Former Daily Echo journalist Alan Cairns looks back to the time he and his fellow classmates at the former Taunton's School in Southampton were evacuated to Bournemouth during the Second World War...

T HIS year brings the 60th anniversaries of VE Day (May 8) and VJ Day (August 15) , the latter marking the end of the Second World War in 1945.

Last year the more important 60th anniversaries linked with that war included those for D-Day (June 6) and the start of the Battle of Arnhem (September 17).

This month also marks a significant anniversary - 60 years on - for wartime pupils of a Southampton school which, before it was transformed into a sixth form college in the 60s boasted a 200-years-plus history.

Taunton's School was one of several schools whose pupils were moved away from Southampton in September 1939 under the government's evacuation scheme affecting cities and towns likely to be in the 'front line' and under threat of aerial attack by the German fighters and bombers.

Of the 760 boys registered at the Taunton's School building in Highfield, now used by Southampton University, more than 600 were evacuated to Bournemouth, whose citizens were co-operative in providing billets for their young 'guests' while acting as foster parents.

The young Tauntonians were transported in two large groups from Southampton Central Station on Saturday, September 2, 1939 on trains departing at 10.30am and 12.30pm after boys and staff members had assembled at their school as early as 6.30am.

On Sunday, September 3, while the Southampton evacuees were settling in at their new homes, Great Britain's Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, told the nation in a radio broadcast . . . "and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany."

Among those boys listening to that historic broadcast in company with his newly acquired 'parents' was fourth former Alfred Hill, in later life known as the famous comedian Benny Hill, and who is buried in Southampton's Hollybrook Cemetery. His death occurred in 1992.

At Bournemouth School the first major task for the two headmasters, Mr J E Parry from Bournemouth and Mr F J Hemmings of Taunton's, was to inaugurate a workable education system for more than 1,200 of the 'host' pupils and their wartime 'guests'.

For the first two terms, leading up to Christmas 1939 and then on to the spring of 1940, one school occupied the building each morning for a week with the other school using it in the afternoons. Saturdays were included and this routine was recognised as "two-thirds education" and with extra homework enforced.

However, in May 1940 a new system was introduced. In one week the Bournemouth boys would be in the classrooms for lessons such as English, history, geography and mathematics in the mornings while the Taunton's pupils would use the laboratories and workshops for chemistry, physics, art and woodwork.

In the afternoons, the procedure would be reversed, with the Bournemouthians being taught in the laboratories and the Tauntonians having the classrooms.

Then, in the following week, the Bournemouth pupils would be in the 'practical' rooms in the mornings while the Taunton's boys were learning in the classrooms with, similarly, a swap over after lunch.

This 'switch' system was accepted as being the most beneficial for both schools and it remained in practice until the end of the evacuation period in March 1945.

The only interruption came in early June 1940 and only a few weeks after the sharing routine had been established. This was in the aftermath of the Dunkirk evacuation and on June 2 approximately 800 French soldiers were billeted in the school.

After their departure, around 400 British troops were also given temporary accommodation. Education for the Bournemouth and Taunton's boys did not resume until June 26.

The majority of Taunton's scholars evacuated in September 1939 received all their grammar school education in Bournemouth although sixth formers would have spent a year or more at school back in Southampton after evacuation ended 60 years ago this month.

Subsequent intakes to coincide with the start of the school year each September would have had their education in both Bournemouth and Southampton.

When Taunton's returned to Southampton in March 1945, staff members and boys had to be accommodated in Shirley's Foundry Lane School because their own Highfield building was not ready, due to its use by the government for "military" purposes during the war. This arrangement lasted for only the summer term and in September 1945 the boys and masters were able to occupy their Highfield home.

For several years after the end of the war a link was maintained between the two schools through the annual athletics competition for the Hemmings Cup.

This was presented by the Taunton's headmaster and initially competed for in July 1944 during the final summer the Southampton evacuees would spend in Bournemouth. But it was not the athletics field that took six wartime Tauntonians back to Bournemouth School in late August 1991.

This was a Memory Lane mission 50 years on from when they had begun their education at Taunton's School.

That Friday afternoon was during the school holidays and the visit was made through the co-operation of the then Bournemouth School headmaster, Allan Petrie. It was a nostalgic time for the six wartime pupils as they visited those vacant classrooms and laboratories in addition to the old gymnasium and the assembly hall where the entire school gathered each morning on those far-off days during the 40s.

There was also a revival of memories when the six Old Tauntonians left the school building in order to walk down through the nearby wood area and on to the extensive playing fields where they had on occasions played for their houses in soccer and hockey games and also in the annual four-house athletics competitions.

That visit by the six 'veterans' was to prove significant because it was subsequently suggested among them that, if approval was given, a plaque could be unveiled in Bournemouth to commemorate Taunton's evacuation years.

No objection was raised by Mr Petrie or the Bournemouth School governors and, a year later, on Friday, September 25, 1992, the official unveiling took place - shared by a wartime Bournemouth School pupil and an Old Tauntonian who had been an evacuee.

The brass plaque which was placed on a wall in the vestibule outside the assembly hall acknowledges the use of Bournemouth School by the Taunton's staff and pupils and part of the inscription reads . . . "Old Tauntonians of that period are privileged to refer to this building as their old school."

That same evening the Old Tauntonians were invited to attend the annual dinner organised by the Old Bournemouthians Association, whose membership includes those who were also wartime scholars. These reunions have continued since 1992 and are held on the last Friday of each September.

Taunton's School was founded in 1760 as the result of a bequest left by Alderman Richard Taunton (1684-1752), a Southampton wine merchant and mayor of the then town.

After vacating premises in New Road, the school was moved to its new home in Highfield - the official opening taking place in April, 1927. In 1969 Taunton's became a sixth form college and was renamed Richard Taunton College.

The Highfield building was vacated in 1993 following the merger with Hill College (formerly the Southampton Grammar School for Girls at the junction of Hill Lane and Bellemoor Road) and another title established, namely Taunton's College.

Alan Cairns (Taunton's School 1941-1946).