Snapping all the teacher’s canes didn’t save our skins
THIS is a small snippet about Dudley Road School in Wolverhampton at the beginning of the war.
In the September of 1939 I was seven years old and attended St Mary and St John School on Snow Hill in Wolverhampton.
An air raid shelter was built, but it couldn’t hold all of the pupils, so some of us had to go to Dudley Road School. We had to go there 9am to 12 noon one week, and 1pm to 4pm the next week.
I recall one event that happened while we were there. A friend of mine who shared the same birthday as myself was always messing about, so the teacher put us both in a cubby hole where all the canes were kept.
One by one my friend snapped all the canes thinking we would get away without having the cane. However the teacher found another one from somewhere and we both got six of the best!
When I went to senior school, namely St Joseph’s in Steelhouse Lane, it had no kitchens so we had to march in crocodile line for our lunch to Dudley Road School; regardless of the weather as there was no transport or school bus.
Talking of St Joseph’s – in the hall there was a plaque with the names of four ex-schoolboys who were killed in the war. One of them was my cousin Joseph Perks, who was killed in Libya. I would like to find out what happened to the plaque when the school was demolished.
M. Perks, 25 Underhill Lane, Underhill, Wolverhampton, WV10 8NT