Myles Stephens (1946) started at Ardingly College in 1944, where he was in F Dormitory. He and his elder brother, Nigel, both left in 1946.
I arrived at F Dorm in May 1944, where my father, Geoffrey (1909-11), and brother, Nigel (1943-46), preceded me. I’d had a good education at my preparatory school, which was not so at Ardingly. Many of the younger teachers had been called up to fight and were substituted by an older generation.
My Chemistry teacher, Mr Atkins, and English teacher, Mr Price, were excellent, but as I intended to do medicine, Mr Downer, who taught biology, was a disappointment. My French lessons didn’t teach me anything that I had not learnt at prep school. Pastoral care was not evident and the Headmaster, E C Crosse (known as “Tilt”), was a distant figure.
I took School Certificate in July 1946, gaining seven credits and two passes. Because I had not been allowed to take Latin – the teacher, Mrs Burgess, had told me “You are a bit below the set so I don’t think you’ll be doing it much longer” – I did not get the chance to matriculate for Oxford or Cambridge.
As in most schools, popularity was increased by prowess in sports. We played football and cricket, with some hockey in the spring term. If you were not in the 1st or 2nd XI you were known as “remnants” and played against other remnants. I was one of these, though as I’d played a lot of hockey at my prep school I had an advantage, and received my dormitory colours.
The remnants were given the option of taking part in the College’s Land Army rather than Games. The Land Army went on throughout the war and it was mostly growing potatoes on the Nine Acre and Upper Upper for the school. My memory is pulling frozen mangolds from the mud on the College Farm.
The school food was reasonable – perhaps partly down to the Land Army. The school grace was read out before lunch every day and I still remember it now:
Benedic nos, Domine, et haec tua dona
Quae de tua largitate, sumus sumpturi
Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum
Not long after I started at Ardingly, flying bombs (V1s) started appearing in the skies. On 13th June 1944 I wrote the following in my diary:
“Last night 0523 I was woken by a noise like an aeroplane, the noise suddenly stopped and then there was a tremendous bang and flash. I found it was a glider bomb (V1). It dropped by the viaduct”.
V1s continued to fly over the school until October-November when the launch site was over-run by our troops.
I left Ardingly rather suddenly in 1946. After going home for a holiday, my father told me and my brother that there was not enough money to send us back the next term. I was able to get into Brighton Technical College to study for the 1st MB, where I was helped greatly by the ex-servicemen who had 80% of the places.