[West Ender]

Oh God, Fred Van Dome! I remember him as a very young teacher at St Mary's. He once caned me on the hand for forgetting to take a pencil to his Art class (I was 8 years old at the time) but we accepted that sort of discipline in those days. I actually liked the man.

I had been at Paddock House for over a year, about 1955, when St Mary's school had a trip to Europe, which was open to past pupils, and I went. Fred was in charge and supervised a group of about 20 of us all the way from Accrington to Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Germany - overland and by ferry across the Channel. He urged us to call him Fred but none of us could. It was my first trip abroad and I'll never forget it. I owe a lot to that man and his fellow-teachers.