Lichfield Cathedral School

A memorable reunion took place at Lichfield Cathedral School recently when six of the school’s founder-pupils from 1942 gathered at the School to re-establish friendships and share reminiscences.

The gentlemen, all now in their seventies, were given a tour of the school, including the new facilities both in the Close and the new Junior School at Longdon Green. As pioneers themselves during the difficult years of the Second World War, they were particularly interested in the new directions that the school is taking with the expansion into secondary education.

In 1942, St Chad’s Cathedral School, as it was then known, was made up of 19 boys aged 7 – 13, most of whom were choristers, with a matron, two teachers and a Headmaster. The Cathedral School as it is today has over 400 children – boys and girls aged from three to thirteen - with the oldest pupils moving in to the school’s first ever Year 9 group this September.

As well as being given a tour of the new facilities and some of their original classrooms, the visitors also attended Choral Evensong in the Cathedral, sung by today’s choristers, all of whom are educated at the Cathedral School. They then enjoyed a dinner at the school with current staff and some of the current choristers. The boys who attended the dinner were fascinated to hear what school life was like in the 1940s, including descriptions of exercises in the Cathedral Close every morning in school uniform and compulsory boxing lessons with their teacher, Mr. Pease-Watkin, who was also able to attend the reunion.