Essentially a lower middle class boy aspiring to the upper middle class, Wilding gained a superficial veneer of academic knowledge (specialising in English Literature).
The real power behind this aspiration to the upper middle class, however, was Wilding's wife, Mary.
A Catholic convert, she had the desire (to rise socially, that is), but not the knowledge,
Living in a home decorated in 'chintzy' style, with 'settees' rather than sofas, a 'lounge' rather that a 'drawing room, and 'serviettes' rather that napkins, the pretensions to being 'smart' (which Mary would call 'posh') failed miserably.
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| Formal Dinner ? |
U and non-U English usage, with "U" standing for "upper class", and "non-U" representing the aspiring middle classes, is part of the terminology of popular discourse of social dialects in Britain. Those aspiring to the middle, and upper middle classes prefer "fancy" or fashionable words, even neologisms and often euphemisms, in attempts to make themselves sound more refined. Most of the differences remain very much current, and therefore perfectly usable as class indicators.
When Wilding invited a new member of staff and his wife to dinner, the bemused couple found themselves eating fish and chips, bought at the local 'chippy'.
The only saving grace was the 'grace' said before the meal, and the fact that the 'fish and chip' supper was eaten off china plates, rather than newspaper, and that cutlery was provided.
Despite the social faux-pas, Wilding had 'hitched his star' to an ancient and powerful institution (into which he had been born), not realising that it would then undergo a radical reformation - Vatican II.
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| Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum Secundum |
The Concilium Oecumenicum Vaticanum Secundum (informally known as Vatican II) addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the so-called 'modern world' (forgetting that the world, as we experience it, is by its very nature modern). It was the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. The council, through the Holy See, formally opened under the pontificate of Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1965. The matter that had the most immediate effect on the lives of individual Catholics, was the revision of the liturgy. The central idea was that there ought to be greater lay participation in the liturgy. In the mid-1960s, permissions were granted to celebrate most of the Mass in vernacular languages, including the canon from 1967 onwards.
Set adrift in a sea of theological and liturgical change, he decided to keep quiet, and try not to be noticed.
He was unfortunate enough to inherit a school which had less than fifty percent Catholic pupils, and an equally poor ratio with regard to the staff - with most of his senior staff non-Catholics.
With regard to the teaching of religion Wilding appeared to be at a complete loss, and he had no one to turn to on his staff, having totally alienated the only member of staff who was qualified to advise him on aspects of Religious Education, (a member of staff who had been trained at the prestigious St Mary's College of the University of London).
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| College Chapel - Strawberry Hill |
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| Strawberry Hill - Twickenham |
St Mary's University College is a university situated in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham in South West London. Founded in 1850, it is generally acknowledged to be the oldest Roman Catholic college in the UK.
The university college is known colloquially as "Simmery's", "Simmies". Its alumni are known as "Simmarians". The original Strawberry Hill buildings were designed by Horace Walpole in a fanciful Gothic style. At the time in question St Mary's was run by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians)
The essential tool in religious instruction, the Bible, was purchased in vast quantities, however, Wilding, against qualified advice, chose the 'Good News Bible'.
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| Good News Bible |
The Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English language translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name Good News for Modern Man in 1966. It was Anglicised into British English by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
The cover of the Good News Bible (Illustrated Version) is a 'dead give away'.
It is obviously intended for little children, and typifies Wilding's view of his pupils - whom he saw as 'little children', rather than a young people.
What he didn't seem to understand was that there was a superb, modern Catholic translation of the Bible available, known as the 'Jerusalem Bible' - and, being a Catholic Bible it contained the Apocrypha - which was omitted from Protestant Bibles, such as the 'Good News Bible'.
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| Jerusalem Bible |
The ἀπόκρυφος (Apocrypha) denotes the collection of ancient books found in the Bible, in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. Although the term apocrypha had been in use since the 5th century, it was in Luther's Bible of 1534 that the Apocrypha was first published as a separate intertestamental section. In England, the Protestant Westminster Confession of 1647 excluded the Apocrypha from the canon. In the Catholic Church the canonicity of the Apocrypha was explicitly affirmed at the Council of Trent in 1546 and Synod of Jerusalem (1672) respectively. The Apocrypha is included in the 'Jerusalem Bible'.
The Jerusalem Bible is an English-language translation of the Bible which was first introduced to the English-speaking public in 1966. As a Roman Catholic Bible, it includes the deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha) along with the sixty-six others included in Protestant Bibles. It also contains copious footnotes and introductions. Excerpts from the Jerusalem Bible are used in the Lectionary for Mass that was approved by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and that is used in most of the Bishop's Conferences of the English-speaking world.
Now we are left with the question - was Bernard Wilding a 'crypto Protestant' ? - or was he just a penny-pinching fool ? (or perhaps he was both !)
Undoubtedly, having been brought up a Roman Catholic, it was hardly likely that he was working for some anti-Catholic cabal - but the 'Good News' Bibles were so much cheaper - and could be used in weekly 'Non-Catholic' assemblies organised by a committed Protestant geography teacher by the name of Fred Fielder.
The fact that the only qualified Catholic teacher of Religious Education favoured the Jerusalem Bible, (with its copious footnotes and introductions, and approval by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales) seemed to matter not a jot to Wilding.
And what did the Chairman of the Board of Governors think about Protestant Bibles being used in a Catholic School ?
Well, Abbot Gilbert Jones OSB, the fay Chairman of the Board of Governors, couldn't care less - his concern was the Abbey School - where the money was.
One of the skills that one would imagine would come naturally to an experience teacher, and in particular a headmaster, would be the construction of an effective, workable timetable.
For Bernard Wilding the mysteries of the timetable remained just that - mysteries - and for weeks classes would turn up to rooms which were already occupied, while in other parts of the school rooms would lie empty and unused.
His timetables, until he was given a relatively competent (and we use the word competent advisably) deputy headmaster, were a total disaster.
Oddly, Wilding was able to 'laugh off' the daily disaster of his 'excuse for a timetable', while at the same time high-handedly criticizing junior staff members for the slightest little mistake.
One strange feature of his timetables was his habit of allocating himself for a set number of lessons each week.
It was strange, because he almost never reported for the lessons he had allocated to himself.
Instead, he would require a member of staff, who was usualy in the staff-room marking books or preparing a lesson, to 'cover' for him, and when that became too embarrassing, he would simply leave the class to its own devices, unsupervised.
Not really the way to obtain the respect of either the pupils or the staff.
Wilding was not an easy person to be with for any length of time, mainly because of his odd use of 'body-language'
'Body Language' refers to various forms of non-verbal communication, wherein a person may reveal clues as to some unspoken intention or feeling through their physical behaviour. These behaviours can include body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Body language is typically subconscious behaviour, and is therefore considered distinct from sign language, which is a fully conscious and intentional act of communication. Body language may provide clues as to the attitude or state of mind of a person. Body language is significant to communication and relationships. It is relevant to management and leadership in business.
When standing Wilding's favourite position was to stand with feet close together, with his arms folded on his chest, while exhibiting a blank stare.
One of the most basic and powerful body-language signals is when a person crosses his arms across the chest, and it usually means mean that a person is expressing opposition.
A harsh or blank facial expression often indicates outright hostility.
So here we have a man who was almost permanently hostile to those around him.
And so it is not surprising that this strange man was far from successful in both his management of staff and his management of pupils.
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This is not Bernard Wilding
(far too good looking) |
When sitting Wilding exhibited a very odd favoured position.
he would lean back in his chair, with his legs crossed at the ankles, and his hands clasped behind his head.
Leaning back with the arms spread and held behind the head is part of the 'dominant cluster', and is how we use our body to intimidate someone else, or when we want to be perceived as being in control of the situation.
The key driving force of the 'dominant cluster' is an observation about how much space the person is taking up.
This will be seen when a person tries to show his authority by requiring a great deal larger of an area for his presence.
This is a form of territoriality.
The legs crossed at the ankles is referred to as the 'ankle lock,' and is is considered to be a very negative signal, and means a high level of defensiveness in both men and women.
When such a posture is used in conjunction with a large desk, in a huge office, then one can be in no doubt that Wilding was suffering from an ego fantasy which bore no relationship to the true manner in which he was perceived by both staff and pupils.
To be confronted with an individual holding this posture for a whole interview must have been very unnerving, and undoubtedly accounts for the lack of empathy and poor managerial relations that bedevilled staff relationships throughout Wilding's time as headmaster.
In considering Wilding's 'ego fantasy', we are inevitably drawn to the strange matter of the Holy Cross 'Fresco' (there is some doubt as to whether it was actually a fresco or simply a mural).
The Holy Cross Mural
For some reason Wilding decided that the grimly empty entrance foyer needed some form of decoration.
A wall painting was the proposed, and Wilding made contact with an 'artist' - and we use that term advisedly - who had previously taught at the school.
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| Malcolm Pitt |
This was Malcolm Pitt, a Communist Party member, who also managed to be a Roman Catholic, and an admirer of St Francis of Assisi (this was at a time when it was fashionable in pseudo-intellectual Roman Catholic circles to be a Marxist or a Communist - and no, we are not joking - they called themselves 'Marxist-Catholics').
We are also led to believe that Pitt worked for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales as the Secretary of the 'World of Work Committee' and the 'Committee for Public Life'.
He was also apparently appointed to the 'Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace', meeting Pope John Paul II several times.
(This is a good example of 'reds under the altar' rather than 'reds under the bed', and shows the appalling state of the Roman Catholic Church in recent times)
Before becoming Principal of the International Franciscan Study Centre in Canterbury, Pitt gained a doctorate with his investigation into 'the Extent that Marx's Materialist Conception of History is Comparable with the Principles of Catholic Social Teaching, Particularly as Expounded by John Paul II' (one wonders at this point who is fooling who ?).
At the time of the mural painting Pitt was driving around in a second hand Rolls Royce (?) - which seems a little odd for a dedicated Marxist - even a Catholic Marxist.
So how is the mural related to Wilding's 'ego fantasy' ?
Well first let's look at the unlikely subject - the 'Finding of the True Cross'.
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| Finding of the True Cross - Piero della Francesca - 1466 |
According to post-Nicene historians, such as Socrates Scholasticus, the Byzantine Empress Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, travelled to the Holy Land in 326 –28 AD, founding churches and establishing relief agencies for the poor.
Historians Gelasius of Caesarea and Rufinus claimed that she discovered the hiding place of three crosses that were believed to be used at the crucifixion of Jesus and of two thieves, St. Dismas and Gestas, executed with him, and that a miracle revealed which of the three was the True Cross.
With the Cross were also found the 'Holy Nails', which Helena took with her back to Constantinople.
As far as is known, Pitt's painting no longer exists.
It seems that it was destroyed when the Holy Cross School was demolished in 2011.
Searches on the internet indicate that no photos of the painting have placed on any website - and so there appears to be only a dim memory of the painting itself.
That might be just as well.
The painting had practically no artistic merit.
It was drab and dreary, and the content of the image only revealed itself after very close inspection.
Pitt himself, it appears, was not a particularly exciting or imaginative artist, but he was competent enough to produce a good likeness - which in this case was unfortunate.
St Helena - who is easily identified in the painting, has the face of Eileen Teahan - a teacher at Holy Cross at the time who was supposedly head of the Religious Studies department, despite the fact that she was not qualified in the subject.
Barry Cage and a few other members of senior staff also appeared in the scene, but pride of place was given to an individual in what appeared to be clerical robes, who could be easily identified as Bernard Wilding.
He was either representing the local Bishop, of maybe even the Emperor, (although the Emperor was supposed to be in Constantinople at the time).
And so here was Wilding's 'ego fantasy' - a fantasy of power and authority - the two things that, in reality, he did not have.
The painting was, inevitably, a failure.
It did not 'brighten up' the entrance hall as it was dull and drab, and practically nobody realised what it was about.
Whether Pitt was paid for his efforts is not known, and the fact that no record of the work now seems to exist seems apposite.
But the project undoubtedly sums up the drift from reality that typified the regime that was controlling the Holy Cross School at the time.
WILDING and the ETHOS of the SCHOOL
While Wilding rarely taught, and was rarely seen around the school ,(he tended to hibernate in either his own, huge office, or in the school secretary's office), he did regularly 'take' school assemblies.
There was, in many of these assemblies, however, an obsession with sickness and death.
Wilding seemed to truly relish talking about the sick, the dying and the dead.
Now it is, undoubtedly good to care and pray for the sick and the dying - that is simply Christian charity - Christian love.
One should point out, however, that it is also right and proper to care and pray for the healthy and the living, and that was something that was rarely mentioned during Holy Cross Assemblies.
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| Une Pervane - Edwin Austin Abbey |
Symptomatic was the fact that one of the few pieces of music from the great classical heritage of music to be played to the pupils of the school was 'Pavane pour une infante défunte' by the great French composer, Maurice Ravel.
For those not au fait with French the title means - loosely translated - 'Pavane (slow processional dance) for a Dead (Spanish) Princess', and for a prolonged period this was played every morning at assembly.
The head of English believed it would 'quieten' the children, and presumably she had Wilding's approval for this (extremely) odd custom.
Now it may be a beautiful piece of music, but it is slow, excessively mournful, and not exactly the best way to start the day for young people.
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Temptations of St Anthony
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo |
But then Thanet is the 'Isle of the Dead' (see below), and death seems to be the unifying theme, threading its way through so much of what happened at Holy Cross.
There is, of course, a tradition in the Catholic Church of asceticism, which is generally held to have begun with Ἀββᾶς Ἀντώνιος (St Anthony the Great), who moved to the Egyptian desert in around 270 AD, and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism.
Asceticism in the Church, however, has tended to drift in and out of favour through the centuries.
Asceticism - (from the Greek: ἄσκησις áskēsis, "exercise" or "training") describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various worldly pleasures, often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals. Christian Desert Fathers included practices that involved restraint with respect to actions of body, speech, and mind. The founders and earliest practitioners of asceticism lived extremely austere lifestyles, refraining from sensual pleasures and the accumulation of material wealth. They practised asceticism as an aid in the pursuit of metaphysical health.
In the nineteenth century asceticism was encouraged by the writings of certain Catholic saints, for example Marie Bernarde Soubirous - usually refferred to as St Bernadette of Lourdes, and St Thérèse of Lisieux.
Bernadette Soubirous is best known for her participation in the Marian apparitions of "a small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at a cave-grotto in Massabielle, where apparitions are said to have occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858.
She would later receive recognition when the lady who appeared to her identified herself as the Immaculate Conception ('que soy era immaculada concepciou')
On 8 December 1933, she was canonized by Pope Pius XI as a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church; her Feast Day is observed on 16 April.
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| que soy era immaculada concepciou |
Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers as Sister Marie Bernard at their mother house at Nevers, at the age of 22.
She spent the rest of her brief life there, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments.
She later contracted tuberculosis of the bone in her right knee.
Sister Marie Bernard became disabled from 1877 until her death.
She professed Perpetual Vows on September 22nd, 1878, during a period when she was feeling better, but her good health, however, did not last long, and the following December 11th, she returned to the infirmary to never leave it.
She suffered very much physically.
Being in bed created wounds all over her back, and her tuberculosis ridden leg burst.
She developed abbesses in her ears, making her completely deaf for some time.
She wrote in detail about her illness, an example of which is :
"Oh Jesus and Mary, let my entire consolation in this world be to love you and to suffer for sinners."
She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 1879.
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), was a French Discalced Carmelite nun.
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| Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus |
She is popularly known as "The Little Flower of Jesus".
She is well known from 'The Story of a Soul', a collection of her autobiographical manuscripts, printed and distributed a year after her death.
The essence of her approach to the spiritual life may be found in her statement :
"I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way - very short and very straight, a little way that is wholly new."
However, this is offset by her presumptuous statement :
"I will spend my heaven doing good upon the earth. I will let fall a shower of roses".
'Presumption means that we do not live in hope, we live in a sense of false certitude. Presumption is the vice whereby we expect to gain eternal life.'
When St Thérèse realised that she had tuberculosis she wrote the following:
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| "The Little Flower of Jesus" |
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| The Basilica at Lisieux |
'I thought immediately of the joyful thing that I had to learn, so I went over to the window. I was able to see that I was not mistaken. (she had coughed up blood). Ah ! my soul was filled with a great consolation; I was interiorly persuaded that Jesus, on the anniversary of His own death, wanted to have me hear His first call !'
As the fatal disease slowly progressed St Thérèse recorded every twist and turn of the disease's progress in the most appalling and mawkish detail.
On her death-bed she said:
"I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me."
This, however, was not asceticism, as practised by the early Fathers of the Church, but rather a perverse, almost masochistic form of exhibitionism.
Both St Bernadette and St Thérèse's response to illness was based on the concept of 'sharing in Christ's sufferings', which if not properly understood, had a possible tendency to put the sufferer on a par with the Saviour and Redeemer himself - rather in the sense of 'co-redemptrix' or 'co-redemtor'.
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Our Lady of Fatima
Peter Crawford
© Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
This misguided understanding was, unintentionally encouraged by the example of Fatima.
The children of Fatima - three young shepherds - received a vision of an angel, who identified himself as the 'Angel of Peace', and he gave a long and complex message, part of which contained the words :
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| © Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
'Make of everything you can a sacrifice and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for the conversion of sinners .....'
The concept of 'sacrifice', most clearly expressed in the 'Epistle to the Hebrews', in the New Testament, was forcefully encouraged by this vision.
Later, a Lady, who is now known as 'Our Lady of Fatima' appeared to the three children.
Included in her message were the following words :
Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners ? Sacrifice yourselves for sinners ! .....'
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| Jacinta Marto |
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| Francisco Marto |
Francisco, the youngest of the children, contracted influenza in 1918, and declined hospital treatment, and a day later, on April 4th he died peacefully at home.
Jacinta contracted influenza around the same time, and developed purulent pleurisy and endured an operation in which two of her ribs were removed.
Because of the condition of her heart, she could not be anaesthetized and suffered terrible pain, which she said would 'help to convert many sinners'.
On February 20th, 1920, Jacinta died, as she had often said she would, alone.
The suffering and death of these two young Saints (as they later became), was seen by many in the Catholic community as suitable 'sacrifices for the conversion of sinners'.
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'sharing in Christ's sufferings'
'Christ on the Cross'
Eric Gill |
Now the theology of this particular subject is very complex, and this is not the place to go into it detail.
It is sufficient to say that suffering and illness, 'per se', is not more admirable, in moral terms, than health and wellness, and it is how such conditions are related to an individual's spiritual formation that is relevant.
Unfortunately, Wilding seemed to be of the opinion that illness was itself more laudable than wellness.
To put it in everyday language he was a 'sucker' for a 'hard luck story', particularly if that 'story' involved a sick individual.
In fact, Wilding was such a 'sucker', that on one occasion he had the pupils and parents donating, what eventually became a sizeable sum money, to a non-existent, starving village.
However, it was not just Wilding being 'duped' and then, in turn, presumably innocently, 'duping' the pupils and parents, - it was more serious than that.
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| Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche |
The German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who wrote, among other things, 'Der Antichrist' (The Antichrist), based his condemnation of Christianity on the view that a meaningful philosophy of life should be "life-affirming", and that one should question any doctrine that drained one's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those ideas might be.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philologist, philosopher, cultural critic, poet and composer. He wrote several critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and aphorism.
Nietzsche conceived of a 'master morality' and a 'slave morality', taking his categories from the sociology of the Ancient World, and in particular Ancient Greece.
Nietzsche presents this "master morality" as the original system of morality - perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece.
To be "morally good" was to be happy, and to have the things related to happiness: wealth, strength, health, etc.
To be "morally bad" was to be poor, weak, sick, pathetic - an object of pity or disgust rather than hatred.
And in Nietzsche's thinking the 'master morality' was equated with non-Christian paganism, and the 'slave morality' was equated with Christianity.
(see 'Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft' 1886 and Zur Genealogie der Moral: Eine Streitschrift 1887).
Because there was a certain element of truth in propositions described in the two books quoted above, along with 'Die fröhliche Wissenschaft' (1882–1887) and 'Also sprach Zarathustra' (1883–1885), Nietzsche was able to wreak enormous damage on the ligitimacy of Christian, and in particular, Catholic moral and ethical teaching - and this damage has continued to the present day.
But back to Holy Cross.
Unfortunately, listening to one of Wilding's assemblies, and also some of his staff-room monologues, one would consider Nietzsche's analysis of Christian morality to be correct.
It did seem, according to Wilding, that to be 'poor, weak, sick, pathetic - an object of pity or disgust' was morally laudable, and that a person so afflicted (or in Wilding's terms - blest) would be closer to God, and participating more fully in the 'economy of slavation'.
The 'Economy of Salvation' is that part of divine revelation that deals with God’s creation and management of the world, particularly His plan for salvation accomplished through the Church.
John Darby
John Darby was Thanet born and bred.
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| Chatham House School - Ramsgate |
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| Chatham House School |
He came from a staunchly Roman catholic family, but strangely was educated a the prestigious, non-Catholic Chatham House Grammar School, where he was remembered as good at sport, but not much else.
Chatham House was also the 'alma mater' of the infamouse Edward Heath (1926-1935).
Now, with so many rumours circulating about what Heath got up to on 'Morning Cloud', and with Jimmy Saville, the school is probably trying to downplay the association.
John Darby did, however, manage to acquire sufficient examination successes to enable him to train as a teacher.
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| Edward Heath |
Interestingly, Darby returned to Chatham House (a non-Catholic School) to teach - a fine example of the 'old boy' made good.
When he eventually came to Holy Cross he was given the elevated position as head of the Maths Department, although, still being a sporty type, he also taught physical education.
Darby was a large man (more fat than muscle, however) but his imposing bulk and forceful character gave him a reputation as a strict disciplinarian.
He was a good teacher, but his lack of 'sharpness' in intellectual matters proved somewhat of a disadvantage, and while he was relatively good with young people he did have a problem with 'reading' adults.
To quote the famous saying about teachers - he was 'a man among children, and a child among men'.
His fatal flaw was that he was unable to comprehend that simple fact, and always imagined that he was able to 'outsmart' his colleagues, when in most cases they found it too irksome or embarrassing to object to his schemes, plans and proposals.
He was unfortunate in that he lost his wife to cancer - and she was a woman in the prime of life.
Bernard Wilding, who lost his son, Stephen, never got over his loss, and became an empty husk of a man thereafter.
John Darby, however, after his wife's death, was married again after a few months, and couldn't understand why many of his 'colleagues' found that disturbing at the least, or even 'sinister'.
Wilding, on the surface, declared the new marriage delightful, but then Wilding was almost all 'surface', and who knows what he really thought.
Darby was obsessed with computers, and ran lessons entitled 'Computer Studies' - thinking that this would prepare his pupils for the future - and he really thought that 'Computer Studies', apart from maths, was the most important subject taught in the school.
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| ZX Spectrum |
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| Commodore 64 |
Little did he imagine that in the 21st century even children would have computers in their pockets - things called 'smart-phones' - and nobody would need to study them, or know how to 'programme' them, or know 'computer language', or have any understanding of how they worked, as they would be designed to be wholly intuitive, - and one wonders how many hours were wasted on those lessons designed to enable pupils to operate ZX Spectrum or a Commodore 64.
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd. The machine was launched as the ZX Spectrum by Sinclair to highlight the machine's colour display, compared with the black-and-white of its predecessor, the ZX81. The Spectrum was ultimately released as eight different models, ranging from the entry level model with 16 kB RAM released in 1982 to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 kB RAM and built in floppy disk drive in 1987.
In 1982, Commodore introduced the Commodore 64 as the successor to the VIC-20. Thanks to a well-designed set of chips designed by MOS Technology, the Commodore 64, (also referred to as C64), possessed remarkable sound and graphics for its time,
From the point of view of the present, what is odd about this computer obsessed man is his lack of 'presence' on the Internet - and repeated searches have failed to find any mention or image of the man - anywhere.
This, however, does not just apply to John Darby, but to most of the major characters in this saga of Roman Catholic Education.
John Darby's other obsession was skiing, so he cleverly arranged for a school sponsored trip to the skiing slopes, for the chosen few, every year.
This, of course, made him immensely popular with the pupils, and not a few of the staff, (including Barry Cage and Jill Simms (later Mrs Cage).
It also helped his discipline, as only 'well behaved' pupils (by John Darby's standards) were permitted to go on these trips.
It should be remembered, however, that most of the pupils attending Holy Cross came from working class, and in many cases, impoverished backgrounds.
While it was undoubtedly a 'good thing' to give them a holiday on the snow covered slopes, it was in many ways culturally and socially inappropriate.
Many of them would not be able to afford such a privileged holiday in the future and, in fact, many members of the school staff found such a holiday beyond their financial means.
But Darby needed the slopes once a year, and what better way to enjoy this that to take the pupils - have a holiday, improve his discipline, and improve his popularity.
Darby always carried round the school a metal briefcase, and on one side of the briefcase was a stuck a huge skiing logo, so that the allure and glamour of the slopes was presented to the pupils at all times - great advertising by anybody's standards.
But then Darby, while he was not intellectually smart - was 'street smart', like many of his pupils.
Darby had one more trick up his sleeve - the Wednesday Club.
This operated very much like the Ski Trip.
It was basically a reward for good behaviour.
The 'good kids' were allowed to return to the school gym in the evening and use various items of sports equipment and play records.
The evening always ended up with a game of indoor hockey.
Tony MacDonald
Eventually a Deputy headmaster was found for Bernard Wilding.
Tony MacDonald (or is it McDonald) was a bluff northerner, (and that's a real understatement), with a strong Yorkshire accent, and an inordinate liking for beer.
He was almost certainly an alcoholic - but what is technically known as a 'functioning alcoholic'.
When comparing him to Bernard Wilding the phrase 'chalk and cheese' instantly comes to mind.
Wilding was, in most cases, 'bad' by default - he simply failed to do the right thing, out of cowardice, stupidity or laziness
'in the world, sin is omnipresent to the degree that the vigilant struggle to avoid sinful conduct is doomed to failure, - and Wilding's 'distance' and lack of positive action mirrored this theme in Graham Greene's books.'
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Gilbert Jones
fay and effeminate |
MacDonald was just 'bad' - in fact he was a sadist - although probably not in the sexual sense.
He just enjoyed seeing pain, physical or mental, in others..
But that is to misrepresent matters - in fact he was, in all but name, the headmaster, as Wilding faded discreetly into his office, to be brought out only for assemblies and 'staff meetings'.
MacDonald was an old style catholic, and he wished to impose his view of how to teach religion on the staff of the RE Department (led by Sister Alice) - such as it was.
His solution to the vexed question of how to teach religion to adolescents was to go back to the Rosary.
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| The Rosary |
The rosary (Latin rosarium, meaning "Crown of Roses") is a Roman Catholic sacramental and Marian devotion to prayer and the commemoration of Jesus and events of his life. The term "Rosary" is used to describe both a sequence of prayers and a string of prayer beads used to count the prayers. The rosary was given to Saint Dominic in an apparition by the Virgin Mary in the year 1214 The traditional fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary were instituted by Pope Pius V in the 16th century. The mysteries are grouped into three sets: the Joyful mysteries, the Sorrowful mysteries, and the Glorious mysteries. In 2002 Pope John Paul II announced a set of five new optional mysteries called the Luminous mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to twenty.
Now in this MacDonald was not entirely wrong.
There is much to be learned about faith and doctrine from a study of the rosary, but as a form of catechesis there are few authorities who would suggest such an approach as being apposite for the youth of today.
MacDonald did attempt to teach some religious education lessons on this basis, but as was expected he was far from successful.
To the pupils MacDonald was known as 'Meathead' - and it is remarkable how aptly young people find names for their elders.
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| Tony MacDonald - Corporal Punishment |
They feared him, mainly because he introduced the cane to Holy Cross - a form of punishment that Bernard Wilding was resolutely against - but Wilding was powerless to control his sadistic deputy.
Corporal punishment, of course, is now illegal in school, but this does not necessarily mean that such punishment is wrong.
For thousands of years it has been believed that, as a last resort, young people should be physically punished, and the wisdom of the ages should not be put aside lightly.
The problem with MacDonald's use of corporal punishment was that it was not used to correct the child, but rather to satisfy the individual handing out the punishment.
But MacDonald's victims were not only the pupils.
His first victim among the staff was Bill Brears.
Now Bill was supposed to be a close friend of Bernard Wilding, but Wilding did nothing (as usual) to protect Bill from MacDonald's constant complaints.
MacDonald thought that Bill was 'soft', and was not disciplining the upper age group of pupils sufficiently.
Bill (who was officially Senior Master) was not 'soft', but was sensitive to criticism, and poured his heart out to a member of staff - complaining that too much pressure was being put on him, and that his work load was too heavy.
Two days later he was dead from a heart attack.
At a memorial assembly, held in the Gym, MacDonald gave a peroration for the 'departed' Senior Master, in which he hypocritically described Bill as a 'true English gentleman'.
It seems a pity that MacDonald couldn't learn anything from his first victim at Holy Cross.
The one thing that MacDonald was not was a gentleman - rather he was a thug.
Another member of staff who presented a problem for MacDonald was Jill Goodreau.
Now Jill, who specialised in English, was not a Roman Catholic.
She was forward looking, quite unconventional and quite popular with many of the older pupils.
MacDonald was not at all happy about her influence over the older pupils, and it must be remembered here that MacDonald was an 'old style' Catholic, hiding under the 'sheep's clothing' of Vatican II.
So he started putting pressure on Jill - at staff meetings, in the staff-room, and by increasing her work load.
Jill caught a cold, and then it developed into 'flu - but Jill was young - about forty, and so it was 'no big deal'.
But then she developed pneumonia, was taken into hospital - and died.
There was assembly in the gym, and another peroration, this time not so fulsome, and another member of staff had gone.
Not everybody, of course 'passed away' under pressure, but it was always possible to force people to leave.
A number of members of staff left under such pressure, including Sister Alice, who attempted to teach Religious Education, Alan Ward, who taught history, Steve Whiteman, who taught physical education, and John Darby.
MacDonald was intensely jealous of Darby's popularity with the pupils.
One way to reduce this popularity was to stop the Wednesday Club, which gave Darby so much control over the senior pupils.
Darby would not budge, however.
Eventually, though, when more pressure was brought to bear on Darby, he decide to leave and go to work with his brother.
Before he left, he handed over the running of the Wednesday Club to another member of staff - without revealing MacDonald's plans.
This individual was not a member of the secret cabal, however, - the 'Senior Staff'
And so, after a brief period, MacDonald simply changed the locks on the Gym, and the Wednesday Club was 'locked out', and was forced to disband.
There was no discussion, and no warning.
The pupils came in the evening, and the doors were locked.
And that is one of the reasons why MacDonald can be described as a 'thug' - and a vicious thug at that.
The MacDonald, having cowed everyone on the staff, including Wilding, decided to leave, and everyone drew a great sigh of relief - including Bernard Wilding.
But then there was a new problem.
Once again the school needed a new Deputy Head - and that could be a problem.
But help was at hand.
John Darby as Deputy Head
Much to everyone's surprise, John Darby came back as Deputy Headmaster.
Or was everyone surprised ?
It all happened very quickly.
MacDonald was no sooner out than John Darby was in - so had it all been pre-arranged ?
Quite possibly.
But when John Darby came back it was not the John Darby that everyone remembered.
There was the first assembly, and the staff were all waiting for Darby to lay down some strict yet fair guidelines for the pupils to follow.
Instead, in shuffled a hunched over man in drag !
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Female Cleaner
with Mop and Bucket |
And yes - it was John Darby pretending to be a female cleaner with a mop and bucket.
And then - leaning on his mop he proceeded, in a falsetto voice, and exaggerated cockney accent to moan about how the pupils were not looking after the school - dropping litter etc.
Everybody, including the pupils, were embarrassed.
The staff, not surprisingly, were appalled.
And what did Bernard Wilding think.
Well, once Darby had finished, he thanked his new Deputy Head, and then continued with an apparently normal assembly.
It seems that during his time away, Darby had become 'born again' - that is, infused with a religious mania - but unfortunately he had an almost total lack of understanding of doctrine or scripture.
Undoubtedly he should have stuck to his ZX Spectrum !
Now in most schools the pupils fear being reported to the Head, or Deputy Head master.
Under Darby's new regime it was a little different, however.
It was the teaching staff who feared being reported to the Deputy Head.
Darby had an open door policy, and pupils would simply say, if criticised or corrected - 'I'll tell Mr Darby !'.
Not surprisingly, discipline declined dramatically.
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| Photocopier |
And while the school began to sink into the non-academic abyss, Darby could be found moving furniture round the school - one of his favourite little hobbies.
And when a new photocopier was to be purchased, he acquired three on approval, and set them up in his office.
He then staged a 'race' to see which machine was the fastest - and so this was how the second most senior individual in the school spent his time.
Meanwhile, Wilding would be inconsequentially chatting to the school secretaries over tea and biscuits.
One problem John Darby had was when he started talking about religion when taking 'assembelies' - and probably also when taking the odd, (and yes probably 'odd'), Religious Education lesson.
He had an unfortunate tendency to find it difficult, at least in his own mind, to sort out the relationship between Jesus Christ and God the Father - not to mention the 'Holy Spirit' (Spiritūs Sancti - in Latin - and Heiligen Geist in Benedict's native German - 'Geist' also having the additional meaning of 'mind').
This was probably the result of not having had a Roman Catholic secondary school education, which resulted in Darby having a very poor understanding of Christology and Trinitarian Doctrine.
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Christ Pantocrator
Παντοκράτωρ |
Christology - refers to the study of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ as they coexist within one person.There are no direct discussions in the New Testament regarding the dual nature of the Person of Christ as both divine and human. Hence, since the early days of Christianity, theologians have debated various approaches to the understanding of these natures, at times resulting in schisms.
Hypostatic union (fὑπόστασις - hypóstasis) is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis. The First Council of Ephesus recognised this doctrine and affirmed its importance, stating that the humanity and divinity of Christ are made one according to nature and hypostasis in the Logos.
The Catholic doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons or hypostases: (see above) the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; "one God in three persons". The three persons are distinct (three divine hypostases) - yet are one "substance, essence or nature". In this context, a "nature" is what one is, while a "person" is who one is.
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Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Roman Inquisition |
One wonders of course, considering the above, what would have happened had Darby, - and Wilding and MacDonald for that matter - been arraigned before the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the Roman Inquisition).
The most probable outcome would have been that, after brief questioning, they would have been handed over to the 'secular authority' for suitable punishment.
Of course, the Roman Inquisition stopped doing this a long, long time ago.
In the end burning people alive came to be thought of as not very 'Christian'.
However, it should be remembered that Darby, MacDonald and Wilding were being paid - and very handsomely - for promoting the Roman Catholic faith in Thanet through the medium of education, and this was something that they demonstrably failed to do - and failed miserably.
In Darby's case it was undoubtedly because his grasp of the faith was tenuous
(This is not, of course to say the he was, personally, not a good Catholic. This is something between him and his conscience.)
MacDonald seemed to have a reasonable understanding of faith and doctrine, but his overwhelming egoism and perverse manner prevented him from communicating his understanding effectively.
Wilding seemed to vacillate between 'happy clappy' Protestantism, and a vague Graham Greene style Catholicism.
If he didn't know where he stood, how could anyone else take a lead from him - pupils or staff ?
As time went on John Darby became increasingly paranoid - a not uncommon response to attempting to work at Holy Cross.
Strangely, he was not paranoid about the pupils.
Instead it was the staff that concerned him, and he strove to make them work increasingly hard, insisting on them staying behind long after the end of the school day, and in making then attend various supposedly educational meeting, often outside Thanet.
His paranoia also extended to affairs far beyond the School.
He had various apocalyptic fantasies, centring around social collapse and world war.
Apocalypticism is the religious belief that there will be an apocalypse, a term which originally referred to a revelation of God's will, but now usually refers to belief that the world will come to an end time very soon, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of catastrophic global event.
Possibly the worst example of this was when the United States bombed Tripoli in Libya.
Darby held a school assembly on this topic, mentioning that he had heard the American bombers leaving on their bombing raid from Manston.
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الجمهورية العربية الليبية
Al-Jumhūrīyah Al-ʿArabiyyah Al-Lībiyyah
© Copyright Peter Crawford 2013 |
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| 1986 United States Bombing of Libya, |
RAF Manston was an RAF station in the north-east of Kent, at grid reference TR334663 on the Isle of Thanet from 1916 until 1996.
The 1986 United States bombing of Libya, code-named Operation El Dorado Canyon, comprised air-strikes by the United States against Libya on 15 April 1986. The attack was carried out by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps via air-strikes, in response to the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing. There were reportedly 40 Libyan casualties and one US plane shot down killing two airmen.
There is no evidence that Manston was actually used by the USAF.
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| Nuclear War |
The main thrust of the assembly was that Libya might strike back at Thanet (?), and that the pupils should be prepared - and presumably pray.
Not only was it unlikely that Manston had been used for the strike on Libya, it was also ridiculous to think that Libya had the capability - or intention for that matter - to attack Thanet.
Such fantasies fed the paranoia of other members of staff, and Phil Cooper, the teacher of Sociology, ended up having a complete break down, in which he believed that there had been a nuclear war, and all the staff, including Cooper, were ghosts - simply 'going through the motions'.
to be continued
The Holy Cross admission policy was mainly for children of a Roman Catholic background although the school admitted a large number of children of a non-religious or Protestant background.
The Holy Cross School's Art Deco (?) styled building was built near the cliff tops of Broadstairs on the East Kent coast.
This also had large windows that could be opened to allow in the sun's rays.
When the nuns left, and the building became a Catholic School, it was constantly rumoured that the top floor of the building was haunted.
Strangely enough the top floor was never used, and was out of bounds to pupils.
The head of the English Department (Mike Courtenay - who was believed by the pupils to be 'gay', and then shocked them all by marrying and leaving for the States) reported that one night, when in the playground, he had seen a nun on the top floor silently ringing a hand bell from one of the windows - and he was a reliable senior member of staff (and a good catholic) who was not inclined to lie.
Was the school haunted ? - Well if atmosphere of the building was anything to go by it was exceptionally creepy, and the only person who seemed to be at home in this 'creepyness' was the equally creepy headmaster (see above).
And apart from ghostly nuns, it is also rumoured that the site contains an Anglo Saxon burial ground.
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| Holy Cross School - Broadstairs |
But it was not just 'ghost stories' - or a 'creepy feeling' that caused many to wonder what was really going on in that cold, gaunt building.
It was something far more tangible.
It was sickness, addiction, lechery, neurosis and in the end death that stalked those echoing corridors.
A number of staff members suffered neurotic and, in some cases, psychotic breakdowns.
Other began to behave in ways which were completely out of character - embarking on inappropriate personal and sexual relationships.
And then there was the Art teacher's alcoholism, and his eventual death.
The death of two members of the English department - young women; healthy and in their prime, suddenly struck down.
The sudden death of the Senior Master - Bill Brears.
The death of the school secretary's husband.
The lingering and painful death of the wife of the head of the Maths Department (who also worked at the school teaching physical education) - another young woman (Mrs Darby) - in her prime - and struck down.
And even the deaths of mothers of children who attended the school, (Mrs Goodfellow and Mrs Kemp)
The death of the father of the teacher of Religious Education.
And, of course, the death of the headmaster's son, Steven, in a stupid and pointless accident.
And all in the space of a few years.
For many it was surely a 'cursed enterprise'.
And some would think it was a 'curse', some supernatural power feeding of those who were sufficiently unwise to become associated with the building, but others would blame the mayhem among the staff on the incompetence of the Headmaster, Bernard Wilding, which permitted the violent and dictatorial managerial styles of the two Deputy Headmaster during this period - MacDonald and Darby - suggesting that many were simply hounded into a premature grave, or a mental breakdown, or forced to leave by those two obsessively driven individuals.
But then what was driving them ?
One answer to that question has already bee answered by the pathetic story of the boy who was abused by Father Alexander Bede Walsh (who was sentenced to 22 years in prison in March 2012 for serious paedophile offences against boys).
Walsh used religion to control his young victims, telling one boy the abuse was 'the hand of God touching him'.
Undoubtedly some of the individuals involved in this equally pathetic story felt that they had been touched by 'the hand of God'.
This is undoubtedly true of Wilding (announcing, blasphemously, in assembly the sainthood of his dead son Stephen), and Darby with his constant harping on about his religious and moral certainties.
However, in all three there is an egoism, and a sadism, that is totally in opposition to the gentle Christian ideals that they claimed to be upholding, and which they were paid (and paid well) to uphold.
It goes without saying, of course, that anyone who considers that they are acting as the 'hand of God' is very dangerous - and here we are not just referring to paedophile priests.
Equally, 'tin-pot' little headmasters, and their deputies are not particularly dangerous, despite the fact that they may ruin careers, drive certain individuals to break-down, and even fatal illness, and more importantly ruin the education of large numbers of young people.
But one wonders what these individuals may have done had they not been 'tin-pot' characters responsible for a neglected little school.
We know that, given the power, the religiously minded (or obsessed) - Popes calling for Crusades, Sheiks calling for Jihad (bin Laden and his kind), Witch-Finder Generals, and even our beloved Cromwell (who banned Christmas and was responsible for regicide) will go to the most appalling extremes to further their 'religious faith'.
And of course, we are reminded of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition (also known as the 'Santo Oficio' - Holy Office) - which tortured and was indirectly responsible for the deaths of countless thousands of people.
(Unfortunately, any mention of the Inquisition will bring images of 'Monty Python' and the 'soft cushions' - but try to put such images out of your mind - after all, we are trying to be serious.)
Founded by Pope Paul III in 1542, the congregation's sole objective is to "spread sound Catholic doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger". Its offices are head-quartered at the Palace of the Holy Office, just outside Vatican City. The congregation employs an advisory board including cardinals, bishops, priests, lay theologians, and canon lawyers. Recently headed by Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), the current Prefect is Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller.
And as you can see from the information above, it still exists - unable to torture people (at least physically) at the present time - but always ready to do the bidding of the Pope.
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