What was it like taking school exams during an air-raid?
What happened to the schooling of those London secondary school pupils who weren’t sent away on an evacuation scheme?
How did the school children and teachers cope in the post-war austerity years with the scarcity of books, equipment and kit?
Group shot of our AOB-guests, pupils and staff
Answers to these questions – and many more – can be found in ‘Alleyn’s in the 1940s’. This is the fruit of Alleyn’s School’s oral history series whereby pupils interview Alleyn Old Boys (AOBs) about their childhood memories of Alleyn’s. The first report, ‘Alleyn’s in the 1930s’, was published last year.
A Memories Day for AOBs was held last March and Daniel Petrides, then in the Lower Sixth, was one of the pupils tasked to interview our AOB-guests. He says that ‘the opportunity to talk to this wonderful group and not only learn about the events they lived through but also compare notes on our experiences of the same school over half a century apart was too good to miss.’
Alleyn’s had quite a peripatetic existence in the Second World War. Along with many other London schools, Alleyn’s was first evacuated to Kent where they had ‘first-row seats’ for the Battle of Britain – and indeed, many of the AOBs described what it was like watching dog-fights in the skies above Pilgrims’ Way. The younger boys were then evacuated to Rogerstone in Wales – and more bombs targeting the steel and aluminium works. Finally the boys moved to Rossall where they stayed from January 1941 to March 1945.
Daniel the young quizzical (one between two AOBs).
Meanwhile, back in SE22, the Townley Road buildings were not gathering dust and cobwebs. On 18 March 1940, the staff opened the School’s doors to boys whose families had not sent them on an official evacuation scheme. Boys from nearby schools, such as St Dunstan’s College, Strand, Wilson’s Grammar, continued their education at the South London Emergency Secondary School (SLESS). Over 1,200 boys from 24 local schools were on the roll during the emergency school’s existence from 1940-March 1945. It is these boys who give unbelievable – and comic if it weren’t so chilling – accounts of taking their School Certificate exams whilst cowering under their desks as the Luftwaffe raged overhead.
After the war, rationing and shortages continued and the AOBs remember the awful food, the war damage to the area, the paucity of books and kit. One of the AOBs described the communal approach to PE: ‘I remember how in the gym they had a stack of plimsolls and you just put on two plimsolls that fit your feet.’
Daniel reports that ‘the differences noted by the AOBs were remarkable. The science block, we were told, used to be a row of houses and we heard how one of the options for detention was weeding the gardens of a teacher who lived in one of the houses. The sixth-form common room was the Buttery – the 1940s’ answer to the dining room, built in the next decade.’
We wondered how our AOBs would manage being asked to recall events from 60-70 years ago but Daniel comments that ‘all the gentlemen more than exceeded expectations. The clarity of memory and eagerness to share was admirable and there was no end of fascinating stories: the gentlemen were very artists in painting vivid and tangible pictures of a now intangible time.’
Some of the AOBs’ recollections revolved around the ‘the dreaded cane, the strict limitations imposed to prevent “fraternization” with JAGS girls, and even the French mistress [Dora Wiggs] who had been a spy for the French Resistance! There were also fascinating tales about rationing, National Service, famous alumni and even the bomb that fell on the school roof only to be calmly thrown out of a window by one master [Dr ‘Eddie’ Giles] before it blew up!’
For Daniel and his fellow pupils, the Memories Day itself was hugely memorable – and not just because ‘we each had 30 pages of transcript to type up! The gentlemen were fantastically entertaining and friendly, and I sincerely hope that they all enjoyed the day as much as we did.’
Headmaster Dr Gary Savage says: ‘The Alleyn’s oral history series is a fascinating and hugely worthwhile project for the School and our pupils. As an historian myself, I have relished the way our AOBs’ memories have given a local flavour to national events which happened in our relatively recent past.
Like its predecessor (“Alleyn’s in the 1930s”), “Alleyn’s in the 1940s” is an eminently-readable synthesis of first-hand testimony, archive documentation, images and official evidence, all beautifully put-together by the School’s Head of Alumni Relations. I have received many letters of appreciation about it from our AOBs who have enjoyed remembering their Alleyn’s school-boy days; and I hope that other Dulwich residents might also enjoy this insight into Dulwich days gone by.
There are a small number of copies available and if you would like a copy, please send a cheque made payable to ‘Alleyn’s School’ for £5 (£15 for overseas). Alternatively you can download a copy here.
