A Spitfire Pilot Remembers: Chapter Two - School Time
In the second episode of his life story John M Davis, a World War Two Spitfire pilot, tells of his school days when his real pleasure was sport.
School was, broadly speaking, enjoyable, and the real pleasure was sport and not work. I was fairly average at sport, and probably below average academically. My brother Peter was better than me at both. Our father was always very keen that we should learn how to defend ourselves. He had been a boxer in his youth. We therefore participated in boxing lessons and enjoyed them, with fair success.
One of the activities towards the end of the boxing lesson was two boys sparring for a minute, then both sparring with another boy for a minute and then the three against the fourth, and so on until the last one had about 12 attacking him. It was really a controlled street brawl that did not seem to do anybody any harm. We all continued with boxing throughout our school careers and achieved some success.
On special occasions we would be taken to see professional fights at the Ring, Blackfriars, where we saw well-known boxers of the period, such as Harry Mizler. However it was always the heavyweights who packed a heavy punch that stimulated most interest and excitement.
In between the fights some notables would be brought into the ring and introduced to the crowd. Such names as Cab Calloway and the enormously fat xylophone player Teddy Brown (who occupied two ringside seats) come to mind.
As we got older we were allowed to walk to school on our own, and I can remember going with my friend Leonard Snapper, who lived a few houses away. On one occasion we were walking home and decided to enter someone’s front garden, jump over the dividing wall and emerge from the next front garden. Unfortunately we were spotted, and a man with only one finger on his right hand came out of the front door and ran after us, waving his one-fingered hand and shouting. We fled, duly terrified - and never repeated the exercise.
Peter and Victor followed into the same school in due time. Each child had more brain than his older brother, and Victor ended on the classical side, learning Greek.
Team sports were an important part of school life, and luncheon break gave the opportunity for six-a-side football. As an older boy I became a captain, and my team was named Queens Park Rangers, who were Third Division South at that time. I chose them because they were the only team we had been to watch. They played at Loftus Road and moved to White City for a while. Neither of the QPRs did very well.
Unusual happenings are those one remembers. One master had a stick that he used for beating when he felt it necessary. On one occasion a fellow pupil, John Lamb, grabbed the wooden weapon and threw it on the coal fire. However, he was unable to prevent the master from rescuing his slightly charred weapon and received a suitable number of blows upon his seat.
When Peter joined the school, it was not long before he was sent to the headmaster for a beating, and a note was sent home to that effect. When asked by our parents as to what had caused the trouble, the answer was, “I pulled out one peg supporting the blackboard so that when the master wrote on the board, it collapsed and hit him on the leg and foot.”
“Why did it have to be you who did this?”
“Because none of the others did it properly.”
On occasion the sports master took his 1st XI for a country ramble on a Sunday. We walked through a field that had a ram in it. One of the boys, Tony Money (known as ‘Inky’ because he always managed to get ink on his hands and face), got too near the animal and was chased by it.
He reached the gate just before the ram and took a flying, headfirst leap over it. We all thought it very exciting, and it was the first demonstration to me that fear provides a tremendous stimulus. During the war there were other examples.
The Airship R100 set forth on its maiden journey and flew very low and shakily over our school. We watched it. The next day was the disaster when it crashed and burnt, killing all crew and passengers, as far as I can recall.
Slowly I moved up the prep school and usually finished the term about halfway down (or is it up?) the class. One of our masters was a beater for many misdemeanours, although we respected and liked him.
Sport was played for our House. I was a Citizen, and there were also Artists, Pilgrims and Hawks. To play football, cricket or box for one’s House was a great honour.
When we moved from our Exeter Road home to Canfield Gardens, it was possible to walk to and from school. Often we would call in at the big department store, John Barnes. Once I picked up a 2d chocolate bar and walked out of the store without paying for it. This gave me a worrying night. The thought of becoming a thief did not appeal to me. So the following afternoon on the way home I returned the bar to its place in the store.
A very high temperature struck me on one occasion, when I even imagined having jumped from the bedroom window with an umbrella as a parachute. Pneumonia was the illness that was treated.
However quite recently a doctor friend suggested that it could have been polio, since after that my straight spine developed a curvature with which I have lived ever since. Different specialists looked at it, and the only action they could suggest was to exercise the left arm and leg, which has become a daily morning routine. I was also given a special corset, but eventually gave that up since my feeling was that this type of support would weaken me.
