Ian Bailey’s War: Operation Anthropoid

The story of Ian Bailey’s night guarding Deputy Nazi Fuhrer Rudolf Hess in a cell at Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow is well known. Hess was probably certifiably insane and was no loss to the Nazi cause. Perhaps surprisingly, however, only one leading Nazi left the German power structure due to assassination and Ian Bailey had a hand in that too! SS Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich was a key member of Hitler’s entourage and a special favourite of the Fuhrer perhaps because of his typically Aryan looks and also because of his ruthless efficiency. It was he who chaired the fateful Wannsee Conference in January 1942 that decided on the implementation of “The Final Solution”. In September 1941 he had taken over as the “Protector” of Czechoslovakia which had been invaded by Germany in March 1939. His cruel leadership led the Czech government in exile headed by Prime Minister Eduard Benes to decide on a daring plan to assassinate Heydrich. Two agents (one Czech, one Slovak) were selected for “Operation Anthropoid” and sent to SOE for training. The Special Operations Executive was one of the most secret organizations of the war sending agents to all the Nazi and Italian occupied countries of Europe to commit acts of sabotage, to encourage local resistance and to gain intelligence. Training was rigorous and nearly always  included a stint in a remote estate at Arisaig in the far NW Highlands of Scotland. Here the “students” were taught the dark arts of sabotage, self-defence and if necessary silent killing or assassination.

After his heroics with Hess I suspect Ian Bailey came to the notice of SOE and was recruited. He may have seen active service before becoming an instructor at Arisaig. While he was always happy to talk about the Hess incident he remained tight lipped about his years with SOE with one exception. Of his time at Arisaig he told me with quite some emphasis that he had trained Czech agents – he did not specify any other nationality although there were many there. The two agents who were sent to kill Heydrich were at Arisaig in the autumn of 1941 at exactly the time Ian Bailey was there. I am sure that Ian wanted me to know that he had helped to train the two incredibly brave men who carried out the only successful assassination of a Nazi leader in Prague on 27 May 1942.

The consequences of Heydrich’s demise were dire – over 5000 Czechs were killed in reprisals and the village of Lidice liquidated – Hitler’s fury knew no bounds and Albert Speer had to restrain him by pointing out that Czechs were valuable workers for the German war effort.

So famous is Operation Anthropoid that it has spawned no less than 11 films the best known being Operation Daybreak (1974) and Anthropoid (2016) – the latter  starring Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan. The Arisaig scenes feature the men who trained the agents but Ian Bailey remained uncredited!

Jeremy Ward

Ian Bailey’s War: Rudolph Hess

Guest post by Jeremy Ward (History 1974 – 1997)

One of the more bizarre incidents of the Second World War involved OM and former teaching staff member Ian Bailey (1913- 2007). The Nazi Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess made the extraordinary decision to fly solo to Scotland in May 1941 to arrange a meeting with the Duke of Hamilton. He hoped that Hamilton would prevail on Churchill’s government to sign a peace treaty with Germany so the latter could get on with its invasion of Soviet Russia   unencumbered by a western front. The plan was carried out without Hitler’s knowledge and with no hope of success as Hamilton had no influence over Churchill.

Nonetheless Hess flew his Mescherschmitt Bf110 to 12 miles short of Glasgow on 7 May 1941 where he crash landed in a field injuring himself in the process. He was apprehended by  a local farmer wielding a pitchfork. The home guard were called and they  handed him over to  the regular army who transported him to Maryhill Barracks in the city where the duty officer Lt Ian Bailey was charged with guarding the German visitor in a cell before he could be fully interrogated. Ian Bailey spent an uncomfortable night with Hitler’s deputy with the latter moaning and groaning with pain from his injured ankle. Outside the cell standing on sentry duty was Corporal Willy Ross later to become Secretary of State for Scotland in Jim Callaghan’s ill-fated Labour government of the 1970s. Hess could hardly have wished for a more distinguished welcoming party!

Dr. Mackay’s Research: “The Fifth Doctor”

It is ten years since School Doctor, and later School Archivist, Dr. Robert Mackay, died. Bob was coming into School to volunteer his services in the archive into his 90s. Along with creating the first archive catalogue, Bob researched and wrote detailed histories of the School Doctors, which make for fascinating reading. In honour of Dr. Mackay, and the work he did for the School, we will be making some of his articles available online. This week, is a biography of the First School Doctor:

Foreword

I have for some time admired the work and writings of Dr. A. A. Mumford, the first medical officer of Manchester Grammar School. It seemed to me that he held views and practised medicine with children which was at least fifty years ahead of his time. He was, in every sense, a community paediatrician and although he started in medicine as a general practitioner, he became a consultant in children’s diseases as a result of the development of his own interests. His research work at the Grammar School and his teaching in lectures to earned bodies emphasised his belief that doctors should be working to promote the normal, healthy development of young people. When I discovered that apart from his own writings, there were only fragmentary records of his life in School, I felt inspired to research his life and write a short biographical paper about him.

I started this in 1998 and completed the study in 1999. By this time I had developed my interest in the project to feel that there was some virtue in continuing the writing to record the lives of the doctors who followed Dr. Mumford in the post as a contribution to the School archives. The information in School about these colleagues was just as sparse and amounted only to Ulula reports, though much more was discovered by research. I did not complete the paper about the fourth School doctor until early 2002. During 2001 there were hints and suggestions, with increasing frequency and insistence that I must write about the fifth doctor, myself, to complete the series. I felt, and still fell, unwilling to write an autobiography but because the information about the actual work done in School by the doctor has been so scanty since the days of Dr. Mumford, I now believe that there can be some usefulness in describing the work we have done in the last twenty years in developing the service to its present level. For the sake of completeness , I have included my curriculum vitae as a coda to this last section.

So many people, in School and elsewhere, have given me willing assistance in compiling these studies that it would be tedious to list them all here. All have been acknowledged at the end of each chapter except for the High Master, who graciously allowed me to appoint myself Honorary Medical Archivist on my retirement.

The Fifth Doctor

In January 1982 I received a letter from Dr. George Komrower, Old Mancunian and Governor, enclosing a copy of a letter to himself from the High Master, David Maland, writing after the sudden and tragic death of Dr. Arthur Berwitz. The High Master sought Dr. Komrower’s guidance in recruiting a Medical Officer for the School. As a personal friend and colleague of many years standing, George asked me for suggestions of some names of doctors who might be available and willing to serve. I did not know at the time that, apart from the practice adopted for the appointment of my predecessor, the School had always “headhunted” for a School doctor. I canvassed among my paediatric colleagues and eventually produced a list of five names including my own.

Why was I interested? I had retired from hospital paediatrics in 1980 and was working in Community Child Health part time. I had some spare time in the week for a new activity and though I had had many years of experience in “educational medicine” with children with severe disabilities and severe learning problems, I was interested in medical involvement with healthy adolescents.

I had a personal interest in being part of Manchester Grammar School. I had never attended as a pupil but I had known about the School from very early childhood. My father was an Old Mancunian (1904 – 1906) and I had admired his blazer with the First Eleven Cricket colours and the badge outlined in silver wire. His bat was enormous and I was told that I could use it only when I myself was in a first eleven. For reasons I never understood, I was taken to Long Millgate when I was very young to a building I found dark, cold and with lots of stone steps. We visited that gymnasium to meet Mr. J. Macaulay, the Head of Physical Instruction (1906 – 1945) having been an instructor since 1898. Two of my uncles were Old Mancunians and three of my cousins but I was never submitted for the Entrance Examination and MGS for the time being passed out of my life. So there were deep reasons why I added my name to the list and I have never regretted it.

As a result of this correspondence I was invited for interview with the High Master on May 11th and was appointed. Because of the pressing need for medical cover I was asked to start during the Summer term in 1982 and I attended for my first session on May 26th.

It is a matter of coincidence that all the doctors who have attended the School have taken their training in Manchester. I graduated in medicine in 1943 with Second Class Honours and prizes in Medicine and Surgery. I decided that I wanted to practice in paediatrics and took the necessary diplomas to qualify as a consultant. All this happened during the war the it is relevant that I was examined on several occasions by medical boards and pronounced unfit for military service. I therefore spent the war working in hospital departments not always in paediatrics.

So little has been recorded of the actual work of the doctor in the School since the chapter in Doctor Mumford’s book “Healthy Growth” (1927) that I have decided to give an account of the working of the team and how the programme has evolved.

The School Medical Service

I consider that, in a day school such as Manchester Grammar School, the functions of the school doctor as expressed in the work of the medical team are –

1. To provide first line and emergency care for acute physical and psychological conditions affecting members of the School community
2. To facilitate the adjustment to a full school life of pupils and staff burdened by ailments, disorders and disabilities having implications for life-style
3. To foster a healthy environment and healthy, non-traumatic procedures in school life by advice to academic and managerial staff
4. To invoke the co-operation of parents in furthering the adjustment of their son to a full school life.
5. To provide a source of modern information and guidance on healthy life-styles
6. To foster unimpeded growth and development of the young people in the School community
7. To relieve the academic staff of the distraction and burden of the responsibility of attention to acute illness and injury in pupils
8. To provide information and support to staff in supervision of extra curricular activities

The Medical Room

At some stage the ‘surgery’ was moved from the room occupied by Mrs. Furby in 1975 to a pair of rooms off the Theatre Corridor. These rooms had no natural light nor ventilation and were each about 10ft by 8ft in size. One of these rooms was used as a rest area, waiting room and overspill. The other was used for all other medical and general purposes. It was obviously cramped and unpleasant for the boys as well as ourselves.

After 1988 we began to campaign more vigorously for expanded accommodation and eventually space was released in a room at the eastern end of the main corridor opposite to the refectory. This had once been a science laboratory and was at the time the office of Dr. John Willson (Head of Science).

Although this room was an unusual shape, it was stripped and divided into a suite of rooms providing a waiting area, a therapy/consulting room, an office/privacy area, a rest and recovery area with three beds, a sanitary area with sluice and a stock room. This suite has direct skylight illumination and one opening window, heating and forced ventilation and appropriate plumbing. This improved accommodation transformed that quality of the service given and the working conditions of the medical team.

The development of extended premises made it possible to meet the increasing demands but it has been necessary to upgrade and modernise equipment to acceptable standards. An ambulance chair and a wheelchair with leg supports were purchased and the standard diagnostic equipment upgraded with an electronic sphygmomanometer and thermometer. A small refrigerator is used for storage of vaccines, cold compresses and other medicaments requiring refrigeration. The old fashioned steriliser has been replaced with a modern autoclave.

Since that time a private interview room (for counselling) has been provided a few yards away.

The availability of these facilities has les to a great increase in demand. The number of attendances per day varies greatly with the season, current epidemics and the distraction of examinations. Monthly averages reviewed regularly during my period of tenure and reported to the High Master, were about 40 per day with daily peaks from time to time of 50, 60 and a record 70 attendances in one day. In the last two years attendances have increased markedly with a daily average each month of approximately 60. The reasons for attendance varied from day to day, the most frequent being injury of some kind. These were mostly minor accidents and mishaps among the junior boys reflecting lack of co-ordination in a busy, unfamiliar environment and japes and fights. The senior boys mostly attended with sports injuries. In the last two years the balance of problems has altered with a great increase in attendances for consultation on personal problems and injuries are now a much less frequent cause of attendance. Sometimes there are more dramatic incidents but these are rare. Whereas the minor trauma can be dealt with in school, the more serious injuries are, after evaluation by the School Nurse, referred to hospital after parents have been informed.

Another large group present with minor acute intercurrent infections, mostly respiratory or alimentary, usually sporadic but sometimes in epidemic form. This pattern reflects the season of the year and holiday exposures. Again the policy is to provide simple symptomatic treatment to allow the boy to return quickly to class (no antibiotics are used) and in more severe illness a boy may have a period of rest and recovery or may be sent home in the care of a parents A wide variety of complaints not covered by these headings is seen every day and appropriate consultation and therapy is offered.

Psychological problems are a frequent cause of a boy seeking advice. None of these are ‘minor’ but many can be solved by a short discussions and reassurance but serious psychological illness does present perhaps with unacceptable behaviour reactions or with frank psychiatric symptoms. These boys require lengthy counselling interviews with appropriate consultation with parents, academic staff, general practitioners, psychologist and child psychiatrists. Frequently the School Nurse may spend many hours attending to these boys involving consultations in and out of school, home visits and case conferences with other professionals.

Medical Examinations

Because of the sudden death of Dr. Berwitz in December, the medical examinations of the first year entrants of 1981 had not been completed. We decided that the completion of those examinations was the first priority and in spite of any demands of the academic timetable, I worked on those until the end of term.

In the National School Medical Service, it had been a statutory requirement that pupils must be examined by the doctor five times, at specified intervals during school life. Dr. Mumford examined all boys each year and Dr. Brockbank had a medical interview with each boy every year and examined those in whom he felt that there was an indication. He did not always achieve 100% contacts and particularly regretted the shortcomings in the early days of the War. The usefulness of frequent examinations has diminished over the years with the improving health of young people. At the time of my appointment there were arrangements for two examinations – in the first and the fourth years.

My first administrative decision was to cancel the fourth examinations. In the first place, there was little justification for the interruption of studies in that age group for so little outcome and in the face of the backlog of work facing me, the examination of fourth years was an unrealistic project.

Over the years some details of the practice of first year examinations have changed but we evolved certain routines, the aim of the procedures being to ensure that every boy who was physically able to participate in all school activities could do so without reservation and that, in those instances of a boy having some limiting conditions, the academic staff were made aware of special circumstances requiring observation and care.

The routines were as follows:

Medical examinations were not started until the Michaelmas half-term to allow boys to become adjusted to the school routines and we hoped to be able to complete the series by the end of January.

In recent years, each form was visited by the School Nurse in the week before the examination was due to explain the system and reassure the boys – in particular that no needles would be used for any purpose whatever! In spite of this, scare stories persisted. During that week boys attended the Medical Room for vision tests and to present specimens of urine. (Special consent for that examination is now requested). We endeavoured to complete the examinations of a form within one week and during the sessions of that week boys were invited in twos and threes to attend the Medical Room. In this way, no boy missed a significant amount of a lesson and there was no crowding. The School Nurse marshalled the boys and was present in the suite during examinations. The examination itself was conducted with each boy in privacy, separated from his classmates with the Nurse observing.

The Medical Report submitted by the parents were discussed with each boy in turn to confirm that he knew his own medical history and immunisation status. The examination was very basic and was explained as it proceeded. It started with an accurate measurement of height and weight. Blood pressure was measured on each boy and those with asthma had an estimation of peak flow. Special procedures were used for boys with specific disorders but none of these were invasive.

At the completion of the examination the results were explained to each boy and appropriate comments made about health care and any need for re-examination . The interview ended with an invitation to questions.

The purposes of the interview were:

• To introduce boys to the Medical Room and service
• To determine that each boy was physically fit for the routines of School life
• To consider whether any condition reported or discovered might have an adverse effect in participation in school activities
• To draw the attention of boys with established disorders to their own responsibilities for health care
• To determine which boys by reason of established disorders needed particular awareness of the academic staff

The number of interviews and examinations each reflected the total intake into the first and later years. Usually every boy entering the first forms was examined. Later entrants, after explanation, were invited for examination but those over 16 years were given the option. This resulted in between 200 and 220 boys attending for examination in a season. About 15% of boys were known to have asthma and 15% were found to be significantly overweight. Unsuspected conditions of significance were revealed in between 3% and 7% of boys in different years.

For most boys the medical examination is a single learning experience. A small proportion of the group require more careful attention.

Boys with asthma were quizzed about their treatment and management to ensure that they understood the routines and that the Medical Room team was available in the event of problems. Boys significantly overweight were advised and re-invited subsequently for review.

The High Master was advised, with individual parental consent, of boys with significant disorders who might require special supervision and care in school life. Staff were invited and encouraged to ask for guidance on particular situations.

When findings emerged of important aspects of new or established conditions, I wrote to the parents with an explanation, an offer of consultation and advice to seek the opinion of the family doctor. In special situations I would write to the general practitioner but not as a routine.

Consultations

At each session I was available for consultation, in the first place with the School Nurse. When an opportunity presented we would discuss the problems of certain boys who had consulted her during the previous few days. These problems might have been physical or psychological origin but in cases of counselling the details remained confidential to the individual. The discussion might have been about management of physical problems and on occasion appointments would be made for boys to attend the Medical Room for full consultation. After explanation and the consent of the boy’s parents were also invited to attend for some consultations when circumstances indicated it but the Nurse had usually spoken to the parents beforehand suggesting that course of action and a report of my opinion was given afterwards either by phone or letter or both.

Members of the academic staff also attended for consultation about individual boys and sometimes with the parents for a general conference.

The only situation requiring a regular review was concerning boys who were judged to be significantly overweight on the initial examination. The judgment was made with reference to growth centiles and body mass index. I felt an obligation in the early 1980s to try to give these boys guidance on weight control and a healthy lifestyle in the hope of preserving their health in years to come. I had organised “weight clinics” in Salford in the 1960s and medical advice on this subject has become even more firm in recent times. Boys were invited every six months for review of their measurements and each time there was an explanation of the results with encouragement and advice as appropriate. This “clinic” was scheduled to detain boys for as short a time as possible and they were always given the option to attend in their free time if they felt any embarrassment. After each consultation a letter was sent to the parents quoting the measurements, their significance and the advice given to the boy. On the whole the letters were appreciated by the parents but there was an occasional protest and disagreement. On receipt of any objection, the sequence was cancelled. It was also necessary to discuss routine administrative matters and review policies and protocols.

Growth Survey

These consultations underlined for me a dissatisfaction with the growth centile charts available for children in the UK at that time. The original measurements for these charts had been made in 1959, though a Growth Study was in hand, no results had so far been published. I therefore sought the permission of the High Master, Mr. J.G. Parker, to conduct a measurement study in school. I managed to arrange to measure the height and weight of all boys in the school on two occasions in 1990 and 1991. From these studies we constructed, with the help of Alan Pickwick, the basis of a set of centile charts for the assessment of height and weight in clinical consultation. It so happened that the data from the Child Development Study was made available quite soon afterwards but our charts were still relevant to Grammar School boys. They enabled me to make comparisons with measurements made by Dr. Mumford and earlier observers in school. It is not surprising that the mean values for MGS boys were greater than the current national means and the means of measurements made over the past century. This work was done in the afternoons in my own time and was not charged to the School.

Health Education

Whereas Dr. Mumford and Dr. Brockbank gave regular lectures on health and medical topics, the modern curriculum in biological sciences and chemistry includes much that counts as health education and so my contribution was less expensive. I was invited to speak to junior and senior classes in biology on several occasions. i arranged exhibitions in the Display Area on genera health matters, on alcohol and on smoking. These were mounted for a few days at a time but involved an immense amount of work with the willing co-operation of the academic staff but the usefulness was very small and I did not pursue this programme. In recent years some medical experts have been invited to speak to senior boys, in particular a regular seminar on testicular cancer was arranged for seventh year leavers. Gradually, the tole of the health education in class was taken over by the School Nurse. who now addresses boys in form periods about First Aid and Health Promotion topics.

Immunisation Sessions

Routine and special sessions for immunisation were provided by the Mancunian Health Trust. The local administration and preparation was in the hands of the School Nurse with the help of the prefects but the Medical Room was the actual work-station. The routine administration of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Polio was done by the Trust team but I regularly took part in the BCG programme and in the special national programme on Meningitis C in 1999 – 2000.

We advised the school on prophylaxis for overseas trips through staff and boys were referred to their family practitioners or travel clinics for the injections or prescriptions.

Environmental Inspections

I made an inspection each year of the School environment and gave advice to the High Master and the Receiver/Bursar on matters affecting the health of the community. This started in early days when I was taken to observe and comments on an outbreak of vandalism in toilets. This made me realise that no-one had made an inspection for some years and that the Environmental Health Department was not involved. From that time, apart from special circumstances, I made an annual tour of the school including all departments, at first with the Clerk of Works of the time, Mr. Tom Hudson and latterly with the Caretake, Mr. Harry Bardsley. I was invited to inspect the Owl’s Nest on more than one occasion but not visit regularly. I made suggestions about dealing with the consequences of boys playing games in a field used for grazing and on one visit noticed a jar of peanut butter in the kitchen which I felt was an unnecessary hazard.

My reports included structural as well as management problems when I considered that they represented health risks to the community and were made in support of departmental managers. I was encouraged by the response of the school to my observations which led to an improvement in facilities, a reduction in vandalism and a modification of priorities to deal with health risks. Not everything was accomplished overnight, in particular the apparently simple procedure of opening classroom windows when occupied was most resistant to change. Mouse infestation was also resistant to attack not unrelated to the habit of disposing of unwanted food and wrappings in the desks and lockers in classrooms. This hazard was reduced by removing desks and lockers but an alternative risk was produced, in spite of clear edicts, in the development of piles of personal luggage in circulation areas.

A special inspection was called for after it was discovered that one of the waste disposal units in the kitchen had become deranged, discharging effluent into the basement instead of the drains. Fortunately, the doctor was not called for until after completion of the cleaning procedures which were meticulous.

I.T.

When I had been introduced to stores of old medical records in the cellars, in dusty confusion, I realised that a system of computerised medical records was the modern method of providing storage and retrieval. Medicine had not, at that time, clarified its ideas about the use of computers in medical practice and there was much talk about computers in diagnosis (perhaps the most difficult and questionable use) rather than tackling problems of records and communication. When I raised this matter in my reports, the High Master (then David Maland) was less than enthusiastic and I was discouraged. However, I sought out the colleagues on the academic staff who I thought might be more understanding. They were sympathetic and tried to be helpful but we made very slow progress. At first individual boys with computer skills were delegated to write suitable programmes but none were successful and the idea withered away. All the time the I.T. facilities in the School were advancing and the concept of computers in the medical service became more acceptable and natural. I continued with my efforts and persuaded Alan Pickwick to support me. After preliminary discussions he wrote the first useable programme for the Unix mainframe computer and I started to enter the data of medical records in 1993. The data were basic – identification detail a shorthand note of the medical examination and outcome and the immunisation record. Although we had attempted it, the record of daily attendances was beyond our resources. This was partly because the input depended entirely on my own efforts and time. As with the Growth Survey, this input was done after the routines had been dealt with and in my ow time, often after lunch. When the school system was changed to P.C. and Windows 95 the programme changed and we had to learn all over again but Alan rescued me for the second time by transferring all the Unix data onto the new system. Advice and training was also provided by Simon Duffy and the new I.T. department which included a patient consideration of commercial programmes on medical records. These proved to be unsuitable and far too expensive.

By the time I retired from the post of Medical Officer, we had seven years of complete records as designed which were constantly being retrieved by the medical room staff and individual records examined on request by pupils. The acme of achievement of my ambitions was when we were able, in September 2000, to provide each school leaver which a print-out of his personal immunisation history to take to his university medical service.

Administration

The Medical Room is a small unit and we are responsible for our own administration and budget control. Time must be found for discussion and decision on the medical system itself, the acquisition of equipment, stores and medicaments. Medical records must be prepared, completed and filed with respect for confidentiality. The procedures of consultation and therapy must be set up and modified in the light of experience. Protocols must be agreed and prepared in support of the working practices. Policies and management processed must be discussed with the academic and managerial colleagues and expenditure agreed. There is no set allocation of time for this work and much of the negotiation is done by the School Nurse.

After the half-term break each term I arranged an interview with the High Master to make an interim report on the work of the Medical Room, raising matters of administration and receiving his requests and suggestions. After the completion of the first year medical examinations, the High Master was furnished with a list of boys in the School who had ailments, disorders or disabilities requiring special supervision and care. The list was updated annually and the academic staff were invited to seek explanation and elaboration as they required. During the Summer Term, several weeks before the Summer Governors’ Meeting, I prepared a full report on the work done during the year. In this, significant illnesses and disorders were included. The report covered the outcome of the environmental inspection, a copy of which was presented to the Receiver (Bursar). The findings were discussed with the High Master at the Summer half-term meeting.

The School Nurse

In the area of medical work in schools, the nurse has had the primary role. Whether in the State schools as surveyor or adviser on health, as therapist in the school clinics, as ‘not nurse’ carrying out health inspections or as Matron in the boarding schools, the major portion of work was done by the nurse. School doctors had a supervisory role in times when it was regarded as necessary for the burse to have a medical person “in charge” to provide a statutory “cover”. Doctors had to provide for the regular statutory medical inspections and authorise the scheduled permitted treatments for minor disorders. In recent years nurses have been given greater responsibility and independence of action in attending to patients in many branches of medical practice and the role of the doctor in educational medicine has concentrated into some specialist fields though still providing a source of opinion for the nurse working in school. The work I have accomplished in School was only possible with the loyal co-operation of the School Nurses.

Mrs. Firby, the first to be appointed as School Nurse to Manchester Grammar School, took up duties in September 1975 and resigned in December 1979. Mrs. Anita McHugh followed her in January 1980 and was in post during the tenure of Dr. Berwitz for almost two years and unsupported after his death until my appointment in 1982. She held the post until her resignation in September 1988. After advertisement we appointed Mrs. Eileen Melody as School Nurse in the Michaelmas term of 1988. A second nurse (Mrs. K. Kitson) was recruited in 1993 as a part-time post to support Mrs.. Melody during busy periods and to cover study and sick leave. Mrs. Kitson resigned in 2000 and Mrs. F. MacNamara, a senior Practice Nurse with special qualifications in the management of asthma and of diabetes, was appointed in her place.

The prime duty of the School Nurse is to provide professional support for pupils and staff who develop acute illness, suffer injury or are overcome by psychological problems. Fourteen years ago, some 10-12 attendances per day was usual but this rapidly increased and now (2002) provision must be made for 60 attendances in a day. The majority of these are for acute illness or injury, most of them of minor degree (except to the afflicted). Psychological problems due to stress factors in school or situations at home may be reason for consultation but occasionally there are manifestations of underlying mental illness. It was been possible in recent years to make special provision for the 15% of boys who suffer from asthma.

Most of the problems can be dealt with by explanation and reassurance and the use of simple remedies for physical symptoms. More serious conditions may require referral after reporting to a parent for consent and support. Attendance on the individuals who seek help is not always a simple remedy speedily administered. The distress associated with an injury or the incoherent misery of a person stressed by a crisis may call for an extended interview, reference to staff or parents or a prolonger series of interviews considered as “counselling”. Both the duty nurses have specialist qualifications in counselling and recently a separate room has been provided, adjacent to the medical room, appropriate for prolonged interviews. Sometimes these situations require the contribution of other professionals, academic staff, specialist outside the school organisation and parents. The service has access to outside organisations, such as 42nd St., Gaddum Centre, the Brook Advisory Centre and eating disorders clinics for advice and support.

These provisions make it possible to give serious attention to instances of bullying, abuse, personal breakdown and mental illness. The presence of two nurses in school makes it possible to devote the enormous amount of time necessary to help the individual in distress without suspending the service to acute incidents.

A great deal of time is spent in consultation with parents, either by telephone or in personal consultation with or without appointment. A form tutor or other staff member may consult the nurse and/or doctor about an illness, disability or behaviour problem in a particular pupil, asking for advice on management and care. In such cases the rules of confidentiality are scrupulously observed.

The administration of a busy department also involves stock-taking and ordering of apparatus and medicaments. Much time and thought has been expended on improving documentation, referral letters, accident report forms, protocols and inventories to satisfy modern requirements of professional standards. Almost all medicinal treatment is with medication available to the public but medical authorisation of all medication on the inventory is underwritten by the School Medical Officer. The nurse also attends to the provision, equipment and replenishing of the 28 First Aid Boxes in the school departments and the kits taken to camps and on expeditions. The School Nurses are now involved in Open Days and Parents’ Evenings attending a stall displaying information about the medical service in school.

The School Nurse is, above all, an educator – in health matters. Every consultation and treatment includes explanation and instruction in the proper way to promote healing and avoid unnecessary complications. The Medical Room has several notice boards with posters and announcements of health topics and there is a rack of leaflets on relevant health matters of interest to boys. A major subject included in these displays is confidentiality – a subject very new to junior boys and one which needs emphasis from time to time.

The more formal Health Education involves didactic teaching in classes or groups and over recent years a systematic programme has developed involving the nurses in teaching in form periods on health promotion and First Aid. The nurses also provide a source of information for staff. In the first place, the doctor and nurses are part of the staff induction programme to explain the role of the medical department and the contribution it can make to the educational environment. The nurses are available to advise staff on general and particular problems in the care of pupils both in school and on extracurricular activities. Special advice may be given regarding certain sporting activities concerning the general safety of participants or the requirements of individual boys. Support for extra-curricular activities also involves detailed discussion with and advice to staff in charge of trips and camps on risk-assessment.

The nurses have taken part in the course planning and delivery of the P.S.E. curriculum. The School Nurse has been active in the development of the Independent School Nurse Forum of the Royal College of Nursing. By cultivating contacts between the nurses in schools in the North West, a vigorous group has grown of which the School Nurse is now the Chair. There are now regular, well-attended meetings with academic programmes for professional development.

Renumeration

I was interested to note an entry in the Minutes of the Governors Meetings of 1928 in which it was recorded that Dr. Mumford had offered to relinquish £300 of his emoluments of £700 to fund the employment of another doctor who would provide service to the Prep Schools. I wondered about the significance of such a reduction in income at the time and what it would mean in modern terms.

Dr. Mumford made a major change in his career in 1908. He sold his general practice, opened consulting rooms in Manchester and moved in to a larger house. This change is recorded in the autobiography of his wife, Mrs. E.E.R. Mumford, “Through rose coloured spectacles” in which she describes the period as one of financial pressures. The larger house was needed to accommodate their increasing family, then of five children (and servants) and the family finances were strained by the loss of income before the consulting practice gained momentum. Mrs. Mumford refers to the appointment to Manchester Grammar School as a significant financial contribution and describes the post as “full-time”.

Twenty years later the financial position must have been more secure to allow Dr. Mumford to make the generous gesture of providing the funds to employ a second doctor. There is no recorded information about Dr. Mumford’s remuneration until 1928 and it may not have been £700 from his appointment. if we apply a cost-of-living index to make a comparison with modern values, the £700 represents £19850 in 2000. [Using the National Archives currency converter gives a sum of £32000 in 2017 terms] A very important amount but not large in relation to the earnings of a consultant today, even in paediatrics. The cost-of-living index is not available for the years before 1918 but there was negative inflation after the Great War and the money might have been worth less in 1908. These comparisons are artificial in that financial priorities were different and Dr. Mumford did have some other appointments as consultant and advisor described in “The First Medical Officer”. Nevertheless, Mrs. Mumford began to write and publish books on nursery education, being invited to lecture to professional bodies and quoted as being an important authority on the subject.

It is not recorded whether the School accepted Dr. Mumford’s offer but Dr. Brockbank was offered, on his appointment, £250 per annum (£7088 in 2000) to provide services to the Prep. Schools o two half days a week. The money would have been a great help to a young doctor of 28, a bachelor, building a consultant career.

When Dr. Mumford retired in 1931, the remuneration was increased to £350 per annum for the responsibility of the whole school complex. Negative inflation still applied in those years and the income was equivalent to £11265 in 2000. Dr. Mumford had been twice that sum only three years earlier but the terms of the appointment had changed and was no longer regarded as “full-time” and probably involved four half days a week.

There is no record of changes in emouluments over the ten years but it is recorded that when Dr. Brockbank left for military service in 1941, he was receiving only £250 per annum (£5925 in 2000) but the Prep. Schools had closed at the beginning of the War and he spent two half days a week in School. There had been two years of significant inflation in 1939 and 1940.

Dr. Fisher accepted the locum post in 1941 at £175 per annum (£4150). It is probably that the financial stresses of wartime restricted the offer made to Dr. Fisher and more than likely that he understood and accepted the financial stringency out of public spirit and a modest and frugal lifestyle. Dr. Fisher took over the post of Medical Officer when Dr. Brockbank moved to academic duties in 1946. Dr. Brockbank had been paid £300 per annum since his return from the Forces (£7000) and Dr. Fisher was appointed with emoluments of £250 per annum (£5840). There is no record of his pay until his resignation due to ill health in 1975 when he was receiving £500 per annum (£2325). Such has been the effect of inflation since 1941.

When the Governors considered the development of a medical service in the school in 1975 according to the suggestions of Dr. Komrower, it was estimated that a full-time school nurse and a doctor attending on two half-days a week could be provided for £3000 per annum (£14000). No records remain of the remuneration of the nurse nor the doctor from 1975 to 1982, nor of the expenses of the service.

I do not recall an offer or negotiations when I began work at the School in 1982. The pay slips for the nine months of the first year, 1982 – 83, record payments amounting to a rate of £30 per session of 3.5 hours which, I presume, represents the scale applied to Dr. Berwitz. The total payment for that period of nine months was £1085 (£2150 in 2000). The rate per session was improved over the years, not always regularly, but the Receiver, Alan Martindale, spoke to me from time to time about increases in line with the improvements in the salaries of the academic staff. We made more than one attempt to discover from the B.M.A. and M.O.S.A. the current sessional rate for doctors attending day schools. We were unable to obtain a quotation from either organisation, being advised that negotiations on this matter were in progress without any completion date offered.

In the final year of the century the sessional rate had risen to £132.45. That was more than double the rate of inflation, which would account for an increase to £62.60 per session. Presumably that is explained by the improvement in salaries of the academic staff over the period. Although it was usual for me to attend the school twice a week, the actual attendance varied. When the medical examinations of entrants were in hand, I attended three times a week and in quiet periods such as the summer term, I would only attend once a week. The total number of sessions in the academic year of 39 weeks was usually about 70. The total payment for 1999-2000, my last full year of employment was £9627. This sum is equivalent to £340 per annum for 1928, the year of Dr. Brockbank’s appointment to attend the Prep. Schools of £300 in 1931 when he served the whole school complex.

Dr. Mackay’s Research: “The First Medical Officer”

It is ten years since School Doctor, and later School Archivist, Dr. Robert Mackay, died. Bob was coming into School to volunteer his services in the archive into his 90s. Along with creating the first archive catalogue, Bob researched and wrote detailed histories of the School Doctors, which make for fascinating reading. In honour of Dr. Mackay, and the work he did for the School, we will be making some of his articles available online. This week, is a biography of the First School Doctor:

Alfred Alexander Mumford was first appointed to the Manchester Grammar school staff in 1909 as Lecturer in Hygiene and Honorary Medical Referee. In this post he followed Dr. G.H. Darwin M.D. (1907-8) and Dr. F.H. Westmacott FRCS (1908 – 9) who held the Lecturer’s post before him. Indeed it was on Dr. Westmacott’s suggestion that he became the Lecturer in Hygiene.

The name of Colonel Westmacott appears regularly in the records of MGS, as an Old Mancunian, a Lecturer in Hygiene and a Governor. In that last capacity he was something of a ’eminence grise’ in the selection and preferment of the Medical Officers to the School.

He was born in 1867 and attended MGS before taking his medical training at the new Owen’s College. He was unsure of his medical career development and worked as a ship’s doctor and then in the far East where he became interested in and proficient in ear, nose and throat surgery. On his return to Manchester he found it difficult to obtain a hospital appointment and took part in the founding of the St. John’s Hospital for the Ear in Byrom Street. It was not until 1913 that he was appointed to the Manchester Royal Infirmary as consultant surgeon.

Dr. Westmacott was a charismatic personality as described in Dr. Brockbank’s book on the lives of MRI doctors. He was a vigorous organiser, in particular in the service of the Volunteer Territorial Force – the forerunner of the Territorial Army. He was a combatant officer, in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in which he was an instructor in musketry and machine guns. He was also Commandant of the Owen’s College company of the OTC. Later he became an officer in the Territorial Medical Service in which he rose to the rank of Major. With this rank he entered the Great War in 1914 in command of the 2nd Western General Hospital and rose the rank of Colonel before demobilisation. As the Lecturer in Hygiene at MGS he promoted the appointment of Dr. Mumford to follow him and later, as a Governor, was instrumental in the appointment of the William Brockbank. He was a loyal and enthusiastic supporter of MGS. He regularly attended the meetings of the Governors, though in the five years before his death he was limited by ill health due to heart disease. He died in 1935 and his will bequeathed £1000 to the Scholarship Aid Fund and £100 towards the furnishing of the Memorial Hall.

The title of the post was soon changed to Medical Advisor. Dr. Mumford made such an impression on the School that Governors invited him in 1910 to take the post of Medical Officer in response to the Education Act of 1906, which established the School Medical Service in the National (State) Schools.

Dr. Mumford was an Old Mancunian. He was born in London (Stoke Newington) on October 29th 1862 to William and Ruth Mumford, the youngest of five children. His father was partner in the family business – retail lace merchants – and a Freeman of the City of London. Because of this, Alfred was able to attend Christ’s Hospital school, at first in the Junior School in Hertford and later at the City School in Newgate Street, Greyfriars. During this time the business was taken over following the bankruptcy of several of their customers, but William and his brother Henry were retained as managers. William moved north with his family to take charge of the Manchester branch and Alfred entered Manchester Grammar School in 1878, being recorded in the form lists for that year as joining Classical Lower Remove. He matriculated from Mathematical Sixth in 1880 and left school with an MGS scholarship for Owen’s College to read for a medical qualification. During the Medical Course he took a B.Sc. probably at the 2nd MB stage in Anatomy and Physiology. He passed the examinations for M.B., Ch.B. in 1887 and since it was common practice in those times, sat and passed the examinations for the Conjoint Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Physicians of London.

The General Practitioner

On qualification, he started in General Practice at Gable Nook, Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1887. At that time it was not required for newly qualified doctors to take hospital posts before practising, and such posts were only obtained through patronage. He continued to study and two years later obtained his M.D. from London University. He continued in general practice until 1908 and his enthusiasm is reflected in an article he wrote for the Manchester Medical School Gazette in 1904 entitled ‘General Practice as a Career’.

His interest in the diseases of children and the study of growth in childhood began at an early stage, for in 1896, together with the celebrated children’s Physicians, Dr. Henry Ashby and Professor Alexander, he founded a scientific association, called “The Manchester Child Study Society”. During his years at MGS, this interest resulted in many articles, addresses and a book “healthy Growth” which is based on his work at the School and at the Greengate Hospital and School.

Alongside his personal general medical practice he held several public appointments before he took the post at MGS. He was District Medical Officer for the Poor Law (1895 – 1909), for the Post Office (1904) and for the G.C.R. Provident Society (1893 – 1909) From 1903 he became Honorary Consultant Physician. This rather special centre had been founded in 1854, first as a school for homeless children which in 1870 included a Medical Mission. Later it became a recognised centre for the management of rickets, a condition all too common in Manchester at that time. Dr. A. A. Mumford’s family also played a part in the Greengate Dispensary, with his wife a member of the Ladies Committee, and their eldest daughter Margaret as teacher-in-charge for two years (1919-20) following her graduation from Girton College Cambridge (2nd class honours in Mathematics) and obtaining a Diploma in Infant and Nursery School Teaching.

The Paediatrician

From 1908 with his appointment as Assistant Physician to the Manchester Northern (Clinical) Hospital and to Manchester Grammar School, Dr. Mumford moved away from general practice into the field of paediatrics. This included a responsibility for sick children at the Northern Hospital and the Greengate Dispensary and healthy and even gifted children at the Grammar School. He moved from Chorlton-cum-Hardy to 44, Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield and opened consulting rooms at 14 St. Ann’s Square.

In 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, he suffered multiple injuries from a serious road accident including what was considered to be fractured skull. He was unable to work for nearly a year with difficulties with speech and concentration. After his return to work he was promoted to Consulting Physician in Children’s Diseases at the Northern Hospital and finally, to Honorary Consulting Physician until his retirement in 1938.

It is of interest to the modern paediatrician that he trained a junior, the famous Dr. Catherine Chisholm who founded The Duchess of York Babies Hospital and who became School Medical Officer to the Manchester High School for Girls, and Dr. Sylvia Guthrie who became the School Medical Officer to the Withington Girls’ School.

The health prospects for children of all walks of life were very different from today. Intercurrent Diseases, infections, tuberculosis and acute rheumatic fever were common at all levels of society and minor ailments no less common than nowadays. There were striking differences in the health and physique between the Grammar School boys and the children attending the Greengate Dispensary. This comparison is explored in chapters of ‘Healthy Growth’. Dr. Mumford studied these results in increasing detail, always relating the increase in weight and stature to the development of physical function and intellectual powers. Although physical disease was a constant threat, he was passionately concerned that schools should promote health by hygienic measures – i.e. by physical exercise – the optimum development of each individual child. He held strongly to the opinion that the ‘modern’ school doctor should be similarly concerned with the positive promotion of health and should not be satisfied with disease medicine. The conclusions formed the material for his Presidential Address to the Manchester Medical Society in 1926. In 1928 he spoke at the Annual General Meeting of M.O.S.A. as a Vice President and he expounded the above views under the title of ‘The School Medical Officer of the Future’.

While he was working at MGS, Dr. Mumford applied (1913) for a vacancy as Lecturer in Children’s Diseases at the Victoria University of Manchester Medical School. With the application he included the testimonial from the High Master, J.L. Paton, quoted here, who had promoted his initial appointment to the school in 1909. In spite of this, Dr. Mumford was unsuccessful in the application. In view of his attitudes and teaching as a prototype of modern Community Paediatrics, it is interesting to speculate on how the development of paediatrics in Manchester and even nationally, might have evolved if he had been appointed. As often happens, he was too far ahead of his contemporaries in an age when the treatment of sick children took priority.

Dr. Mumford had a long-standing involvement with medical scientific societies He joined the Manchester Medical Society in November 1888 when Dr. Henry Ashby as also a member and regularly attended Society meetings. He was elected to the Committee in 1912 and 1913 and in 1921 was elected Vice President. In 1924 he was elected a Life Member and on 5th of May 1926, President of the Society.

During his year as the President of the Manchester Medical Society there is a record of a varied scientific programme. It included lectures by J.S. Haldane on ‘Biology and Medicine’, Dr. John Ward on ‘Spastic Paralysis in Children’, and one by his son Dr. Percival B. Mumford on ‘Skin Disorders’. His Presidential Address on October 6th 1926 was on ‘Physique, Stamina and Efficiency in Schoolboys’. That meeting was held in the Medical School and was honoured by the presence of the Vice Chancellor. Committee business during the year was predictably humdrum but he did chair the discussions on an amendment to Law 10 which had the effect after ratification of deciding on the expulsion of members more than one year and one month in arrears with subscription. A proposal to develop the Medical school Gazette as a medical journal was referred to a Faculty liaison meeting. The Committee minutes record a decisin to give Christmas gratuities to attending staff from £1-10s-0d (£1.50) to the Head Porter to 5/- (25p) for each of the two cleaners. Dr. Mumford does not appear to have held office after 1927.

He joined the Medical Officers of Schools Association (M.O.S.A. – founded in 1884) in 1915 and must have contributed to the affairs of the Association because by 1928 he was a Vice President and in that year he addressed the AGM on the topic ‘The School Medical Officer of the Future’. Although he may have been a members of the Council earlier, the only record of attendance at those meetings in between 1930 and 1933.

He does not seem to have been a member of the British Paediatric Association, which is not surprising since it was not formed until 1928, when he was approaching the end of his career. The B.P.A. was a very small organisation at first, after a very shaky start the first Annual Meeting recorded 56 members, most of them from the academic ‘paediatric’ departments of the British Isles.

There is no record of how long the ‘Manchester Child Study Society’ lasted after his participation in its establishment, but it preceded by 52 years the formation of the Manchester Paediatric Club which later became the Paediatric Section of the Manchester Medical Society.

Dr. Mumford had an advanced understanding of statistics and reported and published his work through academic and scientific bodies of which he was a member – the Manchester Statistical Society, the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and the Manchester Medical Society.

The School Doctor

Dr. Mumford was appointed to the school staff in 1909, as Lecturer in Hygiene and Honorary Medical Referee. In 1910 the post was changed to Medical Advisor and later that year to Medical Officer in response to the Education Act of 1906. The post of Lecturer in Hygiene must have involved the delivery of formal lectures though there is no mention of these until 1911 (Ulula Vol. 39 pg. 50) when a lecture on ‘Health and hygiene’ is included with other notices. In 1912, a lecture on ‘The Working of the Brain’ is listed (Ulula Vol. 40 pg. 162) and later reported (Ulula Vol. 40 pg. 216) as delivered to the Upper School on October 1st and to the Lower School on October 3rd. A report in 1920 (Ulula Vol. 48 pg. 62) mentions a lecture on ‘The crusade against tuberculosis’ as given in 1911-1912 but is not recorded in contemporary issues. It is not clear whether these lectures were part of a special series in the school programme though the announcements are linked with lectures on other topics. Presumably other lectures were part of routine classroom teaching. His abilities in this seem to have impressed J.L. Paton who described him in the testimonial as ‘an excellent teacher – he has the gift of utterance and exposition’.

The only account of Mumford’s clinical work in school is in his book, ‘Healthy Growth’ (1927) published near the end of his time at the school. In it he describes the Entrance Medical Examination and illustrates the record card used (pg. 69). The description of the examination is traditional but does convey his serious concern for the successful adjustment of the young pupil to the school. He emphasises the essential quality of the relationship between school and parents on behalf of that pupil. The description of the examination is general, even diffuse, and no clinical criteria are listed. It is not clear how often review examinations took place or the indications for review. It seems obvious that some reassessment must have been needed on the return of a boy to school after the more serious intercurrent illnesses of the time. The health record card introduced by Dr. Mumford (p. 94 – 95) implies review of two-year cohorts but these refer primarily to physical measurements and academic and athletic development. There is room for only brief notes on the state of health.

The main theme of his publications and lectures was on the pattern of physical development of young people and the relationship of that with personal academic and athletic performance. The annual measurements of boys in the gymnasium were the basis for his studies to which he added his own results of physiological measurements. Tests that he considered of special interest included the use of spirometry, what he called his ‘Persistence Test’ which demonstrated after blowing into a tube containing mercury, how long the subject could maintain the pressure. He also developed the use of ‘The Buoyancy Index’ as early attempt to compare body build.

The School also made a contribution to Dr. Mumford’s work at the Greengate Hospital and School by the provision in 1919 of a number of beds made in school to be used for the daytime rest periods of the pupils (Ulula vol. 47 pg. 30). Dr. Mumford’s expression of thanks is recorded in Ulula. In 1922 ‘score’ of children from Greengate school visited MGS and were shown the natural history museum, amongst other sights and were treated to ‘tea and buns’. Dr. Mumford acted as guide for the afternoon (Ulula Vol. 50 pg. 170). A party of the Christian Union visited Greengate Dispensary and School on March 10th 1926 and Dr. Mumford conducted the group through the institution. The following week he gave a lecture at MGS on his work at Greengate.

Whereas the testimonial provided by the famous High Master, J.L. Paton, for an application for a University post referred to ‘his enthusiastic support of every aspect of school life’ it is difficult to find documentary evidence to illustrate that support. Over the years Ulula carries reports referring to Dr. Mumford’s activities. There are reports in Ulula of his support for the Alderley camp, held annually on the estate of the then Lord Sheffield. The support was probably financial, though one year #the inimitable Doc.’ was seen on visitors’ day. (Ulula Vol. 38 pg. 102, Vol. 40 pg. 119, Vol. 42 pg. 132). In 1912 Ulula acknowledges his support for the Grasmere camp (Ulula Vol. 40 pg. 172) but nowhere is there the suggestion that he attended. One should remember that at that time Dr. Mumford had a busy consulting practice and five children, two of whom were already pupils at MGS. A report in 1916 (Ulula Vol. 44 pg. 197) expresses thanks to the doctor for his part in instructing Scouts for the King’s Scout Badge tests and for examining candidates for the Badge. In 1919 (Ulula Vol. 47 pg. 54) he presented to the school museum a collection of hells, coral and mineral specimens ‘in a table case made by himself in his student days’. After relinquishing the prime responsibilities of Medical Officer to Dr. William Brockbank M.D. in 1928 he continued his association with the School as Honorary Medical Officer and finally retired in 1931 (Ulula vol. 59 pg. 106).

Old Mancunian

Dr. Mumford was certainly an active member of the Old Mancunians Association from its’ foundation by J.L. Paton in 1904. His name appears on the list of members attached to the minutes of the first AGM in 1905. It is possible that as an active members of the newly formed Old Mancunians Association, he was taking part in extra-curricular activities before he joined the staff. The June issue of Ulula for 1911 prints an account of the annual Three Shires Route March (Ulula Vol. 39 pg. 115) and refers to the presence of ‘the doctor’. In the following year the doctor’s participation was recorded ‘with warm appreciation’ and there is reference to ‘a truly Ruskinian spirit.’ (Ulula Vol. 40 pg. 117). This account makes reference to ‘the doctor’s support for the past nine years’ which suggests a first contact in 1903. In none of these accounts is the doctor names but there is no report of the March in Ulula earlier than 1911.

At the 115th Old Boys Dinner in 1910, he proposed the toast to ‘The City of Manchester and the Borough of Salford’ (Ulula Vol. 38 pg. 48). The following year he was Junior Steward at the 116th Old Boys’ Dinner (Ulula Vol. 39 pg. 85) where he proposed the traditional toast to ‘The Pious Memory of Hugh Oldham’ with an erudite speech comparing Maeterlinch’s Blue Bird of Happiness with the ‘Grey Bird of Wisdom’. By December 1911 he was elected to a vacancy on the Council of the O.M.A. (Ulula Vol. 39 pg. 230). In 1916 he addressed the AGM of the O.M.A on the history of the School (Annual Report and Register, 1916).

In 1931, the year in which he ended his service to the School, and after 27 years of service to the O.M.A., he was elected Vice President which honour he held until his death in 1943. With his retirement to Beaconsfield he became a ‘London member’ and his part in establishing the London Branch is recognised in a nostalgic article by ‘H.S.’ in Ulula (Vol. 59 pg.11)

The Author

Besides his medical publications including his book ‘Healthy Growth’, where there is an extensive review of earlier work in anthropometry tracing the results and the development of statistical methods of evaluating clinical findings, Dr. A.A. Mumford was also a dedicated amateur historian. In 1919 he published ‘The History of Manchester Grammar School, 1515 – 1915’. It was advertised several times in Ulula during 1920 at double the normal price (10s 6d), to support the Old Mancunians’ Fourth Centenary Fund (Ulula Vol. 49 pp 55, 82, 112, 146). This book is much more than a history of the School and begins with a review of the development of organised education from the Middle ages. Dr. Mumford was aware of his inexperience as a historian and includes self-criticism in the foreword. In spite of this the book became a classics for OMs. He also researched a life of the Founder of the school, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, was published in 1936.

He produced historical reviews and vignettes from time to time and in 1929 published a life of John Partington in the Medical School Gazette. In 1921 he addressed the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarians Society on the School history, describing a Speech Day of 1640 (Ulula Vol. 49 pg. 2) and in the same year reported information on the will of Robert Clough 1618, which endowed a scholar at M.G.S. and at Christ’s College, Cambridge (Ulula Vol. 49 pg. 105). He also found time to trace his own family history in detail back to the 16th century when they were farmers and freeholders on the Warwickshire Northamptonshire borders.

Husband and Father

A. A. Mumford’s first wife died in childbirth in 1892 and the infant did not survive. In 1894 he married Edith Emily Read, daughter of a London physician and a distinguished graduate of Girton College, Cambridge. She was the first woman to gain a double first in mathematics. Dr. Mumford’s own achievements in statistics were certainly enhanced by intellectual exchanges with his wife who made other contributions to his publications. There is a reference to her likely involvement in the History of MGS in a friendly but critical review by a colleague, F. A. Bruton (Maths, Modern Languages and Mature Study – 1892 – 1925) (Ulula Vol. 47, pg. 139).

She published her own work extensively, usually under the name E.E. Read Mumford, on the psychological and religious development of children. This work must have clearly influenced her husband in his work on the physical development of young people.

They had five children of whom the three boys all attended MGS. The eldest, Percival B. Mumford graduated in Medicine at Manchester, later becoming a successful Manchester dermatologist. In 1922 it is recorded that he helped his father during his recovery from his head injury with some lectures at School (Ulula Vol. 50, pg. 121) where Dr. Mumford Senior was congratulated on ‘a wonderful recovery’.

His second son, Bryant became an expert on global agricultural problems working in New York with the United Nations and the youngest son Edward, after studying at Cambridge and later Oxford University, became Professor of Entomology at University of California, publishing widely on the effect of isolation on the Origin of Species.

On retirement in 1931 (Ulula Vol. 59, pg. 106) he progressively spent more time whilst building a new home in Beaconsfield, which became his full-time residence in 1938. He lived there until his death on February 23rd 1943 in his eighty-first year. Mrs. Mumford survived until 1953.

Conclusions

A. A. Mumford practised in an age of enthusiasm for physical exercise, particularly Swedish Drill. This was considered a passport to health and success and Dr. Mumford acknowledges and reviews the work of International Authorities in the field. His views at that time were very acceptable in the world of education as shown by the many publications in educational journals and the invited lectures to conferences of educationalist. These studies were directed towards improvement of achievement of the young person in education but represent the earliest attempts to practised what is now considered the specialty of Sports Medicine.

Dr. Mumford took enormous trouble over the statistical evaluation of these measurements and constructed tables and graphs to illustrate his results. In retrospect these results are not very striking since no account is taken o variations in biological maturity other than those manifested by an accelerated growth rate. There is an assumption that all the subjects are equally healthy and qualitatively different from the deprived, delicate and diseased children he saw at the Greengate Hospital. Evaluated from the end of the twentieth century, one can see in Dr. Mumford’ work, research and attitude, the embryogenesis of a paediatric practice recognised today as Community Paediatrics.

Ulula recorded in February 1922 the publication in the Times Educational Supplement of an article in which there was an appraisal of Dr. Mumford’s work in the School. In spite of a careful search of the microfilm of the issues of 1921 and 1922, the article has not been found and in the absence of a more precise reference, quotation is not possible.

The Longest High Master: Charles Lawson

There have been forty-three High Masters during the Manchester Grammar School’s five hundred year history, but by far the longest serving is Charles Lawson. He held the role from 1764 until 1807, an impressive forty-three years. Prior to his appointment to the top job, he had been Second Master (or “Usher”), and so in total worked at MGS for fifty-four years. Not much is known about Lawson’s family background, but before his engagement at the Grammar School, he had received his M.A. from Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Lawson took over the reins from William Purnell who himself had served for a respectable fifteen years. In his first year as High Master he made a public address which gives us some insight into his philosophy of education:

“Were we born only to speculate idly, a private education might not incapacitate us for these employments; but we are designed to act as well as to think, and a youth spent in privacy and retirement has too often been found an obstacle to appearing afterwards to advantage in the busier scenes of life. Our founders were men who lived not in shade and retirement, but in the most illustrious scenes of public life; who served their country in the highest offices of church and state, and were therefore highly sensible of the advantages which these public institutions might be of, in order to qualify others for these great employments.”

The first half of the eighteenth century had been one of evolution for the School, and under Lawson this continued. The number of boarding boys from further afield increased; the High Master’s tied accommodation was built to be large enough to house these pupils. Surplus funds were used to employ extra teachers and to add to the exhibitions and scholarships available for MGS boys at Oxford and Cambridge.

It was during Lawson’s tenure that the first substantial new building since 1518 was erected (An annexe had been added in 1685) on the site of the first School. The “new” building of 1776 comprised two storeys and the owl plaque that adorned the gable end is our earliest example of the School’s use of Hugh Oldham’s rebus and is still with us today.

The Old Boys’ Dinner was set up in 1781, and Lawson served as its first Recorder. At the first dinner, various toasts were drunk, including one to Lawson. Lawson faithfully attended every dinner from its inception until the year of his death. After his death, the toast was changed so that the Old Boys toasted his memory.

Our main pupil sources for life at MGS under Lawson come from the end of his years as High Master. Thomas De Quincey was at MGS between 1800 and 1802 and spent his time as a boarder in the High Master’s house. By the time De Quincey knew Lawson, he would have been in his early 70s: “Mr. Lawson was gradually becoming a curse to all who fell under his influence, through pure zealotry of conscientiousness…If he could have reconciled himself to an imperfect discharge of his duties, he would not have betrayed his insufficiency for those duties. But this he would not hear of. He persisted in travelling over the appointed course to the last inch; and the consequences told most painfully upon the comfort of all around him.” De Quincey went on to explain that the School day started at 7am and the boys worked until 9, when they were meant to be released for breakfast until 10am. Instead, Lawson would plough on, and the boys’ would gradually lose more and more of their breaktime. De Quincey wrote that Lawson similarly eroded the boys’ lunch time, and would have had the School day run on past 5pm if it were not for the fact that the day boys (De Quincey was a boarder) were expected home by their parents. De Quincey wrote “Mr. Lawson…had barred up all avenues from morning to night through which any bodily exercise could be obtained“.

An artist’s impression of De Quincey and Lawson at MGS

De Quincey later explained that the rigor of the MGS day and its impact on his health led directly to his choice to run away from School. However, on De Quincey’s part there were no hard feelings, and on his final day he saw Lawson and thought to himself “He is old and infirm, and in this world I shall not see him again…Very sincerely I respected him as a conscientious man, faithful to his duties, and as, even in his latter ineffectual struggle with those duties, inflicting more suffering upon himself than upon others; finally I respected him as a sound and accurate (though not brilliant) scholar. Personally I owed him much gratitude; for he had been uniformly kind to me, and had allowed me such indulgences as lay in his power“

Frederick Calvert entered at age 12 in 1805. Writing in “The Autobiography of an Octogenerian“, he provides a vivid description of Lawson in his final years as High Master: “Dr. Lawson was a personage of most venerable appearance, an old, old man on the extreme verge of life [he was 75]; he wore a complete suit of black velvet, lace ruffles at his wrists, black silk stockings and diamond buckles on his shoes, with a well-powdered peruke projecting like a full blown cauliflower, from behind. He used to enter the School with feeble tottering steps as if about to fall, and fall at length he did, and either died on the spot or was carried home in a dying state.” Calvert’s memories of MGS were not particularly happy, but he spent his time at the School working in the “lower” school which was not taught by Lawson. He therefore did not have De Quincey’s advantage of seeing Lawson’s dedication and scholarship in teaching the older boys.

Certainly it seems that continuing in the position of High Master for so long led Lawson to some errors of judgment. Ian Bailey, writing in Ulula in 1983 recounts an old story told of Lawson: “On one occasion, Lawson’s Form were reciting Latin Verse and the dunce of the Form was doing very nicely because a boy standing right behind Lawson was holding the book open for the dunce to read. Mr. Darby, the assistant master, saw this naughty ruse and sent a messenger to inform Lawson what was going on—literally behind his back. Lawson said: ” Oh no, my boys are good boys! ” and sent the messenger back. Mr. Darby saw that the book was still being held up behind Lawson, so he sent the messenger again. And what did Lawson do? He promptly flogged the messenger!“

Lawson never retired and, as alluded to by Calvert, died whilst still in post in 1807 at the age of seventy-nine. It seems that Lawson was a committed and dedicated High Master, and certainly achieved a number of important things whilst at MGS. His later years were understandably ones of stagnation, but not due to a lack of dedication or laziness. Some reports suggest that in his later years he had developed dementia. He was certainly well regarded by many former pupils and upon his death, a group of Old Mancunians set up a memorial fund which was used to commission John Bacon to create a permanent marble memorial to their High Master in the regimental chapel of Manchester Cathedral.

Charles Lawson’s time at MGS also gave us the first prize awarded by the School, the Lawson Medal. The surplus of the Old Mancunian memorial fund was used to create a gold prize medal to be awarded for the top mark in Classics examinations. The medal is no longer awarded, but the year 12 prize for Latin still bears Lawson’s name. It was created by William Wyon, official chief engraver at the the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death in 1851. The first medal was made from gold. By the 1870s, two medals were being awarded – a gold medal that carried with it £18 and a silver medal. £18 in today’s money would be roughly £1100. Later medals were made of bronze with varying amounts of money awarded with the medals. The last medals were created in the 1950s.

William Whatton, who produced a history of the School during the time of Lawson’s successor, Jeremiah Smith, wrote of Lawson:

“After filling the High Master’s chair during a period of more than forty-three years, with the greatest credit to himself and advantage to his pupils, many of which became shining luminaries of the Pulpit, Bar, and Senate, he died on the 19th April, 1807, in the 79th year of his age. Mr. Lawson uniformly displayed a dignity and propriety of conduct, and a fixed principle of action, that could not fail to conciliate the esteem and affection of his pupils, and the warm admiration of his fellow towns-men. The extensive literary abilities which he possessed were of a higher class that are usually met with even in the most distinguished of our preceptors; and the depth and assiduity with which he constantly pursued his erudite researches, rendered him eminently qualified for that station wherein he was so judiciously placed“

The MGS Corridors

The corridors at MGS with their distinctive green tiles often stay in the memory long after a pupil has left the School. They are a part of the School that has not changed much since 1931, and are instantly recognised by visiting Old Mancunians. Here is a selection of photographs from across the decades of these corridors – the boys, the posters, the staff have all changed, the tiles…not so much!

These photographs were taken by Gilbert Roscoe (OM 1953 – 61):

An informal shot of Eric James on the High Master’s corridor. Can anyone identify the other member of staff?

A similar shot, taken a touch earlier in the 1940s shows the paintings on the wall:

This photograph, courtesy of Dave Harris (1965 – 1971) was taken in the 1960s, showing the corridor near the Refectory:

This photograph shows the High Master’s corridor in the 1980s:

The below photograph dates to 2014, and was used on the reverse cover of “MGS: A History at 500” which was published to celebrate the School’s quincentenary in 2015:

Here are some photographs from the recent years:

“Towards a Grammar School Culture” by John Beavan

John Beavan, later to be known as Baron Ardwick of Barnes, attended MGS between 1924 and 1927. He had a successful career in journalism, serving as editor of the Manchester Evening News, London editor of The Guardian and editor of The Daily Herald. He later become political advisor to the Mirror Group and a Labour member of the European Parliament. Through his first wife, Anne, he was the grandfather of Carrie Johnson, nee Symonds. In the Summer edition of Ulula 1963, John Beavan outlined his views on the development and significance of the English grammar school. You can read that article here: https://www.mgs-life.co.uk/article/the-english-grammar-school-by-john-beavan?ref=

In March of 1963, Beavan also gave a radio talk which added a more personal perspective on his educational views, and gives an insight into education in Manchester of the 1920s:

“My journey to the Grammar School began in an elementary school in central Manchester. Some of the children – the less fortunate among us – lived in terrible slums, underneath the arches near Piccadilly Station. They were ragged, often dirty and sometimes verminous. I remember the smell of their bodies. I did not find it unpleasant, because I did not know the cause; it was a sweet, nutty smell I recall.

Yet they were children with plenty of spirit, full of fun and malice and the teachers’ problem was to direct this urchin energy into useful channels. So the aim of the school was a simple one: how to provide these children with the means of rising above their horrible environment. They had to be taught to keep themselves clean, to be punctual and mannerly and to pay attention to what was said. There was plenty of emphasis on conduct, on sitting up straight, on not talking, on moral imperatives.

I remember the favourite reproach of the teachers: “That’s not the way to get on”. It was used to reprove improper conduct, inattention, lateness – any juvenile fault. And the teachers were right: for those children, it was get on or go under, sink or swim; thanks to the teachers, many learnt to swim.

A number of us were much better off – the children of the firemen, the shopkeepers, the publicans and the bookies. And there was a daring teacher who for the first time in the history of the school, coached a group of us and put us in for what is now called the 11 plus. She was a handsome girl with black hair, yellow jumper and a ready smile. I fell madly in love with her and never got over it. Of course it was a tragic love, for thanks to her coaching I passed the exam which meant that she passed abruptly out of my life, though never out of my grateful memory.

I found myself not at a grammar school – there was I think only one municipal Grammar School in the city – but at what was called a central school, a kind of half way house.

Yet the difference was enormous. We wore green caps and blazers with yellow braid. We learnt French and Algebra – subjects considered to be very classy in our neighbourhood – and we did physics and chemistry in adequate labs. We also had a real football team who were properly dressed in uniform jerseys and shorts and played on grounds that had regulation goal posts. The school even had a motto: “Duty First”. And we learnt to recite:

“Not once or twice in our rough island story

The path to duty was the way to glory”

Actually the path of duty, for the brighter children, led to the glory of a clerkship in the M/c Town Hall. I passed the written exam but failed the oral. I suspect that in spite of the training, I did not look sufficiently dutiful.

At this school, specialisation began at the age of 13. You were technical – which meant you continued with Maths and Science – or you were commercial. As I could not do Maths and Physics, I became commercial. I learnt shorthand, double entry book keeping, and a strange jargon called commercial correspondence, which was all about acknowledging your favour of the 13th instant. The teachers were efficient and kindly, and one or two of them were revolutionary. But the object of the school was to turn us into first class little clerks. There was a terrible emphasis on neatness. We underlined headings and side headings in red ink. We watered blue ink to give a paler impression because pallid pages seemed more aesthetic. But alas, I was the kind of child who could not be neat. Tears mingled with and magnified my blots. I was convinced that I would never get on. For getting on was the object of the central school too.

Just as I was wrestling with the halving principle in short hand, my parents took me away and put me into the Manchester Grammar School. My acceptance at that school was one of the eccentric decisions of that great High Master J.L. Paton, and he made it because he had casually been told that this wretched 13 year old boy at the bottom of the class in this central school had spent his weekly pocket money of 6d taking private lessons in Spanish – in a desperate endeavour to get on.

At MGS nobody bothered about neatness. When I underlined my first exercise in red ink, the teachers told me not to waste my time. If you wrote legibly that was enough. But there was an entirely different relationship between boys and masters. At the primary school, at the central school, the teachers appeared to have a social status higher than that of the children and our parents. They represented themselves to us as models, the perfection that we should emulate. They were always neat and clean and punctual and their writing was impeccable. The masters at MGS – at least the younger ones – dressed with undergraduate casualness. They didn’t bother too much about shining their shoes; they never used slang; and when they wrote notes on your exercise book or end of term report, you had to get your parents to decipher it. They never talked about “getting on”; it was taken for granted that you were privileged, that you would occupy a position of responsibility in society and that you had an obligation to society derived from that privilege. This school a motto too: “Sapere Aude” – “Dare to be Wise” – it was like coming from Sparta to Athens.

What I loved about MGS was that it was a community to which the masters belonged as naturally as the boys. They sang with us in the Choral Society because they enjoyed it; they listened to musical recitals with us; took humble parts in debates; camped and trekked with us. The gulf between them and us was as narrow as it was possible to be between teacher and taught. And although it was a crack school, some of them were not efficient teachers. In fact the efficient teachers were regarded as bores and rightly so.“

The Fabulous Flying Fish Brothers

Above the front door of the diminutive Seventh Day Adventist church in Blackpool hangs a modest plaque (pictured above) which memorialises the tragically short lives of three young brothers, all of whom died in operational RAF flights during World War II, including former MGS pupils Allan Kilshaw Fish and Eddie Fish. Blackpool had been the town where the family had settled, and where the boys’ father, Joseph, had set up a number of successful cobbler’s shops. Although, sadly, not much is known about the two boys’ time at MGS, it is clear that Allan had an ear for music, being a regular singer in the MGS choir, his name featuring in many of the concert programmes of the 1920’s.  

Allan and Eddie’s younger brother, Reginald Arnold Fish, a Corporal Air-Gunner, had been killed while flying as a passenger over Burma in 1941 during what is thought to have been a reconnaissance flight, at the age of just 22. He was buried at Taukkyan Cemetery, Burma (now Myanmar). Flight Sergeant-Navigator Allan Kilshaw Fish’s fate was to lose his life when his Vickers Wellington plane was shot down whilst on a mission to Kassel, Germany in August 1942. He is buried at Hanover War Cemetery. Finally, completing this grim trio of wartime fatalities, Sergeant-Pilot Eddie Fish met his untimely end when his ‘Hadley Page Halifax’ was shot down by a German fighter during an operational flight over the Friesian Islands only five months later. It is on these Islands that Eddie is buried, in Vredenhof War Cemetery. The two names of Allan and Eddie were duly added in gold to the long list of WWII casualties on the wall of the school’s Memorial Hall (as shown below).

In addition, the July 1943 issue of Ulula recorded the two young men’s deaths alongside other recent casualties, in its ominous, all-too-regular ‘Roll of Honour Section’:

Otto Smart

Religion at MGS

MGS was founded by a Bishop in 1515, and in its early years had a strong relationship with the Collegiate Church (later Manchester Cathedral). This Christian foundation expressed itself in the daily prayers for the souls of the founders, which later became our annual Founders’ Day thanksgiving service, as well as the Bible’s central place in the curriculum during the first centuries of MGS history. The first Jewish boy to join the School was Lewis Henry Nathan, who started at MGS in 1808, and numbers increased across the nineteenth century with waves of Jewish immigration from Central and Eastern Europe, and the Iberian peninsula. As numbers grew, the first Jewish prayers were established to accommodate these pupils, and a dedicated Jewish Assembly continues in 2024, along with a Jewish Founders’ Day service held at a local synagogue. A more detailed history of the Jewish community’s experience at MGS can be read here

Jewish Prayers 1961

A small number of Hindu boys would follow later that century, and the Ghose brothers who joined in 1881 may well have been the first. Muslim and Sikh boys added to the diverse demographics in the twentieth century; more research is needed to ascertain exact dates. In 2024, the religious backgrounds of the boys reflects the diversity of Manchester itself. Our current Founders’ Day service includes readings from the Old and New Testaments, Quran and Bhagavad Gita in the service held at Manchester Cathedral.

A reading from the Quran at Founders’ Day 2022

In 1988, it was suggested by Religion & Philosophy teacher Ralph Mainard that it would be appropriate to offer dedicated assemblies for the growing number of Muslim boys at MGS, in addition to Christian and Jewish assemblies. It was also suggested that the School accommodate those boys with no religious background. In response, Geoffrey Parker established Islamic and non-religious assemblies. Later, the increasing number of Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist pupils led to the creation of a fifth option under the catch-all name of “Indian Assembly”. These five options remain available to MGS boys on Fridays, and are seen as a vital way to celebrate the diversity of the school population and allow for boys to be educated in faiths different to their own.

Islamic Assembly

One way in which these changes has been reflected is in visitors to the School. Bishops have been a regular feature at Founders’ Days since our records of speakers began in 1872 (though the event in some form almost certainly stretches back to the opening of the School). Archbishops are rarer, but we have had three visits from Archbishops of York, in 1915, 1973 and 2023, speaking at Speech and Founders’ Day services. In 2022, Archbishop Angaelos of the Coptik Orthodox Church visited to speak at Christian Assembly.

Archbishop Angaelos

Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell at the 2023 Founders’ Day service

High profile speakers from the Jewish community have been more recent, but the School has been visited by a Chief Rabbi twice. The first visit was in 1983, when Rabbi Immanual Jakobovits attended a reception at the School to mark the official opening of the Hasmonean-ORT Computer Ed unit. The second happened this month, when Sir Ephraim Mirvis addressed the annual Jewish Society Dinner. Similarly, Muslim visiting speakers are a more recent phenomenon. The Islamic Society Dinner has had visiting speakers such as Imam Abid Khan and Muslim assembly has welcomed a number of visitors including the Chaplain for Manchester University and Manchester Metropolitan Universities, Mohammed Ullah.

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, attended the J-Soc Dinner this month

Student societies have also reflected the increasing diversity of religious background at the School. Scripture Union had a branch within the School from as early as 1893, and possibly earlier. Its representation within School overlapped with the creation of a Christian Union in 1947 which continues to this day. The MGS Islamic Society was created in 2000.

Islamic Society outdoor prayers

Jewish boys celebrating Sukkot in the quad

Over the last few years, the religious societies have begun to host annual events – this year has seen Christian, Islamic and Jewish society dinners and next year the Indian society will have its inaugural event. All reflect the thriving religious mix at MGS.

Rachel Kneale

The History of the Pavilion

This summer, the Pavilion will be knocked down to make way for a brand new Sixth Form Centre and Pavilion.

The original Pavilion, opened in 1956, was the first addition to the site since the first buildings were opened in 1931. Finances had been tight due to the WWII and the Governors’ inability to sell the old site at Long Millgate. 

Fundraising and plans had begun in 1949, and the pavilion was to commemorate those OMs who had been killed in WWII:

Two hundred and eight O.M.s gave their lives, and 100 gained distinctions in a war whose outcome has made the survival of such schools as MGS possible. This MGS that has come through the war must be the best that we can make it, and there can hardly be an OM anywhere who would not, in his heart of hearts, be proud to fell that this best was true, not only of academic record and character, but of the buildings and the fields in which those are shaped. 

Big efforts are being made, with the improved equipment now obtainable, to make the fields more worthy of the School, and already, at the height of summer, they are becoming a delight to the eye.

The crown of these efforts will be the building of the War Memorial Games Pavilion. To those who fell, to the generations who will use the pavilion, to the name of the School, and even to the passers-by who will be pleased or displeased by its appearance, we owe it that this simply must be good – good to use and good to see.

A worthy pavilion will cost over £10,000. So far the War Memorial Appeal has raised £5000. 3700 O.M.s have been appealed to; 1060 have replied. The object of this letter is to make a further appeal to the other 2600 to remember how much they owe to the School and to those whom the pavilion is to commemorate, and to ask them to make some small repayment of that debt by helping to raise what is still needed.

In the end, the Pavilion cost £33,500 to build. Around £7500 came from the War Memorial Fund of donations from Old Mancunians, £1000 from parent donations, £15000 from the Flintoff Legacy Account and the remainder (c. £10000) from the proceeds of the sale of Long Millgate buildings to the Manchester Corporation. 

The Flintoff Legacy Account comprised the proceeds from the will of Robert Flintoff (OM 1885 – 1890) who died in 1941, leaving the School a significant amount of money to go towards prizes, foundation scholarships and the “New Buildings Fund”.

Work starting on the Pavilion, Autumn 1955

Lord Woolton opening the Pavilion, July 14th 1956

The Pavilion was opened in July 1956:

As was, this year, only to be expected, the morning of Saturday, July 14th, was drenched and sodden; by some curious dispensation, however, the heavy rain stopped a mere matter of minutes before the official ceremony to open the new Pavilion began at 2:30. The few hundred hardy spectators were herded without difficulty to the grass at the foot of the slope in front of the building, and with a short service the Dean of Manchester dedicated the building. He was followed by the Chairman of the Governors, Lord Woolton, who was the opening speech. Lord Woolton spoke of the gratitude of the School and all those connected with it to the many people – parents, O.M.s and others who had, by their contributions made this splendid pavilion. It was, said Lord Woolton, with little doubt the best pavilion possessed by any school in the country; this claim has been made by the High Master, and if there were any dissentients, they might report to the High Master’s study afterwards. After a short speech by Mr. Biggs on behalf of the Old Mancunians Association, the distinguished guests dispersed to examine the well-planned and spacious interior of the building; subsequently we were all allowed to see for ourselves the luxury that now attends the playing of games. Light and airy, with tastefully chosen decorations designed deliberately and successfully to avoid any association with the institution, the pavilion is indeed an asset to the School.

Apart from the excellent tea provided by Mrs. Bedford, there was an exhibition in the Art Hall and one in the School Workshop, and also a Film Show in the Lecture Theatre to entertain the visitors, and to compensate for the singular failure of flaming June to cooperate on what must be regarded as such an important day in the history of the School.

The pavilion bell was given in 1958 by Mr. F. Beattie in memory of his son, Michael Beattie, who died whilst still at school in August 1957.

Ian Bailey outside the Pavilion, 1960s

Egg-rolling competition outside the Pavilion, Summer 1960

The Pavilion in the summer, 1990s

The Pavilion in the snow, 2008