Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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9 himself to all at Saltus and he will be very much missed v hen he leaves us to visit his family in Great Britain, and perhaps, to live there. Mr. R. R. Thompson, at one time Head Prefect of this school and since 1943 a member of the Staff is also leaving to take up once again his course for a Degree at the Uni- versity of Toronto. His valuable work on the teaching staff and in the Bursary will long be remembered here. Earlier in the year, also, we lost the assistance, after fourteen years of service, of Mr. Harry Richardson; his vast fund of geographical knowledge has been missed by the pupils of Saltus. Mr. Hugh Masters, whose place as a teacher of Spanish was temporarily taken by Major Mason, was another valuable member of the Staff who left the school during the past twelve months. His enthusiasm and cheer- fulness were sadly missed here, but I am glad to say that from time to time he has come to fill in and to resume his old activities. He is now returning to Williams College in Massachusetts. This term the school was fortunate enough to secure the services of Major R. C. FitzGibbon, who has had a remarkable war record and whose scholastic career was brilliant ... at one time he gained, aged fourteen, a School Certificate with a Credit or better in all eight subjects offered : he has also been educated at Oxford and in France and Germany. To the newcomers, whoever they may be, we ex- tend a most hearty welcome and to those who have served and have left, or are leaving, our grateful thanks and heartiest best wishes. R. E E. B. Visit of the Acting Governor His Excellency the Acting Governor, the Hon. William Addis, visited Saltus Grammar School on a tour of inspection on Tuesday Nov. 6th. Accompanied by his A.D.C., Lieut. J. B. Trimingham, B.V.E., His Excellency was met at the school gate by the Head- master, Mr. R. E. E. Booker, and the Head Prefect. His Excellency first inspected the Cadet guard-of-honour, drawn up at the flag-staff, and then made the tour of the class- rooms to see the boys at work. Following the inspection the school adjourned to the Assembly Hall, where His Excellency delivered an address. The programme had provided for a physical training display on the playing field, but this was cancelled owing to the inclement weather. At the conclusion of the proceedings the staff were pre- sented to His Excellency at the Headmaster ' s House. In the course of his address to the boys. His Excellency said that the question of his future career loomed large in a boy ' s thoughts from an early age. It was a burning question in the nursery, with a predilection, perhaps, in favour of the profession

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8 Tost-War by the Headmaster I notice that the last time I wrote for the Saltus Year Book ' I expressed the opinion that our time of hardest work and most difificulties to be overcome might arrive in the transition or post- war period. It now seems to me that what I then wrote has proved to be correct, and that we are not yet nearly out of the wood. Plans have already been made for additions to the buildings of the school, notably the provision of a Physics Laboratory and a Gym- nasium; valued members of the teaching staff are leaving, or have already left us. In these days of shortage of materials, high cost of labour and difficult travelling conditions, it may be well imagined much thought and consideration have taken place and that prompt and definite action is the next step to be taken. By the time that this article is in print it is very probable that I shall be on my way to England to recruit young men of the type I have been so fortunate as always to have here on the staff. I earnestly hope that I shall be successful in finding able teachers of a kind that can assist those tried and valuable gentlemen and ladies who will still be with us. The emoluments of schoolmasters are not large, but the profession is in many ways a pleasant one and Bermuda, I feel, should not be without its attractions as a place in which to live after hardships suffered in Europe and elsewhere. Later in this issue our thanks are expressed briefly to those who have helped us throughout the war period and who now have to move on to other work. Also published for the first time in this copy of the Saltus Year Book is a Roll of Service of Saltus men. No doubt this Roll will not be found complete in every detail, but it is the intention of those responsible to publish a separate and really complete list of all who served, when complete particulars are available. The school is proud of the war record of her Old Boys and the Gym- nasium to be erected will be a memorial to those who gave their lives in the late war and in the 1914-18 struggle. I need hardly, I think, write that the spirit of Saltus has sur- vived war-time difficulties unimpaired, and I h ave no doubt what- ever that it will lead us to a new peak of eminence if all do their duty and contribute what they can. R. E. E. B. Staff Notes At the end of this term the school will be losing the valuable services of Major W. B. Welch, who has helped us here since 1940 and throughout the war period. Bringing his great experience and infinite human kindness to the school, Major Welch has endeared

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16 of engine-driver after the first railway journey, or of that of an officer in His Majesty ' s Brigade of Guards after a visit to Buck- ingham Palace to witness the ceremony of the changing of the guard; while there were others who favoured the profession of schoolmaster, on the principle, no doubt, that it was more blessed to distribute corporal punishment than to receive it. At that early stage there was little or no apprehension of the years of hard work required in order to qualify for a profession; yet it was a fact that life had never been easy for those who wanted to do something worth while, and it was getting harder and harder each generation. The days when a son could walk easily into the lucrative profession of his father were, in his opinion, gone for ever in England, and by the time many of them grew up it would not exist even here in Bermuda. Competition was becoming sterner, the war had left the world in a chaotic state, and they would have to compete with all sorts and types of people and problems with which their fathers had never had to contend. They were on the threshold of the combat of life, but here at Saltus was presented to them the glorious opportunity of arming themselves for the combat; they must work hard to prepare them- selves for the fight. O Gosh! they might think, surely he knows we all hate work. Well, he too might hate work, but what he knew now and did not know when he was a schoolboy was that a reasonable amount of hard work when young could make all the difference to the happiness of one ' s future life. He had hated Latin (perhaps they didn ' t exactly love it!), but he had had to realise that it was a necessary preparation for entry to Rugby and Cambridge, and he had to get to Rugby and Cambridge in order to qualify for the Colonial Administration Service, for which an Honours Degree was essential. He was going to talk to them about that Service, not entirely because it was one of the finest professions, but also because he doubted whether any of them knew much about it. They had met doctors, lawyers, clergymen, — and even schoolmasters! All these were excellent professions, but he knew more about his own. His own choice of a profession had crystallised finally after he had met a six-foot-seven member of the Colonial Administration Service whose stories of adventure in Africa had thrilled him. His own father had been a banker, but the prospect of being, as he then thought, chained to a desk, did not appeal to him; he sought rather a life of action and adventure. So his choice was made, and on his twenty-second birthday he received from the Secretary of State a letter which concluded with the words: ' ' I have the honour to be, Sir, Your humble and obedient Servant; not until later did he come to realise that it was he himself who was to be the humble and obedient servant! In due course he was posted as a Cadet in the Colonial Ad- ministration Service for the territory of Zanzibar. He had already