16 May 2021
Written By Matthew Eastley
Aggy and Pratty
This is a great photograph from the mid to late 60s – I think about 1967 – because it shows two fondly-remembered St Mary’s characters. Firstly it’s a brilliant snapshot of Art Teacher Brian Pratt, looking straight at the camera with his arms folded. Brian would have been about 33 here. The photograph was taken by 1964 starter John Watson on a visit to the Hayward Gallery on London’s Southbank and I think John has captured the popular art teacher really well.
It’s also interesting because it shows a rare picture of the legendary Chris ‘Aggy’ Doran. Chris is the one with glasses, wearing a mac, a school scarf and looking upwards with a smile on his face. Aggy who would go on to study ballet and become an actor is almost worth a book on his own and it’s been a joy getting to know about him, even though sadly, like Brian Pratt, he is no longer with us. Suffice to say, he earns his place in the pantheon of great St Mary’s characters just through the sheer effervescence of his personality which is fully explored in the book.
The picture also shows, in the centre, Chris Goodrich, a very able student from Welling who has also been most helpful in the course of this project.
Thanks to John too for the supply of some really good pictures.
Matt – we have spoken about this one before so I wanted to leave a comment here for the benefit of other visitors to the site.
Immediately to the right of Mr Pratt is my dear departed friend and former classmate Chris ‘Otto’ Warren. We started at St. Mary’s in 1963 so were in the year immediately above 1964 joiners Doran and Goodrich. Otto is wearing the sixth form tie – mostly black with just one set of stripes. Chris G has the lower school tie and blazer badge. We also know that Aggy left St. Mary’s after taking his ‘O’ levels. So that dates the photo to the 1968-1969 school year when Otto was in the lower sixth and the other lads were in the fifth.