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I first made contact with the school in 1928. Fr. Gabriel Enderle asked me to take Fr. Donatus' motorcycle and go over to the school to take a P.T. lesson. Soon I was taking the school for P.T. and regular gym lessons. During those early days the House system was introduced into the school - Francis in honour of our Venerable Founder and Gabriel in honour of Fr. Gabriel, Pro-Provincial of the English Province and founder of the school. Some of the present day scholars may be amazed to know that the school colours were adopted from the regimental colours of the 60th Rifles - the Death and Glory boys! The colours had their symbolic impact of course - Green, the symbol of eternal Life; Red for Christ who gave His life for us; Black, to die rather than to sin. The school motto also had its origin at this time, product of a staff room conference - "Deo Duce."
With the outbreak of the Second World War I was seconded to the Western Command as a chaplain, but bombs falling at the corner of Locket Rd., and the illness of Fr. Cuthbert 'blitzed' me into the Headmaster's chair. It was also a start from scratch. Fr. Cuthbert was ill; most of the pupils and masters had been evacuated. Frs. Alban, Paulinus, Declan, James, Leo and Anthony were soon to join the staff. Fr. Ignatius had gone to the Slade school of Art, which was then evacuated to Oxford. Fr. Declan was Choirmaster and under his able direction we established a fine school choir; began an annual Carol service and reorganised the Morning Assembly. The building of the "Prefab" hall made it possible to have regular assembly; the boys, under the capable direction of the Prefects, assembled to the sound of marching tunes on records and after assembly marched out of the hall to stirring marches also. The Hall became the focal point of all school gatherings, and Speech Days, Concerts and Film shows took place there. By this time the number of pupils had risen to 80, about a third of whom were non-Catholics. It became more necessary to build air-raid shelters than classrooms and the District Surveyor allowed shelters to be built on the school grounds so long as they were available to the public as well as the boys. But bombs had little effect on boys! It was more exciting to watch dog-fights between the R.A.F. and German raiders than to decline `mensa' or even to take refuge in the shelters. We had two rather bad scares. One afternoon as school was finishing, two light bombers, without any warning came in low over the church. They released their bombs which, fortunately, missed the school and landed in Harrow Weald recreation ground. They were probably making for Bentley Priory, at that time H.Q. Operations centre for the Battle of Britain. The second scare came with the doodle bugs. Just before two o'clock one day we heard the ominous chug, chug, of the rocket. We were glad that we heard it because when the noise stopped, the bomb dropped. When it did drop although it missed the school we were affected, as one of our boys lost his home and almost his life. One other incident worth recalling at this time was the land mine which landed in the Kodak recreation ground. We were instructed to leave the windows open as a precaution against blast and to separate and isolate chemicals in the lab. Dr. O'Sullivan, however, was not content with being a passive spectator. He persuaded the Naval Officer in charge of the disposal unit to accompany him to the 'defusing' of the bomb. The officer said - "If you can do the 100 yards in 12 seconds then come along." "Why" asked the doctor. "Because if this damned thing goes up when we start tinkering with it, we may manage to get out of the way; if not, poof." It is to the credit of Dr. O'Sullivan that he remained.
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One could continue for a long time about doodle-bugs; V 2's; Fire bombs, the A.R.P. Fire extinguishers, tin helmets, buckets of sand; hoses were as common in the hands of the staff as text books. Fires were fought and defeated in the house, school, in Ruffell's garage, in adjoining houses. But all the time school had to continue and all the time the numbers grew. The House system was enlarged to Four; the new houses were named in honour of the English martyrs - Becket and Campion. By the time that the war was at an end, the numbers had risen to over 200.
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As well as incidents there were BOYS whose annals are more worthy of note than many a bombing. There was a certain small boy with an amazing ability for using polysyllabic words and speaking in long periods. More amazing he always did this correctly. One day he decided to walk along the parapet and at the same time wave and grin at the boys on the ground. At the end of the parapet he forgot the height at which he was performing and walked off into space. He landed as safely as a cat, much to the admiration of the other boys. Another who had broken a window through playing cricket (against regulations) on the cement, came to the office to confess his fault. On account of his forthrightness I wanted to pardon him, but he insisted on the regulation "six of the best" and then thanked me!
We had at that time the "Puppeteer" who gave shows in the attic of his father's shop on Saturday mornings (entrance one penny); the Ice Hockey man; the Key collector; the Bus Route collector (not just numbers - oh no - he collected the Routes) by following the bus on its journey! ; another had the collecting mania for railway timetables; and yet another for telephone kiosks.
In the Sports field much was due to the efforts of Fr. Vianney who introduced Rugby Touch, Basketball, and a variety in the school's athletics programme. Meanwhile the apostolic efforts of Frs. Declan, Alban and Paulinus turned the thoughts of many a boy towards the priesthood simply by the care they took, and the example they gave, in things that concerned the church and sanctuary. Of the old boys of the school now ordained we can number Rev., Frs., Paul Keyte (an excellent tenor with the school Orchestra in the Harrow Weald Memorial Hall and a soloist at the School Masses); Matthew Parker, at present studying at Cambridge University; Aelred Dobson, now the School Secretary; Louis Preston, P. E. master at the school; Edmund Lanning, Procurator at Christleton Hall; Eric Powell, now stationed at St. Mary's College, Sindlesham; Oliver Comerford and Wilfrid Skoyles, now on our Mission Staff in Tangayika, and Martin Masterson, of St. Joseph's, Wealdstone. Most of the priests mentioned above graduated from the school during the Headmastership of Fr. Thomas to whom I handed over office in 1947. We had then about 240 boys.
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