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The Book of Honour is bound in red leather and is unfinished - it contains the names of only five individuals!
DATE TRANSCRIBED: December 5th 2011
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The cover features the Grammar School crest and motto (Ut Prosim) and is dedicated inside as follows:
Presented to
Houghton-le-Spring Grammar School
by the
Old Scholars' Association
to record
Outstanding Achievement - Civic or Academic - or Heroism
The transcriptions below are presented in order of entry. It is assumed that the book ended in 1969 when the school ceased to be a grammar school.
RONALD SMELT
B.A. (1 Honours Mathematics, Cantab)
1926 - 32
He directed the flight of the first Whittle Jet plane and in 1959 was appointed manager of the Discoverer Satellite Programme of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation.
DR WILLIAM WOOD
O.B.E., M.B., B.S. (Dunelm)
1934 - 41
In 1954 he was offered and accepted the post of Director of Poliomyelitis Research and Vaccine Production with Glaxo, Ltd., Slough, having been a member of the Anglo-Canadian team which worked on problems of mass-producing this vaccine in collaboration with Dr. Salk.
COLIN MATTHEW MURPHY
For further information and photographs of the building on fire, visit www.fireflash-delta64.co.uk
1942 - 47
He died in saving the lives of girls in a big fire in a Liverpool store on 22nd June 1960 and was posthumously awarded the Carnegie Bronze Medal for Bravery and the Albert Medal.
RONALD YOUNG
Captain, R.N.
1927 - 31
Awarded D.S.C. at the battle of Crete. In 1959 he was appointed Director of Guided Weapons to the Royal Navy.
GEORGE JONES
1958 - 63
On 26th March, 1969, he helped a party of old people to safety from a burning bus with "complete disregard for his own safety". Awarded the Certificate of the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.
With thanks to Helen Lawrence for rescuing the book and providing photographs.
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PAGE UPDATED: 10/04/2013
MAKE PUMPS 20
WILLIAM HENDERSON
[DEPARTMENT STORE]
CHURCH STREET, LIVERPOOL
22 JUNE 1960
Colin Murphy, a married man from Wallasey who worked for the Liverpool Ventilation Co, had been working on the 1st floor when the fire started. He went back into the smoke to switch off the ventilation fans, but on being told that they had already been switched off he was then trapped on the 4th floor.. Thereafter he climbed out onto the ledge as all other routes were cut off. It was however a difficult climb as the windows were some distance off the floor. He eventually made his own escape climbed out onto the ledge at the front of the premises. Whilst crawling along the 18`` wide ledge towards Timothy White’s roof and safety a sudden rush of smoke and flame exploded out from a 4th floor window and caused him to loose his footing. Colin fell onto the concrete and glass canopy at ground floor level, receiving injuries from which he later died. All George Taylor could do was offer a prayer as he was half way up the TL heading for the 4th floor ledge to try and rescue the 5 people trapped there.
As noted above, the rescue of those 5 people, all members of Henderson's staff, was successful
