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That's actually me walking by on the left, just saying good morning to Mrs Pankhurst and her friends. :laugh:

Seriously, though, I think that photo was taken around the turn of the 20th century. It certainly couldn't have been earlier than 1895 since that building wasn't there until then. The gate in the photo disappeared in the 1950s when the main front entrance was put there as a War Memorial gate opposite the front door. If you look carefully when you go past that corner at the Crown Church you can actually still just see a slightly different colour of stone used to fill in the old gate.

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Is it really going to be demolished and turned into posh apartments ?

Since it's a listed building, I would think it's unlikely that it would be demolished - unless the 1960s wing at the back isn't listed. The sooner these huts at the back - especially the festering brown one which has been put there more recently - disappear, the better.

I don't know if there's any plan to convert the existing shell into flats but, even though someone might have Room 16 as their toilet :smile: , that's not what I would call a good idea.

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Which one was room 16 Charlie?

Was it upstairs or downstairs? Beside the Rector's room or opposite it beside the stairs? :smile:

The numbering may have been different in your day SP but in my time, and IHE's, as you went up the main stairs to above the Library (Assembly Hall in your time) you took the right hand upper walkway going towards the front of the building and it was the last of three rooms looking down on the Library?Hall. (I hope that doesn't sound like one of Fritz's explanations!)

When i was in school, the occupant of R16 was Cuurly, Head of Modern Languages, known I believe to a previouis generation as "Ginger".

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Charles how could you look down on the library if it was underneath you right there. It was on the lower floor on the extreme left of the building looking at it from the front of the building wasn't it? The room above the library also contained a woman English teacher who belted me good and hard one day for stopping my desk companion from listening to her. That was really unfair wasn't it?

 

The other language teacher  was a Mr. Stuart who was the top French teacher-I wasn't  favorite with him because I wasn't as smart as the Dux of the school and he was a bit of a nasty piece of work to boot who didn't suffer fools gladly. I didn't care for him either , like. 

Now the man who taught Latin, Mr Thom, in the room at the top of the right side of the stairs (at the top I mean) also belted me really hard for tying my leg to the desk stanchion which was embarrassing since I couldn't untie the knot fast.  He was nice and fair  though, only gave me one double hander which rendered me speechless unfortunately and so I missed the rest of his lesson 'cos I couldnae see through the pain and the tears! :lol:

 

As for Ginger maybe I do remember --kind of had a forelock which didn't need a curling iron..was that him? Always had a bit of a smile on his face did he not? Oh, and glasses. :lol: Or am I meandering in Al Zheimer land?

 

Ah Charles, sometimes I long for the the joys of carefree school  again....

.

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I started at the Academy in 1953 but I'm struggling to recognise any of these prefects.  I suspect the photo is early 50s.  I feel I should know the two lads on the left of the back row but their names escape me.  The girl top right on the back row, I think is Beatrice McPherson.

The lady teacher is Ethel Forbes, I think, and I assume that is the Rector beside her, Dr D J McDonald.

 

Come on fellow oldies, help me out here!

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It's well before my time - I left in 1971 and I don't recognise any of the pupils - but I would also guess early 50s. For various reasons I have been through most prefect photos in the school archive in recent years but this isn't one which I recognise.

There are two pieces of evidence for early 1950s. Firstly, both D.J. MacDonald the Rector and Ethel Forbes the Lady Superintendent look relatively young which would tend to place the photo in that era. Secondly, on the far left of the photo, you can see the gate at the corner of the ground which gave access and egress to the top of Stephen's Brae. There was a corresponding one at the other corner opposite what is now Chris Crook's hairdressers (formerly Allans). You can actually see the slightly different colour of mortar where it was filled in, as was the one visible in the photo, after the War Memorial gates were installed in the centre opposite the front door in 1954, so it looks as if the photo is 1954 or earlier.

In that event, the prefects in the photo would be around 80 now.

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D J MacDonald does look younger than I remember him. But the relative awe in which a 12-16 year old boy would have reegarded him at that age would probably instill in my memory a more austere portrait of the gentleman. He was a stern man but not unfair as I recall.  

Mrs Forbes taught either French r Latin...is that correct, the former I think. Well regarded throughout the school.

 

I seem to know the face of the boy in the bottom row, second from the left. If his name was or is Brian then please tell me because he looks awfully like a very bright lad that I knew fairly well in the Law Department of the  Head Office of the Royal Bank of Scotland when I was there  later on in my banking career,  before I emigrated to Canada. Brian was an easy person to like, genuine to a fault and always a ready smile on his physiognomy and always willing to stop in the passageways and have a chat.

 

IHE that is a fantastic photo and I thank you for posting it up here. But the bad news is ...."boy oh boy, does the old memory dim with age!". :clapoverhead:  :smile:

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D J MacDonald does look younger than I remember him. But the relative awe in which a 12-16 year old boy would have reegarded him at that age would probably instill in my memory a more austere portrait of the gentleman. He was a stern man but not unfair as I recall.  

Mrs Forbes taught either French r Latin...is that correct, the former I think. Well regarded throughout the school.

 

I seem to know the face of the boy in the bottom row, second from the left. If his name was or is Brian then please tell me because he looks awfully like a very bright lad that I knew fairly well in the Law Department of the  Head Office of the Royal Bank of Scotland when I was there  later on in my banking career,  before I emigrated to Canada. Brian was an easy person to like, genuine to a fault and always a ready smile on his physiognomy and always willing to stop in the passageways and have a chat.

 

IHE that is a fantastic photo and I thank you for posting it up here. But the bad news is ...."boy oh boy, does the old memory dim with age!". :clapoverhead:  :smile:

Scarle,t are you possibly thinking about C.D. Forbes? It's Ethel Forbes in the photo and she taught Maths.

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A bit of detection work by a school pal of mine indicates that the lad second from left in top row is Robert Cameron. I know he ended up back at the IRA as a teacher in the 60s.  That would be more in your era as  a pupil CB, wouldn't it?  Does he look familiar?

I think the person you mean was a History teacher in the early 60s but left before I arrived in 1965 although you have now got me wondering if that face maybe is slightly familiar.

This Cameron is not to be confused with Sandy Cameron who arrived as Head of History in succession to Farqhuar MacIntosh in about 1963 and remained until the early 70s.

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Charles--maybe Scarlet was just not thinking. :smile:

But now I do remember the name Ethel Forbes. That was her.

 

When I look at these pupils and admire how clean-cut and smart they were and compare them to the youngsters that I see nowadays,  I realize that I must either learn to move on and stop reminiscing about what the world might have been had things not changed so radically or just accept that I am old-fashioned fella and the world will never be the same again.

 At the same time there was something  altogether innocent and wholesome about our lives in these days and I do see that reflected in the uncomplicated expressions on the faces of these prefects.

I had better stop whilst I am ahead . :amazed:

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For Scarlet Pimple: I joined the Academy in 1953 prior to going to Canada. Should I know you, do we have mutual friends?

I am in Belleville, ON. Feel free to contact me through Royal LePage Belleville.

Regards, Iain

 

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:lol:  :wave: Charlie you are awful; but I like you ...... Benny hill c. 1953

 

The references you mention are unknown to me. Maybe if you had mentioned Gunsmoke or The Rifleman I might have twigged it 

 

Regardless...."And your point is?"

 

I think you misunderstand the meaning of the word "uncomplicated"  as meaning asinine or vacuous but actually I meant "innocent" and/or "not particularly wordly-wise" as much as anything,

 

Sigh! Dealing with the intelligentsia in the form of teachers is challenging these days. :crazy: Yep! The times they are a-changin'.

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Nahh! Charles--I meant innocent and not wordly-wise.... :smile: Try Gunsmoke or the Rifleman next time out. :laugh:

 

Iain--well now, you retired at an early age  eh? Being a paratrooper must have paid well in your day. I have an ageing friend still in Inverness who is 86. Reminiscing with him one day  I asked him why he joined the paratroopers to which he replied."Och, they offered me more money." I answered ..."How much, George?" to which he responded "About a shilling a day....!" :crazy:

 

In Real Estate, huh? What's the average price of  a new,  3200 square foot, 3 bedroom house on a 5,000 square foot lot in Belleville these days? Let me guess ...about $450,000? -- How close is that ? I have not been to the East  except for landing at Toronto Airport on the way over here some 40 years ago so I just don't know the area at all .

Have you ever been out West? I live in Maple Ridge,. British Columbia. : Lots to choose from here:-

 

https://www.google.ca/search?q=maple+ridge+bc+pictures&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=&gfe_rd=cr&ei=kYS0VPmZOuns8we1qoGICQ&gws_rd=ssl

 

 

Whether or not I know you or past connections is open to exploration.

You ask me to phone or connect with your office in Ontario--golly, gosh, are you the owner/broker?  Tell you what, I will send you a brief p.m. and we shall see what we shall see?

 

Cheers.S.P.

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