Recollections of an Old (but young at heart) Oswestrian, circa 1952 - EPISODE 27, SCHOOL MASTERS, NICKNAMES, AND ANSWERS

Nicknames are an integral part of school life. How and why some of them are acquired can remain a mystery to many of us for years, and almost a lifetime later it is possible I have now unravelled a couple that have intrigued me for some considerable time.

The rogues in the gallery (behind the Masters)
J F Tilley, D G W Felton, R Sale (Headmaster), D St B Lewis

J F Tilley's nickname 'Purdy' has always puzzled me, but nobody at school and thereafter could explain its origin and I have long wondered about this. What I deem to be a plausible answer to this irritating riddle jumped into my head when, not so long ago, I came across the name in a rather fancy confectioner's shop where they were selling Purdy Cakes. 

This immediately rang a bell with me, as Mr Tilley's family ran a bakery, and from time to time he would invite several boarders to his home for tea on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe the bakery made these cakes using American recipes from the deep South of the USA, and we ate them on our visits to his house without knowing what they were called. So, is it possible that a group of boys in a much earlier time, spotted the name of these delicious confections and gave it to the new geography master as a nickname?

Purdy (meaning pretty) Cakes

Some of our fellow boarders, driven no doubt by a tinge of jealousy, called us the Tilley Boys, but I doubt if any of them would have turned down the chance of such excellent quality food on a lazy Sunday in September.

The reason for nicknames such as 'Fatty', 'Stoker', and 'Papa', is pretty obvious, but why was A E Williams, who sported a blond mop-top called 'Baldy', and how did H Higgenbottam acquire the name of 'Toad'? Peter Manford, an all-round sportsman who captained the 1st  XI, was known as 'Minnie' although he certainly was not small, and R Foster was 'Fizzy'. 'Cobber' Walton did not always throw things, nor was he a 'Digger', and 'Lawton' Hamer's name was Ian.

1st XI, 1957

(Back L-R) B Pickup, M Charles, G D Lester, M B A Fowden, H Higgenbottam, J M Robbie, J Woodburn
(Front L-R) D Pickup, P Ashworth, P Manford (Capt), R Foster, J C Parslew

In a rather faded photograph, which was taken after the above match, I am sitting alongside three of my team mates, although I have no recollection of why it was taken and by whom. John Parslew was 'Cow', I was just innocuous 'Dave', John Robbie was 'Curly', because of his fine head of hair, and Peter Manford was 'Minnie'. Incidentally, Bernard's byname was 'Kid'.

'Cow', 'Dave', 'Curly', and 'Minnie'

I was talking to John Parslew recently and asked him how his nickname came about, but he could not tell me. Again, I have often pondered why, and the answer was provided by Tony Hughes, one of my classmates whose family were local farmers, and he told me that it was day boy farmers who gave him this tag. The farming element at school, of course, all knew about an agricultural weed known as cow parsley, and they simply changed the Y for a W (parsley became Parslew), and Cow Parslew was born.

A year or so after the original 17 boys arrived at Holbache House in 1947, 'Basher' hit the town and joined them. Some of the boys were being bullied by a gang at School House and Brian 'Basher' Ashworth, looking like the typical British Bulldog, thought this needed sorting out and decided to take action. Like a whirling dervish he laid waste the bunch of bullies at School House on their home turf, (gaining 3 points for an away win, in footballing terms), thus acquiring his moniker from grateful boys at Holbache who were never troubled again.

Another inhabitant of Holbache was a very engaging and charismatic character called J Martin Welbourne who was full of beans, and when at the crease, poised with a bat to punish the bowling, he invariably lit up the cricket square with a display of his very special talent. He was universally known as 'Willy' at school, and one can only speculate why. Back at home in Sale, his wife told me she always knew when it was an OO on the phone for Martin as they would always ask for 'Willy', and nobody in his home town ever called him that.

Capt. J Womak, Bursar - centre back row

There were many surreal moments on Mr Frankland's table during our last 12 months at Oswestry, what with Captain Womak (OO), the Bursar, constantly rabbiting on about his incontinent pet dog as we choked on our food, to the day Womak asked Ed, in his typical Yorkshire vernacular, if he had received any Valentine cards. Ears cocked, we could barely contain ourselves, and listened with delight as he told the Bursar he had received one containing two large moths. 

The Moth

I had prior knowledge of this, as one of the ladies in the Prep Department confided to me she was going to send them. The whole school knew him as The Moth because of the way his Master's gown billowed out behind him as he stalked the corridors, but I am not sure that he realised this at the time. He was none too pleased however, and pointedly looked at me when he said he would get to the bottom of it. I was about to suggest that he should hand them over to Brodie Fowden (my team mate in the 1st XI photo) who was an entomologist with a large collection of moths and butterflies, but then thought that it might put the spotlight unfairly on Bro, so I refrained. I expected the call to his study, but it never came!

When Mr Williamson came to the school in 1920, shortly after WW1, its fortunes were at a very low ebb, and this quietly inspirational man devoted half his lifetime on a dedicated mission to build up and improve the overall position of his school.

As far as I am aware, there is still no answer to the burning question of why Mr Ralph Williamson MA, Headmaster from 1920 to 1958, was affectionately known to us all as 'Woof'.