Image (click to enlarge) and information supplied by Mike Lewis.

I was fortunate to go on three overseas school trips whilst at CSTS. One was to Perpignan in the South of France. This was in the summer of 1965 (I remember very little of this trip). The other two were skiing trips to Gotzens in the Austrian Tyrol. Once in the winter of 1962-63, and again in the winter of 1963-64. The journey to Gotzens was made by train and was somewhat arduous, taking something like 24 hours as I recall. However, I also remember that it was quite an adventure and it seemed very exciting.

Mr Ryan was influential in all three trips, and certainly in the case of those to Gotzens, payment was made by instalments in the weeks and months leading up to Christmas. Every Monday morning break you had to present yourself in Mr Purdy's mechanics lab where Mr Ryan would be set up ready to take your money and receipt your payment card. 10 shillings a week is the figure which comes to mind!

For me the 1962-63 trip was an unmitigated disaster because I broke my leg at the very beginning. I vividly remember being taken down from the nursery slopes to the village on a sledge where we were met by an ambulance which took me to hospital. The pain was excruciating and every little bump of the sledge was agonising. About six of us were sleeping in a chalet which was annexed to the hotel but of course, upon my return from hospital and in plaster, I was moved into a room in the hotel. Mr Ryan was very kind to me on that trip and he really did his best to try and cheer me up.

Every morning all the others went off to the slopes and I was left in bed in my room. I remember that I quite quickly got fed up with that and one morning I got myself out of bed, managed to get dressed, and I made it down to the reception area ready to greet the others upon their return. I had been given strict instructions by the Masters to remain in bed, and I confess to feeling nervous at what their reaction would be to seeing me, but it was OK and even Mr Piper managed a smile and gave me a "well done".

When we got back to London Victoria station the trip ended with me being put onto a porter's luggage trolley and wheeled along the platform to my Father's waiting car for the journey home!

When we returned to school in January, Chas called me out of class one day and told me that in view of what had happened the school had decided to offer me the chance to go on the next skiing trip at a cost reduction of 50%. That was very generous and I gladly accepted the offer. And so it was that once again I found myself in Gotzens, whereupon arrival I immediately broke out with Chicken Pox! At least it didn't prevent me from enjoying myself and I had a great time skiing.

The photograph of me (below) wearing the number 22 bib is from the race which we had on the last day (in which I came last).