Teddie Cooper - his wit and wisdom

A collection of memories and
anecdotes about E C Cooper

A shining light
When I first met Mr Cooper, as a new boy of 10 years old, in those days Richmond Park
was the countryside to a young lad from Battersea. Taking my place in Plymouth House, as number 5 and 2nd youngest in the school, he treated me like a friend who knew my family.

He asked me when my birthday was and it happened to be the day after his. Mine is the 15th October. He asked where I lived and I replied: Lavender Hill in Battersea. Mr Cooper then went on to tell me about the time he nearly fell under a tram on Lavender Hill when he was a boy.

He then asked who my favourite football team was and, low and behold, it was the same - Chelsea!! He then asked me if I supported England and my reply was "No". My dad was Scottish and that made me half Scottish. "So that's who I support", I replied. Mr Cooper gave me a thumbs up and told me his dad was also Scottish! This old man in front of me was suddenly like a friend in a very strange place for this little lad from London. I got a pot of lemon curd (for my birthday) that year too.

Alex is in the window seat of this DC10 bound for Scotland.

Several years later I decided to run away from home before going back to school. I came back a week late expecting the cane. But he seemed to know about my problems at home. We talked and he told me he understood, gave me a kiss on the crown of my head and sent me on my way, telling me not to hurt the ones that really loved and cared for me - my older brother, who I was now living with in Croydon.

Now and again my mind goes back to those meetings (and more) and that's why I'm writing this . I am honoured to have meet and known Mr Cooper. He was like the kind uncle that cares about us small boys with no fathers or no mothers or from broken homes. He always had a moment for us - and that was like a shining light in the Cotswold rain.

Alex Paterson August 2007. Alex is a founder member of The Orb - an English electronic music group known for popularising chill out music in the 1990s and spawning the genre of ambient house .

Crime and Punishment
I can remember a time when someone was caught smoking or drinking. He was duly whacked by the Warden (Teddy Cooper), after waiting outside his study for some time, following morning chapel.

The house master contacted the boy's mother directly and told her the story.

The mother was very upset, and thought that she had a juvenile delinquent on her hands. She had hoped, that by sending her son to Kingham, the school would not need to worry her about what he got up to. She assumed that Kingham would deal with it. Being so far away she could not talk to her son, and any small incident appeared so much worse in the retelling of the story.

On previous occasions the punishment had been dished out and taken; and that was the end of it. Teddy understood how parents worried about things like this, especially recently widowed ones with young boys to bring up. As far as Teddy was concerned the 'crime' had been committed, the culprit was caught and punished - there was no need for any further action. So he was not pleased that the housemaster had contacted the parent without consulting the Warden first.

I think that he had a word in the right quarter, and explained how things were dealt with at Teddie's academy. He appeared to work on the principle that boys will be boys, and that he would try to keep things within the school. The aim being to not worry parents unduly. Of course if it was something serious, and he considered that the parents needed to be informed, then he would be the person to contact them. It was a good system and worked well. He appeared to turn out reasonably civilised chaps!

To protect reputations the name of the guilty party has been withheld.

However, our master criminal was proven guilty, beyond all reasonable shadow of doubt, because the perpetrator had left his gloves in the off-license with his name and house number clearly marked inside them. Fair Trading: Not only did the 1960's store keeper sell to underage customers, but being an honest trader returned the gloves to the school. QED (Quod Erat Demonstrandum).

Furniture Fun
A significant and memorable event was Peter Morris's night out. Now Pete Morris was the head of school, was in Sheffield, and never did ANYTHING wrong. But one night he organised - with military precision - for most of the school to perform secret furniture removals. The hall was swapped with the Gym, so that at assembly next morning we all had to stand. The hall was furnished with mats, 'horses' and spring boards, gymnastic equipment, whereas the gym proudly displayed rows of neatly laid out chairs. What we achieved by this was unclear, but the thrill was merely to be involved with a 'mass breakout'. Of course, we COULD have been spotted, and the Warden called, so to avoid this our telephone expert (me) was called upon to disable the internal exchange - which I did - but only for the duration of the move. In fairness, Teddy Cooper took it in reasonably good heart, and played the whole thing with a straight bat. But of course we then had to replace everything in our own time, so who had the last laugh?

Lloyd Silverthorne BA

Do you have stories to share about your time at KHS with Teddie Cooper?
If you do then please
contact the historian

Peter Morris's recollection of the events, and Teddie's reaction:

My memory of this is a bit dim. I think during the night a fair number of us moved all the equipment in the gym to the hall, and set out the gym for assembly. It may have been the last assembly of the school year. Teddy didn't say anything. Assembly went ahead as scheduled in the assembly hall. Everyone had to stand. He spoke for a more than usually long time. By the end, the troops were fairly restless and the perpetrators not at all popular. He handled it with the lightest of touches. Organisationally, the more difficult feat may have been getting half the school on the road outside on April Fool's morning at 5 a.m. to wake the masters in Severn House with jeers and dustbin lids. Again, I can't remember anything more than a sardonic raised eyebrow.

Diet? What diet?
Years after I left and was at the BBC, we (BBC Drama) once used the school for some location recording. Can't remember why now. The producer and I sat at the 'top' table with Teddy - who was on a strict diet at the time. Our producer asked him if the meagre diet meal left him hungry. 'Not at all', he said. 'I have my diet, and then I have my dinner!'

Lloyd Silverthorne

Hugely enjoyable company
You've asked for my memories of Teddy Cooper. It was of course a long time ago. When I was in the 6th form, I suppose as a prefect, we would have meals with him at the high table. His company was hugely enjoyable. He was shrewd, kindly and humorous. He loved talking about sport, books, theatre and politics. I don't think I knew about his sporting and academic prowess. He certainly wore both lightly -as he did his faith, in the sense that it was part of the way he lived and not forced on anyone. His politics I suppose were liberal Tory but he loved the gossip and machinations of politics. If he was bored with us he never showed it.

He was a great head teacher. I'm not sure we realised at the time just how good he was. He seemed to be on our side, even if it meant disagreeing on occasion with a teacher, which must have taken courage as well as skill. I regret that I never really saw him again after I left Kingham.

Peter Morris BA (Hons) MA