Another shot from the box camera of the 'war' years...
Patrick Evans was - to me, a superb bloke! He started at Hydneye the same term that I did (Christmas Term 1958), and he was incredibly kind to me when I was a lost soul, wandering around in a daze, and wanting to go home...
Tim Satchell immortally nicknamed him 'Phe Phe', because he taught French, and also they were his initials as well!
After he retired, he lived near Rye for a long time, and invented and developed a method of programming horses for big races! It was a deadly serious business, all built around working out how horses - like humans, have good days and bad days. He worked on this programme for years and always maintained it wasn't a 'system', and had many owners as clients to prove it!
I think out of all the masters at Hydneye, he was the best I can remember, and apart from him tearing me off a strip for trying to be funny, when he wanted us to remember the French word for 'to knit' (I said 'knitter', and was severely bollocked, I've always remembered the correct word - tricoter...), I thought he was a damn nice chap!
