As it’s the eclipse this week, I found two accounts of the solar eclipse of June 29th 1927 in ‘Bootham’ magazine.
Two boys travelled to Giggleswick, partly because a group of astronomers from Greenwich Observatory would be there – they were “lucky enough to be able to help the Astronomer Royal’s party to move their camera”. There were quite a few clouds, but the clouds parted with two minutes to spare. “Suddenly the darkness swept over us, and as we turned towards the sun we saw the black disc surrounded by the corona, which was shown up like ‘bright metal on a sullen ground’ by the dark blue sky behind it. All our instructions were forgotten in that wonderful moment. Ignoring all scientific details, we just gazed at the beauty of the corona, until the rim of beads flashed out a bright white, telling us that totality was over. O.C.R.”
Another group got up at 2am and travelled to Wensleydale, to view the eclipse from Middleham Moor. They weren’t as lucky as the Giggleswick group – they saw glimpses of a partial eclipse, but clouds hid the sun at the moment of totality. “The moor was crowded with spectators, but all was quiet during those twenty seconds; then the light swept across the countryside, and conversation started again. A few minutes later a rift appeared in the clouds and we saw again the partially eclipsed sun…. K.F.N.”
In January I did a talk as part of the Thursday lunchtime recital room series. It was entitled ‘Memories from the Archives’ and I talked about a number of memories from Old Scholars. I’ll share the photographs and text from the talk in several parts on the blog. Read Part 1 here.
George Scarr Watson (1842-1929; Bootham 1853-58) Photograph from 1866 John Ford Memorial
George Scarr Watson wrote some reminiscences for the Sheffield branch of the Old Scholars Association, which were then reprinted in Bootham magazine in 1908, fifty years after he left school.
In the article he remembers music (or lack of it), sleep, and columns.
“The bare rooms of my day, cold, and destitute of sinful ornament, knew only the voice and the restrictions of the plain Friend. No music soothed our savage breasts save the siren strains of the Jews’ harp, and that was only tolerated for its Biblical associations. Now, I am told, string bands call up the ghosts of protesting broad brims and coal-scuttle bonnets, or would do if the sacrificial fire of a few years ago had not exorcised them and initiated a new era. Laughter and shouts are perennial, and we could do as well as our successors; we could sing too, in a way, but surreptitiously. Our choral song at 10pm one night was loud and without the refinement of a trained chorus, but the teacher who heard us need not have said he thought at first it was a party of drunken revellers returning home from their carouse.” It wasn’t until 1882 that the Committee gave the Headmaster permission to hire a piano, to be used only for practice during leisure time.
He goes on to outline his day, starting with the “wakening sound of the horrid startling bell – they always, as the little boy said, send you to bed when you are not sleepy, and make you get up when you are.” Staying in bed too late earned you columns. He says “Ten minutes’ work at twelve words per minute equals one hundred and twenty words: three syllable words extracted from Butter’s spelling book, beginning with ‘ abrogate, absolute, adamant, admiral, affable, aggravate’ (I know them still), and written on a slate.” Apparently one of the other boys at school at the time got into trouble so many times that he became very proficient, so was given a section of Virgil to be learnt instead.
Often those writing about their education expressed views about how good (or not) their style of education was, and what they thought a good education should look like. These are George’s suggested seven principles of education (his alternative to the seven arts and sciences of grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music).
DEAR MR. EDITOR,—The response to an appeal for help from friends of the School for the Ambulance Unit at Dunkirk has been most generous. We have sent nearly 5,000 articles of clothing and blankets, etc., from Bootham, and £300 has come in cheques to be spent as necessities arise. May I take this opportunity of again thanking all those who so kindly and readily sent assistance urgently needed? With the rapid extension of hospital work the wants of the Ambulance continue to be great.
“Football during the past winter has naturally felt the effects of the war. Indeed, we were lucky in being able to obtain any recreation of the kind during such a national crisis. We decided unanimously to give up two afternoons a week to ambulance drill, and not a few thought that the variety thus introduced was good for our general condition, and that practices were keener than usual. Naturally, a large number of our football matches with men’s teams were cancelled, but football was continued with unabated vigour, and as a result the boys’ matches showed considerably better results than the previous term; nevertheless, some very good matches were lost.”
From Bootham magazine, account of Spring Term 1915 in June 1915 edition
DEAR SIR,—It has been suggested that it would serve a useful public purpose if we could discover the real reasons why men have enlisted, and perhaps classify the answers. Thus :—
1 . CONSCIENTIOUS.—Men who have studied European history, who have travelled widely, who speak several foreign languages, who are conversant with the work of The Hague Peace Conferences. Self-critical, demanding both sides of a case before they act.
2. LOYAL.—Responsive to calls for help. Ready to defend the weak against the strong. Prompt to pay debts they have themselves contracted. Serious-minded men, who have no hesitation in supporting a cause obviously just. They support their country because their country seems loyal to greater causes.
3. PATRIOTIC.—Men who admit their own ignorance and are not conversant with the details of the real issues at stake, but who are willing to sacrifice themselves for what they are told is their country’s good without considering whether this is also good for other countries. My country right or wrong.
4. ADVENTURE.—Men who are young, healthy and energetic, fond of travel, sport and shooting animals, but who have not had many other opportunities of Continental travel.
5. EXAMPLE.—Men who don’t think for themselves, who join ” pals ” battalions because everybody’s doing it, men unable to endure isolated action. Theirs not to reason why.
6. ECONOMIC.—Men discharged from other occupations, with no resources or alternatives, driven to enlist by necessity (the economic pressgang) in order to get a living, not cowards, but perhaps quite content as long as they need not fight.
7. ESCAPE.—Men who wish to get away from home conditions, away from wife, from debt, from arrest for crime. Men wanting a cheap divorce or leaving on account of the girl left behind.
8. BARBARIC.—Mere bloodthirstiness or homicidal mania and a general desire to break bounds.
Let us hope no old Bootham boys come into groups 7 and 8. But what are the numbers in the other groups?
Yours truly, HUGH RICHARDSON.
February 11th, 1915
Hugh Richardson is likely to have been the Hugh Richardson who was at Bootham between 1875 and 1880, and taught science at the school between 1897 and 1914. His letter was printed in ‘Bootham’ magazine, Volume VII, March 1915.
A Bootham Old Scholar, Giles Cookson (1993-2000), has created a website to make available online his collection of over 2000 postcards. Many of them are of York, and there are a number of Bootham School. The website is www.thecardindex.com where you can search for postcards and also add comments.
Below are some examples from the website. Visit the website and search for Bootham School to see lots more.
In January I did a talk as part of the Thursday lunchtime recital room series. It was entitled ‘Memories from the Archives’ and I talked about a number of memories of Old Scholars. I’ll publish the photographs and text from the talk in several parts on the blog.
Today I’ve chosen to focus on the memories of students have of Bootham. Accounts by Old Scholars of their time at school turn up in various places – the school magazine (often comparing their own schooldays to the present-day school that they read about); the early editions of the register often contained stories of their most notable achievements or exploits at school; often Old Scholars will send in their memories for the archive, sometimes as part of an autobiography, other times just remembering one particular incident; over the years a number of oral history recordings have been done, and memories have been collected at anniversaries of particular events. In some ways these memories are a different kind of record to the ‘official’ documents – minutes, prospectuses, reports and so on. Often you need to bear in mind that the account may be of something that happened many years earlier, is written from the perspective of one individual, and depending on the audience, may have been edited! Having said that, the memories of individuals give an amazing insight into the experience of being at Bootham over the years, and when you piece those together with other records, a much wider picture starts to emerge. The memories often mention aspects of school life that would get missed out of the ‘official’ documents, perhaps because they weren’t seen as important or noteworthy. But I think that it’s often when you start to be able to see things through the eyes of individuals that events that happened in the past seem to come alive.
I’ve picked out about half a dozen pieces of writing by Old Scholars recalling their schooldays, and have pulled out short passages from each. I’ll work through them chronologically, although there isn’t time to give a complete history of the school.
Bootham School. Photograph dated June 1863.
The first individual is George Scarr Watson, who was at Bootham between 1853 and 1858. I’ve put up a photograph of the back of the school from 1863 to give you an idea of what it might have looked like around the time that he was there. The school was originally started in 1823 in premises in Lawrence Street. For the first six years it was run by William Simpson, and then in 1829 the school was brought under the care of the Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends. At that point it was known officially as the Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting Boys School, and more generally as York Friends Boys School. In 1846 the school moved to Bootham, after the purchase of 51 Bootham, then known as No 20 Bootham, from Sir John Johnstone for £4,500. The decision to move had been made because of concerns over ill-health at the Lawrence Street site, and the Foss Islands area was not seen as particularly healthy. The photograph gives an idea of what the grounds at the back of the Bootham site looked like before the fire in 1899, which destroyed much of what you can see in the photograph.
Bootham Old Scholars’ Association has very kindly enabled the creation of a website giving access to digitised copies of ‘Bootham’ magazine, back to 1902. You can use the website to browse back issues or search for particular words or phrases. The magazine includes all sorts, for example accounts of trips, photographs, drama productions, Old Scholar news and so on.
Old Scholars can access the magazines via the Old Scholars website. Other enquirers should contact me (Jenny.Orwin@boothamschool.com) for login details.
“The School welcomed Mr. Alexander back; it will be remembered that he was to have come at the beginning of the September Term, but was unable to do so on account of working with the ambulance unit in Dunkirk.”
“Our Belgian family was still at Earswick and in a very flourishing condition, as the man had got temporary employment in the cocoa works.”
From ‘Bootham’ magazine. See a previous post about the family from Belgium.
Even though it is now 2015, I’m continuing the series of 1914 Register posts. Many thanks to Claire, one of the volunteers, for researching the post.
Joseph Mennell (1815-1863; at school at Lawrence Street prior to 1829)
At school was known as Wm. Simpson’s (the Head Master’s) lieutenant, and used to fetch and load the former’s gun for him when he shot rats in the moat ditch on the opposite side of the Foss Islands Road from the schoolroom window during lessons.
Joshua O’Brien (1858-1931; Bootham 1871-73)
Apprenticed at Manufacturing Stationery business with Marcus Ward & Co, Belfast. Landed in Sydney, N.S.W., 1887: Brisbane, Queensland 1888. Established paper bag manufactory in 1891, which now (1913) is the only power paper bag factory in the State of Queensland. One of the first in the State to experiment in the use of hydrocyanic acid gas for the destruction of scale insects on fruit trees, and also to experiment in use of cotton netting for the protection of growing fruits from the Queensland fruit fly: both methods being successfully employed in the State.
Gilbert Porteous (1894-1917; Bootham 1908-11)
At time of the General Election on 1910 was a member of No. 5 Bedroom. Being interested in the results of polls in his native city, on the night that result was being announced, he, along with several others, kept awake, and when a boy came along Bootham selling the midnight edition of the evening paper, he threw a penny on the road, and letting down a string pulled up the paper. Hardly had they digested the results when they were deprived of their booty by an unexpected visitor.
Thomas Binns Robson (1843-1925; Bootham 1856-60)
“Fielden Thorp”, he says “was constantly remarking on the awkward way I walked, and my answer always was “Why don’t you drill us?” So one day he put me through my facings which, of course, created a crowd of spectators, and he made them all fall into line and we had a drilling lesson, which was followed by others under the same tuition, and later a military drill instructor was obtained who, I am afraid, did not strengthen our Quaker peace principles. In number 2 we had a store of sticks up the chimney, which we had broadsword exercises when we ought to have been in bed”. Hobbies – After 4 or 5 years of failure, 3 years ago, succeeded in introducing the Fig Wasp (Blastophaga Grossorum), which breeds only in the male or Capri-fig and carries the pollen into the female or Edible figs, in its search for the dormant female flower in the ovaries of which it lays its eggs, which only occur in the male fig. He says “It is the only case I know of where a flower is fertilised through an insect making a mistake. The common sorts of figs grown for eating do not need fertilising, though improved by it, but the Smyrna drying and other figs of that class drop all their fruit when half grown, unless fertilised, and it is the drying fig that I am going for now.”
