Tom Bowker
Sheffield House Master
1958 - 1963
by
John Timmins
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Our historian uses
this opportunity to inform readers that he grew up
in Sheffield house under the care of the Bowkers. Respectfully
he wishes to remind us that it is not the fabric of
the buildings, nor the buildings themselves that made
the school what it was, and is, but the staff themselves.
What they personally put into their teaching and as
house parents. Making those buildings
home for nine months of the year for thirty young men.
Tom Bowker was a methodist lay preacher
born on 5 April 1929 in the city of Sheffield. On
completion of his school education he went to Cambridge
University to study his first love, mathematics.
Tom
did his national service in the Army with the Royal
Artillery working on Radar for ack-ack guns.
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Tom Bowker |
Tom majored in mathematics and taught
this throughout the school. He was instrumental in the development
and setting up of the schools GCE "A" level Mathematics courses.
Tom also developed both mechanical science and the car club.
He was Officer Commanding the school's Army
Cadet Force detachment and was also instrumental in the change
over to the current Combined Cadet Force. Thus giving pupils
the opportunity to experience any of the armed services cadet
forces.
Tom was the officer commanding when
the school's cadets were inspected at an annual camp near
the officer training school at Sandhurst by Field Marshal
Bernard Law Montgomery KG,
GCB, DSO, PC. 1st. Viscount Montgomery of Alamein who spoke
with Tom about Kingham Hill School.
| I should now explain
for new comers visiting school for the first time that
each house had three dormitories that could sleep ten
boys. So boys would be split by age into three groups:
Junior boys, Intermediate boys, and Senior boys - progressing
through these groups during the average five years they
spent at school. |
Sheffield House 1961
(click to enlarge image) |
The house would have one senior boy, who
was head of house, then two other senior boys. Invariably these
three would be school prefects or monitors, and each would have
the responsibility for a dormitory. Now I recall as a junior
on Friday evenings after we had finished our prep (set pieces
of home work we had to prepare each week day evening before a
set lesson), that Jean and Tom, if we had been well behaved,
allowed us to watch their own television.
The Bowker family
We should remember that
in the '50s and '60s TV was a luxury found in relatively
few homes; compared with today where many houses have
one in each room. Television was in black and white, and
programmes commenced in the evenings round 7.0 p.m. So to watch
TV was a treat indeed - and God help the boy who lost us this
privilege through some misdemeanour inside the house, our home
and theirs.
Tom met Jean when an undergraduate at Cambridge.
Jean was also a school teacher in Mathematics. As house mistress
Jean taught boys to darn socks, sew buttons on and use the
iron to press clothes, to make themselves presentable and take
a pride in their appearance. She went out of her way to be
a mother to us, organizing for some in Sheffield a table tennis
league.
John Timmins
Kingham Hill through the eyes
of a House Master's Wife
by
Jean Bowker
Kingham
Hill was Tom's second job. We arrived, aged 28, with
two sons aged 3 and 1, to make Sheffield House our home.
It was quite a liberation for me. Most wives, then, did
not work outside the home, but I was able to combine
looking after my own young family while entering into
the more varied world of 13-18 year old boys.
There were some difficulties
- serving lunch on a Sheffield table, I used to stuff
Smarties into the mouth of my toddler so he didn't shriek
during grace. And he liked to roam around the Hill, and
once locked the sewing lady in her room in the office
block. I was not popular!
The sewing lady
did the clever repairs, but I sewed on the name tapes (easy)
and those stiff blazer-badges (tough on the fingers). Once
a week, at break, I went up to Mrs Dean's clothing store
to meet with whichever Sheffield boys needed new uniform.
This was useful practice in judging sizes. I was expert
when my own boys became teenagers. |
Tom and Jean Bowker visiting Sheffield
House with their
grand daughter in 1993
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The medicine cupboard was
another of my responsibilities. Sticking plaster was often
all that was needed, but I learned that a burn wouldn't heal
without attention from Sister in the "San". A high temperature
meant a bed over there. We had one boy with epilepsy, and
his pills had to be kept in our sitting-room after one alarming
episode when he hadn't taken his pills and he fell into
a coma.
I enjoyed watching House matches
and was disappointed when we lost. I was sorry for the boys
having to jump into a cold bath every morning, and I campaigned
to have the school uniform trousers changed from shorts to
longs.
We had six day week. Wednesday
was our day off after supervision of the morning cleaning.
I remember those heavy bumpers for polishing the corridors.
I used one in the Easter holidays to hasten the arrival of
our third son, so that he was born before the boys returned!
The Hill was a very close community.
We felt each other's difficulties. The brother of
one of our boys was killed in a motor bike accident. Another
boy's sister fell from a train. The 'Rohilla' tragedy was
felt keenly by all. No Sheffield boy was on the boat, but
there was the brother of one. (Brothers were in different
houses).
Our fourth child was a girl so there was
relief all round that there wouldn't be another Bowker
boy having to be rescued from near the swimming pool. The Sheffield
boys were wonderful at carrying the children back home, and
very tolerant of what must have been little pests in the common-rooms!
I confess that I shed a tear as our car went
past Bradford and out of the school gate on our way to Tom's
next post. I didn't want to leave. But we still enjoy using
some of the china tea-set we were presented with when we left
the Hill.
Jean Bowker, February 2007
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