Me ... and my grandma

Camp School senior class early 1900s.  Courtesy Darren Stanton.

The first photograph was taken c1900.  These were some of the earliest pupils of Camp Elementary Schools, probably twelve year-olds in Class 1 of the Senior School.  Within a short while these children, boys mainly, will be leaving to take on employment, while it was common for girls to remain a little longer.  Perhaps a former pupil is no longer present, having gained a place at the High School or St Albans School.  Note, there are 22 pupils present, and it is assumed that constitutes the whole class of the year group.

In the very early 1900s many of the pupils will have walked to school from hamlets such as Tyttenhanger Green; the number of houses at Camp would have been relatively small.  However, given the Fleetville Schools did not open until 1908, one or two from Fleetville may be in the line-up; and the supplier of this picture assures me that at least one child lived at Castle Road.

Camp School junior class c1940.  Courtesy George Smith.

Now for the second photo.  Same school, then known as Camp JMI School, with children only up to the age of 11.  This group may have been the top group of c1940, or those in what we now know as Year Five.  The class now has 43 children present, and there may well have been one or two more, not at school on the day the photograph was taken.

Look to the right of the 1940 picture, and across the entrance porch ... was taken the 1900 photograph.

Notice too, that in both pictures the boys and the girls are in separate rows (but spot the exception).

Most, if not all, of the boys in the top picture, will have joined the call to arms in a few years time; how many of them survived to return to civilian life later?   Many of the children in the bottom picture had fathers, uncles, even older brothers, who had been called to serve in the later war.  How many of them still had that father/uncle/brother five years later?

The chance of recognising a relative from 1900 is fairly slim, but the possibility of of recognising someone from 1940 is that much greater – and the subjects themselves will now be in their eighties.  Is there anyone who can say, "That's me!" ?  Or perhaps you can spot your mum or dad.