| Ian McCulloch - Corners '51-'57 |
Sent to Chris Snuggs in March 2026
I always pay credit to WHS when asked about how everything started for me but have never managed to be aware of or able to physically attend anything in the way of organized meetings. My own contemporaries are sadly diminishing in numbers but if any OBs are brave enough to visit any of the conventions I guest at I would welcome a chat.
I was looking up some of my wife’s ancestors who had connections with Chelmondiston and Erwarton in the 17th century and thought I might see if they had a connection with Woolverstone as well. Sadly no success but there was your work and much historical stuff on Facebook which was mostly new to me.
It must be a great labour of love to take on what you do and time too so I congratulate and thank you for that. I loved being at Woolverstone and preferred it to home. Guiltily looking back to my days as a prefect I am sure I gave out more detentions as the holidays approached. I sympathize with former pupils who did not have such a happy time but am not impressed by some (principally the comedian) who slag it off.
Many counties had set up similar schools with Ottershaw in Surrey being the first and Wymondham in Norfolk. The advice of the Fleming Report on the advantages of such schools was lost on a government with envy and hate of the public school models on which they were based. I owe everything I have done to the education I had at WHS and the efforts of my single parent mother. She sadly hated me becoming an actor - never complimenting me on any performances until ten years into my career when she one day said that she had seen me on tv and thought I was quite good. She then added as her criterion: “You were wearing a suit!”
Looking at the annual university acceptance list on your website just illustrates the success of those first years before “the rot“ set in. As I am sure with many OBs there are many errors relating to my time at school beginning with my arrival in 1950 although I have to admit I thought I arrived in 1951! That first school dance! As Head Boy I wrote to the Head Girl of Ipswich High asking what she thought of the idea, and with her encouraging reply we passed it on to our elders and betters. I met my first proper girlfriend at the dance: a relationship which lasted until the end of my National Service. The late Geoff Brown met the girl he was happily married to for fifty plus years although he first dated one of her accompanying schoolfriends. Geoff, one of the most generous souls around, was the perfect example of the success of the school. From a forbidding council estate in Bermondsey surrounded by a young Tommy Steele and his family to Oxford University, Canada and beyond and a fantastic self-made computer based business in London and a beautiful home he shared with his lovely wife Valerie and family in Blackheath. There were so many like him - in my profession and others.
The conventions I attend now I would not recommend as being too expensive unless you are an ardent horror film fan. They are fun for me and a sort of unexpected nearly 50 years on pension but the stranger bonus for being in three video nasties is that the teachers and university tutors of my children were all fans of the genre and showed their appreciation with better marks.
Apart from conventions I limp around my local golf course, stumble over the too many dogs in my kitchen and try to add to my musical legacy. My homage to Tiger Woods (“Tyger Tyger“) is on Bandcamp, my Decca recording "Come on Home" (supposedly the first psychedelic record but I think Gene Pitney’s “Mecca” 1963 beats it by a year) and “Break, Break, Break” is on Facebook and on the soundtrack of the upcoming film “Witches of the Sands” and “Le Rebelle” is on Amazon music sung in French by Chris Long. It features on 6 of his 45s and albums. I wrote the latter in 1964 and heard it for the first time two months ago but I still have my royalties invoice from my music publisher. For its worldwide sales I received the princely sum of £3.13.17p. I think Ian McCulloch of "Echo and the BunnyMen" has achieved more but I still sign photos of him sent to me by his fans.
So thanks to Ian Bell and Leslie Johnson for a love of reading, history and acting, to Mr Warren and Mr Channon for music and singing, to Glyn Evans for a love of sport and WHS for the rest.
Best wishes - Ian McCulloch
Information in "Famous Old Boys": IMDB - WIKI - Alchetron - interview 1 - interview 2
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