Harry Wale, Paul Sherlock & Alleyn’s Boys Playing Water Polo
This piece is dedicated to the memory of our school mate, Mick Carroll, who tragically died in a swimming accident, 26 September 2026.
It really was a long hot summer that year. I sense that the school encouraged us towards the swimming pool to keep us cool after the exams that year.
Some while ago, David Wellbrook wrote (& kindly let me publish) a rather wonderful guest piece about the “what could possibly go wrong?” aspects of that school policy:
Here’s the extracts from my diary for those last few weeks of term.
Tuesday 22 June 1976 – all OK results flowing. Went to help U. George [May].
Wednesday 23 June 1976 – More good results. All serene.
I love the expression “all serene” to describe my feelings about my results being half-decent that year.
Thursday 24 June 1976 – Drama good. TV Porridge & Monty P & 2nd Verdict.
Friday 25 June 1976 – all OK Horniman museum great fun. Interesting.
Ah – I wondered when I wrote up Onkas Big Moka from December 1974 when I visited the Horniman Museum with the school and got to see some of those Melanesian male adornments in the flesh, as it were.
Eighteen months later is the answer. Great fun and interesting it must have been indeed.
Saturday 26 June 1976 – school morn. Lazy afternoon. Lloyd [Green]evening.
Sunday 27 June 1976 – Classes sports day. 3rd in long jump. Dined at Il Carretto.
In my mind I had won the long jump, but I suppose coming 3rd was bronze, which was some sort of prize. I vaguely remember having a certificate for that result, which I kept for longer than the event/result deserved.
Monday 28 June 1976 – came 2nd in class, nice day. TV Star Trek, Get Some In.
Who came first in 3BJ, denying me the top spot? Come on, own up. I seem to have been content with coming second and quite right too.
Tuesday 29 June 1976 – computer, swimming. TV Man [About] The House (D), USA
Wednesday 30 June 1976 – swimming, computer. TV Chimpanzee film [The Barefoot Executive].
Thursday 1 July 1976 – went swimming. TV Porridge, Shadow Line [?].
Three days in a row when the main school matter to report was swimming, although I also note a couple of days fiddling with the computer. That was punch cards, punch tape, dial-up modems and all that palaver:
Friday 2 July 1976 – went to G[randma] Anne’s, big Ida/Anthony row. TV Invisible Man, [It’s A] Knockout.
Rows involving Auntie Ida and Cousin Anthony were a regular feature of Harris family life back then. This was clearly a big one, given my clear description of it as such.
Saturday 3 July 1976 – exeat. Library morn, Wimbledon afternoon & evening.
“Wimbledon afternoon and evening” in those days would have meant glued to the TV watching the tennis. As a kid, I could only have dreamt of actually sitting there on Centre Court or Number One Court as I have now done many times in my fortunate life.
Borg beat Nastase in straights – having beaten everyone in straights that year:
In those days all the doubles finals took place on that day too, hence afternoon AND evening. We also would have watched much of:
- Chris Evert & Martina Navratilova bt Billie Jean King & Betty Stöve – Chris Evert’s only career Wimbledon doubles title and Martina Navratilova’s very first
- Brian Gottfried & Raúl Ramírez bt Ross Case & Geoff Masters – I particularly remember this one being a really exciting five-setter. By the end of it my mum couldn’t bear to watch. Funny the things we remember.
- Tony Roche & Françoise Dürr bt Dick Stockton & Rosie Casals
Sunday 4 July 1976 – BAD Shalom. Hayward Gallery. Great. TV USA Bicentenary
Bad in capital letters. I think that was the death knell for my Shalom magazine project. But fear not, other media activity sprang forth that summer.
I have very fond memories of that trip to the Hayward Gallery to see the Arts Of Islam exhibition, which I found fascinating. I had just done a school history project on the early history of Islam, of course. My father was deep into art. My mother wondered why our nice Jewish family was taking so much interest in Islamic art and history. Because it is really interesting and informative, mum.
Here’s a review of that exhibition (and other aspects of that festival) from the Telegraph.
Islam Mullaly Telegraph 10 Apr 1976 The Daily Telegraph (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Here’s William Feaver waxing lyrical about it in the Observer.
Monday 5 July 1976 – all OK. TV Star Trek, Panorama
Tuesday 6 July 1976 – swimming good TV Man About The House
Wednesday 7 July 1976 – swimming. Little work. TV [The Adventures Of] Robin Hood
Thursday 8 July 1976 – nice day – last. Swimming. TV Porridge
Forget the computer, it was all swimming by the penultimate day of the school year.
Friday 9 July 1976 – Broke up. All OK. Drama. TV Invisible Man, Bilko.
I have written up this piece just 48 hours after learning that our Alleyn’s School mate from our year, Mick Carroll, tragically died in a swimming accident the other day. (26 September 2026).
With so many mentions of swimming in this piece, some tongue in cheek, I considered holding off from publishing the piece for a while.
But then I remembered Mick’s wicked sense of humour, marinated no doubt in his Irish roots. I think Mick would have wanted me to publish this piece as planned, and I decided to publish it dedicated to Mick’s memory.
Earworm for early July 1976 – I’m pretty sure Mick would approve of this track too: