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Bemrose School Staff 1950

Staff photograph listing 1950

Back Row Pipes, Dauncey, Crossley, Critchlow, Rees, Loeber, Hemmings, Goddardr, Catton, Bloxham, Woods, Dukes,Thornton, Molyneux
Middle Row  Sowter, Mathers, Turner, Baxter, Eade, Cook, Trippett, Watts, Maurer, Pickering, Harbach, Lamb, Saunders
Front Row  Blake, House, Smellie, Crowther, Spencer, Norville, Carter, MacFarlane, Smith, Hepworth, Hayward, Jones, Pritchard, Severn, Branthwaite

Photographs above reproduced with kind permission of John Naden, and scanned and submitted by Mike Geraghty.
Corrections kindly submitted by James Innes.

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Comments Included

Bemrose School Staff, 1963
Back Row John Mallon (Lab Assistant), (?2), Harry "Pobble" Calvert, K Capp, Peter Bateman, "Thicky" Goodwin, Mr. Heffer (Caretaker), Albert Pipes, Arthur Marsh (Lab Assistant), Ronnie Hanlon
Third Row  Jim Tate (Chemistry), Dave Amedro, John Sutton, Mr. E. "Taffy" Davies, Bill Barnett, Mr. Dorrell, Jack Mathers, Danny Rees, Ken Piercy, Nigel Savigny, Arthur Pope
Second Row  Mildred King (Secretary), Brenda ? (Secretary), (?3), W Nunn, Bill Gray, Charles Kitchell (RE), Narry Holt, Bill Grimadell, Keith Hand, Malc Warwick, Dave Williamson, Mrs. Bonehill (Canteen Manager)
Front Row  Mr. P Maurer, Bill Pickering, Herbert Cooke, J.R. Molyneaux, "Piggy" Sowter, William Norville, W.R.C. Chapman (Headmaster) aka Cheese, Alan Goddard, Sammy Severn (Geography), ?Fred Palmer (Chemistry), Jake Harbach (Physics), Dicky Marriot, Polly Hepworth


Thanks to Stephen Wells for providing the class photo.
Please click here if you can provide any of the names.

John "Noddy" Naden
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Many of the photographs and memorabilia displayed on this site were provided by John Naden.  Many thanks "Sir".  Mike Geraghty worked with Mr. Naden to submit the images.  Thanks Mike.

Nice to see that 'Noddy' is looking so well. What was the name of 'his'
lab? I  spent  a  year with him in the mid-seventies as a third-former, and
have good memories.

~ Nigel Collyer

Edward Charles "Ike" Watts
Responsible for the original artwork for the "Buck in the Park"
Click here to submit comments, and reference picture Ike Watts

"I've just had a sudden recall of sitting watching 'Ike' marking work that he had brought home - I remember him pointing out any, and all, the flaws in all kinds of art work. Probably nothing that  good 'box on the ears' would not fix - he was infamous for that. Peter Hand was his successor and an ex pupil. His style was almost the exact opposite. At the time I found it difficult to cope with the freedom that Peter gave - having been indoctrinated with so much structure by Ike. By the way, 'Ike' was not his name at all. His real names were Edward Charles, he was known to friends and family as 'Jack'. 'Ike' was invented by boys at the school because of a number of hymns in the standard hymn book written by Issac Watts. Incidentally, I don't know if you are aware that 'Ike' was pronounced 'eye-key'."
 ~ Comments sent in by David Boorman

"As I recall , Ikey had steel studs fixed in the floor of the art room. All desks had to be positioned on these studs exactly at the end of class. This was followed by the instruction "Round the back and out. GO"

Or did I dream it??"

~Clive Davis 1954-59

"I was hopeless at Art and when our Insurance man called he asked how I was getting on at Bemrose, my mother told him Fine apart from the Art teacher who terrifies him. Oh dear he said that's my father!! Anyway the insurance man was very understanding and later gave me an old cricket bat which bound up with tape served me very well for several seasons .In fact I have a photo of me coming out of the old wooden pavilion at the county ground with it opening for Derby Boys.
I dropped art at the first opportunity but still remember him as a stooping figure somewhat reminiscent of Churchill in a fawn/grey suit Round the back and out!!"
~ Ralph Harrison, 2-4 in 1945

This water colour of Bemrose School was done by Charles 'Ike' Watts in 1950, and was kindly scanned and submitted by David Boorman Click the image to see a larger version.  Please be aware that the download time may be quite long, especially if you are connected to the Internet by a 56K telephone line.  The image resolution has not been reduced to preserve as much of the quality as possible.  If you would rather not wait to view the high resolution version, click here, to see a low resolution version.

Danny Rees
" As a greyhound you must aspire to the speed of the cheetah" 
Cropped from a photograph taken in 1963

"Although I never excelled at any sports, Danny Rees never made me feel underachieved.
As an adult I became very keen at badminton, and I tried to join the Bemrose Parents/Teachers club in the new Sports Hall. When I visited it in the early 1980s, Danny and Pedro Amedro were playing and looked shadows of their 1960s years..........it seemed so sad...........Danny  came over to me to say I couldn't join...........but didn't threaten to kick me out!!......it was strange to watch an elderly guy who I could only remember as a fearsome PE teacher 15 years before.

He died soon after from a heart attack"

~SJW

A remarkable person and an extremely capable and inspiring teacher, Phyllis Jones owed much in early years to her widowed mother. Determined to give her daughter the education that she herself had lacked, Mrs Jones worked as a housekeeper, then took in lodgers.
Supported by her mother’s efforts, OPJ (this was how she referred to herself in later years) gained an English degree at Nottingham and an LRAM. She first taught in a secondary school of mixed abilities, an experience which she always valued.

OPJ moved from Parkfields Cedars School to Bemrose School in World War 2, together with a number of other able women teachers. She taught English there for about twenty years and inspired many of her pupils with her love of literature and her grasp of grammar. OPJ can be seen, for a few seconds only, in a Bemrose classroom, towards the end of the video ‘Derby: A People’s History’ (a Last Hurrah Production distributed by Breedon Publishing). But she is remembered chiefly for her work in producing the well-established annual school play (usually Shakespeare), preparation for which always started in summer for a winter production. She was inspired in her casting and meticulous in direction. Many of her charges will conclude, though, that her greatest gift was to develop voice production. 

OPJ showed her mettle in being elected to the Town Council as an Independent, and her organizational skills in leading the local ‘Frome in Bloom’ (it rhymes) Committee. At school she continued past retirement age to oversee the transition to comprehensive.

She remained active, particularly in church affairs, in her retirement. Only in the last couple of years was she obliged to sell her bungalow and move to an Old People’s Home where she died at the age of 89. She was mentally active to the last and directed that her funeral was not to be a gloomy occasion since she had enjoyed a happy life.

OPJ seldom submitted to having her portrait taken, but the attached photograph shows her cheerful and alert in 1995. I am grateful to Michael Durose for many of the biographical details, and I am happy to pay tribute to an outstanding teacher and abiding friend.

~ James M Innes

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