— Schools – Quarry Bay (QBS) 1954~1958

We got back from our leave at the end of November and I got measured up for my winter uniform and went to Quarry Bay School after the Christmas vacation, on January 11, 1954  ?

Quarry Bay School was first formed in 1926 to educate the children of expatriate employees of Swire at the Taikoo Dockyard and Sugar Refinery. After the war it became a school for all kids who lived on the island but not on the Peak, as they had their own school.

Don’t I look happy?  NOT!  ?

My mother got me Viyella underwear for winter – lovely beige coloured vests and underpants (!!!) which were a blend of wool and cotton and, boy, were they scratchy to wear  ?

My father also had Viyella shirts which he used to wear during the winter months – checked ones which made him look rather like an English squire, which I think he rather liked to look like ?

According to their website, Viyella has a heritage that can be traced back to 1784 and is the oldest branded fabric in the world. How ’bout dat!!  ?

1954-1958

What do I remember about those days?

I’m pretty sure my father used to drive me to school and pick me up but I also know that some kids who were in my year and who lived in the Leighton Hill and Ventris Road flats went by bus.

I do remember …

Photo credit Mecum Auction (Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

** … very clearly that when the Henningsens (he was mom’s boss and was also the Coca Cola sole distributor in HK) went on leave some time in the mid-50s, dad was asked to use their car so it wouldn’t get a flat battery. It was a humungous American car – a bright red convertible with fishtails ?

So flashy and so comfortable with lots of room and lush white leather seats!

I’ve been trying to find the car online – I’m pretty sure it was a Cadillac but was it a 1955 Eldorado or the S164 Convertible? The latter had red and white leather seats but the Eldorado had all white leather but, hey, no big deal. It really was so much fun driving around in it ?

I do believe it was left hand drive so a bit of a challenge for my father; however, it didn’t deter him and he loved driving it too ?

We used go along King’s Road, then up the hill towards Shaukiwan before parking on the road opposite the stairs leading up to Quarry Bay School.

King’s Road, heading towards North Point (Click to enlarge)

King’s Road, going up towards QBS and Shaukiwan (Click to enlarge)

Oh those stairs! Unbelievable! I reckon there were a gazillion going up to the school, seriously, but I’ve been told there were only 116 steps ?

Coming down wasn’t so bad but going up – oy vey! No wonder my knees have both been replaced in my old age ?

Funny thing about getting old – I thought those stairs were wide but no, they were quite narrow!

Memories of Sports Days

We had four houses at Quarry Bay … Caesar (which was my house) was yellow; Stevenson was red; Lincoln was green; and Raleigh was blue.

I remember …

**…back in those days I was pretty good at running, being so much taller than my classmates, so won a number of cups over those years ?

1954 (Click to enlarge)

1956 (Click to enlarge)

The left photo shows me being presented with a cup by a lady whose name I don’t remember, if I ever knew it, but the headmistress on the right was Miss Handyside.

The right photo shows me getting my prize from Mrs Gautier, who was the mother of a good friend of mine when I was in KGV – Margaret. She was also a tall girl and was the 2nd bridesmaid at Lindy’s wedding!  The headmistress in the photo was Mrs Olive Burt.

A bit of trivia … Mrs Burt had two children – Margaret – who was in my year at QBS, and a son – Christopher – who was five years older and who ended up as a TV producer for shows like “Lewis“!

1957 November – Sports Day

Back row (standing) ?, ?, Alan Sloan (in grey sweater), Richard Baker, Jimmy Maxwell, Michael, Gil Winterton, Branch Greaves, Terence Beesley, Gregory, ?, Alan, ?.

Middle row (kneeling) Colin Billimore, Deidre Mahon, Me, Mary Nurse, Christine, ?, ?

Front row (seated) Ann Gregory, Faye, Mary, Bunny Smith, Glenys, Cathy Ferrier, Ann.

In the last sports day that we had in 1957 I got pipped at the post by two other girls so got a spoon for my troubles so my days as a superstar were coming to an end – LOL! ?

 

Memories of Plays

I was extraordinarily lucky when young as mom used to get her sew sew amahs in Paquerette to make up the costumes the school told us to have made so no stress at all for my mama!

I remember …

** … I was a footman with Douglas Fyfe, Jimmy Maxwell and Colin (? surname not remembered ?) in «Alice in Wonderland».

L-R: Angela Poynton, me (standing) Jimmy Maxwell, Colin (?) and Doug Fyfe (aka Fifi) on the chair (Click to enlarge)

 

Then it was «Peter Pan», where I played the part of one of the lost boys …

Me as one of the Lost Boys fighting with Nigel Woods as one of the pirates! (Click to enlarge)

 

And the last play I was in was … according to my friend Bunny … was called «Story Time»!

It’s funny, I have absolutely NO recollection of that play apart from my terror of having to go on stage in my mother’s (or maybe Lindy’s) high heeled shoes in case I fell flat on my face ?
 

Me playing the part of the mother and Bunny as the story teller (Click to enlarge)

Memories of School Days

Quarry Bay School (Click to enlarge)

I have very patchy memories of my school days at QBS, I’m afraid!

The few things I do remember are these ….

** …the play area at the school was concrete and I still have the scar on my left knee from falling on it when playing netball on the court ?

I scraped it quite deeply then, when it was healing and was a thickish scab, I fell on the concrete court again during another netball game (talk about clumsy!!) and scraped the scab off! Not only was it painful but it ensured a 5 centimetre (2 inch) scar to remind me of the occasion ?

Ugh! ?

The netball court was on the left hand side of the photo, and on the right hand side there was an area where we could grow vegetables.  We were given small plots of earth and learned about growing vegetables. I recall enjoying that immensely but unfortunately I didn’t develop green thumbs after those lessons ?

The popsie man with a schoolgirl customer 😉 (Click to enlarge)

**…the stairs are forever etched in my memory, as is the memory of the popsie man at the bottom of them!

The popsie man, as we all called him, was a guy on a bicycle with a small “fridge” on the front of his bike filled with Dairy Farm ice cream.

He had a pretty big selection of popsicles and ice cream tubs for us little people and it was always a fun decision to go «eeny meeny miney mo» to select what to have that day!

I remember having Beano popsicles after school.  BEANO!  Popsicles with red kidney beans! Imagine that ?   Was I crazy? Possibly! Not sure I could have that nowadays but I loved them when I was a kid.

Also loved the Dairy Farm mango ice cream tubs. YUM! The ice cream tasted of real mangoes and wasn’t sweet and ikky!

*** …in our senior years at QBS we graduated from writing in pencil to writing in ink ?

We had ink wells in our desk, which were filled with ink, and wood handled dip pens to practice our writing. We had to make sure that we blotted our copybook so that it was clean and neat as smudges were a no-no!

Desk with inkwell – Photo credit listopenhouses.com / Wooden dip pen – Photo credit RetOnTheNet (Click to enlarge)

****

In 1957 we were away on leave again, for 7 months this time (March 25 to October 25)!

I would have had to pack my books in the trunks and needed to study on the ship leaving and going back to HK. I do remember studying when we were in Carshalton for the weeks we spent in England but am not sure if I had to study while we were driving around the Continent!

We would have been back in HK in October so I would have gone straight back to QBS to prepare for the final exams in June which would designate which form I would go into when I entered KGV in September!

Hong Kong district history: Quarry Bay – the story behind city’s original company town

1954 Dec -1958 Jun ~ Quarry Bay School

Photos of my time at Quarry Bay School - sports days, plays, general pictures and reports 😮

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