See also more comments about staff here...
I was very interested to see the photo of the 1969 
staff...it released a flood of memories!. I could go on at great length
about a good many of them, but I've selected a few snippets which hopefully
will trigger more in the minds of those who read them, and also induce a
smile or two. Bearing in mind that ALL kids are to a certain extent cruel
when relating anything about their schoolmasters, I've mentioned the
nicknames by which they were (affectionately!) known at the time. The
cruelty only becomes apparent once they've grown up of course!!!
Tom Hilton - "genial" is a word which always springs to mind
when remembering him as he was then.....then I remembered the canes........
I reckon he is so fit for his age now because of
two things: the exercise afforded by the wielding of the those foul engines
of punishment, and secondly...all that walking up and down Drift Road hill
in Wallington....he lived at the top, and the pub was at the bottom!
Was always bringing in "inventions" to his Physics
class....made from toilet rolls, pipe cleaners, chicken wire etc.
Great!...they worked!, but.....he claimed that, given a piece of
Plutonium, he could make an atom bomb from the things that could be found in
an ordinary, everyday household !........wonder what his
house was like?
He had a damaged hand which
I seem to recall he said had been shot at by a Spitfire of all things! Ed.
Who remembers the "boy gauge" in his 
workshop?.....a fiendish device on the front of his workbench to "align"
boys whilst demonstrating to an assembled horde in front of it. If I
remember correctly it was sharp at the business end, and simply cleared a
semicircle of civilised radius from among the aforementioned horde. The man
was a woodworking genius!
I remember his favourite
saying - "don't waste wood boys, it doesn't grow on trees" Ed.
He told wonderful stories, often of a seafaring 
nature, and very often involving his Uncle Evan. Sometimes known to have
taught some Geography too!
Cliff Street - was probably the inspiration for some of Elton
John's spectacles later on. And in 1973 I bought his house in Fareham from
him.
Bob Gilbert - a brilliant musician who bore a remarkable
likeness to Neil Sedaka, especially at the piano, of which he was master.
Saw a fair bit of him after leaving, usually at the Limes, with one or two
of my contemporaries. Whatever became of him?
Top left Cliff
Street next to Ellis
with Bob Gilbert front left and Roy Daysh