Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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6 Referring to the Lesson for the day, Let us now praise famous men ... he spoke of the great days of exploration, in which English- men such as Drake, Anson, and Cook had shown the greatest courage, enterprise, and endurance. In India, men like Clive had laid down the pen to take up the sword. Such men were typical of the Empire- builder, living a lonely life in a foreign clime; typical of the thousands, unhonoured and unsung, the district officers, civil servants, doctors, and police who made the British Empire a decent, ordered, well-run place, often at the expense of their health, and faced with family separation, for no great material reward. Speaking to the boys alone, Vice-Admiral Stevens reminded them that all that they had been thinking about — History and Growth — de- pended upon persons and personalities, in short, on guts . He im- pressed upon them that they must not be insular; they must look wide, and, while taking pride in Bermuda, must also remember their share in the Mother Country and the Commonwealth. As a goal, the finest thing after school would be to go to one of the great universities at home, or in Canada. They must travel, and see the world. He left one last thought with them. Whatever career, trade, or profession they might adopt, they must say to themselves, that, be- sides success, they owed it to themselves to make at least one purely personal achievement of enterprise or endurance; to cross an ocean, or climb a mountain. A great ocean sailor had written; If sometimes lives of yourself and others have depended on your decisions, your initiative, and your leadership, when you were soaked seasick, and rather frightened, then, with that experience . . . (and there Kipling ' s If would provide the fitting conclusion). You ' ll be a man, my son! . The Debating Society From fireworks to flying saucers, the Society ' s discussions during the past season have ranged over a number of problems which are irk- ing the world to-day. The programme has included at least one in- novation — a Mock Court-Martial : we venture to liope that this unique case may provide military jurists with valuable precedents, though no communication has been received from the War Office up to the time of going to Press.

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5 Empire Day Celebrations On May 25th. the school was most fortunate in having aa its dis- tinguished Visitor and speaker Vice-Admiral Sir J. Felgate Stevens, K.B.E., C.B., who was accompanied by Lady Stevens. Vice-Admiral Stevens is Deputy Allied Supreme Commander in the Atlantic, and in command of the American and West Indies Station. At the beginning of his speech, he stressed that Empire Day should be a day of particular pride to Bermuda, as she was the oldest British colony, possessed the oldest representative parliament outside West- minster, and had always been British. Referring to his own schooldays, he remarked how he had looked at Mercator ' s Projection, and noted the vast areas of red denoting the British Empire; since then- there had been great changes, and a Com- monwealth of Nations had sprung into being, with self-government and independence by constitutional agreement the keynotes. The last revolutionary success in Empire history was in 1776, with the conse- quent loss of our American colonies; but it was a fine thing that we shared our history with the United States; he felt that some inscruta- ble providence had made that beginning of the States develop to its present power to redress the evils of the world. The Commonwealth of Nations was unique in its freeness, having no written rules, and possessing a coherence that had never been matched before. The touchstone of the whole organisation was the binding power of the Crown. Wherever Empire in the strict sense of the word had passed, we had left another empire behind. Long years before the changes, Macaulay had foreseen the ultimate destiny of the Empire of British India, when he wrote: The sceptre may pass away from us, but there is an empire exempt from all natural causes of decay — the imperishable empire of our arts (by which he meant our ' skills ' ) and our morals, our literature, and our laws. Although British Imperialism and Colonialism had sometimes met with opprobrium, our record was one to be proud of; we had brought good government and better conditions wherever we had gone, and the members of the Empire had grown by gradual degrees to a state of greater responsibility, while the Mother Country still remained the centre and heart, as it was also the centre of communications. Today these communications between one part of the Empire and Great Britain were still largely carried on the seas, which both divided and linked those foreign stations that covered the whole globe.

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7 This case was concerned with the charge that at 1530 hours on Monday, 21st. February, 1955, the accused, Private Lamb, 01637.33, while on parade in charge of the regimental mascot, Billy the goat, did of evil intent allow the aforesaid Billy to escape; whereupon the goat careened down the lines and took the Inspecting General in the rear, inflicting substantial damage to limb and uniform, all this to the prejudice of the good order and discipline of the troops. The accused (D. M. McCann), who was escorted by Cpl. Smogg (A. H. Cooper) and Pte. Staggers (B. R. Hall) under the supervision of R. S. M. Bellower (R. W. Kempe), pleaded Not Guilty . Clerk of the Court was Sgt. Quill (H. E. Outerbridge). The presiding Judges were: Colonel Swashbuckler (J. R. Talbot), Major Wiffles (G. G. Henderson) and Captain Boffin (S. H. Grayston). Prosecuting was Captain Convictum (Mr. J. A. Stubbs), while for the Defence was Captain Tiller (Mr. P. L. Helm). Three witnesses appeared for the Prosecution: Pte. I. C. Clearly (P. S. Scupham) was on parade and saw it all happen; he alleged that the accused deliberately slipped the collar of the goat and gave the animal a kick to set it in motion. Cpl. Eves L. Dropper (S. A. Will- iams) testified that on the previous evening he had heard the accused grousing in the Be er Canteen. Pte. Charles L. Insomnia (R. Bickley) gave evidence that he occupied a bed next to the accused, whom he had heard muttering in his sleep the night previous about loosing the goat . The Defence also produced three witnesses: Cpl. Dagger (H. G. F. Pierce), a storekeeper in the Q-M. Stores, deposed that a few days previous the accused had applied for a new collar for the goat as the one in use showed signs of wear and tear; the collar had been requisi- tioned forthwith, but had not been received in time for the parade. Pte. Brief (A. G. Shorto) testified that he was standing immediately behind the goat on parade, and he saw it sneezing violently; in trjdng to comfort the goat the accused took it by the collar, which came away in his hand. The accused then seemed to shoot out his foot to stop the goat, but this only agitated the animal, which made off in top gear . Captain Cascara-Jones, Regimental M.O. (F. I. B. Williams) stated that on the morning of February 20th. the accused had reported sick, complaining of sleeplessness. The sleeping-draught prescribed could possibly have been responsible for ji certain amount of wild talk in his sleep.