大象传媒

My wartime memories of Bedford as a schoolboy Part Two 鈥� Bedford Modern School in wartime.

Part two of an oral history interview with Mr. Peter Cook conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

鈥淎nother school rule which was very strictly adhered to was that we were not allowed to go into any of the Chain stores during term time. And so as you can imagine when we had an end of term ceremony what happened? The first thing was to put your caps in your pocket because you know we were required to wear them during term, caps into pockets and straight over to Woolworths. It was like an emigration of lemmings! We all shot over to Woolworths.

Later on in upper school I became a House Monitor and as House Monitors we would hold periodic 鈥楥ourt鈥� and I remember sitting in on a 鈥楥ourt鈥� where this chap was dragged in, his charge sheet was read out and he鈥檇 committed practically every sin under the sun. So without any problem at all bend over, 鈥榮ix of the best鈥� with a high quality bamboo cane. The Head of House administered the cane.

You know it was real Tom Browns Schooldays, the running up and the swoosh, I can still hear it you know. One the first things they do is check his bum make sure he hadn't got anything packed down there and there was that kind of regime going on. It gave us, I suppose in a way, a slightly warped idea of our own importance. Because if you were a Prefect you had a special badge on your cap, you commanded a certain type of authority and so as for preparation for grown up life in those days, you know before political correctness that was all accepted. And anyway, to bring it closer to home I remember that at times just to get somewhere quiet we would go and sit up in the back gallery. Now on the other side of the back gallery was a library, the Sixth Form library and when I ended my days in the Sixth Form I became the Sixth Form Librarian. I was also an assistant editor of the Eagle, the school mag, so I was increasingly getting all different spheres of interest and influence to some extent.

And some of our duties, I can remember - you know the tower opposite the Library? The central tower, up towards the top of that was a big room which was the Scout鈥檚 room and I can picture going up there and out onto the battlements so to speak and looking across and realising. I was expecting to look down there for Harpur Street and it seemed to be up there somewhere and so I that was quite a vantage point. But one of my duties, we used to call them Monitors not Prefects, as a Monitor would be to stand in the Entrance Hall waiting with my pencil and notebook as it were taking the names of those who were late, refusing to take bribes, etc., etc.

Then you see we would file through into the Big Hall for Assembly and - I鈥檓 trying to keep this chronological but I鈥檓 sorry I keep remembering certain things 鈥� but I want to try and build up a picture of the atmosphere. For example, as I said there was the Fives Courts and probably there would be Staff there to supervise and there was a chap whose name was Bennett, The Rev. E. J. Bennett I think he was, he wasn鈥檛 Bennett to us, he was Blanket! And he had as it proved inadvisably left something, a cap or something like that just outside the Fives Courts. And when he returned to collect it he found a piece of paper and on the piece of paper were the words 鈥楤alls to Blanket鈥� which is alliterative, might even have been spelt correctly BUT the thing is they found out who did it. I couldn鈥檛 believe it when they discovered who it was, he was one of the most unassuming, quiet people that I can only suspect a wee bit neurotic, anyway his crime was announced in Big Hall and we had a public flogging. And you can imagine the atmosphere! The Headmaster was a chap called Liddell, we called him 鈥楤ags鈥�, 鈥楤ags Liddell鈥�. He had a high backed chair in a way vaguely resembled a throne but anyway this poor chap was called out and he walked across the stage and bent over. 鈥楽ix of the best鈥� and you can imagine it was like a public execution, you know, there is an old saying, 鈥榶ou could have cut the silence with a knife鈥�, ooh, it had it鈥檚 effect. Truly deterrent.

We had a little green book which had to be signed by the parent to show that we had done our homework for that day, to report any health problems especially infectious diseases and so on. The school had a tuck shop where you just had, by this time in war, trays of doughy nondescript buns, but we were lucky to get those. But we had to queue for them endlessly and woe betide you, we had an expression, 鈥榦iling into the queue鈥� and if you tried, phewwworrr, you were virtually lynched. 鈥�

At school, I was in the Scouts but one of my ambitions really was to row and you weren鈥檛 allowed to join the Boat Club until you had passed the School Baths, you had got rid of the white button and all that. So, once I joined the Boat Club that really then took over because that was a full time thing. Again I think it鈥檚 quite illustrative that I remember one morning, it would be a Saturday morning, I had rather a bad cold and I was lying in bed and the door bell went and I heard mother answer the door and it was the House Captain of Boats. They desperately needed to do an outing because we were preparing for the House Fours. And so anyway I went and I rowed, oh it was arctic, I thought when I get home, straight back to bed. Nothing of the sort! By the time I got back home I didn鈥檛 want to go back to bed, it cleared me out, beautiful.

I would row and it could be either in a four or in an eight. I used to row on what is called 鈥楽troke鈥� side and because I wasn鈥檛 very heavy I would row farther back in the boat so as I say. I built myself up, I would have a strong horlicks laced with glucose and add something else and gradually I built up my weight and moved further forward in the boat.

And to get as long an outing as possible when we came out of the boat house we would paddle down
towards Newnham baths, as far as we could still leaving enough width for us to be able to turn. Because an eight turning as you can imagine you know, you can鈥檛 just do that, you swing it round and it calls for a lot of good coxing, you鈥檝e got to know how to work each side and so on. And as a young man, very impressionable and sometimes a figure would suddenly get up and I have to say this is not very politically correct, but usually an American and he would remove something and just throw it into the river. And I can remember there being occasions where we had been manoeuvering and it means lifting the blade above the ground and it would be festooned with a contraceptive. That advances one鈥檚 education doesn鈥檛 it you know, also it was a kind of fertiliser for the imagination! I鈥檝e been keeping this as clean as I can but you see that was the sort of thing and that was what went on. And we were then you see having got on as far down as space would allow we could then row more or less non stop under the Town Bridge, up to the brewery beyond there. Sometimes I was surprised how far we could get still in open country before then an island or something would narrow us and we couldn鈥檛 go any further. But by doing that we had quite a long outing. Oh, one learnt all sorts of dodges. I can remember, it was in the finals of House Fours and I was rowing at 鈥楾wo鈥� and the chap in front of me, a chap called 鈥楾adge鈥� Ledley I just watched the back of head and the back of his neck go whiter and whiter as the snow built up. We rowed in all weathers but if there was an inherent weakness it found it because 鈥楾adge鈥� Ledley shortly after that was rushed off to hospital and he had - I think it was bronchial pneumonia. Anyway he was absent for weeks and weeks, he was lucky but ultimately he was Captain of Boats for his Cambridge College. Yes, I think he was Cambridge University Boat Club, I know that he did remarkably well which was a wonderful demonstration of triumph over adversity. But - and of course that was a useful example to us really, never give up, a bit of an inspiration.

So, as I say another thing during the long vacation I would have lots of time on my hands and I remember going along to the boat house on one occasion and by time I think the Town boat house was up near the bridge, opposite the 鈥� it鈥檚 the Swan Hotel that side isn鈥檛 it - in that time the Bridge Hotel was there - I just went along and I think there was one other chap there and they had what we called a 鈥榩air void鈥�. It was a boat for just two people plus a seat for the steerer as it were, there were only the two of us but we found a weight somewhere and we put that on the seat and the two of us just went up and down the river. That chap was Dudley Peacock of the Peacocks, the Auctioneers. I get the school magazine regularly but I don鈥檛 think he was at the Modern School anyway. Rowing, that鈥檚 another connecting link, from school to university and then other extra curricula activities like rowing and so forth which brought you in contact with other people from other clubs, from other organisations so it has this kind of effect, that鈥檚 right. But by then of course the war would be over.

When I was at the Modern School I was quite young when what in those days we called the Officers
Training, yes the OTC. But then they changed the name to the JTC, the Junior Training Corp. I was in that for two or three years. Again we could have some interesting experiences. Once in a while we would go out and have a field day and we鈥檇 go to somewhere near the cemetery or something like that, again open ground and we would practice our military craft. And I was in a Platoon and we鈥檇 been tracking around and we spotted a group of men 鈥� under a tree. So, fixed bayonets lads and we charged down on them! Screaming our heads off as we had been ordered to do and they were rather taken by surprise and there was a chap called Roy Muggleton who was later to become Head of House and I can only assume he was a Sergeant or something, he would be in charge of the Platoon and we had rifles, loaded rifles but with blank shot so anyway we took this group by surprise and this chap almost does a reflex action and fired and the chap beside me, his forehead was peppered with shot! It was OK, I mean he wasn鈥檛 seriously hurt, it was what you would call with superficial wounds. But you see another little thing to bring the reality of life home. We were ostensibly playing at 鈥榮oldiers鈥� and then suddenly there is one of our people actually 鈥榳ounded鈥� in an exercise. Everything was absolutely comme il faut, we had uniforms, we turned out on Parade, we had gaiters which we had to blanco, all our equipment had to be blanco鈥檇 and everything, we were inspected, we went through rifle drill, the lot!

And then because I was more interested in aircraft when I had the chance I joined the ATC. We used to come out to Henlow and places like that for flying. We鈥檇 taken off from, I think it was Henlow, in a plane called a Dominie, a twin engined plane and the Sergeant in charge of our little Platoon was a rather cocky sort of chap you know, 鈥榳atch me, men鈥� and all this kind of twaddle. And I remember we were having a somewhat bumpy journey and I looked across and there was this chap getting rid of his breakfast. I thought, he was the cocky one saying 鈥極h, you鈥檒l be alright,鈥� and just do what I do sort of thing and there he was bringing it all up! Anyway, I remember when we were at Tempsford we鈥檇 actually been taken up in one of the gliders used in the Invasion they called it a Horsa glider. Now that was a real experience because we had to be towed airborne by a plane and we gained height and that and then at some point we - I could actually see the tow rope leading to the big plane pulling us. And suddenly that plane had gone, the rope had gone and suddenly you could see, it was a big glass front, that it was pointing at the ground you could see all the details of the ground and everything. Because their approach was, as soon as they were released, nose down and they came straight down because that way they presented less of a target and then right at the last minute they level off and trundle along the ground and because they were gliders they had no engines. Then you just had to sit and wait for somebody to come along with a tractor and haul us back to the main airfield. It came straight down. But it doesn鈥檛 feel quick strangely because somehow you just seem to be lost in the air, in space. On another occasion we were quite lucky. We went to Tempsford and this was around about the time of the Invasion and we were put into this plane and I was sitting there on a bulkhead and I was slightly alarmed to see that just about here 鈥楴o weight whatsoever to be placed beyond this point鈥�! And there was the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit itself and I鈥檓 sure they did this just because we lads were there. But now 鈥榦n doing such you must remember do so and so, oh no you mustn鈥檛 you must do this first鈥� and they were going on and on like this and of course being a bit na茂ve you see (laughter!) Anyway we did land safely except that as we touched down we must have hit a pool of oil on the runway and then suddenly one went bang which added to the tension. Anyway we landed safely and then we were manhandled back into the hangar where the ground crew took over. This is the absolute truth, as we got out of the plane one of the ground crew said to the other, 鈥楥or, I never thought this old crate would fly again!鈥� which made me glad I was on the ground!

And then you see the point is you get through all this and you get home at night, you鈥檝e got to try and do your homework. I used to do homework under one of these Morrison table shelters. There was a Morrison inside the house and at a certain time of the time you more or less routinely got under there and that鈥檚 where I tried to finish off my homework and things like that. Which wasn鈥檛 very conducive to calm study!鈥�

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.