Welcome to another interim edition of "Notes and News", whilst I remain in turmoil.
Well I am now back in Harrow, and the first card that someone offered me as an illustration for this week was this one, which, rather amazingly, is not already in the index. However it did not turn out to be the story I intended to tell at all, because though the front says "Harrow", when you turn the card over and read the reverse there is rather a surprise, for it does not actually deal with the main group of schools that are based on the slopes and brow of Harrow Hill; instead it features the County School for Boys in Gayton Road, which is very much on the lower slopes, about a kilometre away and twelve to fifteen minutes walk.
This "other" educational establishment is also much more recent in its foundation than the original school on the hill which was founded in 1572 by a local farmer called John Lyon, who was then almost sixty years old.
Strangely, John Lyon was not born a local, he was part of the Lyons family of Northamptonshire, but they owned land at Harrow on the Hill, and at a place called Preston near Kingsbury, which has led to many people blithely saying that he came from the City of Preston, Lancashire, which he did not. Even more interestingly they owned land and property closer to London, in the area of Marylebone. Our man is also frequently described as a farmer, which suggests he toiled on the soil, which he did not, he was a farmer in as much as he owned the farm on which other people worked, and, in fact, he was one of the richest men living in the Harrow area, for it is recorded that he was the resident noted as having the most income from the rental of the borough`s lands and properties. The way that is worded suggests, and strongly, that it did not include the sites in Marylebone, which was outside the Harrow area.
Despite his wealth, he was unsuccessful at having any children, something he regretted very much, and so he faced his ending, and the ending of his lineage, with uncertainty. What he did was to set up a trust for the maintenance and improvement of the Harrow Road and the Edgware Road, along which he presumably travelled between his properties, and a charity for young children. He had already been supporting several local children with their education, providing moneys and materials, and when this came to the attention of Queen Elizabeth the First, she granted him a Royal Charter to found a free Grammar School for the education of boys from the Harrow area.
That charter was granted on the 13th of February 1572, but it took a long time to begin construction and the first actual schoolroom, the Fourth Form Room, part of what are known as the "Old Schools", was not opened until 1615, some twenty-three years after his death and almost eight years after his wife`s. Both are buried in St. Mary`s Churchyard, by the way, on top of the Hill.
As for Harrow County School for Boys, the subject of our card, that was founded in October 1911. Our card was issued in 1929, in two sizes, and the text on both is identical, telling us that it was by then a "Secondary School administered by the Local Education Authority, inspected and recognised as efficient by the Board of Education". In fact that system had been in force when the school was founded, because it was the Education Act of 1902 that took the powers from the current school boards and gave them over to the local council.
Many famous people attended the school, but one who stands out to me is J.N. Boothman, showing here as card 6 of Lambert & Butler`s "Famous British Airmen and Airwomen", issued in 1935. You can read more about this set in our newsletter of the 3rd of June 2023, where it is the diary card for Friday 9 June
Sir John Nelson Boothman was born on the 19th of February 1901 and rose to the rank of Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Air Force, but, as our card tells us, he "learned to fly at Cricklewood in 1917, but being under age was ineligible for war service with the R.F.C." - or the Royal Flying Corps. Now at that time Cricklewood Aerodrome was the home of Handley Page Limited, who had relocated there en bloc in 1912 from their separate premises at Barking Creek, Fambridge, and Woolwich.
Our man took until 1921 to join the forces, and by then the Royal Flying Corps was no more, it was the Royal Air Force. And despite his flying experience he was sent back to school at R.A.F. Upavon in Wiltshire, though he must have liked it there as he stayed on after he had passed the examinations and became an instructor.
His greatest claim to fame is that in 1931 he won the Schneider Trophy in the Supermarine S.6.B. Sadly for him, and for us, this was too late to feature in Godfrey Phillips` "Speed Champions" (1930), which devotes several cards to the crew who took part in the 1929 event. His aeroplane is luckier, and you can find that on card 39 of the British version of Brooke Bond`s "Transport Through The Ages", card 38 of the Canadian version of that set, and card 36 of Rossi`s "The History of Flight" - second series. Probably others too!
In 1935 he moved on to the R.A.F. Staff College at Andover, and went on to to serve with Coastal Command, Bomber Command, and also to become an adviser to the United States Air Force. After the Second World War he was sent to Iraq, and returned to this country in 1950, ending up as Air Officer Commanding in Chief for Coastal Command, from where he retired in April 1956. And sadly he died not too long after that, on the 29th of December 1957, aged just 56.
The school was only re-christened to Gayton High School in 1975. After that it gained a reputation for sporting prowess, especially cricket, which is also featured on the Carreras card, and both Angus Fraser and Mark Ramprakash attended. In fact that card could well be a sleeper for cricket collectors, not just through the connection with those two men, but because it shows a bat, artfully posed, but one they will now look out for.
Then in the 1980s it merged with the nearby Harrow High School and it was decided to keep the former County School building, but the name of the other school, though the alumni continue to be called Old Gaytonians. In 1998, girls were allowed to attend the school for the first time. And in 2011 it became an Academy.
However I seriously doubt that this school features on any other cards, and that actually makes me wonder if Carreras didn`t get it slightly wrong, and believe this was the schools on the hill...?
This Week`s events and meetings :
Sunday the 9th of August - two meetings
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Cheshire - from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., at Larkhill Community Centre in Thorley Lane, Timperley WA15 7AZ. Admission Fees : £2 per person
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Hants & Surrey - from 1.30 to 4.30 p.m., at Normandy Village Hall, Manor Fruit Farm, Glaziers Lane, Normandy, GU3 2DD. Admission free to all collectors
Thursday the 13th of August -
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Cotswolds - from 7 p.m. at Uckington Village Hall, The Green, Tewkesbury Road, Uckington, Cheltenham GL51 9SR
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Reading - from 7.30 pm (for 8 pm start) at Charvil Village Hall, Park Lane, Charvil, Twyford RG10 9TR. Admission free to all collectors.
Saturday the 15th of August -
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East Anglia - from 8.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. - with auction at 11 p.m - at Roydon Village Hall, High Road, Roydon, Diss, Norfolk IP22 5RB. EACC members free with annual subscription, visitors pay £3
In the mean time...
I have been steadily working through the back issues of our newsletters which were yet to be indexed. We are now in 2022, and this week thirty-six more cards have gone in to said index, these being the diary cards for the 3rd of December 2022, the 10th of December 2022, the 17th of December 2022, the 24th of December 2022 and the 31st of December 2022. And tomorrow I will start moving back into November 2022.
As for newsletters past which were published around this week in years gone by, they are as follows :
And if you have any updates, comments, or suggestions for any of those, do please let us know, by emailing webmaster@card-world.co.uk.