The story of a successful town and gown project
Stories & events OHS people witnessed or participated in
From THE CITY OF OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE VoL. LVIII, ili JULY 1966 No. 186
The bronze statuette of Lawrence of Arabia illustrated in this number of the MAGAZINE was presented to the School in 1956 by Mrs. Lightfoot.
Continue reading “The Lawrence Statuette”Submitted by his contemporary, Alan Trinder (1944-51)
It was traditional at the High School for the sixth form boys to indulge in ‘rags’. These were more or less harmless pranks, outside of the school rules but generally tolerated by the staff as an expression of youthful high spirits.
Continue reading “The perfect rag”The school magazine and Andrew Marr. Mike Chew writes:
Readers may possibly remember that the first edition of our newsletter contained the editorial in the school magazine about the catastrophic winter of 1946/7. What is interesting about this editorial is how it tells of the hardships endured by members of the School.
Continue reading “The Winter of 1946/7 part 2”by Ron Baker and Bryan Beames.
Ron writes: “I recall that, having made many guesses over the years, the present occupants were surprised to learn that their Common Room was once a large chemistry laboratory, and were impressed by the lecture theatre, still in constant use.
However, their imagination had been stimulated most over the years by the “bell pit”, and were surprised to learn that the School operated on the sound of a handbell rung by the Caretaker.”
April 1947 – Editorial
Lovers of statistics will probably find some subtle and abstruse connection between the date 1881, 1895 and 1947. These were all hard winters.
From wartime magazine no 3
January 1942
Almost everyone seems to be busy collectinq something or other these days to help the war effort, and the members of the School have proved themselves no exception to the rule.
July 1932
In the Old Boys’ section of the school magazine of July 1932 it is announced that the Old Boys have formed a Machine-Gun Platoon in conjunction with the Machine-Gun Company of the 4th Bn. Oxf. and Bucks Lt Infantry.
On August 30, 1922, Lawrence of Arabia arrived at the RAF recruiting office in 4 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London to enlist as John Hume Ross. This newspaper report by W E Johns of Biggles fame (1922) appeared in September 1959 (Johns was 66 at the time and died in 1968). Unfortunately it has not been possible to identify the paper in which it appeared.
“If – as it would seem – the enlistment of T E Lawrence into the RAF is to be made an incident of major historical importance, it is time the truth was told.
by ADC (Passed by Censor)
This is a personal indulgence by Mike Chew who read the article – of which this passage is just the beginning – in the Oxford High School Magazine of December 1916. He left it to others to react in their own way.
September 27th 1916
“I had the greatest day of my life the day before yesterday when we went over the top.
Continue reading “Experiences in France in 1916”Ian Lamb writes:
The rest of this newsletter is devoted to the full text of an article written by “Jock” Sutton. I am indebted to Alan Trinder (1944-51) for forwarding it to me. (Ed. Jock was editor of the School Magazine for many years, as were other teachers of English before him.)
Continue reading “Time to ask what work is for”