Shoreditch College ... After the Goodbye Tour

I have a few anecdotes which might be of interest. Our History Lecturer, Ted Joy, a man for whom I had a great respect and liking, once told us that history recorded that the first person ever to be killed by a motor vehicle was killed at the gateway entrance to STC. I can't remember the details, but it might be an interesting bit of history.

One of the English lecturers, a Welshman by the name of, I think, Thomas, once told me that the golden years of STC were just after WW2 when all the students were ex servicemen - all keen to excel, all mature students and all keen to get out and earm money ASAP. He told me of one sports meeting when some students, who were ex RAF, hired a Tiger Moth and came over the venue and bombarded it from the air with flour bombs.

I was privileged to spend 2 weeks on the Foudroyant; a great experience. I know nothing about the capstan. My understanding is that Foudroyant was/is built of teak - NOT the traditional oak. It was built in Trincomalee hartbour, (Ceylon - now Sri Lanka), hence the teak. I forget what its first name was but it was captured by Napoleon and re-named Foudroyant, which means 'Thundering'. When Napoleon was defeated we got it back and left the name unchanged. Your www suggests that it has been refurbished and is still afloat in, presumably, Gosport Harbour.

The STC Principal who took a chance on admitting me to the hallowed halls of STC as a mature student without even the barest of academic qualifications, was Ted Marshall. He was the first to occupy that delightful new house by the college gates. He died in harness and, as the college was on Easter vacation at the time, and as I lived fairly close, I was asked to represent the student body at the funeral. My wife was heavily pregnant with twins at the time, (we arranged our pregnancies so that the births would hopefully occur during vacation times so that I could be at home and look after the other kids while worthy spouse was confined!). The day was 10 April 1964 - a date I remember well - a bright sunny spring day with hosts of golden daffodils everywhere, and, as the coffin was coming in one door of the church, the Bursar, Wilson?, was running down the aisle to find me to tell me that my wife had just been taken to hospital. So, as the coffin came in one door, I exited hastily through another. My twins were born a few hours later at Guildford.

"Willy-bobs" took over as Principal. I had a great love and respect for him, and he did me some good services later on. I remember once when some students must have climbed the 2 towers on either side of the entrance and had strung a banner between the towers, proclaiming "NATIONAL WILLY-BOBS WEEK'. I never worked out how they managed to do it; they must have had mountaineering experience. Willy-bobs took it in good part.
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I was delighted to see the photos of the old place. We were the first students to inhabit the new halls of residence. I thought they were luxury. Three square meals a day - and all for free. I loved it. On looking out of my window one morning I found that the grass quadrangle was 'different'. I did a double-take and realised that there were large 'candle-cactusses' everywhere, and a few cows and other impedimenta. The boys had raided a film set during the night and had brought their loot back to college.

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November 2007
A couple more anecdotes which might, or might not, be of interest.

A couple of particular pals of mine at STC were Mike Curnow and Tim Gay. They were both mature students, having been intitially trained at Loughborough. They were under the tutelage of Mr Kettless, who had either been commissioned, or asked, to construct an altar rail for Egham Church (of England). Very fine plans were drawn-up and a supply of lovely English oak was obtained from somewhere. Mr Kettless persuaded Curnow and Gay to take this project on as their 'masterpiece'. They worked painstakingly and conscientiously at it for the whole year. It was a beautiful piece of work, which now, obviously, graces Egham Church.

I used some of the same oak to make a chair on our 'chair-building-project'; the theory being that, 'if you can make a chair, you can make anything'. I still cherish that chair - the idea for which I got from the seats in the new Coventry Cathedral where my History tutor, Ted Joy, had taken us on one of the many 'Joy Rides' which he took us on.

I have a number of photos which I took in and around STC. I also have a cutting from the Daily Telegraph, date unrecorded, of the aforementioned Tim Gay, now the Woodwork Master at Royal Russell School at Croydon, presenting to The Queen a hobby horse for the infant Prince Andrew. The hobby horse had been made by his pupils.

I visited STC, (now Brunel), about ten years ago when on a visit to UK to introduce new wife to old rellies. It was during Summer Vacation. We were escorted around by one of the admin staff. I took her to 'The Eros Room' at the back of the main building facing north, on the right hand side. I was surprised that she did not know the name of the room, nor of its derivation. (I thought there might have been a plaque somewhere). I told her that it was called The Eros Room because. the statue of Eros, which stands in the middle of Piccadily Circus, was housed there during the war in an effort to preserve it from the Bombings of London.

We went again to The Air Forces Memorial which is 'next door' to the college, overlooking Runnymede, where Magna Carta was signed. The names of some of my old pals are engraved on those walls - 'Airmen from World War 2, who have no known graves'. (Thousands of them). It is a beautiful place and visits there always bring tears to my eyes. It looks over the meadows of Runnymede, across Old Father Thames, and on to the north showing rural England as far as the eye can see - and, to the left, Windsor Castle not so far away. Surely one of the finest of vistas.
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I initiated a 'bit-of-a-rag' to greet new students in 1964. All new students were required to make, and bring with them, 2 boxes; one for their metalwork tools and the other for their woodwork tools. STC provided precise drawings which had to be adhered to. I posted a message that all new students were to assemble at a given place at a given time, together with their boxes, which would be assesssed. I enlisted the help of a few 'very mature looking' students from my own year to pose as the lecturers who would do the assessing. This took place while the 240 students from the previous years looked-on. So, there were 120 new students all with 2 boxes apiece all paraded just outside the dining room, with the rest of the college hanging out of upstairs windows. The inspection of boxes took place. The pretend lecturers did their marking and passed caustic comments on workmanship, then, at a given signal, the rest of the student body showered the whole proceedings with hoses etc.. I later heard that the assessment of incoming students' boxes was taken on board by the college as standard procedure!

Sincerely, Roger Dracup '64
email: rojun@alumni.ecu.edu.au