1920s & 1930s
Mr Percy Bolton, Headmaster, 1924-1938
In 1924 Dr Flecker retired and a new Headmaster, Mr Percy Bolton, was appointed. He was a physicist who was recorded to be friendly and unpompous, ingenious and practical. His task was to bring the School into the twentieth century on a shoe-string.
In addition to reforming the social organisation by introducing the House system and teaching systems within Dean Close, he also concerned himself with diet. Up until the First World War, food in Public Schools was almost without exception ill balanced, poor in quality and deficient in quantity, often badly cooked and always monotonous. Cleanliness was another of his bugbears. On his arrival, facilities only allowed for one bath a week, and after games, boys could only wash their hands and knees in the basin of a crowded boot-room. Mr Bolton saw that a proper changing room block with baths, showers and lavatories was essential and, despite the poor financial state of the School, was able to persuade the Governors to build the new block in what was now an all boarding school.
He also introduced the first Speech Day play, Hamlet, in 1925. The producer then, and with only three exceptions until 1964, was Mr C A P Tuckwell, and the play was performed on a minuscule stage in the Schoolroom. In succeeding summers, plays were presented in the Headmaster's garden, until in 1934 Mr Tuckwell devised the open-air theatre in what was then a wasteland. Years of hard digging, carting and levelling by volunteers, boys and Masters eventually produced what is now known as the Tuckwell Theatre which was opened in 1937.
The early 1930s also saw a rise in musical interests. Music Master, Mr Heller Nicholls did not regard music as the preserve of the talented few and was able to combine the classical with the popular to widen general interest. In 1931, the BBC invited the School to broadcast a concert which was such a success that the invitation was repeated on subsequent occasions. A natural outcome from this musical enthusiasm was the conception of the House Singing Competition. However, the musical experts of a later generation disapproved of this unprofessional event, and in 1958 the competition was stopped. It was revived by Brian Wilson, Second Master, in the 1990s.
Numbers in the late 1920s had started to decline, partly due to the lower birth rate during the War but also because of the industrial depression which was sweeping the country. There was also ever-increasing competition from the Secondary and Grammar Schools. The School was in deep financial hardship and yet the Headmaster and his teaching staff felt a strong obligation to ensure that no boy of ability should find his education jeopardised by financial difficulties at home. In 1931, a private fund was set up and Masters came forward willingly to make a voluntary contribution of 5 per cent of their salaries. Very few, except the parents of the recipients, knew of its existence.