| 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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