When I arrived in Farnborough where I had spent most of
the war, the headmaster, B.J.A. Neill, placed me in the A stream of Form 2. Most
of my fellow pupils had a year of Latin in Form 1.
The Latin master, Mr. Grosch,
was amazingly kind. He gave me private tuition after school until I caught up. Not then known as Nuncs, he
liked to be called senex ipse (the old man himself).
Another effective teacher was the senior Mr. Thomas, deputy headmaster, who gave me a sound grounding in
history (my future profession). I learned less from the junior Mr. Thomas, but
then I had no gift for the P.E. that he taught.
I enjoyed five years of learning the fundamentals of English literature and style from
Doc Naish.
Those postwar years were austere. I remember when the limit per week for sweets was two ounces, for eggs one,
and one shilling’s worth of meat.
Important for many of us was the Army Cadet Force. The C.O. was Archie Maunder.
I joined at the age of twelve and like several of my
comrades was not tall enough easily to do arms drill with the standard Lee
Enfield rifle. Instead the armoury supplied short cavalry carbines. The dates
stamped on them, 1900 and 1901 showed that they dated from the Boer War years.
We were affiliated to the Hampshire Regiment, but then attached, for a time
anyway, to the Parachute Regiment. I have
a photo taken in 1950 (third from top) showing ten of
us F.G.S. cadet NCOs. All of us are wearing the badge and flashes of the Paras.
Robin Fabel : July 2020