Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

on mycorrhiza (the beneficial close association between a fungus and the roots of a
plant), and another on the plankton and sediments of Lake Windermere - and there
were others. It must have worked because in our small sixth form class, several of us
did well and got scholarships to University. I think though that I was the only one in
my year to achieve an Oxbridge scholarship; one of the essays I wrote concerned the
ecology of Lake Windermere and may have tipped the balance! Botany was fairly
easy to teach ourselves: we had the necessary ‘floras’ and keys, collected and
identified plants and learnt their Latin names. (Later my Open Scholarship to St
Catharine's College, Cambridge, was designated "in Botany"). Zoology was more
difficult, because the syllabus required dissections. This presented no problems with
rabbits, frogs, worms and cockroaches, which we could collect locally, and dissect
and draw, following the instructions in our textbooks. However, the dissection of the
dogfish was also in the syllabus and for this we had to ask Mallinson to order
formalin-preserved dogfish for us from a biological supply house. My time in the
sixth form was a gentle introduction to the drastic change that occurs when you go
from school to university and are expected to work responsibly on your own. It must
have had quite a significant formative influence on my later approach to education,
scholarship and research.
Other interests: games, Boy Scouts and CCF
Charles Hay taught several subjects in school, namely Scripture, History and
Games. He had a great interest in the boys and he was a man of great energy, charm
and wit and a truly outstanding schoolmaster and mentor. A great extrovert, he
conducted ‘Gang Shows’, campfire singsongs, and played parts in Gilbert and
Sullivan Operas put on by the school - his performance as Pooh-Bah in the Mikado
was unforgettable. I took part in these too, notably as one of the "three little maids"
singing "willow, tit willow, tit willow . . . . ."!
Charles was also a very good rugby coach and we had a great school team. He
entered into the spirit of the training with his resounding cry "tackle him low " and I
can still see him charging down the pitch with several boys, hanging onto him, being
dragged along. We played most of our games on a pitch, which was very uneven,
and sloping, and even had slight rocky outcrops in places; though this may be an
exaggeration (resulting from the passage of time!). Such a playing field would not be
considered at all acceptable in today's risk-averse society. The pitch also usually had
a small stream running down its centre. My position on the field in many games was
as hooker and it was very muddy and cold, because, being in the Lake District, we
had a great deal of rain. However when playing uphill the ‘stream’ may have made
it easier to get the ball back to the scrum-half! But I enjoyed it and was in my
element. Another school evacuated to Windermere was Ashville College, Harrogate
and we played them at rugger, defeating them and being defeated in turn. We
regarded them as rather a prissy lot though.
In l941 I captained the School rugby team when we went to play Wigton at
Wigton; we had a good game but lost. In March I returned from one rugby match
with a black eye, sprained hand and toe! There was another rugby match at Kendal
one afternoon, from which I returned about 6 pm in a taxi, having hurt my head;
kicked by one of the other team. I was a bit concussed, very white and faint,
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