1 - "The Merchant of Venice" 1946, produced by Miss EM Hill. Left to right:
Back row: Jackie Harris, John Rawlins, Brian Hawker, John Dutot, Alan Stockley;
Front row: Brian Larcombe, David Nicholson, Ian McKissack.
Photo courtesy of John Rawlins.

2 - "The Merchant of Venice" 1946.
Photo courtesy of John Rawlins.

3 - "Macbeth" 1947, produced by Miss EM Hill. Left to right:
Back row: H Wells-Furby, I McKissack, A Stockley, J Dutot, J Rawlins, M Stabler;
Middle row: G Shardlow, B Pressly, Thomas, B Larcombe, J Newman, A Croad, D Wakely, Riggs, W Hunt;
Front row: Tauton, P Forsey, J Mathews.
Photo courtesy of John Rawlins.

4 - Dorchester Grammar School Play 1949 - "Ambrose Applejohn's Adventure".
Mainwaring, Spark, Burden, Revans, ?, Pouncy, Hardwicke?, Parsons, Fooks, White, Nicols?, Neale?.
Photo courtesy of Terry Parsons.

5 - The programme for Dorchester Grammar School Play 1950 - "R. U. R." (“Rossums Universal Robots”).
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

6 - Inside the programme for "R. U. R.".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

7 - The programme for Dorchester Grammar School Play 1951 - "The Zeal of Thy House".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

8 - Inside the programme for "The Zeal of Thy House", with autographs.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

9 - "The Zeal of Thy House":
Standing - Singleton, Flynn, Hutchings, Shutler, Dutot, Parsons, Tilney-Bassett, Turner, Culver;
Seated - Hurn, ?, ?, ?, Green, Millett (central), Wells-Furby, ?, ?, ?,?. (too indistinct in profile).
The character at the lower right of the proscenium, in a college scarf, disappearing into the jaws of hell, is David MacOwan, the Producer.
Photo courtesy of Terry Parsons.

10 - "The Zeal of Thy House".
Photo courtesy of Bryan Furmage.

      

Left: 11 - A press photo and, right: 12 - the poster for "The Zeal of Thy House".
Photos courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

13 - "The Zeal of thy House" - Backstage Team:
CH Steemson (Director), Revans, Foster, Pressly, Ken Batty, Taylor, David MacOwan (Producer);
Foreground - Hancock, Hales.

Photo courtesy of Terry Parsons. "That seems to be the only photo I have of the great Steamboat. I wish I had a guinea for every clip, bop or smack he gave me - all well-merited" - Terry Parsons, DGS 1943-51.

14 - Newspaper critique for "The Zeal of Thy House".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

15 - Another newspaper article concerning "The Zeal of Thy House".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

16 - A programme of The Friday Club production of “The Lady’s not for Burning”, June 1951.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

17 - Inside the programme of The Friday Club production of “The Lady’s not for Burning”.
One may well think The Friday Club has little to do with DGS, but take a look at the cast, the back of house and the front of house names.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

18 - The programme for Dorchester Grammar School Play 1952 - "The Moon in the Yellow River".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

19 - Inside the programme for "The Moon in the Yellow River", with autographs.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

20 - John Dutot, centre, as Captain Lanigan.
Photo courtesy of Mike Betts.

    

Left: 21 - The flyer for "The Moon in the Yellow River"; Right: 22 - The Stage Manager’s prompt for Act III.
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

23 - A newspaper critique for "The Moon in the Yellow River"

24 - Another newspaper critique for "The Moon in the Yellow River".
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

25 - Another newspaper critique - this one for the Festival of Drama (date unknown).
Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Goss.

Now two photos of rehearsals for Dorchester Grammar School's entry for the Dorset Junior Drama Festival in summer, 1952.
RL Parker produced the first act of GB Shaw's "Saint Joan", and won first prize. The competition was held in the Corn Exchange; these rehearsals appear to be outside the School Canteen.

  

Left: 26 - Richards as Polly, M Betts (seated) as Joan; right: 27 - Richards as Polly, M Betts as Joan, Millet as the Squire, CS Fry as Steward.
Photos courtesy of Mike Betts.

The 1953 School Play was "Christ's Comet" by Christopher Hassall, produced by Mr David MacOwan. Any photos of this production would be most welcome - please e-mail me.

Below: The 1954 Dramatic Society of Hamlet, produced by Mr MacOwen. Photos courtesy of Chris Etherington.

28 - The Play Scene: Left to right: LHW Frost, NJ Adams, IO Pinkham (sitting), JH Dutot (reclining), MA Lisemore, ITA Hawkins, (curtain,) GW Moffatt, BHJ Barnett, CEC Bartlett (seated), D Nickell (kneeling), GG Hickmore, CWG Bullocke (seated), C Hood, TCC Millett, C Etherington (seated), M Holywell, DP Evans (seated), DL Downton, MW Betts.

29 - The Graveyard: Left to right: DC Merchant, LW Allen, D Nickell, LHW Frost.

30 - Hamlet himself: D Nickell (wearing the costume made for Sir John Guilgud.

31 - The Programme, autographed by the Producer and cast.

32 - This photo shows the Choral Society in 1955.
Back (5th) row: CS Fry, TW Morgan, PB Watkins, P Millward, PR Thomas, ?, C Gould, CL Kingman, MA Lisemore, HMH Pain, D Bacon, ?, CJ Bartlett;
4th row: A McCulloch, GF Allen, RH Pretty, DJ Ratcliffe, MJ Northover, TR Worthington, EW Davies-Brown, S Brewis, GJO Lee, J Townsend;
3rd row: EGB Moore, WI Birrell, JH Perry, AR Rench, GP Vincent, PJ Cunningham, DA Beaton, T Coe, P Fry, K Diment, A Miles;
2nd row: DR Perry, D Patterson, DM Harrison, JR Martin, DMJ Turner, FR Southerington (Pianist), P Bowen (Conductor), TJ Reiss, CJ Sharpe, JJ Pearson, M Barker, M Thomas;
Seated: WPJ Maunder, CW Legg, JE Crewe, NV Boultwood.
Photo courtesy of Tom Worthington.

33 - This photo again shows the Choral Society in 1955. If you position your cursor over the face of an individual, his name (where known) will pop up for a few seconds on the screen. If you can fill in any of the missing names, please e-mail me.
Photo courtesy of Jack Crewe.

Now a series of photos of the 1956 production of "Journey's End" by RC Sherriff, produced by Chris Etherington, who kindly submitted these photos.
The names under the photos of actors are their role names.

34 - The Programme, with autographs.

Left: 35 - Osborne & Hardy ("Ever had earwig races?");
right: 36 - Raleigh, Trotter, Stanhope ("How did you get here?") & Osborne.

Left: 37 - Mason ("If you look down at it straight from above, you can see a little bit o' lean quite clear"), Trotter, Osborne & Raleigh;
right: 38 - Stanhope ("Give me that letter"), Raleigh & Osborne.

Left: 39 - Stanhope ("I give you 15 seconds to decide") & Hibbert;
right: 40 - Colonel ("You want me to go with them?") & Stanhope.

Left: 41 - Stanhope ("Good Lord, we brought six"), Mason, Trotter & Hibbert;
right: 42 - Stanhope, Trotter ("If you ask me, I'd rather see a picture of Margate pier!") & Hibbert ("She's nice").

Left: 43 - The Backstage Boys: Lisemore, Kemp, Tomes, Graham, Batts & Donnelly;
right: 44 - Producer ("Down there..."), Raleigh ("Ah, belt up!"), Stanhope & background Broughton.

45 - The Cast, including the Producer (centre).

Below appears a reproduction of the programme (courtesy of Jack Crewe) of a concert given by the Choral Society in March 1956:

HARDYE'S SCHOOL CHORAL SOCIETY

EVENING CONCERT IN THE CORN EXCHANGE, DORCHESTER

WEDNESDAY MARCH 7TH 1956

SOLOISTS:-

R J A EDWARDS.....Soprano.
R F J WRIGHT......Tenor
C ETHERINGTON..... Bass
F R SOUTHERINGTON.....Piano

PAUL BOWEN........Conductor

PRESIDENT....A.G.de. Willis.Esq

TREASURER.....M A Lismore

HON SECRETARY.....F.R. Southerington

COMMITTEE:

C ETHERINGTON
R F J WRIGHT
D J RATCLIFFE
T J REISS
D TURNER

Ex Officio:- P BOWEN
P MILLWARD
R P SMITH

Programme introduced by John Dillon.

46 & 47 - Two photos courtesy of Alan Costello, who writes:
"In Spring 1956 a party from the school went to Switzerland by coach and ship.
[Here are] a couple of pictures - one on the slopes of Kleine Scheidegg and the other at Rheims (sorry about Joan of Arc's head)..."
Can anyone recognise any faces? If so, please e-mail me.
In the Rheims photo, that looks like Robin Graham at the extreme right.

Ian Pinkham has kindly submitted a short movie clip showing scenes from the Spring 1956 school trip to Switzerland.

Show me the 1956 School Trip movie!

48, 49, 50 & 51: Above and below are the four pages of the programme for the 1956 Carol Service.
The original was kindly given to me by Chrissie Day, partner of the late Tony Davis, at the 2016 Reunion.

52 - "Macbeth" 1957. Left to right:
RB Duckett, FA Barber, MJ Northover (standing), A McCulloch, JA Eades, JE Le Quesne, AJ Nickell, DJ Ratcliffe, WI Birrell.
Photo courtesy of Jack Crewe.

53 - "Macbeth" 1957.
Robin Miller (left) & Tony Barber.
Photo courtesy of Alison Barber.

54 - This one and the next are shown by courtesy of Ian Taylor. Around 1957, Bertie Cruse decided to put on a short play in your actual French at the Corn Exchange as a contribution to the Town Twinning Week with Bayeux (as in tapestry) festivities. I'm not sure if our French visitors understood any of our questionable French accents, but we all had a lot of fun. Bertie even gave each of us a small swig of wine (or so he claimed - I suspect Ribena) afterwards. This photo shows Ian Taylor as L'Agent and Archie McCulloch as Le Professeur, with Tim Reiss as Le Garçon in the background.

55 - Next, the entire cast (left to right, standing): Ian Taylor (L'Agent), Archie McCulloch (Le Professeur), Geoff Standring (Le Patron), Dave Borries (Madame ?), John Perry, Philip Short, Joe Hunt. (Kneeling): Tim Reiss (Le Garçon), Graham Allen (general villain - typecast?), Andy Beaton.

Two photos courtesy of Geoff Standring. Here we see the cast of the famous French Play:
56 - Left, in action, Philip Short, Graham Allen, Archie McCulloch, John Perry, ?, Dave Borries(?).
57 - Right, some of the cast: Back row: Graham Allen, Geoff Standring, Philip Short, John Hunt.
Middle row: Archie McCulloch, two charming young ladies who had nothing to do with the play (unfortunately!), Tim Reiss. Front Row: Ian Taylor, Dave Borries.

The general plot of the play was that the absent-minded professor would sit in the bistro, order a bottle of wine, and then sit engrossed in his papers. The villain would crouch on the other side of a hedge very close to the prof's table, reach through the hedge and take the prof's wineglass and drain it without the prof realising it. Eventually, after another bottle or so, of which the prof consumed very little, the prof left the bistro and forgot to pay. At this point, the villain breaks cover and is caught by the bistro owner, who demands that the villain pays the prof's bill. In the final line of the play, which I still remember after nearly 50 years, the villain exclaims "Joué! La barbe!"

58 - Another of Geoff Standring's. Barry Ventham informs me: "This shows members of Holy Trinity Youth Club when taking part in a military tableau for the Mayor of Dorchester's Old Folks' party in the Corn Exchange, probably in 1959. The Mayor at the time was Arthur Savage. We marched on stage individually, representing different eras of the Dorset Regiment, accompanied by appropriate snatches of music from the Durnovaria Silver Band, and The Casterbridge Singers. On the far left is a chap by the name of Lofthouse; the others, in order, are: Stuart Hayfield, Michael Crockford, Alan Kenway, Mr Hayfield (Youth Leader), Roger Townsend, Barry Ventham, Tony Worcester, Geoff Standring and Roger Pinkham. The uniforms were borrowed from the Military Museum."

59 - In 1960 the combined choir of Hardye's and the Green School performed during the Bayeux Town Twinning celebrations.
Identified are: Men/boys back row l to r: ?, Mr DAS John, Mr Hallams?, Eric Taylor, Graham Allen, ?, ARJ Davis?,
?, John Perry, ?, Tom Worthington, ?, Grahame White, WS Easton (holding papers), Ian Diffey, ?, ?;
Front row: Far left: Tony Ballard, centre Staff: Mr Hugh Bax, ?, Miss Pitman (Green School), Mr Rex Tompsett.
Photo courtesy of Grahame White.

60 - Around 1960 Mr Gloag started up the Photographic Society.
Here is a modelling session he organised in 1960: Linda Nash (seated) and Ann Borries (sister of Chris and David) extreme right.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Milner.

Three scenes from the Hardye's School Play 1960: "The Prisoner".
Photos courtesy of Peter Vallance.

61 - Left to right: ?, McKissack, Vallance, Easton, Bates, Gale, Venner, ?

62 - Left to right: McKissack, Bates, Gale, Vallance.

63 - Left to right:Bates, ?, Easton

64 to 67 - The programme for the Hardye's School Play 1960: "Every Man in His Humour".
Photos courtesy of Peter Vallance.

Three scenes from the Hardye's School Play 1960: "Every Man in His Humour".
Photos courtesy of Peter Vallance.

68 - Left to right: Rose, Kiddy, Gale, Bolton, Betts, Easton, Humphries, Venner, Taylor, McKissack, Bates, Vallance, Ballard, Pearson, Yates, Kann, Short.

69 - Left to right: Betts, Vallance, Short (kneeling), McKissack.

70 - Left to right: Betts, Short, Vallance, McKissack.

71 - Here's one I "stole" from Stewart Easton's gallery on the Hardyeans' Club website. (Sorry, Stewart! Hope you don't mind.) This shows the Hardye's School Choir rehearsing in the school library, under the leadership of Mr Rex Tompsett, with John Porter on the piano. My guess is that this is 1961. One or two faces I can recognise but not name, the exception being Mr Dai John towards the back on the left. In the left foreground, holding his music sheets, is Geoff Pallett in naval uniform. Stephen Venner (back left) is now a bishop.

72 - Hardye's School Play 1961: "Richard II".
Photo from "The Durnovarian" 1961, courtesy of Mick Humphrey.

73 - Another scene from the Hardye's School Play 1961: "Richard II".
Photo from "The Durnovarian" 1961, courtesy of Mick Humphrey.

74 - Yet another scene from the Hardye's School Play 1961: "Richard II".
Photo courtesy of Peter Vallance.
Left to right: ?, Venner, Betts, ?, Vallance

Two scenes from the Hardye's School Play 1962: "The Winslow Boy".
Photos courtesy of Peter Vallance.

75 - Vallance (extreme left), Betts (4th from left).

76 - Mr H Bax (Producer, centre), Betts (4th from right), Vallance (extreme right).

Hardye's School Play in 1963: "The Merry Wives of Windsor".
Left - 77: Simon Dalziel, John Duckett (as Falstaff); Michael Munden; John Barrett; ?, Jonathan King;
Right - 78: Chris Pearson; ?, ?, ?, Jonathan King, John Duckett (in basket!) ?, ?, ?.
Photo courtesy of John Barrett.

79 - A scene from the Hardye's School Play 1964: "Thomas a Becket".
Photo courtesy of Kelvin Holmes, who writes:
'I'm on the left as '2nd French Baron'. Centre (also from Southfield House) is Graham Elford (1st French Baron).
My one line spoken to the French King was "the extradition of a felon is a courtesy due from one crowned head to another"'.

On a rather different note: "The Hunters" pop group, starring Geoff Shaw of Hardye's:
Photo courtesy of Geoff Shaw, who writes:
(Left - 80): This was taken in the Steering Wheel Club in Dorchester around Christmas 1965. We had just won the Scene in the South Group of the Year Award and were being presented with a plaque by Sam Fowler, the manager of the club. I'm the one on the extreme right of the picture.
Interestingly, if you look carefully, you will see the message 'To Jeff, with best wishes for 1966 from Michael'. That was from Michael Hooper, whom I assume is now known as Michael Hooper-Immins, Old Hardyeans President. At the time, he was our group's press officer.
(Right - 81): This was taken in the Weymouth Pavilion Ballroom during the final of Hughie Green's 'Opportunity Knocks' Groups Contest of 1966. We came second to a band from Poole.

82 - During rehearsal of Hardye's School Play April 1968: "The Hungry Wolves".
Left to right: Stur, ?, Porridge, Q, ?, Adams, Leo (Inganhaag?), Harries (seated), B Vince, Ross, ?.
Photo courtesy of John Critchley

83 - Backstage during rehearsal of "The Hungry Wolves".
Left to right: Peter Taylor, Simon Smith, John Critchley, Colin Turner.
Photo courtesy of John Critchley

84 - Hardye's School Play April 1968: "The Hungry Wolves".
Photo courtesy of Derek Gallop, who writes:
"In make-up dept with Wayne Thomas for my two minutes of action in the school play."

85 - Hardye's School Play April 1968: "The Hungry Wolves".
Photo courtesy of Derek Gallop, who writes:
"My two minutes of action - with Ross Stephens and Jonathan Bright."

86 - The programme for Hardye's School Play 1969: "King Henry IV Part One".
Photo courtesy of Derek Gallop, who writes:
"I remember Simon Harries making a particularly convincing Falstaff...especially with a flagon of ale in his hand!"

87 - Inside the programme for "King Henry IV Part One".
Photo courtesy of Derek Gallop.

88 - The programme for Hardye's School Play 1970 - "The Tempest". This also conveniently lists all (then) recent productions.
Photo courtesy of Peter Grundy.

89 - Inside the programme for "The Tempest".
Photo courtesy of Peter Grundy.

90 - The programme for Hardye's School Play 1971 - "The Caucasian Chalk Circle". This was the first school play with girls in the cast.
Photo courtesy of Peter Grundy.

91 - Inside the programme for "The Caucasian Chalk Circle".
Photo courtesy of Peter Grundy.

92.93 & 94 - The 1982 production of "The Golden Masque of Agamemnon" with members of Hardye's and the Green School.
Images courtesy of Richard Umbers.

95 & 96 - The 1980's (probably 1981) School production of Henry IV Part I. Note that this play was also performed in 1968 - see photo 73 et seq above.
Images courtesy of Richard Umbers.

97 & 98 - The 1980's (probably 1983) School production of Oh What a Lovely War, in conjunction with the Green School.
Images courtesy of Richard Umbers.

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