Blasts from the Past: Delving into the Past

‘How do we seize the past? Can we ever do so?’ I often think of these lines from Julian Barnes’ book, Flaubert’s Parrot. Accumulating a series of facts is one thing, understanding their significance is something else entirely. I now know quite a lot of dates and names connected with the history of King’s. I know about events and buildings and the rise in pupil numbers. Whether my interpretation of this mass of information tallies with the recollections of those who have passed through the school, I do not know!

I have written before of my love of the school magazines. I am especially fond of those which include an editorial written by a pupil. Here, if nowhere else, we get a student’s perspective on school life. Admittedly, quite often, they are pointing out what a thankless task penning the editorial is.   

‘The prospect which faces the writer of the Editorial seems to become bleaker with every succeeding term. Sooner and sooner he comes to the same conclusion as has been reached by countless predecessors – that originality is impossible even if it is desirable. Thus he is so much the sooner inclined to relapse into vague mutterings about the nature of the weather during the past term and the remarkable progress, or lack of progress, displayed by various clubs and teams, consoling himself with the thought that there can be few people who will bother even top read his article, let alone criticise it.’ (School magazine, January 1961)

Whilst it is true that many of the editorials are little more than the author admitting they have nothing about which to write, a lot are full of insights. They cover the big moments, such as the end of World War Two, and the small (the mini rant about people not throwing their rubbish away stands out in my memory). Some are quite funny; pupils were, it seems, pleasantly surprised when Frank Shaw, new to the post of Head, went to the school dance where, ‘he remained for a remarkably long time, allowing himself to be plied with frequent glasses of hot punch and showing no trace of surprise at the varied activities which were being pursued around him.’

Some of the editorials almost feel like they could be written today. Comments about the building work in the 1960s, which added a new dining room, library and classrooms, are not that different to how the school’s current plans for expansion might be described. The debates about independent schools, and whether they should continue to exist, remain just as lively now.

Other editorials, however, are very much snapshots of particular moments in time. One of my all-time favourites is that published in January 1964, recounting the events of the Autumn Term.

‘In response to frantic calls from Moscow and Washington, from Gallup Polls and anxious parents, the editors have been compelled, for reasons of honesty, to announce that King’s College School is not the simmering microcosm of Westminster politics that imagination would lead us to believe. But the presence of two prospective Parliamentary candidates on the staff at one time did provoke an epidemic of the most scurrilous pamphleteering on the notice-boards.’

To understand the context for some of this piece, we need to travel back to November 1963 and up to Scotland where a quite unusual by-election was being held in Kinross and Western Perthshire. It was unusual because one of the candidates was the sitting prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home. Douglas-Home had recently relinquished his peerage and wanted to sit in the House of Commons as opposed to the Lords. Kinross and Western Perthshire was, at the time, considered to be a safe Conservative seat. There were six other candidates, one of whom was the satirist Willie Rushton, then presenter of the BBC programme That Was The Week That Was, who was standing solely in protest against Douglas-Home (he admitted he had ‘nothing’ to offer voters in way of policies). Another candidate determined to challenge the prime minister was one Mr Richard Wort, a Mathematics teacher at King’s College School in Wimbledon. According to The Scotsman, Mr Richard Wort was a ‘last-minute arrival on the election scene… he is opposed to the elections of former peers to the house of commons.’ In the event, Alec Douglas-Home won with a majority of 9,328 votes. Willie Rushton, who withdrew on the eve of poll urging people to vote instead for the Liberal candidate Alistair Millar, still received 45 votes. Richard Wort got 23 votes. In the summer edition of the school magazine, Mr and Mrs Wort were congratulated on the birth of a third daughter which, I am sure, was more than enough consolation. A short news clip of the byelection can be seen here.

If you would like to explore the past school magazines, those which have been digitised can be accessed online by anyone from the King's community who signs up to the King's Association Hub (logged in users will automatically be logged into the Digital Archives website). Head to the Archive page and click on the link ‘Past Magazines’. To date, those from 1930 to 1950 and from 1965 to 2000 have been uploaded to the site.

Would you like to share your memories of King’s? The school archive is looking for willing recruits for its project: Recollections of King’s. Although much of the school’s past is recorded in the paper archives, a key aspect is missing: people talking about everyday events. By collecting written reminiscences and conducting oral history interviews with former staff and pupils, we hope to build a picture of daily life at the school from the 1940s to the present day. If you would like to get involved, click here to complete a written questionnaire or email me if you would like to take part in an interview. I can be contacted at archive@kcs.org.uk. 

Dr Lucy Inglis | School Archivist