Meeting Reflections

An Interview with Gordon Vowles – Rob Bollington

This year starting in September we were fortunate to begin with something rather special, Rob Bollington talking to Gordon Vowles about his life. Gordon is the Group’s President and it also happened to be his 93rd birthday that very same day. Gordon was born in 1931 . His parents were Arthur and Ellen Mary Vowles. His family had originated from Wiltshire, but like so many families had moved to London at the time of the Industrial Revolution. His grandfather had been a travelling oil man, with a horse and cart, selling oil for lamps which were in most people’s homes at that time. His father was a glove cutter. He had served a five and a half year apprenticeship which enabled him to stand at a bench all day cutting glove patterns. Gordon and his family lived in Bengeo which is on the outskirts of Hertford. World War Two began just before Gordon’s eighth birthday. He never remembers feeling afraid and had no doubts that we were going to win! He was pleased when he heard that an evacuee was going to be sent to the family home. As an only child , he wanted a male sibling. You can imagine his horror when two little girls arrived! Fortunately, this didn’t last very long as they were collected by their mother and grandmother. His mother sometimes collected him from school to go shopping One particular time, during the shopping, the air raid warning sounded They decided to climb Port Hill to the safety of a relative’s house. Suddenly there were German bombers over head and British fighter planes weaving in and out. They reached the relative’s house to find two people shaking and sitting under the stairs. At the beginning of the war, Gordon’s father had made a dug out in the garden which they used until an Anderson shelter was provided. Its floor was concrete and therefore flooded. The family then slept with their heads under the table! Gordon thinks that like other children at the time, his childhood was rather deprived. There were no sweets or seaside holidays but the diet was really healthy due to rationing. He remembers the end of the war but says we were still fighting the Japanese. Reconstruction was beginning before the end of the war. The Butler Act of 1944 meant the abolition of fees for local grammar schools. Gordon’s headmaster recommended to his parents that Gordon could, at age fourteen, transfer to grammar school. After school Gordon was due for National Service. From 1949 until 1960, males were required to do this. Gordon went into the army. He was 46 47 “square bashing” for a few weeks and then became a gunner. Having done well at school with Higher National Certificate, his headmaster had recommended him for a place at Cambridge. His parents had supported this. In the army, he was selected as a possible candidate to be an officer. He went to Barton Stacey where he was required to do what he thought were silly games .These were to find out if he had leadership skills and the qualities to be an officer. At the end of this, he had to attend a meeting with senior army personnel. When he was asked the question ”And what does your father do?” He was rather angry and replied that he didn’t think that had anything to do with his abilities to be an officer. Naturally, he was not selected! Between National Service and Cambridge he had a year out to study Latin and pass the exam so that he could take his place at Cambridge. During this year he also had a job as a concrete salesman selling concrete lampposts . This convinced Gordon that he did not want to work in the world of commerce. At the end of that year he went to Trinity College Cambridge, one of the largest and privileged colleges. His head master had been wise in selecting Trinity because of its size and the fact that there would be some other young men with a similar background. Gordon’s roommate turned out to be one of these young men. They are still friends today. After leaving Cambridge, Gordon took a job teaching History at Portsmouth Grammar School. This had been a private fee paying school and was still run very much on those lines, with very high standards. While teaching there he had been in charge of some after school activities. This led him to enjoy the administrative side of things. He had enjoyed being in the classroom and been happy at the school. It was during his time in Portsmouth that he had met and married Sylvia. The headmaster of Portsmouth Grammar School recommended that he apply for an administrative job in York and after his time in York he applied and was accepted as Deputy Chief Education officer for Bedford. During his time there, old Bedford County Council was required to reorganise schools with Comprehensive Education and a three tier system. Adult Education was also started. Gordon worked at the County Council for twenty four years before retiring. Then the council asked him to write a book about the history of education in Bedfordshire. It was then 2003, exactly a hundred years since compulsory education had begun. Bedfordshire is the only council with a complete hundred year history. After retirement, Gordon and Sylvia travelled a lot particularly to Italy and Greece. In 1966, they had moved to Willington and Gordon has always wanted to give back to society and he did this in Willington in many ways. He became Chairman of the Parish Council, a Trustee of the Friends of St Lawrence and a founder member of the History Group. For ten years he was editor of the History Record Society. He has also written several books about notable Willington people. Gordon concluded by saying that his wife Sylvia had been the one who held the family together while he worked long hours. She was a trained teacher but had only worked part time. He said that the daffodils planted in the Moggerhanger grass verge had been planted by her and were a lovely remembrance every Spring. Then, of course, we all had to sing Happy Birthday to Gordon. After this there were Any Questions, followed by a glass of bubbly and a birthday cake for Gordon to cut. We had all very much enjoyed this evening and our thanks go to Gordon and to Rob. Phil Dover