Frank J. Boote

Teacher: 1951 - 1966

Frank Boote's son, Gareth, writes:

I found amongst my father's property a book entitled "South Col, One Man's Adventure on the Ascent of Everest 1953," by Wilfred Noyce. It appears to have been presented to my father by Institute pupils, but it does not state the year.


 

Incidentally, regarding the South Col book (and following my own enquiries) I received an email from a slightly startled P.G. Sissons who included in his reply:

"I am very sad to have heard of your father's death. When I took the 11 plus in 1953, I remember that he was the teacher who invigilated us. Subsequently he was my form master in the second year - 4A. The signatures you see are the autographs of all the boys in that form, which would have been signed in 1954. I don't remember us buying him a book of any kind, but if the signatures are on a page of it, then I suppose we must have. Could they have been pasted into it subsequently?

Frank Boote was a terrific schoolmaster. Very fair, well liked, but never a soft touch. I think he had a great civilising influence on all the boys in his care and tutelage. I never heard anyone say a bad word about him.

I am still in touch with Don Andrew. Of the other boys, John Selby and Colin Manley are both dead - early victims of heart attacks. I have no news about any of the others. I have in front of me the Liverpool Institute Green Book for 1955, but by then the class had moved on to Mr. Smith in L5A."

I also enclose, as a curiosity, a 1952 communication regarding my father's pay. The Upper Dicconson St. address was a flat Ma and Pa had when they were first married. They moved on when I was born in 1955.

Another most odd document from the attic appears to be an instruction to newly appointed teachers on how to open a bank account and where. Since it was necessary to tell people this, I can only assume that in the early 1950s bank accounts were not common and that many still did their banking in a jam jar under the mattress. I cannot tell whether the letter is a typed original or a copy of a typed document. If the latter, how would it have been copied, since it predates the photocopier by a goodly number of years?