Oxford or Cambridge. Looking back, I have a frightening recollection of some of his narrow-mindedness which today would mark him as an intolerant racialist and a stupid one at that. The gospel according to Littler was, for instance, that the offspring of mixed marriages inherited only the worst vices of both races, not their virtues. Half-breeds and their parents were despised. With his intolerance, which saw to it that not a single outside speaker ever visited the School, went discipline so strict that it now seems outrageous. It was a gross offence for a Coatham boy to be seen talking in public to a girl – even his cousin. I well remember one of the boarders in Littler’s own house being thoroughly caned and then expelled after being interrupted whilst investigating the colour of a kitchen maid’s garters. But the iron discipline meant that we worked and brighter boys were unashamedly pushed. I myself got through what are now ‘O’ Levels at the age of 14 and spent no less than four years in the Sixth Form taking the equivalent of ‘A’ Levels for four consecutive years. That sort of pressure got me a local authority grant, an Open Exhibition in Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, (the same as Harold Wilson got in 1934), a Scholarship to Liverpool University which I did not take up, and one of only 300 State Scholarships awarded in 1931 on the public examination (Higher School Certificate, now ‘A’ Level) results. I have much to be grateful for and I always remained thankful for the more constructive part of Harold Littler’s teaching as I sat and listened to him over those years in the History Sixth Form. Littler left Coatham whilst he was still young to become the Vicar of St Mary’s


in Warwick and a Canon of Coventry Cathedral. He died young. His wife, Tess, had produced no children, so his name must live on only in the minds of the few of us who still remember those remarkable years.


This, then, was the school whose Old Boys’ tie I could have worn had I wished. And it was indeed another tie which actually did something for me, if we can go back to that Sunday announcement of Mr Chamberlain and all that flowed from it to affect our young married lives. Immediately after the broadcast Margaret and I took ourselves off to Oxford


to visit her parents in Whitehouse Road, for I had determined to volunteer for the Royal Air Force on the first day of the War. I had decided that it was unlikely that we could win the War without my help – and that of several others. So off I went at the beginning of the new week to one of the recruiting offices which were already operating in the city. For some reason or another, someone had evidently tried to make recruitment a little difficult, especially, it seemed, for me. The first office I reported to displayed a notice telling members and ex-members of the Oxford University Air Squadron to report to another location. I was an ex-member of the OUAS and, as was befitting, obeyed without delay. When I arrived at the appointed office, no-one there had heard of any such instruction. I took myself off to the old OUAS Headquarters in Manor Road to ask if they could shed light on the


11


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164