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RGS High Wycombe: Grey Books

You can see who all your form mates were by clicking on the links below.

 

1913 *

1914 *

 

 

1936 *

1937 *

 

 

1940 *

 

1942 *

1943

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

1949

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

 

Note that Greybooks refer to Autumn term whereas School Photographs were taken in the following Spring.
i.e see the 1955 Grey Book for boys in the 1956 photo.

I have been able to produce searchable PDFs for most of the Grey Books listed above, though not all Greybooks are complete. Click on the links you find (maybe right-click and Save Link) to download the PDF and use the search box to find yourself or your friends etc.

Books marked * were originally the property of D W (David) Davis and R A Davis and were kindly donated by David Davis. Original books were scanned by Tony Barr, Ron Wynands, and Rennie Vickers.

Has anyone got a copy of any more Grey Books for the years prior to 1943?

Grey Books for the years 1957 to 1971 can be seen on John Saunders' website

Comments on the Grey Books:-

September 2015: Tony Barr (1947-1950) sent me the scans of the 1936 & 1937 Grey Books together with the two emails copied below:-

Tony
I hope the GB’s add something for the future. I have found one or two of our village lads in the them. They all have departed to a rather longer book in whatever place they have gone to.
St Peter may have ERT in training for a long apprenticsship and he isn’t yet a class ink-monitor and dreams of the sub-prefectorial honour that may befall him if he sustains his path of good works. His gown hangs lazily on the peg beside him, but not yet even an assembly to reprimand or mortar-board to carry. Sam’s voice seems everywhere that ERT moves, as his earthly deputy has done well in the staff hockey team and is in the ‘Head’s’ good books. A tear to shed … what did they say on earth… ‘sic transit’ something or other.
Best wishes, Tony 

Hi Tony,
I guess you will not wish to have further emails on the old Grey Books, but as I lazily grazed through the contents, I realised what a wonderful source they are for analysis of the structure of the school and the change that it underwent in these years. I just looked at the staff structure and did a quick comparison with 1913-4 and the 1936-7 cohort, followed by 1950 and realised the amazing growth of the numbers of teachers employed, but also how ERT’s own appointment ushered in a new era of staff appointments. Numbers of the staff remained at the school for many years. ERT was establishing his own identity on the school, despite the fact that the governing body at first still largely represented an older generation. I also wondered how far the extension of the school i.e. the two new wings, influenced change at this time. I am uncertain of the dating of these new buildings.

My apology at the beginning of this email, is really an excuse that I could not contemplate looking at these factors. Once the material was on a PC it would be so easy to play various statistical tricks with the Grey Books, but that is not for me at my ripe old age. More than ten years ago I did some small business historical analysis and found it quite fascinating to see change at the micro level and what affects growth and decline.

However, your effort to publish the documents on the RGS is a very worthwhile exercise, not only as record of people, but maybe fruit for a young social historian/statistician.

Best wishes, Tony Barr


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