John S. H. Smitherman OBE, ERD - Croix de Guerre, MA – was a retired Lt. Col. who had served in the Suffolk Regiment during the war. After four years at the Prince Rupert School, Wilhelmshaven, Germany he left at the end of July 1951 to take a new appointment as the first Headmaster of Woolverstone Hall School, nr. Ipswich. He was later awarded the O.B.E. for his services to education.

 J.S.H.S. in "Janus"

1972 20th Anniversary Edition

It is unbelievable that Woolverstone Hall is coming of age. 21 years can seem a moment or a lifetime. None of the present generation of boys at the school were born when it was founded. I left school exactly 21 years before I was privileged to be its first headmaster, and now 21 years later I have retired. Thus a working life comes to an end filled with memories, some so wonderful and some so disappointing as ever life will give. The creation of something new must be exciting and the beginning of the school was exciting - happy memories indeed. With very considerable pride one looks back, pride in belonging and indeed in leading, pride in what was achieved, a pride which I am sure is shared by so many. One tries to create and pass on for the future. The future that was is past, and others will tell of the new time. May I try to envisage for the new time something of that exciting past?

The period of preparation was very exciting. Staff had to be appointed - brave people that they were stepping into the unknown. We were the successors of the boarding wing of the London Nautical School which had been at Woolverstone since 1947. This has been training boys to go to sea either in the Royal Navy or in the Merchant Navy, and their age range at the school was 12 to 16. For the first two or three years therefore we were virtually two schools in one and this was a source of strength and of weakness, strength in that an administrative organisation existed at the school and that a school was there, weakness in that new ideas and pupils had to be grafted on to a growth that was directed to entirely different aims and methods from those envisaged in an academic school. We had countless staff meetings, and the simple questions that had to have an answer were innumerable, even to what we were to call each other - at least in public! Our organisation, curriculum, spare time activities, aims, methods, punishments - all had to be talked about. We knew full well that in the light of experience changes would have to be made, but at least we had to have a starting point.

The buildings were by no means as they are now. The Hall was there with a derelict grotto, full of rats, where the chemistry laboratory was eventually built. Indeed the Hall was found to have considerable dry rot, and for a year or two efforts were made to find another suitable site, and I remember doing a detailed reconnaissance of an establishment in Ashford in Middlesex which was eventually turned down. In front of the headmaster's house were serried ranks of nissen huts - dormitories with an "elsan" at the end and two concrete pillars with electric heaters in each for essential comfort. Where the main boarding houses now stand was an area known, for obvious reasons, as "The Ferns", a marvellous playground for the younger members. Larger nissen huts provided the dining rooms and the kitchen roughly where the boiler house was eventually put. The gymnasium, completed just before we took over, really saved the situation. It was the hall, the gymnasium, the theatre and concert hall, the chapel - it was the centre of so many things.

The actual start of the school was really rather incredible. The selected boys and their parents had been down to Woolverstone and knew what they were coining to. We knew that the London County Council was creating a new type of school, a boarding school within the State Service, and one based on parental choice and the academic merit of their offspring. What we had not realised was that we were "NEWS", and the press swarmed around in a way that to naive people like us was unbelievable. It was very bad for the boys who became ready at the drop of a hat to pose for any stray photographer. Glorious sob stuff stories were written, photos showed lone boys walking up the drive into the unknown, a parent feeling the springs of the beds - actually the "parent" was a taxi driver posed for the occasion - boys eating, all left handed because the print was produced in the press in reverse. We got sick and tired of the whole thing and were delighted when the Kidbrook Comprehensive School was opened, and the press found a new nine days' wonder.

The attitude of local people was strange if understandable. I do not think they liked the idea of two or three hundred London boys in their midst, and to start with they thought the boys could only be delinquents sent away to school. Where this idea came from was difficult to understand. Maybe they could not visualise the L.C.C. producing a straightforward boarding-school with no strings attached. Maybe it was the normal suspicion of the countryman for the city dweller. I was continually asked how "that sort of boy" was settling down in the country. One felt guilty at having "that sort of boy" in Suffolk. It was as if they were locking up their silver, and locking up their daughters because dreadful cockneys, "that sort of boys", were in their midst.

It was greatly to the credit of the school that the attitude soon began to change. This came about firstly because of the school's sporting record and because we had so little trouble, though of course our boys were no better and no worse than any group of boys living in such a community. I think too that the attitude of the school to the church in the grounds helped. Attendance was voluntary, and a great number of boys were confirmed as time went on and regularly attended communion services. On some special occasions the number wanting to go was quite remarkable. I should perhaps add that we had our own school "chapel" services on Sunday evenings in the hall.

So our work got under way, and Latin and French appeared on the curriculum in place of Navigation and Seamanship. Standards were set which reflected great credit on all concerned. A comradeship grew up which disproved completely the idea that a school must be in wonderful buildings and have tremendous resources to be successful. In many ways the esprit de corps was at its highest when the conditions were at their worst. Buildings do not make a school, people do, and if conditions are bad the best is brought out in the people. I do know that as the houses were built, this wonderful feeling of striving and building up was replaced by another which, good though it was, seemed to take rather a lot for granted. The first fine careless rapture was gone. But foundations had been well and truly laid. Academic standards were high, and indeed we quickly had boys interesting our oldest universities. We were very grateful to them, and from what I was told on occasion they really felt the school was doing something that really interested them. Clearly the school has now established itself with an academic standing of which it can be proud.

Perhaps one of the more difficult aspects of having such a school in such a place was in the use of leisure far away from the urban delights of London. How hard the staff worked. Everything seemed to be done - boating, pig keeping, music, games, art, drama, boat-building, a sea cadet corps, librarianship, car-driving, car-cleaning, toymaking, woodwork, modelling to name those that quickly come to mind. Eventually more academic things became important as the school matured. Of these, music and drama developed to a degree which brought much local acclaim. One remembers some of the earlier performances, the open-air play in the beautiful natural amphitheatre at the bottom of the garden, quite inaudible because of an unexpected breeze that rustled the rhododendron leaves, the fun of "1066 and All That", the first orchestral performance, and another with an abortive start because so many parents were late taking their seats. One remembers the visit of Benjamin Britten when we were preparing one of his joyful operas, "Let's Make an Opera", when he told us to cut out one item that was too difficult for our youthful performers. What inspiring help he gave. One remembers our first sailing matches, our Young Farmers entering their first county speaking competitions. So much was happening as the school made its mark on the life of that part of Suffolk.

Perhaps we travelled about most in the early days with our games. We took up rugby and were soon able to arrange junior fixtures. I hall never forget the excitement of the first game won. I remember too, one school junior team visiting us and thinking it was not worth while taking their sweaters off to play. They removed them at half time when the score was 25-0 to us! So many local schools as well as the clubs helped. The present chairman of the selection committee of the English Rugby Union, Mr. Saunders, was among those who helped and encouraged our teams. The same was true of cricket, my own first love. We were blessed with a lovely ground though the wicket at first was at times pretty dangerous. It became a wonderful wicket in spite of a visit by a neighbouring herd of cows one very wet Sunday afternoon. Had they tried they could not have done more damage -- they went across diagonally! In 1959 Suffolk played Kent 2nd XI in a wonderful two-day match when they scored over 900 runs between them. Our visitors told us that it was the best pitch they had played or would play on during the season. I had forgotten to ask permission for this match to take place, and this became an administrative headache, but it brought considerable kudos to the school.

I have said people make a school, and I have said a good deal about the achievements of the boys. Some of my happiest memories come from their parents. It took great courage on their part, many of them, to send their boys to Woolverstone. They were accused by their neighbours of not loving their boys, of sending them away because they were not wanted. How gregarious, and how conservative Londoners can be! It made one very humble to talk to parents about this sort of problem. I think we quickly built up a relationship that was not only healthy, it was rewarding as well. The Parents' Association was quickly formed and, apart from an early visit by the committee to see if the beds really were damp -- rumour is a wicked thing -- they could not have been more helpful and generous. Splendid Parents' Days were held, an annual fete became a tradition and the Swimming Pool Fund was brought into being. Termly trips to the Gamett Training College in the Old Kent Road for parents' meetings were inspiring occasions, and I always received many contributions for various objects. As time went on their social functions began to be attended by Old Boys, and I have watched the Old Boys' Association grow and increase its membership and influence during the last ten years. One day it will be a force in the life of the school comparable to other distinguished associations. The then London County Council, the biggest education authority in the world, had the courage to do something that at that time had not been done. Its organisation is such that it is wonderful at dealing with problems in urban London, and it dealt with country problems in much the same way. I remember the water "ram" supplying Corners' house breaking down - it had been pumping continuously since 1865 I gathered soon after the house was occupied. On that very day a water engineer was coming from London to check our central heating. We told him how glad we were to see him and explained the problem. Imagine my shock when he told me that he was "hot water" and that his "cold water" colleague who shared his office would be asked to come down as soon as possible. He did not feel that it was possible for him even to look at the "ram". In fact in the first year we had 227 visits of various kinds from County Hall, and, given a journey of 80 miles from London, our various visitors, helpers and advisers travelled nearly 40,000 miles in the year to "service" our needs. Of course without their support and help we could not have survived, and most helpful and friendly they were. But 40,000 miles!

As is usual in such Local Authority schools, there is a Governing Body which basically is a reflection of the current Education Committee, nd must be so because public money is being spent. Local people of importance are co-opted as well. Stirring meetings were held over the years, and naturally without the Governing Body nothing would have been possible at all. Council rules and regulations are very strict and all passed for a purpose and I know the Governing Body had its frustrations - but I was more than startled when one prominent member insisted on paying 2/-, or whatever the Council normally charged, for having lunch in my house at my personal invitation. An employee may not entertain a member of the Council! Our Governing Body covered all shades of political opinion, all shades of educational theory and had in addition a vast experience in many walks of life. I would like to pay tribute to them all for the time, trouble and effort they spent in carrying out their responsibilities. They guided and controlled and encouraged, and I hope that they too have their reward in the school that has emerged.

Finally I must turn to my memories of the staff itself. Our community had its tensions, naturally, with such diverse people and nationalities. The non-teaching staff covered so many professions, jobs and trades that we were a miniature town. For the first time in my life I found myself in conflict with trade-union regulations, some of which I cannot understand - why for instance a woman using a small washing-machine with a hand-wringer attached to wash boys' suits (disgracefully dirty, but that's another story) should be entitled to another 1d. an hour for using industrial machinery was incomprehensible. She was perfectly happy to do the work. However, teamwork won, and I like to think that all found satisfaction in the creation of a really worthwhile community.

The teaching staff come last. By the very nature of their work they are more completely integrated into the community as a whole and lead it. I have mentioned the achievements of the boys, but of course the staff were their mentors in all they did. The original housemasters are remembered in the names of their houses. The work of all those who had the courage to join in the early days is commemorated in the school itself. There was a full inspection by the Council's Inspectorate in 1958. Their tribute to the creation of the school and its standards and atmosphere shows the calibre of the men I was privileged to lead.

It will I hope be noticed that I have mentioned nobody by name. This is quite deliberate. The creation of the school was a team effort. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. None of us are supermen. Ideas clash, and in none of them is there absolute virtue however much we may think there is. We discussed a lot, planned a lot and strove a lot together and indeed we achieved a great deal in quite a short space of time. Therein lies the reward.

Doubtless all, at one time or another, thought I was wrong, or thought they knew better. Only rarely did they show it! All contributed much each in his own way, and so, as I have said, I mention no names. My memories are of stirring things attempted and achieved together. So may it continue while the school lives.

1959 Winter

I would say that the physical conditions under which a school can be created have now been established. We can now set about creating the school we all hope Woolverstone Hall will become. Buildings do not make a school, they create the conditions under which a school can be formed. It is the people who form the school community who will make it good or bad. We have all known first-rate schools in bad buildings, and bad schools in first-rate buildings. During the past year, much that is good has happened here. Our games continue to improve - though I hope they will always be played in a spirit of adventure and cheerfulness. Our examination results continue to be good, and our various activities prosper. There are, however, still too many boys living selfish lives, and it is these boys who hold the School back. So long as there is only one boy left who is not fully sharing our corporate life, the School cannot progress as far and as fast as it should. We have reached the end of what one may call the foundation era. We now approach our formative years, and I approach them with the utmost confidence, knowing full well that there are enough first-class people in the School to make it a first-class School. I know too that the boys are very fortunate in the staff who teach and look after them. The future is indeed a rosy one if everybody will turn their opportunities to the best possible use.

It would be stupid, however, to look back on our modest achievements and think in a smug way that we have created a school. We have hardly begun. Five years is a very short time and we have made as yet only small beginnings. Our community can be said to be just coming to life. It cannot possibly flourish to anything approaching manhood until more and more, boys are determined to instil that life into it. And as yet there are too few signs that many are really prepared to give as well as to receive. There are notable exceptions, but they really stand out. For our school to achieve any greatness of spirit, the only greatness worth achieving, its members must consciously cease to regard it as a place where lessons are learnt, where enthusiastic masters "lay-on" everything, where a bountiful but intangible and remote unknown acts as a universal provider. It must become a place where all seek to give, to create, to instil some of their own life and character into the corporate whole. Thus and thus only will our school achieve any greatness.

As I write, the first of our new boarding houses is fast taking shape. These buildings will house successive generations of Woolverstone boys. Nobody will, I hope, make the mistake of thinking that fine buildings of themselves make a fine school. Far more important are the people who inhabit them. These buildings will ventually be imbued with an atmosphere, an atmosphere that will reflect the people who have lived there. We must ensure that the spirit that will live in our buildings is one that we gladly and proudly pass on to those who will follow us.

The buildings will consist of four new boarding houses and a classroom block, with a fine assembly hall. I hope the whole project will be completed in about three years-three years that must of necessity be a bit difficult because the school is already full, but years that will see our physical conditions slowly but surely improving.

The school has undoubtedly made great progress in the year past and is maturing all the time. There will unfortunately always be some boys who take part in everything and boys who, do very little either for themselves or for other people. These latter are a diminishing number at Woolverstone Hall, but they are still there. Until they have completely disappeared they will be a drag on the school in all of its activities. Every boy should look into his heart and ask himself "Am I really playing my full part in the life of my school?"

We are, I am sure, entering our new academic year with high hopes. I am sure it will be our best year so far.

At a time like this one looks back over the past and takes stock of what has been achieved. It is indeed a very great deal. We have established a routine which is I think good, we have set ourselves standards of work which appear to be good judging by the excellent first examination results obtained by the seven candidates in the G.C.E. We have achieved some local reputation at games - particularly at rugby football - and I can see developing a pride in the school which is reflected in the appearance and behaviour of the boys. Many school societies have been successfully founded and as time goes on these are settling down to become an integral part of the life of our community.

We have had much to put up with and we shall have to go on putting up with a very great deal for some time to come. On the whole the school is to be congratulated on the way in which it overcomes the difficulties of living in huts and the difficulties of scattered buildings. As the building programme proceeds these difficulties will disappear and in the foreseeable future we shall be living and working in buildings worthy of the school we hope to create. A very great deal of thought has gone into the planning of these buildings and I would like to pay tribute to the work the Architects have already done. I am sure everybody will be very pleased with the finished school. Everybody concerned should, too, be aware of the parts the Governing Body of the school and the Chairman, Mrs. Chaplin, in particular, have played in achieving this very satisfactory result. They have struggled to convince everybody concerned of the value of the school and they have succeeded magnificently. The school itself can congratulate itself on the tangible results of hard work which has been one of the most vital factors in these successful negotiations. Without such evidence of successful foundations being laid here at Woolverstone by staff and boys no negotiations at all could have taken place.

Looking back over these three years, as I have said, there is much to be proud of. There are, however, things which we must put right. The most important of these in my opinion is the general apathy that one feels about acts of service to the school. Boys work hard, play hard, enjoy facilities, activities and amusement provided for them. There is as yet very little sign of positive effort to create new things, to improve existing things, and in some cases even to preserve existing things. I said at the beginning of this term to the senior boys that, as an example, one hour's work a week spent by each senior boy on the school grounds would not only make a vast difference in the appearance and tidiness of our school but would add up to the equivalent of two extra gardeners whom the school cannot afford. The response has been negligible. I hope the school will think of this and will learn that living in a community such as ours carries responsibilities and duties s well as pleasures, and that no life is complete without some positive giving to others and without some form of service to others.

Our school has made a good start. Let us all remember that we are laying the foundations of something that will endure through succeeding generations. We must ensure that those who will follow us will always think that what we did was good.

The last year has been a year of real progress and the school is fast taking shape. This term Woolverstone House has been opened as a House for Corners and this is a great achievement. At long last one of our houses will he living properly as a boarding-house should and not eking out its existence as if we were a camp school. For months now planning and scheming have been going on and I hope it will not be long before there are further signs of progress in the same direction.

Much has happened to enhance the reputation of the school. Our Rugby teams have been particularly successful. One can see our Music and Dramatics developing and many of the societies are becoming more mature and businesslike. Our School journeys to Paris, Derbyshire and North Wales, our visits to Ipswich and such places as the Suffolk Show at Shrublands Park have brought us in contact with a host of people outside the school. We know there is a tremendous amount to be done before we can be at all satisfied with our school but on the whole we have had a good year, a year of sound growth. It is up to the school itself to see that this continues.

The various Rugby XVs have had a remarkably successful season, and I hope this success will go on as the boys concerned grow older and play the older teams from the other schools. I have been glad to see during this last term more interest taken in the gardens, and I shall look forward to still more improvement being made by various groups of boys. In particular, I hope that suitable gardens will be laid out around the boat-shed. This part of the School grounds suffered badly during the floods but, of course, we were very fortunate in that our boats themselves virtually escaped damage.

These last terms have not been a time of spectacular achievement. There are, however, signs of solid progress in many directions, of continued hard work, of increasing pride, of a raising of esprit de corps. Solid progress is of far more, value than any spectacular or flashy achievement, and so I think we can say that in spite of one or two setbacks, which could well have been avoided, the School is growing up on sound lines. I hope that when the end of next term comes, and I make my report on Speech Day, I shall be able to say that the School has grown out of babyhood and has got through many of its teething troubles successfully.

What is Woolverstone Hall to mean to us? We have a lovely park to live in and our main school building at least is something of which we can be very proud. Our classrooms are well equipped and this applies particularly to our practical rooms. But a school depends on something far more valuable for its life than buildings, surroundings and equipment, important though these things are. A school is concerned primarily with people. It is in fact the sum total of their personalities and because, in a boarding school, the school is our whole life, this applies very particularly to us. Woolverstone Hall School therefore is going to succeed only so far as the people who make up its numbers fit together into a team, and this applies to all from myself down to the youngest boy. We have all joined together in the creation of something and we have a privilege and an opportunity that is granted to very few people to create a new school, to create a living organization and to see that our creation is good.

We have to lay the foundations of our school. They are the most important part of any buildings. If they are bad the whole thing will collapse. It is up to us to lay these foundations well. We must do it so that those who follow after us will think we have done well. We want them to he able to say that, so well did we found the school, their job of adding the main structure and perhaps putting on the ornamentation was easy. The life of the school will constantly develop. New things will start up and flourish, new ideas will be introduced. We can ensure this future growth by seeing to it that everything we do now is done as well as we know how.

The school has, I think, made a good start. Work is going ahead on the whole quite steadily. At games we have already achieved a local reputation that augurs well for the future. In our clubs and societies a good deal of real progress is apparent. Already our life is varied and interesting. We can look back on our first two terms on the whole with pride. We must, however, resist the temptation to look back too much. Compared with what we hope to do, a very small beginning only has been made. A tremendous amount remains to be done before we can pretend that we are at all satisfied with our progress. The publication of this magazine marks another step forward. It is the mirror of the life of the school, and will reflect our progress through its publication every Easter and Summer.

We have taken as our school motto "Nisi Dominus Vanum". Let this be an inspiration to us all in our work for the School. Too few people today put any faith in anything, too few people are willing to acknowledge the place of religion in their lives. Without our faith and trust in God, without His help, all our work here will indeed be in vain.