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W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2018 6:55 pm
by Mid A 15
He taught at CH well before my time but regular posters here were taught by him from what I have read.
Sadly it appears he passed away last month at the age of 89.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._P._C._Davies
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:38 pm
by michael scuffil
A good innings. He was my junior housemaster for about half my time at CH, though I was never taught by him. His Wikipedia entry doesn't mention CH, where he spent 6 years, maybe someone will find the time to edit the entry. Maybe I will...
He had a nice wife and a revolting bulldog.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:10 am
by DavidRawlins
He was just down from Cambridge, and in 1951/2 he taught us about DNA and the double helix. I think that this was the first time ever that it was taught in any school world wide!
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:16 am
by DavidRawlins
He was just down from Cambridge, and in 1951/2 he taught us about DNA and the double helix. I think that this was the first time ever that it was taught in any school world wide!
I have a report from him in 1951, written in green ink.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:06 am
by michael scuffil
DavidRawlins wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:16 am
He was just down from Cambridge, and in 1951/2 he taught us about DNA and the double helix. I think that this was the first time ever that it was taught in any school world wide!
I have a report from him in 1951, written in green ink.
Hardly in 1951/52 I think. The Crick/Watson article was only published in Nature in 1953. But he will have known Crick at Cambridge so I imagine he was quick off the mark when the article came out.
Beaky Davies hardly fits into the image of the 'green ink brigade'!
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:53 pm
by rockfreak
I had him for Maths and Science in the mid-50s. Sadly these weren't my subjects but he was understanding of my shortcomings and didn't give me too hard a time. The Grauniad is usually pretty good at sports obits but he hasn't featured yet. He formed a famous centre partnership with Jeff Butterfield in what I think was the Dickie Jeeps side of the time and also the British Lions - Cliff Morgan et al? Is that right? I don't quite know why he's been forgotten. Maybe some of the other papers have obits.
On a more up to date tack, I'm looking forward to England vs Wales this weekend. Stan Simmonds - a back row forward with the acceleration of a winger - surely he's got to start.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:38 pm
by Fitzsadou
Beaky Davies was certainly an excellent teacher and a very pleasant man, who left CH to become the headmaster of various prep schools in turn.
One item about him while at CH was an occurrence during a Harlequins match, in about 1954, when somehow he lost his shorts. The Daily Mirror published a picture of him standing shortless, using his hands to cover himself, while his team mates crowded around him to support his dignity. However he was wearing a jockstrap, if I recollect correctly. The Daily Mirror was kind enough neither to publish his name in the caption (nor in the short accompanying article, if there was one).
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:44 am
by michael scuffil
Fitzsadou wrote: ↑Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:38 pm
Beaky Davies was certainly an excellent teacher and a very pleasant man, who left CH to become the headmaster of various prep schools in turn.
One item about him while at CH was an occurrence during a Harlequins match, in about 1954, when somehow he lost his shorts. The Daily Mirror published a picture of him standing shortless, using his hands to cover himself, while his team mates crowded around him to support his dignity. However he was wearing a jockstrap, if I recollect correctly. The Daily Mirror was kind enough neither to publish his name in the caption (nor in the short accompanying article, if there was one).
He was junior housemaster of ThB at the time, and John Page, the senior housemaster, personally stuck this picture in the House Record Book, with a jokey handwritten caption.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2018 6:56 pm
by rockfreak
rockfreak wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:53 pm
I had him for Maths and Science in the mid-50s. Sadly these weren't my subjects but he was understanding of my shortcomings and didn't give me too hard a time. The Grauniad is usually pretty good at sports obits but he hasn't featured yet. He formed a famous centre partnership with Jeff Butterfield in what I think was the Dickie Jeeps side of the time and also the British Lions - Cliff Morgan et al? Is that right? I don't quite know why he's been forgotten. Maybe some of the other papers have obits.
On a more up to date tack, I'm looking forward to England vs Wales this weekend. Sam Simmonds - a back row forward with the acceleration of a winger - surely he's got to start.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 10:34 pm
by John Saunders
Sorry to hear that William Philip Cathcart has died. For me he was the best thing that came out of CH. He used to take a pair of us fishing at Frensham in an old Willys Jeep. He became very friendly with a white hunter named Atherton who had purchased Frensham little Pond. Sadly I never sat to him but I was determined to become a centre 3/4. Years later I was captain of a New Forest rugby club when I met him again. We were short of a centre that day but he had not brought his boots! A very sad miss.
Re: W.P.C. Davies
Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 3:08 pm
by michael scuffil
There were 'hearties' and 'arties'. While WPC was on tour with the British Lions in South Africa, his stand-in as junior housemaster of ThB was David Herbert. You could hardly imagine two people more different. WPC was nice enough, but the artily inclined certainly preferred Sloppy Herbert, who probably couldn't tell one end of a rugby ball from another...