{"id":1678,"date":"2012-10-14T13:57:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-14T20:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2012-10-14T13:57:57","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T20:57:57","slug":"a-frightfully-british-fellow-and-a-good-sport-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/14\/a-frightfully-british-fellow-and-a-good-sport-too\/","title":{"rendered":"A Frightfully British Fellow and a Good Sport, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

My Sixth Form house master at Pierrepont.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lawrence Treeby was my Sixth Form house master from 1981 to 1983 at Pierrepont School in the small hamlet of Frensham, near Farnham, Surrey, England. He struck me as frightfully British, what with his accent, the mannerisms, and his fondness for his pipe which all combined to give him lasting character, so it was in a good sort of way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure Lawrence didn\u2019t quite know what to make of me at times, and I didn\u2019t always agree with his decisions and conclusions, but with me having arrived at Pierrepont after four years of boarding school in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I felt I deserved to let loose a bit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve a few stories where Lawrence is concerned. For instance one frosty night a Waterloo boy asked if I wanted to go to the pub (the school was divided into various houses, and though I resided in Sixth Form house I was a member of Waterloo for purposes of house competitions and responsibilities). I said sure, but since the Mariners, conveniently located across from the school, was off-limits we had to walk a mile or two to a different pub where we successfully consumed a few pints before heading back.<\/p>\n

While we walked along the main road a car came along at just at the wrong moment. Like a deer in the headlights I froze as the car passed by, the driver staring at me in disbelief. I prayed for a miracle that he hadn\u2019t seen me.<\/p>\n

Shortly after I got back, Lawrence summoned me to his study. \u201cHave you been out this evening?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Hoping to bluff my way through without lying I said yes, that I\u2019d been over at Waterloo house.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d he replied. \u201cI mean have you been outside the school grounds?\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no way out. I was caught. \u201cYes,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd where did you go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a walk? Where?\u201d<\/p>\n

I eyed him wondering if he was being serious.<\/p>\n

He stared right through me waiting for my answer.<\/p>\n

With all hopes of a stalemate gone, I replied,\u201cTo the pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor what?\u201d<\/p>\n

What? Why else would I be at the pub except to imbibe in some trouble? But in that moment I wondered if he was giving me some way out that I didn\u2019t see. I replied, \u201cA couple of pints.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence didn\u2019t get angry, nor did he ask who I was with. Instead, he recited what sounded like a prepared admonishment, restricted me to school grounds until that Friday which, coincidently, was when I always went into Farnham to resupply, and sent me on my way.<\/p>\n

Lawrence played an important part in my life at Pierrepont, and I have to be honest and say it wasn\u2019t always favorable. But that\u2019s the nature of authority, isn\u2019t it? And yet he did the best he could in keeping me thinking straight, at least straight enough not to blow it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often thought of Lawrence over the years and fortunately had an opportunity to speak with him when I visited my Waterloo house master, Richard \u201cBudgie\u201d Burgess, during a trip to Farnham back in 2001. Lawrence sounded as strong and as British as ever.<\/p>\n

On September 23, 2010, Lawrence Neilson Treeby succumbed to cancer; leukemia I\u2019m told. He was only 73, the same age my mom was when she died of lung cancer in 2002. He\u2019d been diagnosed in late April and spent much of the summer as a patient at the Royal Marsden Hospital. But after he\u2019d been told treatment had been unsuccessful, Lawrence opted to go home where he passed away peacefully.<\/p>\n

I am glad I knew him even if only briefly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawrence Treeby was my Sixth Form house master from 1981 to 1983 at Pierrepont School in the small hamlet of Frensham, near Farnham, Surrey, England. He struck me as frightfully British, what with his accent, the mannerisms, and his fondness … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,19,17,18],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-troubles","tag-cancer","tag-pierrepont","tag-treeby","tag-waterloo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardpnixon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}