Paul Geradine was one of the first people to really embrace this project and convince me that it was worth undertaking.

Paul was able to lay his hands on some decent memorabilia and also had a ton of memories tucked away.

Something he has clung on to is the sixth form colours tie which he is modelling in the picture above.

 When I joined in 1977, Paul was in the upper sixth and back then we looked up to them almost as demi-Gods. He would go on to read History at Corpus Christi, Oxford.

Paul, who came from Bromley and attended St Joseph’s RC Primary School on Plaistow Lane, supplied some really rich, evocative memories of his time at the school.

When asked which teachers inspired him most, he said:

“Top of the list for me (by some margin) was Father JP ‘Spud’ Murphy SM. ‘Spud’ was a kind, knowledgeable, happy, smiley, fairly laissez-faire teacher who mainly taught History, including for me and my contemporaries at O and A level.

 “He would largely let us get on with things in our own way but, if we went out of our way and managed to upset him, he would get monumentally angry and red-faced to the point of looking as if he were about to burst a blood vessel.

 “He was a proud Irishman including him being an alumnus (I think) of Trinity College, Dublin. He certainly believed that I had the ability to go on to do history at Oxford and encouraged me to take the entrance exams. I’m not sure anyone else shared his confidence! I stayed in contact with him for many years after I left St Mary’s and he ultimately married my wife and I at St Joseph’s RC Church, Bromley in May,1990.”

 Many other old St Mary’s boys share Paul’s fond memories of ‘Spud.’

 All of which leads me to say that the list of ‘G’s’ have now been added to the A to Z directory. Plenty of names there which should spark some memories.