Mr D’Arcy French teacher at Grangefield Grammar School and Captain? of the Cadet Force (CCF) c1959.
Photographs and details courtesy of Alan Callender.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Mr D’Arcy French teacher at Grangefield Grammar School and Captain? of the Cadet Force (CCF) c1959.
Photographs and details courtesy of Alan Callender.
I remember Mr D’Arcy dishing out the slipper in front of the class if you got 3 ‘C’ results in succession French homework. I once got 2 C’so and was sat in the back row petrified I had got a 3rd C… thankfully I got a B and avoided the slipper by a whisker.
Mr D’arcy had a favourite line for punishment that I must have written hundreds of times in the detention dinner hour at Grangefield namely ‘A fool can always find a bigger fool to laugh at him’.
He always had a posh open top sports car, registration THN 204 from memory, much admired by the boys.
Mr D’arcy was the prime mover/organizer of a ‘sell-out/subsidised’ Grangefield Grammar School Boys School railway shed bash to Yorkshire on 12 May 1973. Leaving the school at 0830 hours locations visited were 55B York depot, 0955 hrs, 35 locomotives present; 55A Leeds Holbeck depot, 38 locos present including ‘Deltic 12’ passing; Doncaster Locomotive Works, 48 locos (five being electrics) present; Doncaster Diesel Multiple Unit Shops, 22 units seen; 36A Doncaster depot 43 locos present including ‘Deltic 12’ passing again. The highlights were at Holbeck, blue, works outshopped ‘Peak’ class loco 45001, ex-D13, the first train operating system (TOPS) numbered locomotive I ever saw in the North East; and at Doncaster Works two London Midland ac electric locomotives(E3100 and 83010), plus three dc Sheffield/Manchester electrics (E26020/1, 76043), plus some locos with new TOPS numbers chalked on their bodysides. I still have the numbers and photographs I took that day. Total for the day 164 locomotives.
I never had classes with D’Arcy, as I was taught by ‘Rats’ Rattenbury, though my brother John did. In the early 1960s, D’Arcy had grown a neat moustache, and led the Ornithology Club with trips to Teesmouth. He was renowned for instantly identifying minuscule specks on the horizon, and being able to count the hundreds of birds in a flock of waders. His hobby took him to exotic (for us) places like Iceland and, it was said, the Russian border in Finland, and was credited with the first European observation of some rarity (Rosy Starling?)
Like Garth above, I well remember Dux D’Arcy, (or was it ‘Ducks’) as my French teacher for 2-3 years in the early 60s.
It wasn’t the board rubber I, along with others, remember, it was the wooden leg off a broken chair. It didn’t look or sound as if it would hurt (not compared to a heavy duty size 10 or 11 sand-shoe) but it surely did! But all done in good humour, and with a cheerful smile from Dux, and after a few seconds, the admonished pupil.
He was a great teacher, and seemed to be a really decent bloke. His wife was a teacher at Newtown Juniors, and although I was not taught by her, she had a more fearsome reputation. I always recollect she seemed always to be in a fur coat!
I reckon some of the Grangefield teachers, if still alive, must be nearing 80, if not well beyond! A good school, with some great teachers across all subjects, and many happy memories.
A distinctive feature of his lessons was the desk layout in single lines, with students seated in order of achievement which was constantly updated!
I can still remember both grammar and vocabulary however, even if I cannot remember where my specs are…
Hello Ian how are you ?
Good to hear from you. I’ve retained another Grangefield link: my video activities are on YouTube if you search for Dunelm Video. You will recall Dunelm was the house with the yellow identity…
Hi Stuart, my stepson, Colin lives in your old house on Bishopton Road, small world innit ?
Sorry, just read Bill. You are right, what a small world. Still revisit Stockton occasionally, went and saw Grangefield just before they started demolishing it.
I recall Mr Darcy dishing out punishment via the use of the slipper just for getting poor marks in your French homework. Three C’s in succession and there you were, bent over in front of the whole class waiting for the thwack of rubber on trousers….and boy did it hurt. I once got two C’s and waited nervously on the third week for my mark, expecting to find it difficult to sit down for the rest of the day….and lo and behold I scraped a B
He is indeed Captain D’arcy of the Grangefield Contingent of the Combined Cadet Force, erstwhile 2nd in command to Major “Ike” Collingwood, teacher of English. “Ducks” was a thoroughly nice bloke who I understood fought at Monte Casino. His wife taught at Newtown Juniors. I recall Mr D’arcy habitually had his white handkerchief thrust into the cuff of his shirt sleeve, unusual even in the sixties, almost never done now. His tool of chastisement was the board rubber, expertly wrist flicked against the posterior of recalcitrant boys, always applied with humour and regret. Often personally experienced but never resented. Good times.
English was made ‘alive’ for me by ‘Ike’. In the middle of explaining one of the finer points of grammar he would grin and go off into some story that entertained the class almost as much as it amused him. He could be encouraged to continue for most of the period, but we did learn to conjugate our verbs etc.
As you said Garth good times.
Glad to hear that you are still around. Do you still see Smithy in Yarm?
Hello Alan, yes I see Smithy very regularly, he has a caravan next to mine near Leyburn. Do you remember going off fishing with me both aged six near the rec? I can still see the frantic faces of our parents when they found us ankle deep in Lustrum beck!