| The Unforgettable Stretch - Chris Snuggs |  |
I will never forget our first French lesson. We of 1B were all assembled in his familiar room on the top floor, sitting patiently en attente. He was a few minutes late, and for some reason Ron Scarpello went out onto the landing to see if he was coming. He obviously saw him coming up the spiral stairs, rushed back into the room saying "He's coming." and slammed the door! I have no idea why he slammed it - just a reflex action I think, but Stretch was moving quite fast and it kind of shut right in his face. He came in - and by now Ron hads sat down - and said in a thoroughly sinister and menacing voice: "Who slammed the door?" Ron put his hand up at once: Stretch beckoned to him to come to the front, opened the top drawer of his desk and took out an enormous slipper with which he proceeded to whack Ron three times.
To be honest, the punishment was way out of line with the offence - and as far as I recall Ron was given no chance to explain himself - but I now suspect that Stretch exploited the incident to make a point. What is sure is that for the next 7 years there was never any chance of anyone messing about in any of Stretch's classes!
And thus passed the first minutes of our first ever French lesson. At the time, we were all thunderstruck - was this how our next 7 years were going to be? However, I must record that Stretch was by no means a serial slipperer. In fact, I do not personally remember him ever slippering anyone else during my 7 years at the school. Actually, slippering from teachers was in my experience quite rare, though even monitors were allowed to slipper boys for such crimes as talking after lights out. Or if they weren’t allowed to do this, nobody in authority seemed to bother about it; we boys just accepted it as normal.
But one thing is certainly true. In the next 7 years of class nobody ever dared to put a foot wrong in one of Stretch’s lessons, and I later suspected that the wily old bird did it deliberately to set the tone. As it happens, I revered Mr Poole, and his lessons inspired me to become a language teacher in his footsteps, but I have never forgotten that first French lesson. The victim of our first experience of slippering? Ron Scarpello, one of the nicest guys I ever met at WHS. He was a tough, honest and admirable boy, and I am sure the slippering did him no long-term harm.
Stretch has sadly passed away, but I will never forget his lessons, either the French ones or the lessons of life and behaviour I learned through his personal example. However, as a teacher for 50 years I never found it necessary (or legal!) to follow his example with any of my pupils - though there were times when I sorely wished for "the good old days"!
Chris Snuggs - Berners/Halls 58-65: “I had him for French for SIX years. I was in 1B& 2B which he took, with Shakey taking the A stream. Then in Year 3 I was moved to 3A and THEY also swapped, so I never had Shakey - or indeed witnessed the probably apocryphal story of the latter accidentally throwing a boardrubber out of a window. Stretch was erudite, interesting, clear, organised, disciplined - and nurtured my love of languages. I always enjoyed his classes. I can’t say that I was close to him (not really my forte being close to anyone at WHS) but he recommended me for a Traveling Scholarship in the Lower VIth, one of the best things that ever happened to me, though like everything else, I kind of took it for granted at the time. Then he and I guess a few others recommended I try for Oxford, and he gave me some private tuition in a room in Hansons House. That was the ONLY time in 6 years I ever went to Hansons, which was just half a stone’s thrown from my dorm in Halls!
He had a long and exceptional career at WHS, and I imagine it was the dream job - at least until the last decade: bright and interested kids in small classes, beautiful surroundings and SAILING - not to mention a beautiful wife! Not sure what else one could have wished for.
Alexander Bingham - Orwell 83-88: “I know he was at Monte Cassino during the war. We got him talking about it in double French. Mark Ford asked him if he’d ever killed anyone and he told us how he’d tracked down a German soldier who’d been shooting at his men and taken him out with his bayonet.”
Andrew Bridges - Orwell 81-86: ”That is a lovely picture. I was lucky enough to be invited to their flat in the courtyard one evening for tea and cakes. A genuinely nice couple.”
Roger Friend - Johnstons 58-63: “When he lived in the courtyard, I visited him and his wife with my wife and youngest daughter. He was delighted to see us and made us very welcome. At the time I mentioned his war service and said: "You were in the Guards?". He said: "No - tanks." (Monty was tanks, too!)
I can't say I was a fan of his at school, but the several times I met after I found him to be an interesting and charming gentleman. Perhaps he had forgotten what a pain in the arse I was at school!”
Robin Skinner - Johnstons 67-74: “He was surprised I failed french 'O' level ...... we spent most of the time talking sailing ..... great bloke.”
Andrew Bridges: “That is a lovely picture. I was lucky enough to be invited to their flat in the courtyard one evening for tea and cakes. A genuinely nice couple.”
Roger Friend: “When he lived in the courtyard, I visited him and his wife (Miss Clarke?) with my wife and youngest daughter. He was delighted to see us and made us very welcome. At the time I mentioned his war service and said "you were in the Guards". He said no "tanks" (Monty was tanks too!)
I can't say I was a fan of his at school but the several times I met after, I found him to be an interesting and charming gentleman. Perhaps he had forgotten what a pain in the arse i was at school!
Robin Skinner: “He was surprised I failed french 'o' level......we spent most of the time talking sailing. .... great bloke.”
Kevin Cooper - Orwell 80-85: “Stretch ( Mr Poole married one of the Dobbie Sisters if I am correct it was announced one assembly after the summer break can’t remember the year 83/84.”
Ross Moynihan - Orwell 79-84: “I think it was Marion Dobie …..”
Grant Brewster - Hansons 72-79: ”Ross Moynihan Stretch married Pam Dobie, Hall’s Matron. Her sister Marion was House Matron in Hanson’s.”
Kevin Cooper: “That’s what I thought, Ross. I remember everyone cheering in assembly.
Robin Skinner: “Can I ask what happened to his first wife?”
Chris Snuggs: “I don't know. I seem to recall they were divorced, but it happened after I left. One silly totally unrelated detail I recall: he appeared outside the main building one day driving a brand new Ford Corsair, then the absolute apex of family saloons! We were impressed!”
Ray Hitchins - Halls 62-69: “Stretch spent a high proportion of his French lessons chatting (in English), which is how I know about the tank.”
Barry Clark - Hansons 58-65, and staff in last few years: “He told us of an occasion when he was shot at, at almost point blank range, by another tank. Because the German tank had a rifled barrel the shell span round him!”
Omar James-Johnson - Hansons 69-74: “Yes I remember that story. They met on a narrow road with the German tank firing first. The missile spinning completely from one side of his tank to the other. Don't remember the end of the story.”
Barry Clark: “Omar James-Johnson Not sure there was an end as told. He just left it hanging ....”
Chris Snuggs: “The Fickle Finger of Fate indeed .....”
Bill Kitchen: “Sadly, Stretch couldn’t have kids of his own. “I got measles when I was 19,“ he told me.
Barry Clark: “Yes. He adopted his children.”
Chris Snuggs: “I never knew that ...... It seems odd to me now, but I don't recall ever seeing his family, either casually around the school or at any functions. I must have been very unobservant, or am just cursed with a bad memory. There is a sailing pic of him with a son who was called "Little Puddle" I believe - a magnificent nickname! Stretch is smoking a pipe; I don't ever remember seeing that. Maybe he deliberately didn't usually do it in front of the boys.” (https://www.whs-archives.net/sport/sailing/pages/team1.htm)
Dennis Alexander - Orwell 57-59: "I have an anecdote about Stretch Poole. In the Spring of 1959 he and Stan Goetzee took a school trip to Paris. I was in the 2nd form then. All the junior boys slept in this very large dormitory which we shared with boys from another school. At the end of the dorm was a large door, which was locked from our side, we had been told never to open the door. It took about two days and the sound of girls' voices on the other side before someone was dared to open the door and took up the challenge [I can't remember who, but it was definitely a WHS boy]. Imagine our surprise and delight that when the door was thrown open it revealed the senior girls' shower changing room full of girls in various states of undress, mostly naked! Next morning we all had to stay in the dorm. First the master from the other school came in, and since no one owned up to opening the door gave his boys a real bad time threatening to send them home and cane them all when the got back to school. They all then left and we had to wait for our turn. In came Stretch looking very stern. He said: "I have only one thing to say to you lot - I hope it was one of you." and walked out."