Queen Elizabeth Grammar School - 1947
In September 1947, just two weeks before my 12th birthday, I achieved my ambition and joined this elite school where most of the boys were fee-paying and quite a few were boarders. The cost of the mandatory uniforms and sports gear almost reduced my parents to penury although, ungrateful wretch that I was, I did not realise that then.The first forms at QEGS were actually called 3A and 3B because there were two preparatory classes for younger fee-paying boys. After the 3rd form came Lower and Upper 4th and 5th. All very confusing at first. My good result in the 11-Plus examinations at St James ‘Big School’ had qualified me to be in Form 3A rather than 3B which was for those deemed to be less bright.
For much of the first term, my time was occupied with those new subjects which I found particularly fascinating – Latin, French and Algebra – and trying to keep up with my fee-paying fellows who, having been to Prep Schools, appeared to be better prepared than I. To be fair to them, I don’t recall any of them ever referring to my status as a scholarship boy in my hearing. Looking back, I don’t even know if there were other scholarship boys in my form apart from my particular friend Geoffrey Holt. Boarders, on the other hand, could be distinguished from day boys because they had a different cap but there was nothing to distinguish fee-paying boys from scholarship boys.
By the time the Christmas 1947 term came to an end it turned out that I had
progressed better than I’d hoped or could have dared. In the class of 29 pupils,
I earned Grade 1s in Latin, French and Arithmetic, Grade 2 or 3 in all the other
assessed subjects, and second overall. My parents were delighted, as was Mr
Paterson when I called in at the Big School with my end-of-term report to show
him. Click on the image to view a larger version.I referred on another page to the fact that I had some misunderstandings at the infants school because of my mixed use of the Yorkshire and Lancashire dialects. All the teaching staff at QEGS spoke ‘proper’ English and they corrected any boy who lapsed into what they called sloppy English. Thus, over the course of my first weeks in 3A, I gradually learned to speak the Queen’s English, sometimes known as BBC English or Received Pronunciation, without any accent. I discovered, as did most of my QEGS contemporaries, that our study of Latin immeasurably increased our knowledge of English grammar and syntax and thereby made it easier to learn other languages. This stood me in very good stead decades later when I spent time learning Russian, German and Arabic.
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