Happenchance - by Rodney Gascoyne - Bethany School, Kent

Bethany School, Goudhurst, Kent, England:

Brief history and some older memories: (Above images from 1958) (Scanned from 1966 Centennial edition of "The Bethanian") Rodney Gascoyne's Memoir

Aerial Photo - Summer 1957 Rough Plan of main school 1960

Bookmarks: Older Memories of Old Boys Memories of Staff Updates of History to date

Wartime Memories WW2 Notable Events till 1966 Centennial Poem

Brief History of 1st 100 years: Use the 'Back' button to return to your last link

A Short History of Bethany By the Editor of The Bethanian, 1966 (Shamus Frazer ?)

The godfather of Bethany was a "Mr. Reed, a City
Missionary, whose love for the young led him to seek
their good in every way". He ran "a mutual improve-
ment class", to which came in 1847 a 17 year old hand-
loom silk weaver of Bethnal Green, named Joseph James
Kendon. The occupation and place suggest Huguenot
descent. Although this class had a wider syllabus,
evangelism was its mainspring. This influence within a
year "converted" the young man to a form of Christianity
which inspired the rest of his life. It included faith in
the guidance of God in all circumstances. A Christian
has made his covenant to serve God, and he believes that
God is equally bound to show him what to do. His
Bible and his prayers are all he needs to obtain this
guidance.
The East End of Kendon's youth has been preserved
in Mayhew's famous conversations with the London Poor
in 1850-60. Even in 1902 Jack London found that it was
still the dwelling place of " People of the Abyss", after
fifty more years of sociology. Silk weavers were among
the aristocracy of the London poor; and this young
weaver yearned to help the great mass who were poorer
than he. He believed that the most effective help was to
bring these poor people to Christ - the poor man's
God, the "working man" who preached to the poor the
gospel of a kingdom in their souls which could defy the
worst that could befall them. They needed the Bible,
so they needed to learn to read; and this began an educa-
tion which could also enable them to escape from their
poverty.

So young J. J. Kendon joined a Congregational Church
and taught in the Sunday school. A few years later he
joined the Plymouth Brethren, and gave up one day's
work a week to visit the poor and preach the gospel to
them. Then, early in 1858 he was led to give himself
entirely to this work. With some support from a Mr.
Scott, "a godly City gentleman", he opened a "branch
of Christian work" called Zoar Mission, in Globe Road,
Mile End-a church, Sunday school and day school.
For 3 years he worked here, without any assured income,
relying on Providence for his family's needs. He had
married at 23, and in his wife he had a kindred spirit.
But in 1859 she fell a victim to some local epidemic, and
left the young widower of 29 with two small children,
Joseph and Mary. This terrific blow might well have
shaken his faith; but he stuck to his work with unimpaired
devotion, and it was his health and not his faith which
broke down in 1861. The doctor prescribed 3 months in
the country.
The Country Towns Mission has just been asked to
send a missionary to Goudhurst for the three months'
harvesting and hop-picking season. So when J.J.K. the
very same morning applied at their office for country
work, he was sent to Goudhurst. It was June, 1861.
During the three months he saw that there was as much
work needed here as in London. So he brought his
children and his home to a hired cottage in Lidwells
Lane, and from November continued his unsalaried work
in Goudhurst. He started five "cottage meetings", and
found that the chief need was in the Curtisden and
Winchet Hill district, on the edge of Goudhurst and
Marden parishes, far from any church or school. Here
a farmer lent him the use of an old condemned oast house,
and then let him use the new oast - his HQ for three
years. Here he started a day school in 1863, charging
2d. a week.
In 1862 he married his first wife's sister, the first
Rebecca Kendon, whose name, given to her eldest
daughter, became famous at the College, and who became
the first " Mother of Bethany" for 23 years.
There must have been something about J.J.K. which
made the Curtisden people take to him-probably that he
too was poor, and so knew their problems well. His
civilising influence was so apparent by 1864 that the local
squire of Winchet Hill, Thomas Wickham, and his wife
Mary, were sufficiently impressed to build him a meeting
room and cottage attached. It was to this little home
that he gave the name Bethany House - a home, that is to
say, where Christ would be welcome and would love to
stay. It is pleasant still to be able to trace among the
present buildings this original roadside cottage and
meeting room.

Kendon's London friends did not lose touch; and from
this source boarders began to come in 1866. The
precious story of the First Boarder has been told by Billy
Blake in The Bethanian of 1960*. But others followed       * Asked to take a friends' son, he
who were not so advanced, and by 1872 it had become a    arrived with many books and already
difficult problem to teach these increasing numbers                better and deeper read than his new
alongside the day boys, and all in addition to the pastoral       teacher, so he was returned home
work, The Education Act of 1870 helped, by the new           after just one night's stay. (RG)
Board School built midway between the Green and
Winchet Hill. London friends also helped, by putting
Kendon in touch with William Alfred Benians, another
earnest young Christian, who was also a born teacher.
He came to help for two years, 1872-4, but returned to
London to marry and start his own school in Kensington.
So greatly, however, did Kendon value his personality
and work, and so pressing were his own church duties,
that he persuaded Benians to return as Headmaster in
1878.

This, after its foundation, was the most important
event in the School's development. For Benians, though
not a scholarly man, had wide interests, and had educated
himself as well as the "middle class" standard of that
time demanded, and was able to prepare his pupils for
the highly respected Local Examinations of Cambridge
University and the College of Preceptors. These were
first taken at Christmas, 1878, and gave parents a reliable
guarantee that their money was well spent. This placed
the School on a sound business footing; and Kendon's
own business aptitude - hitherto more or less unused-
found its scope at last. Squire Wickham had given him a
piece of land for a chapel separate from the school, and
this was built in 1878.

On this land there was also room
to build two semi-detached houses, known as Mount
Villas, one for the new Headmaster and the other for a
girls' boarding school. He had been asked to start this,
and his two eldest daughters were now old enough to run
it; and the Sunday school room could be used for the
teaching work.

By 1881 Bethany was doing better in the public exams
than the ancient School of Cranbrook. The famous
equity Judge, Sir George Jessel, Master of the Rolls and
Senator of London University, had recently settled at
Goudhurst, was a Governor of Cranbrook School, and
discovered that this humble academy on the opposite hill
was putting Cranbrook to shame. He presided with
gusto at the first Bethany Speech Day in 1882, and
expressed his admiration in no uncertain terms. This
recognition from high quarters was an enormous pro-
motion for Bethany. By 1884 there were sixty boarders.
By 1881 the girls' school also was increasing strongly.
But Victorian eyes could hardly envisage a co-educational
boarding school. So Kendon decided to move the girls
to Goudhurst village, where he was able to buy an awk-
ward shaped and contoured piece of land that one imagines
was not of much agricultural value. On this an impressive
looking house and school room were built; and here in
1882 Mary and Rebecca most competently took charge of
The Ladies' College. Their three younger sisters
joined them as each grew old enough, and they all spent
their lives in this excellent work.
In 1881 the printed Bethany Magazines began to
appear. Their pages give a vivid picture of active mental
life, of an ever increasing variety of enjoyable interests,
and the beginnings of physical education. In 1883 we
learn that the school year was divided into three "terms"
instead of two "halves". Present boys can compare
their lot with the pre-1883 Bethanians banished from
home except for letters, for 4-5 months. The strong
sense of community which this fostered lasted until the
motor car gradually broke it down. For instance, we
used to keep to summer-time for an autumn month longer
than was official, without any inconvenience and with
much benefit.
Cricket matches and swimming appear in 1883,
athletic sports in 1884, football in 1885. Here we
probably see the work of Samuel Kendon beginning.

He had distinguished himself as a musician, compositions
of his appeared in 1882, 1883 and 1885. His Brother's
Farewell was doubtless in honour of his elder brother
Joseph, who went as a missionary to Jamaica in 1879, and
died there in 1903. But apparently the increasing
demands of duties, especially the commissariat, left too
little time for serious musical work. Here begins that
wonderful partnership with Benians, which filled Bethany
for so many years with the happiness of a life teeming
with work and play and encouragement of other interests.
These two good men defined their responsibilities so
happily that they never got in each other's way. They
had complete mutual trust and understanding and no boy
could fail to realise that to them their work was a service
for the Kingdom of Christ. For each boy there was a
homely welcome which was calculated to draw out the
best in him, and usually did.
Benians's most characteristic work, apart from the
mapping of the teaching syllabus for all ages from about
7 to 17, and the daily grind, was his introduction of a
MS Magazine and the stimulation of hobbies, which
produced "Ex Day" and a "Collecting Club" which
developed into a Literary and Debating Society. For the
magazine they should write on any subject they liked.
At the society meetings they should give papers on any
subject they liked, and display in the annual Exhibition
their collections of anything they liked. This freedom
of expression was going strong at Bethany years before
the world had heard of Freud. Had he been well enough
off, Benians might have chosen the medical profession.
He added to the Hobbies Exhibition -Ex Day- a com-
petition in First Aid, and gave instruction on this and
lessons on physiology. This was an admirable use by
the upper exam forms of the relaxed month of July,
following the Preceptors Exam.
Samuel Kendon's most characteristic work was his
daily routine of the " business" side of the school
supplies of all kinds, correspondence of all kinds, and all
the thousand details of running the school's domestic side
and seeing to the fabric of its buildings and the layout of
its land. He was also a good draughtsman as well as a
planner, and was the architect of the dining room wing
and the south wing. In addition to all this, he was
responsible for the games. After his father's death the
management of the Chapel and the Hop-pickers' Mission
devolved upon him. Everyone said of him, "He works
very hard ".
During the Nineties a happy chance made the School's
most eminent pupils almost the same age. Josiah Stamp
was to become the Government's Chief Economic
Adviser. Ernest Benians, son of W.A.B., was Master of
St. John's College at Cambridge from 1932-52, and Vice-
Chancellor of the University in 1939-41.
During the Eighties and Nineties the steady growth of
numbers necessitated frequent enlargements of the
premises. Records are not very detailed or precise about
these. But it appears that No. 5 Wing was built about
1880; a northward extension of the original cottage in
1883; No. 1 Wing in 1888 (dining room on ground floor);
the high wing alongside the road in 1890; the present
Dining Room Wing, cutting across the older wings, in
1900; and the South Wing in 1902.

All these were done
in J. J. Kendon's lifetime. After his death in 1903 no
permanent buildings were erected for many years except
the Chapel extensions (the "boys' aisle" in 1905 and the
organ bay in 1912) and the swimming bath in 1914. Yet
numbers remained steady at well over 100. This suggests
that J. J. Kendon's death was somehow a severe financial
blow, so that capital expenditure had to be restricted to
more or less "temporary" buildings.
As the school grew, the field on the south side, lent or
let by Squire Wickham, became used for the games.
When Mr. Wickham died in 1895, much of his estate was
sold, and the School was able to buy an extensive area of
fields and orchards and wood, extending to Three Ponds
on the south and the Chapel on the north. In 1885
J. J. Kendon bought Curtisden Farm (The Firs), and the
present famous cricket ground was brought into use.
Its contours and hedges have always been troublesome,
but its turf has always been the best on the school estate.
The years have produced a sentimental regard for it, and
there are even a few who regret the present attempts to
improve the turf on the much finer position south of the
school. Hereabouts have always been the football
grounds; the old hedges have been cleared away; and the
Parents' splendid Centenary gift of a levelled sports
ground is now taking shape.
In 1889 Samuel Kendon married Nellie Todman, an
old College girl, who became "Mother of Bethany" for
many long years. Mother of eleven children, she still
somehow made time to attend to the others; and many are
the boys who remember her gentle hand on their foreheads
in Number Five, the sick-bay.
Samuel now took complete charge as House Master,
and his parents moved over to The Firs, where they lived
for the rest of their lives. J,J.K. could now devote
himself almost entirely to his church work. An interest-
ing development of this was that one of his disciples,
Robert Burr of Horsmonden, started a similar mission at
Bramble Street, north of Horsmonden. His little chapel
there is almost a replica of its mother chapel at Curtisden.
The one school duty which J.J.K. retained to the last
was the interviewing of parents of prospective entrants.
His now venerable appearance and gentle manner, and his
lifelong record of religious devotion, were usually effective
in inspiring the necessary confidence.
In 1902 the School received a remarkable boost of
publicity. French and English Protestant missionaries
had been working for about 20 years in Barotseland, in
the upper Zambesi basin. Lewanika, King of the
Barotse, was much impressed by their characters and
their work. When Rhodes's South Africa Company
pushed its control north of the Zambesi, Lewanika found
it wise to put his kingdom under the protection of the
British Crown, In recognition of this he was invited to
King Edward VII's coronation. He also decided to send
two of his sons to England for education. The French
missionary Mr. Jalla had heard Bethany well spoken of,
and recommended it. Consequently these two gentle
giants, Lubasi and Imasiku, arrived in 1901, and quickly
and happily settled down to learn English and everything
else they could. When their father came to England for
the Coronation, of course he had to visit them and inspect
their school. He spent a sunny 8th July in doing this.
He was met at Goudhurst Station by the Rev, J. J.
Kendon and conducted in a carriage procession up
through the decorated village to the College, where the
girls sang and played tennis for him. Then on to Bethany
to receive hearty greeting from the boys and a more
reverent one from his sons. After lunch at The Firs he
went round the school, where all were working normally,
and the Headmaster and the Housemaster explained
everything to him through an interpreter. Then
followed the ceremonial unveiling of the Commemoration
Stone on the new South Wing, and after this a display of
drill and ambulance work in the cricket field, where a
large marquee shaded the V.I.P.s. An album of pictures
of the School and neighbourhood, and an enlarged
framed photograph of his two sons, were presented to the
King. Felicitous speeches followed. Finally a short
informal service was conducted by the Rev. J. J. Kendon,
in which two missionaries took part-Mr. Jalla and Mr.
Mann (who brought the two boys to England). After
tea the King's party went on to Marden Station, impress-
ively decorated in his honour. Newspapers, local and
national, did their best with this event-something like
Queen Salote's visit for our Queen's coronation. So
Bethany became very widely known for the time being,
and in a very favourable light.
In the following year the Founder died, active to the
last, after a very short illness, brought on by driving
through rain in an open carriage and getting wet through-
as he must have done many times. Both his schools
followed in the last slow journey to Goudhurst Cemetery,
where one of the largest crowds ever seen in the village
paid tribute to forty-two years of faithful service among
them. This pilgrim had raised a chapel and two schools
by the wayside; and they were sure he must have helped
many souls in the grim city from which he had come; and
they thought the trumpets must be sounding for him on
the other side. Mrs. Kendon followed her husband six
years later.
Stephen Benians was the only son of W.A.B. to follow
his father's profession. He joined the staff as soon as he
was old enough-in 1901. In 1907, aged 23, he took his
London B.Sc. by private study while still teaching, a feat
which few outside Birkbeck College achieve. By 1911
he had taken over a great deal of responsibility from his
father, had become in fact the acting headmaster. In
1916 he was made a Partner. He was as dedicated a man
as his father, and had at least an equally good influence.
But after his father's retirement in 1928 a lamentable rift
widened between him and Samuel Kendon. In 1930
these two good men dissolved their partnership, and
Stephen departed to build up his own school at Tun-
bridge Wells, and spent the rest of his life in the work
there. He died in 1959.
For Samuel 1930 was a bitter year. Almost at the
moment of the dissolution his wife died, after forty-one
years of most happy and devoted married life together.
But his family rallied round him. Stephen's place as

Headmaster was taken by his daughter Kay's husband,
the Rev. Edward Ernest Hayward, an Oxford M.A. and
well-known Baptist minister who had been assistant to
Dr. John Clifford. His son Norman had already taken
over the duties of Housemaster. His daughters Ella,
Clarrie and Olive, his son Harold, and his daughter
Clarrie's husband, Donald Fairman, had already been on
the teaching staff for several years. So there were plenty
of well-experienced people in charge, who deeply under-
stood the traditions of the place.
Old Mr. Benians lived on in retirement till 1939, almost
to his 88th birthday. His wife's death in 1928, and the
break-up of the partnership in 1930, were both grievous
blows to him. But for the most part he maintained a
noble stoicism which we might have expected from one
whose own work had been so well and faithfully done.
He lived to see his son Ernest elected Master of St. John's
College, Cambridge; and it was probably the greatest
thrill of his old age to stay in the Master's Lodge, and to
remember when they had puzzled out Latin and Greek
together forty years before.
Samuel Kendon never retired. He remained at the
helm until his last illness and death in 1945 at the age of
80, and somehow never seemed to grow old. His
influence, like that of his former partners, is quite im-
mortal-in the lives of the men whom Bethany sent into
the world over more than sixty years. This humble,
unassuming man had gifts which might have brought
him more fame if he had chosen to specialise. But he
preferred to exercise the whole of his personality in the
good work which he inherited as a charge from God.
Samuel's death left a gap which none of his family
could fill to their mutual satisfaction. For a year or two
they earnestly sought the solution which would be best
for the School, aided by the wise advice of their brothers
Frank and Don. Finally they decided that the right
thing was to find a new Headmaster from outside, and,
if the right man could be found, to withdraw from the
School themselves so as to leave him a clear hand. Their
advertisement stressed the great effort and difficulty and
risk to be expected for a very modest salary, and was thus
calculated to repel the wrong types. The good hand of
God, which has overruled the School since its first day,
guided the right man to come and continue the good
work - Kenneth Pengelly from Falmouth. He immedi-
ately understood the soul of the School as if he had known
it for years.

This most precious thing he has striven
with all his might to preserve, while having at the same
time to deal with extremely acute staffing problems.
Unstinted effort and patience enabled him gradually to
improve the working standards of every department until
after eleven strenuous years recognition was won from the
Ministry of Education in 1959. His devoted care and
effort have won enormous trust and support from the
Parents.
He could not have done what he has without the
constant support of his wife, Christine, who thus joins
the tiny and most honourable company of Mothers of the
School. Quite beyond estimation has been their unpaid
toil and devotion. No one can ever know how much has
depended on them.
And here perhaps is the place to mention Mrs. Benians.
She took no part in school work except teaching a small
Prep Form for a few years in the Eighties; and advanced
pupils occasionally read French classics with her. But
she kept W.A.B. in excellent health after lunch he was
always able to take his recuperative nap. And there may
still be a few women in the village who gratefully remem-
ber her Mothers' Meeting at the Chapel, an effort of
many years.
At the time of their great decision, the Kendon family
invited three friends, two of whom where Old Boys, to join
them as Governors. As time went on, it became more and
more clear that the School ought to become an Educational
Trust. The profit motive had never had first priority, so
this change was in harmony with the past; and for the
present and future, relief from taxation would remove a
very severe handicap on development. Legal difficulties
were surmounted, and in 1959 the School ceased to be a
private firm, and the Governors became its Trustees.
This guarantees its future continuity as strongly as any
human arrangements can be guaranteed.
Thus the Pengelly period has been one of great expan-
sion. Numbers have doubled, to just over 200. A sixth
Form, which in the old days would have been called
"post-Matric", and nowadays is called "A Level", has
been steadily cultivated. The Assembly Hall, opened
in 1957, has been a daily inspiration as well as a utility.
The new Library, the Old Boys' Centenary Gift, has
greatly enriched the School. The new Labs are as well-
equipped as in any grammar school. The Mount, the
old home of the Benians family, has become a dormitory
house, and Applecroft, home in turn of Mr. Steve, Mr.
Hayward and Mr. Vickers, is now a very superior sana-
torium. The bathing, changing and sanitary facilities
have been gloriously transformed. Oil-fired central-
heating has removed several vexations. Our tasteful
printers can deal with everything except the Magazine,
A fine organ has just been erected in the Chapel. And as
we go to press, the Parents' Centenary Gift of a Sports
Arena is in course of construction.
We welcome these visible signs, not so much for what
they are, but much more as signs of inward renewal.
And our faith holds that the heavenly Spirit who inspired
his servants to build and to maintain this school will
inspire and guide their successors in the long future, as
long as this service is needed and they serve.

EDITOR Return to top of page

A Few Notable Events until 1966:

1883 First Old Boys' Cricket Match at Whitsun.
"While the present boys form the strength of the
school the old boys are its glory"-W. A. Benians
in the Magazine.
1885 The " Upper Form" won a day's holiday for good
marks. They spent it on a picnic in Cranbrook
Woods, including a 12-mile walk!
The Cricket Score Book got torn up for a paper-
chase: a fine carelessness in those days about
records.
The College first invited to the " Fifth" Celebration.
1887 The Oak Tree invaded by the playground.
12th October. First meeting of the Old Bethan-
ians' Society at the London Central Club, Bride-
well Place, E.C, They decided to meet there
every other Wednesday at 7.30, and to circulate a
MS magazine.
1892 First Ex Day-exhibition of hobbies and ambu-
lance work.
1896 Cambridge Local Exams first held at Bethany-
for the College as well, in the Chapel and Sunday
school room. Previously we had to take these
exams at Hastings, where the meals at Semadeni's
were much enjoyed.
1898 First football matches. Previously the village
teams had been considered too rough for us.
Years later, in fact, we remember the cry of a local
supporter: "Knock into old Benian (Steve). He
won't hurt".
1897 Waterworks constructed. Before this we got our
    98 water from wells "outside the School freehold ",
which seemed likely not to be available after 1899.
A water diviner found the best place; the well
took eight months to sink (113 ft.), and yielded
80 gallons an hour. A wind-pump was erected
which could pump 100 gallons an hour into a
reservoir just above the croquet lawn which held
6,000 gallons. This water supply was in use till
the mains were laid in 1913. The water had a
strong tang of iron. The throb of the wind-pump
became a familiar sound.
1909 Charles Mason organised the Cadet Corps. He
left the same year; but the Corps survived under
the command of Rex Eedes till the outbreak of
war in 1914.
1914 Swimming bath constructed.
1921 Bethany won the Darnell Trophy of the Royal
Life-Saving Society for the best work in teaching
life-saving done that year by any School or
Institution in the British Isles. This was the
climax of Steve Benians's great work. His aim
was to make every boy a swimmer, so that his life
was safer and more confident. Not content with
this, he taught how to rescue drowning persons,
and how to resuscitate the apparently drowned.
He also arranged for those he had taught to in-
struct others, in small classes. The School began
to take the R.L.S.S. Tests in 1916.
It usually takes five years to get a good thing done;
and in 1921 the steady and mighty effort produced
its effect-in that wonderful summer without
a drop of rain.
1930 Harold Kendon formed the 1st Bethany Scout
1938 Purification Plant installed at the swimming bath.
1940 The College was "evacuated "-and never returned
1944 A V1 fell a 1/4 mile away, without damaging
the School
1949 Kendon and Benians Memorial Workshop opened,
by the Master of St. John's College, Cambridge,
Mr. E. A. Benians, M.A.
1957 Assembly Hall opened, by Mr. Wm. Deedes, M.P.,
our local Member of Parliament.
1959 The School became an Educational Trust.
1960 Purchase of The Mount as a new dormitory house.                                                               1962 Library opened-the Old Boys' Centenary Gift,
plus the new Science Labs added..
1963 Central heating installed.                                                                                                1965 Work started on the new Sports Arena.

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Centennial

One hundred years have gone and come
Since humble birth in cottage home,
At hands of humble, simple folk
With little riches (but with yoke
Of mankind's needs and suffering poor),
Who fashioned Bethany, and saw
With their minds' eye the future bright
Illumined by a righteous light.

With tools less costly than their love
They built and planned and toiled and strove;
And, risen from their labours then
You see the many thousand men
Who, round the whole wide world today,
Look back with admiration, say
With lips and mind and all their heart
"Of Bethany we are a part ! "

One hundred years their course have rolled,
And now we come, the young, the old,
To pay our tributes as we meet,
And sit again on oak-tree seat,
Re-visit many a well-known scene,
And walk once more around the Green;
To see once more pavilion white,
And Chapel with its hallowed light.

In all the lovely countryside,
In all of Kent so far and wide,
Can there be any place more dear
To those who passed the small years there?
The clean fresh air, the playing ground,
With bat and ball, `mid youthful sound-
Can any memory be more strong
Than these, from where we all belong?

And for the people who, of yore,
Did minister, and are no more,
We stand in silent reverence
Their love and labour not gone hence-
For all the men and women kind
Who fed our body and our mind,
In all the hundred years which ran
Since that one woman, that one man.

And so, on this our Festal Day
We rise, and with one voice we say
"We are more proud than words can tell
That you on us still cast your spell,
Dear Bethany; and may your past
Inspire us still; your teaching last
When we are gone, like all before,
Until mankind shall be no more."

DONALD WATSON, 1933-1936
These unpretentious lines may remind us that, whatever
glories Bethany achieves, its roots are in humility and
loving kindness.

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I remember in World War ll when...
From Brendan Parke (1944-1950), edited by Alan Wheatley (1940-1946)
(Copied from the Old Bethanians Society's website)

Brendan Parke (1944-1950): Off to school...
On January 13 1944 my father took me to Charing Cross Station where we were to meet Mr Kendon under the famous clock. I remember the date because it was two days before my 10th birthday.

I don’t know whether the clock is still there, but it was a favourite meeting place for people from all over the world. Sandbags were piled high at strategic points around the inside and outside of the station to protect from bomb blast. It was here that I met my fellow pupils at Bethany or "Goudhurst School for Boys" as it was known then. We had a reserved carriage and the train was packed with people in the uniform of different armies, air forces and navies from all over the world.

We travelled to Marden Station stopping at Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Paddock Wood to pick up more boys from other parts of Kent. Subsequently, we were always interested to know what engine was going to haul the train and got most excited if it was a "Battle of Britain" class engine. This class of engines was used frequently on that line. As schoolboys we were so proud of the RAF and it’s achievements in the Battle of Britain. I do not remember noticing what engine was hauling the train on that date, but subsequently we used to collect the names and numbers of all the engines in that class. When we arrived at Marden we were met by a covered truck with a tarpaulin roof and bench seats along the sides and down the middle with a rope hanging from the roof. The rope was a favourite of the bigger boys because you got a good view of the countryside as you travelled the three miles to Curtisden Green and the School under the watchful eye of Mr Kendon and "Sergeant Humphries".

Nothing had changed since 1940 when Alan Wheatley made his first trip to the school.

This was my first journey to Bethany School, one which was to be repeated many times over the next six years. I always looked to see if the trees in the copse opposite the Chapel had been cut as it had been on my first visit. Thirty one years later, when I began visiting the school as a Governor my first reaction as I approached the school was to look to see if the wood has changed, or it had been coppiced. Sixty years after my first visit to the School I still do it.

Jarvis lane was crowded with American and British troops...
In 1944 when the build up for D-day was in full flow, Jarvis lane was crowded with American and British troops with Bren Gun carriers, tanks, trucks, ambulances, guns and all the paraphernalia of war.

Everyone was in high spirits and the GI's were handing out chewing gum in response to our plea "Have you got any Gum Chum?" - a favourite greeting to American Servicemen by small boys at that time. This was my first introduction to the "Hershey bar".

I wonder how many of those enthusiastic fresh faced troops survived to return to their loved ones?

American and foreign troops were welcomed as saviours here to help defeat the common enemy. It was ironic and ungrateful of a British public when a few years later the walls were daubed with slogans like "Yanks Go Home!"

Fifty years later we moved to Woodbridge in Suffolk where there were several RAF bases used by the USAAF. I was always impressed with the way that the 5,000 American Service men and Women plus their dependants behaved as model citizens and ambassadors for their country. I was sorry to see them go a few years later when, after the first Gulf War, Bentwaters and Woodbridge air Bases were closed and the USAAF moved to Mildenhall.

Woken in the middle of the night...
We were woken in the middle of the night by "Sarge" ringing his bell and we grabbed our gas masks and trooped down from our dormitories to the accompaniment of a plane with it's engine on fire flying overhead. This one was followed shortly by another and then by some more.

We were marshalled in the lower playground and a roll call was made. After hanging around for some time we were allowed to go back to bed.

The following day "Plum" Kendon announced that this was a new weapon which turned out to be the "doodlebug" or V1 rocket bomb. These were to become regular passers by over the skies of Bethany on their way to London.

Bethany simming sports...
Bethany Swimming Sports a highlight of the Summer Term. A cloudless sky over the Weald of Kent. Excited boys and their parents gathered around the Swimming pool and every vantage point. Boys were shouting support for Kiplings, Roberts or Speakers and parents were noisy in support of their sons.

Most of the races had taken place, trophies had been won and the floating trophy by which the boy who stayed afloat longest was the winner, was in progress. There was only the relay race to follow that.

Tubby Pearce, Nick Rink and one of the Humphry brothers were competing.

In the distance the sound of an approaching "Doodlebug" could just be heard above the noise of the cheering boys. Suddenly as the noise of the rocket became louder all the parents threw themselves to the ground or sought cover. I grabbed my parents by the arm and said "Don't worry, it is heading for London" which was of course from where my parents had come to visit the Swimming Sports!

Unperturbed the competitors completed the competition. I think it was the year that Nick Rink won.

"Doodlebugs" were perfectly safe as long as their rocket engines were making a noise. Those of us who were fortunate enough to live through those times knew that the dangerous time was when the engine cut! At this "non sound" you dived for cover!! Sixty years later, I know of no more terrifying silence than that which followed the cut out of the "Doodlebug" engine which lasted until you heard the explosion which hopefully was a long way away.

Planes over Kent...
Bethany boys were often found scanning the Goudhurst Hills as the USAAF returned from one of it´s many daylight sorties over Europe. On one occasion Alan Wheatley recalls a Liberator that was limping towards the School, low in the sky. Suddenly it lurched to starboard and disappeared behind some trees. There followed a B-17 Flying Fortress, flying on one engine, which also slipped to the earth.

In June 1944, the horizon which features "Pembury Clump” when viewed from the school was covered with dots.

These approached like a swarm of bees and you could hear the noise of many aero-engines as the dots became larger and larger. Thousands of aeroplanes. Four engined planes such as the Hampdens, Lancasters, Stirlings,or Flying Fortresses had been pressed into service and we had witnessed many of the "thousand bomber raids” most often at night time. On this occasion it was daylight and there were many more planes a large number of which were towing gliders such as the Horsas,. These were approaching and passed overhead of the School on their way to France in preparation for the "D-day” landings. The Dakota was the workhorse that we saw most frequently on it´s varied missions to the enemy occupied continent. It was used for parachuting spies, supplies and paratroops all over the Continent. They were escorted by an assembly of single and twin engined fighters. Thunderbolts, Lightnings, Typhoons, Hurricanes, Spitfires, Mosquitos, are names and visions that come into my head as I think about those days.

All the planes had the three white bands which identified them as being designated for the invasion. It is inconceivable that anyone will ever see so many planes in the air at the same time and we witnessed them day after day.

Don't go near the wreckage...
A summer´s afternoon - probably a Saturday. I was messing around near the Railway block at which end it was known as the Gym. I was standing just about where the Assembly hall is now when I heard the noise of a Doodlebug approaching from the left over Mr Wicken´s orchard. The Doodlebug was hotly pursued by a fighter which was trying to shoot it down. Alan Wheatley was standing on the fire escape leading from 10-17. He identified the noise of a Griffin or Merlin engine. The banging of the Spitfire´s Cannons seemed to have little effect on the Doodlebug but the clip winged Spitfires were in service at that time, and had the speed and manoeuvrability to catch up the Doodlebug and tip it´s wing. It sent the flying bomb spiralling down into open ground where it killed some of Mr Wickham's sheep.

I could see the rocket gliding towards the School and me in particular!! I threw myself to the ground and raised myself slightly as we had been trained and waited for the explosion. When the bang came it was not as loud or as near as I had previously experienced when in 1940 a bomb had landed on the road outside my house or later, in 1943 when a shell had gone through the front door of my school at the time killing the Headmaster and Principal who were in the next room to our dormitory. I was too busy this time keeping myself alive, so whether the fighter was a Typhoon or a Spitfire didn't register with me, but Alan was older than me and better at identifying specific types of plane.

A swarm of boys, who were not as frightened or involved as I, headed towards the crashed rocket to collect souvenirs. To little effect, staff and Prefects called after them "Don´t go near the wreckage" because at that time many of the V1s were being booby trapped to explode twice. There had been many fatalities in London following an attack when rescue workers raced to rescue survivors only to be killed themselves when the second explosion happened. Fortunately this one did not appear to be booby trapped!

All of us who were at school that day will remember the occasion for many years. Even if we cannot remember which fighter it was! Some of us probably still have jagged pieces of metal as souvenirs of the occasion, if they were lucky enough not to have them confiscated and thrown down the well!

Bethany in the 1940s
Alan Wheatley (1940-1946)

EVACUEE
I didn't think of myself as an evacuee as I stood on the platform at Sevenoaks station in May 1940, waiting for the school train from London to pull in.

But in a way, I was.

My father had died of pneumonia during the bleak winter of 1939, and my mother had moved us from Garston, in Hertfordshire, to Petts Wood, near Orpington, Kent. I realise that she probably wanted to be closer to her sister, who lived in Southborough. In fact we lived with her until my mother found her own place, a maisonette in an undistinguished street of similar maisonettes.

My mother, Evelyne, found work in Bromley as a tailoress-her old trade-in a menswear shop in the high street, where she sat crouched over her work making men's suits, day after day and evening after evening.

Because my father had been employed by the Westminster Bank, it appeared that I was entitled to a place at Goudhurst School for Boys. I heard this referred to as the bank clerks' orphanage, although of course there were many fee-paying boys there.

My mother put it to me that I could be going to a school in the country, away from the air-raids that were already taking place over London and the suburbs. She asked me to decide whether or not I wanted to go to Bethany.

At the age of 10, that was a decision made easily. Of course! I was excited at the prospect, and we travelled to Derry and Toms in Kensington to get me kitted out with the regulation school clothing, trunk, tuck box and stationery. Presumably the bill was sent to the Bank's Orphan Fund to be settled.

The steam train pulled in. A number of other boys and their parents were waiting on the same platform as my mother and I, but we knew no-one except Samuel Kendon, who was affable and reassuring. We had already met him when we made a preliminary visit to the school during the previous term. The formalities of transfer over, I probably kissed my mother goodbye, not anticipating then the pain for both of us as time passed and the reality of separation began to make itself felt.

I remember little or nothing of the trip from Sevenoaks to Marden, nor the road journey from the station to the school. But I do recall the emptiness I felt when I was shown upstairs to 19-20-21 and realised that this wooden bed, with its hard straw mattress, was to be my only personal space in a dormitory of 15-20 other boys.

I cried myself to sleep that night, my first away from home.

A FINE LARGE MORNING
Harold Kendon, who was the housemaster when I was boarding at Bethany in the 40s, had a distinctive voice that I can still hear today, 60 years later.

Every morning he would stride the corridors and dormitories.

"It's a fine, large morning," he'd say in a voice that accompanied the handbell and penetrated the now-dwindling sleep of 120 boys.

In spite of the cold I know I shivered through, under thin brown blankets and on a bed as hard as a futon, the call was consistently to 'rise and shine'.

It was of no consequence to Mr Harold that sometimes the bedroom windows were cracked with frost, or the heavens were black with rolling clouds and the hop-green countryside would be deluged. To him, every morning, winter and summer, was fine and large.

A RITE OF PASSAGE
Smoking at Bethany separated the juniors-the little kids who slept in dormitories- from the seniors, the big ones who shared a bedroom with one or two others. One experimented with smoking as a senior.

We couldn't get hold of cigarettes, so we became resourceful. We shredded up grasses picked from the school's playing fields and discovered that some were milder, sweeter and more even-burning than others when rolled in exercise-book paper. When desperate we even smoked blotting paper, rolled up tight. Green tasted better than pink, but both were harsh and acrid.

By the time I left school I was hooked on the idea of smoking, only to give up 40 years later.

PHAROAH
D W Fairman, or Pharoah, as we used to call him, was formidable. He was balding, wore steel-framed glasses and a moustache, both reminding me of Heinrich Himmler. He also had the habit of sniffing, as if he had a constantly stuffed nose.

He was always neatly dressed in a suit, or a Harris-tweed jacket and slacks and walked briskly in highly-polished shoes. Immaculate, but a cold fish.

Pharoah, in his role as a science teacher, had the ability to rule by fear. He was quietly spoken, so we had to strain to hear what he was saying. But even then I seemed to learn nothing. The apprehension that he would pick on me and, rather than encourage me to arrive at the answer, demand a simple, accurate response, seemed to freeze my brain and the little pockets of physics in my head remained locked. I would sit there in silence, hoping he wouldn't notice me, keeping my head low behind the boy in front of me.

There were many occasions when I'd plead a headache or a cold before a science class, and would sit, relieved, in the sick bay. But it merely acted as a short-term solution. There was always next week's lesson. And matron soon became wise to my excuses.

For some reason, all that changed in Form 4. I had begun to take a real interest in humanities subjects-English Language and Literature, French, History. I became an active participant in class, enjoying answering questions and completing written work. I entered a writing competition and won joint second prize, which was presented by the poet and critic Richard Church, who lived in a converted oast-house in Curtisden Green. I began to look at life beyond school and considered a possible career in journalism.

But what of Pharoah? Well, that's the funny thing. As my interest in the humanities blossomed, my ability to understand and retain facts, theorems and processes in maths and science suddenly improved out of sight.

Armed with this new resourcefulness and confidence, I found that Pharoah was no longer the ogre he had been the previous year. I was happy to answer his questions and undertake complex written work in geometry and algebra and he and I enjoyed a symbiotic relationship in the physics lab. My final School Cerificate results enabled me to get to uni later.

When I returned to a school reunion a few years after leaving, I saw Pharoah at the cricket. The Old Boys were playing the school First XI. He was standing, watching the match, arms crossed, smoking a pipe, still sniffing.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Extracts from an Address by Henry Howard the O.B.S. President, in the
School Chapel, on 13th November, 1960.
You all know about the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster
Abbey. It occurs to me that every boy whose name is on the Memorial in this
Chapel must be an Unknown Warrior to you, the present generation of Bethany.
The purpose of my talk this evening is to try to recall them as we knew them at
school, so that instead of being just a list of names the Memorial will mean
something more to you.
My father's generation fought the First World War, and I cannot tell
you much about the men of his time, except what I have learnt second-hand.
But I knew well nearly all of those who died in the Second War.
1914-1918
ARMSTRONG BRADLEY. A great friend of Reg Howes. He was the
brother of Oswald Bradley, who named his own son Armstrong and sent him here.
EWART BRASS was the brother of Dennis Brass, the Old Boy who for more
than forty years has been the School's Accountant, and the Auditor of the O.B.S.
Accounts for more than thirty years. He too named his son Ewart. Their
sisters were at the College.
ARTHUR HANFORD had a very bad cast in one eye and could not get
into the Army because of it. In those days there was no National Health Service,
and he worked hard at week-ends and in his spare time to earn the money to
pay for an operation on his eye. It was successful, he was accepted by the Army,
sent to France, and killed almost immediately, He was a nephew of Mrs. Samuel
Kendon.
HUMPHREY MAXWELL was a Kipling's House Captain, With C. D.
Notley and Charlie Gray, he founded "The Bethanian." They were its first
Editors. He left school at Christmas, 1917, and three months later was killed
in France just before his nineteenth birthday.
DOUGLAS WELLS left school at fifteen. Very keen to join up, he falsified
his age to get into the Army, and was killed in France in a few weeks.
FREDERICK WING. His brothers and nephews have all been here since.
1939-1945
WILLIAM AUSTIN was one of three brothers. He was my first friend
at Bethany. A small thin chap, one was surprised to find that he was a first-rate
cricketer who made 100 not out against Hastings Grammar School.
He was drowned in a torpedoed troopship.
ALAN BACON. "Fatty "-a short round chap with glasses, Very musical,
he played this organ, and for School prayers. One of the cleverest boys Bethany
has produced; never appeared to work at all; took his Inter-B.A. at School.
No good at games. Captain of Kiplings. Secretary of O.B.S. for a short time,
KENNETH BLOOMFIELD. Tall and heavy, rather ugly. An excellent
all-round sportsman, Captain of both School Xl's and Captain of Robert's
House. He was a tough character: Eric Parker told me that one day he was
sitting at lunch very pleased with himself because he was not taking part in the
Athletic Sports, Bloomfield on hearing this inimediately put him in for the
half-mile; and he was three-quarters of a lap behind when all the others had
finished. After leaving School, Bloomfield joined the Kent County Architects'
Department. He was taken prisoner in North Africa by the Italians; and the
prison-ship on its way to Italy was torpedoed by a British submarine.
GORDON BOERING, A good-looking, fair, curly-haired boy, Not great
at games, but good average type who passed his Matric. He was a friend of
David Martin, Before the war he was an R.A.F. civilian surveyor, building
airfields, He was killed in the Palestine Police.
GEOFFREY COOMES, Small, with a meek and mild manner, he was a
great friend of Geoffrey Emes, who was a huge boy. Very artistic, he was not
good at games, very shy, and yet like many others of that type he had a dry and
knife-edged wit. He was never frightened of taking anyone on verbally, and
silenced tough boys like Blackmore Turner who could have licked him physically,
On one occasion there was a rough-house in the playground by the oak tree,
and he accidentally got his face in the way of someone's fist and collapsed.
Stanley Young and Geoffrey Emes carried him indoors, and on the way his arm
crashed to the ground. They left him and rushed for help. When they returned
with Matron, Geoffrey got up and laughed at them, He was killed on an air
Operation.
RONALD ELDRIDGE. A day-boy from Goudhurst. His father was
Sir Charles Jessel's gamekeeper. KEITH EVERY. A nice quiet sort of boy. His mother was a widow and
he was a thoughtful chap, He was once sent a present of two shillings (a lot of
money then) and spent it all on somebody else, He joined the R.A.F. and was
killed over the Bay of Biscay.
ARTHUR PIPER died of illness on active service, He was a famous
school goalkeeper, with red cheeks and curly hair, His father was a builder at
Wadhurst.
HARRY SINDEN came from Battle. A thick-set, good-looking boy,
a good solid chap in every way. lie was Captain of Speaker's and a good footballer.
He was also a Captain in the Army, and was killed accidentally at Hull in firing an
anti-aircraft gun.
PETER STACEY. A tall slim freckled boy. He was Kipling's House
Captain and then Head Boy. His mother was a widow. He was always smiling,
and never said anything unkind about anyone. He was a first-class all-rounder-
an excellent breast-stroke swimmer, good cross-country runner, fine footballer,
and a member of the 1934 cricket team which nearly beat a very strong Old Boys'
side at Whitsun. He won the President's Bat in 1936. But the things we most
remember about Peter Stacey were his charming manners and his leadership
in dissuading others in form-room rags from going too far.
IAN and RODNEY STAMPER were brothers at school together, the
sons of an Old Boy. The cross over the table behind me was given by their
mother in their memory, as well as the Speech Day Prize which bears their name.
Ian was another Kipling's House Captain, a good swimmer and keen on golf,
which he used to practice on the 2nd XI pitch. Both brothers were very well
liked, but Rodney was more studious and not good at games. (Note: The brothers each won the Roy Farquharson Trophy as the best all-rounder at sports - Ian 1939 and Rodney 1940.......RG). Both were killed within a few days of their twenty-first birthdays.
JIM SUTTON. A day-boy from Marden, where his younger brother carries
on the ironmonger's business. "Missing, believed killed."
LESLIE TAYLOR. A delicate white-faced boy.
BLACKMORE TURNER. A founder Scout of the Bethany Troop in
1930. He and I were Patrol Leaders together. A tough adventurous character,
One Saturday afternoon before the War he landed an aircraft at School with the
intention of taking Harold Kendon up to take aerial photographs of the School,
There was then a fence between the farm land and the 1st XI football pitch;
and he crashed through the fence with Harold in the plane, and got out quite
unperturbed. He was killed in the Fleet Air Arm.
JIMMY WADDELL never thought or said an unkind thing of anyone-
extremely kind, always helping people.
JOHN WEBSTER. One of two brothers, both in Kiplings together.
He was tall, with ginger hair and freckles; physically very tough, yet gentle.
He used to go in for trials of strength in the playground. Sticking his chest
out and bracing his tummy muscles, he used to let the boys queue up to hit him.
He was a lively character, and caused much amusement by blowing his nose
loud and clear during prep. He was one of the many "missing, believed killed."
DICH WOOLLEY. A tall slim chap who was expected to follow in the
steps of his famous father Frank Woolley, one of the greatest cricketers of all time.
Dick was not a great cricketer, but played well without getting any satisfaction
from it, because whenever he did well people said " Well, of course, he's Frank
Woolley's son." He joined the Merchant Navy and was killed in the "Jarvis
Bay" episode off the River Plate, in the merchant-cruiser "Rawalpindi."
MARION VILVANDRE. Her name is not on the Memorial, but she was
an assistant matron at School. She joined up as a nurse during the War, and
served on a hospital-ship which was torpedoed off East Africa. She was a daughter of George Vilvandre, a much-loved School character sixty years ago, and a
distinguished radiologist. Her mother was Mrs Samuel Kendon's Sister.
* * * * *
The only name in the 1939-1945 list not mentioned above is STANLEY
STEVENS.

The 1914-1918 list is as follows:-GEORGE BAKER, WILFRID BEAUMONT, ERNEST BENIANS, ANDREW BENTHAM, ARMSTRONG BRADLEY, EWART BRASS,
ANDREW BURNHAM, KEVIN CARLETON, ERNEST COLLEY, HENRY CREES, FRANK FORRESTER, HUGO FREELAND, ALAN GLOVER-CLARK, HAROLD GODWIN, FRANK GRAVES, CECIL GREEN, HARRY GRIFFITHS, ARTHUR HANFORD, EDMOND HART, KENNETH HARVEY, CHARLES HODGES, CHARLES HOLDEN, PHILIPPE JACOB, HAMLYN JAGO-SMITH, NORMAN KIPLING, JOHN KITCHIN, WILLIAM LOCKE, BERNARD LOFTS, HAROLD MARRIOTT, JOHN MARTIN, HUMPHREY MAXWELL, LEONARD MOODY, ERIC NORMAN, DAVID PATTERSON, MALCOLM PETTITT, LIONEL SAVAGE, WILLIAM SHORT, KENNETH STEWART, RAYMOND STOCKBRIDGE, KENNETT STONHAM, EDGAR TEMPLE, REGINALD WALLER, ALLAN WARD, DOUGLAS WELLS, OSWALD WIGHTWICK, THOMAS WILLIS, FREDERICK WING.

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