George Colliety
Battersea 18 th July 2008
Dear Cliff,
I having looked at the BCS Hawkley web site and thought that you might be interested in my personal history with respect to Battersea and the Katherine Low Settlement. We may have already met at a Settlement Annual Meeting, one of whose reports published an article by me relating to Christ’s College Boys Club. That was about three years ago.
I was born in Totteridge Road off York Road in 1924. My Grandmother, Uncles, Aunts and cousins lived in Orville Road. My mother lived there until her marriage and, as a young boy, I spent many hours there. About 1934 or 1935 we moved to Linda Street off York Road which was fairly close to Wandsworth Bridge. I worked at the Morgan Crucible Company from 1940 until deciding to join the RAF in 1943.
Recently, it gave me great pleasure to meet up with Harry Withers who had been, as a boy and pupil at BCS, a close neighbour of mine in Linda Street until 1939. From 1937 to 1939 I was a pupil at the Wandsworth Junior Technical College, situated opposite the Town Hall in the High Street. I was there when the New Town Hall was officially opened.
The first school I attended was St. Mary’s Parishioners School situated in what is now Vicarage Crescent opposite the grounds of St. John’s Teacher Training College. (As a point of interest, I was a student a St. Mark and St. Johns College in 1948/50. How I got there is a long story.) St. Mary’s was closed as a school some years ago and is now split into private accommodation. On the outside wall the commemorative plaque has been reserved. Some of the script I have not been able to read but what I have got is:-
National School for Girls and Infants.
These buildings were erected by Mrs. Champion and granted by Earl Spencer and
Opened April 10 1858 for the Education of The children of the poor in Scriptural Principles.................? Placed for the Parishioners .......? Grateful Remembrances ...? Charities ............? Parish of Battersea
About 3 years ago I spent a day at Christ’s College in Cambridge with Prof. Bill Steen during which I described the workings of the Boy’s Club. I was more than excited when the padre produced a photograph of me at the age of 11 years in an old album which had been deposited somewhere in the college archives. It was taken at the 1935 summer camp in Felixstowe organised and paid for by the college, possibly through an undergraduate and, possibly, post graduate fund.
I hope that you find this of some interest.
Best wishes, George Colliety
