Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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Valete This will be the last and, I hope the shortest, of the messages that I write tor the Saltus Year Book . The shortest because I do not like writing anything about myself and because no one should really write his own as-it-were-obituary! After fifteen years at the head of the Saltus Grammar School I am handing over the Headmastership at the end of this term to my friend and colleague, Mr. H. J. Hallett. I am, of course, after so many years in the service of this school and its boys, sorry that the time has come to leave; but 1 am extremely glad to know that 1 leave the school in such proved and competent hands. My work here has been a happy undertaking and I realise how much I owe to others and to their help, loyalty and support— the boys of the school, the Staff, the S.G.S. Trustees, and to the Parents. It is invidious to mention names for fear of the offense that might be given by omissions (I dare not even mention yours, Mr. Editor), but I do strongly feel that I cannot leave the school without acknowledg- ing with the deepest gratitude what my wife, who has devoted so much time and energy to Saltus and its interests, and I myself owe in every possible way to such families (sometime Trustees of the School) as Cox, Watlington, Butterfield, Dill, Triminghams (both Eldon and Kenneth), and to H.J.H., who has been virtually my partner for so long, and to J.H.K. whose enormous capacity for accurate work has been the foundation upon which such success as has been attained has been built. I know that I am leaving a school of enthusiastic, decent boys: the morale, work and organization of the school are in a healthy condition: the Old Boys ' Association is firmly on its feet (due large- ly to the work of a devoted few): new buildings, badly needed, are at last on the way. You will have, additionally and most important of all, a Headmaster already well-known to you and whom you can trust. My most earnest best wishes remain with the Saltus Grammar School and with you all: you will be constantly in my thoughts. R.E.E.B.

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Editorial On the very eve of going to press this year we were startled, lo say the least of it, by the news that our Headmaster, Mr. R. E. E. Booker, is leaving us at the end of the term. For a year or two now he has been suggesting that this was coming, so that, perhaps, we ought not to have found his departure so unexpected. But we had imagined that it was merely the cry of Wolf! Wolf! and were quite unprepared for the event. An appreciation of his work at Saltus appears elsewhere in this issue; here we would be content with say- ing that it was under his administration that the school grew up. As many of the older men in Bermuda know, the school in its earlier days was a very small affair, comparable in many ways to the village schools which are described in the English authors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such a school, with a headmaster who is a character , may frequently produce great men; but education for this modern world is, perhaps unfortunately, a much more com- plicated business, and Mr. Booker, by his organizational ability, by his acquisition of a more numerous staff, by his insistence on the need for more adequate buildings and equipment and by his encour- agement of an actively interested Old Boys ' Association, has laid the foundations of an institution which can, as some of our Old Boys ' successes have already shown, compete educationally with anything of its sort this side of the Atlantic. He leaves with our thanks for the past and our good wishes for the future. His place is to be taken by Mr. H. J. Hallett, who needs no introduction to Saltus Old Boys. He has had an active part in all the recent development of the School and we are glad to welcome him in the complete assurance that he is the man to preside over its future progress. THE EDITOR.

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5 Royal Wedding Celebrations On the day preceding the marriage of H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth to Lieut. Philip Mountbatten the School assembled to hear an address by the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. William Addis. Mr. Addis began by emphasizing the importance to the whole Empire of the marriage of the Heiress Presumptive to the British Throne, and went on to point out that the loyal interest displayed by this Colony in the Mother Country was not misplaced, for, without the support which we have for centuries received from her, We should be nothing but a tiny, insignificant island in the vast Atlantic Ocean. He then reviewed the early life of the Princess, showing how for many years she had been trained and disciplined to shoulder the immense responsibilities that she might some day have to bear. He ad ded that Her Royal Highness and the Empire were equally fortunate in that her choice had fallen on a man like Lieut. Mount- batten, whose career in His Majesty ' s Navy, already a distinguished one, displayed qualities that made him likely to prove an ideal Consort. The boys then proceeded to enjoy a veritable feast of cakes, minerals and a phenomenal quantity of ice cream in the School Hall before going home for the rest of the day. J.D.S. Empire Day Celebration The Empire Day ceremonies at Saltus Grammar School took place on Friday morning, when Vice-Admiral Sir William Tennant addressed the boys. Accompanying the Admiral were Lady Tennant and the Flag- Lieutenant, while Mrs. Leon Powell represented the I.O.D.E. Prior to the assembly the Admiral inspected a Cadet Guard of Honour, and later he met the staff at the Headmaster ' s House. In the course of his introductory address the Headmaster, Mr. R. E. E. Booker, reminded the boys that May 24th was the anni- versary of the birthday of Queen Victoria. It had been officially recognised as Empire Day since 1902, when Lord Meath inaugurated it as a day on which the training of young people in Empire citizen- ship should be thought upon. In Bermuda the festival had been kept alive mainly through the energy and initiative of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, and the I.O.D.E. visitor with them on that day, as often before, was Mrs. Leon Powell