KGV Prefects 1953-54

Thu, 01/25/2018 - 04:32

Photo refers to new Gwulo topic entitled "Corin Crozier"

Front Row (L-R):

  1. Mrs Hill (Head Mistress)
  2. Judith Potter (Head Master's daughter)
  3. Sheila Hall
  4. Elizabeth Grant
  5. Hilary Hale
  6. Arthur L. Potter (Headmaster)
  7. Frank Waller
  8. ?
  9. Charles Sin
  10. ?
  11. Freddie Gambol  (teacher)

Middle row (L-R):

  1. Danielle de Santerre
  2. Wilma Watson
  3. Suzanne Hewson
  4. Corin Crozier
  5. Tim Martin
  6. ?
  7. Peter Kennedy
  8. Gordon (?) Bendall

Back row (L-R):

  1. Mary Fu
  2. Vanessa Giles
  3. Sophie Moalem
  4. Astrid Winship
  5. Brian Booth
  6. Eric McCosh
  7. Jalu Shroff
Date picture taken
30 Nov 1953
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Comments

Thanks for posting this photo. I've added the names you've mentioned - hope I've got them in the right places!

Please add in any more you recognise.

Regards, David

Others in the photo whose names I can remember were:-

Front Row (L-R)

1. Mrs Hill - Head Mistress (not allowed in today's PC world)

2. Judith  Potter   -  Head Master's daughter

3. Sheila Hall

4.  ?

5. Hilary Hale

9. Charles Sin

11.  Freddie Gambol  (teacher)

Middle Row  (L-R)

1. Danielle de Santerre

2.  ?

3. Suzanne Hewson

5. Tim Martin

6.  ?

7.  ?

8.  Gordon (?) Bendall

Back Row  (L-R)

6.  Eric McCosh

7.  Jalu Shroff

 

I was there from 1954-56. I don't accurately remember Danielle de Santerre but we had her brother Patrick in form 1a in '54.

The figure No. 8 in front row looks rather like a Mr. John O'Hanrahan who was our Latin master and who sadly died in early 1956. But it might not be him.

Mr. Potter must have been replaced by Mr. Sargison before I arrived.

Mrs Hill was our Maths teacher, a very firm lady and excellent teacher.

Jalu (Jal?) Shroff was later Head Boy.

Unfortunately I cannot remember many photos being taken in our years, it didn't seem an important activity!

Hello Eric
Always nice to hear from someone who also attended KGV, even though separated by quite a few years.
Re. your comments, I remember Mr O'Hanrahan but no. 8 in the photo was not him. In that position was an American chap whose name I just can't remember, even though he sat next to me as deputy head boy! I hadn't realized that Jal (or Jalu?) Shroff later became Head Prefect but Charles Sin replaced me when I left. He later became a very prominent lawyer in Hong Kong.
Best Regard  -  Frank Waller

Many thanks for your reply, Frank. One other name has jogged my memory - McCosh. I remember a Bill McCosh, who must have been this one's brother, who was at Gun Club Hill school same time as me in 1953. We used to travel to school in an Army three-tonner with canvas sides and slatted wooden seats. Happy days!

I have tried to get on the KGV website archive section but the site has changed in the last year or so and I now find it virtually unusable. There used to be a section in the Allumni page dealing with 'lost allumni' and I found quite a few of my old partners in crime there, but it no longer seems to be accessible.

Kind regards,

Eric

Hello again Eric

The Eric McCosh in the photo may well have had a younger brother called Bill. I remember that Eric joined the police after leaving school and also became a leading local hockey player, but thereafter I sort of lost touch with him.

I also had a dabble with the KGV Allumni page some years ago but I found it very frustrating in that just about everyone featured had not even been born in my final year at KGV. And I couldn't find anyone i knew, apart from Charles Sin and Tim Martin, who also feature in my photo. If any of my other old school colleagues are still around today they have clearly not heard about Gwulo or most probably never even learned how to use a computer!

I live in hope that sooner or later someone from that era will emerge!

I spent most of my working years in Hong Kong with some shorter spells in exotic places like Taiwan, Thailand and Saudi Arabia before retiring in England.

How about you? Did you stay in Hong Kong or move on elsewhere?

Cheers!  -  Frank

 

Hi Frank,

Regretfully I have never been back to Hong Kong since we left in 1956, but I have a hope to remedy this in the near future.

My father was posted there, a Captain in the RAOC, in 1953. We travelled out on the Empire Orwell. We lived in a number of rental properties until he had acquired enough 'points' to qualify for an Army quarter - seven months before the end of our three year tour. Life in the mlitary doesn't seem to have changed much. I was 10 when we arrived and 13 when we left. Unfortunately much of our thinking time was devoted to planning what we would do when we got home, rather than making the most of our time there. However my father did write a book about his experiences of Hong Kong life, which was never published. He died in 2010 and the manuscript, in fading typewritten pages in a Croxley box, passed to me. Eventually I found out about the process of self-publishing and at the end of last year put it on Amazon. It is called 'Fragrant Springs' if anyone wants to look it up.

Three years was not a large portion of one's life, but it has stuck in my memory more than any other single period. But don't tell my wife that!

Kind regards,

Eric.

I am able to fill in some of the missing names in the photo of KGV Prefects 1953-54

Front Row #4 Elizabeth Grant

Middle Row  #2 Wilma Watson,   #7 Peter Kennedy

Back Row #1 Mary Fu,  #2 Vanessa Giles,  #3 Sophie Moalem,  #4 Astrid Winship,  #5 Brian Booth

Regards, Maunie Kwok