Edinburgh House
School Memories
By Robert
Lawrence
I started at Edinburgh House School in 1960 aged 9.
On my first day I was rather overwhelmed by the size and complexity of the school buildings. Back then the school was a hodgepodge of prefabricated buildings as well as two brick buildings and it was a maze of corridors and small classrooms. No one was assigned to help me get sorted out, so I just had to figure it all out myself. It was all rather frightening.
Being a dayboy had both advantages and disadvantages. Dayboys never felt totally integrated with the other pupils, and you could see the envy in the eyes of some of the boarders whenever they saw you leaving for the night. Many of the boarders were very young and being separated from their parents and home for the first time must have been a difficult experience for them.
The headmaster was Mr. Edward Kefford. Actually his name was Edward Kingsley-Kefford, and his brother also worked at the school. The brother was referred to as Mr. Kingsley, to avoid confusion.
Mr. Kingsley played the organ every morning at the daily chapel service, where we sang hymns and prayed, and each day a different pupil would read the lesson. Mr. Kingsley was a stern man, as were many of the teachers of that era.
Mr. Kefford was a nice man. He was strict and demanded proper behavior from pupils, but one got the sense that he actually liked being a headmaster and cared about the boys wellbeing. I learned a lot from Mr. Kefford, and I am sorry I never got to see him again.
School was six days a week and the day was long, starting at 7 AM and ending at 6 PM except on Saturday when it ended at 4 PM.
The school day started with assembly in the old gym. Various announcements were made at this time. We then marched in line down the winding passages past the lockers, past the kitchen into the main house and took our seat in the chapel for morning service.
After chapel we marched in line to our respective classrooms for the start of lessons.
Initially I was in form F, which was the youngest class. Miss Norah Bath was my teacher, and she was a pleasant younger woman.
Form F was located in the old brick part of the school on the 1st floor. It was a small room opposite the sanitarium and near the studies of Mr. Clarke, Mr. Sterling and Mr. Ruddock (sp?).
In those days teachers would routinely smoke in class, both cigarettes and pipes. Seems funny now when you think about it. Also there was little if any heating in the winter so classrooms were cold. Add to that the single rather dim light bulb with no shade (as can be seen in the photographs). It was not the best environment for learning.
The school was divided up into four houses. There was Lee, Brightwell, Ballard, and Wellington. I was in Lee house, and Mr. Hutchinson (Hutch) was my house master. He was a strict man and he demanded respect. He also administered many beatings to me and many others. This was fairly normal for a boy's Prep School or Public School of that era.
There were daily sports unless it was raining very hard, in which case games were canceled, and boys could spend the time indoors playing or reading. If it was just muddy and damp we would go on walks around the driveway, marching in a long line.
Teams for sports were divided into whites and colours, and were picked at random and announced during break. Colours had to wear the very itchy maroon and dark blue official Edinburgh House football shirt, and whites wore a plain white T-shirt.
I remember many very cold days as goalkeeper, standing freezing waiting for the ball to get down to my end of the field.
We played sports for about 2 hours each day, after which there was a short break before classes started again for another two hours. Boarders had to wash their feet and legs after sports, and this was accomplished in a ceremonial fashion presided over by the master of the day. I always remember the smell of the big bars of red Lifebuoy soap wafting through the halls.
School uniform was a gray suit. The younger pupils wore short trousers and long ones for the older boys.
There were walking shoes for outside use, and when you arrived back to the school you would change into your Cambridge House Shoes, which were for inside use only.
Each pupil was issued a kitbag, which contained all your sports clothing. The kitbag was hung on a hook near your locker, which wasn't really a locker, it was just a shelf and had no door or lock.
There was an unwritten rule that you did not touch another boy's locker, and this seemed to work as I never remember anyone complaining that something had been taken.
Boarders also had a tuck box, which was a small wooden box about 2 ft wide where a pupil could keep his personal items. These were not locked and again there was an understanding that you did not touch another boy's tuck box.
For me, one of the joys of Edinburgh House was the rifle range. I was rather a good shot, and Mr. Kefford noticed this and helped me develop my skills. I came first in shooting for Lee House in 1961, which helped Mr. Hutchinson the house master, to like me somewhat more than before. The previous year I had missed the first place and come in second. Nigel Ramsay won first place that year.
Summers were very good. A new swimming pool had just been built, and it was a wonderful treat to be able to swim on occasions.
The grounds of Edinburgh House were lovely, and there were specific areas where we were allowed to go. The rest was out-of-bounds.
My favorite place was an old wartime gun turret that was made out of iron. It had been built to protect the building during the war when the buildings had been occupied by the military. In the summer the metal turret would get so hot you could hardly touch it. We would see who could hold their hand on it for the longest.
Although many facets of life at the school were a bit depressing and dark, there was also great camaraderie between pupils. The day I left Edinburgh House I cried with sadness. It had been an all-encompassing part of my life for several years, and the thought of never going back there made me very sad.
In 2004 I visited Ballard School for the first time since I had left. Wow... what a change!
There isn't much left of the school I knew. The old main house is still there, but the chapel has been turned into a class room and the organ is gone. The little Tatham Library that used to be tucked under the main stairs has gone and has been boarded up, but I can remember well many rainy afternoons in winter sitting in the big old armchair that was tucked in under the stairs with its own little light. It was one of my favorite places. The old round radiator in the main hallway is still there.
There is so little left of the old school that it was disorienting. Lots of wonderful new buildings have transformed the old dark place into a wonderful modern school full of light and happy children.
The old classroom building is still there, although I hardly recognized it from the inside. There were a few shadows of the past still visible, and many, many memories.
I was asked to give a talk to one of the senior forms, which was now located in a classroom in one of the old dormitories in the main house. I told them a little about the old days, and you could see from their faces that it was hard for them to comprehend how different it used to be.
Edinburgh House will always be a big part of who I am, and in retrospect I believe it was a good experience for me.
Mr. Kefford has long since passed on, but I think of him often. Miss Bath may still be alive and I would love to hear if anyone knows where she is. She married another teacher Mr. Clarke, so her present name may be Norah Clarke.
Footnote:
Robert Lawrence has lived in Oregon in the USA since 1980, and is a Major in
the US Air Force Auxiliary where he is a search and rescue pilot. Robert is
also a Celtic
Folk Singer
and musician with his wife Jill Diana Greene and they have a website with videos at www.greene-lawrence.com
Last updated 2023