I came across a website that has copies of my old school’s annual magazine. The school was Lowestoft Grammar School, and the magazine was The Lowestoftian.
The grammar school ceased to exist in 1971 when Lowestoft’s schools became comprehensive and the last edition of The Lowestoftian appears to have been published in 1969. Even though that was more than 50 years ago, its style and content would not be unusual if it were written today. However, those magazines from before the Second World War have a certain quality that shows they are certainly from a time gone by.
The first edition of The Lowestoftian was published in 1918 but the first edition archived is from December 1924 and it describes itself as, The MAGAZINE of the PAST AND PRESENT SCHOLARS of the LOWESTOFT SECONDARY SCHOOL.
On page one, the Editor’s notes begin thus:
Again, we wish to thank all those who have thoughtfully contributed to this issue. The field of literary adventure is not narrowly circumscribed and there are many topics of general interest which would be generally welcomed.
On Friday November 7th, 1924, the Debating Society met to discuss the proposition “That civilisation tends to deterioration.” It was contended by the proposer that everybody nowadays seemed to expect everything, especially money, to turn up without any effort on their part. Seem familiar?
A speaker looked forward to the day when (because of rapid innovation and invention) boys would not have to leave home to go to school. We are almost there, mate.
The motion was defeated 57 - 5.
This is an advertisement in the magazine from Jeeves the Chemist. I find it interesting that Mr Jeeves decided that he would get the greatest return from promoting his dog mixture than he would from identifying any treatment for people.
JEEVES' DOG MIXTURE
An excellent alternative Mixture for improving the
condition. Lessens the risk of Distemper.
Per 1/6 bottle
G. C. Jeeves, Chemist
1 TONNING STREET, LOWESTOFT
I find this advertisement particularly interesting because I was at school with Mr Jeeves’ granddaughter and I am still friends with her today.
They certainly knew how to have fun in the ’20s. On Tuesday October 28th, 1924, there was a Paper Chase. The hares were Brittain in class IIIB and Austrin in IVB. The hound pack was made up of 15 “energetic” members of the fourth and fifth forms “which was a very poor number”.
Some confusion was caused by meeting a trail of paper that had been used by a running club some days earlier but all turned out well and the hares arrived home three minutes before the first of the hounds.
But, if that were fun, it was as nothing when set against the joy and delight that was evident at the end of term, School Games’ Social.
“The lasting impression of that Social was of informal and spontaneous Jollity,” says The Lowestoftian.
The highlight of the Social seems to have been the Match-Box race between the girls of the hockey and the boys of the football teams.
I have spent some hours researching the match-box race and I now think that I have a complete understanding of its rules and nuances. I also believe that I have the perfect nose for the event.
It is a relay race for teams of six, each of which is split into two groups of three with one group at either end of the track. The drawer is removed from a matchbox and the empty sleeve is put on a table in front of the first runner.
On the command “GO!” the runner puts his/her nose into the match-box sleeve, wedges it on to his/her nose and carries it some ten or fifteen yards to competitor number two where it is transferred, nose-to-nose. Any use of the hands leads to instant disqualification. Runner 2 relays it to runner 3 and so on until runner number 6 crosses the finishing line.
The Lowestoftian informs us that “balancing skills and a perfectly proportioned nose are essentials`’ (maybe that's not me) and decisively refutes the suggestion that games are only ever won by brute force. Here, where skill was everything, the boys’ victory was overwhelming.
It would seem that just as much fun and excitement was gained from the Hobble and Poodle race but despite extensive research, I can find nothing about it other than it was an outdoor activity.
I wrote at the beginning that the early editions have a certain quality that shows they are certainly from a time gone by. How about this, the first line of a report on the production of The Mikado:
A more enjoyed “Mikado” never was in this school produced.
This was the final passage in the editor’s message to leavers:
Pro qua incurisse non piget labores, exilium; quia laborando profui, exulando didici. Quia inveni in brevi labore diuturnam requiem, in levi dolore immensum gaudium, in angusto exilio patriam amplissimam.
The editor then wrote:
“This is the language of a great mediaeval philosopher who in 1600 was burned at the stake. It makes a good note on which I can say good-bye - and good luck.”
I think it was Giordano Bruno he was quoting but if it were, a more apposite quote of his would be,
“With luck on your side, you can do without brains.”
I don’t know what the level of learning in the classical languages was at my school 90 years ago but that is way beyond my ‘O’ level Latin grade 6. There are words there that I don’t think are Latin at all: incurisse, exulando, amplissimam. They seem to me to be straight out of Harry Potter.
If you can translate it so that it makes sense, please let me know. I think it says something like, the harder you work the more contented you will be.
My name first appears in the 1961 edition of The Lowestoftian in an Under 15 cricket match report.
v Sir John Leman School (A) - Won by 54 runs.
School 81 (Wilton 31); Sir John Leman 27. (Cassidy 5 - 11).
I find it rather sobering as I read the pre-1930 editions of The Lowestoftian to realise that every teacher and student mentioned is now dead. Nigel Cassidy (above), mentioned in 1961, died in 2008.
As a port, Lowestoft was heavily bombed during the war and In 1941, the school and many of the staff were evacuated to Worksop in Nottinghamshire. In the 1943 edition of The Lowestoftian, you can see the Evacuation song. This is the first verse and the chorus:
We come from Lowestoft by the sea where the weather’s always fine.
It never rains, it’s never cold and the sun will always shine.
You never work, you play all day or lie upon the sand.
You go to sleep or wiggle your toes and listen to the band.
We’ve come to Worksop, Worksop tra la la;
All stuck in Worksop tra la la la.
They mash the tea and wash the pots when we come home from school.
They say we’re mardy when we cry and mucky as a rule.
In the 1947 edition are the names of the 52 Old Boys of the school who were killed on active service during the war.
Incidentally, the lyrics of the song are factually correct in saying that in Lowestoft, the weather’s always fine.
It is the perpetual, constant absence of wind in Lowestoft that almost led to chaos in the Paper Chase of 1924.
