Singing in the Library

 Discipline was not too strict in the grammar school as most of the students were intelligent and interested in studying, but the rules were there and adherence was expected. As in all schools, the habitually bad boys seemed to lead a charmed life, repeatedly evading punishment, while the occasional lapse by an otherwise law-abiding student was invariably punished. That's what happened to me for singing the then popular song about loading 16 tons of number nine coal. Cotham Grammar School was the jewel in the crown of the Bristol Education Committee in the late 1940s and 1950s. It was the school that seemed to get the cream of the annual crop of boys who succeeded in passing the highly selective eleven-plus examination. In those days in England, about 5 percent of young people entered university and these included about half of those who passed through grammar schools. After seven years of study I found myself in the third year sixth science form. Our form master was the headma...