The prize of five shillings for a description of this interesting group goes to Mr W T L Flood, of 42, Queen-street, Rushden, who writes: The photo is a group of boys who attended Higham Ferrers Grammar School. The building at the back is the school, which is in the churchyard at Higham. It was built in 1422, and is well worth a visit. I think it is about 38 years since the group was taken. The headmaster was Mr Clough, who wife kept a girls’ school at Higham.
A newspaper clip - undated - but the accompanying text names the boys.
|
 |
Included in the group is his son, Frank Clough, Basil Austin, who went to America and with his brother built the present organ in Park-road Baptist Church Rushden; Bert Caswell, who is a boot manufacturer at Kettering; W Jolley, who is organist at St. Peter’s, Rushden, and his brother, Arthur, who died in America; G H Claridge, a Rushden boot manufacturer, and his brother, Ray, who was a solicitor in Rushden; Dr F D Crew, of Higham and his brother Cecil; H Simpson, of Higham, and also Alfred Groome; W H Tomkins, of Rushden, who afterwards became a Baptist minister and was accidentally killed while serving as a padre in France; Jack Sparrow, of Rushden, a member of Rushden Fire Brigade, and his brother, Charlie; Ralph Horne and F Maddison, who are, I believe, both in business at Irthlingborough; Rawson Tusting, who lived at Newton, and who used to come to school on a donkey; George Thompson, Joseph Thompson and Percy Thompson, whose father was estate agent to Earl Fitzwilliam; J Clark, of Higham, whose father was a coach builder; F Shelton, Cecil Shelton, Jack and Will Anderson, of Higham; A Jennaway and T Lay, of Irthlingborough; Walter Wood and Will Skinner, son of the late G H Skinner, butcher of Rushden; C Branscombe, who lived at Higham; a boy named Nunn, of Irthlingborough, and W Flood, of Rushden.
Mr W P Jolley, of 54, Station-road, Rushden, recalls that the master, Mr Clough, resided at Higham Ferrers some three years, and afterwards at Irthlingborough, where he kept a private school. “During our school days”, he writes, “the top of the church steeple was rebuilt, and we had an interesting time watching the steeplejacks at work: this caused the master a good deal of trouble, and punishments were frequent.”
The names as supplied to us by Mr C E Groome, of Higham Ferrers, who lent the photograph, are: Basil Austin, John Anderson, Ed King, Arthur Jolley, William Jolley, G H Claridge, Gaston de Martin, Frank Clough, Cecil Crew, - Shelton, Rawson Tusting, George Thompson, Mr Robert Clough, Alfred Groome, William Skinner, William Clark, C E Groom, Joseph Thompson, Cecil Shelton, Ralph Horne, William Sargent, Charlie Sparrow, Percy Thompson, William Anderson, Thomas Lay, Fred Nunn, Willie Tomkins, R Caswell, Walter Flood, Fred Shelton, Bertie Woodward, Harold Simpson, Denys Crew, John Clark, - , and Walter Woods.
Seen against the wall in the background is a familiar local “character” of those days, George Tester.
Note: W T L Flood came to Rushden aged 7 or 8 in about 1886, so the picture is around 1890. The Rushden Echo often published old photographs and awarded money to the sender of information.
|
