President's Address – M. E. Watson, 18th May 2007. 

Christine & Old Boys,

I’m sorry if this Address is a bit too long, but I have only had a few days notice and I haven’t had time to write a short one !As I stand before you all this evening, I confess that I feel like a bit of a fraud, especially as I glance down the list of my illustrious predecessors and see the names of the late Bob Knight (who was one of my form mates), Horace Pitchford, George Cooper, Jim Woolley and if you go back far enough Dennis Grimsley.

 You will have noticed in the listings that many of the hugely successful Officers of the Association were educated at the Burton Grammar School for 7, 8, or even 9 years. I am sure you will be impressed to see that I crammed all my visits “Through The Arch” at Bond Street, between 1953 and1956,having attended Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School at Horncastle Lincolnshire for 4 terms.

The fruit of all my labours was O levels only, in Maths,  Physics and Chemistry. The Maths success is easily and readily attributable to the late and much lamented “ Dear Old Polly Lowndes” There have been few days of my life so far that I don’t remember and use something that “Polly” taught. In fact she also taught my Mother who will be 96 in August. She is a bit confused but can still “reckon up”. 

At previous Re-Union Dinners I have said that I thought Polly was the best teacher at Bond Street, several have disagreed and said Harry Smith was best – well that may be so but he taught the “A” stream and I was in the “B” stream. You will be pleased to know that my lack of Academic success was merely a generational blip and my sons achieved 18 “O” Levels between them, both received good degrees but they were educated at Abbot Beyne.

 I am not sure why I decided to fail so many subject, especially after witnessing, on a weekly basis, severe corporal punishment in Joey Crowther’s Biology Lab.  For anyone with 60% or less in the weekly test 1 stroke, 50% or less 2 strokes and so on. John Newton(not here tonight) was the only pupil to beat the system – by sawing “Percy” in to short pieces. He then presented it to Joey in a paper bag. For those who missed this era “Percy” was a bamboo cane reinforced with wide strips of elastoplast.

 If my character has developed Bovine tendencies it  is because at a very tender age I fell in love…. With the Dairy Cow. I noticed that it walked seductively, with a delightfully feminine gait, had gorgeous big eyes and the most wonderful long eye lashes, which they would flutter in my direction…… but the best trick of all was that they would amble out to a field—eat grass all day long and then come home and produce buckets full of wonderful creamy milk which, as a growing lad I could then pour on my cornflakes.

 Of course this early experience happened long before the advent of the milking machines and was the era of men and sometimes girls, sitting on a three legged stool, milking the cows, first wiping, then fondling, then squeezing the cows teats to fill  the buckets. In my later life with the advent of machine milking I was able to milk 350 cows by my self very day and produce up to 12000 pints of milk per day. So, on paper, I was a pretty hopeless case- very few “O” levels- fell in love with Dairy Cows- fell in love with a string of High School Girls and although quite good at balancing their “ Domestic Science Baskets”  on my handle bars, it never really got me anywhere, well not far anyway.

What I gained from  Bond Street however was- an education that enabled me to have an absolutely fantastic career doing pretty well whatever I  chose. Not all the masters were brilliant, but many were and I along with many others were hugely influenced by such as Butch (Mr P.C.Barrett ), The Rev. P.V.Appleton  and “Gaff”  Henton, who valiantly tried  to cram  five years Geography in to just over one year. (he later taught both my sons)

It was in one of Butch’s English Lessons, in C Room,  that Horace came in to find out what career aspirations we all had. Several wanted to become teachers, many had no idea which did nothing to impress Horace,.several were to take over the family business ( this always produced a sneer)  and would you believe it- several of us were interested  in Farming. At the end of the lesson, Butch enquired  if there would be any interest in the formation of a Young Farmers Club. There was and he became the Club Leader and Joe Bailey from a higher form became the first Chairman and I became the second. There never was a huge membership but your editor was a member and later both he and I became Chairmen of Local Senior Clubs.

Another huge influence was Rev. P.V.Appleton, affectionately known as “Pippinhead.”  He was Vicar of Tatenhill and Rangemore and taught Religious Education and Music and was in charge of the  School Choir. He has an extraordinary voice and could sing Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass in perfect pitch. He stimulated an interest in singing in me and although I am no good at it, I do sing in three Choirs, including the famous Swadlincote Messiah. In which I am joined by Past President and Govenor of Abbot Beyne- Jim Woolley.

I was influenced by several others of course, but Horace Pitchford was Head for all my time and his constant present was always felt at the school, particularly if anyone so much as dropped a sweet wrapper  I am sure many here will remember the whole school being called to account. If ever a master was temporarily away from his class he would come wafting in to enquire how many of us could recite the Psalms and to remind us that he could recite them all!!

After practical experience on local farms, off I went to Staffordshire College of Agriculture the same place as your editor, and I have with me the neatly hand written reference given by Horace to enable me to gain access to that hallowed seat of learning. Despite my poor showing in exams at school I miraculously did rather well at college and in due course the Principal recommended me for a farm management position aged 24. That was to be the springboard for a most enjoyable career. My next position was at Reading University where I managed a very large Dairy Unit and lived at Sonning-on-Thames. Some very famous people live in that village including one who was due here tonight. It was during my time at Reading that I became that I became interested in the “ Motivation of  Staff. Most staff on farms work very long hours and I knew Joey Crowther’s methods were frowned upon by this time! I was very fortunate indeed to be awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to study this subject. This I did in New Zealand & U.S.A. This was a marvellous opportunity for me and as far as I know only one other Old Boy has been awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship and he isn’t here tonight as he hasn’t stopped travelling since.

Part of my job at Reading was to demonstrate the unit to thousands of visitors every year including many from abroad. This has resulted in many friendships from around the world, many of which endure to this day. Managing huge numbers of “that cow I fell in love with” has provided me with an amazing career of 25 years in Farm Management. This was followed by an enjoyable career in sales- mostly in Cattle Breeding products, semen and embryos from around the world producing more cows to love. I also had a short foray into marketing Mercedes cars- here I met John Illingworth - he bought a BMW.

By being a Grammar School Old Boy I have had a wonderful life and met a great many amazing people who have had an impact on my life. One I haven’t mentioned is Jim Woolley’s brother Neville, who I met in Z room in 1953. My friendship with him and Deryck Barker have been a golden thread through my life and without it I would have been much the poorer.

I am mindful that I have only been President for a few minutes but I must pay tribute to Ted Warren for the work he has done over the past 18years. I have been in his study this week and although there are quite a few books on Sport, a big part of his study and his life are devoted to Burton Grammar School Old Boys’

I will shortly call on our Guest and Honorary  Man, the beautiful Christine Thompson Head Teacher of our successor School which takes its name from the man who founded our School in 1520, The Abbot Beyne. I expect she will tell us about the improved methods of motivation used today, however before she stands I wish to record the debt of gratitude to Christine and others for the help and use of facilities given by the School to the great benefit of our Association. 

M.E.Watson 07.06.2007.