Chapter 10 - The Musics, The Kerners, The Henrys and the Barnetts.

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The Musics
The Henrys see Ch 11 Hobinstocks and H


The family around 1950


The Kerners


I went to school at Haileybury Junior School in Windsor and later to the senior school, Haileybury and ISC in Hertford Heath. My elder cousin Edward Kerner was already there.

One Sunday in late October I was in the magnificent school dining hall, known for its domed ceiling which at the time was the largest unsupported dome in England and had a whispering gallery (like St Paul’s cathedral).

As I was contemplating my steaming cup of hot chocolate, a group of boys passed nearby. One appeared to chuck a jumping cracker firework which exploded and jumped several times before landing in my mug and exploded a last time.

It’s Barnett who did that cried a prefect but soon several witnesses came to my rescue and I was allowed back to house to change.

Later that afternoon as I was crossing Quad I saw Edward and told him about the incident. “Don’t tell anyone but that was me who threw the firework”!

Edward was caught drinking in the College Arms Pub just near the school gates and was nearly expelled. Recently I decided to show my wife, Anne-Marie the school. We arrived about lunchtime and so what better place to have an English pub lunch but in the College arms. To my utter disappointment it had been shut down and was up for sale. Still Anne-Marie found the school a beautiful place and we visited the dining hall where I told her the story.

I was told this story about Edward and Stuart by their mother. They all lived in a big house in Sidmouth Road, Willesden. One day Edward made a big hole in his bedroom wall. The hole had to be filled in and the wall redecorated. Several days later a smaller but still significant hole appeared in the same spot. “Who did that”? “I did” said Stuart. “I was only looking for the hole Edward made.”