OV Simon’s Stroll Down Memory Lane

It was a real pleasure to welcome OV Simon Lusty MBE (Ch 66-76 and Old St Alban’s) back to King’s this month, for the first time in decades.

It was clear that Simon had made the most of his time at King’s as he looked back with great fondness and very vivid memories, the majority of which were not related to actual schoolwork and are also not for publication (as many former boarders will understand)!

Choir House, was the first stop. Simon recalled the last time he had passed through the front door, taking with him a motorbike that had been stored in the basement on behalf of a friend. This friend, who shall not be named, had left the school slightly earlier than expected and at short notice, so had not had opportunity to remove the bike himself!

Although the layout of Choir House has changed internally to accommodate classrooms, Simon could still easily recall where his studies and dormitories had been, even the kitchen area for fresh toast. When Simon was at King’s, they had been allowed to decorate their study with soft furnishings and even paint if they so wished. One year, Simon and his peers went for gloss paint in black and purple! Simon also recalled the time he and his study friends navigated a sofa through Worcester to post it in through the study’s ground floor window. The sofa didn’t last particularly long due to being accidentally set on fire – they were able to get it out of the window quickly and with no lasting damage to the building.

In Choir House, Simon met Dr Claire Brown (Hon OV), whose office is in the building, so she asked for Simon’s help in identifying what her room would have previously been. Unfortunately for Claire, it is based in the part of the building that was the Housemaster’s House back in Simon’s day, so the children never ventured in there!

A scientist at King’s, Simon had studied Physics, Chemistry and Biology for A-level. Apart from the ground floor layout, the Science Block remained relatively unchanged – albeit modernised. The only thing Simon felt was missing was the smell: in his time, it always smelled strongly of gas from all the Bunsen burners in constant use!

The wooden gym building next to the Science block from Simon’s era had been replaced by the impressive DT block and the Keyes Building, of which he was glad. Simon had been a pivotal member of the King’s 1^st VIII Shooting team and active in the CCF, so was delighted to find that the CCF stores was still in the same place, and there remained a shooting range on site, albeit no longer in prefab building.

Simon recalled another strength of his had been climbing, and he was asked to be active on the school’s climbing wall during the school open day. The climbing wall at that time was open to the elements, on the end of the Geography block, and is still visible although no longer used. It has been replaced by a much larger, bespoke climbing wall in the Keyes Building.

Strolling past where the ‘prefab’ dining hall for the dayboys had been, Simon was able to point out where Choir House had sat for meals alongside the other boarders, in the School House dining room, now the Matthew Armstrong Library.

In addition to shooting, CCF, and general shenanigans, Simon had also been a keen rower, so was especially impressed with the Michael Baker Boathouse – an improvement on its predecessor, ‘The Shed’.

Simon recalled taking a quad out on a snowy December afternoon, which was going well until they were hit by a rogue wave upstream – the boat was swamped and the rowers bailed, leaving the cox strapped into his seat, floating with the boat a few inches under the water, until it was lassoed outside the boathouse and secured by a quick thinking friend. The rowers managed to reach the safety of the bank and made their way back to school, rather chilled.

King’s St Alban’s was next to visit, where Simon had started boarding at 8 years old. He was immediately able to point out the window of his first dormitory, and clearly describe the gardens, where the boarders had each been allocated a small plot to grow what they chose. Inside the main part of the school, while obviously there have been some changes, it was all still very familiar – despite his dormitories now all classrooms.

Simon’s first dormitory is now a classroom for similarly aged pupils, a lovely connection. He recalled the Matron waking them up one night so they could see it was snowing! Another, slightly less happy memory, was spending two weeks in sick bay with chicken pox.

Returning to the senior school site, Simon found both the Biology Block and College Hall familiar. He also remembered the Undercroft being used for parties with the Alice Ottley ladies and the debating club (obviously not simultaneously!).

Talking about his visit, Simon said, “Thank you so much for showing me around the school today and for letting me in to see rooms and spaces that I knew many years ago. The school is both similar and yet very different from the time I was there. It struck me that the school continues to be a fabulous place for an education and the changes made have modernised it immensely.”