07
OPINION, INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
Of all the different Heads of the Lower School you have known, what have been the differences, and are there any other people you work with who you’ll miss? John Devlin was the Head of Lower School when I first came here. He was good fun actually. Then it was Iain Scarisbrick, who organised things really well, and very rarely got angry with boys. Then Sameer Tanna took over, and he’d been through the whole system – he’d been here as a boy as well; I think Mr Middleton took him for sport in Year 13. Miss Cooke is very nice, and I think she’s good for you lot as well. Of course, Lisa Hillgrove is really good: she’s one of the best people working here. One of my previous jobs was working in a garage when I first left school. This kind of job has changed beyond recognition now, but back then it was dirty! There was only one sink in the building I worked in and 20 people who wanted to use it, and sometimes the tap was unreliable and didn’t work, which caused lots of problems. Do you own any interesting cars? I’ve had a selection over the years. Currently I’ve got an Escort – probably won’t mean anything to you! 1972. I might pick up racing again when I’m retired. My car is not very nice to drive on the road now – it’s made for doing circuits on the track. It’s raced at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. We have heard that you’ve got all sorts of knowledge about cars which is quite interesting, so can you tell us a bit about that?
Wow! It has raced on those tracks? So, how did you first get into motor racing, and what was your first car? We once modified a car that was owned by Graham Hill – and his son Damon who became World Champion – so I drove that one for a while. I didn’t actually race it, but I used it on the road, which was quite good fun because it looked like a standard old car, but it was a little bit quicker than most, so it was good to show off to your friends with! That car actually went to Japan, believe it or not: at that time, it was trendy for people to go to Japanese night clubs in old British cars. Goodness knows why! Then I purchased an old Ford Anglia that had been dumped in Biggin Hill Airport car park by the local priest! When I sold that, the money that I got for it I used to buy the Escort, which I’ve still got. What would you say are the most memorable moments you’ve experienced during your time here? I think it would have to be the people. Back in the porter days, there were a lot of big characters – the other Barry, for example – but then there were a lot of characters in those days. They seem to have been ‘engineered’ out nowadays: there are all sorts of rules and regulations these days which there weren’t back then. There weren’t computers in those days, no mobile phones. But we had a really good laugh in our makeshift office under the stairs – it was hard work without modern technology, but we had a great time! If you walked past our office you would always hear gales of laughter if we were all in there together. But of course the dead rats and smelly lockers, and pigeons and blackbirds getting stuck in the Common Room – they were memorable too!
I purchased an old Ford Anglia that had been dumped in Biggin Hill Airport car park by the local priest “
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