Gabby Turnbull Our Celebrated English Teacher

I took my “O” levels at Que Que High in 1965 and 1966 as a boarder. ‘Doc’ Livingstone was headmaster, and his wife taught English in 1966, taking over from ‘Gabby’ Turnbull when he left (to retire?) who had taught me in Form 3A in 1965. This was such a change that I went from top to bottom of that class in a year. Gabby introduced me to some literature he had under lock and key, lending me the Alexandrian quartet by Laurence Durrell. I’ve pretty sure that Gabby made a positive and appreciated impression on everyone he met, I thought he was fantastic,

Science was taught in the 4th form by ‘Chang’ Francis, Housemaster, and I remember his astonishingly beautiful daughter on her visits, all the boy boarders magically found a variety of reasons to be suddenly hanging about his driveway at her arrival and departure. Maths was taught by the very patient Mr Gardiner, who took some of us out to a rifle-range to fire a few shots using his .22.

Head boy in ’66 was Ian Coates. My girlfriend was Barbara Bray, captain of the hockey team. She moved to Bulawayo for her ‘A’ levels, and I moved to Thornhill High in Gwelo. Our romance died due to distance (smile). I was let out for the odd weekend into the care and feeding of Ronnie and Ida Samson, who put up with my Aspergers remarkably well, introducing me to the Tepersons and the Schattils. I remember trying to discuss sex with a somewhat bemused Lynette Samson when she was on vacation from ‘varsity, and fantasising about it with the vivacious Gillian Schattil, much to her dad’s ill-concealed alarm. A pair of nasty bullies in the form of Wayne Hunter and Patrick Kirkpatrick made my life hell in the dorm, but Terry Fitt modelled a variety of ways of dealing with them. David Hatchuel was a boarder at that time, and would also look after me. I am very sorry to say I was unbearably rude to him, and he eventually gave up on me.