 | Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
| Rutlish 1957 - the 50 Year Reunion |
Derrick J Pope
NotesDerrick Pope died on 1 Feb 2021.Notes by Derrick PopeLeft Rutlish in January '63 from Trans A. It was my intention to find employment in an engineering profession but the lure of big money (£6 10s/week) drove me to Grieveson Grant, stockbrokers. When the Colliers Wood Tower was built on our home, my parents moved to Bolney, in West Sussex and I went with them.I joined a building services consulting engineering practice as a trainee engineer in 1964 (with a halving of salary) and continued my education for the next three years on day release at Crawley College of Further Education. Eventually, I was admitted to the National College for Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering (part of the Borough Polytechnic) on a three year Higher Diploma Course in Environmental Engineering. On completion of my training in 1971, I moved to Bristol and joined Hoare Lea and Partners, an established company of consulting engineers. They sent me to Bristol University School of Architecture for a year to do an MSc (Advanced Functional Design Techniques for Buildings). Shortly after this, I had my first posting overseas as resident engineer on the Al Jimi Hospital, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. I returned to the UK in '77, intending only a short stay before returning to the Gulf but met my future wife, Susan, at a fancy dress party in Chichester on New Year's Eve. Despite being dressed as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz; (silver face paint, funnel and all) we were married in April '78. Sue was a planning solicitor with West Sussex County Council and we settled to life in Chichester until I found a position in Dubai, working for the contractor on the New Dubai Hospital. Sue worked for an English legal practice in Dubai and we spent two happy years abroad. As Sue was by then expecting our first child, we decided to take a sabbatical and put in a bid to Whitbread (sight unseen) for the freehold of the Angel Hotel in Petworth. We were successful and were given six weeks to complete. We arrived back in the UK on 1st September '80, took over the hotel on the 20th and our son Daniel was born on 22nd November. Heady (and hectic) days! Our second son, Oliver was born two years later. By the time they were 6 and 4, we decided that hotel life wasn't ideal for a young family and sold up. West Sussex had already persuaded Sue to return to her old position and I found employment with a Chichester based practice of consulting engineers. We moved to our present home twenty years ago. I worked in building services engineering for the next twelve years, becoming a Chartered Engineer in the process. In 1999, the opportunity came to start my own practice, Pope Consulting Ltd (www.popeconsulting.co.uk). I am still working and expect to be till 65.
Sports and HobbiesI play badminton on Mondays with the West Sussex Staff Badminton Club. I also play real tennis about once a week and have been a member of Petworth House Tennis Court since 1980. Hiring those aluminium rowing boats on the Wandle at Ravensbury Park and, of course, the CCF gave me a lifelong love of the water and we sail our Bavaria fairly regularly from our local (Chichester) Harbour. I have a 1970 BSA 650 twin, which gets an occasional outing.
Memories by Derrick PopeMr Moon, my housemaster. After a short string of successive 'N's, he told me I would either have to pull my socks up or leave. Possibly, he didn't see this as giving me a choice but freedom beckoned.Mr Blenkinsop. The only time that I can remember him addressing me personally was shortly before I left. I was making my way to school along Watery Lane and realised he was behind me. The faster I walked, the more he increased his pace. Eventually, at a near trot, he pulled me over at the school gate and sent me to his study. Apparently, I was wearing all the wrong clothes. My raincoat only just reached my knees, the toes of my shoes weren't semi-circular and, worst of all, the rim of my cap wasn't parallel with the ground. Can't remember what the punishment was but this may have permanently stunted my fashion sense. Mr Tank. I was there when the milk crate went out of the window and, for the first time in one of his classes, he had everybody's attention. I suppose today's kids (and the Health and Safety Executive) would ask what a milk crate was doing in a classroom. It may have been the same occasion that Igor Lemanski secreted himself in the cupboards behind the blackboard and made squeaking noises every time Mr Tank wrote on the board. He was certainly tried beyond his limits. Mr Hathway - would start writing a long algebraic expression on the board and without turning or stopping would say "Pope. Differentiate!" in that quiet, threatening voice of his. You then had to differentiate the expression as he was writing it without hesitation, deviation or repetition and woe betide you if you got it wrong. Mr Preuveneers - at a field day at Pirbright, with handfuls of Thunderflashes, shouting "They go better if you drop them in muddy puddles." Mr Rumbell - at the same field day, leading a charge on a machine gun nest. He had obviously done this in real life and wanted authenticity, so no Thunderflashes or firing blanks for us; just a 200 yard headlong pelt with a rifle. I didn't learn much French because somebody would always start the lesson by asking him how much the Americans had contributed to winning the war (or some other innocent query guaranteed to get him started) and that was the end of the lesson! Mr Oulton's Christmas song - "Here's a health to Mr Morris and the 3d boys, I really don't know who makes the most noise". 3d's classroom was entered through 3c's with only a thin partition between. Our Maths lessons with Mr Oulton were usually interrupted by the racket from Mr Morris's English lessons.
Derrick Pope
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