The main image is from 1933-34. We have a partial list of names. Maybe you have a relative in the picture?
The teacher, Mr Watson, only joined the secondary department in 1934. He was active in school activities, helping to run the golf club. The school magazine records that in the summer of 1935 the 16th annual school camp was held at Cardross, Port of Menteith. A camp car was hired – a “luxurious 21-h.p. Wolseley limousine” – and Mr Watson acted as chauffeur-guide taking parties of five or six boys at a time on tours of the Trossachs, Loch Katrine and Aberfoyle.
The smaller images are from much earlier. The style of photograph and the fashion (particularly that of the female teacher – a classic late Victorian dress with a high collar, distinct corseted structure, and a heavy, draped bustle skirt) suggest these may have been taken in the 1880s, so perhaps during the first decade of our school’s existence
We wonder what kind of lives all these pupils from both eras went on to have
With credit to Ian Small
More than 300 pupils move to Duddingston Primary
With credit to Ian Small
Portobello pupils sent north
With thanks to Ian Small
Two versions from the 1930s
With credit to Ian Small
Our officially registered Coat of Arms
With credit to Ian Small
1907-1928
With Credit to Ian Small
The start of the journey to Portobello High School
With credit to Ian Small
Education in Portobello prior to 1876
With credit to Ian Small
Entry in the Guinness Book of Records, 1972
With Credit to Ian Small
Our school could not function without the work of the non-teaching staff – cleaners, kitchen, admin, janitors and more. They work behind the scenes, before school starts and after the end of the school day.
The post of “Officer and Janitor” was advertised in The Scotsman in 1875: “Wanted, by the Portobello School Board, an Active Married Man, to act as Officer and Janitor. Salary £50. With Free House, Coals, Gas, and Taxes.”
In addition to his janitorial duties (including setting the fires in each of the classrooms) Mr Bennett, the successful candidate, was also ‘Attendance Officer’. As such he would be despatched by the Headmaster to interview parents of pupils who were not attending school (they could be prosecuted if their children continued to be absent).
The Janitor was also the ‘Drill Instructor’. Reflecting in The Tower 1958 on his time at the school from 1892 to 1897, one boy states of Mr McCririe – Mr Bennet’s successor in 1893:
“As an ex-soldier he was well qualified to take over our drill which consisted of marching, turning and wheeling military style in the boys’ playground.”
The janitors from 1952 are in the staff photograph from that year.
Attendance Officer/Drill Instructor had long ceased as janitorial duties by the time of the move to the tower block in 1964. Instead the janitors’ working day would be interrupted every 40 minutes when they had to perform duties as lift operators between school periods.
For alumni that liked the 1973 staff picture, we post some weel-kent faces from the same era, pictured in April 1980.
With Credit to Ian Small
