A number of former pupils and other people connected with the local school have enjoyed local celebrity, but a number of people who have passed through the school gates have enjoyed national, indeed, international fame.
Frederic William Henry Myers (1843–1901) was an inspector who paid regular visits to the school in the 1870s. Wikipedia records that he was a classical scholar, poet, philosopher, and a president of the Society for Psychical Research. Myers was the son of Rev. Frederic Myers and brother of poet Ernest Myers. He was educated at Cheltenham College, and Trinity College, Cambridge where he received a B.A. in 1865.
In 1900 Frederic William Henry Myers was president of the Society for Psychical Research. In 1903, after Myers death, Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death was compiled and published. It was two large volumes at 1,360 pages in length, which presented an overview of Myers’ research into the unconscious mind. Myers believed that a theory of consciousness must be part of a unified model of mind, which derive from the full range of human experience, including not only normal psychological phenomena but also the wide variety of abnormal and “supernormal” phenomena. Frederic Myers may be regarded as an “important early depth psychologist”, and his significant influence on colleagues like William James, Pierre Janet, and Théodore Flournoy and also Carl G. Jung has been well documented.
The County Education Secretary in the 1930s and 1940s, Henry Morris, was also a regular visitor to the school. He was responsible for developing the concept of the village college, of secondary schools that fulfilled a social and educational function not only to its children but also to its whole community. The Cambridge model, beginning with Sawston and Impington Village Colleges, was much copied in England and in many parts of the world.
Finally, how many of you knew that Rado Robert Klose, a pupil at the school between 1950 and 1956, was a founder member of Pink Floyd?
I remember Rado well, along with his brothers and parents. Many was the summer
evening we played cricket in the field known as ‘Hawk’s Piece’ down School Lane.
He became involved in music, and Pink Floyd, whilst at the County school in
Cambridge.
My late brother, Gregory, played international rugby for East Africa, whilst being
a government cartographer in Uganda. His work included the production of the
official atlas of Uganda to mark that country’s independence. He was at the forefront of cartography, regularly attending international conferences. A sad loss.
Through being a qualified Member of the Institue of Export, I had the honour of
serving several years on the Institute’s national council, representing the Anglia
region. During the 1980’s I was ‘chef d’équipe’ for major export promotions by Pye Telecommunications in the Maghreb.
Also whilst at Pye Telecommunications, and running the Pye Group’s cricket
team, I had the pleasure of organising benefit matches for first class, ‘Test’, players
which on occasion involved providing bed and breakfast for Geoffrey Boycott, then at the peak of his career, at the family home.
Brian Mills, known as ‘Tudgeon’ emigrated to Canada, settling in Calgary where he persued his architectural and property activities. He with his brothers grew up in a ‘Chiver’s’ cottage in School Lane. I recall meeting up with him on a visit to Calgary.
As headmaster my father encountered Mr Morris and experienced the arrival
of the village colleges. A time of change. Those that over the years passed through father’s classes have expressed appreciation for the numeracy, literacy, and
confidence achieved, and the knowledge that ‘manners maketh man’.
I hope this is not boring reading?
Neville James Cole