Watching Pointless the other day two of the answers were Sir Titus Salt and Joseph Priestley. The odd thing was they both went to my old school (obviously not at the same time as me or even each other).
Reading the biography of Al Bowlly I also found out that Ray Noble the bandleader also attended Dulwich College I have previously mentioned that P G Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler also went there.
So were you at school with someone who went on to fame and fortune or even noteriety?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Just a few years before me, Lord Byron attended Aberdeen Grammar School. My house was in fact Byron. My first proper rugby game was Byron House versus Melvin House. We were being beat 86 nil when with a minute to go the ball came my way. Looking to the left was Denis Taylor who only made the team because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So instead just before being engulfed by one of the Melvin thugs who had terrorised us all afternoon long I chanced a drop kick. From fully thirty yards out, and bear in mind that those days a wet rugby ball weighed roughly half a ton, it sailed straight between the sticks. I raised my wet and frozen arms in exultation . The whistle shrilled and over strode our games master, the evil sadistic Hitler Henderson. ” That’s no how we do that at Aberdeen Grammar School, laddie. You had men outside you, pass, pass, pass. Penalty to Melvin”.
Mrbellows says
Surely it’s ‘Penalty to Byron’?
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Pay attention ! In the eyes of Hitler Henderson, Byron had cheated
Mrbellows says
I never understood the phrase “awarding a penalty”??
Gatz says
Not a single one. In its entire history (which ,to be fair, only reaches to the mid 20th century) my school produced absolutely no one whose name would be recognised beyond their own family and friends. The best I can do is to note that I attended at the same time as Russ Abbott’s kids when he was just about the biggest name in television in the early 80s.
GCU Grey Area says
Big Train – School sketch.
garyt says
has Mark Heap even done anything even close to bad?
mikethep says
Southend High School for Boys…Most famous were probably Viv Stanshall and Robin Trower. Marginally less famous people include Digby Fairweather the jazz trumpeter, Robert Lloyd the opera singer, Robert Nye the novelist, and tennis-playing brothers David and John Lloyd (I was walloped by both of them).
gogsmunro says
Loads (attended quite a posh school in Edinburgh) although probably the most AW friendly are flute-playing monoped Ian Anderson and ISB’s Robin Williamson. I did once play rugby in the same team as Gavin Hastings.
rotherhithe hack says
Michael Caine went to my school – 25 years before I was there.
It was notable that the school never acknowledged him at the time. It had a ‘hall of fame’ of photo portraits of old stuffed shirts that none of us had ever heard of. I suspect it was because the headmaster at the time was a very unpleasant snob who didn’t approve of an actor known at the time for playing cockney wide boys.
The fashion designer John Galliano was a year down from me. I used to think ‘Good for him’ for his achievements – until that anti-semitic business a few years ago.
NigelT says
Somewhat surprisingly for a well respected (it says here) Grammar School in a nice suburb in East London (Wanstead County High School), the only real figure of note that I know of is Tony Robinson. He is a few years older than me, but I do have a memory of him for some reason – when he became well known on tv, I recognised him from somewhere but couldn’t place him; later I discovered his background and realised it must have been from school. I think he was just one of those people who stood out as a personality, besides also being somewhat unusually short of stature of course.
Chris says
QEGS Wakefield spewed out into the wider world not only me, but also rugby-player and semi-royal Mike Tindall, 17th century physician John Radcliffe and John Haigh, the acid-bath murderer.
I am contemplating getting the band back together.
hubert rawlinson says
Not forgetting a certain Mr Hepworth.
Twang says
I’ve said this before but I was at school with Steve Morris of New Order fame.
thecheshirecat says
Same school, as we have confirmed. Peter Moores, briefly England Cricket Coach, used to borrow my maths homework.
fentonsteve says
Nobody I can think of at my school, but George Ezra and the ginger one out of Harry Potter went to the school next door. George Ezra’s mum pulled pints in my local.
I did know the bloke out of The Mighty Boosh – not Noel, the other one – during my final year at university, he was pals with my neighbour. He came to my 25th birthday (Freakpower at the Camden Jazz Cafe).
fentonsteve says
I checked with the couple of school friends I am connected to by FB. The best they could come up with is we were taught French for a year by the wife of Spurs player Tony Galvin.
Cozzer says
Went to school with and was good friends with Max Richter (sadly lost touch decades ago). Other famous alumni: John Sessions, Russell Howard.
Went to Choristers School in Durham for a year in mid 70s. Tony Blair and Rowan Atkinson were there a decade or so before me if that counts?
Barry Blue says
I take it you were at Choristers during the tenure of Canon Grove? Appalling man. (Far too) gently mocked by Atkinson in a Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch and the ‘school register’ skit he used to do.
I was at Durham School. Alexander Armstrong and Dominic Cummings are fellow Old Dunelmians, ODs for short.
Cozzer says
I was indeed. A really creepy guy against whom serious allegations were made in early 2000s (after he had passed). Not sure if they ever came of anything, but anyone who inspects lined up, naked and shivering pre-pubescent boys after they had showered is a wrong ‘un in my books. I have nothing else to report on him other than I was glad to see the back of him when I left The Choristers in mid 1976.
Durham School has a lot to answer for I see (Armstrong I like, Cummings er .. not so much).
SteveT says
@Cozzer that seems to have been standard behaviour around my way in late sixties/seventies.
We had a vile Sports and Geography teacher Mr Gale, who was fat and had dubious hygiene standards.
One day he gave one of our classmates six of the best with a stick on his bare arse.
The poor kid was literally black and blue. You would rightly get a custodial sentence these days for that sort of behaviour.
Cozzer says
I got slippered and caned a few times for minor misdemeanours but nothing as horrific as your classmate. Times have moved on drastically, and for the most part for the better. Remember a games teacher at junior school who was remarkably like the one Brian Glover played in ‘Kes’. Should never have been within 100 yards of a child but was allowed to routinely kick the snot out of us in PE.
Vincent says
Interesting. I had similar experiences and observations. A friend challenged the PE teacher about it at a reunion and the teacher denied it ever happened. Seems like a group double-think emerged when they realised it was dubious. I was in a large catholic comp, and the local Bishop used to move wrong ‘uns around without saying much, and hope nobody noticed.
Barry Blue says
At Durham School in the mid to late 70s, there was a Hitler-obsessed* history teacher, Wilf Hammond, who was the housemaster of the junior boys’ house. This was an appalling posting, as Hammond liked nothing better than brutally caning boys, and at that age (we were there between the ages of 11 and 13) no-one was likely to hit him back, or at the very least point out that leaving bloody weals on one’s arse wasn’t acceptable. I was the recipient just the once, and the physical marks remained for several months.
Last time I checked, he was working in some Jesuit Brothers set-up in the North west.
* for one school play, some boys played the roles of Nuns. Their bibles were actually copies of Mein Kampf with brown paper and felt tip penned crucifixes stuck over the covers.
davebigpicture says
We had a history teacher, Mrs Tammer, who had escaped the Nazi persecution of the Jews. She seemed very old in the late 70s but was probably around 60 when she taught us so probably born just after WW1. Large amounts of lesson time could be wasted by introducing the subject of Hitler (her catch phrase was “That Hitler, if I had him here now I’d bash him hard). At the time, we didn’t realise that she was probably still traumatised by having to flee Germany with next to nothing and start over in a foreign country, let alone what became known later about the Holocaust
Barry Blue says
Mrs Tammer should’ve met Wilf Hammond and had a word. He had a high pitched laugh, bordering on hysteria, which would arise when he was talking about the hilarious escapades of Der Fuhrer or, on occasion, Napoleon. He squealed a lot when recounting Napoleon’s comment re his failing troops, translated by Cronin as ‘You’ve got c**** between your legs, not cocks!’
Bamber says
Arguably the most famous ex pupil of Ballymun Comp (now Trinity Comprehensive Ballymun), here’s Glen Hansard, who turned 50 yesterday, singing his Oscar winning song to the President of Ireland in the Albert Hall in that there London. Didn’t he do well…
https://youtu.be/VFkfhbQsXiA
Rigid Digit says
A veritable cavalcade of the rich and famous went to my school … not
Sangeeta Bharba – Meridian News lady
Matthew Syed – UK Table Tennis Champion
Michael Sprott – Boxer
Notable alumni? That’s about it
Fintinlimbim says
Hobbling centenarian hero Captain Tom went to my old school. Horrifying to think that when I landed there in 1964, two people who would have taught him were still there.
attackdog says
Apart from myself of attackdog fame, I was good mates with Kirsty MacColl at Park Hill Primary School.
Helped by our shared Celtic background (I’m Scottish but cannot recall whether ‘Cursed’ was Irish or Scottish stock), and our shared interest was music. She regularly, maybe daily, turned up with her nylon strung acoustic guitar and I was heavily involved with the RSCM.
She arrived at the school late – transferred from elsewhere because of her asthma and was from the start a rather serious and aloof individual, but at that time I got on with her very well. Her Mum was enthusiastically involved in school musical productions and ‘directed’ me in a couple of end of term performances.
Interestingly (well, to me at least) when we all moved on she attended Monks Hill Comp and was in the same class as my future girlfriend, so the connection was re-established for a while.
fentonsteve says
I got to know Kirsty around the time of her Tropical Brainstorm album and her mum, Jean, after The Incident.
I used my Showbiz contacts to do some fund-raising, and we bought a school in Cienfuegos, Cuba, a new piano. I went there with Mrs F to deliver a suitcase full of promotional Biro pens I’d picked up at a trade show. The headmistress burst into tears.
I seem to have something in my eye…
Simpering wreck says
Mrs Wreck’s best friend was in the year above Kirsty at Monk’s Hill. For myself, I went to Marple Hall (then grammar, now comprehensive) in Stockport. Wiki lists as alumni some people I’ve never heard of, plus my contemporary Peter Bowker, now an acclaimed TV playwright. He was my best mate from 11 to around 16, but we lost touch. I’ve not been mentioned in any of his plays as far as I know.
Vincent says
My mate, Monty Oxymoron, of “The Damned”. Wikipedia mentions “Connor Maynard” but i haven’t a clue who that is.
retropath2 says
Michael Fish of the Weather.
Eddie Izzard
Michael Praed of Dynasty and Robin Hood
Various McFly’s
Me
Slug says
Posh (not Harrow/Eton/Winchester level but still pretty bloody expensive) public school – Kings College School, Wimbledon – Nigel Molesworth’s St. Custards made real – whose starry alumni include such diverse figures as the war poet Robert Graves, Alvar Liddell, Roy Plomley, radio comedian Jimmy “Whack-o!” Edwards and, less glowingly, William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and Richard Walther Darré (Hitler’s Minister of Agriculture and Food and seventh in command of the SS)… and, worse still, Marcus bloody Mumford.
During my time there, I was a couple of years behind future British professional tennis number one (and another notorious nazi – perhaps it was the double physics lessons that made them so bitter) Buster Mottram. I was in the same year as the BBC’s Diplomatic Editor and Newsnight presenter Mark Urban. He was an irritatingly clever swot with curly hair who sa hello clouds hello sky, chiz.
Barry Blue says
Bloody hell, Slug, that’s quite the roll call of wannabe nazis. The odious Mottram was renowned for hanging up during phone interviews when questioned about his political views. I did a ‘where are they now?’ type phoner with him in the 90s, and after more than enough of his pompous recollections of how he’d been the greatest player of his era (belying his brief, number 15 ranking) it was ‘click…brr’ when I asked why he thought he kept getting rejected as a parliamentary candidate by local tory parties.
I see that in more recent times he was kicked out of the UKIPs for attempting to broker a deal with the BNP, and that Wimbledon Tennis Club aren’t pleased with what he’d been looking at on their computers. Hasn’t got the little Hitler ‘tache any more, mind.
Slug says
You should have seen our crack Combined Cadet Force brigade. We could have annexed Poland in under a week, no problem.
Chrisf says
According to Wiki, the only notable alumni of my school, All Saints in Sheffield were a footballer, a concert pianist and a tennis player – none of whom I have ever heard of. It does state however that Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner) went to De La Salle, which was the school before it became All Saints.
However, one missing from the Wiki list is Toni Minichiello – the coach of Jessica Ennis – who I was at school with.
dai says
Not many that I am aware of at my Grammar School that later turned into a Comprehensive. Ian Watkins (not that one), played rugby for Wales in the 80s (and won the Triple Crown in ’88)
Mike_H says
My old school, Watford Boys Grammar, has the following noted old boys:
Terry Scott, actor and comedian.
Sir Andrew Davis, orchestral conductor.
Michael Rosen, poet, writer and radio presenter, children’s laureate.
John Taylor, former Wales and British Lions rugby player.
David Sullivan, porn publisher, former director of Birmingham FC, current co-chairman of West Ham United FC.
Adrian Leaper, orchestral conductor.
Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonalds.
Simon Munnery, comedian and comedy writer.
Grant Shapps.
Josh Lewsey, England rugby player.
Don Barrell, Saracens rugby player.
Notable former masters:
Sir Stanley Rous, football referee and FIFA president, was an assistant sports master 1921-1934.
Harry Reé, educationist and wartime member of the SOE, was headmaster 1951-1962.
Diddley Farquar says
I haven’t got much to report other than that we had a teacher who was sacked for secretly filming female pupils. Rather unfortunate. Oh and another teacher who went on to co-write The Vicar Of Dibley, so not all bad. I never found The Vicar Of Dibley very funny to be honest. It was a big success though. As for pupils, not so much, well apart from me of course. Something of a giant in my field.
count jim moriarty says
Just the one really famous ex-pupil from Middlesbrough High School, but it’s a good one – the mighty Bob Mortimer. Quite a few academics as well.
the californian says
Mainly footballing names from my old school. Sir Matt Busby, Celtic Lisbon Lions Billy McNeil & Bobby Murdoch all from before my time and all, sadly, no longer with us. Very much alive though is ex Celtic and now Arsenal Kieran Tierney. To my knowledge, there has also been at least one MP, one MSP and an Archbishop.
davebigpicture says
My brother was in the same year as Adam and the Ants tub thumper, Terry Lee. Very minor muso, Mick Allen of The Models was also there, probably at the same time. He was a friend of a friend when I went to Harrow Tech, a really nice guy, very tolerant of us youngsters. My year produced no one of any note that I know of.
fitterstoke says
A few from Eastwood High, all the way down in Spam Valley (or Newton Mearns, if you prefer)…
Ricky Gardiner, of Bowie/Iggy fame;
Kelly Macdonald, of Trainspotting fame;
Brian Robertson, ex of Thin Lizzy;
and, contemporary with me, Alan Thompson, long time fretless bass player to the mighty John Martyn….
(…and a few football and rugby players…..)
attackdog says
Hey, Alan Thompson, now he could tell you a few tales I’m sure.
Saw him playing the JM Retrospective in Glasgow last year and backstage after the gig. I was in awe and could not bring myself to approach him.
I attended a bender with JM’s minders instead.
fitterstoke says
….something of which I’m sure the great man himself would have approved, not being averse to the odd bender himself….
Diddley Farquar says
I did go to the same art school that Bryan Ferry went to, albeit 20 years or so later.
Smudger says
D H Lawrence went to what was my infants school. The school is now listed on account of his association with it. He then went to Nottingham High School which is where I assume he learnt all those rude words he put in his books.
Also Tony Woodcock, part of the greatest miracle in football history, was an Eastwood lad and so likely went to the same comp as me.
Finally one of my best mates at school has carved out quite a reputation in the world of Americana/folk, going by the name of Quiet Loner when not using his real name Matt Hill.
Blue Boy says
Blimey O’Reilly. I have just googled the school I was at for a couple of years before we moved only to discover that one of its famous alumni was one @Colin_H of this parish (a good decade after me). Even later Rory McIlroy went there.
We then came to England and the school I was at had at that time the lads out of OMD, and, er, Theresa May’s husband. Daniel Craig went a few years later.
Sitheref2409 says
Of immediate relevance to here, JJ Brunel and Steve Smith, bassists, both.
Bob Willis and Terry Jones.
That irredeemable shit James Purnell.
An Archbish of Canterbury, at least one full England rugby cap, an England soccer captain.
My other school: Admiral the Lord Nelson, Sir Edward Coke, and the Seagrim brothers.
Billybob Dylan says
Too many to mention. I was at school with one of Patrick Troughton’s sons, Hugh Grant and Andy Holmes, Olympic gold medal rower. A couple of years above was Tommy Cooper Jr. and Dominic Guard. Although they’d left before I started, famous alumni include Alan Rickman and Mel Smith and countless politicians.
This was Latymer Upper school in Hammersmith.
Barry Blue says
I was briefly at university with a bloke who possessed a horribly complete collection of every fag end punk/Oi! record released. Turns out he was at Latymer, and from your post I reckon he must’ve been there at pretty much the same time as you and Hugh Grant et al. Can’t imagine Grant being too fond of Anti Nowhere League b sides.
GCU Grey Area says
Doesn’t appear to have been anyone really famous at my old secondary school, which doesn’t surprise me. My dad was in the first intake when it opened in the 20s as a grammar school, although by the time I went in the early 70s, it had become a comprehensive; the head and senior teachers did their very best to carry on as if it were a grammar, with ‘houses’, devotion to rugby and the Oxford entrance exam (one successful in my cohort).
nigelthebald says
Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz were at my school, but left a couple of years before the pre-bald 11year old Nigel arrived there.
In the year below me was the odious Nick Griffin. He was a nasty little shit even then.
Simon Wigg – speedway rider and five times world ‘longtrack’ champion – was in my brother’s year, three years below me.
Sitheref2409 says
My Dad went to Beath High. It’s in Cowdenbeath, which is the rag end of Fife. Jesus, even folk in Kelty look down on folk frae Beath.
Notable alumni:
Stuart Adamson.
Ian Rankin.
Sir James Black, Nobel winner.
Jennie Lee.
Ian Paxton, rugby international
Jim Baxter. Who played keepie uppie in 1967 against the then World Champions. Who got beat.
Not bad for a wee mining town.
Gatz says
And @beathhigh is Ian Rankin’s Twitter handle.