I was born in July 1936. My parents bought a 'semi' in Watersfield Road for something like £900 in the mid-thirties in, what was then, a completely new development (can't now remember the name ~ it wasn't Laings which I think was the Chandos side) that extended back up towards Stanmore.
I initially went to Stanburn Junior School so, assuming I left Stanburn School for Chandos at age 11, I guess I'd have started there at around 1947.
Mr Barker (don't recall his first name) was already there when I started I think and still there when I left. I can only recall his classroom being first right at the top of the front stairs (if that makes sense). I was brought up in Canons Park but later (I suppose around 1940/41) I went to stay with my grandmother and aunt in Finchley where I also went to school for a period.
Father had gone into the police by then and mother was hospitalised for periods due to a bad back resulting from my birth and when she was OK also ran the newsagents at Canons Park Station. Of course we were not far from Stanmore RAF so I suppose in all the circumstances they felt this was best for me (though I missed picking up bits of shrapnel whilst walking up Wemborough Road to school) I travelled back and forwards for weekend visits by trolley bus from Finchley to Edgware and transferred to the No 18 or 114 up to Canons Park. All this on my own at what must have been a fairly tender age but I think initially I was 'handed over' to the bus conductor to put off at the appropriate stop near the 'Honeypot' pub in Edgware and soon got used to the journey by myself.
I must have returned and gone back to Stanburn before the war ended as I can well remember the V 1 and V II rockets and climbing into the Morrison shelter located in our dining room whilst straining to hear when the engines cut-out and you knew they were coming down. Though, being well on the outskirts, I feel we were more fortunate than those in the inner-city areas.
Took the 11 plus but failed. I started out in a top group with Mr Maine but we didn't really hit it off from the time I innocently believed a class mate who told me to take a school text book home when Mr Maine happened to see me carrying it out and concluded that I was stealing it (Hey, why on earth would I WANT to take a school text book home?).
I was a bit naïve and young for my age I'm afraid and probably not really sufficiently gifted academically to be in his form so I was 'downgraded' to Mrs Smith's form about a term or two later. Her specialism was Chemistry but somehow I recall it escaped her notice one day that the phosphorous which was being used in lessons had not been made safe and it started spitting all over the classroom. She lived in Kingsbury I believe. I had a good mate at Chandos called Geoffrey Stickles (I think) but sadly we lost contact.
I also remember Mr Hatchard (I thought it was 'Hatcher' but probably wrong thinking about it). I hated French and always tried to keep a low profile in his class - but I'm sure he knew and I guess he did his best for me. <sigh> My younger brother, by ten years, finished up in his class and told me he was asked if we were related so I suppose there was something about my earlier presence there that he remembered (but I'd be prepared to bet nothing nice).
I notice one of your other correspondents mentioned the school journey to St Mary's Bay. I think I still have some photo's somewhere of the Romney & Dymchurch Railway we went on. We had a number of organised outings to churches and other places of interest in the Romney, Dymchurch & Hythe area and I seem to recall we had to keep a log of where we'd been and what we'd done and learned about different styles of architecture and such like. I still have a post-card that my mother wrote to me whilst I was there.
Games, at Chandos, were played on the adjoining field of course. Football, Cricket, Running etc and I remember us being taught how to throw javelin too.
I left Chandos about a year early to join a Commercial Course at what I think was then Blackwell 'Comprehensive' which was pretty new at the time. One or two other pupils from Chandos also went there at about the same time.
In about 1951 about twenty girls, forteen boys, Mrs Mitchell, Mr Olphin, and staff x & y went on a coach to stay at a hotel in Montreux, on Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. I still have a few photosfrom the trip.
I remember the woodwork teacher at Blackwell, Mr Griggs. He signed a form for me to enable me to wear the appropriate badge on my scout uniform. He was a good teacher and we made things like teapot stands to take home to our long-suffering parents.
Chris Harrington, January 2011