Vanbrugh Castle School

Parents' Day 1956

Parent’s Day (?) 1956 on the lawn behind the Wing.

The audience is listening to the school brass band, conducted & trained by Paddy Purcell. A team from the Naval College erected the tent and presumably brought along the inflatable boat.
The headmaster Corner, and housemaster D R Jones (to the left of him) can be seen talking to visitors. The old man in the foreground with a stick is the the octogenarian Roberts(wing/cmdr rtd) appointed after the Gregory fiasco. Boys are offering refreshments to the throng. The tall man to the right of Corner, half facing the camera is housemaster Sisley.

Some of those in the band are : Michael Laughlin (bassoon), Peter Banbury (clarinet), James Thompson (clarinet), & Colin Addison. (What is the boy on the right doing standing on a chair with a drum?). It was under Corner that the band was formed and many of the larger instruments were donated after an appeal.