Photo Essay – 1960s Haileybury remembered

Form Block Haileybury 1960s

OH Mike Halsey (BF 60) has been going through his collection of old photographs and digitising them to make the collection easier to manage.  As he says: “I have been digitising rather a lot of old photos as something to do while isolating having caught Covid. Not sure what my family will make of the record but the process brought back many great reminders of happy days.”  We show Mike’s photographs below.

Swimming Pool

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During the winter of 1962-3, the structure of the swimming pool degraded. As Mike says, “the structure of the pool and the necessary relining was very rough on the feet. It was also squared off at the deep end and length cut, slightly, to 66 2/3rds yards”. The photograph above shows the pool before this work was done.

Centenary Studies

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It’s always fascinating to see how buildings came about; here the roof is laid on Centenary Studies 

Old Form Block

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A view familiar to every Haileyburian – some things never seem to change!

CFF Memories

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Mike thinks this photograph was taken in 1962 in the Brecon Beacons. As he says, “it was a camp my late brother (Richard Halsey BF 59) went on. I am sure it was 1962 as Tony Skinner (BF 58) was sitting next to the officers – Keay, Edwards and Daltry. You will recall Tony was in the photo which Tony Harper (K 60) produced of HMQ’s visit in November 1962.” The photograph below was at Garelochhead which both my brother and I went on. I recall sleeping in a luggage rack on the train back from Glasgow.”

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Enlarging the photograph above, Mike identifies those in the photograph as follows: 

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1 Curtis, Lawrence; 2 Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake, Bartle Frere; 3 Halliday, Edmonstone; 4 Ben Taylor-Roberts, Bartle Frere;

5 George Munn, Colvin; 6 My brother Richard – I think – PR Halsey, Bartle Frere; 7 Geoff Waterton, Edmonstone;

8 Bailey  the elder Colvin ?; 9 EHFS – Hugh Sawbridge, Staff; 10 WAK – Bill Keay, Staff; 11 KBW Gray – I think – Hailey;

12 Malcolm McVittie, Edmonstone; 13 Me – MJ Halsey, Bartle Frere; 14 Richard Melhuish, Hailey;

15 One of the Meyer twins – Anthony I think – Batten; 16 Martin Cooke, Bartle Frere; 17 Hockley ?, Edmonstone;

18 Derek Pretty, Lawrence

As he says, “I think no 6 is my brother, but it is one of those pics which makes someone less recognisable than usual. It is interesting to me in that he was in the RAF section – see the other picture, which I will also work on. I guess, as I don’t remember, we all had to be in army uniform as Garelochhead was and is a full blown army camp. Wiki states there were 22,000 US servicemen training there in the war.

The ? marks are of lesser certainty of details. Ben Taylor-Roberts was a close chum and study mate at college but not seen for many years. Both Geoff Waterton and Derek Pretty played for OHRFC, which I did between 1965 and 1981.

My memory of the camp includes having legs walked over by fleas either in the Nissen hut we were in, or brought in by the blankets coming out of store. Reveille was “enhanced” by the running of a metal bar along the length of the corrugated iron of the hut – very loud if your head was close to the wall in question. I have short legs and have never been a good walker, but I did enjoy walking the hills around the 3 camps I went on.”

Update from Alan Vaughan (C 61)

Alan Vaughan writes, “I can confirm that No 5 is George Munn, the oldest of three brothers who were in Colvin. Behind no 13 is Ed Thomas also of Colvin. His older brother was President of the Society. Ed died about 20 years ago. In front of No 12, is Pat Fitzgerald, also deceased, who went into the army and I knew well when we worked for Barclays Bank. Pat was in Bartle Frere.

I see there is still uncertainty as to the identity of some of the masters being presented to the Queen.  If you refer to page 242 of Imogen Thomas’s Haileybury 1808-1987 , all the masters are named.”

Alan Vaughan  

Colvin 1961-1966

Update from Humphrey Gillott (A 58)

Humphrey Gillott writes “Following on from my recent correspondence to you in response to Mike Halsey’s article, which you published in the May Issue of The Haileybury Newsletter, I attach the two photographs taken at the two Army CCF Camps at Crickhowell in July/ August 1961 and that at Garelochhead in July/August 1962.” 

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The image above was taken at Crickhowell, near Abergavenny, South Wales, in July/August 1961. Humprhey says he appears in the third row from the top, 9th in from the right.

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The photograph above was taken at Garelochhead, Scotland, July/August 1962. In this group, Humphrey is in the second row from the top, fourth in from the right.

Can you help with dates/other information?

It is possible, given how long ago these photographs were taken, that the dates/other information given in these photographs may be inaccurate in places. If you have any further information about the photographs and identities given in this article, please do contact us at the Society here.


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