John Burrow, Vice Principal of Kingston College in the 1970s, was the first person at school every morning.  He ran around the field at North Street at a speedy clip for a distance that must have exceeded five miles per day.  This was a model of serenity and calm determination on quiet display before dawn that presented itself to no more than 5 early bird students each day before the hustle and bustle of daily activity among 2,000 boys – a KC flashback from 50 years hence known perhaps to only a handful of collegians.

Mr. Burrow was a noted Mathematician of the Upper School, and as such, by the 1970s, came into limited contact with students who had not reached the dizzy heights of Cambridge 4-Point Pure and Applied Maths.  Still, we learnt that he had started out at KC at about the age of 8 years, when the school had a preparatory branch, and had devoted much of his life to the high school’s institutional advancement.  He was unafraid of fast cars (going forward and in reverse) and powerful motorbikes; and reportedly turned up for school on a horse one fine day.  When he left KC, John Burrow went on to the Ministry of Education and then to head the Trench Town Comprehensive High School, if memory serves me right.

Better Mus’ Come

Carlton Bruce, another Vice Principal, really needs no introduction to students in the years leading up to the 1980s; for, among other things, he was for many years the day-to-day governor of activities at Melbourne Park for both the day and extension parts of the school.  Most immediately famous for his cane juice, Mr. Bruce simultaneously sought to know by name and personality all boys at Melbourne Park.  He was also keen on inspiring students to high academic achievement, expressly featuring the accomplishments of the conscientious over the prowess of KC’s all-conquering sports heroes. 

Mr. Bruce, in his pre-Melbourne days a master in Geography, also believed that rules of behaviour should be clearly delineated: boys will fight, so this must be allowed.  But the first youth to pull a weapon would come sharply upon dark, dark days.  Students arriving at school late had to serve detention, unless they came from Spanish Town or other places beyond the perimeter of what Mr Bruce perceived to be the corporate area.  My schoolboy impression, too, was that Mr. Bruce quietly harboured a personal critique of Jamaican society and its flaws.  He religiously wore a white shirt and black tie to school, save for one day, namely, a day that was interpreted by many politically sensitive observers  as “Better Must Come Day”.  On another occasion, he noted, with approval, that at university in Britain, students were free to attend all sorts of meetings: capitalist, socialist, communist or whatever else the heart desired.  Let freedom rule, implied the stern leader.

So Jah Sey

Two other Vice-Principals in place in the 1970s were the religious education instructors the Reverend J.A.H. Ramsay, affectionately and unsurprisingly nicknamed “Jah”, and Mr. F.L. Anderson, the popular “Missa Andy”.  Jah Ramsay, a senior Anglican clergyman with a lilting Bajan accent, was an intellectual of the first order qualified via Dublin and Oxford.  Although Jah was not excessively demonstrative with his deep learning, he was keen to share theological technicalities with even junior boys.  At the time of one of his morning lessons at Melbourne, Jah took us through the elements of the Macabee Version of the Bible, which had been popularized by reference in the Max Romeo 1971 hit song with the refrain “Bring back Macabee Version, That God gave to Black Man”. Jah brought it back by educating us.  Reverend Ramsay’s sons, Paul and Oliver, attended KC, and followed their father’s life of religious and humanitarian service.

Missa Andy, too, delved into the niceties of the Old and New Testaments.  His two thoughtful sons also attended the College; and he was prominently involved in the administration of the school’s external examinations.  Mr. Anderson was gentle and respectful to even the roughest students and, with avuncular style, took a special interest in promoting “godly and sober” behaviour among students in the upper school.  If a student had a personal problem, he would know that Missa Andy, a prince of old time Jamaican values and discretion, had a solution.

  The Reader Leader

Mrs. Beulah Reid was the distinguished head of KC’s outstanding English Language Department throughout the 1970s.  Two sons, Hugh and Donovan Reid, were student leaders in their senior years, with the latter famously avowing the special status of purity and chastity, in terms reminiscent of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In those days with Mrs. Reid, English Literature and Language ruled supreme: Shakespeare’s Henry V and Macbeth, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Chaucer’s “Gat-tooth” Wife of Bath, and his Monk (“a manly man, to been an abbot able”) were almost our daily bread and butter.  

The English Department’s star teachers who guided schoolboys at the time included, among others, Frances-Marie Coke (outstanding quiz coach, author of the autobiographically-driven, The Spirit of Clovelly Park: Learning and Teaching at Kingston College and most recently of the powerfully evocative novel, When Banana Stains Fade); Sereta Harris (most perceptive and subtle, see further below), Jasmin Reid (a thoughtful scholar for the General Paper who took us to special heights of intellectual effort) and Beryl Urquhart (whose calm and telling enthusiasm helped to give meaning to “student-centredness” at Melbourne Park).  All these teachers went on to serve the wider educational establishment in various influential administrative positions in their post-KC years.

Other members of the English Department included the influential Mrs. Muriel Riley, the scholarly Mrs. H. Martin, and the much respected Mrs. Dyer.  In the course of name-dropping, I should also note that, from the class of Old Boys, our illustrious Vice-Principal “Wally” Johnson (father of the thoughtful and analytical Norman), the memorable all-rounder, social activist Peter Maxwell and the exceedingly generous and very modern Dale Walcott were major contributors to a team of the highest quality.

Mr. Johnson often sat in a pensive yoga stance when teaching  English but was easily the fastest walker across the campus as sports master; he also led the Art Department together with the calm super-athlete Warren Chen Sui. Mr. Johnson was one of the school’s leading wordsmiths and happily contributed a memorable article on Michael “Hurricane” Holding to the school’s magazine for 1976-77.  Mr. Maxwell wrote influential articles from 1973 in the Jamaica Daily News on the plight of children in Jamaican society (“Our Children Now”, under the pen name “Marcus”) and delighted in evoking laughter through Literature, while Mr. Walcott’s Sixth Form poetry appreciation classes were always overflowing with eager and excited students.

Wyatt Earp

Another senior teacher who, like Messrs. Burrow, Bruce and Johnson, devoted the greater part of his life to KC, was Eugene “Pat” Jones, known almost universally as “Wyatt Earp” or simply “Wire”.  Mr. Jones reportedly garnered the nickname “Wyatt Earp” from the Western movie marshal who wore “suspenders” trousers strikingly similar to those sometimes sported by Mr. Jones as he imparted geographical knowledge of the world.  Mr. Jones’ much respected son, David A. Jones (sometimes, “Young Wire”, was a student in Wyatt Earp’s higher level classes who went on to Chancellor Hall, UWI, and a productive career in accounting.

There were numerous Wyatt Earp stories.  One concerned the Tom Redcam Library.  Someone, posing as a KC boy, was stealing books from the Library.  Mr. Jones visited the Library and noted the one boy in a KC tie who did not stand up to greet him as the illustrious Wyatt Earp.  “There’s your KC imposter”, Jones presumably said.  “He doesn’t go to KC, for he doesn’t know me!” 

More than all else, Mr. Jones was an enthusiastic teacher with a vigorous style.  His rapid fire exposition on factors affecting the location of industries – “capital, labour, markets and government policy, Mister! – would not resonate in the sober world of Powerpoint, but Jones at the blackboard with chalk, talk, duster and humour, will remain with his students for life.  Girls from the Sixth Form at Holy Childhood journeyed south to North Street for Wyatt Earp’s instructions; they, in the manner of the KC boys, were captivated by his infectious enthusiasm.

Transition Elements

One of the biggest transitions at KC was the move from Melbourne Park to North Street, from Second to Third Form.  Not only was there a change in geographical location; we also convinced ourselves that we were now entrenched in the “big man” part of the school. Some of the North Street teachers helped us along, oxymoronically, with gentle firmness. 

Mr. Joseph Earle, who went on to head up Jose Marti and Calabar, encouraged us, in the capacity of Head of Chemistry, to buckle down as students who were expected to master Sixth Form studies in a few years.  Our bright, no nonsense Chemistry teacher, Miss Opal Young (later Mrs. Branche) never told us why she had invited Mr. Earle: were we showing potential that needed nourishment, or were we disappointing soldiers?  Mr. M. Desai, who took us later on for Fifth Form Chemistry assumed, correctly, that some students could soar to spectacular heights.  He promoted this, while bringing others along carefully and methodically.

Another Third Form “transition element” concerned changes at the end of the year.  Teachers who left KC after guiding our third year included Mr. Ruel Forsythe (History veteran, a student of Charlemagne’s politics), Mr. Weir (Geography, who gave us an exciting Middle East project and expounded strongly on the Amazon rainforest), Mr. Maurice Lewis (Physics, “Shatts”, a KC Old Boy, basketball star, who went on to the Scientific Research Council), Mr. Gordon Appleton (Bible Knowledge and the Choir) was notably kind with his knowledge and enthusiastic but departed after about two years. 

Mrs. Goodall of the French Department also left at about the end of our Third Form year. Her place was taken by two committed  products of the UWI, Miss Paulette Reid (later Mrs. Watson) and Mr. Ramsay, who both enthusiastically took on the challenge of teaching French to boys who, somewhat short-sightedly, did not expect it to play a role a role in our future lives. 

There were also Third Form departures in Biology, with Mrs. Renshaw and Ms. S. Vidya leaving after relatively short stints.  The latter went on to Canada and was replaced by the scholarly and kind Mrs. H. Foster.  Mrs. Foster brought variety to her teaching, with references and notes not only from textbooks, but also from popular magazines: “I am Joe’s Bladder” from “The Readers’ Digest” comes to memory after 50 years.  Mrs. Foster was also “relatable” to use a modern term.  Thus, when a certain teacher – perhaps absent-mindedly -- gave us, as Fourth Formers, a test on a certain non-biology topic that was fit for UWI M.Sc. students, we sought advice and intercession from Mrs. Foster, first of all.  The Biology Department was headed by the mid-1970s by the conscientious Mrs. Sylvia Barber and included by 1976 prominent Old Boys and role models Gervaise McLeod and Cedric Lazarus.

Harbour View

Two teachers from Harbour View – Mrs. Sereta Harris and Mr. S. Been –guided us brilliantly through the Third and Fourth Form years.  Mrs. Harris, mentioned above, was always calm, thoughtful, and above all, sensitive to the concerns of all students in her province.  Her views on broad ideological issues in Literature were subtle and she carefully refrained from imposing them on us; we had memorable classes on “Animal Farm” and exchanges on the realities faced by Caribbean writers such as E.R. Braithwaite in the British racial environment (see, e.g., “To Sir, With Love”, “Paid Servant”, “Reluctant Neighbours”).  On the latter point, students were invited to contrast approaches based on cool, black sophistication with alternative perspectives built on strident resistance which took no time to hear from the beneficiaries of an oppressive system.  Intellectual excitement was offered to all students. 

Mrs. Harris was concerned too, along with others, with nurturing our habits as responsible citizens applying universal values.  Thus, she took us through aspects of “An Enemy of the People”, leaving it to the class to identify the real enemy, and took an active interest in our classroom efforts at developing group unity, mainly through games and organized discussions in after-school hours. 

Mrs. Beryl Urquhart, our First Form teacher who went on to become Vice Principal, was another denizen of Harbour View who inspired our social consciousness through the teaching of English in the early years.  This fact, together with the general approaches to understanding society pursued by all our English teachers during Mrs. Beulah Reid’s time as Head of Department stands as special testimony to the value of the English Department in shaping the social perspectives of generations of KC Boys.  And yet, though the English teachers were steeped in social progressivism, their political views were neither well-known nor easily predictable.  One year – it must have been in 1980 – I saw Mrs. Reid and Mrs. Dyer walking to the polling station, and thought to myself that I had no clue which way either would vote.

Been There

And what can I say about Mr. Been? He may not have had a stellar start with our class, for he had come to KC from Wolmer’s and had appeared to harbour initial thoughts that this was not a step up inna life.  But for two years with us, he gave knowledge, wisdom, and judgement, in First Class terms.  As form teacher, he arrived to class about an hour before time and started his administrative duties while encouraging us all to get on with our studies.  There was no time for idleness with Mr. Been, the strategic thinker who wanted his classes to be model groups for the rest of the school.  He proved Pythogaras’ theorem one day and called on us publicly to prove it the next day.  Second only to few, if any others, Mr. Been understood how to motivate teenaged boys to aspire to excellence, doing this by his own example.

Looking back, I think one of the keys to Mr. Been’s successes with our group was his ability to combine a stern outlook with understanding.  On the stern side, he insisted on telling us that we could buy shaving equipment at pharmacies, gas stations and supermarkets, and was publicly critical of perceived “idlers” who moved slowly to class.  But when the Cambridge Exam in English turned up in 1975 with a long comprehension passage featuring Caribbean cricket, it was Mr. Been, our Maths and Physics teacher, who turned up the next day to assess the fairness implications of the Cambridge passage for female students across the region.  “Look out for a needlework passage next year”, he warned us thoughtfully.

Solves Problems

In the transition from Melbourne Park to North Street, we lost, at least for a time, the influence of some outstanding instructors from First and Second Form.  I have referred to a number of our Melbourne foundation teachers and their impact elsewhere.  Here, though, I note that our dedicated First Form French teacher, the superlative Ms. Helen Douglas, has been the central figure and constant point of contact with the school for generations of schoolboys.  That Ms. Douglas received the Order of Distinction for her services to Jamaican education is a signal honour and we celebrate it. 

Simultaneously, we celebrate Ms. Douglas’ commitment to KC, a level of commitment surpassed, I daresay, by very few, if any members of the College.  Even before becoming Vice Principal Ms Douglas demonstrated organizational genius in both large and small matters.  School fair, timetable construction, dealing with difficulties off-campus, expulsion threats, fund-raising, disciplinary issues, interaction with Old Boys, guidance for students and staff members, intervention on behalf of students, even preparing a crossword puzzle for 12-year old students: across the years – talk with Ms. Douglas!  She solved problems, often with effortless skill.  

Music Matters

On the musical front, Barry Davies and Marjorie Whylie conducted classes for First Formers at Melbourne Park up to the early 1970s.  Individually, Davies and Whylie were nationally known through JBC-TV for their expertise, with Ms. Whylie notably being a driving force with Miss Lou on the memorable “Ring Ding” series, and with Davies assuming long-term responsibility for the KC Chapel Choir and leading musical arrangements in extra-curricular shows such as Lionel Bart’s “Oliver!”, which featured choirsters Audley Fuller and Louis Foster, among many others.

Even as we sang about “Panis Angelicus” and about “Pigeons Flying over from Galilee – Coo Coo”, we marveled at the voices of classmates such as “Stumbo” Hylton, Donovan Coley, Colin Gabay and “Half-Pint” Smith.  And from time to time, we dropped the names of Whylie and Davies to emphasize our proximity to musical pedigree. 

I should also note that at Melbourne Park, in particular,  Messrs. Bair and Bruce usually shared leadership over morning devotion in the solidly shaky pavilion overlooking the sports field.  Mr. Bruce was partial to “O Worship the King”, stating that every boy who ever went to church would know this hymn: as we stood in the aforementioned Melbourne Pavilion, we belted out, sans a touch of irony, that the King was “pavilioned in splendour”.

On the question of Mr, Bair’s musical preference for musical devotion in the early 1970s, my longtime classmate and “bredrin” Richard Dyche may have divergent recollections.  Richard, I think, holds to the view that Mr. Bair always had us singing “Morning Has Broken Like the First Morning” in the aforementioned Pavilion.  My view, however, is that Mr. Bair gave the edge to “I Learnt it in the Meadow Path, I Learnt it on the Mountain Stairs”.  55 years after the fact, I would not be willing to place a bet against my learned friend on this point.

The Sixth Form

By its very nature, the 6th Form tends to promote heat and light.  Some Sixth Form teachers also stimulated growth into responsible adulthood.  With much grace and intellectual rigour, Marjorie Brown guided us in the ways of Caribbean consciousness through her perceptive and profound History classes, while our Economics specialist teacher, Marlene Campbell, took us calmly through some unpublicized realities of class, race and gender in Jamaica.  Mrs. Thompson, our main expert in European History, was always a model of decorum, fairness and good humour.

Other teachers brought special memories: Mrs. Alison Parchment, long-time Head of History, handled West Indian sources, emancipation and post-emancipation challenges with mastery comparable to Douglas Hall in Free Jamaica.  And Mr. Cole was prepared to move authoritatively from the sociology of father-son relations to Bismark’s “blood and iron” philosophy, and further to the inevitable success of the heroic Azanian Liberation Struggle 15 or so years before it came to fruition. 

Errol Gregory and Old Boy Vivian Brown were economists of UWI vintage who consistently stimulated Sixth Formers, sometimes, but not always, from different ideological starting points.  Sixth Form for some also meant sitting at the feet of the deep-voiced Mr. Q.C. Edwards and the professorial Mr. Evans, both veterans of the Cambridge Advanced Level Mathematics requirements.  At very least, KC’s “HistoryEconMaths” programme comprehensively and competently covered UWI’s First Year studies in the Social Sciences.