MARION J CORK'S SCHOOL MEMORIES 1920

Marion Jeanne CORK d.o.b. 31.10.1919 Written 16th January 2009

In the 1920’s I went to a small private school at Havant, in the south of Hampshire
The fees were £2.20 a term, dancing class on Wednesday afternoon was extra. Books cost 9 old pennies or 1 shilling and 6 pence that is 12 1/2 new pence. The teachers were called governesses and I imagine Miss Simmons who ran the school was a former governess.

There was a ban on Beatrice Potter. We learned a sentimental poem
‘Hush, hush whisper who dares,
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.’but we were not allowed Eeyore or Piglet. We had Tennyson’s The Brook read to us.
I learned there that if an English town had a name ending in Chester or Cester a Roman camp had been there.

Once a week Sergeant Spencer (who must have served in the 1914-1918 war) came
And took us for drill. We all had our autograph books, and if you gave yours to Sergeant Spencer it came back a week later with a beautiful painting. As I handed him my book I suddenly felt nervous- he might say, “Oh, I haven’t time for that any more, however he took it with a slight smile and without a moments hesitation he handed me a painting. What excitement the following week as everyone crowded round to look! The book with the silly little rhymes had long since gone, but the painting has been cherished, and now hangs on my wall framed and mounted. I was 7 years old. The school had closed by 1930.

I had to attend a state school for 2 years to be allowed to sit the scholarship examination. I went to a little Church Of England School where all the 9 years old were knitting socks and turning heels. As I was clumsy with my hands this was a shock.

That school served us splendidly. In arithmetic I came up to compound interest, and felt insulted when at the Girls’ High School I was asked to add decimals. Spelling was a game. We stood around the walls and the one who got the answer right went to the top.
I remember one word was chauffeur. I had a visual memory: and we learnt grammar. I chanted “ an adverb answers the question how, when, why or what, and still use adverbs and do things quickly not quick.

All the candidates for the scholarship examination passed. One girl was allowed to take it a year late because she had diphtheria the year before.
My mother left school at 14 in 1906. She could write a letter with perfect spelling, punctuation and grammar and in a clear hand. They were trained to do this so that they could apply for a job.

I urged my mother to put money in the Post Office Investment account when they were (unbelievably) paying 15%.  

She turned the idea down with scorn.  "Those young men in The Post Office can’t count.” Collecting 2 weeks pension at Christmas he wrote down the amount, then again underneath, and added them together. Mother had done the sum and got the answer right before he had got it down the first time. My sister was given too much.

At Westminster School a 6th former said to me, "I do wish I’d been taught grammar.” My nephew, a consultant, cannot spell. The word halt has a U in it when he spells it. 

Illiterate teachers invented the theory that correct spelling inhibited a child’s creativity.

Houda's early school days

I was five years old when I went to a French nun's school. Beirut had trams only and no buses. We used to travel on the trams and not so much cars at those times. The buildings were in brick and the weather was cooler than now. I went to school with my dad and before the school finished I would wait for my dad in the nun's room where they would call me clever and joke with me. I had 2 sisters and 3 brothers from 2 mums. I live near the beach in Beirut city Ras Beirut. My dad was a journalist and he wrote many political books. My mum just a house wife as women were not allowed to work at that time.
HOW I MET MY HUSBAND

I was 18 years old when I engaged to my husband. He was living in West Africa, so he can’t come to Beirut for the engagement, but he said he will be there for the wedding. The months past and the wedding day was soon, and again he wasn’t able to come for the big day. However, the marriage paper has been made with out him being present. So one month later, I went to meet him in Africa. I have got married to a wonderful man. We are together for 47years

Anne's School days

Annes Story

Primary School 1947-1953

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I started school in the September before my 6Th birthday. My school was Manley Park County Primary School in Manchester I was in a class of 36 children. One of my first memories was that after having one of the dreaded school dinners we all had to have a rest period for an hour on small canvas type beds. I didn’t want to go to sleep like most of my classmates and it was torture having to stay still and quiet for so long. After the rest period however we had ½ hour playtime which was really fun as we got to play with dolls prams and tricycles etc which not many of us had at home because such toys were scarce after the war. We all learnt to recite our times tables from the blackboard. I learnt to read from words on the blackboard and we had a spelling test every week on a Friday. In my 3rd year we had a new teacher Mr Walker who was very strict but fair. At that time the school was mainly just overgrown ground and during the lunchtime he would encourage us dig the ground by throwing pennies on it. We all became keen gardeners and two years later we won the trophy for the best school garden in Manchester. When I was 9 the whole class were taught to knit including the boys. We all had to knit a 3 inch square and I remember that apart from 2 of the boys I was the last to finish my square despite having both a mother and grandmother who were keen knitters.
Across the road from the school was a bakery which sold little loaves for a farthing. It was one of the only places left that used farthings as they were almost extinct, so if you didn’t have a farthing you had to pay a halfpenny. We used to take it in turns to nip out of school during the lunchtime to buy them hot from the oven. They were really delicious. We bought our first television just in time to watch the Queens Coronation and all the family and friends crowded around the set.

Secondary School 1953-1959













I was accepted at Whalley Range High School for girls after passing my 11+ exam and started there in the September of 1953. I was lucky as 5 of my classmates also started there and four were in the same class as me. It was a very different world to what I had been used to. Each year consisted of three classes A, B+C. A was the top class and C the bottom and I was in the C class for everything but maths where I joined the B class. My subjects were Maths, English (Literature and Language), Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), Geography, History and French. We also had music and art. In the 2nd year we started pottery and we had a kiln and potters wheel. On my 1st attempt on the wheel I had a lovely pot one minute and then it collapsed into a flat plate because I didn’t have it centred. My father on seeing some of my early attempts laughed and said I should bury them in the garden and someone digging them up might think they were old relics. However in my 5th year I made a family group model which won 2nd prize in a schools competition and that was the last I saw of it.

There were six houses all with different colours. The houses were all named after famous explorers. Livingston was yellow,Stanley was blue, Scot was red,Nansen was green,Frobisher was mauve and Mallory was pale blue. All stars gained for good work etc and races on sports days were turned into points and a cup was presented to the top house each year. I was in Livingston house.
I loved PE, Games and Swimming. We played Netball and Hockey in the winter and I became a member of the school Netball team. In the summer we played Rounders. In the 5th year we could learn to play Tennis but my 2 friends and I didn’t like Tennis so we played Rounders instead. The rounders pitches were at the other end of playing fields than the Tennis courts and so we used to just relax and talk as the teacher was kept busy with all the others on the Tennis courts. When the others found this out they started to swap Tennis for Rounders and then our nice easy time came to an end.

In the 3rd year we were allowed to ride our bikes to school and then I went home for my lunch or sometimes went to my grandmother’s who lived nearer to the school. In the winter my mother made me wear a liberty bodice which was very old fashioned, so as soon as I got to school I used to take it off and stuff it in my saddle bag. One day I forgot to put it back on and was in real trouble when my mother found it.
In the 4th year my friends and I found the trapdoors in the classroom floor leading to all the heating pipes, so that you could go round the whole school exploring underground or just skipping lessons .After several months we were discovered and marched to the head teacher mistress’s office where we all had a lecture on safety and had our palms severely rapped with a ruler, then to our amazement the head mistress laughed and said that she would like to have joined us as it sounded like fun.

One of the subjects I took was Domestic Science (cookery) which I really enjoyed, and I decided to take it as an O level subject which I failed at the first attempt as I had to do a children’s tea party and put ice cream on the menu, forgetting that I would have to make the ice cream. I passed on the 2nd attempt as I had afternoon tea for three old ladies, making cakes from three different types of pastry.
In the 6th form we joined ballroom dance classes at the local boys Grammer school. the only trouble was that twice as many girls as boys attended and as I was one of the tallest girls I had to be a male partner. I learnt to dance really well as a boy and for years after was always trying to lead a boy around the dance floor.

I was a keen Manchester United fan and on the 6th of February when I returned home after sitting one of my mock exams I was greeted with the news that their areoplane had crashed at Munich airport killing many of the footballers and press. Bobby Charlton and Harry Greg were the only two players who walked away from the crash.I was very upset as had met several of the players. The manager Sir Matt Busby and Duncan Edwards were badly injured as well as several other players. Duncan Edwards died later
In June 1958 I passed my O level exams in History, Geography and Biology. I stayed on in the 6th year and passed my O level exams in Mathematics and Domestic Science (cookery) in November 1958. I left school at Easter 1959 to start my Nanny training at Princess Christian College in May returning in June to take my O level in English Language for the 3rd time, which I fortunately passed.

College and Work 1959-1966

When I was 8 years old on my way on to the dentists I spotted the Princess Christian College(nannies and nursery nurses) from the top of the bus and decided that was what I wanted to do when I grew up. I never veered away from this and when I got to 16 my parents looked into getting me into the college, unfortunately the fees were much more than they could afford as my father had retired the previous year. My parents were active Conservatives and some of their friends suggested that they should apply for a grant which was granted and so in May 1959 I started my training at
Princess Christian College, founded in 1901 by people that thought that training in care of babies and young children was important and that given proper training it would provide a fine career. There were about 32 students in training, which were resident and the course was for 18 months. There were 6 nurseries with babies from 1 month to children of 5 years. The curriculum covered the care of the child in health and sickness, nursery management and hygiene, needlework, housewifery, nursery laundry, cookery, diet, Public Health and Medical Services. We worked for 3 months in a nursery and for 3 weeks on the maternity ward of the local hospital. The work was hard as we only had 2 half days off a week and one weekend every month but I loved every minute of it. We all spent one month working in the kitchens cooking meals for staff, students and children. I hand sewed a babies flannelette nightdress with hand smocking which my own children wore and designed my own pattern for a child’s dress, then bought the material and machine sewed. My daughter wore the dress a few times but by then it was a little old fashioned. I learnt how to make all the different patches and all embroidery stitches. I had to do casebooks on two children, one being a baby and the other a toddler, all about their welfare, diet, health, daily routine, their favourite toys, clothes and things they liked to do. Towards the end of the training we had to look after a baby exclusively and we ate and slept with baby in a separate room and then had to give a daily report on the baby’s health and progress. On the first day of my training on the maternity ward at the hospital they had a very rare case of twins in the theatre at the end of the ward and everyone kept going in to have a look. Suddenly I heard one of bells going and at first I couldn’t find out where it was coming from as hadn’t realised there were separate cubicles at the end of the ward. When I finally answered the bell I discovered that the mother was about to deliver and that I was the only person on the ward. I had to get a midwife out of the theatre and she was only just in time to deliver the baby. When I was leaving the hospital one evening I bumped into the caretaker who had been to visit his wife and he offered me a lift back to the college on his motorbike. He dropped me off around the corner from the college but at supper the principal said ( she didn’t think it was really appropriate for students to be riding around on motorbikes in their uniform) I should have known that I wouldn’t get away with it, as she always seemed to know exactly what each student was doing.

In 1960 I passed my examinations in Child Study, Doctors Lectures, Hygiene, Nursery Management, Cookery and Laundry. I received my testimonial book which included a college report, Principal’s report and my first certificate.

After leaving college I worked for a Jewish family looking after their two children for a few weeks before starting my first real job. I began working on the 27th of December looking after a little boy called Richard. His father was a lecturer at the University and his mother was a History teacher at one of the local High schools. My salary was £4.10.0 a week, payable monthly together with full board and half the cost of laundering my uniform. I had my own bed-sitting room with a gas fire and could invite visitors round. I had 4 weeks holiday a year, one day off a week, one weekend each month. I took all my meals with Richard except the evening meal where I joined his parents and we would discuss the day’s events. Richard was a delightful and intelligent little boy and was fun to look after. I remember on one occasion when I came back from my day off I was greeted by his parents with a tale about how they had had to break into one of their cupboards as they couldn’t find the key. The key was found next day hidden under the carpet.

I started my next job in Aug 1962 down in Worplesdon in Surrey. My friend Sue who was at college with me recommended me for the post as she worked for a family just down the road. I was employed to look after two children Claire who was nearly 3 and Guy who was 16 months old. My employer was David Stratton who had been deputy leader of the Trans Antarctica Expedition under Sir Vivian Fuchs. He used to tell me all about his experiences and it was very interesting. My employers used to give dinner parties and I could join them if I wanted, one evening I joined them at a dinner party that Sir Vivian Fuchs and Sir Edmund Hillary attended. Most of the time I didn’t want to join my employers at the dinner party so I either went out or sometimes my friend Margaret who was a nanny next door would come in and we would earn pin money helping with the cooking and serving the meal and then clearing away and washing up afterwards. We had great fun and the extra money came in really handy. One winter we got snowed in and my employers skied to the shops and my friends and I got so fed up with staying in that one night we put on big gum boots and walked across the common to the local farmer’s pub where we had a great evening. I bought a moped in 1963 and it was great for getting around on as it was a mile walk to the train station and the buses were very infrequent and in 1964 I exchanged it for a Lambretta scooter. In November 1963 my friend Margaret and I were making a cheese souffle for our supper when we heard the news on the radio that President Kennedy had been shot dead in Dallas. In the evenings we all used to go to the Atlanta Ballroom in Woking. We met many other nannies here who became my friends and also soldiers from Pirbright Camp. The ballroom had one of the best sprung floors in Surrey and the ceiling was festooned with parachute material. It was here that I saw Rolling Stones in 1964 and Lula and the Luvvers when she was only 15. The Atlanta ballroom was to play an important part of my future. I met my first real steady boyfriend there in1963. He was a six foot tall handsome Italien called Vincenzo nicknamed Haines.He worked inthe mushroom fields just outside Woking. At the time I was very much in love with him but things didn't work out and he returned to Italy.However he had plenty of friends I danced and went out with. In 1964 I met my future husband John there.He was a soldier in the Scots Guards at Pirbright Camp. I leftthis post in April 1964.

I started my next job in May 1964 working at Sendhurst Grange in Send near Woking which was a home for mentally handicapped children. Life there was rather chaotic and it was there that I met the G's and J's. They were 5 girls who lived in the village and were part of a family of 11 children and all their names began with a G or J. Their names were Jean,Jaqueline,Gillian and the twins Julia and Georgina. The work was really hard as we were always short of staff and I often found I had to bath and get 10 children ready for bed in an hour.
After I had been there for a few months the cook and caretaker left suddenly and as I was the only one who knew anything about cooking I found myself cooking all the meals for all the children and staff with the help of one of the other girls who worked there. I did this for about 6 weeks until the G's and J's oldest sister Janet And her husband Sid were employed as cook and caretaker.
We never had much time during the day to do anything but the normal routine so we often used to cook birthday cakes and prepare party food in the evenings after returning from a night out at the Atlanta Ballroom and often didn't get to bed until after 2am. I have often wondered how we found the energy,but we also had great fun and the cakes always seemed to turn out well and the children loved them. One night at the Atlanta we met a group of Irish Guards who played in the band and they were really interested in our work and the children and they promised to come and play for the children. We didn't take them seriously but a few weeks later they turned up one evening just after we had put the children to bed. We rushed around looking for children who were awake and even waking up some of the older ones. They all got on very well with the children and played songs and rhymes that the children knew and everyone had a great time and they did't leave until nearly 11pm. There were some very tired children the next day.
I got engaged to John in August 64 and we went up to Scotland to meet his father and sister in the September. While we were there we went to see the opening of the Forth Road Bridge. At the end of September John left with his Battalion the 1st Battalion Scots Guards to do a 3 year tour in Malaya. I stayed at Sendhurst Grange until March 1965.
In April 65 I started a new nanny job in Sunninghill near Ascot looking after six week old twins and their older brother and sister. I was only employed there for a few weeks but because we all got on well together I stayed until they left to go to Nigeria and I returned home to prepare for my wedding

1966-1980

I got married on the 23rd of April in 1966. John had returned from Malaya a few days before as he was going to start training with the SAS in Hereford. We got married in St Margarets Church in Whalley Range Manchester the same church where my parents had got married. My father paid for my wedding and reception which was at the local Liberal club. At the time my father turned to my sister and said he hoped that she wouldn't get married for another 5 years as it would take that long for him to save the money for another wedding. She met her future husband a few weeks later and they got married in the following March and my father found the money to pay for her wedding. We went to Aberdeen for our honeymoon and on returning John left to start his training and I stayed with my parents. John failed the course because his knee gave way everytime he did a parachute jump and he was sent back to join the regiment in Malaya. I was meant to join him later but I was pregnant and by the time they got all the paperwork done I was too pregnant to fly. In June 1966 we all sat round the television watching England win the World Cup. It was a real celebration. I took on a few part time day jobs just to keep busy. In October we were all horrified to hear the news of the Aberfan diaster when so many children and teachers lost their lives in a mud landslide.

I gave birth to my son John(Johnny) on the 12th January 1967. It was quite a difficult birth as I gave birth in the evening just as staff were finishing and didn't want to get involved and I was nearly pushing before any one came to see me. The doctor was supposed to deliver the baby but he arrived too late. I remember that the midwife said that I had a lazy baby who didn't want to breath and found out later that it could have lead to brain damage also he became very jaundice because he wouldn't breast feed and I wasn't allowed to give him a bottle.of formula milk. I was supposed to stay for 10 days in the hospital but discharged my self after 6 days. John came back from Malaya 6 weeks later and we moved into a hiring in Edinburgh in July and so we began married life. David was born at home on the 2nd May 68. It was a lovely birth with the midwife and student in attendence, whilst my husband and mother were giving Johnny his tea. In June my friend Margaret(also married a Scots Guardsman)came to the flat to get changed as the Battalion were being presented with their new Colours by the Queen and Prince Philip. When I went into my bedroom to get changed I was suprised to see my new outfit hanging on the back of the door only to discover that Margaret had got the same outfit and in the same colour. I couldn't wear anything else as nothing else fitted after having David so we were both presented to the Queen standing side by side in the same outfit with a different hat. At the time it wasn't funny but we have had many a laugh about it since.

In December 68 we moved to Butler House in Chelsea Barracks London.We watched and read all about the moon landing in July 69 and in November 69 we had both the boys christened at the church of Scotland in Chelsea Barracks by the Battalion's Padre.We moved to Pirbright Camp in January 70 and John left in February to go to Belize on a 9 month unaccompanied tour. On the day he left it started snowing and we had snow drifts of about 2 ft which then froze solid. I tried to take the boys shopping at the NAFFI but abandoned the pushchair lessthan half way there and made the boys walk by the time we got there Johnny was really playing up and threw a trantrum in the middle of the NAFFI resulting in us being thrown out without our shopping. Luckily friends had seen this happen and complained on my behalf and so I got a free basket of food delivered. My parents came down for Easter and had a difficult journey as it was snowing for most of the journey, however the weather changed dramaticaly a few days later to become really hot and sunny and it turned out to be a very hot summer. In July John returned from Belize to become caretaker of the army ski lodge in Glenisla in Scotland. We moved to an army quarter in Dundee in August. I had planned to have my baby at home again but rather embrassessingly my waters broke in the middle of Woolworths. I was sent home in a taxi with a gift for the baby and my midwife took me to hospital where my daughter Sarah was born in the early hours of the 8th October which was also my 29th birthday. The midwife collected and drove me home later that morning. We had the phone put in and saved us having to go to the phone box at the end of the road. We also bought a big chest freezer and used to get lots of meat from the local farms. I still had to wash all clothes by hand and boil all nappies in a big pot on the stove. We had 3 lovely years in Dundee and stayed there even after John and had gone back to the battalion in Edinburgh.

Early 1973 saw me on an overnight sleeper on my way to 16 Coopers Drive, Pirbright Camp. My sister Helen and her husband John saw me off at Dundee Station. I was travelling with 3 children aged 6,4 and 2, two goldfish in a bowl, two gerbils in a cage and one very big heavy suitcase In London we had breakfast in the station cafe before taking the tube to Waterloo and there caught the train to Brookwood station where we were met by the families officer and taken to our new quarters.

David started school in the September and I with my friend Jean, 2 officers wives from Deepcut Camp opened a new nursery school in the grounds of Deepcut Camp. I joined the wives club and we did many exciting things .and went on many different trips. We had lots of dances ,parties and social events. One of the gym intructers used to take us for fitness classes in the evenings. We used to go on the assault courses .One was called the Queen Mary which involved swinging from one platform to another across a very muddy wet ditch needless to say I found myself stuck in a pile of mud on my first attempt as I had let go of the rope too soon.We all had plastic wrapped around our waists to collect the sweat and then went to the swimming pool for an hours swimming.

In 1975 I started driving lessons and on one of my lessons as we were going down Guildfod High St my instructer saw a young girl beeing assaulted,so he jumped out of the car to help her and shouted to me to call the police on his radio. It took me a while to find out how it worked. The police duly arrived arrested the fellow and were about to take my driving instructer away to make a statement and told me to follow them till I explained that I couldn't drive. However one of the policemen finally drove me round to the station where I was stuck for hours as my driving instructer was taken to hospital with a broken nose. It was 2am in the morning before I got home.

At the end of the year we moved to 121 Queen Mary Buildings Stillington St in London. Sarah and David attended Burdett Couttes School where I got a job as a dinner lady and also helped out in the nursery.In March 76 we were watching a football match when David came rushing in to say that Johnny had got his arm stuck in the laundry spinner dryer.He had broken his arm in 3 places and discolated is shoulder and was very lucky not to have lost his arm. In September we were on the move again returning to Pirbright Camp.This time to 79 Beech Grove as John had got a post at the Guards Depot in charge of the gun stores. I took up my driving lessons and passed my test in May 76 and we bought our first car a few months later which was a blue ford escourt which we called boo as that was the reg number. At the wives club I suggested that it might be fun to start a shooting club, which was very popular idea. Captain Stockley agreed to become our tutor. We did 22 rifle shooting and also pistol shooting. We also went on the outdoor ranges a few times. It was great fun especially when we had a competition with our husbands and the wives won . I have got 2 cups at home for shooting and still have some of my targets. There were lots of really good parties ( vicars and tarts, guys and dolls, come as you were caught, and fancy dress) I got jobs cleaning offices,school bus escourt,and working for Surrey council as a home help as well as baby sitting. Johnny attended a school in Camberley. One day when I collected him from the bus they told me that Princess Anne had given him a riding lesson but Johnny didn't believe this as "she wasn't wearing a crown". Someone must of told Princess Anne as the next time she took then riding she brought a tiarra and explained to him that she didn't wear it when riding as she always wore her riding hat. In June 1977 it was the Queens and Prince Philips Silver Jubilee and we celebrated with a big street party for the children followed by fireworks and a big bonfire.On Saturday 25th we had a big dance and dinner in their honour which went on until the next morning when we all had breakfast before going home. In September 79 we were on the move again returning again to Stillington St. Number 133 Queen Mary Buildings which was exactly above our previous Quarter.

Ella's portuguese school in Lisbon

I was six years old when I started my primary schooling. The streets around my school were named after famous actors for example one street was Vale and Santanna another. The borough had many actors living there. They still live there now. It was an upmarket part full of trees and arcades . At night it was all light up and the fountain was very high and the water cascades down making a huge fountain. I was very happy at school and I was very eager to learn everything, specially doing funny designs.

Gina's Time at school in Italy

I was five years old and the teacher took me into school. I couln't miss it as she lived next door and came to collect me. She would come into our house many evenings after dinner as she was afriend of my mother. I was very naughty at school. I stuck the teacher onto the chair with glue. She sent me behind theblackboard for the whole day and she told my parents. They sent me to bed straight away. Another time I put a pin on the table and she sat on it but she couldn't blame me as we was two of us who did it and we were both sent behind the blackboard where we wrote messages, devil, and drew pictures of her. When she saw Devil written there, we said that the priest teach us to be careful of the Devil. All through primary school I had the same teacher, Signora Speranza.