Denis Stanswood 1997

I was very pleased and honoured to be asked to be this year's President, though it was something of a shock to be catapulted into the job after only a year as Vice-President. This echoed a similar experience over half a century ago when I became Deputy Head Prefect, only to find a few weeks later that I had been promoted to Head Prefect because Alan Langtree had secured a University place at short notice. This was the start of a long relationship with Sam Price with whom, in later years, I came into frequent contact when he was the Chairman of the Barrow District Scout Association

During my time as Head Prefect an incident occurred which must be unique in the annals of B.G.S. On a very snowy day Sam Price was moving house to Hawcoat Lane where he lived for the rest of his life. Those who attended B.G.S. in the days of open corridors and a hopelessly inadequate heating system will remember the misery of winter days at school. At lunch-time on this particular day a rumour began to spread around that the School was closing for the afternoon and by the time that 'Ernie' Ellwood, as Deputy Read in charge of the School in the Head's absence, could take any action a large number of pupils had disappeared. Some pupils, including a number of prefects, saw this as a good opportunity to attend a cinema matinee performance. When the Head returned next day he was livid and all those who had gone AWOL were interviewed with the result that several prefects were demoted. The rest of the prefects thought this a little harsh and held a meeting, the outcorne of which was that I was to go to the Head and tell him the prefects were on strike. I still remember this vividly as one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. When I told him the news the Head's eyes went steely blue- he began to pace up and down and he said, "The prefects want to go on strike, Stanswood? I've never heard of anything like this before." He was obviously at a loss at what to do and I was summarily dismissed whilst he thought it over for a day or two and an air of gloom hung over the whole School. To cut a long story short, it had a happy ending with the reinstatement of the demoted prefects; how much this owed to the intervention of Ernie Ellwood or other senior members of staff I never knew.

On another occasion I was with the Head in his study and it obviously had not been the best of days for him. He put the telephone down after what had been an unpleasant conversation and turning to me he said 'Just wait until you're a headmaster, you'll know what it's like.' I never quite fulfilled his high hopes of me. After seven years at Barrow Technical School, where I worked under my old mentor from B.G.S. days, Norman Brown, I became Head of English at Dowdales School in Dalton where I remained for the remainder of my unambitious career. My time at Dowdales was not without its excitement (if you could call it that!) as it moved from Central School to Secondary Modern, then became Comprehensive and had at its peak an intake of over 220 pupils. I can remember that figure because for the latter years of my career I was responsible for organising all the external exams which proved an interesting if exacting job and was most satisfying each year, after the exams had finished, to find there had been no major catastrophe in the organization.

Another legacy of my time at B.G.S. has been my involvement with the Scout Movement which began in 1938 when I joined the 3rd Troop. Little did I anticipate that this was the beginning of a life-long association which involved the running of the Dowdales Scout Troop for fifteen years and then for nearly twenty years organising the Cumbria South Division which covered Barrow and the whole of South Lakeland. The interest still goes on and folks keep pushing me into jobs. I'm gradually finding the ability to say 'No' but finding it very hard to do.

My association with the Old Barrovians has been a happy one and has brought me and my wife into contact with many former students with whom we lost contact during the busier period of our lives earning a living and bringing up families. The efforts of the Committee to keep a thriving membership are most worthy.