Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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11 How Mr. Waddington and his assistant managed to keep going all the classes for boys ranging from seven years to nineteen was known only to themselves. And yet the work was done, and not at all badly. Discipline was naturally difficult, but except for special moments of trouble such as come to all schools, it was fairly maintained. Mr. Callis stayed only for about two years and then was suc- ceeded by another young man, a hot-headed and inexperienced Irishman named Joyner. With so little assistance, it was only the indefatigable energy of the Headmaster and his genius for his work that made progress possible, and he was well backed up by the boys, with whom he was popular. He had almost a genius for teaching, being able to turn from Greek or Latin or French to mathematics, history, geography, chemistry or other subjects. He was truly a versatile man. In the management of the school he was strict, but seldom unfair; indeed, he might in measure have deserved the encomium paid to the great Arnold of Rugby — a, beast, but a just beast! He was lame and always walked with a stick; and we used to reckon him as a reliable barometer, for when he stroked or rubbed his lame leg, we knew that stormy weather lay ahfead! In spite of his lameness, he was a good cricketer, the best in the School. Among the difficulties of those early days was the fact that a number of the boys enrolled had grown up with little or no school- ing, so that there were quite big fellows among us who were very backward in scholastic development. And also, it must be ack- nowledged that an unusually large proportion were not inclined to do any serious work, filling consistently the lowest seats of every class, and even glorying in the fact that they had no intention of learning. We had no playground. A Sports Ground was found in a field in Devonshire — ' ' Tucker ' s Field — almost a mile and a half from the School, a Sabbath day ' s journey to reach. Most of our play was done on the triangular patch of grass at the intersection of the roads outside the school. The triangle still remains there today, enclosed now by a fence but considerably cut down in ex- tent. And then over the high wall alongside was a small piece of land, the corner of the Tucker estate, which we used for games. I do not think there was any formal permission for this, but neither were we ever turned out of it. Georgie Tucker, to whose family it belonged, was one of us and as soon as classes were dismissed, there was a wild scurry for this playground, and the cry was last man over the wall! The only other outlet for superabundant energies was the marsh close by, where we used to disport ourselves in pole-jumping over the ditches. It was risky because of the deep mud in those water- ways in which the pole acted erratically. We always lived in the

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10 About the year 1885 feeling was strong that a fresh attempt should be made for the founding of a school likely to prove more thorough and enduring than the unfortunate Devonshire College, and further financial help was by this time in sight. A short time before, a Mr. Saltus, a merchant and ship-owner, had left a con- siderable sum of money for a school for white boys to be situated in Pembroke Parish. This amounted to a nominal £12,800 invested in Consols, which, however, then stood at far below par value. The executors and trustees of Mr. Saltus, Messrs. Henry and Richard Darrell, decided to use the money for a school that should be called the Saltuis Grammar School, and succeeded in coming to a happy agreement with the Devonshire College trustees. Between them they decided to try the project out in a temporary building before committing themselves to a permanent scheme. The Saltus Trustees sold out their Consols and by investing the money in island mortgages were able to nurse it up to its original figure of £12,800, and to provide a substantial yearly income for the new school and for scholarships in it for poorer boys. They agreed to rent the Pembroke Sunday School for the purpose, a hall on Angle Street composed at that time of a single large room. The next step was to secure a headmaster, and the Committee were fortunate enough to induce Mr. Thomas Waddington to come out from England for the purpose. It was for him a plunge in the dark, for there was as yet not only no school building, but no school; and the work would have to be built up from the very foundations. Fortunately, the co-operation of the two sets of trustees gave a measure of financial stabiHty to the project. But when all is said, it was certainly a brave step on the part of Mr. Waddington. The services of a young assistant were enlisted, a Mr. Callis, and on the opening day about thirty boys turned up for school. One of them tells of the awkward group they formed as they stood irresolutely at the door of the Sunday School building. At last one of them, F. Goodwin Gosling, determined to enter and thus was actually the first Saltus scholar enrolled. Others of that shy group were, I am told, E. H. Tucker, R. Dunkley, G. Gorham and R. Trimingham. Their number was soon increased and the Sunday School hall was filled to capacity. The total at any one time prob- ably never exceeded seventy-five and may have been rather less than that. Of these all were Bermudians except three or four Eng- lish boys of military families, and three or four from the U.S.A. and the West Indies. It was exceedingly difificult to find accommoda- tion for them all. The stage was used by the Headmaster as an ofifice in those rare moments when he was not actually teaching, and there were also classes going on there at the same time. There was no room for them elsewhere. The body of the Hall was oc- cupied with desks and a small space for classes of the younger boys.

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12 hope that someone would fail to get across and slither down the pole into the water and mud; and our hopes were not infrequently realised. It was believed that occasionally some wilfully took a ducking in order to be sent home for the day and to miss some dreaded class. Robinson ' s Tuck Shop was close by the school, and since in those days bicycles were not in existence and we all had to walk to school, almost everyone stayed around for the lunch period. Some of us had to cover two or three miles to get to school. An unwritten law was that each boy had threepence and no more provided for his lunch, and for that modest sum we could get a roll and butter, or two slices of rye bread and butter; and also a cocoanut cake or two bananas. The younger boys had to manage, I believe, on twopence. But were they not good lunches ! Some of us have never forgotten them in all the years since. The great event of the year was the Annual Sports, and I still have in England the programmes of events of those occasions which occurred during my time at Saltus. We had some very good ath- letes among us, and the School Sports Day was a date of some im- portance for the whole Colony. In scholarship we worked for the Cambridge Local Examina- tions, and Oliver Cromwell and I had the privilege of being the first to sit for the Senior Cambridge in Bermuda. We both suc- ceeded in passing, and not badly, I am glad to say. We, Old Salts as we might be called, look back with affection and some pride to our Old School. It was Education under Diffi- culties, assuredly. Life around us was quieter and less exciting than it is now. Living was cheap and the population was smaller. Agricultural tasks were the chief activities of the Islands, though Bermuda was renowned for the building of cedarwood ships. The Sir George Seymour was the best known of these. But things were moving on even then. The arrival at Ireland Island of the first floating dock was a great occasion; and the in- stallation of the Trans-Atlantic cable a momentous step forward. The Colony may have been not so prosperous, but it was at least as happy as it is now, a friendly place where everyone knew and greeted everyone else. It was in such circumstances that the Saltus Grammar School began its life. Its wider history started in 1893, when it moved to new quarters built on the Woodlands estate; but that is beyond the period to which these notes belong. (Signed) EDWARD A. ANNETT. Robinson ' s Tuck Shop. Known to Bermuda boys as Lumley Robinson ' s Grocery Store. A half loaf of rye bread and butter was referred to as a half loaf of dun- garee and a ha ' penny ' s worth of lining.