I was at BWS between 1948 - 55 going up to Oxford in 1957 after two years in the army and I have a few very specific memories of 'Scruff' who taught me R.E.
His pupils will never forget the months during, which he was writing Lord of the Flies. Although we did not know at the time that such a classic was in gestation, all was revealed with its publication. For R.E. lesson after R.E. lesson, in Room P, behind the Stage of the School Hall, he would come in, sit down, set us some work which involved us looking after ourselves for most of the period, while he devoted himself single-mindedly to writing in an old BWS Rough Book 'out of sight' below the table at which he sat. I assume that I am right in putting two and two together in this way and that he was engaged on his manuscript.
He, nonetheless, commanded our deep respect as a person with something to say on matters moral and spiritual. One R.E. lesson I shall never forget. He came into the room, took a chalk from the blackboard and, starting at the right-hand side of the door, drew a chalk line right round the walls of the room at shoulder height. We were shocked by his 'punishable' behaviour and spellbound by his approach to the lesson. About six feet from the door he put an X and at the end of the line on the fourth wall he put another. He then gave us some real R.E. The line was the line of our spiritual life. The first X he labelled the moment of conversion when a person consciously acknowledges a faith in Jesus Christ and thereafter follows a new course throughout life. The Birth of the Spiritual dimension. He explained that he fully expected one or two of us would reach this stage in our own lives. Indeed he had known former BWS pupils who had developed spiritually to this point! Life then led on towards the second X which marked the moment of Illumination. The ultimate stage in a person's spiritual development when they achieved the ultimate purpose for which they were created - a knowledge of God's presence and eternal union with Him. Needless to say, he offered us no certainty that many of us would reach this stage in our own lifetimes.
I went to Oxford a forester and left an ordinand in the Church of England. I have been ordained now for thirty years. I recognize in William Golding a man whose loneliness and sufferings, I believe in the North Atlantic during the war, brought him to the point where the knowledge of God's presence was sufficient. There he developed a living spirituality which was able to communicate itself to others, including this young rugger-playing 'peasant' who, as the system required, believed that one's own strength and abilities were a sufficient base upon which to build a successful life. He raised questions and opened doors for me. Life has provided the answers but I acknowledge the debt I owe him.
Click here to go back to Sir William Golding's page.
Click here to go back to Salisbury Plaques Home Page.
Click here to go to the Salisbury Civic Society's Home Page.
Click here to check validation.