Brentwood College School - Brentonian Yearbook (Mill Bay, British Columbia Canada)

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Brentwood College Magazine Headmaster s Address LOCKER INSPECTION YOU can quite understand that, at this time of the term, my thoughts tu rn very frequently towards those of you who are leaving. I wonder, of course, what you are going to do when you have finished your educational courses and how successful you are going to be : but most I wonder how much you have gained, during your time here, which is going to be of real value to you in the years ahead. Perhaps, then, it was only natural that I should have dreamed about you the other night. It was rather a dark room in which I found myself and I could not, at first, make out where I was, but as I grew accustomed to the light, I realised that it was a changing-room. There were the rows of lockers, with their doors opened, and standing in front of them, a line of about a dozen boys, each with a bundle in front of him. A man, whom I did not at first recognize, was wal king slowly down the line, checking over each bundle and entering notes in a book. Evidently some sort of locker inspection was going on. But I don ' t think he is being very efficient, I thought to myself, because in some of the lockers I could see quite a lot of things that seemed to have been left behind. The piles of belongings in front of each boy varied considerably : most of them contained some school books, but that was almost the only thing they had in common, and, even then, the quantity of books differed enormously. Some of the boys seemed to have concentrated a good deal on athletics : there were footballs, bats, racquets, cups and blazers stacked in front of them, and certainly one boy had an oai leaning against a nearby pillar. Others had less imposing heaps, but still interesting: an old pair of football boots and running shoes ; something made in the Manual Training shop, a play costume, a hymn book and a few black note books made up one fairly typical pile. One or two, I noticed, were gazing rather ruefully at heaps of old, tattered magazines, a few candy-bar wrappers, a crumpled packet of cigarettes and some cheap gramophone records. That seemed to be all they had, because their lockers were fairly well cleaned out. While I had been taking all this in, the Inspector had finished his job and was walking down to my end of the line. As soon as I saw his face, I recognized my old friend, the Spirit of Brentwood, though he seemed to have grown bigger and stronger since I saw him last. How do you do, he said, I was just having a locker inspection for the boys who are leaving. I like to see that they take away everything they ' ve got when they go. Well, I said, I hope you won ' t think I am interfering with your job, but haven ' t you overlooked quite a lot of things? Some of their lockers seem almost full still. Page Twenty-eight

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B rent w o o d College M a g a z i n e Grade XI.— E. Chad wick. Grade XII. — T. Bassett. Special Progress Prizes — B. Harvey, S. Dennison. Angus Science Prize — R. Field. Curtis Mathematical Prize — A. H. Mitchell. Scott-Moncrieff English Literature Prize — I. Ross. Williams Language Prize — M. Symons, P. Izard. Crease Art Prize — Senior, E. Chad wick; Junior, R. Taylor. Headmaster ' s Reading Prizes — Senior, M. Symons; Junior, R. Stephens. Architectural Drawing Prize — G. Wilby. Mechanical Drawing Prize — N. Mitchell, F. Angus. Manual Training Prize — Senior, K. Cooke; Junior, K. Nairn. Special Progress — A. Jacobs. , CUPS Badminton Singles — A. Izard. Tennis Singles — I. Ross. Tennis Doubles — Symons and Mitchell. Senior Cross Country — I. Ross; Intermediate, D. Holmes; Junior, W. Clist. 100 Yards— N. Mitchell. Senior Swimming — F. Angus; Intermediate, B. Harvey; Junior, W. Clist. Cricket Bats for 50 Runs Scored — School Match, R. Field and A. Johnston. Best Batting Average — R. Field. Best Bowling Average — A. Johnston. Best All-round Junior Cricketer — X. Rogers. Shooting Medals — Highest Aggregate, G. Milligan; Senior, 2nd Class, R. Field; Junior 2nd Class, D. Holmes. Junior Challenge Cup — W. Clist. Intermediate Challenge Cup — D. Holmes. Victor Ludorum Challenge Cup — R. Field. Inter-House Challenge Cup — Upper House (Captain N. Mitchell). Yarrow Shield and Medal— X. Mitchell. The Way Of It The art of writing poems may Be learnt in little time : Y r on ' ve only got to find a word, And then you find another word, And then you find another word, And get them all to rhyme. Of course you must choose with care The subject of your song: Now if you take a word like cat, Hat, sat or mat will ryhme with that, Or at or pat, or vat or flat — You simply can ' t go wrong. They pray observe these simple rules, Which I have now made clear : Don ' t write about the quintuplets, Or Niagara, or zebras, or unicorns, Or Epstein, or Hitler, or even Mussolini, Because you ' re bound to get terribly stuck. Page Twenty -seven

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Brentwood College Magazine ' ' Of course they are, he answered. Surely you realize that although they all take a great many things away with them, most of them leave some- thing behind. In fact the best leave so much behind them that you can hardly say they leave the school at all. I suppose I looked rather puzzled, because he went on to explain further — You see, what they leave behind are the things they did while they were here; the way they played that rugger match against University School, the keenness with which they ran or rowed or played cricket ; the discipline they maintained as Prefects : their willingness to help on Pioneer Parties : their laughter: their sense of honour: their pride in Brentwood and in themselves as Brentonians — ah, these things do not leave with them : they remain and become a permanent part of the school they have helped to build. You have probably noticed, he continued in a sadder tone, that some of the lockers are almost empty. They belong to the boys who just lived for themselves and had as easy a time as they could : the school didn ' t mean much to them, so, naturally, they couldn ' t expect to make much im- pression on the school. And he quoted very softly They are perished as though they had never been and are become as though they had never been born. They don ' t seem to take much away either, ' I commented. No, he agreed, a few moving picture magazines and gramophone records are not much to be proud of. Most of them do better than that though, he went on, as if eager to talk about more cheerful things. Can you explain, I asked, to help change the subject, why many of those who are leaving most behind them seem to be taking least away? That doesn ' t seem to bear out what I have often told them, that the more you give, the more they get. It does seem odd at first, answered the Spirit, until you find out that those are the boys who are really taking most with them. They have not cumbered themselves very much with the material things of the world, but a close look at them will show you that they are not being sent away empty. Those are the ones who have learnt, as Job put it, that the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding. They have been building up a standard of behaviour during their years here which will be an anchor for them in times of trouble. They know that it is not going to be easy to maintain that standard after they have left : the temptation to depart from it will increase rather than decrease, but they know, too, that as St. Peter puts it nothing can harm them if they be followers of that which is good. So, though their baggage seems light, their hearts are full and they will go on their way in the spirit of the valiant pilgrim that old John Bunyan wrote about. As he stopped speaking, one of those odd changes took place which seem so natural in dreams, for I suddenly found myself in the chapel, with the organ playing over the tune you have just sung. But when the singing Page Twenty-nine