Best days of their lives: class of 1946 reminisce

Pupils from The King’s School class of 1946 reminisced about teachers and train travel as they met up 69 years on.

Around 30 old classmates who attended the former grammar school in Ottery St Mary travelled from far and wide to reunite at the Blue Ball Inn, in Sidford, and proved that, in many ways, not a lot has changed over the years.

A number of the group had not seen each other since their last reunion in 1985 and, for some, it was the first time they had met up since their school days.

Organiser Ann Solman said: “Seeing as we are all going to be 80 this year, it was fantastic.

“We have been receiving most lovely letters of thank you. Everybody was very, very happy with the whole thing.

“Everybody still has the same personality as we did in school.

“All the memories came flooding back and we talked about teachers just like kids going to school nowadays.

“Back then, we used to catch the train from Sidmouth to Ottery to get to school.

“I lived in Sidbury and used to cycle to Sidmouth station every day.

“We put our bikes in one of the teacher’s gardens.”

The Higher Woolbrook Park resident explained that the idea was hatched when she caught up with an old school friend in Sidmouth last summer and they talked about organising a reunion.

She said everybody was enthusiastic about the plan from the start, but it took a lot of hard work to get in touch with everybody.

Friend and former Lymbourne Avenue resident, Joan Huggett, said she ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ the process of tracking down the school alumni.

“I was just like Miss Marple. I went through a lot of people to find everybody,” she said.

A cake, hand made by Marjorie Rix, adorned with the school badge and ribbon in the old tie colours, made an impressive centrepiece for the occasion.

Attendees tucked into cream teas and reminisced over old school photos and a Sidmouth Herald article about their last reunion.

Organisers thanked the Blue Ball for putting on a ‘marvellous’ spread.