Kingham Hill School at War

A boy’s tale recalled by John Dalton. (Bradford & Sheffield 1937 to 1943.)

As war was declared late in the schools summer holidays (1939) the first visible signs of war for me travelling back to school, were the huge crowds at Paddington Station. Bewildering for I had never seen so many people. It was as if the whole world was travelling.

It was usual for the school to reserve seats for us on the train but I think on the journey things were somewhat chaotic we were spread out and more than likely standing. From Paddington the train took us to rural and peaceful Kingham. The school lorry was waiting at Kingham station to relieve us of our luggage and off we walked through Kingham village and up to our houses on The Hill.

Photo by kind permission of the steampicturelibrary.com

The schools Cotswold style of architecture is not conducive for the new blackout restrictions as we found later. On our arrival the ‘workmen’  were busy making unwieldy blackout screens for the windows. The screens were always a perpetual problem - placing them into position and securing them so they didn’t fall on our heads or allow the light to penetrate from the gas burners, was a constant worry. The dormitories now could no longer be lit through the night by moonlight. The whole of Kingham Hill was lit by gaslight but under the war restrictions this had its draw backs. Prior to this our dormitories had a rather Victorian romantic feeling about them with their lofted roof construction lit by gas light, open windows with no curtains. Mentioning gas, I cannot remember ever being fitted out with a gas mask or carrying them.  How strange!

The school operated as near as possible to it’s normal programme during the early war years. But there were noticeable interruptions such as the turnovers of the teaching staff, the younger members going off to serve and foreign and older teachers taking their place. But this did not happen too often.  The senior boys moaned that now the 1st XI’s away matches would cease, no more cream cakes and rides in a char-a-bancs. Surprisingly I remember this. Why not ? Away matches were highly treasured. The school had quite a number of away fixtures. I add here that the only car on the Hill was a small Austin 8 owned by the Warden.

It was a rarity to see four wheeled traffic.

The great events of the early period of the war, were obviously reported in the newspapers and on the wireless, but did not have much effect on us boys. The Dunkirk operation and Mr. Churchill’s speeches cannot be recalled. The only wireless I can remember ever listening to was in the Bradford Housemaster’s study. We were oblivious to the far-off  events, news of the war was not really thought about. The Warden at assembly did I think announce certain events, most poignantly he reported the names of old boys and staff killed but that did not often happen, thankfully.

The RAF (Royal Air Force) had an aerodrome on the South-West horizon at Little and Upper Rissington where pilots were trained. The RAF used the Harvard trainer, an American designed plane. These were extremely noisy and it seemed to be constantly over-head. One nose-dived into a field across the road in a Daylesford Estate field killing the pilot.  Some boys collected souvenirs from the crash which had visible pieces of flesh and blood on them. It was not long before the RAF put a guard on the crash site.

However the war had a greater effect upon us when the nightly mass bombing of the Midland cities like Coventry started, the Hills sirens were sounded. We all took cover under the stairs and shivered, no dressing gowns in those days. Stray bombs fell in the fields near the original swimming pool. No damage was done only large holes in the fields. Souvenir hunters were out again looking for fragments but I don’t remember any were found.

The Hills Company of the Home Guard

The sight of Khaki uniforms became more visible and were obvious signs of war for us, none more so than in 1940 with the formation  of the Hills Company of the Home Guard. If I remember rightly it was commanded by the House master of Norwich who was also the Arts Master and an officer from the First World War (1914-1918) Boys aged 17 years were conscripted and so too were all the 50’s and under. During my time about three masters were in the ranks. The Home guard had night duty rotas which were very unpopular during the winter months and formal parades on Sunday mornings were for us boys very popular- no chapel!

These Sunday mornings were real fun, doing army drill parades, and practicing infantry tactics in the fields, woods and ditches, getting covered with mud, and animal messes together with our teaching staff, what a ‘comrade spirit’. Being about the youngest I often  was detailed to be the messenger taking written orders to other various sections, finding them always had difficulties. We had no radios then.

I might add that members of the Home Guard were issued with 30 rounds of live ammunition, a rifle and bayonet and an army uniform. I kept mine in my dormitory locker. We were well armed up there in the dormitory.

I remember the formation of the LDV/Home Guard on the Hill clearly, it was at Company strength and a unit within 3rd Battalion Oxford and Bucks LI the Company was commanded by Mr William Michie, who worked in the Carpentry Shop.  The Company formed part of the 3rd Battalion comanded by Lt Col Mitford of Burford.  The Norwich Housemaster of the time was a Mr E. Hanson-Lockey, a WW1 Officer who reached the rank of Captain and who won his MC in the closing stage of WW1 rounding up German Prisoners..................at least, that was the legend as related in 1940.

Mr Lockey later played a major part in the formation of the original Army Cadet Force unit that was formed in 1941 and he was the first Officer Comanding, he was asisted by A.S.R. Parker, a Mr Stredder (who worked in The Main Stores) and the School Chaplain (Rev Maldwyn Lloyd-Jones who held the rank of Under Officer.

Geoff Ball at KHS 1936-1945

I also joined the Home Guard as most of the Stratford working boys were in the Home Guard at that time and we all wore the Khaki uniform when on training and Home Guard duties and rifle practice.

House Master George Bond and Mr Michie were NCO's or Officers.

Bill Parker at KHS 1933-1943

The Schools Cadet Detachment

Later on the Home Guard was joined by the formation of the Schools Cadet detachment. This was the beginning of the schools Cadet then an ACF unit. As with the Home Guard the commandant was the House Master of Norwich and Arts Master. Now my locker in the dormitory had two khaki uniforms and wearing khaki without under pants was most uncomfortable.

The Cadet corps was a little more serious for us as we had to work towards obtaining the Army Cert. A in infantry warfare etc. Unfortunately soon after founding the cadet detachment the CO. left, his place was taken by

A.S.R.Parker, the schools English & French master, who had just returned from the services, a very popular master. A high point for me in the cadets was the camp, sleeping in tents, organised by the army with real instructors. Our Corps proudly marched through Stratford-on-Avon where we had pitched our tents in a nearby field. Unfortunately we did not have rifles with fixed bayonets to get the freedom! But some of us were able to go to the theatre there. Not long after this I was called up, obviously well trained.

As a postscript, I now describe an incident that happened on the Daylesford Estate back in 1942 now nearly some 69 years previous:

I witnessed this from a very close distance but the significance of the incident has only recently been realised. Daylesford Estate with the Country House had been requisitioned by the government. Various British and American troops were stationed there. I can hear even today the clatter of the British Bren-gun carrier tracks on the stony local roads around Daylesford. Seeing American GI’s around the place was a revelation.

In a far corner of a wood on the western side of Daylesford near what is today the A436 was a cluster of Nissan huts sited in amongst the trees. One morning in the summer of 1942, I with two other boys from The Hill were in that vicinity noticed Army staff cars arriving and out of one stepped King George VI, with an entourage of several high ranking officers. They were there to inspect a company of Canadian Commandos. The whole episode lasted about twenty minutes. The shock of seeing the King in such an outlandish place took some time to comprehend.

It is reasonable to assume the Commandos were about to take part in something important. I have no doubt that these troops took part in the disastrous Dieppe Raid (18 & 19 August 1942) The Canadians lost 3400 killed or captured of the 5100. I still wonder to this day how many of those would have been billeted at Daylesford and survived.

I returned to the area about some forty years ago in 1970, the remains of the Nissan huts were still visible. I am pleased I still remember those Canadians.

Extract from letter sent by John Dalton to John Timmins, 31 October 2010