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Ted Pottle
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Edward (Ted) James Pottle
| Nickname: |
Chupa |
| House: |
Clive |
| Years: |
1953-1955 |
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I arrived in Kampala, from the U K, June 1953 after my father was appointed clerk of the works at Makerere College.
I started at POW shortly after this, not sure exactly when. It was a bit of an adventure for someone who was used to
walking to and from school each day to have a train trip of such magnitude to attend school.
I soon settled in at my new school and made new friends. Some of the people I can remember are:
Tony Stylianou, (I think we used to know him as Adonis), Livio Tessaro, Gianfranco Bennetti, Robin Board
(also from Kampala), Carl Isenberg and Paul Sergeant. Who could forget Mr Chadwick who delighted in giving you the
slipper in his private rooms when you had played up. Looking back, and in today’s times, that was a bit suspect. I also
remember Colonel Loftus who is in the Guinness book of records as the oldest teacher ever.
If anybody reads this and remembers me and I have forgotten them I apologise. 50 years is a long time.
Some of my memories of School include:-
Crystal sets, everybody made their own crystal sets and woke every morning to the sounds of “Good morning, good morning,
how is the world today? good morning, good morning to you). This was followed by “Funga Safari”
When there were rumours of dormitory raids, mainly from Scott House, we would creep out after dark and hide in the radio
club room.
The shopping truck which took us into Nairobi and was driven, as we found out later, by a Mau Mau agitator.
The Black Watch Regiment being stationed on the school grounds to protect us from the Mau Mau.
Being allowed out at weekends with parents of friends who lived in Nairobi.
The train journey to and from school where we all learned to smoke.
The Loquat trees along the drive which were reputed to give anyone eating the fruit appendicitis, I tried it a few
times and spent several days in the sanatorium on a few occasions. Needless to say that all these years later I still
have my appendix.
Climbing the trees and having Robin Board swing on a branch which came down and cracked my head open, a few more days
in the san.
The mouth organ craze when everyone had to play the mouth organ, someone was really admired because he was able to
play the accordion. Could it have been Adonis?
I do have in my possession a school atlas which I must have kept when I left school.
I left school to return to the U K because the climate in Uganda did not agree with my Mother, however three months
later we returned to Eldoret and farmed there for a short while before returning to the U K once again.
Since leaving Africa:
I have worked in a tailoring business, spent three years in the RAF doing air traffic control, sold
dress fabrics in the east End of London and ran a boutique in St Ives, Cornwall.
I got married in 1964 and have 2 grown up children.
In 1974 we decided to give Australia a go and duly paid the 20 pounds fare and emigrated. We settled in Brisbane and
have been here ever since.
In Australia I managed the mens wear department of a big store for 6 years, but got disillusioned with the way the
business was going and joined a friend in his plastic fabrication business. I worked with him for 16 years but was
retrenched in 1996 because the business was going down and he could not afford me. He had completely lost interest but
would only sell it at a ridiculous price, he has since gone bankrupt.
The lady who ran the office was also retrenched
and her husband had some money to invest so we opened our own plastic Fabrication business in Dec. 1996. She put up the
money and I put up the knowledge. Ten years later it is going along very nicely and I have decide that at the age of
67 I will retire. Retirement date is July 14th 2006.
(Registered - 17th April 2006)
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If anyone wishes to contact Ted, please e-mail webmaster@oldcambrians.com
to obtain his contact details
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