When I first held the negatives up to the light I thought, ‘ah, it’s old Smudger Smith the
physics master’. He lived in a house directly opposite the school but the photograph is not of
him. A pity, because that would have been a good excuse to mention the milk
bottle tops we used to put in the physics lab light fittings and the unauthorised advertising of Smudger’s
car for sale in The Farnborough Chronicle. His tolerance of the vaporising bottle tops suggested he had a good sense
of humour but The Jab was enraged by the attempted car sale and Smudger’s generally good temper was
no doubt strained by it. David Beavis provides more information on this incident.
Following the disappointment that I had no pictures of Smithy it took a week or two to remember who
I had photographed here. It is Richards, or more commonly, in every sense of the word, Big Dick.
‘Big’ to distinguish him from another
master of the same name who was somewhat small of stature. I believe Big Dick taught English
and Geography and was Deputy Head until his retirement in 1959. He died tragically soon afterwards.
See Alpha magazine for details.
Comment by Malcolm Knight