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me. However, I threw tact to the wind and made a lot of
unappreciative noises to whichever poor member of the
kitchen staff was there. The word got back to Matron, the
Headmaster and one of the prefects. The prefect wanted
me punished (can’t remember what the suggested
punishment was), but Mr Smithwas very generous. He told
me that I had not addressed the situation correctly, but
he sympathised with me because he wouldn’t have liked
to take spam sandwiches on a Saturday lunch either. So I
went unpunished, and instead received kindly words of
advice. I didn’t complain about the food again.
Graeme Titchener (1974 – 78)
Early in his tenure (1
st
or 2
nd
term I think), he had myself,
Chris Jackson and Steve Coleman to deal with after we got
rather drunk on a Sunday afternoon at a girlfriend’s house,
stupidly, before a boarders chapel service. We missed the
service by a whisker – the doors closing as we appeared,
I remember – and went back to Sentry Hill to sleep it
off. Next thing I recall was being woken by a prefect
and sent off to the changing room to dry out! Celebrity
status ensued for about an hour, or was it just everyone
coming to see the condemned? Clearly, in hindsight, this
was Roy making sure we were not in any danger. The
next morning, we were called in to meet with Roy and
suspended for a week. It was a good week as it happened,
once my parents got over the shock! The real point here
is about Roy’s judgment and character. He made it clear
that whilst he had to make an example of us so early in his
tenure, nothing would or did ever go on our records, and
the incident was forgotten that day. This has stuck with
me through the years and cemented my admiration of the
man and his methods.
Going out without approval. It was only some years after I
left school, that I discovered that pretty much every time
some of us absconded after prep for a while that Roy and
Mr Edwards knewwe were out, and when we returned. We
thought we were so clever…… This was Roy at his best
– he didn’t make a fuss about a bit of rule breaking that
would not bring us to any harm. He knew we were down
at Dr John Spink’s house (Helen was my girlfriend then and
now my wife of 29 years!) and that we were perfectly safe
and not getting up to mischief.
Prep in the evenings holds a very personal memory for
me. Roy used to wander through our common room and
invariably comment “Ee Graeme, reading novels again?”
Much better than homework but my less than fantastic A
level results were a consequence!!
Best one for quips – I often walked up the hill with Helen
before tea and inevitably teenage hormones drove us to
lengthy bouts of kissing before we parted. Roy saw this
quite often I think, and the request for “no vertical sex”
was frequently thrown in my direction! Never anger or
command, just a comment to make you stop and think.
We took Roy to the final boarders’ reunion. He was
completely surrounded all afternoon by all his “boys”
and, despite his fragile health, stayed on his feet chatting
the whole time. When we took him back to the Spink’s,
his comment was that it had been the best day since his
retirement and I’m sure held many good memories for him
afterwards. It certainly did for us!
Roy brought us into the 20
th
century – things like having to
wear school uniform to go into town at the weekend were
done away with fairly quickly. He was always fair, listened
to what we had to say and, where he saw fit, acted upon
it. He was an entirely loyal and honourable gentleman
whose life was committed to the education and welfare
of his charges, and one I am proud to have known during
my teenage years and afterwards. It would be difficult to
better him as a headmaster.
David Flower (1994 – 2000)
I thought today’s memorial service for Roy was truly
memorable. A great service – for a great man! Lovely to
see so many people there from all generations.
Pete Cape (1973 – 1979)
Until I became a father myself, I never really appreciated
just how suitable Roy Smith was to be ‘in loco parentis’. He
was both kind and fair, yet also determined and always set
a good example. He extended, to us boarders, levels of
trust commensurate with our years. If we chose to abuse
that trust it might be withdrawn, but was never done so on
a whim or without good reason. He ‘gated’me for smoking
after my ‘O’ levels. Whilst all my peers were out enjoying
the weeks of freedom, to which I’d so looked forward,
I was stuck in the boarding house in full school uniform
until term end. Did I feel rancour toward him? – No, not
really, it was a fair cop. He never mentioned it again to
me, he simply expected me to take the punishment like
the man he was helping to mould and hopefully to learn
