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Stuart
Sutcliffe and I were
contemporaries and experienced
five years of Grammar School life
together. Stuart was born in
Edinburgh also in 1940. I
understood that his father was a
seaman and was away from home
quite a lot. He was slight of
build and wore glasses. He made
up for his stature by being quite
assertive in his attitudes and
opinions, which sometimes made
him a target for the bigger boys
in the class. This scenario would
sometimes be acted out in the
back rows of the classrooms, when
the teacher's back was turned or
in the playgrounds during morning
or afternoon recess. His defence
against this mild form of
bullying was to befriend myself
and my best friend at the time,
David Aikman. David and I set
next to each other in class and
saw quite a lot of each other
after school. Our personalities
clicked and we always saw the
funny side of life. We did not
have any trouble with the bigger
boys - since we tended to get out
of scrapes with our humour -
whereas Stuart always tended to
take up the argument. He
befriended David and I from the
beginning and looked upon us as
his protectors. There was safety
in numbers! He became so grateful
one year that he gave each of us
a present at the end of term. I
can't remember what David
received but I was given a book
on golf titled 'Homes of Sport -
Golf' which I still have. Stuart
knew that I was becoming keen on
the game. [Norman
Allanson] |
