Chapter 9
The Harris Academy
A
number of local people travelled daily to Dundee, so I had company each morning on my walk
to Leuchars Junction. There were other boys and girls from Leuchars and Guard-bridge going
to the Harris Academy and I was able to team up with two boys, who had already completed
one term at 'The Harris', as the Academy was called locally. One new friend asked if I
wanted to buy his first term books. I said yes, We had the same subjects.
At my
first day at the Academy all the new scholars had to assemble in the large Hall together
with second year pupils who knew where to go. As each name was called out by the secretary
and we came forward we were handed a card. Mine read, 'Alexander Caseby, Ex-Dairsie Public
School, Headmaster, Mr W.S. Seath. Subjects as follows - English, History, Maths, French,
Latin, Science, Art, Arithmetic, Geography, Physical Exercise, Woodwork, Music/Elocution.
My eyes fairly boggled at the string of subjects. After a lapse our names were called out
again by the same official so, 'Alexander Caseby, proceed to Room so-and-so, your Register
Master will be Mr so-and-so.' A former pupil met me and took me to find the room.
The
building was really huge and bewildering with seemingly stair after stair, room after
room. The Science and Art Rooms were four flights up with no lifts of any kind to them. A
beaming teacher met me and shook me by the hand. By eleven o'clock, twenty-two pupils were
enrolled and a bell rang to announce the forenoon break. My throat was dry and I needed
the toilet. Fortunately just outside the room I met my second year train companion, the
lad who offered me the chance to buy his first term books. He soon showed me the way to
the drinking cups and toilets. My new friend later looked at my book requirements and told
me that he had the lot which I immediately agreed to buy for 7/6, a saving of possibly
50/- on new books. In the course of my first day I visited six teachers in six different
rooms. When the finishing bell sounded at four o'clock I felt much less anxious than when
I arrived. I was quite satisfied, for I now felt that I could succeed with hard work plus
my determined nature.
That
evening the Guardbridge lad arrived at my home with my textbooks. They were well covered
and in excellent condition throughout. The lad was paid 10/-, the price difference being
made up by my elder brothers John, James and David. I was now all set for the first term.
At the
end of the first week I had met all my teachers, visited all my necessary rooms and
understood what was expected of me. Two teachers had been at St Andrews University with my
brother John and they were most helpful. Two things I must admit were unpleasant. French
and Latin and Science and Maths classes followed each other as double periods on a Monday.
I found this heavy going. The other subject groupings and contents were quite pleasant for
me, especially English, History and Geography.
Each
day I had 21/2d for lunch. A small bowl of sour apple pudding the size of a cup cost 2d.
The other halfpenny was intended for a small roll with soup, but I spent it sometimes on
an ice-cream cone, other times on a fancy cake or sweets, to give my meal variety. My
lunch was always the same because three colleges in Dundee had no catering facilities and
students were encouraged to use MacDonalds Restaurant in Whitehall Crescent which provided
our cheap school dinners.
Teachers
also used the restaurant and my Art Master, Mr Plenderleith, nicknamed 'Mr Splendid
Teeth', was a regular and always made a point of sniffing the flowers on his table and
saying loudly, 'Ah! God's wonderful flowers.'
Devilment
got the better of me and so one day I put plenty of pepper onto the flowers on his usual
table causing him to sneeze violently, much to everyone's amusement. Somehow it did not
really seem all that funny to me and from then on I tried to be less of a comedian.
I
bought a train season ticket and so on Saturday afternoons I was back in Dundee shopping
around for all kinds of groceries for my family and neighbours, finding bargain prices for
commodities such as tea, margarine, bacon, cheese and rice. I would buy a big parcel of
them for 2/6. The stallholders would give me a free bag of sweets for bringing them trade
and the neighbour would tip me 3d for my bother, which they knew would be used to help
with my school costs.
During
school lunch hours my friends and I often toured Dundee Harbour. Here were scenes of great
excitement when the whalers came in from Arctic regions. I can recall the seamen using
long handled knives to carve up blubber, it being boiled up and the smells of extracted
oil, the heaps of hides, teeth, walrus tusks and flippers. All the men looked so healthy
after their Arctic voyages which brought great prosperity to Dundee.
Dock
Street was another schoolboy favourite haunt. One shop window was where a man worked
tattooing names and fancy creatures on the arms of seamen. Other good weather lunch times
we visited places of interests such as the museum, art gallery, 'Sosh.' (Co-Op), D.M.
Browns, G.L. Swilson, Smith Brothers, the Advertiser and rival Courier newspaper offices,
the courts, jute mills and jam factories. Concerning the latter three, we were taught in
Balmullo that Dundee was most famous for jute, jam and judges.
I
wrote many essays and stories about these lunchtime explorations, the queer speech of many
townspeople and covered exciting incidents including the Suffragettes stripping the slates
off and then burning down the Kinnaird Hall, trying to do the same to Leuchars Station,
then chasing Winston Churchill through Dundee streets and the digging up of St Andrews
Golf Course greens.
The
'Wild Ladies' as the press named them, caused a lot of havoc and had many sympathizers
amongst the male students at St Andrews University, including my elder brother John who
met his future wife, Peg, on a 'Votes for Women' march. The only time I got the 'Tawse'
(strap) in a Harris classroom was for being late back after lunch for a history lesson.
The cause was that I had been watching and making notes about the Suffragettes' activities
at the Kinnaird Hall. I also wrote about the laying of the foundation stone of Caird Hall,
a very happy event attended by the whole Academy.
At the
end of my first year I had an average pass mark of 68%. It had been a year of hard uphill
slogging, mastering new techniques, understanding teachers, some were very mercurial,
others the very opposite. One teacher strutted about as if he was a learned professor,
full of self-importance and oblivious to the world outside his narrow specialism. He
illustrated this one day by pointing to a pupil (who was obviously unwell), demanding,
'Who do you think you are? You with your head between your hands.'
The
startled teacher was given a truthful, if ego-deflating answer when the pupil replied,
'I'm Willie so and so, frac Montrose, the Miller's loon. You're Mr So and So, sine frae
Montrose, the Dairyman's laddie.'
A
great hush fell over the class as the teacher retorted indignantly, 'Go to the Rector's
room at once.' The lad did go, but within minutes he was dispatched to Dundee Royal
Infirmary to have an emergency appendectomy.
When
the boy returned to class some weeks later, teacher and pupil were friends.
My
homework took up about one and a half hours per night for five nights during school
session. I grew to love the Harris Academy, it had character, was well disciplined and
always up to date. I made many good friends.
The
years passed quickly while at the Academy. Thanks to the excellent teaching of Mr William
Seath at Dairsie, I was well ahead for my years.
It was
common talk at the Academy that if Germany had a good harvest the war would start. A
German language teacher, Herr Pag Myre, a man of military bearing, just over sixty years
of age, decorated for his courage in the Franco-Prussian War, gave September 1st as the
day when hostilities would begin.
'And
we shall win.' he said, 'with great new lands under the Kaiser.' One teacher, Mr George
Blackhouse, who was in the' British Intelligence Corps in the Boer War, was most emphatic.
'We
shall make you Huns lick our boots.'
Several
of our German teachers were invited to Germany for the summer of 1914 which was a bumper
harvest year and when war was declared they were interned and, rumour had it, they were
well treated and used for translation duties in prisoner of war camps.
