|
Coronation Chicken Extracts from
the school magazine 1953
| Foreword: The
recent funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II made me realise that in common with most
of my generation, our lives have been "bookended" by her reign. We were
pre-schoolers at the time of the coronation and pensioners for the state funeral.
Until now I have never thought of myself as an "Elizabethan" but I would
rather our generation is remembered by history as "Elizabethans" than
"baby boomers" or "boomers". Time will tell. Recent
events inspired me to look through the 1953 WLBHS Magazine for this months story.
I have chosen 2 extracts describing a visit by members of the school's cadet force
to London for the Coronation and the school trip to Switzerland that year.The
latter jumped off the page for me because I have spent a lot of time there myself
and Lucerne is one of my favourite cities. I hope others
will enjoy reading this "blast from the past".
-JS |  |
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| 
| Group
photo taken on the school trip to Switzerland in the easter holiday of 1953. We
stayed at an hotel in Stans, near Luzern, and experienced horrendous twelve-hour,
unbroken rail trips overnight, sitting upright in packed compartments, from Calais
to Basel and back. _David Handforth |
This
small group has the two masters who accompanied the trip- "Tyssul" Griffiths
at the extreme left, and Hiscox behind the table. I have my back to the camera
and seem to be talking to Derek Cook, just to my left. Can't remember who the
central figure is but he'll be identifiable from some of the form photographs
or memories of the few of us left of that generation. Colin Day was also a member
of the group. It would have been his last year, I think. _DH | 
| The group in this picture, l-r, consists
of Steve Broadbent, Paul Schofield, Adrian Allen, Gordon Burgess, Tony (? - known
anyway as 'Beefy') Benfield, and me. We were all in the same year and form until
separated into 'Modern' and 'Science' in the fifths. Allen became the eminent
Antarctic geophysicist, who died, sadly, relatively young. He was awarded the
Polar medal _DH | |