Reginald Fittall Nickname: Butch House: Grigg Years: 1939-1943 Memories of the School: When Italy came into the War, the school was relocated to the shores of Lake Naivasha and I was sent there as a boarder and did not see my parents for three months at a time. I hated it at first but soon settled down. We could go rowing on the lake when the herd of hippo were down at the other end, and at weekends we could roam the surrounding bush country. I found a native made beehive up a tree, and after lighting a fire underneath tried to rob some honey for which I was badly stung. When the Italians were defeated in Abyssinia, our school was no longer needed as a military hospital, and we all went back to Nairobi. However, my parents kept me on as a boarder even though our house was only three miles miles away, which saddened me greatly. Air raid shelters had been dug just outside the quadrangle and after nightfall and Prep we went in them for a crafty smoke. The Headmaster, Mr Astley, patrolled the grounds with a huge torch and caught some of us for which we all received six strokes of the cane. I joined the school band and played the bugle and played Reveille in the morning while the flag in the centre of the quadrangle was raised up the pole, and played "Sunset" when it was lowered when it got dark. I became a day boy again when my father died, and formed a band in which I played the saxophone. We played at local gigs in Nairobi and also to the miltary in a large hangar at the airfield. We called ourselves the Verandah Five Jive because we had to rehearse out side on the verandah. Since leaving the School: I joined the R.A.F. on leaving school and trained as a pilot in Southern Rhodesia. After getting my wings I served my time in England flying the Douglas Dakota and then in India training Ghurka paratroops. I married a Nottingham girl and we went to live in Kenya when I left the R.A.F. and I worked for a transport company untli the Mau Mau trouble started, so we abandoned Africa and came to live in England. We managed a Curry's electrical goods shop for a time then bought a Public House. We had two sons by this time and were too busy to bring them up properly and spend time with them, so we sold the Pub and I trained as a Hydraulic Engineer and worked in the Coal Industry until I retired. I live on the outskirts of a village on top of a hill in Nottinghamshire, overlooking part of Sherwood Forest. My sons are both married with families, one lives in Spain and the other in Egypt so we have had many cheap holidays. Sadly, my wife passed away in January this year. (Registered - 8th November 2008)