Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

A most interesting and informative obituary in the Telegraph this morning.He was a great sportsman but I would have wished for more on his career as a schoolmaster.. I thought he was most effective as a housemaster-I enjoyed seven years in Th.b with him .

Indeed.

What a war history and bravery - never really referred to in my time in Thorn A.

A long and full life.

He described my Unversity potential as "made of red brick" but was so kind when I secured a Geography Exhibition at Pembroke Oxford.

And to think that his son Andrew, 2 when i left, has been our Ambassador to Slovenia apart from his expertise in Ukraine

This was interesting. Like Theo, I never heard him mention his war record. It is curious to think how relatively recent this was at the time I knew him.

(By contrast, I had a primary school teacher who never stopped talking about his -- to the extent that I now suspect not much of it was true.)

MY ABJECT APOLOGIES !!!

AS MODERATOR, I NOTICED THIS MORNING THAT WE HAD TWO THREADS RELATING TO THE SAME SUBJECT IN DIFFERENT POST FORUMS.

I attempted to merge the two posts into one and somehow 5 posts regarding the sad death of J H Page got 'lost' in the move and cannot be recovered.

Please feel free to re-post your memories etc.

Seeing that JR has sent my last mini-obit to obituary heaven, I'll repeat what I can remember of it, but bring in one or two things from the DT obit too.

I think for that day and age he was almost the perfect housemaster. Firm, no nonsense, but very fair. And in particular, it was largely due to him that Thornton B was almost entirely free of bullying. 'A happy house' as he told my parents on my first day. He was friendly enough but never pally, as he will have realized that familiarity breeds contempt. He was not an intellectual high flier, and though I had him for geography for a year, I remember absolutely nothing of what we did (except to breathe a sigh of relief that we had at last left Horsham, the Weald and the Downs and gone out into the wide world). Nor was he particularly imaginative, though he thought he had a duty to tell me I ought to read more novels and fewer encyclopaedias (I still waste hours on Wikipaedia). He disapproved of youth culture (in those days, teddy boy haircuts and Elvis), but realized that compromises were necessary (he didn't like the ban on pop music).

I don't know how long he was 'secretly courting' Carol Macnutt as the DT puts it (it was certainly a very well-kept secret); the DT says he was in his 'late 30s' when it began. He was certainly 40 by the time they married, and his engagement was a huge surprise. The DT also says he was employed to teach 'geography and games'. This is news to me; I was unaware he had (or claimed) any particular expertise in any sport other than proper tennis or the Victorian garden variety.

Derrick. Somerset Macnutt was born in 1902 and was therefore only 17 years older than Page. I do not know when Carol Macnutt was born but there must have been quite an age gap. I wonder what sort of father-in-law D.s.m would have made.
Does any one know where the wedding tok place ?

John H Page married Carol M Macnutt in 1959 in Horsham. She was born in 1938 also in Horsham.

phyllis wrote:John H Page married Carol M Macnutt in 1959 in Horsham. She was born in 1938 also in Horsham.

So that made her about half his age at the time (he was 40, she was 20/21), which is about what we all thought! (It occurs to me that not many men who marry at 40 celebrate their Golden Wedding.)

I think the marriage actually took place in Broadbridge Heath, where the Macnutts lived. That would have been in the Horsham registration district.

This all gets very intriguing as I'm told that Mary Macnutt (Carol's mother) was at the funeral, which unfortunately I could not go to. Is she an active centenarian?