Visiting Auschwitz - The John Roan School

Madame Tussauds
After a very long and amusing journey to Madam Tussauds,
we finally got our tickets and were extremely anxious to
get in and see what we had in store for the day.“Wow!”
was the first word that came to mind on seeing the first
model of a famous person - in this case Christina Aguilera.
My mind boggled; how is it possible to create such great
figures with such precision and accuracy and not miss a
single detail? For example, David Beckham with his classy
beard and moustache, Michael Jackson with his unusual
nose and even Barrack Obama with his charismatic smile.
The Sports Zone was the next place that we stopped at to
take pictures, gather information and even take part in a
couple of penalty shoot-outs, which were all great fun. As
this was something that I could relate to, I was probably
more interested than most to see Christiano Ronaldo,
David Beckham (again) and Johnny Wilkinson.
The next place that we looked to explore was the Royalty
Room, which consisted of models of the Queen, Prince
Phillip and other members of the Royal Family past and
present - even Henry VIII was there! The amount of jewels
that could be found on the costumes of every single King
and Queen was immense. In fact, there were so many
shiny gems on display that it was almost blinding to the
eye.
Sinking of the Titanic
Incidentally, there have
been many programmes
about the sinking of the
Titanic. One on Radio 4
had quite a bit about the
radio operators (employed
directly by Marconi) and
how the incident affected
future passenger liners’ radio
communications. As you
may know, Harold S Bride
(born 1890, died 1956), the
assistant wireless operator
of the vessel, received part
of his education at The John
We then went to see the woman responsible for such
amazing creative work to find out some amazing facts
about the process of making just one of these incredibly
detailed models. For example, using yak and cattle hair
for peoples’ hair; to do this over 270 pictures of the subject
are taken in order to create an accurate impression of
each well-known figure.
Scream was the next area, which was the scary maze.
As we navigated our way through, heart beats increased
and hairs stood up on the back of our necks. Everyone
knew it was safe, but we still held on to each other as we
made our way through. Inside the maze were prisoners
who would scream and shout, ‘Move on!’, which scared
us half-to-death.
Finally, we went to see a 4D movie of the Marvels coming
to London. For many, this was the best part of the whole
trip because as well as everything flying at you from the
screen, you also got to feel wind, water and vibration.
Overall, it was a very good day and it was a great experience
because the we were exposed to different types of design
which can now be implemented in our work.
Eberechi Eze 9VN
Roan School, leaving during 1903.
As the daily press has made us familiar with all the terrible
details of the accident, it is perhaps superfluous to add
anything beyond mentioning that the American Court of
Inquiry has nothing but praise for the work of both Mr Philips
(on duty, did not survive) and Mr Bride (off duty but after the
collision came on duty to assist until power was lost and
Captain Smith told them to leave, injured, survived).
Tony Slaney, Secretary, Old Roan Association