Westdale Secondary School - Le Raconteur Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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LE BACIINTEUB Gentlemen, The Kin ! By Gordon Hempstock .XlL! EDXXIXRD YIII: the Prince of VVales. who became King on january 21st, 1936! 1Yhite Lodge, Richmond 23rd, 1394, when Edward This story begins at Park, England, on june .Xlbert Christian George Andrew Patrick David of XYindsor was born. This was an historical event, for never before had a reigning monarch of England seen a great-grandchild who would one day sit on the throne. Edward was the eldest son of Prince George and Princess Mary of Teck, Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall, and the grand- child of Edward Prince of 1Yales, and great-grand- child of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. flardly had he left the cradle when he took for his motto. Ich Dien, which means l serve. He started school at the age of seven. By the time he was ten he had had two years tutoring in the French language. ln lillll, the words, The Queen is dead. Long' live the King! rang throughout the British Em- pire. Edward Yll ascended the throne. This was a step nearer to the crown for the young Prince Edward. as he was now the son of the Prince of 1Yales and became known as Edward of 1Nales. Edward was sent to the Royal Naval College at Osborne, and later to Dartmouth, where he was treated as an ordinary sailor. lle had, for instance. to get up at 6 a.m. and drill with the rest of the midshipmen. Thus, during the eight years of his grandfather's reign, he went to school, for this Prince was taught not to wear the crown. but to play the game. fle was so popular with the men at college that he earned for himself the title of The Sardinef' ln lillll, England again heard the words. The King is dead. Long live the Kingli' This time George Y. the l'rince's father. ascended the throne. Edward was made Prince of Wiales and a Knight of the Garter. lt was at the coronation of his father and mother that he hrst donned the coronet of his rank. The mere fact that his crown was more elaborate than his brothers' or sister's showed him his importance to his country. lle did not like court life, and was very pleased when his royal father told him he was to continue his naval studies. lle went aboard the Hindustan, a 16,350-ton bat- tleship. The men on the Hindustan were prepared to welcome a shy young Prince to their quarters, 18 but found they had received a surprise package. Once more the Prince threw off his rank and again became just another sailor. The cruise aboard the Hindustan ended all too soon for the sea-loving Edward. After visiting France in 1912, the Prince of XVales registered at Oxford University. He wore baggy pants and skipped lectures just as often as the rest of the undergraduates. He visited Berlin, Ger- many, in 1913, but later returned to Oxford. His college days were cut short by the Great Wlar. He immediately wanted to enlist in the Navy, but was informed that the heir to the throne could not go to war. Downcast, the Prince asked what he had brothers for. Soon after this he joined the Grenadier Guards. Edward was disgusted upon arriving in France when he found he was to be aide-de-camp to Gen- eral French. He wanted to fight. Later, however, the Prince got his chance to cheer the men on to victory and to do some fighting himself. 1Vhile visiting an aerodrome in Italy, he went up with George Barker. a Canadian ace. who took him twenty miles into enemy territory. They had to fight their way homeg the Prince downed two enemy airmen. During King George Y's illness in 1928. the Prince performed his father's duties. and since that time he has undertaken an ever-larger share of the kingly obligations. On january 21st, 19236, the Empire once again heard the solemn words. The King is dead. Long live the King! The Prince of 1Vales ascended the throne, llis Most Gracious Majesty, Edward VIII, by the grace of God. of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions Beyond the Seas, King. Defender of the Faith. Emperor of India, and Sov- ereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. His Majesty was the first monarch of Great Britain to Hy in an aeroplane, for he Hew from Sandringham, where his royal father died. to Lon- don to be officially proclaimed King. Already he has shown that he is to be no figure-head, but a real guiding hand of the destiny of his Empire. which controls one-quarter of the world's popu- lation. Gentlemen, The King! Long may he reign over us!

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1 f r Tx ,, ' ' 1 .F ' . , ,. .- ..-,...a....-.........+ 'ev , V J.. TECH TEACHERS FIRST ROW-J. Baxter, S. G. McCandIish, B. Slmpson, D. W. Bates, G. Walker, A. McColl. SECOND ROW-R. Young, C. Calderone, I. Hamllton, C. Lawlor, J. Shaw, C. Hunter, H. Cawthorpe, R. Hartwell, H. Alexander. THIRD ROW--A. Bannerman, J. G. Mlller, R. Walker, P. Turner, R. Rodger. FOURTH ROW--H. Brouwers, P. Gilbank, C. Partrldge, H. C. Hawes, R. Trayes. Westdalefs New First Year Course By B. L. Simpson Some uneasiness regarding the general course to be inaugurated in Wfestdale next fall seems to exist. This, is due chiefly to misunderstanding. The main reason for the change is to see if some remedy can- not be found which will help students and parents to make a more suitable selection of the courses offered in the VVestdale Secondary School. So many mistakes have been made in the past that we feel confident scores of students have not received as much benefit as they would have in a more suitable course. The new plan will be of much help in two ways. The big gap between primary and secondary school education will be greatly lessened. The students, after spending one year in the school, will be able to make a more intelligent choice of the course they should follow in the future. During the first year it is intended to make the course as general as possible, but on the distinct understanding that no one will be retarded, no mat- ter which course he may choose at the end of the year. The new subjects will be a little Algebra. Business Practice, General Science, perhaps a choice between French and Art, some Shop XYork for the boys and Household Science and Sewing for the girls, Health Education, and perhaps Music. It is not only in NYestdale that this is being done, because we are shaping our new course along the lines of one to be announced shortly by the Provin- cial Department of Education. Their new course will apply to all schools of the province. For the second year a student may choose to continue the general course or he may prefer the Commercial course, the Collegiate course or the Technical course. ln order to make this choice as beneficial as possible, it is our intention to discuss this choice with each student toward the end of the first year. 17 l lg

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LE IIACUNTE Ull A Ramble with the Stars By Constance Caunt OUNTLESS thousands of men have lifted their eyes in wonder to the same star-studded sky that bends over us. Princes, scholars, peasants. from time immemorial, have sought to understand its mystery. Yet through the solemn march of years, the majestic unfolding of centuries, the stars have remained coldly aloof from prying minds. Is there anyone who has gazed upward at these clustered worlds and not felt the meaner things of life fall from him? Surely there never yet lived the man who, face to face with the immensity of space, did not realize his own insignihcance, and, realizing it, did not strive to rise above himself, above his petty world, and dwell among the stars. And why should this be so? The primitive man who roamed the earth in the dawn of time, if he looked at the stars, did so with the same stir of emotion that still urges wolves to howl on moonlit nights. lt was mere brute wonder. Even in the remote beginning, this man-animal possessed a spark of something that the wolves did not. Like other animals, he feared many things- beasts stronger than himself, storms, earthquakes- in short, both what could hurt him, and what he could not understand. Unlike other animals, out of his ignorance and helplessness he formed a desire to appease the powers that might hurt him, and to reverence the things he did not understand. From the former wish developed the ideas of evil spirits. sacrifice, and charms, from the latter grew the religions of the world. Scientists have called the two the instinct of worship. C'f course, early man, so much the child of Nature. worshipped her greatest miracle-the sky: sun, moon and stars. As man grew, so did his ideas of worship, and since he has not changed fundament- ally, neither have they. First the sun was wor- shipped for its heat and light, then as a radiant god personifying noble qualities, now as the thought of another and greater VVho rules the the universe. It was the same with the moon. And the stars? The stars have always been the homes of the gods and the good. Thus men, in blind belief that there must be a Something greater than they, from age to age have lifted their faces to these glistening worlds in search of comfort, of truth, of a thousand things. Long before our time the patient stars heard the questions we ask to-day. Long after we are gone they will still hear them. Some day they will listen in vain when there is not one left to seek the answers to the eternal whys of the human race. 5 hunter, herdsman, tiller of the soil, man's companions of the darkness have been the stars. Night by night they flickered above tents of skins spread round a crackling fire. above hillsides where herdsnien watched their silent flocks, above river valley dotted with huts and patched with squares of ripening grain. Through the generations men watched these stars. They named them, formed them into patterns, told wondrous tales of figures in the sky. The names and legends live yet to heighten the strange beauty of a starry night with the fantasy of far-off times. The gradual change of occupation. from hunting to farming, tended to limit man's travels. In the beginning, the game, on which he depended for food, roamed over the earth in vast herds, and of neces- sity man was a nomad. XYhen he caught and tamed animals of his own, his wanderings became less extensive, being confined perhaps to a seasonal change of pasture lands. Finally the protection and cultivation of his little fields, cares of a farmer's life, held him securely within the curve of his own hills. Now, more than ever, he watched the stars and marked them as they rose and fell in burning constellations. He connected these regular move- ments with the reasons, and then the true calcula- tion of time began. To bark back thus through prehistoric ages is to make apparent again the subtle fascination of the stars. They are unchang- ing while all else changes, eternal though all else lives to die. This very day man stands on a twilight world beneath the pale arch of early stars. lrle thinks of the stars, recalling figures of size and distance. sometimes a few scraps of poetry. Perhaps he tries to understand what the stars are and how they came to be. But since all thought is strangely self- centered, he soon begins to ponder on that ever- lasting riddle-whence he came, whither he goes. and why. Let him think long, deeply, and often as he will, yet the answer is ever beyond him. The wise man who can understand this, and he alone, may look into his heart and there find written these words of one of ancient days: There is a joy, cancelling all sorrow, crowning all joys, my reason for being. I live that I may behold . . . the calm beauty of night drawing across the sky, and the evening star slowly sinking into the glow of sunset. 19