London Open House at Emanuel on September 22 was a fascinating experience and a journey back to the 1950s. I had visited the school a few times since leaving sixty years ago but only to see the chapel and look through the archives. The classrooms and other areas, which had been ‘home’ long ago, had never been revisited.
How I remember the mid ’50s at Emanuel
The tour by Shaun Andrews was very enjoyable and revealing. I had expected to see a few changes but not to the extent I experienced. The metal and woodwork building, where I laboured to make a stool and egg rack, was about to be demolished [to make way for the new science and dining building] and the old hall, where my 1c classroom once stood, was only just recognisable. Seeing the room where the great if somewhat eccentric Charles Cuddon taught me the pleasures of reading and writing, brought back very positive memories. I kept in touch with Charles for many years and had the pleasure of arranging travel to The Balkans for him. There were two other masters who encouraged me to work hard on languages: the strict Paul Craddock for German and Brian Read for French. I later studied French, German, Spanish and Russian; in my travel career I visited the USSR and subsequently Russia twenty-five times.
Revisiting the chapel gave me the chance to see my uncle’s name on the Role of Honour; Bertram Alec Reader (OE1909-13) joined the post office in 1914 after leaving Emanuel. The following year he enlisted in The Prince of Wales Own Civil Service Rifles, 15th Bat., 47th London Division. Two weeks before receiving his release – as he had enlisted underage – he took part in the attack on the German Switch Trench in High Wood on The Somme on 15 September 1916.
He died from a sniper’s bullet and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial as he has no known grave. When his sister, my mother, died, my brother and I gained all our uncle’s letters which he sent home, his medals and a pile of War Office documents. Roger Goodman, (OE1945-51), and I spent many years tracing the life of our uncle with many amazing coincidences on the way. The detailed research, mostly before the internet, culminated on 15 September 2016. A family group assembled in High Wood one hundred years to the hour and within a few paces of where uncle ‘Alec’ gave his life. A wreath was placed on The Thiepval Memorial in memory of an heroic OE.
Three generations of the Goodman family remember their uncle, great uncle and great, great uncle
The Emanuel archive has material on Alec’s life and The Imperial War Museum has a large collection of documents.
Doug Goodman (OE1956-61)