Sometimes I look at these old photos of WHS and think: “What a pity the quality is not better.” Had WHS started in 1985 and not thirty-five years earlier the quality would be breathtaking, since everyone would have had a modern mobile or a decent little camera. On the other hand, there would be millions of photos and so choosing a few representative ones would be a Sisyphusian task - AND of course those we do have would not seem so precious.

What I most regret is the lack of video of those days. Yes, many of the masters and a good many boys are all gone (except in our memories and hearts), but it’s no different from film stars: it is a moving experience to see Errol Flynn (as Robin Hood!), Lee Remick, Fred Astaire, Ingrid Bergman, John Wayne, Patrick Swayze, Robin Williams et al living on in film. I would love to be able to watch and listen to Taffy, Stretch - or Mr Bailey in an assembly once again. Still, it is what it is - a profound modern expression that Confucius would have been proud of!

As for technology, I started WHS at a time when it was just beginning to explode. It was some years before computers were invented, but we got our first tv at home in Camberwell around 1955: a 12" B&W thing which sat proudly in a huge wooden encasement specially made by my father.

There was very little TV at WHS when I arrived in 1958 - or indeed in the years I was there; I never recall it being used in a lesson, for a start, even though screens rapidly became bigger. I once saw the then 6th former James Perkins (53 to 60) carrying around a small telly somewhere and was MOST impressed. I remember being doubly astonished: first that a boy could afford his own telly and secondly that it was even allowed. I never knew how often or where he could use it.

A few years later, Dick Woollett (then a young history teacher and Assistant Master of Halls House) invited some Halls boys to his flat in the first-floor corridor between Halls and Johnston’s to watch “The Great War”, that brilliant series by the BBC. As far as I remember, that was the ONLY occasion in six years that I saw any telly at WHS.

There was some other technology. I remember very clearly one evening in 1958 (it may have been more than one) in the Berners dorm. Terry Ashcroft had the top bunk in a bunk bed in the first little room as you came into the building from the Berners washroom courtyard. We were clustered round his bed as lights-out approached listening to him trying to get Radio Luxembourg on his crystal set. Sometimes he actually succeeded, which of course was miraculous to us.

Another two or so years later, Jean van Vliet had a little wire recorder on which we used to record silly stuff: jokes and little dialogues. And then in 1964 I seem to remember that Paul Coverly had a small reel-to-reel tape recorder on which he had some classical music. That seemed like magic.

So, most of our school lives passed without telly (or of course any kind of video games, mobiles, tablets and so on), which almost certainly helped our studies. I sometimes wonder how kids learn anything vaguely academically serious these days, the call of the internet being so strong.

We had TV at home in the holidays, but I don’t remember missing it much at school, no more than most of us missed football (the soccer type). It was just the way it was and we got on with it, certainly never being bored - and of course there were all those CLUBS, ACTIVITIES, SPORTS and MUSIC things to get on with!

HAPPY DAYS .......

Michael John O'Leary: In the early 60's in Hansons, someone had one of those so-called tennis machines - a screen with a white dot (the ball) bouncing from left to right and a white bar (the racket) at each side to knock the ball back. Each racket could be moved up and down by its player. If the racket didn't get to the ball it was lost off the screen and the other player got a point. If the racket got to the ball, it was deflected back at an angle! The earliest video game!??

Then I remember being invited with some others to a master's quarters (near sick bay, I can't think what the area was called) to watch Wimbledon. We were all sitting there a little apprehensively when between games, one of the support staff on the tennis court (maybe a ball boy) said "Fuck!" We all giggled nervously! For the life of me I can't remember who the master was! I still remember the incident, though, but I can't understand why!??

Chris Snuggs: Nobody forgets a good ****!

David Waterhouse: Ah, yes - some were quite sensitive about it. I recall sitting in the Corners dining room when the hubbub of conversation died instantty as a fist crashed onto a table and the voice of Doc Thornbery boomed out, "WHO SAID 'FUCK'?".

Gerry Warren: When I started in Berners in '65, there was a TV in Room 47, the 'quiet' common room on the top floor, and we were allowed to watch for 1 hour I think, after tea on Saturdays. But not if there was a film on in the Hall. I think we got to watch the Monkees and Dr Who if we rushed back from the dining room.

It was the first telly I had seen since the Summer of '63, when we went to Aden where there was no TV until '66. I never saw much even before that; I was brought up in the times when kids were either out til sunset and then bed, or bed at 7pm, so I never really missed it

Philip Beck: We had a similar thing in Hansons. On Staturday evenings, "Stan the man" Geotzee would roll out a TV on a high stand with wheels into the common room. We too got to see the Monkees, and also Star Trek. I have dim memories of Beverley Hillbillies and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. too. However, the sixth-form TV in Berners cellars was the place to be for Monty Python.Peter Warne ... and the Old Grey Whistle Test as well as Marx Brothers films.

Harvey Angel: Yes...very crowded in there for Monty Python. And for the following week, some people would dress up as one of the characters - the knotted handkerchief was a very popular piece of headwear!