My Wife Jenny and I  want to continue traveling to the 4 corners of this great World,  we do not want to miss anywhere! We expect to continue cruising the great oceans, on magnificent giant liners. Visiting exotic ports in far off locations...& we intend to!

If you intend to travel next spring, visit one of the greatest and most attractive countys in the south of England...I speak of my birthplace Surrey. My family moved overseas when I was 13, and of course I had to go also. I never really wanted to leave, but at the same time, my fantasy visions drew me to the possibility  of swimming and fishing in warm exotic faraway places. (Didn't we all?) Plus, if I hadn't left I never would have met the love of my life, my beautiful Wife Jenny.

Now being able to travel more or less when my Wife Jenny & I want to, we can pop in and out of Woking, Surrey whenever we feel like it. (about once a year). At the end of this Article I would like to share with you an easy way that may, with a little effort, enable you to travel the World, and get paid for it...it does exist, and I can show you how.

 I would like you to read a small chapter of my life. In the period  just pryor to being taken overseas with my younger brother and sister. It also includes memories regarding the late, great, Cricketing Legends...The Bedser Twins.

For no other reason than to see it down on paper.

Monument Hill Primary School.
Woking, Surrey UK

My name is Mike Whittingham.
I was born in Woking, Surrey, England, in 1941.
And attended the same Primary school as the Cricketing Bedser twins, Alec & Eric.

The primary school was adjacent to the Monument Hill Secondary School, which had been attended by Alec & Eric Bedser several years prior to my attending the M.H. Primary. My bus to and from school every day passed by the house where the 'Bedser's had lived
when they attended Monument Hill Primary School. If memory serves, nearby stood a Country Inn named, I think, "The Bleak" it stuck in my mind, I think, due to my being a crazy mad fisherman, and a 'Bleak' is a small fresh water inhabitant. (As you all know :-)

I was a pupil at 'Monument Hill Primary school' during the 1950's I recall the Head Mistress's name was Miss Smith, a wonderful lady' A Mr Boland, and a rather stern little lady (English Teacher I think) whose name was Miss Parker.

There seems to be a lack of recorded detail regarding M.H. Primary School, and I think that it could be because the word Primary is omitted in many research attempts. (See 'Wikipedia') where I have published an article based on this subject in an attempt to get more details on the final weeks of the school)

One of the Bedser twins, (I think that it was Eric) visited us at the Primary School shortly after returning, with brother Alec, after playing in an Ashes Test in Australia, which by the way, I now call ('home') I think that it was 1953/4, and I cannot remember any details of the 'Test'

Eric visited Monument Hill Primary School Primary as a famous 'Old Boy' and proceeded to captivate the whole school with exotic tales of: 'Tar melting on the roads' in Australia, due of course, to the extreme heat. (Still does:-) and Orange and Lemon trees hanging over garden fences laden with Citrus fruit, and Grape Vines used to make wine, and wonder upon wonder... .Watermelon!! which I had never even set eyes on at that time, due to post war shortages.
But of course the main subject for the visit that day was to talk about Cricket. As you can imagine, Eric Bedser had several dozen, open mouthed, jaws on the floor, future Cricketers sat cross legged before him. He persuaded us that if he and brother Alec could go to Monument Hill Primary & Secondary Schools, and then play cricket for their Country of birth, then any of us could too.

That talk on that afternoon, had all of us heading home that night vowing to become Test Cricketers. (The Boys at least...of course these days i would be accused of prejudice lol) Nothing could be further from the truth! I love to see the ladys playing any sport, in fact at the risk of sounding like an D.O.M. I would have sooner played sport with the girls, than the boys! :-) 
(I could expand on my memories of Monument Primary School, with tales of my first ever Team Soccer match played, (we lost 12!!! nil) but maybe that is for another article

My family emigrated to Australia in 1956, and so I never enrolled in the M.H. Secondary.
On my first visit back to the UK in the 1980's, with my Wife and youngest Son, I was dismayed to find the old Monument Hill Primary school, literally a pile of rubble.
It seemed pointless to make any further inquiry's, as the evidence of the march of progress lay before me.

My eagerly, much awaited trip to my birthplace, lay before a heap of bricks and dust.
My trip down memory lane had been as shattered as the school was now.

Sadly Alec and Eric have left us, and according to my research,  Alec retired to Woking, where he eventually died. I have not yet researched Eric and so this article is incomplete at
this time.

I intend to locate via the internet, Woking's local newspaper, if it still exists, with a view to researching the circumstances surrounding M.H.primary schools demise.Does anyone know if another school was built on the site? or is it a Supermarket?

I do hope that my suggestion regarding the use of the word  'Primary' will open up further information on Monument Hill Schools.

Regards & Sincerely.
Mike Whittingham