The decision to send me to a new school came about owing to a number of events happening at the same time. In December, I realised that there were some family problems. My mother had to return to London for a day to see her parents. My grandmother was ill and needed to be looked after; my mother went up to see how everyone was. For me it was a normal day at school; I would have liked to have gone up to London with her. In the evening, it was a real treat to be allowed into the main part of the house to have my meal although when I did go to bed, I felt a little lonely on my own, but being allowed into the main part of the house had made up for it. School the following day was fine; my mother had returned by early afternoon so life was back to normal. From what I was told, it appeared my grandmother was now out of hospital; two aunts were taking it in turns to see to her needs. It was hinted that we might have to move back to London at some time in the near future.

The deciding factor as to my future life occurred at school. I was reasonably happy, although I was not in any way brilliant at lessons; I was beginning to settle into my third school. Now I moved up to the middle class. Perhaps our lessons were more difficult, but these could be more fun now that we had a master teaching.

A few of us spent our time annoying others but that was part of the fun. During lessons, we thought it fun to see who could get each other in trouble, just minor things, but enough to keep each other alert. If we went too far we knew there would be severe punishment, but for minor incidents, having to stand in the corner or do extra work was as far as it went.

If I were in trouble at school, it was usually for fighting. My height made me a target for every smaller boy that wanted to prove he was the best at fighting. In the normal way, I would do everything to get out of a fight. Running off was possible up to a point, but the confines of a playground meant that escape was impossible.

When I became involved in a fight, my fists played little part in my defence or for hurting my opponent; I was more apt to kick any foe or wrestle anyone to the ground. This was more for defence than causing any injury; if their fists were not in use, then I was safe. If I had an advantage over my foe, it was the size of my hands. I had an extra-wide hand span and it was easy to lock both my hands round someone’s neck until they gave in. None of my foes ever managed this trick. Had I put my wide hand span to good use, it would have been on the piano, but there was no one who wanted to teach me.

If I was thought not to fight fair, it was using any method to win or draw. If a foe happened to put their arm or leg across my mouth, then there was a simple means of quickly removing it.

Teachers often put a stop to fights. For those that I lost I made sure it restarted at some later point. To the adults my size made me look like a bully, but I did not have the strength of those that were shorter.

  The most recent of our deeds had happened during the last lesson of the day. With two of us mucking about for fun, my punishment was to stand in the corner, whilst my friend was sent to wait in the corridor. There was no other punishment given to us; as it was an art lesson, missing that was thought enough punishment.

At the end of the lesson, everything returned to normal. With the room tidied up, and final prayers said, we were released into freedom. The pair of us had a little pocket money so the intention was to head to the sweet shop to pool our funds to buy a quarter of sweets between us.

On going into the cloakroom to get my coat and boots, I found that my friend had spent his time in tying the belt of my raincoat to the metal coat rack. This was merely a delaying tactic that enabled him to gloat over his actions as he left. It was not a case of simply doing the belt up once around the rack –  it had been carefully threaded several times around the pole using the full length of the belt and the hooks on my raincoat. Eventually freeing my coat and putting it on, I went after him, announcing what fate awaited him. For sport, he was a short distance outside the door, in readiness for the chase.

Having half a playground’s head start, I eventually found him waiting just beyond the school gates. The headmistress and our teacher were in the playground and witnessed my blood-curdling threats of violence as I pursued my victim across the playground.

Had the headmistress needed an explanation as to my recent action, our teacher might have mentioned that we had both been punished for some wrongdoing and up until this point we had been separated; I was apparently now going to even up the score. If our teachers had been at the gate end of the playground, they would have seen us happily going together to the sweetshop. With no further view of us from their vantage point, they could only wonder if I ever caught him up.

The sweets purchased, we spent a short while dividing the spoils up. There was enough of the bag to enable our two shares to remain in reasonably clean condition for the duration of our walk up the main hill. Often I did not go this way, as it was longer than my normal way up the footpath and across the fields.

A mouth full of sweets and the rest put safe, we set about our normal antics. We paid little attention to our surroundings; that traffic was using the road next to the pavement and grass area we were on was simply out of our minds, I was now busily threading the belt of my raincoat back into its proper location. Due to the more important matters of sweets, this had been delayed until now.

My friend was simply trying to annoy for fun. As I started to thread the belt, he would try to pull the original part out. Eventually the task was completed and the buckle done up; no amount of tugging could release the belt, pulling the belt and me round in circles was all that could be managed. The grass bank that we were on was quite damp, so only a little effort was needed to turn me into a type of roundabout.

It was not a fight but both of us were taking turns to grab each other; there was one final tug at my belt, the clip at this moment gave way and the belt slid out of the fixings around my coat. My friend went with it; nothing serious in our minds happened, and he ended up at the edge of the pavement, not even making it into the road.

A bus driver coming down the hill thought my friend was going to go into the road and decided to stop very quickly. The bus stopped a good distance away from us; neither of us was really going to take much notice of the bus stopping had it not ended up at a slight angle, preventing cars from going up.

From the driver’s cab came a telling off. Had we ran away, that would have been the end of the matter. With the cars that were trying to get up the hill now hooting at the bus driver, we stayed around to see if more events would unfold.

A small crowd soon formed; my friend was too busy wiping the mud off his coat to see the driver of the bus approaching. I did notice and beat a hasty retreat, leaving him to get the telling off. It was not really an act of cowardice; it was sensible in my mind to avoid trouble. Once at the top of the hill, I slowed down and then finished my sweets before returning home. My only thoughts were for tomorrow and asking him how much of a telling off did he get.

During tea, there was a knock at the door. My mother opened the door; it was the headmistress and someone else. I was eager to find out what it was all about, but as the adults wanted to be alone, I was sent to my room. Eventually I was brought back. It appeared I was being accused of trying to push another boy under a bus, although it seemed he would not admit I was trying to push him into the road. Several people had seen us struggling a short while earlier, and the driver of the bus had seen me at the side of the road letting the boy fall.

Three adults against one was unfair. I was never very good at explaining things at the best of times; now being accused of something I had not done, sent me into a rage. As they were not able to get any sense out of me, I was sent back to my room. The adults continued to talk about me for quite some time.

Finally they left. My mother tried to explain what she had been told. If I tried to put my side of events, it appeared that there were many others who had seen things a different way. Two of my teachers had witnessed my going for the boy, and several other people had seen us fighting. It would be best if I admitted what I had done, and get the matter sorted out. My final demands were that my mother should talk to my friend, and get his side of the events; he would be able tell her what had really happened. In my mind, we would go to school tomorrow, my mother would ask my friend what happened, and that would be the end of the matter.

Events however did not go as I expected. For two days I did not go to school, and at the weekend I was not allowed to go into the village. Other than visiting the farm next to where we lived, I was not allowed my normal freedom; even at the farm, I could sense that there was something not right. For most of my time I sulked indoors at not being believed. The headmistress and another adult paid a couple more visits; I was only talked to for a short while, and as I did not want to change my story, they gave up trying.

Monday came and I was again not sent off to school. On asking questions about when I was going to return to school, all I was told was that it would be when things were sorted out.

By the evening, events were starting to change. There was the hint from my mother that a different school might be best for me. As this idea had been proposed some time earlier, I agreed that I would love a change of school; if they were not going to believe me at this school, then I did not want to go back.

Eventually I was sent off to bed. The following morning I was still quite happy with the idea of a new school. During breakfast, it was explained that today we would be going into town to see about finding me a new school. Asking where it would be and how I would get to it. I was fobbed off with various excuses.

 Mid-morning we set off by bus. As it was a school day the town seemed quiet; I was taken to a large building, there was a long wait before we were seen. First my mother went off to talk to some adults, and then I was brought in and questioned as to what had happened when my friend fell into the road. Until that moment the day had gone quite well. I now started to get angry and upset. I tried to explain that he had not fallen into the road. We had been playing on the grass bank and he had only landed on the pavement.

After a time my mother went in to see them on her own. Eventually she returned. All I could ask was when I would be going to my new school. There was a truthful answer of tomorrow, but first we would go home where more could be explained to me. I was eager to start a new school.

When we returned home a few more things were revealed to me. My mother spent some time explaining to me how my grandmother was ill, and that soon she might have to leave here and would have to look after her. Returning to the flat in London with me running about was not possible; my grandmother needed a large amount of quiet.