The Chronicle January 2020

31 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Bashas and Horse Boxes: Teddies in the Thirties In September, Archivist Chris Nathan OSE published a new book, Let it Rage, Let it Roar, We Shall Come Through , detailing the harrowing and courageous experiences of former pupils on the many fronts of the Second World War as well as painting a picture of how the war years affected life at St Edward’s. Let it Rage is a companion volume to Chris’s earlier book, Members of a Very Noble Friendship , covering St Edward’s and the Great War. Below is an edited extract from the opening chapter of the book, an account written by Tom Barns OSE in 1982 recalling his schooldays from 1932 – 1937.

A junior physical training competition in 1937

On the dreaded day, trunk and tuckbox were strapped to the luggage rack of our 1930 ‘Singer’ with celluloid side screens, spare wheel on the running board and leaky touring roof. Wearing my new prison outfit - black tie, sports jacket, grey flannel ‘bags’ - clutching overnight bag and violin case, I kissed Granny goodbye in the sickroom, waved to Ann our cook and to the rest of the family standing on the doorstep, and, taking my last view of home, was driven away by my father down the Maidenhead Road to Oxford. It was the 16th term since starting boarding at my Prep School; one never got used to partings. We drew up at the St Edward’s Lodge and, after introduction to Arthur Tilly, my Housemaster, said goodbye. My father’s and my relationship was stilted; an unspoken affection, never articulated.

In the summer of 1932, as our family holidays drew to a close, the quota of new clothing listed in the School Inventory was assembled in a series of sorties with my father to a men’s outfitter. Cash’s tapes were sewn on by Granny. A meeting was arranged

between myself and another son of the manse who lived in London, Arthur Lawson, about to become a new boy at St Edward’s, where his brother was a ‘blood’ in the cricket, hockey and athletics teams. We approached one another with mutual suspicion and registered instant dislike.