Month: October 2025

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T E Lawrence (1896-1907)

A Speech by Mr Churchill

If you have not landed here from that page, you can read about the circumstances of this speech here

“Mr. President: Although more than year has passed since Lawrence was taken from us, the impression of his personality remains living and vivid upon the minds of his friends, and the sense of his loss is in no way dimmed among his countrymen. All feel the poorer that he has gone from us. In these days dangers and difficulties gather upon Britain and her Empire, and we are also conscious of a lack of outstanding figures with which to overcome them. Here was a man in whom there existed not only an immense capacity for service, but that touch of genius which every one recognises and no one can define. Whether in his great period of adventure and command or in those later years of self-suppression and self-imposed eclipse, he always reigned over those with whom he came in contact. They felt themselves in the presence of an extraordinary being. They felt that his latent reserves of force and willpower were beyond measurement. If he roused himself to action, who should say what crisis he could not surmount or quell? If things were going very badly how glad one would be to see him come round the corner.

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R W ‘Pongo’ Bodey

by Don Bennett (1939-45), Southern California:

Thanks for the photo page (No 2 May 2006). It brings back memories, as I used to sit across the desk from Mr Bodey in his physics lab. You may remember his room had a long table with all the boys sitting round it and his desk was towards one end. His teaching of physics was what caused me to eventually work in areas which he awakened my interest in. My eventual work included pneumatics, hydraulics, electrics and electronics, plus a few other technical areas such as aerodynamics, instrumentation, Radar, etc, and my training led me to work in 6 different countries. I am now retired in Southern California.

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Keith Hill (1945-50)

Kim, the widow of Keith Hill (1945-50) has written:

I have recently received the COSA newsletter and have realised that I did not notify the Association of my husband’s death. Keith Hill was one of your members and very proud of his old school. I remember him going off to reunions many years ago when our children were quite young. We made many trips to Oxford to see his family, and we always took a look at the old school building. Keith was born in South Wales in 1934 but moved as a baby to Oxford where his father had found work. He was the eldest of five children, all his siblings being born in Oxford.

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Peter Samsworth

His son, Simon, has written to tell us that Dr. Peter Raymond Samsworth passed away in February, 2011, aged 81 after a short illness. He was a keen sportsman whilst at school and Mike Chew also remembers him as Captain of Cricket. He practised as a GP in Herne Bay for many years and is survived by his wife Alison. 

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The Ronnie Barker Blue Plaque

The blue plaque to commemorate comedian Ronnie Barker – who was an Old Boy of the OHS and lived at no 23 Church Cowley Road – was inaugurated on 29 September 2012. The late Mike Chew, who was then Chairman of COSA, was invited to say a few words: 

My claim to fame is that I lived in the thirties, forties and fifties in this road at no 59, which as yet does not sport a blue plaque on the wall, and went to the same primary school as Ronnie, Donnington School in Cornwallis Road opposite the air raid shelters, and to the same grammar school, the City of Oxford High School in George Street, opposite the Ritz cinema, and I used to catch the no 3 bus with him to go to school. Being a couple of years older he was probably totally oblivious of me, and I didn’t take much notice of him – well I didn’t know he was going to be famous, did I? Tuppence ha’penny busfare to Cornmarket Street, but if you went to Iffley Turn to get on the bus it was only three ha’pence. 

Today, as Chairman, I am representing the City of Oxford School Association, which has donated the plaque. I am pleased to see a number of the committee here and indeed some ordinary members of the Association, who might be classed as plebs. Our school was closed in 1966 and we became part of Oxford School along with Southfield School in Glanville Road. Oxford School no longer exists as such, and we re-formed our Old Boys Association some seven years ago.

It is a great privilege and honour for the Association to participate in this ceremony. Ronnie is still in the hearts of many people who remember not only his comedy series on television, but also his versatile and accomplished acting skills in various dramas. As a blue plaquist, if such a title exists, he follows in the footsteps of another illustrious Old Boy: T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, whose plaque is at his childhood home in 2 Polstead Road. Indeed, when Wetherspoons opened their pub next to the old school it was a toss-up whether it would be called the “Four Candles” or the “Lawrence of Arabia”. “Open all Hours” beat the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”, seven-nil.

This ceremony is a proud moment for the City of Oxford School Association, and we are grateful to the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board for inviting us to participate in it.

Mike Chew, 29 September 2012

The accompanying speech by Malcolm Graham of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme can be read here.

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