200 people from all over the world attended his memorial service in London, end-January 2010. It's a pleasure to be in contact with my old prep-school; I'd love to get in touch with any others who were at YC at that time ['51 - '55].
Christopher later wrote:
Viewing the School web-site, I was much impressed at reading about the visits to the WW1 War Memorials in France and Belgium [something I've always wanted to do] by the young students [lest we forget] and I thought you'd like to know a bit about Sergeant Wood who joined YC in my time there as gym teacher and general care-giver / over-seer as we used to play in the school play-grounds / fields. If you can Google - Operation Houndsworth - you'll see how he earned his Croix de Guerre -- he served with 1 SAS at that time and, I'm told by the SAS, died in April 2005 having been a 'leading light' in the D-Day Association in the Norwich area. [Here is an account of this by Arthur Wood]
And talking of 'Old Boys' -- I must recount three stories for you -- stories of incredible co-incidences.
When I was working with BOCM [animal feeds] we used to hold evening 'seminars' with farmers and on one occasion back in the mid-'60s, in eastern Kent, I met an OYC -- Martin [?] Twyman [if my memory serves me still].
Second story, when I emigrated, in Feb-'75, to Johannesburg and joined Haggie Rand [steel wire and steel wire ropes - critical to deep level mining] I met John Downton who was an OYC and worked in HR!
Undoubtedly, the most remarkable co-incidence was when flying from Amsterdam to Jhb on my first visit there in November '74. In the middle of a very hot and sultry night the KLM plane stopped at Congo Kinshasa to refuel and pick up passengers. We were allowed out of the plane while this was all happening and waited in the heat in the transit lounge. Half awake, I observed the swing-doors to the lounge open and a European family and a very tall African official come into the lounge to find a seat and wait to join 'my' flight on to Jhb. I did a 'double-take' on the father of the family and thought 'I know that man'. When they had settled in their chairs I went over and asked if he was English? Yes, he replied. Is your name Caban, by chance? Yes, he said....... We were both at Bickies together in the '50's! He was employed [as I recollect] by an American tobacco company in the Congo and, with his family, was taking a short vacation in RSA. Regrettably I failed to follow up and get his contact information [having plenty of other things on my mind at that time - to emigrate or not to emigrate etc.] So, if you have any contact details of Mr. Caban, I'd love to know.
I received and read, with not a little nostalgia and great interest, this history of Yardley Court; excellent and I'm most pleased to have it in my library.
The author certainly picked up on many of the minutae of our young lives there to which I can add only a few of which I'm reminded.
Crazes - yes, we had those; playing conkers; playing cocky-olly and wogger. In my day, we also made small cotton-reel 'tanks' [see how this works for you] -- take an empty cotton reel [cut notches in the rim to improve the traction on rough surfaces]; secure an elastic band [or two] with a drawing pin stuck into one of the flat surface ends; pass the other end of the elastic band through the central hole of the reel [the length of the band must not be too great - though you can always double it back on itself] and through a thin [say 1/4" thick] section of a wax candle which has its wick removed and a hole carved in its place. Insert a piece of a pencil [say 3" - 4" long] through the loop of the elastic band [only a little bit - unsymmetrically] and wind it all up tightly. Place the 'tank' on the ground and let the elastic band unwind against the pencil resting on the ground - the tank is ready to do battle! We found our fun where we could!
The partial eclipse of the sun on 30 June 1954 was well observed in the play ground - through exposed / darkened film to protect our eyes. An exciting 'first' for young people.
Pocket money for a term, for me anyway, in the early '50's was 10/- and sweets could be purchased [say a 1/4 lb of Gob-Stoppers or Trebor mints for 1/-] and last you all week. A florin or half-a-crown given by some adult relation or friend was a big deal.
I do see reference to my brother Jonathan winning 'Victor Ludorum' in the summer sports 1953 [page 80]. In my final michaelmas term 1955 I was the proud winner of the soccer cup - perhaps that's still around to be won by some deserving young player; I still have the YC colours for soccer which could have been sewn onto the breast pocket of my blazer [but I left to go on to Tonbridge for that Easter term].
I was 'gob-smacked' [as they say these days!] to read that Mr. Maurice had worked at Bletchley Park on the Enigma code-breaking effort in WW2 - who would have known it! I've read considerably on this subject and visited the place. Mr. Eric was, indeed, the 'kinder' one - I do remember playing soccer in that winter term 1955 and being rather morose and 'down' on one cold afternoon on the field. He was refereeing and noticed me -- after the game he told me to go and have a hot bath - quite extra-ordinarily thoughtful and kind at that time. And I remembered it ...... obviously.
When I first arrived at the school for the winter term 1951, my form [or class] was in the furthest hut and I sat in the back row sharing a desk with a young lad - Langenstein - whose mother, I believe was a refugee of some sort from Europe and was employed somehow in the school. As his Sunday best, he wore his 'German' style grey jacket with green flashes on the collar - different, of course and all that that meant. The point of the story ..... I do wonder to this day what was the history of his family...
Bill (William) Bowring
Leaving Year: 1962
Now Barrister, Professor of Law, Director of the LLM/MA in Human Rights, in the School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London.
OBITUARY
MISS JESSIE PEARCE
Jessie Pearce passed away peacefully at Barlavington Care Home, Petworth, West Sussex on Tuesday 17th January 2012. Jessie worked as head Matron at Yardley Court for many years in the 1960s and 70s. If anyone has any recollections they would like to share with us and her family, please contact Louise Brewer at school.
DAVID MARQUES Here is the text of the recent Daily Telegraph Obituary:
When the British Lions party of 1959 landed in the brutal heat of Darwin in northern Australia, one player drew all eyes – partly for his height (he was the tallest man in rugby at that time) but also for his remarkable attire. Marques emerged from the aircraft garbed in the full gear of a City gent – white shirt and military tie, dark suit, bowler hat and rolled umbrella, the very incarnation of an English aristocrat deigning to set foot in the Colonies.
It was a role that Marques enjoyed, playing up throughout the tour to the Aussies’ disdain for “tall poppies”. He didn’t spoil the fun by telling them that his own father was from Australia, having settled in England during the First World War after fighting at Gallipoli.
In an early game of the tour, Marques was punched to the floor some distance from the action, in what is known as an “off-the-ball” incident. He gathered himself up, rose to his full height — “six feet five inches of quivering rectitude”, as one writer put it — went over to his assailant and held out his hand in an accommodating gesture that was nervously received. Asked afterwards by his second-row partner, the burly Irishman Bill Mulcahy, why he had not punched back, Marques replied drily: “You wouldn’t understand, Bill. I wanted him to feel a cad.”
Reginald William David Marques was born on December 9 1932 at Ware in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Yardley Court School and at Tonbridge, where he played in an undefeated first XV with Colin Cowdrey, later famous in another sporting context. After national service in the Royal Engineers, he went to Cambridge to study Engineering and won four blues for rugby. He also played for the Army, for the Combined Services and for the Barbarians, with whom he toured Canada and South Africa.
By 1956, after several lean years, England had gradually discarded the generation of Second War veterans and boldly selected 10 new caps, including four youngsters still at university. This group, which included Peter Jackson, Dickie Jeeps, Peter Thompson, Peter Robbins, Ron Jacobs and Alan Ashcroft, were to be the backbone of the England team for several years ahead.
The new draft, which had caught the selectors’ eye in a trial match when the Rest outperformed the first-choice England side, also included Marques and John Currie, his longtime partner in the second row.
All but one of Marques’s 23 caps for England between 1956 and 1961 were won alongside Currie, who was also his scrum partner at Harlequins. Marques played 11 seasons for the Quins, one as club captain. Indeed, the two developed into such a well-known pairing that their names soon tripped off the tongue together as easily as Hutton and Washbrook in cricket.
Their task was to use their height and strength to wrest the ball from opponents at line-outs, rucks and mauls (or loose scrums, as they used to be called in their day) for gifted running backs like Jeff Butterfield and Jackson to exploit.
Under the inspiring leadership of Eric Evans, England went on to win the Grand Slam in 1957 and 1958 in what is now seen as a golden period of the nation’s rugby. The 14-nil victory over France at the Stade Colombe in Paris in 1958 was a particular high point. Of Marques’s games for England, 13 were won, five drawn and five lost.
Despite his courtly manners, Marques was no snob. On the Lions tour his closest companion was Ray Prosser, the gnarled prop forward from Pontypool . Marques played 18 games on that tour, including Tests against Australia and New Zealand, but at number eight, in the middle of the back row, instead of his usual place at lock.
After retiring from rugby he joined the family firm, making street lights. In 1964 he took particular pleasure in being a crew member of Sovereign, the America’s Cup challenger, providing the power alongside a fellow Quin, Dick Page.
Marques was also a magistrate, a job he enjoyed (and in which he became known locally as “the motorist’s friend”), and a governor of Haileybury College.
He was a supporter of the charity Riding for the Disabled, which helped his youngest son, Jason.
He leaves a widow, Jan, an Australian, and three sons.
BURNETT, BRIAN WALTER MC died on 8th March 2009 aged 88. After a successful time at the school, marked by quickness of mind and foot, he won a scholarship to Tonbridge School, and later went up to King’s Cambridge with a classical scholarship. His university career included a five year interregnum, during which time he saw active service in Iraq, Egypt and Sicily, landing on D-day on Gold Beach. He returned to Cambridge after the war to read economics, after which he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple, and began his company’s career with Associated Electrical Industries. During a posting to Switzerland he was a prime mover in setting up the Zurich International School, which later grew to include 700 pupils. He was later appointed as Group secretary of the Sedgwick group of Lloyd’s and international insurance brokers.
Dates at Yardley Court: 1928 (?) - 34
Brother of M. G. Burnett ( 1930 – 36)
Father of P. A. B. Burnett (1965 - 70)
All good wishes to Yardley Court,
Paul Burnett.
Letter from Tony Iggulden who attended Yardley Court in the 1940s:
My Dear Headmaster
Never have I seen such an excellent prospectus as yours- I thank you, I have read it from cover to cover. I see New Beacon are still a main rival on the sports side.
How nice to see the class photographs, my little boys in the same blazers I wore 70 years ago and the young ladies look so good in their uniforms, they all look, as should be, so happy.
In my first letter I told you about YC in the war, yet there is so much more to tell. Did you know that two bombs fell on the front fields; one on the first XI pitch and another nearer the school, another in Yardley Park Road and demolished Doctor Cooper’s house.
If you would like me to jump on a train and come to Tonbridge and tell your senior boys and girls about not only YC in the war but the Battle of Britain fought overhead and rationing; 2 ounces of sweets a week and one egg etc and that when I was eight years old my mother gave me this long yellow thing to eat I said “Its too hard” “You have to peel it, it’s a banana” never seen one before.
Before I bore you more, I must tell you about a ‘boy’ I met at T.S. (Tonbridge School)- now 81 as fit as a fiddle. His name is Ian Aplin, one year about 1940 he not only won every cup for his age but in the long jump he jumped over the pit onto the grass, a school record does it stills stand? He was selected to jump for G.B. in the Rome Olympic Games but too busy training to be a doctor.
Again thank you for your time to write such a kind letter. I was sad to hear about my dear friend Michael Bickmore, the thing about old age is memory and every day since your letter I have thought about him, such a wonderful man and a good friend.
Had a full medical last year and was told I had the body and brain of a man of 55.
If you would like me to pop in and talk to your boys and girls, I would be very happy as I believe in making history interesting and after all I can tell them living history and some amusing parts of it. If you are interested I would be pleased to come.
Great minds think a like I like what you give the Mark Iggulden Cup for, when we gave it, it was for the under 8 egg and spoon race with the same idea as you, the wish to do even better so kind of you to write.
Evers Yours
Tony
(A.N. Iggulden BA)
Rtd Major Rtd Headmaster
God Bless you and the school.