Staircase Collapse


Geoff (Piggy) Wright - my memories of "The Staircase" incident....

Dec. 1944 to July 1950

I entered GGS into form 3s2 on returning form evacuation in December 1944, a week before the Christmas holidays began!
Memories of the MAIN STAIRCASE incident…somewhat hazy now, but it happened sometime prior to summer 1949,  I can’t be more precise than that  and when I was a form 6Sc pupil. The evening after the collapse, (or was it that evening?)  an innocuous and not very accurate report of the incident appeared in the Evening Chronicle,  submitted no doubt by someone in the Education Offices in Prince Consort Road.
A few of us decided to correct the errors/omissions, so we wrote and submitted a letter to The Editor of that paper, which duly appeared for all to see the following evening. At the conclusion of the assembly the next day, the Boss (G. L.R. Brown) mentioned the appearance of this letter to all assembled and requested that those responsible raise their hands. There was a dead silence – and four(?) hands were raised – mine and those of Shirley Hepple, Isobel Lucas (?) and I cannot really remember the fourth, (was it Ian Richardson? – I cannot be sure!). We were requested to attend outside Mr Brown’s room immediately after Assembly finished!.
BOSS called us into “the inner sanctum” where we were duly and sternly admonished and told we had upset “the Office” – but I am sure there was a twinkle in the Boss’s eyes as he did so! And that was it! End of our fear and trembling!