Doodlebugs
“I used to sleep very well, that’s one thing I’ve been very fortunate [with]. When I go to bed, I put my head on the pillow, and it’s been all my life – young, middle-aged and old . And then one night, on this particular occasion, I woke up, and suddenly I was wide awake. Everybody else in the dormitory was snoring or asleep, and I thought, ‘well, what’s going on?’ And I tossed and turned for a short time but didn’t go back to sleep, which was totally unusual for me. And then I heard an odd noise, so I crawled up so that I could lean on the top of the windows – you know what the windows are like, above the beds – so I could see out of the window.
“Suddenly this noise got louder, and it went right over the window and over the school, [making] its now familiar noise, a sort of grrrwd, grrrwd, with flames coming out of the back. I thought, ‘what the devil’s that?!’ And it went on for a little time, and then the noise level faded, and then suddenly it stopped. And about two minutes later, vvvwum. There was an explosion. And of course that was where the doodlebugs were organised for the engines to cut out, and then they just glided down and then whenever they hit the ground they blew up.”
Headmasters
(Interviewer: You then stayed in that aftermath of the war, when of course Ardingly then had a change of headteacher, too.)
“Yes indeed it did.”
(Interviewer: And they were quite different personalities, I imagine, Crosse and Snow.)
“Oh, totally and completely different personalities. To be fair, I think Ardingly was extremely fortunate that they were, because Crosse got the school through an incredibly difficult financial period, particularly during the war. And I do remember vaguely somewhere that at one stage it was so serious, it was even possible that the school was going to have to close. And he ran a very, very tight ship, in the context of spending. He wouldn’t spend a penny unless he had to! Applying those very tough measures was absolutely vital to the school at that time.
“Then when war was over and our dear new headmaster came in, he was exactly the opposite. He realised he’d got to put Ardingly back on the map and make an impact, and he did this and he was a very impressive figure, and he spent money as if it was growing on trees. He did extremely well for the school and he was in total and complete contrast to Canon Crosse, so they were both there at the right time. If it had been the other way round it would have been fatal.”
Reflections
“Ardingly had a tremendous impact on me. I didn’t realise at the time, the impact that it was having. It somehow fostered my belief in the principles that I did my utmost to stand by in later life: in our country, in patriotism, in public service. And as I said, exactly how it happened I don’t know, but it did. And when I look back on Ardingly, I’m afraid I really was an academic disaster – perhaps I’m being a bit unfair on myself, but I don’t think I passed any exams of any note at all. But I didn’t fully realise, at the time, but later on in life, particularly as my political life developed, it came back to me that my basic inspiration came from what Ardingly stood for.”