CJO as Princi?

Hasnain Chinwalla labelled this wonderful photograph as "Cathedral School Detention Centre for Delinquents"

As I have said in an earlier post, Mr. C. J. Oliver never taught me a single subject. My contact with him was restricted to helping out in back stage work for school plays, where he was quite a demanding personality. I never knew whether I liked him or not as I was never close to him. I did not even know whether he was married or not!

But Ubi unveils a different picture of CJO than I ever imagined. Hope some others will throw some insight into what seems to be live human being!

>Dear Jacob,

I quote below an extract from CJO's farewell article in the COBA magazine of
sometime in 1965:

"And so - to close this rambling account -I record my thanks to all those, Staff, Boys and Hamals who each in some way or other enriched an otherwise very ordinary life. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve with them and it will always be a regret of mine that I could not continue at Cathedral School without sacrificing an opportunity for which
Cathedral School had in fact been preparing me. Thank you C.B.S." C.J.O.

He said it in very few words but what he left unsaid was the fact that Cathedral School had passed him over for the position of Principal. And how deserving he was!

I do not want to start a contentious debate, but if ever there was one, it was he, who deserved to be the Principal of our old school!

But like all things in India in those days,"imported"goods were preferred to local excellence! Thank God,there has been some change in the thinking now and we have a lady from the school faculty as the Principal of the school!

Please also note the particular reference made by C.J.O. to Hamals. Typical of the man.

I spent many lovely evenings with him and his wife, when they visited Poona in the late 60s when he was Principal of St Peter's at Mazagon, Bombay. He used to stay at the Bishop's School, Poona and we often went on excursions to the Maratha Forts around Poona. I was based in Poona at that time. Walter Abraham was also there with the Olivers, as he used to visit me and my wife
occasionally.

I thought you might want to know this!

Regards,

Ubi

When was Mr. Kuruvilla Jacob brought in as Principal. He had had an outstanding career as Principal of the Madras Christian College School as well as the Hyderabad Public School. As I knew him only on a personal basis, i do not know how he performed as the Principal of Cathedral School, and the question is whether CJO would have been a better choice.

I have no idea!

Or was CJO overlooked when they brought another Englishman as Principal.

I left Bombay in 1960 and only returned to school when I visited it during a winter recess in 1989! The school seemed hopelessly empty whereas during our times in school there was always activity on weekends and the school holidays as some of us would agree to meet there, play table tennis in the school hall or some quad football. The Scouts would be meeting somewhere.

Between 1960 and 1989 I kept in close touch with many of my classmates and students some of other classes. The school spirit never flagged.

School was more than a 8 to 4 weekday enterprise for many of us during the fifties.