Although Ray says “quite honestly I don't think I can remember a great deal about school”, he goes on to recall that “when I was having lessons I was always being called for by Mr. E.C. Cook to 'sing' to some visitors with Mrs Linnell playing the piano and then when a Mr. Russell (I think from the BBC) came to audition the choir and he came round listening close up to our individual voices only to find that I was singing the words to the second verse while everybody else was singing correctly. I remember Mr. Cook being furious and I was dismissed from the choir (was it my fault we were not accepted in the audition?) Somehow when Merrie England was decided upon, I was reinstated (I think by the intervention of Mrs. Linnell and Mrs. Holt).
“The rest is known from the reviews in the North Bucks Times and the Bletchley Gazette (were you able to trace the Gazette review? I would like a copy if its on file at the Library - the one I have is the NBT I think).
“The only other thing about Merrie England I remember is that in Act II one of the dances which I had to take part in was changed and it was only discovered in the interval of a performance that I hadn't been at the rehearsal and didn't know it and Mrs Naylor was quickly putting me through the steps during the interval. I think all went well, so it must have been a simple change of steps.
“Of course I remember ‘The English Rose’ and every time having to repeat it, twice on the last night and Christine Barden (Queen Elizabeth) saying if I had kept my eye on the conductor (Mr. E.C. Cook) I would have had to do it again.
“While typing this, I've remembered the stage fight with staves, whoever was playing Long Tom said he would clout me with a stave if I got too boisterous as I had the previous performance, great days!
“I'm surprised that once you start to type something, memory comes back. Maybe you can use some of this for the Archive! It would be good to find out what happened to some of the pupils - David Smith went to Australia years ago, but I do not know his address, perhaps somebody kept in contact with him. Will be in touch, Best Wishes, Ray.”
