The master who made the greatest impression on me was 'Beefy' Pearce. A remarkable man who was also Bursar, but as one Common Room member remarked to me years after I had left, he still managed to find time to do the Times crossword each day. Beefy did not spare the rod and frequently would say, 'Smith, the only way to get this into your brain is through the seat of your trousers, bend over, 'Je suis. tu es, il est, elle est'. The conjugations would be punctuated with the beat of his cane on the luckless boy's posterior. The rest of us would look on in relief that it was not us, but we took great care to learn the French words. 

D-Day was approaching and a Canadian division was stationed in the environs of Bournemouth. Some of the soldiers were billeted in the same houses as some of the evacuees. This led to an amusing incident. If memory serves me right Beefy had a degree from a University in Montreal [Laval I think] as well as one from a French University. 'Smith' he said in a voice laden with doom for that boy, 'come out here, bendover, now [whack] I must [whack] not [whack] get French Canadians [whack] to help me [whack] with my French prep [whack]'.

I still think Beefy was a marvellous character but I suppose that today he would be dragged into court for his instructional methods. 

(Mr Cyril Pearce taught Modern Language at PGS from 1927 until his retirement in 1952. He also served as the school's Bursar throughout the Second World War up until 1951.)