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Leeds - Roundhay
I never really settled down properly in Leeds although I can’t now remember exactly why and my private diaries are no help. It's apparent that my heart was still in Wakefield because throughout the two years that we lived in Harehills I spent a lot of my weekend time and school holidays cycling to Wakefield to meet former school friends, especially Geoffrey Holt who had been at QEGS with me. As a family we often went on the red West Riding bus to visit the Autby’s at No 25 Cotton Street in Wakefield. I always enjoyed visiting them because Mrs Autby laid on sumptuous teas with really splendid trifles and she had somehow even managed to do that regularly during the war.
In spite of my optimism at the end of my first day at Roundhay, I see from my diary that by day five I was writing entries such as ‘boring’ and ‘not much happened at school today’. The fact is that I found incredibly interesting those subjects which interested me, Latin, French, Maths, English, Geography, but I had little interest in Art, Craft, History, Physics, and Chemistry. Discipline was strict, as was expected in Grammar Schools, and no-one ever spoke out of turn nor did anything to disrupt lessons. In return the Masters paid little attention to those who showed no interest. Curiously, re-reading my report at the end of my first term at Roundhay, I see I did rather better in the subjects I disliked than my memory tells me. My Form Master, Mr David Watson wrote: ‘In spite of a late start at Roundhay and the inevitable upset of a change of school, he seems to have settled down very well and has certainly worked very hard and made excellent progress.’
In March 1949 I started to be plagued by trouble with my feet – something that had never happened before. My insteps started to be incredibly painful. At first I thought I must have been doing too much walking and running and especially too much cycling. I reduced my physical activities but that provided no improvement. Eventually I was taken to the doctor. He diagnosed fallen arches – flat feet – both feet! I found this an interesting diagnosis because I had always associated flat feet with policemen. In my experience it was not something that teenage boys suffered with. I was not sure whether it was an affliction I could brag about at school or whether it would be wise to keep quiet about it. The doctor tightly bandaged up my left foot from my toes to above the ankle.
"The left foot is worse than the right," the doctor told my Mum, totally ignoring my presence. "Make sure he keeps the bandage on night and day until the symptoms go away. There's no other cure."
The bandage was really uncomfortable and made me feel sorry for the Japanese Geisha girls who apparently have their feet tightly bandaged for years on end. I had decided to play safe and not mention my affliction to anyone at school but the PT Master noticed the large padded bandage on my left foot and asked, in front of the rest of the class, what it was for. When I explained, there was much banter from the Master and the boys about policemen! I must have tried too hard to demonstrate that there was nothing much wrong with my feet because before the end of the PT lesson I tripped headlong over a mat and sprained my other ankle quite badly. It started to swell alarmingly. The Master looked contrite and worried. These days he would probably have gone off to consult the school lawyer about possible compensation claims under the Health and Safety Act. I was sent home but I can’t for the life of me remember how I got there - someone must have driven me by car. I then stayed off school for a few days and thereafter there was no further mention in my diary of any problems with my feet and I have never suffered from flat feet from that day to this! I seem to remember abandoning the bandage before I returned to school.
Late in the autumn of 1949 Dad was posted back to Strangeways Prison in Manchester and so another house move was pending. This time any house move was on hold until Dad could find a suitable house to buy so he was once again travelling back and forth at weekends or when he had days off in lieu of weekends. Once again I was facing another change of grammar school, and once again I told no-one about it and tried to carry on as normal.
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I tripped headlong over a mat and sprained my other ankle quite badly. It started to swell alarmingly. The Master looked contrite and worried.