Alec,
You seem to be spending quite some time poring over the Prut Diaries. Thanks for the bits you've shared with us to date. Could we have a daily dose or perhaps a weekly collection? What years do they cover?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 -50

Current location (optional) Norfolk

Good evening,gentlemen - my husband is recovering after a heart attack at the beginning of this week so there may not be any more tit-bits from the diary until the new year. Regards,Sue Jackson(I hope i have done this right)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 55-60

Current location (optional) Harrogate

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

You did it right, Sue. Hope Alec makes a prompt reoovery and that your Christmas is a happy one. I shared my first inroad into the Prut diaries with that of Alec. Hope he gets back posting soon.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Get well soon Alec.

I was just about to ask you a question (or two), but perhaps Terry or IW know. When did Kenneth Preston join/leave KBGS and what happened to him after KBGS? When did he die and at what age? Also, how did his diaries end up in a library?

He retired in July 1962, there is an excellent photo of him with Watthey in the photos section !
(PS will be in Singapore again in Jan - will let you know exactly when later)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I suppose it must be something wrong with me but I liked him!!! He was thorough and he had standards and must have got bitterly frustrated sometimes with teaching the same stuff year after year. I always saw teaching as a task to try the patience of a Syssyphus.
My two treasured memories are the lecture he gave to the whole school the year they performed 'Julius Caesar' and his analysis of Mark Antony's speech ' Friends , Romans......etc'and the comparisons he made between Brutus and some Czech politician of the day.
I am happy to say that I became a devoted reader of Shakespeare, for personal pleasure, after that lecture.( I have also read Paradise Lost without being told to do so!!)
My other memory was his reading of Tam o'Shanter and the echoes that rang around the school when he delivered ' Wow! Tam saw an unco sight.....' that Wow !! would have stopped Rommel.It was my love of that reading that led me to a verse capping on the Isle of Bute that won me four straight malts in a quayside pub one cold winters day.
He also had this rather stupid habit of tearing up old full exercise books for you to answer your weekly test on. One had to draw lines around others work and write answers almost upside down but he always managed to mark it well. Mind you there was a war on!!
Hate him, despise him or just dislike him as you wish. I liked the man and am grateful for his efforts with me and even now recognise the impact he had upon me.

In a twist of fate, of which I am guessing Preston would have appreciated, he has more entries (9) in this definitive history of early post-war Britain than many famous individuals. Even Margaret Thatcher (Roberts) only got five.

Nor, Chris, does KP's fame rest there, apparently. I had a letter from Spike Rannard yesterday. He had read the Kynaston book (which I have not, as yet) but then told me that a certain H. Brown 'had begun to write to the Bradford 'Telegraph & Argus' inviting information about KP from any who knew him. It seems Mr Brown is writing a book on Grammar School Teachers of the 1940s and 1950s. I duly sent him a letter, with a few considered comments, which he said he may use...'

Since no one else has mentioned this latest step towards the canonisation of KP I wonder whether Spike was the only one to spot it - I must ask him how and when. Judging by the way this thread has filled out I guess Mr Brown need hardly look any further for information.

And Arthur, I appreciate your point of view. I, like most of my generation, feared the man and his caustic comments, but at the same time have long recognised that my subsequent career path owed not a little to KP. Yet, from what Alec has reported, he seemed very much at home in the 'age of austerity' and did nothing to make himself liked. Perhaps between your years and mine he had become thoroughly disillusioned, for whatever reasons. Even with his colleagues, Spike tells me, 'he could be quite waspish'.

I must say that being in the B stream I didn't have the "pleasure" of KPs tutoring skills.

Doug is the H Brown you mention, the History Master who lived in Albert Street in the housing on the right and just above the then Albert Street Baptist Church and Sunday School hall ??

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950/1955

Current location (optional) Keighley

Good to see Asa Briggs also gets a quote in the book. That's two for KBGS!

Derek, is there anybody you don't know? Between you you and Terry comprise a complete 'Who's who'! Don't know the answer to that question but will phone Spike to get whatever details he has. More later.

Doug

Doug. Your reference to the 'age of austerity' reminded me of KP's rather miserly ways referred to in the torn exercise books I mentioned in an earlier post. They wore those batwing gowns that used to billow behind them when they strode the corridors and he had this way of delving into the depths of his and emerging with the smallest stub of chalk you could imagine and pincer it in his fingers and thumb and write on the board. The piece was so small that his fingers smudged what he was writing.
We were doing Silas Marner and there was a reference to that miser cooking a piece of meat and using a piece of string and a key to turn the meat while he was out. KP, to illustrate delved into the folds of his gown and emerged with the piece of string and the key and proceeded to mock up the scene in the classroom. I can remember that bit but nothing else of the book.
By the way I once wrote a golden essay on Grey's Elegy and coined the phrase 'the fickle hand of fate'. It was returned with a P against it and that meant writing three correct versions. Pruts rules!! I didnt know what mistake I had made and he told me I had personified and so I should capitalise. I capitalised the whole phrase and got a sneering 'no no no' he read it out loud and I shamed as every one sniggered and I went back red faced and made further corrections . 3X3 =9. I got those wrong too!! Again the sneering loud 'No No No' and again the offending phrase was read out, louder this time, and I stood there wishing I had never written the flaming words and I got another explanation. We looked at my book and realised the geometrical growth of corrections taking place i.e. 3 X 9 = 27. Austerity and the time factor dominated and he wrote a correct version for me.

From time to time I exchange e-mails with John Joseph Waddington-Feather - someone who you know well Arthur. John too, as you might expect being a poet, author and playwright, is a staunch supporter of Prut and he recounted the following incident to me only last week. He's given me leave to post his little tale.

"I knew about the Prut diaries. I bet he never knew when he wrote them he'd be posthumously famous. I owe much to his teaching and used to visit him when he was elderly and in a nursing home. Shortly before he died I went to see him just after he'd had a cataract removed. "Ee! It's John Feather!" he exclaimed as I went through the door. "Thank goodness you've come so I can talk about something sensible. This lot here, " he said, pointing at the ring of Alzheimers looking blankly ahead round him, "think that Tennyson is a brand of marmalade." Then he went on, pointing to someone not much older than myself but looking into oblivion like the rest. "And I used to teach him as a lad at school. He weren't much better then!"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1945 - 50

Current location (optional) Norfolk

It was a long shot but I searched the internet to see if there was any reference to Kenneth Preston.All I could find was in the obituries section of Trinity College Oxford where it records that a Kenneth Huson Preston died in 1995.Is this one and the same? The date fits as I seem to recall that he and the unforgettable Ben Tren died within a short time of each other around that time.If so I am surprised that on one ever picked up on his unusual middle name.Is there anyone who can give a definitive derivation of "Prut" or is it "Prutt".This has been mentioned before but nobody seems to know where it came from.The best I have seen is that it is short for "Preston from Utley",but that seems rather contrived.There must still be someone out there who knows or has it been lost in the mists of time?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1953-1961

Current location (optional) Filey

Although his reputation ran before him, I did have an open mind about Prut when he first entered our classroom. We were 24 lads in 4a. What I eventually found was that the style and content of his English lessons were quite unlike anything that had gone before: 1a:Norman Olive; 2a:Edgar Fenwick; 3a:Mitchell (Limpy Tut).

Previous posters, whose views I respect, refer to Prut's enlightening revelations of the delights of the literature of our native tongue – indisputably one of the finest resources of sentiment, reason and expression anywhere in the world.

But what strategies did he use to break us in to that appreciation?

Who remembers the horrors of “Twentyman”? In our first lesson, Prut dished out a copy per pupil of this textbook that was to straightjacket the expression of our ideas on paper. It did, if you followed the scheme, give you a better grasp of what Wilbur was talking about in Latin – but I don’t think that was Kenny’s purpose.

I’ll never forget the dread of hearing (yet again) his illuminating introduction to a lesson in our mother tongue - “Taik kowt Twentyman” in a light gravelly tone. I have sent to Chris a few pics of the text – which I still have. (http://www.kbgs.com/photos.htm) Can’t remember my motives for nicking it – but it could have been to save another fellow sufferer in the following 3a.

(On July 13th 1950, he wrote in his diary that he had been trying for "the first time in my life to do something with visual education". We never saw any results of this. He didn’t offer any evaluation. The date suggests it was after “O” level was over and he was experimenting with something which didn’t need to be followed through.)

A scanning of the contents of the Twentyman text will reveal the mechanics of the course – for it was mechanical. Great for grasping the mechanics of Cicero, Livy – or even Catullus. I suppose we were pupils in a grammar school. – but it gave not a lot of inspiration for writing freely in our own language – and that’s where the correction burden crept in. Initially, Kenny gave no indication of the consequences of making a spelling mistake and a grammatical error in a sentence with several clauses. We soon discovered that this could result in several pages of corrections if initially you did not pick up every single margin correction he had made.

The outcome was, in order to avoid pages of corrections, you developed a curt, terse style of expression. How many lads left kbgs with a “twentyprut” or “prestyman” style of writing? And did it serve them well. Answers on a postcard, please.

Have a look at examples of your English style. Can you see the influence of “twentyprut”?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

Twentyman is new to me, Terry! Perhaps he introduced it because the contemporaneous 5A to your 4A were (as you have indicated previously from his diary) the worst he had ever had to teach. From what you say, I'm rather glad I escaped it. What did the book purport to teach you and how, precisely, was its wisdom administered?

He probably thought it would be too demanding,Doug.

As I recall, without plumbing its depths, we were expected to learn the definitions of the parts of speech. We had fun with gerunds and participles. We did a lot of clause analysis and he used it to teach the skills of summary and precis. But it was the extracts from literature that we had to precis that were so daunting.....eg Macauley; Gibbon;Poe;Scott and Ford (Gatherings from Spain 1846 ??).Heavy stuff for we lightweights

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

...us lightweights???
KP

Tha' clearly needs a dose o' Twentyman, Alan!

Right KBGS-ers. Who's needs to do their corrections? Tel and Doug. Or Prut and Jonah?

Glad to see you're still on the case, Allan.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

On further reflection, Allan, I think I detect traces redolent of Twentyprut in some of your postings under this head.
Don't you just hate these "emoticons" - just like little Jimmy Osmonds!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

The only way I can come to terms with your apparent phenomenal memory, Terry, and my pathetic one, is the consoling belief that you must have kept a Prut-like diary!!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

Terry I dont recall a 'Twentyman' but I did do parsing and sentence analysis. I have no doubt that it did eventually influence the way I wrote but my main advantage was realised when I went to hear Enoch Powell speak in Shipley where I found myself muttering, 'Main Clause' 'Adverbial Clause of Time' ' Adjectival Clause' etc as he spoke in that meticulous manner he possessed. What a magnificent and articulate orator he was, whatever your views of his principles may be.

KP was born 8 March 1902 and died 16 August 1995. He was educated at KBGS and Oxford. He joined the staff of KBGS in 1927 after leaving Oxford and teaching briefly at Yeovil School. He retired in 1962. His diaries and other family papers (correspondence, creative writing, biographical notes, school reports, testimonials, certificates etc.) were deposited with West Yorkshire Archives by A. Preston (presumably his son Allan) in 1987. The diaries are marked as "Restricted access": "No publication of diary verbatim extracts until 2040".

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

You're right, they're hateful
And yes, the main cross I have to bear from my KBGS days (ask anyone I've ever worked beside) is a slavish adherence to the teachings of Twentyprut!

from an old posting by me:

"These below are at the library, note especially the papers from Kenneth Preston, English teacher in late 1930s to 1960s. There must be some good stuff in there.

Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, miscellaneous records 1931-1947 Keighley Public Library: Keighley Trade and Grammar School, group photograph of pupils 1920-1920
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Grammar School London based "Old Keighlians" Association 1946-1951
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, printed ephemera 1937-1954 Keighley Public Library: Keighley Trade and Grammar School, records 1870-1926
Keighley Public Library: Keighley Boys' Grammar School, papers re dramatic productions by Kenneth Preston, English teacher 1954-1957 Keighley Public Library: The Rev John Waddington Feather, auctioneer, surveyor and valuer, Keighley, family and business papers 1919-1970
Keighley Public Library: Kenneth Preston, family papers 1924-1970"

Among these KP papers in Keighley Library are the following. If anyone is still interested I can get more detail + photos (if allowed).

1. Detailed production notes, photos, press cuttings etc. re Merchant of Venice, April 6/1954; The Miser (Moliere) Feb 12/1957; Twelfth Night Mch 27/1945

2. Programmes for various productions (starring or produced by KP) from 1921-24, 31, 32, 34, 36, 42, 50, 54, 60

3. Pupils essays on "How to keep in good healthy" by Maurice Bartle, Fred Carr, Jack Derrick, and Harry Hall. (Why did he keep just these from the thousands that must have passed through his hands?).

4. Diaries (detailed daily lesson plans/reminders) Sept'63 - May'66

5. Notebook, no date, with hand drawn cartoon of soldier shooing off some kids with caption "Nah then, Alley toot sweet. An' the tooter the sweeter."

6. Detention book (very full!) June/48 - July/58, with details of misdemeanors and comments from heads (NH at first then ARW).

7. Odd copies of "The Keighlian": 22-32, 51, 53, 55, 56, 58. (Is there a full set of these anywhere?). Some things that caught my eye were school rugby team reports (e.g. "Ogden scored a cool try from a scrum..." F Wellock (1956); and a student's report of French trip in 1956 - mention of rough crossing, pillow fights, seven course meal, free time in Paris and on Metro, Fontainbleau, all brought back memories and the smell of the bowls of hot chocolate and fresh bread for petit déjeuner.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-59

Current location (optional) Denholme (garethwhittaker99@hotmail.com)

"If anyone is still interested I can get more detail + photos (if allowed)".
Sure thing, Gareth. A generous offer. As you are on site, as it were, you can do the rest of us and on-line posterity a good service.
As for what you extract and report, I'd be happy to leave that to your discretion and judgment.
Obviously, accounts that cover the period that most contributors to this site were at KBGS would be most relevant - but I think the man ipse is of interest to many.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I penned the following observations last year based on my brief sight of Prut's diaries. I held them back until we had seen more of Alec's researches in the Bradford archives. His unfortunate illness meant I put them on hold - but here they are for what they are worth.

--I heard about Prut very very early in my time at kbgs because I walked to school on my first days with John Turner who was in 4A and enduring his first dose of Prut’s individual didactic strategies. John Henry Turner’s exceptional performances as fullback in the 1st XV whilst yet in 5A did nothing to enhance his status with Prut. whose diary reveals that he was a Blackburn Rovers supporter who felt it necessary in one entry to deride Hind’s injunction to the school not to watch soccer in the hols. John was always saying, “Wait till you get Prut!!”

I spent some time looking at his diaries for some of the years that I was in school.

School apart, he was a stalwart of his church in Utley – his Sunday entries showed he had the Anglican calendar off pat but wasn’t averse to recording critical views on service and sermon.

He was a TocH member and regular attender who was annoyed by the fickle attendance of some of his fellows.

He and his wife were workhouse visitors.

His politics were quite Right – and he was dismissive of unions – even of a colleague taking a day off to attend a teacher conference.

He seem to hanker after his Oxford days – and regretted that he had not subsequently made as much of them as others (of his contemporaries?). He remarked that another does forge ahead and like many another was a standing reproach to himself – especially as they each had the same Oxford seconds (degrees not duelling)!.

He was 54 when I got Prut in 1956. In my reckoning that is when most teachers, in daily contact with strenuous adolescents, are past their shelf-life – however good and talented they may have been earlier. Several of his diary entries indicated that he was finding the job strenuous.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

I am surprised to learn he was a football supporter Terry.I remember him telling us that one Saturday he had come back from Bradford on the bus and he was very scathing about the mentality of the thousands watching football when he passed Valley Parade.Perhaps it would have been different if it had been Ewood Park.What connection did he have with Blackburn?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1954-1961

Current location (optional) Filey