J.B. Harris

J.B. as we called him was rather a solid biggish man who taught us maths. I use the word taught with a certain amount of reservation not because he wasn't a good mathematician, but he had little idea of how to impart the relevant information. He would proffer some mathematical line, give a few grunts and then chalk some incomprehensible hieroglyphics on the board and follow this with a sagacious Q.E.D. - and that was that!

Seldom did I understand the 'guts' of his exposition and really thought Q.E.D. was part of his initials. I suppose the upside of his teaching method was that I learnt to deduce a greater part of the 'guts' or information which allowed me to fill in the missing jig-saw pieces.

I think J.B. was second in command to Canon Shirley, but feel the lack of deference to him probably precludes this notion.

I liked this slow gruff man as he was not vindictive. The odd chastisement of many of my peers found them labeled as a 'silly arse' which caused much raucous laughter. I think 'silly arse' was a fair a fair enough comment for the odd stupid answer. Fortunately I was spared this title.

One friend was of Irish/Welsh extraction and had a longwinded surname. J.B. had difficulty in pronouncing his name at roll call and so resorted to renaming him Bagwash. Poor boy, this was his new name and it stuck.

In J.B's defence, I think he thought Bagwash was the Gaelic pronunciation of this very long surname. Bagwash was not impressed!