by Ivan Mazonowicz (1940-46)
Ivan Mazonowicz (Mason since 1957) 1940-46 writes:
There were some fine teachers, eg Harry Jacques (Chemistry), ‘Pongo’ Bodey (Physics, who was my role model when I became a teacher, and ‘Tich’ Wright, among others. Some were not so fine. I vividly recall one pupil crying, on his hands and knees, being brutally kicked along a corridor by two of them.
I had two main interests – Chemistry and the ATC, and I took no part in any sports. I left with Higher School Certrificate in Chemistry, Physics and Zoology and a gliding certificate, courtesy of the ATC. On the same gliding course was Don Bennett who was caught one day by a freak gust of wind and landed his glider upside down. It frightened all of us present, but he emerged unharmed.
In form 5b my close friend was Desmond McCarthy. We talked much of our ambitions. His was to become a teacher, mine to fly with the RAF. I became a teacher, he became a navigator in the RAF – a short career. He was killed in 1958 when his Canberra crashed into a German mountainside.
On leaving in 1946 I worked as a lab assistant at the Pressed Steel Company, then at AERE Harwell until National Service struck. I spent two years as a private in the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry – mostly in Somalia. Disliking this greatly, as soon as I was released I joined the RAFVR to ensure no further army service.
In 1953 I was commissioned into the Training Branch and served 19 years with the ATC until, having qualified in the meantime as a sailing instructor, became Lt RNR with the sea cadets. In 1974 a stroke ended my nautical career and later led to early retirement from teaching.
In 1950-52 I qualified a a teacher at Culham College, then taught in Oxford, Montreal and Dorset, taking early retirement in 1981 and devoting my time to travel and writing with modest success.
In 1954 I did the wisest thing of my life and married Joyce Tennant (ex-Central School. Our daughter Penny has two daughters, one a doctor and the other a vet. Our first son Robert died at 40 of childhood cancer, Our second son (PhD in Chemistry) teaches in Christchurch.
In 2000 I had a second stroke which left me needing a wheelchair. This we manage to take to Spain twice a year. Otherwise Joyce and I lead quiet valetudinarian lives in Dorset.