From Bill Collard (S55-57)
I concur with John that this is Stradbroke House in the summer of 1931. My late father GL Collard (S 29-30)is not in the picture so must have left, but I believe that the person in wide striped blazer second on the right of Thomas may be FG Jerrey. I recall he was a fine cricketer and returned to Fram to play for the OFs in the 50s. He introduced himself to me as a contemporary and good friend of my father. There are other faces I recognise but I will have to search the family archive for names.

Thomas was a great character and still Stradbroke housemaster in my day.

One of the trophies has to be the Inter-house Shield but I can't remember any of the others. One or two of the names are creeping back - I think I recognise Dempster and Ard in the second row. In the College's 1934 production of Henry V in the Castle, Dempster played Chorus (mounted) and Ard, Henry V. He did his 'Once more into the breach ..' bit while standing on a heap of rubble by a hole in the wall. Charles Borrett, as Governor of Harfleur, chucked the keys down from the battlements.

I, in a subordinate role as Lord Scrope of Masham (addressed by my friends as Lord Droop of Squash'em), was eliminated from the action early enough to be able to join Toffee, who was providing the noises off for the siege of Harfleur.

I'm as fit as I have any right to expect, now back in Framlingham - on my own, but with a daughter in Brandeston & cousins & friends all over the place. I hope all is well with you,

John

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Can't help with the Pickard pic, I'm afraid. The other is not a team, it's a house photograph (yes, we were only about 30 to a house in those days) and the house is Stradbroke. Although several of the faces ring a distant bell, I can put a name to only one of them – Charles Borrett (Norman's elder brother), third from right in back row: Norman is not yet there. So, using the Borretts as the nearest I can find to a tree ring, I date the photograph to the summer term of 1931. With a list of the people in the house at the time, I might be able to add a few more names.

The House-master is C E Thomas (known as 'Toffee'), Chemistry & Hockey & an accomplished prestidigitateur: in the lab, if he handed you a test-tube you were apt to find you had got hold of his finger. I spent the minimum of time on science but can still remember some of his teaching: "Johnny, finding life a bore, drank some H2SO4. Johnny's father, an MD, gave him CaCO3 . Now he's neutralized, it's true, but he's full of CO 2". (This, of course, may still be in the curriculum.)

John

Editor comment: we will try to publish a list of Stradbroke names as soon as posible.