Early memories of the Society

The Society has ten Honorary Members, the number of which may not be exceeded, and they were recently asked for their early memories of the Society. Six sent contributions.

Muriel Shaw, the Society's Curator from 1980 to 1996, recalls Ruskin House in the early 1960s

My first recollection of a Society meeting was a general meeting - attended by about 50 people - at the old Ruskin House, Wellesley Road (demolished when the bus station was built). There on the top floor we had a large room, with some cupboards containing our original Society members' museum objects, a real cabinet of curiosities. Next door, in a shelved room was our library, small then but Paul Sowan soon altered that. Tucked in the eaves was a small lead sink, where we washed cups and saucers, and in the 'library' was a small cast iron and very noisy gas fire.

The main meeting room looked very impressive with a large oak boardroom-sized table at which the Officers sat at meetings. It was covered in green baize, and bore two heavy glass ashtrays, a small lectern and a carafe of water - all very impressive until I peered into the carafe to see threads of green algae happily housed! At those times, it was perfectly acceptable for pipe smokers to puff away throughout meetings until a dense fug was achieved - no asking, of course! Mr Tombleson, the then Secretary, had a particularly noxious mixture and had to be re-lighting the pipe all the time. Dr Stanley Hamilton - I suppose you could call him our senior statesman - told me his wife had forbidden him to sit next to Mr T. at Council meetings, as he came home absolutely kippered if he did.

She recalls the purchase of 96a Brighton Road, the Society's headquarters, during her time as President between 1966 and 1968.

W. A. Benians had been looking out for premises for the Society. He found 96a. It was a fussy little place, a detached doctor's surgery. We had practically decided on purchasing it - there was an urgency about the matter as we had to vacate the rooms we rented. The treasurer was Ernest Lewis, and he rang me up, saying that, as treasurer, he had decided not to allow the expenditure of the deposit! 'Never mind,' he said, 'I'm sure you'll think of something and in the meantime I'm off tomorrow on holiday.' (I could have killed him.) The only thing I could think of doing was to call a special meeting between myself, as President, Dr Hamilton, Herbert Bains, Tombleson, and, I think, Cecil Prime and Jack Penry-Jones. Bless them, they immediately offered to put up, I think, £100 each for the deposit as an interest-free loan. So we were saved!

Paul Sowan's memories go back to his childhood. He is now coming to the end of his second two year term as President and has been the Society's Librarian since 1986.

My earliest contact with the Society was probably in or about 1947, when I was about seven years old. A large (to a small boy) exhibition had been set up in the south-west corner of Fairfield, more or less where the Fairfield Halls now stand. Various local businesses had stands, some in huts, others, like the Society's, under canvas. I visited the exhibition with my father and have only three memories of all this: (1) the redundant railway track still laid in Fairfield, (2) an ingenious lathe turning out hideous table-legs, and (3) the Society's stand which was manned, I am sure, by William Benians, and had on display a microscope and some playing cards, the latter being among Benians' enthusiasms.

I did not join the Society until (I think) 1959, but did not really get involved in its work until 1963 when I put on a display of Icelandic rocks and minerals at a Society exhibition, where chocolate-coated insects were on offer amongst other refreshments. At the first Geology Section meeting I attended I gathered a new Geology Section Secretary was needed, so I wrote to B. R. H. Tombleson, our then Hon. General Secretary, to volunteer. Tombleson replied that a Geology Section Secretary had by then been found, but would I like to be the Society's Hon. General Secretary in his place? This I did at the AGM in 1963, when Tombleson handed me with a small brown case with minute books and such like inside, and said, 'Now you are the Natural History Society!'. Ever since I have been keen to see us as much more as a team than a one-man band!

The main part of Ruskin House was used by the Labour Party and local trade union branches. Our meetings were punctuated by left-wing rhetoric seeping up through the floor, 'Brothers' being the most recognisable word. The entire building smelled of the caretaker's fried eggs and boiled cabbage. On the way to a meeting I encountered a very much younger Muriel Shaw struggling to carry a very large, heavy and antiquated film projector to an Archaeology Section meeting.

Arnold Shaw, a former President and also Treasurer between 1977 and 1985, particularly remembers Paul Sowan as Arnold's son Richard, then ten years old, had developed an interest in geology. Luckily at that time there was an active Youth Section led by Paul Sowan.

Of course I had to provide transport to the various Saturday field trips and so Richard and I became members and got involved. We were introduced to the Betchworth chalk quarries and other local sites including the Fullers Earth works at Redhill. Eventually I went to an evening class on an introduction to geology where one of my fellow pupils was Nell Rooks [Arnold's successor as Treasurer], who then came on CNHSS outings and joined the Society.

Ernest Lewis, mentioned above, was Treasurer from 1961 to 1970, but he first became aware of the Society's existence in 1935 when he attended John Ruskin Grammar School which had just moved to the old British School in Tamworth Road.

Each day after school I waited outside Grants for a 197 or 12 bus to take me home to Portland Road and stood contemplating a smartly lettered plate fixed by the entrance to the Greyhound Hotel, informing passers-by that it was the address of the CROYDON NATURAL HISTORY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. It suggested a body much too important to admit an 11-year old boy to membership so I continued to gaze in silent awe.

In 1945 Collins published "London's Natural History" by R. S. R. Fitter [a former member who opened the Society's exhibition 'Going Wild in Croydon' in 1999], one of the first two volumes in their New Naturalist Series. It has an appendix listing 'Natural History Societies, Museums and Localities in the London Area'. One entry is:

'Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society (founded 1870). (Hon. Secretary, C. T. Prime, 2 Lansdown Road, Croydon, Surrey)'

It was not long before he welcomed me to membership in a first floor room of 2 Lansdown Road. My chief interest was in insects. That section was steered by two members, Harry Britten Junior, mainly interested in flies, and a lepidopterist whose name I have forgotten, a teacher of Whitgift School. The society's subscription for many years was 5 shillings. Postwar inflation soon made that impracticable and the subscription was raised to 10 shillings. This roused an angry protest from the two entomologists, who declared their only interest was in insects so they were not prepared to pay a doubled subscription for activities that did not concern them, and promptly resigned from the society. The section did not die, however. Douglas Miles, secretary of the microscopy section, took it over.

Cecil Prime lamented that the society's council failed to buy a house in Walpole Road that was up for sale during the war for £1,000, that would have become very valuable later. At that time the society's constitution did not allow it to own property, so in practice the proposal would have been ineffective, if desirable.

Dr Ron Cox, President 1977-9, was also impressed by the Society's high profile, but with a difference.

After 4 years, 9 months and 2 days in the Army and a 2-year non-graduate teacher training course, I took up my first teaching post - at Lanfranc Secondary Modern School for Boys - in September 1949. I was 25, married and impoverished. I also quickly realised that I was academically under-qualified and so would have difficulty 'getting on'. At the very least, I thought, I must improve my CV. So I decided to join the CNHSS. It had a most impressive list of Council members, almost all, Fellows of this learned society or that.

He recalls the first meeting he and his wife attended. It was thinly attended in a dusty old room in Wellesley Road and the same might have been said of a high proportion of the audience. Despite this he persisted and has no regrets about his fifty-odd year membership, which he does not think ever helped him 'get on'.

John Gent's memories of the Society also go back to the late 1940s when copies of the Society's Regional Survey Atlas were used in geography lessons at Selhurst Grammar School but he did not join the Society until 1959 when he read in the Croydon Advertiser that a local history section was being formed. He has been President three times and initiated the series of his illustrated books in 1970.

I sent my subscription and Alan Lane, then secretary of the new section, wrote and said 'I hope to see you at the next meeting on Thursday - it is an evening of films on railways and canals'. Thursday arrived and I climbed the dusty stairs of Ruskin House to find a door marked with the Society's name. I had arrived a little late and could hear no soundtrack of films so gingerly opened the door to see a small group of people around a table, 'Come in', they said. It was too late to retreat so I joined them at the table, to be handed a large green leaf on which wriggled a rather nasty looking caterpillar. 'Isn't that a fine specimen?' said the man on the right. He turned out to be Ernest Lewis. The meeting I had expected to attend had apparently been on the previous evening, Wednesday, and I had not the courage to say I had come on the wrong evening. It was a meeting of the Entomology Section and the subject was "Some foreign silkworms and hints on how to breed them".

Muriel Shaw persuaded me to assist in running a combined archaeology and local history section when Alan Lane left and in 1965 I was invited to serve on Council. In those days Council meetings were held at Mr [G. M.] Davies's house in Sanderstead. Coffee was always served on arrival as he did not like meetings disturbed by refreshments. Very much of the old school (he had joined the Society in 1906) he always addressed me as 'Gent'.

John Gent recalls some of the Society's officers, including C. C. Fagg who was President for the first time in 1921-2 and his immediate successor G. M. Davies.

Members who particularly impressed me in the early days were C. C. Fagg, G. M. Davies, B. R. H. Tombleson, Walter Benians, and dear old Dr Hamilton who seemed indestructible. My association with the Society has been very rewarding. I have learnt a lot, made many new friends (sadly many are no longer with us), and I hope I have contributed as much as I have gained.

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Last updated March 28^th 2002
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