AT SCHOOL WITH MR. ASQUITH.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 144, 3 June 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

AT SCHOOL WITH MR. ASQUITH.

REMINISCENCES OF A CLASS-

MATE.

His political friends and foes alike arc agreed that few men have achieved fame and honour in a more brilliant fashion than Mi*. .Asnuith. All he has attained ha* been accomplished ‘‘off his own bat.” As a youth lie won a scholarship at the City of London School, and he has kept and educated himself ever since The Premier entered the Citv of London School in 1861. when he‘was twelve years of age, and. as will be seen from the following reminiscences of Mr. Thomas Thwaites, of Karnet. who was at school with the Prime Minis-tei . the latter soon began to give indications of his extraordinary capabilities “Within six months of his entry into the school.” said Mr. Thwaites, “young Asquith had secured the Divinity prize and al**o tin- Latin prize. The following year he got the prize for general proficiency, ami in 18(i6 the Classical Progress prize: the next year the first Clas-i-al prize fell to him, as well as Sir William Titus’s scholarship. Then in 18 9 and 1870 he was captain of the school, declaiming the fame of John Carpenter, the founder, in Greek, and gaining -urh prizes as the Latin Verse* prize. English History prize, gold modal for general proficiency, and the Moulem prize for English.

WALKED TO SAVE BL’S FARES. “it is s’lrpr’sfi.g.” continued Mr. Tint nites. laughingly, “that during the time Mr Asquith was at school, if any l>ov thought of going in for some s:H-ci.d prize he usually retired from the contest when he heard that young Asquith was also competing. “Still, in spite of his brilliancy, we little dreamt that we were chumming with the future Prime Minister of England. It was not easy to imagine, tn spite of young A«qnith’s brilliance in the school-mom, that the boy who lived at Highbury and walked from there tc the* City, via Goswell Road, in orde.’ to save the has fares which were so expensive ir. those days, would one day sit at the head of the British Cabinet.

"STAND-OFFISH.” “\n-l Mr. Asquith himself has confessed that such an ambition never entered his mind ; for h? stated at a dinner given to him by the John Carpenter Club—that association of old boys of the Citv of London School who seek to keep .alive the memory of the founder —on the occasion ol his being imide Homo Secretary, that occu.icnrdlv on his wav from school he would look with n. ‘sense of awe-struck solemnitv at the Houses of Parliament and the members entering, little thinking of the part 1m himself would play there in the- future.' • “1 cannot say that young Asquith was popidar. He was not good at game*. Tie didn’t like them. He seemed to stand aloof, and acquired the reputation of being what we term stand-offish.’ Not because he was r.aturallv unsociable but simply because it was work, and work alone, which appealed to him. Boyish play was not part of his programme, and apparently he refused to force himself to be as other boys.

VERY TENACIOUS. *1 can picture him now— a small, rather square-beaded lad, with a pronounced ’ North-country accent and very taciturn manners, but whose speech, when he did let himself go, was very much to the point. There was one subject upon which he was very decided and what was the great superiority of practically everything in ttie North of England to anything in the South. And as the majority of the bo vs of the school were from the South, this topic naturally led to very heated nrimments. But young Asquith showed remarkable tenacity. in sticking to his guns, and I have since heard that when, as a sixth-form boy, he became a member of tlx- debating society as an advanced LitieraL he was even then stronglv opposed to Women’s Suffrage. ‘•Apropos of the doings of this delisting socictv. I might mention that Dr. Abbott, the head master, has related that, as president of the society, he often attended the debates.; but as his duties wore practically nominal, and as time with him was very precious, it was his custom to take a batch ot exercises from the schoolroom ana cornet these while presiding over the debates. But when Mr. Asquith entered the society he became so interested m the eloquence of the future Prime Minister that he found it difficult to concentrate his mind <n the exercises, and. Anally, whenever young Asquith held the floor. D’-. Al hot was obliged to resign himself to willing atention.

“STIFF AND HARD.” I have no doubt that Mr. Asquith will remember the two French masters. MM. Stievenard anti Lericlie, the firstliamed g-mtlemnn being sometimes sooken of ns Mounsecr Stiff-and-Hard. a cruel misnomer, as he was anything b-it that: onlv, I take it, we couldn’t resist the obvious play upon his name. “I wonder, bv the way. if Mr Asqsith lias kept possession of his Delille’s Fren-h Gramma' ? I still have mine, rid occasional!v enjoy looking at it, although it reminds me cf some very puinful half-!:onrs?’

CHAFF AND CARICATURES

“Ono cf my recollections goes back to a dav when one bold and adventurott-- voitth proposed that some three or four of ns and I am almost certain that von ng Asquith was one of the rAr tv—should make an excursion into the n< ighbonrho >d of Host on in order tc see 'he house where lived the late Mr. Jem Mace. We saw the house, and risen de- ided we would go as far ns Camden Town to look upon that stale art champion o’ England the famous Tom Savers. But we never saw Tom. althongh «c looker! at a house where he was supposed to live. "’Th en we returned to school on the fallowing dav we had to enduro a considerable amount cf boyish chaff, and the artists of the class were for some time busy in making sketches of our snpposw! adventures in Camden Town, most of those sketches representing the great Tom coming out of hi* hows'* and violently ejecting some small bovs out of his front garden: not, indeed, with his fists—that we should have been proud of—but with his boot. ‘Tire Citv School, now standing -irH.ri the Thames Embankment, looks a much

more swell affair than the old building in Milk Street, but it is in the nature of things that it cannot hope to send forth many pupils destined to run a similar course to Mr. Asquith. Some or us old scholars may be Conservatives, but I don’t care two straws what shade of politics we affect; in admiration of our old schoolfellow Tories and Liberals are at one.”