Call to ‘the Streetly Boys’

THE EDITOR: A few past students of the Junior Technical School of San Fernando, a school which opened its doors in January 1943, are sounding a clarion call for its remaining Old Boys to have a reunion to mark the Diamond Jubilee of the opening of the school.

This school existed as “The Junior Technical School of San Fernando” for only 12 years. It was opened at number 7 High Street, San Fernando, on Monday, January 18, 1943. The man who opened the school was Reverend James Fairland Streetly, an Englishman who at the time was archdeacon of St Paul’s Church on Harris Promenade, San Fernando He was transferred from San Fernando to Tobago in 1947, when he had to leave his school. Reverend Streetly, who was an engineer by profession, came out to the Caribbean in 1922 in answer to the call of a former master, Bishop Henry Anstey, to join the ministry of the Church and serve in the West Indies. Streetly was 23 at the time. He was first appointed to Barbados, but came to Trinidad in 1925.

While serving as an Anglican priest he did volunteer work at the Board of Industrial Training, but was very dissatisfied with the Board because he felt young people were not being trained for the industrial and technical life that lay ahead. And that was why, when he was appointed to St Paul’s Anglican Church in San Fernando in 1939, having by this time got the approval of the Board of Industrial Training to open a technical school, he immediately began looking for premises. He soon struck it lucky, for an ageing medical doctor, William Nightingale, who had a large, rambling, Victorianesque building at 7 High Street, was delighted with Streetly’s plans. So much was he so that he leased Streetly half his premises for a rent of one shilling a month. Even in 1942 that was an incredible bargain. There are many who would remember that old Nightingale building where the school was inaugurated, for it was standing less than a decade ago. There are those who might even remember the school itself, with its long narrow entrance between Nightingale’s premises and the Naparima Dispensary.

The passage not only led to class-rooms, upstairs, but to a courtyard at the back and to workshops. In this passage also, the boys, all of whom entered the school between 13-1/2 and 14-1/2, enlivened the surroundings at break-times. They came from all areas in and around San Fernando, and a few came from as far afield as Princes Town, Penal, and New Grant, and one even came from Mayaro. In later years the great majority of these boys made a big impact with the highest standard of technical skills the country had ever seen. And so it will be realised that despite Reverend Streetly’s brief stay at the school which he founded — 1943 to 1947 — he quickly established excellence. His gruff personality, underlined by humour, by commitment and by love for the boys, by his own personal brilliance in engineering, and by his easy and sometimes comical way of imparting his knowledge, left the boys not only technical skill but a life-time of memories. Although in 1952 the reverend left Tobago for a tour of England and died there that same year, he has never been forgotten. All the boys he taught live with the memory of this man and of the Junior Technical School of High Street, San Fernando.

In 1955 the school moved from High Street to nearby Les Efforts, where it expanded, altered its curriculum and its course of activities, and became known as the San Fernando Technical Institute. The “technical” aspect suggested by its name was not as strict as in the Streetly days. The Old Boys of the original school, in other words, “The Streetly Boys,” would be so happy to have their colleagues together again. All these “Old Boys” are old men today, 60 years later. But a surprising number feel like young boys and ready to celebrate this emotional Diamond Jubilee. And how can they respond? Two of the outstanding old boys of the school, Horace Morancie and Torrance Mohammed, are key figures of the re-union. Torrance Mohammed is at the present time Deputy Mayor of San Fernando, and is as keyed up about this jubilee as the rest of us are. The date of the re-union is tentatively fixed for November 3.  This is a long way away, but old boys are asked to get in touch with Torrance Mohammed for registration and further details. His number is: 658-4815.

Michael Anthony
Port-of-Spain