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Mr Bert White with Class IIC 1956

I found this photo while having a clearout.

I am in the second row, second from the left. Can you recognise yourself, or anyone else?

Fawcett School: Class IIC 1956
From the private collection of John Wignall

Comments about this page

  • At last I am getting round to putting names to faces:
    Front row: 1?, 2 Michael Burrel, 3 Eddie Warneford, 4 Brian Walker, 5 Mr White, 6 Joey Virgo, 7 Reg Winter, 8 Colin Williams, 9 Pat Tullett
    2nd row:  1 Clive Gallagher, 2 Roger Lowe, 3 Raymond Sheckle, 4 Richard Caffyn, 5 Brian Moss, 6 Brian Raymond, 7 John Wignall, 8 Bobby Blindell
    Back Row: 1?, 2?, 3 Johnny Maurice, 4 Brian (Taffy) Tillman, 5 Terry Poole, 6 Richard Colburn

    By John Wignall (21/08/2009)
  • I am John Maurice’s widow. He died in 1991 after being Mayor of Southwark in London the previous year. He left two daughters. Feel free to contact me if you wish to.

    By Vivien Maurice (07/09/2009)
  • Good to see you have most of the names now John. Would be nice to have a reunion party… you never know. All the best.

    By Pat Tullett (23/03/2010)
  • I believe the back row second left is a chap named Hawkins, can’t recall his first name. Front row first left I think is Terry Dickins.

    By Pat Tullett (07/04/2010)
  • We are holding our annual BISON dinner at the Rendezvous Casino on Friday 4th March 2011. Any Fawcett Boy will be most welcome. The cost is £22.50 and I will be more than happy to send further deatails. Come and join us!

    By Chris Simms (08/01/2011)
  • Could Chris Simms make contact on consultantfreeman@gmail.com regarding the Dinner on the 4th March 2011 with further details.

    By Stuart Freeman (16/01/2011)
  • Yes, that is me sitting beside Terry Dickens who then always dreamed about being a jockey. Did he  does anybody know? I am now 68 and remember them old school days well. I now drive the miniature train at Paradise Park in Newhaven.

    By Michael Burrell (25/08/2011)
  • Hi Mke – just saw your comment so I thought I would respond. I live in The Midlands these days but still manage to get into Brighton now and again. I recently met up with one of our class mates, I don’t know if you remember Pat Tullett, but he was in the same class as us, yes good old Bert White. If jou feel like contacting me please feel free to do so. My email address is JOHN.WIGNALL@HOTMAIL.CO.UK All the very best John Wignall (wiggy)

    By John Wignall (30/08/2011)
  • I noticed the face of Joe Virgo in the photo, I remember you and your brother David, you also had a sister but I cannot recall her name. You all lived at the end of Northfield Way, I lived at the other end, on the corner in Larkfield Way.

    By Malcolm Staley (22/11/2011)
  • I stayed friends with Mike and Dave Virgo till about 1966 when we got married within a few weeks of each other. Their sister’s name is Jenny. The chap 2nd left, top row is Phillip Hawkins. I still live in Brighton.

    By Colin Williams (05/02/2012)
  • I wonder if anyone looking at this site remembers a Christopher Boothby at all? I don’t exactly know when he attended the school, but it would’ve been sometime or other in the 1950s. Thanks. 

    By Chrissie Nicolaou (17/03/2012)
  • Went to a tour around the old school ‘Fawcett’ yesterday (9th April 2014). Well, did that get the memory cells working! Started on the ground floor next to the boys’ entrance in the staffroom just inside opposite the 2nd & 3rd boys’ cloakroom. Went up the central  staircase and inside headmaster Mr Pollit’s room (never knew he and the Deputy had their own toilets in their offices!). Then went into my old classroom – did not realize how small they were. No wonder they were such good shots with the chalk & rubber. Went along to the hall – slight change with the glass roof gone but everything else was the same. Into the 3rd & 4th year playground and apart from a few wooden building much the same – even the old toilet block was there minus the urinals & the steps down to the hall (let’s just say the spitting steps). Went into the woodwork and metalwork department then up to the top floor to the art room. The glass roof had gone but, to my delight, the building was much the same. I now hear that they want to demolish the whole of this corner site, and city college.  

    By Bill Timson (10/04/2014)
  • I also remember, from my woodworking classes, that awful fish smell of the wood glue that used to be cooking ready for our use.

    By Bill Timson (11/04/2014)
  • I have acquired some plans of the old Fawcett School – the original school was only 12 classrooms with six each side of a central corridor. It faced Trafalgar St and is still there. If you look at the school from Pelham St at the Trafalgar St end you will see a corner a third of the way down the school that marked the end of the original school.  Where you go to the hall there is a landing with a door on the right hand side. Go though that door and you see what used to be the main staircase taking you from the basement up to the second floor. It’s now blocked off but still there all nice green tiled.The new extension plans included a private toilet in the headmaster’s office and his deputy also. There is a pump room in the basement with a donkey engine presumably for pumping water around the building, a fascinating building. I could spend hours going over it, plans in hand.  

    By Bill Timson (01/06/2014)

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