The Salopian Winter 24/25

64SCHOOL NEWSCamp group on the Common at Shrewsbury, 1920safter night in search of a more suitablesite. Jim Kennedy, a former mission boy,describes the moment of destiny in hisHistory of Shrewsbury House 1903-39:Eventually they stopped at the corner ofWakefield and Mansfield Streets, amongthe middle of a great slum population,where they saw the possibility of using thedisused but commodious public house.The Journey BeginsSo the first small steps were taken on aremarkable journey. Kittermaster’s aimsand vision were clear from the outset.It is not, be it said from the start, simplyto amuse. It is to develop and form thecharacters of the members of our Club …to teach boys to become straight-living andstraight-thinking honest Christian men.The Club was built from the outseton two foundations; the first wasChristianity – it must be a ChristianMission. The second was that Salopiansmust be involved as much as possible;in the words of Adrian Struvé (master,long-term member of the committeeand acting missioner in the 1960s), “bylearning to know and love those whocame on regular evenings to be withthem, the Club boys might themselvesbe uplifted and civilised in character”.Here we have the essential ingredientsthat throughout the century remainedthe moral compass of the enterprise.Struvé sums up the situation:The profound deprivation in the poorerareas of Liverpool was only made worse, ifpossible, by the depression. The Mission’spresence in Everton and the labours ofits leaders were beyond price and nobodycould question the value of the School’ssupport.The early days and years were difficult.There were turbulent nights in the cluband not infrequently members wereexpelled onto the streets. During thatfirst year there was a camp in Augustat Bolton-le-Sands on the shore ofMorecambe Bay for 35 boys.The first camp was a true adventure.We sallied forth into the unknown, andpitched our tents unskilfully … we had noexperience, and sparse equipment, nor anychange of clothes …In July 1904 the first party of about 30boys made a visit to Shrewsbury andwere royally entertained by the School onKingsland. As the pattern of club lifebecame established, a football team(what else!) was formed and playedagainst the School, usually winning.A Settled Home anda Way AheadFollowing a fundraising drive by theShrewsbury committee, it becamepossible to purchase more suitablepremises in Portland Place. OldSalopians, boys, the Headmaster andthe diocese raised over £2600. Thisallowed the committee to buy fourterraced houses – numbers 31 to 37Portland Place.Kittermaster could now say, We no longermake shift as in the old Club in MansfieldStreet and so I could look clearly onceIn camp, 1930again at the need and vision … ratherthan in the dirty and ill-ventilated roomsof a disused public house. We are now lordsof our own grand premises.The daily routines were embedded, withthe chapel as the centre around which allthe activities and facilities were focused.Kittermaster reported in 1907 thatchapel services were consistently wellsupported and that it had become thenorm for the Club to be well attendedon Sunday nights.There was a separate dormitory fortemporary residents such as boys justout of prison who stayed till work couldbe found for them. Others came from‘reformatories’, but mainly they wereboys from the Akbar Nautical TrainingSchool where Kittermaster was alsochaplain. The Clerk to the Justices of theCity of Liverpool wrote:Few people know better than I do of thesplendid work being done in Liverpoolby the Mission, and I freely acknowledgethe very great assistance given here atthe Courts and at the prison by MrKittermaster in his readiness to takeboys who only need the right sort ofencouragement to set them up again.Ten years after taking up the challengeof establishing the Shrewsbury SchoolMission, Kittermaster resigned to takeup the post of Archdeacon of BuenosAires in Argentina. The foundationswere laid on the immovable rock ofFaith and devotion to the Master.Kittermaster’s successors kept faithfulto his aims and vision through thetough times ahead and the Club thrivedthrough the First World War and theGreat Depression of the 1930s. Morethan 300 members served in the ArmedForces and the Merchant Marine in thewar. When on leave most boys reportedback to exchange news and renew oldfriendships. In the 1920s the summercamp was switched to Shrewsbury wherethe lovely School Site was a perfect place

SCHOOL NEWS 65Shewsy Old Boys’ Camp, 1936for a camp and the brotherhood withthe School grew stronger.Henry Hardy became Headmaster in1932 and he created a more businesslikeapproach to the club. From timeto time important figures fulfilledimportant roles. One of these was BarrAdams (OS) who made a casual trip toPortland Place one day to have a lookand stayed for 25 years, during whichhe devoted all his spare time to theClub and made a huge contribution.His activities included equipping alibrary, providing education sessions,encouraging appreciation of classicalmusic, current affairs, and much elsebesides. His impact was most effective inhis typewritten weekly news sheets.With the outbreak of war in 1939, andClub members called up and often sentoverseas, the Barr Adams News Sheetscame out two or three times a week. Hesent copies to all boys he could reach inthe armed forces and overseas. He oftenincluded a postal order to those overseas,exchangeable in the forces NAAFI forcigarettes, chocolate and so on.Struvé sums up his legacy:(His) faithful, unselfish service to theClub’s Old Boys was wonderful for theirmorale and hugely appreciated by theirfamilies back home. Friends they made inthe forces and in prisoner-of-war campswere deeply envious of the support theClub’s Old Boys were getting … The Clubthat Shrewsbury supported was beginningto be forged into a family.The Club marched stoically on duringthe difficult war years, and PortlandPlace was mercifully spared in the Blitz.A new exceptional person was muchneeded to pick up the pieces at the endof the war and that person turned outto be another Old Salopian, the RevdJames Hill, who took over as Missionerin 1944. Hill had a deep Christian faithand in 1948 the Bishop of Liverpool,Clifford Martin, asked him to takeon, in addition to the Club, the roleof Vicar of St Timothy’s in nearbyRokeby Street. The church was in poorshape after the war and the bishop hadintended to close it down in due course,but Hill had other ideas and an ally onthe School staff, David Bevan, a keysupporter of the Club. Bevan took aparty of 40 boys and masters for a weekof the 1949 Easter holidays to work onthe renovation of St Tim’s – cleaningand decorating. The art master, ArthurBroadbent, did a lovely painting of thefour evangelists in the walled-up eastwindows. In the words of Struvé:The effect on the Everton community waselectric. Almost overnight ShrewsburySchool had become a reality to the area, nolonger just a distant patron to a boys’ club.HRH Princess Anne opens the Langrove Street premises, 1974But did anyone at the School realise it?Probably not: or not yet … Confirmationcandidates joined in the School’s annualConfirmation service.In the 1950s and 60s times werechanging both in the country and atSchool and Club. Hill left in 1953 andin April 1960 another school party wentup to paint and clean the St AmbroseChurch Hall and Broadbent didanother mural painting, this time of theComing of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.During this time the Club’s affairs wereoverseen by a management committeecomprising the Missioner, Schoolstaff and Liverpool representatives,with the Headmaster in the chair.Regular attendees included DavidBevan, Bill Matthews, Freddy Mann,Michael Tupper (secretary); and – fromLiverpool – Reggie Gibbons, DouglasTelfer, Albert Taylor and Billy Holden(representing the Club Old Boys’Association).The 1960s and 70s – The Clubhas Grown UpThe public schools were undergoingdeep and disorienting social and culturalupheaval, and the traditional idea ofmission was no longer in tune withthe times. In 1960 the new Missioner,David Street, initiated an innovationthat, perhaps unwittingly, would havelong-term consequences; he organisedtwo three-day residential ‘Social StudiesCourses’ for the School’s Lower Sixth,with the aim of opening a window