I’m only half a lifetime late coming to the F.G.S. website - huge apologies
but a friend from Yateley (originally) passed on the details of the site just a
couple of days ago…
I left in 1969 (escaped, more like - haha) and vowed never to give "that place"
another thought. Amazing memories that were hidden in the website -
congratulations for taking it on. I totally empathize with your assessment of
keeping your head down and try not to be noticed. I never liked school but knew
that I somehow needed to be there - glad that I hung in there - now!
I see that the site was last updated in 2024 [an omission now corrected] so perhaps the project has been
wound down. No matter.
I had a chance to check out the only teacher that had a profound impact on my
life and not until the last year at F.G.S. - Clifford Colley. He’s the teacher
that had drunk and smoked his way around the Middle East for Esso as a petroleum
geologist and ‘retired’ to teach math and geology at F.G.S. He basically rescued
my high school career! Five of us were failing physics in our lower 6th year and
he gave us a very personalized two year A level geology course in one year - the
only time I ever got an A grade at F.G.S. Finally a teacher that brought a subject to life!
That spurred me to want to go to learn more about geology at university but the
university clearing application scheme needed J.A. Bourne’s signature on my UCCA
University application form. He refused and said that there was no future in
geology. He might have been right at that particular time as North Sea oil and
gas had not been discovered then. So he persuaded me to go teaching - I spent a
year at King Alfred’s Teacher Training College in Winchester. I soon realized
that I had to go further in my career ambitions so applied to university after
only one year at teacher training college as I no longer needed a headmasters blessing.
Next stop was Sir John Cass College in the City of London in 1970. I graduated
with my BSc in 1973 - the same year that Mr. Colley passed away. He had moved on
to Farnham Grammar but passed away at only 56 years old. Very sad. Probably lung
cancer - he was a chain smoker. I always wanted to thank him for changing my life!
Next stop was a Masters geology degree at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada
and now 50 years of a professional geology career in the oil and gas industry
based in Calgary, Alberta. Full circle as I now teach industry upgrade courses
in practical geology to relative newcomers to the industry.
I’ve been trying to locate a Prefects photo from 1969 that I know I have (somewhere).
For completeness, the unidentified maths teacher in the
Masters Photo from 1968,
back row between Francis and Wright is Mr. Evans - - nickname
Mr. E or Mystery!
He was fairly fresh out of Teacher Training College but was sympathetic to us
struggling math students!
Peter Hews : 14th March 2026
Further recollections from Peter Hews
I joined F.G.S a year late through a +12 or +13 entrance exam from another
area. I started in form 2C and Dr. Sewell was the class master.
Yes, a real piece of work. Each maths class he
would haul up a kid named Adams to the front and review his homework. A
humiliating and degrading process. Dr. Sewell ‘disappeared’ that year and the
rumour was that he had a nervous breakdown. Who really knows?
Another teacher who I have not yet found listed is Reg Smith. He succeeded in
teaching me Physics in 1967 and Roy Dwyer helped me unlearn all that in 1968!
Reg Smith lived in the house on Prospect Avenue across from the school that was
famous for another reason. It had previously been owned by the founder of the
10" gauge railway that ran from North Farnborough to Yorktown near Camberley -
the Camberley and Surrey Border Railway that ran from about 1938 until the start
of WW2. Apparently some of the route is still visible on the ground and on
Google Earth.
[There are several references to Reg Smith littering the website…
Another maths teacher was Pete Cole who I had for maths in the UV1 in preparation for A levels.
I noticed your entry about your friends cycling up the Minley Road to
Blackbushe Airport in the 1950s.
Living in Yateley, we cycled up to Blackbushe from the north side. The American
base was still operational. There was a small section of Yateley where the
American servicemen (and women) lived - it looked very dystopian to me.
Identical townhouses in treeless yards (gardens) and all the kids and adults had
buzz cuts - clearly not fitting into the English way of life.
I remember Eagle Airways, the lumbering Bristol Freighters in the sky above
Yateley and Orion Airways was another civilian operation before it closed down.
There used to be Spitfire seats in the public bar of the Cricketers Pub on
Cricket Hill Lane or was it the Anchor pub just below the American base on Vigo
Lane with a pub sign showing an anchor hanging below hot air balloons? Dunno.
We’d also cycle to the Minley side of the airport and occasionally see the A30
closed when the North-South runway was being used or aircraft were being
moved from hangers on the south side to the terminal building beside the A30. Blackbushe was interesting (I’ve been told) because the runway was at exactly
333' ASL and was a good place, in the old days, to calibrate an altimeter.
I don’t remember seeing any Vickers Viscounts at Blackbushe but when I went to
Carleton University in Ottawa in the Autumn of 1973 I got to fly on one of the
last Air Canada Viscounts in service from Montreal Dorval - now Trudeau - to
Ottawa - in a thunderstorm as I recall with the engines spluttering and the
cabin lights flashing on and off. A survivor. There are still a couple of Air
Canada Viscounts at the Winnipeg Airport that are used for escape training in a
smoke-filled aircraft situation. They’ll never see service again. The other De
Havilland regular was a twin wing Rapide for parachute training.
Another excursion by bike was to the Army’s two runways at 90 degrees airstrip
in the woods high above Minley Manor. It was very rarely used so we would see
how fast we could cycle before the end of the runway - it was slightly downhill
- in one direction - and you could build up quite a speed but still had to
stop. One time we were timing ourselves and an Army De Havilland Beaver
attempted a landing - we had to leave pretty quick! I doubt those airstrips are
still there. My dad was into sailing and built a sailing dingy from a kit.
He had some Army buddies who allowed him to use Hawley Lake to practice sailing.
That’s where I learned to sail!
My other passion was all things Steam Trains. (†) Most of my friends were into
aircraft and aircraft spotting so the trains were a solitary sideline. Neither
of my kids were interested in trains either but my oldest son is a Captain for
Air Canada on 737 Max series.
Back in the late 1970’s a BA Concorde landed at Calgary to open the new airport
terminal. They had brought it in from Washington DC and overnighted in Calgary
before leaving early to become the Washington - Heathrow flight that day. a very
impressive sight.
This is stirring up all kinds of forgotten stories! At least the remaining
neurons are firing on all - three- cylinders. Haha.
If you’ve looked up my name - I don’t do Social Media. You’ll see that I
discovered a new species of dinosaur Southwood of Calgary in 2005 and it was put
on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller Alberta in
2015. Regaliceratops peterhewsi
Hope this helps. I don’t think there can be many of us left to even have an
interest in this part of our past. Perhaps I’m wrong and the site is still
visited by more than you think. Just as I stumbled on it!
Another excursion by bike was to the Army’s two runways at 90 degrees airstrip
in the woods high above Minley Manor. It was very rarely used so we would see
how fast we could cycle before the end of the runway - it was slightly downhill
- in one direction - and you could build up quite a speed but still had to
stop. One time we were timing ourselves and an Army De Havilland Beaver
attempted a landing - we had to leave pretty quick! I doubt those airstrips are
still there. My dad was into sailing and built a sailing dingy from a kit.
He had some Army buddies who allowed him to use Hawley Lake to practice sailing.
That’s where I learned to sail!