Spot was a great bloke. He was certainly greatly respected and no one dared to cross him, but I think we suspected he was a kind-hearted soul, despite everything. By the way, "Harry", one of my brothers was in the same form at Holgate as the son of keeper, Harry Hough.
I dropped Woodwork with "Chisel" Davies at the end of the 1st form and opted for Metalwork with Garfield for the next two years. What an ill-advised decision! I absolutely hated it. On one occasion, when Garfield was briefly out of the room, I organised a group of lads into playing a round with our files. Garfield re-entered the room. My classmates had spotted this instantly, but I had got carried away somewhat and hadn't. "You stupid half-baked cretin!!", thundered Garfield. "Those files cost three and ninepence each".
I left 3 years after you. The real George Kerr was something of a hero of mine, by the way, and I used to pretend to be him when playing football with a tennis ball at break with a couple of classmates, who fancied themselves as Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law respectively.
You left at the same as I did, David. Did you do A-levels? If so, there is a fair chance we may know each other.
I may be wrong, but I think that Hannaford may well have been called "Jacques" initially by Yogi Bramall in a French lesson, as Jacques is the French version of James. I believe Philip Bramall's nickname derived from the fact that his gait did, many people's eyes, resemble that of cartoon character, Yogi Bear. "Benny" Lynch's nickname derives from the famous Benny Lynch, a Scottish boxer who became World Champion at flyweight level. I was told that Dickie Pym's nickname was given to him in the 1920s, when he started teaching at Holgate, because there was a famous goalkeeper of that name at that time. Are you sure about the nationality of Eric Goodman? I always thought he was from Worms, a city about 35 miles south of Frankfurt.
"The Boss" suffered from Parkinson's disease, which accounted for his movement and quiet voice. An excellent headmaster, though, who had even the biggest lads scared $hitless. In marked contrast to his successor.
It's likely to be either 77 or 78 as those guys would have been in the Fifth Form in 76. One of those pictured was a regular contributor to Reds Fanzine South Riding......
Left in 69. locke housemaster kearsley.1st form teacher Isaac Hunt.Made a lot of good friends who I still see and set me up for life to respect people.
Mr Hunt.....was he the small bearded Geography teacher? Really funny bloke. Used to have a saying; “it’s brown if you live on Huddersfield Road but it’s brarn if you live in Cudeth”. Doubt he’d get away with that now.....lol
Top player George, my favourite BFC player of the 1960's, he came down from Scotland same time as Steve McCone and Walter Gerrard. I came across Walter in Hong Kong in the early 1980s'. He like most ex-pros out there became a rep for a booze company (Ballantyne's Whiskey) along with Dave Alison Malcolm's son (San Miguel), Derek Currie (Carlsberg) and Norman Vose (Calvet wine).