| Pip
Hambleton and I both arrived at
Prescot at the same time,
September 1963, though from
different primary schools. We
were put into the same tutor
group (it was IIIB2), since they
arranged things alphabetically
for a term and he quickly became
the first new friend I made. Pip
made a big impression on me since
he was so different to anyone I
had known until then. Things were
changing in 1963, especially in
Liverpool, and he seemed to be a
major part of the exciting times
I found myself in. He wore
button-down collars on his
shirts, his hair covered the tops
of his ears and he wore Chelsea
boots with elasticated sides. All
this at a time when I was being
sent to school each day in short
trousers! He was irrepressibly
confident and even eccentric (he
was the only twelve year old I've
ever known to suffer from gout)
and he didn't hesitate to poke
fun at whatever warranted it.
This got us into trouble on more
than one occasion but there were
plenty of laughs along the way.
We were both in A Man for all
Seasons and we spent a lot of
time together outside school
playing guitar, though I could
never get him intersted in
football.
I
still think a lot of Pip as
someone who played a big part in
my early teenage years and I'm
grateful that I can still see us
standing next to each other in
the 1967 school photo, doing our
best to look cool and detached.
It was a real loss when his
family moved away from the area
but nothing compared to the
tragedy we heard about shortly
after.
Philip
Edge [Prescot Grammar School,
1963-1970]
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