There are enough fascinating individuals in the St Mary’s canon to write about five social histories but there are also a few peripheral characters, not directly associated with the school but nevertheless fondly-recalled. And one day, I might write a piece about Cocky the Cockatoo who resided in a cage in Sidcup Place.

But for now, let’s take a look at the remarkable Smokey Joe, an unforgettable character who used to traipse the streets of north west Kent and south east London – to call him simply ‘a tramp’ would be doing him a disservice – he was a true ‘gentleman of the road’ and someone I have very vague recollections of seeing around Bexley Village in the early 1970s. As a young boy, I was afraid of him. Yet I know now he was completely harmless.

John ‘Buck’ Hennessy, who was at St Mary’s between 1958 and 1963 recalls him well: “Smokey Joe used to come down from Chislehurst and time it for lunch break. We would line the fence and pass tailor-mades or roll-ups through the chain link fence to him.

“He had an old bike without tyres which he used to push or ‘ride’ hobby horse style. In winter, he would often camp up by Cavey’s Springs on the old cart track from Bexley Road to Tile Kiln Lane. I used to pass there late at night on the way home walking from Bexley and see his fire on the edge of the field.

“He always had a length of wood tied to his crossbar which extended over the back wheel. Swinging from the end of this was an old paint can with burning embers used to start his next night’s fire.

“When it was really cold, he would commit some minor offence and Bexley Old Bill would lock him up for a couple of nights until the cold and frost abated.

“We all loved him and the freedom he represented.”

Buck’s lifelong friend and fellow St Mary’s old boy Mick O’Hara recalls often encountering Smokey Joe when he was walking through Bexley Village and offering him some tobacco and occasionally enjoying a cigarette together outside The Rising Sun pub.

Like all inviduals who chose the lifestyle adopted by Smokey Joe, there is an interesting back story. His real name was George Curnow, and it’s believed he was born in Bermondsey in 1886. After suffering shell shock during the Great War, he was discharged from the army and then opted for a life on the road, wheeling his bike around the streets, carrying his few possessions.

It is thought he was well-educated, interested in ornithology and with a fine singing voice. He eschewed the conventional lifestyle and chose his own path. Those St Mary’s boys who saw him wheeling his bike past the school at lunchtime clearly admired this spirit.

Smokey Joe lived well into his 80s, dying in Maidstone Hospital in 1975.