Raymond recalls a very happy school
Found. One of the three missing names from our picture of the class at North Borough School in 1947 has stepped forward to identify himself.
Raymond Selves is the little boy in the picture fifth from the left in the back row, between Hilary Marefield and Georgina Bartholmew.
Mr Selves, 80, now lives in Charing near Ashford and didn’t know of our search to identify him until a relative passed on a copy of the KM.
He said: “I agree with your previous correspondents – it was a very happy school, and particularly the class I was in.”
He recalls the head, Mr Hopkins, had a great passion for music, which he did his best to install in his young charges. Mr Selves remembers taking part in an inter-school music competition held at Maidstone Girls Grammar.
At the time he lived in Sandling Lane, close to the private estate that was later to become Invicta Barracks.
He said: “We didn’t do much football at the school, but played stool ball, a game that involved hitting a ball with a very large bat.
“We also went on lots of nature rambles. It was a very free and easy atmosphere.”
Mr Selves became apprenticed to coachbuilders Coopers in Foster Street, Maidstone. As an apprentice, he was able to defer his National Service for a couple of years, but eventually the time came when he had to sign up. Instead of two years’ National Service he opted for a threeyear contract with the regulars and found himself in the Royal Ordnance Corps stationed initially in Benghazi in Libya.
He said: “We were basically dismantling the base there and sending everything home.”
After six monthshe was moved to Cyprus, where the British were doing their best to contain a revolt by EOKA, the Greek nationalists led by Georgios Grivas.
The troops were confined to camp after 6pm as a safety measure and had to make their own entertainment. Mr Selves found his coach-building skills came in useful constructing scenery for the soldiers’ amateur dramatic shows.
After return to civilian life, Mr Selves worked for the Fire Brigade workshop in Marden which then had the task of repairing the brigade’s tenders from across the county.
In 1960, he married Mary Walters and the couple moved in to Upper Mill Cottage in Salts Lane, Loose, a property they bought from Joan Foster Clark for £1,400.
In 1964, they decided to go into business for themselves and opened an ironmongery store in Herne Bay, later moving the business to Charing High Street. They ran it for 32 years before retirement in 2000.
Their store is now a coffee shop. Mrs Selves died in 2007.