two-and-a-half hundredweight of assorted groceries. It seemed that chaos would reign for ever as our unpractised fingers spilt flour into the sugar, and our inexpert eyes and noses strove to identify the contents of mysterious, unlabelled packages. Things began to sort themselves out as we set aside rations for the individual families, identified as yet only by a meaningless name and a rough description of their members. 'I've 2 children under 5 and an aged grandparent, so I want more evaporated milk, and you can KEEP the pilchards' would be the order front a helper, invisible behind a barrier of corned beef tins. By late evening we had made up parcels for 29 families. Each contained a pound each of flour and sugar, a quarter of lard or margarine, and of tea, a tin of dried milk and either corned beef or fish of some kind. The jam and sweets went to schoolboys and girls, while the under fives had the evaporated milk, extra sugar and flavoured semolina. Finally these parcels were wrapped, tied and labelled and 20 boys loaded them on to a Scout trek-cart and pushed it stoutly into Greenford in the middle of a snow storm. The less said about the traffic jam in the Post Office that morning the better. By January, the ordinary parcel post was open to Germany and Austria, so we were able to send directly to those countries as we had done previously to France and Italy. From what remained of the Christmas orgy we at once despatched a few trial parcels, containing mostly macaroni, beans and flour. We were delighted to find that these arrived in record time, but as the weeks wore on with no news of those sponsored by Save Europe Now we became apprehensive. Then suddenly the letters came with a rush. The parcels were arriving in good order, and we could go ahead with a clear conscience. In February we launched a new appeal, this time for clothes and medical supplies as well as food. There was no great hurry, so the food parcels went off in pairs at leisure to be stamped by the Food Office. We sewed them into flour bags, and the clothes we sewed into a bundle wrapped in the largest garment available. We had a long list of new addresses, for friends and parents interested in the scheme came forward with many helpful suggestions. The older friends were not forgotten, especially, the families where there were children, for various forms had adopted a child or a household and were holding a lively correspondence with them in German, and even in Latin. In the Spring term 30 food parcels and 20 clothing ones were despatched to individual families. After the Lost Property Parade, we parcelled up the clothes and shoes not claimed or bought and sent them with the others to the Friends' Relief Service, and to four ministers in the British Zone responsible for clothing distribution in their areas. Of these only one is known to have got lost after its owner had actually been summoned to the Customs House in Berlin to collect it! The Summer Term gave an opportunity to carry the scheme even further. We have made new friends among the families who used to be only names on the food parcel list, and are helping to fit them out with clothes now we know just how big the children are, the clothing contributions were particularly generous this time, and We sent 6 large parcels to a Girls' Secondary School in Bremen. It contains many refugee children from the old German provinces of East Prussia and Silesia, who arrived penniless and with no belongings at all. We have begun to make contact with other schools. Another 6 parcels of assorted clothes are on the way to the minister of Lutter am Barenberge, a country parish in the British Zone which also is giving hospitality to hundreds of refugees of all ages. The friends of the school who contributed food, clothing and money, and the school's great efforts at collecting, parcelling, form-filling and posting not only ensured the success of the enterprise but made possible the beginning of promising friendships between the school in Greenford and many young people all over Europe and this less than two years after the war! The 1946 Intake Remembers Ann (Dixon) and Derek Dawes and Audrey (Douglas) Barnes were all part of the 1946 intake and have sent a few impressions of those immediate post-war years and the last year of Mr Withrington's Headship:- Derek came directly from Leedss as Lyons Tea, where his father was employed, had evacuated itself firstly to Bristol from Greenford; then when Bristol was heavily bombed in the dock area, moved to Leeds. Derek had no school uniform at first and no P.E. kit. Arthur Howards (school outfitter at Greenford and Ealing) ran out of the dreaded green serge for blazers before he arrived. (I've already quoted what happened to those without kit!) Ann remembers the vast hordes of new entrants assembled in the school hall on the first day. There were so many from Wood End Junior School, Northolt, where she went (with special permission from Harrow Council where she lived) that she felt she was with friends, whereas Derek knew no one, and no doubt had a thick Leeds accent having lived there for three or four years. (Ann doesn't remember taking the mickey.) Audrey remmbers the first School Assembly on the second morning. She was overwhelmed by the four-part harmony from the choir which seemed to fill the hall. Ann and Sheila Dixon and Robert Stevenson (Sheila's husband) took Pottery Evening classes with Mr Marlow (who succeeded Maurice Johnson, the Art Master who painted Mr Withrington's portrait). They had great fun, although many ladies in the class took their work very seriously and competed relentlessly to try and outdo each other with their lamp-shade bottoms and jam dishes. Mr Marlow took it all in good part. Items may be on display from the Dixon-Stevenson collection. Ann had a lot of trouble keeping her pots on the wheel and many ended up splattered against the wall. Mr Marlow helped her make a delightful mini chamber-pot with exquisite gun-metal glaze. It resides in the garden in Rayner's Lane where the Dixons lived. Contemporary Impressions We also have some contemporary initial impressions of various aspects of the school in 1946 because they have been printed in the first edition of Prospice. the School Magazine. As Prospice put it: Mr Spriggs had the unique honour of joining the school (Autumn 1946) completely equipped with a whole form. Some of 2X's impressions of their new school:- The School Building: 'Never-ending corridors. innumerable classrooms, and a sea of green blazers.' 'How I would like to climb that tower!' 'When I lost my way (which was often), at least my nose told me where the Advanced Chemistry Lab was!' School Dinners: 'And then, 'You may talk' and the tumult that followed, reminding me of 'Carry on, London'. Work: 'Issued with eleven new exercise books. I soon knew they wanted work!' page 43