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Indefatigable Boarding School, Anglesey: Memories by Patrick Purser
These accounts cover his time at this Sea Training College on the Menai Straits between 1977 and 1991.
In this extract Patrick Purser reflects on trips to Snowdonia and the loss of two "Inde" boys during the Falklands War in 1982.
In those early days there was one main intake of boys each year, in September. For the whole of the first week of term, there would be no schoolwork at all.
An “Assembly line” would be set up to receive the new entrants, with members of staff controlling each phase. Each boy would be stripped of his civilian clothing, weighed, measured and issued (free of charge) with his items of uniform including a pair of marching boots!
Now you can keep up to date with the latest news and events information by subscribing to our free Anglesey Today Newsletter. Just complete the simple form below, it's as easy as 1-2-3! He would be given a very simple “3 Rs” test in order to put him in the right class; and then initiated in the mysteries of wearing a naval uniform and marching!
Many boys would only join for one year at the age of fifteen, which was the main form of entry for many years.
Any sort of academic syllabus would be very difficult to introduce as these were geared to a two-year preparation before the examination year.
Later, as recruitment steadily fell, boys were taken at the age of thirteen, then twelve and much later, after I had retired, the entry age went as low as eleven in the forlorn hope of keeping up viable pupil numbers.
Some of my more enjoyable moments were at weekends when I would take a small group of boys out on to the mountains for a day’s hike. This was a splendid way to get to know them outside the classroom.
I have happy memories of these mountain walks still. The boys were splendid company, chattting as we rambled along on low level walks around the breathtaking scenery of Snowdonia - Beddgelert; Betws-y-Coed; Idwal; Aber Falls.
If there were more than three or four, a colleague and I would get the school to hire a minivan to take us on more ambitious high level climbs - Carnedd Llewelyn; The Glyders; and of course Snowdon itself.
Soon after my arrival at Inde I began to grow unhappy at the lack of any formal ‘moral teaching’. Lip service would be paid to the requirement for an ‘assembly’ by detailing a boy to read from the Bible during a pause in the daily morning Divisions, inspection and march past.
I considered this inadequate and persuaded Bob, a self-acknowledged agnostic, to let me conduct a “Thought for the Day” at these assemblies.
I took great pleasure and much effort in trying to produce a ‘homily’ on the lines of the daily radio broadcast of that name. In vain, I tried to get other members of the Indefatigable Boarding School staff to take part.
Eventually, after nine years of ‘solo’ performance I did persuade a new staff member to take over. I have my notes still, and often wonder if any of my little ‘stories’ were ever remembered by the boys.
I have only been told by one old boy from the school how he remembered my “story about the Hitch hikers”. It would be nice to know that my considerable efforts were not entirely in vain!. During the short ‘Falklands War’ of 1982, I put a large map of the ‘War Zone’ on the notice board and two boys volunteered to keep it daily up to date.
I thought it right that the school should know what was going on during these curious yet dangerous events taking place on the other side of the world.
We later learnt that two ‘Inde’ boys from the Indefatigable Boarding School had lost their lives - one a sailor, the other a Royal Marine. In fact one of them I had been teaching not many years earlier.
Look out for more extracts of Patrick Purser's memories of his time at the Indefatigable Boarding School in future issues.
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