1970 - 77
and able to use contacts within Freemasonry to secure the employment he wanted. With a former pupil at Duncan
Hall, David Rawnsley, they formed V H Searles Limited, with ownership transfering to their company in 1961. Verdun Searles
appointed himself Principal.
Within a year, all the had teachers left, with the exception of the Headmaster, Francis J O'Brien. V H Searles appear to have engaged in Salami Slicing exercises. For example, 1970 was the last year the school engraved the winner's names on its sports trophies and started taking boys sponsored by local education authorities. Cooking margarine replaced butter. Text books were never updated.
Dorothy and I were attending St. Pius X, a Roman Catholic primary school, adjacent to Blessed (now Saint) John Payne Catholic School. This was ideally situate at the other end of the 44A and 44B bus routes, which ran every fifteen minutes during the day. Ideal almost because on our first day we heard the headmistress complain about the irreverence of her pupils taking communion.
So I had to attend Child Guidance Clinic, which was half way between the school and the town centre. I remember being asked if I was left or right handed but I did not know and was required to perform an IQ test, which I found distressing when unable to answer questions immediately.
I had to attend for half days once then twice per week. I was in the care of a woman with whom I used to play battleships. This was pleasant, but not to last, as one day she told me they had found a school for me, showing me an atlas from which we were to find Great Yarmouth. Verdun Searles was from Chelmsford.
In those days, 1970s, finding an establishment that was ideal was exactly the same as finding a place that would accept one. Essex County Council are free to sue.
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