Duncan Hall School - abuse of public funds

	Duncan Hall School
	an abuse of public funds 1970 - 77
	Duncan Hall School had an excellent reputation as privately owned 'prep' school in Great Yarmouth, particularly good at sports. About 1959, an untrained music teaching assistant at Duncan Hall School in Scratby, Great Yarmouth, Verdun H Searles, won the football pools (the then equivalent of today's National Lottery) and decided to buy the school. Like a lot of Freemasons, Mr Searles was gay and able to use contacts within Freemasonry to secure the employment he wanted. With a former pupil at Duncan Hall, David Rawnsley, they formed V H Searles Limited, with ownership transfering to their company in 1961. Verdun Searles appointed himself Principal. Within a year, all the had teachers left, with the exception of the Headmaster, Francis J O'Brien. V H Searles appear to have engaged in Salami Slicing exercises. For example, 1970 was the last year the school engraved the winner's names on its sports trophies and started taking boys sponsored by local education authorities. Cooking margarine replaced butter. Eggs were never cooked properly (the white part was liquid and transluscent). Text books never updated.
	In 1968, my father was medically retired from the RAF, in Colerne, Wiltshire, and we moved to Chelmsford so he could work for Marconi as a Technical Author. My older sister, Dorothy Patricia (b. 08.01.1960), decided we should truant from a school outing to London Zoo, in Southend. We had a little meal in the transport cafe opposite Chelmsford Bus station, unable to eke out our food with brown sauce (ages 8 and 9). Walking around the amusement park in Southend we could not afford even a cheap ride on the helter skelter offered by the owner as walked past. Dorothy and I were attending St. Pius X, a Roman Catholic primary school, adjacent to Blessed (now Saint) John Payne Catholic School. This was ideally situate at the other end of the 44A and 44B bus routes, which ran every fifteen minutes during the day. Ideal almost because on our first day we heard the headmistress complain about the irreverence of her pupils taking communion, and we lived at the other side of town. After school at St. Pius X, Dorothy was keen that I run, along Tennyson Road, with her hanging onto my raincoat. I do not understand how bad this is. Ultimately, despite my objections, I agreed to it. I needed help saying no. So I had to attend Child Guidance Clinic, which was half way between the school and the town centre. I remember being asked if I was left or right handed but I did not know and was required to perform an IQ test, which I found distressing when unable to answer questions immediately. I had to attend for half days once then twice per week. I was in the care of a woman with whom I used to play battleships. This was pleasant, but not to last, as one day she told me they had found a school for me, showing me an atlas from which we were to find Great Yarmouth. Verdun Searles was from Chelmsford. In those days, 1970s, finding an establishment that was ideal was exactly the same as finding a place that would accept one. Essex County Council are free to sue.
	At first, Duncan Hall School was the most horrible place, with bad mannered and for our age, badly educated boys, mostly from London. I did not understand the remarks about Jews. My attempts to leave were aimed at following the railway line by walking to Norwich, where I intended to turn left for Chelmsford. My mother sent me a tuck parcel, which was lovely and unexpected. Robert Powell threatened to hit me if I did not give him some, but could simply have asked. That sort of thing is the most damaging.
	No longer could I afford to be passive, but had to fight, to survive. Duncan Hall was supposed to be a "special school" to help me, but it was nothing of the kind. Those unaccustomed to violence had to use it or suffer ever more. Food was barely adequate, supplemented for the Juniors only, with the occasional birthday cake.
	Teaching, however, was probably good. I went from a class with over forty pupils in Chelmsford, to sixteen, in Scratby, Great Yarmouth. Our teacher was Miss Binns, young lady who seemed popular with the older boys. She had a guitar and played that song, Lord of the Dance. Towards the end it became clear she was leaving, but took us all for a day out at Great Yarmouth's Pleasure Beach, after visiting her digs in Caister. On occasion I enjoyed an unexpected weekend away, at least once at home in Chelmsford. I remember looking at a small notice on the carriage wall naming the type of wood out of which the wall was made, on my way south. At other times, or at least once, I stayed with Mrs Essex, in Ormesby, one of the secretaries, and unbeknown to me at the time, girlfriend of joint owner of V H Searles Limited, David Rawnsley.
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