Mr. Brindley goes
on to inform us that "Apart from being a very good teacher,
he organised many out of school activities. Whilst running
the Scouts he took boys camping in Cornwall and France.
He was a man who gave 100% to the school and school life".
What follows are memories
shared with us by Basil
Benson and Stuart
Bridley of Colin in the mid-50s, when Colin
was in his early 30s. Mr Benson was a former
colleague and physical education teacher who joined
the school staff in 1954 and Mr Brindley was deputy head of
Clyde, and taught at KHS between 1948 and 1958.
The
Saga of Three Men, a Canoe and not to mention the Swan.
"Colin was a teetotaler and a non smoker
who loved life. He had a good sense of humour, and he laughed
a lot.
On one
famous occasion he took me [Basil Benson] canoeing. Stewart
Brindley drove us in Colin's people carrier to the Banbury
and Oxford canal. On arrival we unloaded the two-man canoe
with its paddles and launched the canoe. Stewart left and drove
off ready to meet up with us later that day near Oxford for
our return journey back to Kingham hill.
The most memorable part
of the journey was when us two strong, stern schoolmasters
were faced-down by a very large angry and aggressive
signet-guarding mother swan. We both, shame faced, had to lift the
canoe out of the water and hike around the field some
several hundred yards away where it was safe to launch
again. Colin, being rather correct, didn't even swear,
but on that day I most certainly did!!" |
|
The other
memories we share now are from Colin's cousin Mike Allen.
"My last memory of Colin is when he came
to visit in about 1957. At lunch he got a fish bone stuck in
this throat, and that memory of him has stuck in my mind all
this time (please
excuse the pun).
Colin was also so excited to have the
opportunity to sail the Rohilla, which he said was a converted
life boat and therefore very safe. (They said that about
the Titanic)
On the few occasions I met him he
always seemed full of fun to a small boy and not
at all "stuffy" or
reserved. I am very sorry that I cannot give you a better testimonial,
John, for as you know he died when I was nine in 1959."
The Tragedy
What is known about the Rohilla
is, yes, it was a converted life boat of the Oakley Class.
This class served in life boat stations around our shores
during the period of 1936 to 1947.
As modifications were
made, and new safety features developed in the evolution
of life boats, the earlier versions where sold off
to the general public for leisure and recreation. |
An original Oakley Class life boat |
The Rohilla as
she was
in
the summer of 1959.
Photo courtesy of
Mike Allen,
2008
|
|
Thanks again to Basil Benson, we know
that the Rohilla was hired for two trips that year by
Kingham Hill School.
Colin and John had already made
one trip that summer of 1959 across to France and
the Channel Islands.
It was on the second journey one week later to
the Channel Islands when the tragedy occurred.
No one knows
for certain what happened to cause this tragic
loss. Over the years speculation has suggested that
the Rohilla was run down by a much larger vessel.
The
fact that no wreckage was ever washed up, and only
one lifebuoy ever found with the name of the Rohilla
on it, gives rise to this theory.
Much later
the sea gave up the bodies of both the two Clyde
boys, and no others.
This simple brass plaque (shown below) was
unveiled and dedicated to all those who were lost.
It can now be found in the school chapel, not in its
original location over the main exit doors, but discreetly
tucked away on the back wall of the chapel under the
gallery.
Photo (left): Colin Noble with friend John
Clewett also lost on the Rohilla. |
Below is a photograph of the
graves of the two boys from Clyde House, Robin Green and Peter
Knight, both lost on the Rohilla.
Photo: Iain Helstrip
Article
and photos published by kind permission of Mike Allen.
