Over the last few months, we've been collecting stories from OBs across our community. We were delighted to hear from Noel, OB 1962, who has shared the below memoir about his time at BGS and what it meant to him.

With our Giving Day coming up on 4-5 November, we're always on the look out for more stories. Please do get in touch if you find yourself suitably inspired on community@bgs.bristol.sch.uk.

My time at BGS by Noel Austin

My father was apprenticed to Wake & Dean, in Yatton, as a cabinet maker and my mother had been a primary school teacher in Westbury-sub-Mendip. They married in 1940, my father was war disabled in 1944 and got a job as a lecturer at Bristol Technical College. In June 1947 they moved to a red brick semi in Knowle; shortly afterward I started to attend Knowle Park Junior Mixed School and, at the appointed time, took the scholarship exam. When the results were announced I had been awarded a place at BGS; my mother was delighted but I didn’t know what all the fuss was about – a school was a school.

That all changed in the following few months. I remember when I first saw the Great Hall – the place was the size of a cathedral! My first few weeks were bewildering, of course, but then I settled and began to get a grip of things. Two other events in my first year had a big impact on me – the School Concert, “The Passion According to St John” and the School Play, “Romeo and Juliet”; I had had no previous exposure to culture at this level and had no idea that a school could stage such amazing stuff!

I had an undistinguished School career, academically average and totally lacking in sporting or artistic talent; however, when I got into the sixth form I discovered that it was possible to play rugby and cricket for the Old Bristolians, who were always looking for players to fill the gaps in the lowest teams. I’d been playing OB’s cricket for most of my first season when Michael Booker, my house master, said to me, “Austin, have you looked at the 1st XI notice board?” I said I had not. “Do so”, he said, “there is something that may interest you.” I scoured the notice board and at the bottom was a small, typed notice saying that the 1St XI needed a scorer and interested parties should apply. I applied and got the job, which I discharged for the following two seasons. I’ve intermittently been a club cricket scorer ever since.

I had no pretensions as an actor but wanted to get involved with the School Play. Lots of people did; you put your name on a list and there was a lottery for places on the stage crew. Nothing for several years and then, in my final year, I won a place. Just work in the background, of course, but I was exposed to the magic of the theatre. That year, the play was Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd” – I forget most of the cast but Norman Eschle (Eshley when he turned professional) played Claggart, the master-at-arms. I guess Nick Brimble was in the cast too, though I don’t remember in what role. Another life changing experience – I’ve been in and out of amateur theatre ever since. And professional theatre is always present in my social life.

Then I went to university – I really wanted the Sir Thomas White Scholarship to St John’s College Oxford, but I was nowhere near clever enough, so I went to Leicester; one of our neighbours said, “Oh, does Leicester have a university?” I lasted just two years in Leicester and found a job in the computer industry, then in its infancy. I’ll shorten the rest of the story but in 1984 I got an Open University degree and eventually became a management consultant and an OU tutor on various business studies courses. This led me to work with academics in Oxford and several other UK universities, jointly author and edit a book and read several papers at academic conferences; without my BGS education I wouldn’t have had the inter-personal skills or the self-confidence to do so.

So education is really what you learn about yourself.

Images: BGS First XI 1961 & BGS First XI 1962