Ralph (and Elizabeth) Mann
Durham Housemaster
1963
- 1973
by
Iain Helstrip
Ralph Mann was born in North London on 15
May 1927. He recently celebrated his 80th birthday a short
while ago and is in excellent health. He lives in his third
retirement in the village of Hook Norton just a few miles from
the hill.
Elizabeth and Ralph Mann (with daughter Ruth) taken
from the
1967 School Photograph
He went to school at St. Johns in Leatherhead, Surrey and
the family home was Fletcham just a short distance away. Following
his schooling he joined the Navy to assist in the then little
local difficulty that the U.K. was having with Germany. His
training was in small ships and he became an EVT instructor;
however much to his disappointment he did not get to sea, all
of his time being spent on land bases to include Chatham
Following his demob at the end of hostilities he went to Oxford
to study history, and then took a Diploma in Education, and
followed in his Father's footsteps and became a teacher.
The teaching career commenced with
a five-year 'stretch' teaching
in an Overseas Public School in Barbados. After West Indies,
came West Africa and here lies a story.
Prior to KHS Mr
and Mrs Mann were living in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Due
to the government policy of the Africanisation of local employment,
Mr. Mann's contract was not to be renewed, and he was applying
for teaching positions back in the UK. Long distance interviews
were going to present a challenge, and the boat home was
booked. Anyway at the last moment, one reply came back from
Teddy offering a ray of hope "if
you can be here on 23 July at 2.0PM there could be a position
at KHS"
The boat docked on the 22 nd July,
The only train timetable available on board ship was a tad
out of date, but indicated it was possible to get from Bristol
to Sarsden Halt by train - all
in good time for the two o'clock interview on 23 July. On buying
a rail ticket on the morning of 23rd the efficacy of the timetable
quickly became apparent. Sarsden Halt was no more and the train
journey terminated at Cheltenham.
A bus journey from Cheltenham to Stow-on-the-Wold was possible,
but time was now running out, it was 1.0PM only an hour left
to get to KHS. There was no bus service, there were no taxi's,
not that there was any money for a taxi.
Scout training came to the fore. Walk briskly for 100 yards,
run 100 yards, walk briskly for 100 yards, run 100 yards, repeat
until you arrive at your destination.
As Ralph Mann dashed through "Ball's Gap" the
school clock struck 2. Teddy gave time for Ralph Mann to
clean up and recover his breath, and the rest as they say,
like this, is history.
Ball's Gap in KHS grounds. Photos courtesy of Tony Middleton
Ralph & Elizabeth Mann and their
son John came to the Hill that summer initially to be House
Tutor in Plymouth House in September 1963 and then onto became
Housemaster to Durham House Christmas term 1964 taking over
from George Kingsnorth. Durham was a happy house in the time
that the author was there and KHS was Mann's home through
till 1973. Mr and Mrs. Mann's daughter - Ruth was born in
Durham House in 1965.
Mr Mann was on train duty for his first
term, and of course was an unknown face to all those boys
getting on the school train at Paddington who were planning
on doing their best to savour there last 90 minutes of indiscipline.
There was one boy having particular difficulty mounting the
carriage, struggling with suitcase, carrier bags and a guitar
on his back that was getting wedged in the door. Ralph Mann
proffered to help, and the reply came back "I am fine Granddad." And
so we all soon found out who the new master was!!
I don't think that competitive games
were really Ralph Mann's thing. He was very supportive of
the house inter house competitions, but I never thought he
was 'comfortable' with the referee part.
He recounted a story, which the author of this had long forgotten.
Derek Blackwell (the Gym master) regarded sports day as a mini
Olympics. The discus throwing was particularly pitiful and
D.B. stopped everybody who was participating in the sports
day to give a personal demonstration on how to throw the discus.
This was duly done, and what a throw, it flew up and up and
up - heading straight to where the masters' cars were parked.
Bang, straight through a windscreen. Whose windscreen? Derek
Blackwells! Mr Mann recalls how everybody (well nearly everybody)
laughed; D.B. never did see the funny side!
Ralph Mann taught History and English.
He recalls end of term time, and the dreaded report writing
(and receiving). He confessed that he used to write a number
of apt serve all descriptions ranging from very bad to the
very good and all points between to help and on occasions
use when the frenetic report period started. When the 'window'
to write the reports opened he could quickly use his pre-developed
descriptions to speed the process. He recounts on one occasion,
some body unjustly received a harsh bad report due another
master illicitly removing one boy's report from the class
pile and by mistake the hash report went in the wrong book.
It could hardly be crossed out, so it had to stand. The next
term the pupil did brilliantly in the subject!
Ralph Mann (3rd from left) on history field trip with school.
Ralph Mann was also the Group Scoutmaster;
Group Scout leader after 1967 and took the Scout troop
to camps in such great places as White Mere (1964) Barnswood
Cheshire (1965) Bude in Cornwall (1966 and where the
summer did not arrive and a boy had to be returned home
suffering from hypothermia in July. Its reassuring little
changes!), Monmouth (1967)
Lulworth Castle, Dorset (1968) Singleton
Green, Sussex (1969), Kingston Deveral (1970), Breacon
Beacons (1971), Kingston Deveral (1972) and finally Breacon
Beacons in 1973.
In 1973 he moved to Chipping Norton
to become Head of History and Professional Tutor at Chipping
Norton School where he stayed till1982, when he retired.
He was ordained a deacon in 1982 and
a priest in 1983. He retired from full-time ministry
in 1997, but then at the Bishop's urgent request he took
on a "part time" parish
in Gloucester until 2000 when he finally retired for
the third time! |
Elizabeth and Ralph Mann
snapped at the reunion on
The
Hill in October 2007 |
Iain also recalls: Donald Service, KHS Circa
1963 - 1973
Donald Service was assistant Chaplin and
House Tutor for Durham. He was Scout Master and took the camp
to Bude in Cornwall 1964, when the weather was like the Mediterranean.
On leaving the Hill he became the Vicar of Mayfield,
near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, and then he moved to be Rector
of the Crook Peak group of parishes in Somerset. Sadly he developed
Leukaemia from which he died in circa 1991. He was survived
by his wife Gill, their daughter Ann, and his sister Pam.
He was buried at Street in Somerset. [Some of this information
was provided by Godfrey Nicholson.]
The
historian would be pleased to receive an article (brief or long) about
Donald Service from anyone who has more information about him
and his time on The Hill.
Iain Helstrip November 2007
Iain Helstrip
|
