Page 1 - Martin Holmes - Old Derbeian Article

Derby School & WWII
How I got to be there then
My parents married in the last week of WWI. Their marriage was shunned by both parental families. Their first child, a boy, was born in 1919 and died shortly after birth. My two elder sisters were born in July 1921 and November 1923. Sometime in the mid-20’s Mother and the two girls left Father. He tracked them down in 1929 and I (Martin Henry Holnes) was born in April 1930. As soon as she was able to arrange it, without family help. Mother placed the two girls with a willing friend and fled to London with her baby boy. In 1935, with the help of relatives, Mother got a divorce and settled in Derby with her three children. She became an elementary schoolteacher and ensured that her three children all had secondary school education. In my case by ensuring that I and a friend (Dennis Christie) got private tuition when our elementary school was shut down due to the outbreak of WW!II. Mother was an ardent atheist, a passionate pacifist, and hovered on homophobic.
An overview
To me Derby School and WWII are inextricably intertwined. Just as ancestry had hugely influenced the first five years of my life so WWII meant my first five years at Derby School were totally different to what they would have been had war not broken out.
It was a feather in my cap to have won a scholarship to the school. Dennis and I were the only ones from our elementary school to do so and there were only 50 of us all told from the whole of Derby.
Derby School was regarded as by far the better of the two available secondary schools. It had a history of distinction going back centuries.
However, with the outbreak of war it had evacuated into the countryside and instead of attending school on a daily basis from the safe haven of home I had, in effect, to go to boarding school
I found myself quite unprepared for, and unsuited to, the all-male juvenile environment. My fellow pupils’ lack of acceptance of a duty of compliance with authority and complete acceptance of the propaganda of the war was new to me. Being the only pupil excused all religious instruction and practice didn’t exactly help! I was quickly isolated and eventually learned to live behind a shield of low-key outward response!
On the other hand, I was introduced to the beautiful Amber Valley with its quiet river, wooded hills and grassy slopes. In the country within half a day’s walking distance of the camp I found both peace and excitement.
As the war progressed, the quality of teaching fell as the better teachers left to take part in the war. Nevertheless, this very average student managed to get a creditable School Certificate at the end of the five years.