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Title WARTIME SCHOOLING

Description

Following his display on the history of the school, Colin Hollick received a letter from an ex-pupil who attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School between 1939 and 1943. It has provided some valuable additional information.

?Many evacuated children were in attendance, including foreign refugees who had escaped from Europe. Their stories exist still in archived school magazines. In 1943 the Roman Catholic St Ignatius College from Tottenham, London was evacuated to Hemel Hempstead. At this stage our main school building designed to hold 300 pupils was already coping with 410. Somehow education continued, the St Ignatius pupils sharing a condemned school building at Picotts End, a rented Gents Outfitters in Marlowes and, in the afternoon, using five classrooms and one laboratory in the main school. They lunched at St John?s Hall, played cricket by the canal at Boxmoor, football at Jarman?s Fields (where Tesco and the ski-slope are now) and had to come to school on Saturday morning but they coped admirably in spite of adversity.

The girls? cycle shed, now a dingy cellar store room down by the staff toilets was sandbagged, lit and used as an air- raid shelter on the not infrequent times when the Luftwaffe either got lost or passed over to other targets. Fortunately, no bombs fell on the school, perhaps because navigators knew it and used it as a landmark. To frustrate this, the bell tower was painted battleship grey to match the roof. The bells were removed early in the war for re-cycling.

Some teachers, such as the woodwork teacher, Mr Jack Boucher, joined up for service and this limited available lessons but many new activities sprung up such as ?digging for victory?, growing crops in the school garden and the School Army Cadets who drilled, marched and visited the USAF at Bovingdon airfield. The school adopted a minesweeper, the HMS Lord Keith, sending gifts to the crew and receiving letters from the captain every week. The crew also donated a model of the ship to the school but its whereabouts is now unknown.

Out school survived the war, overstretched but intact with a full complement of staff but we should not forget the 12 pupils of this school who were killed in service during the war. Their names are recorded on the war memorial opposite the office.
We are very grateful to Mr R J Sturock-McMoore of Basildon for his help in researching this article.?

Chris Emery 11C

Keywords St Ignius College, air-shelter, army cadets, The Lord Keith, Bovingdon airfield

Collection Hemel Hempstead School

Place Hemel Hempstead

Year 1939 - 1943

Conflict World War Two

File type html

Record ID number 121

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Title	WARTIME SCHOOLING
Description	Following his display on the history of the school, Colin Hollick received a letter from an ex-pupil who attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School between 1939 and 1943. It has provided some valuable additional information. ?Many evacuated children were in attendance, including foreign refugees who had escaped from Europe. Their stories exist still in archived school magazines. In 1943 the Roman Catholic St Ignatius College from Tottenham, London was evacuated to Hemel Hempstead. At this stage our main school building designed to hold 300 pupils was already coping with 410. Somehow education continued, the St Ignatius pupils sharing a condemned school building at Picotts End, a rented Gents Outfitters in Marlowes and, in the afternoon, using five classrooms and one laboratory in the main school. They lunched at St John?s Hall, played cricket by the canal at Boxmoor, football at Jarman?s Fields (where Tesco and the ski-slope are now) and had to come to school on Saturday morning but they coped admirably in spite of adversity. The girls? cycle shed, now a dingy cellar store room down by the staff toilets was sandbagged, lit and used as an air- raid shelter on the not infrequent times when the Luftwaffe either got lost or passed over to other targets. Fortunately, no bombs fell on the school, perhaps because navigators knew it and used it as a landmark. To frustrate this, the bell tower was painted battleship grey to match the roof. The bells were removed early in the war for re-cycling. Some teachers, such as the woodwork teacher, Mr Jack Boucher, joined up for service and this limited available lessons but many new activities sprung up such as ?digging for victory?, growing crops in the school garden and the School Army Cadets who drilled, marched and visited the USAF at Bovingdon airfield. The school adopted a minesweeper, the HMS Lord Keith, sending gifts to the crew and receiving letters from the captain every week. The crew also donated a model of the ship to the school but its whereabouts is now unknown. Out school survived the war, overstretched but intact with a full complement of staff but we should not forget the 12 pupils of this school who were killed in service during the war. Their names are recorded on the war memorial opposite the office. We are very grateful to Mr R J Sturock-McMoore of Basildon for his help in researching this article.? Chris Emery 11C
Keywords	St Ignius College, air-shelter, army cadets, The Lord Keith, Bovingdon airfield
Collection	Hemel Hempstead School
Place	Hemel Hempstead
Year	1939 - 1943
Conflict	World War Two
File type	html
Record ID number	121