Saturday 8 September 2007

Mr Day

Julian remembers a master named Day but thinks he wasn't long at the school. I'm afraid I don't remember him at all.

6 comments:

Julian Williams said...

You are right, he was only at Stouts Hill for a shrot while before moving on. I cannot remember what he taught us.

david said...

Mr Day,
Mr Day was my English master in the period,1946-51. Has a pleasant gentleman who was aged 60, then(in 1947)as he said so himself. which puts his birth at say 1887, so he was old enough to have been my grandfather.

He had been in the Royal Artillery Regiment as an officer in the 1914-18 war.He was proud of his regiment and always wore his regimental tie.

Mr Day was a devout Roman Catholic who seemed to view us boys of the protestant faith as somehow "heathen".I think this was because of our boisterous behavier in class.

Mr Day always gave us a good lecture and he was a strict disiplinarian .He supervised us at games (that is) football and cricket in the summer.I seem to remember when we played these sports under his supervision he was walking up & down the touch lines quoting to himself and reading from his prayer book.
Mr Day had been a master at a boarding at Bexhill-on-sea before he came to stouts hill. He was very fond of telling us boys that "My boys of Bexhill" always did that or this,implying that we were not as good as them..This saying of his was repeated so often by him that the boys used to mimmick him.
I will say however that he was a kindly man who always treated me fairly.
At that time there was a little boy a french boy who was a Roman Catholic, so he could not therefore attend our church in the village,but Mr Day alsways took him on sundays to their local catholic church in the district.

I always remember that he lectured us on the principals of the christian faith,and how we offended Our Lord when we sinned or did anything naughty which was often.
But we did not I think take much heed.

And that is as much as I know about my english master at stouts hill
David mackinley-woodhall

Jonathan said...

Thanks, David. I wonder whether Mr Birchall replaced Mr Day (they both taught English) or whether they co-existed for some years.

david said...

Hi Jonathan,

I should think Mr Birchall must have co-existed for a time with Mr Day after I left the school in 1951.

Anonymous said...

Roger Dawson 1944-48
Mr Day or the Mr Day I knew was teaching during my time and was slightly different to my eyes than previous blogs. He reminded me of chalkie in the giles cartoons. If you werent attenting ie drwing spitfires having a dog fight He would creep up behind you and give you a smart clip round the ears, Wham, your ears rang for days. Also was rather fond of the sdge of his ruler on the back of your hand. I have two hearing aids now, probably because of shooting. It must be the same Day as he was very fond of reminding us of his previous boys at BexHill. Cheers all

Tony Sweeting said...

I agree with Roger Dawson (Hello Roger !!) Mr Day was my form Master and to my mind he looked a bit strange, the skin very tightly drawn across his skull almost as if he had suffered facial burns. I remember we ALWAYS had to be at our desks by a quarter to eight in the morning, washed and properly dressed (short trousers, long thin socks and leather shoes which in the freezing Cotswold winters gave me horrendous chilblains for which I still bear the scars),and we were made to sit there until the Radio programme which came over the Tannoy system and was called "Lift up your hearts" was finished and we could go to breakfast. I really don't remember any specific brutality as such but many teachers at both Prep and Public School were very keen on physical punishment, so its hard to remember who did what.