Pauline Relatives

Peter J F Richardson

(1948-50) Peter was born on 5th January 1935.

Peter started his education at the Mall in Twickenham, where he excelled at sport and became Head Boy. At 13 he joined St Paul’s and was there from 1948 to 1950.

Subsequently, Peter attended the London College of Printing and a visiting Director of Arnoldo Mondadori, a high end printing and publishing company, interviewed him offering him a job at their factory in Verona. This opportunity gave Peter a love of Italy, becoming fluent in the language and adapting happily to the lifestyle. He became immersed in the language and gestures, being often mistaken for an Italian.

In 1966 Peter was asked to open the London office of Mondadori in Bond Street. He was instrumental in getting many worthwhile clients: National Magazines, Reader’s Digest, the Mail on Sunday, etc. Peter met his wife, Carole, then, who had just returned from Florence and taken on the job of bilingual Secretary/PA; they worked together for 18 months before getting married!

Peter was head hunted a year later for Managing Director of Chapel River Press in Andover, where he worked before being offered the job of running Euroffset, an Association of printers from European and Scandinavian countries.

This entailed holding meetings in those countries, in rotation, to share the latest printing technology.

It was enjoyable and Peter remained good friends with several members.

Subsequently, Peter was head hunted for a managerial position at British Printing Corporation. He acted as a trouble shooter at each factory from Glasgow to Diss.

Having lived on the Thames from an early age, sailing was his life-long interest. Peter’s greatest pleasure was to go out in his boat with us all on board, including the dog! He doted on his granddaughter and taught her nautical knots at a very young age. He is sorely missed by his close family, wider family and friends. Peter’s family

Robert J Strawson

(1958-62) Robert attended St Paul’s School, where his father – JH Strawson – was Head of Science.

After Trinity College, Oxford where he was one of the first graduates in metallurgy and material science, Robert travelled to Uganda and completed a post-graduate Diploma of Education under the British Government Teachers for East Africa scheme, at Makerere University College of East Africa. He then taught at the University Demonstration School, followed by St Leo’s College in Fort Portal, and finally, he lectured at the National Teachers’ College in Kampala.

In late 1972, by now a husband and father and tired of living under Idi Amin’s diktats, he returned with his family to the UK. He taught at Malvern College for 8 years, followed by Cranleigh School for 4 years. He was then made an offer to teach physics at Peterhouse, Zimbabwe, a multi-racial independent school. After almost 5 years at Peterhouse, he returned to teach at Abingdon School. At Abingdon, he was Head of a happy and harmonious Physics Department, masterminded the use of audio-visual equipment and organised the theatre stage crew, was a member of the academic committee and took an active part in many other aspects of school life.

Following retirement, he was a busy member of several University of the Third Age interest groups and of Abingdon Silversmiths. He was a valued member of the Institute of Physics Education Board, a reviewer for Physics Education magazine and a Teacher’s Network coordinator. He was also a keen and well-travelled motor homer and an enthusiastic gardener.

Tributes received for Robert emphasise his wide intellectual interests, encyclopaedic knowledge and high standards: he was ‘a scholar and a gentleman’ and a true scientist. He had sound common sense, shrewd character judgement and was an unstinting hard worker. His constant quest for knowledge on all subjects and his ability to retain and use that knowledge was remarkable and was of benefit to the generations of young men he taught. Robert contributed in so many ways to the communities in which he lived, as a caring neighbour and an enthusiastic, hard-working teacher. His sudden and unexpected death was a shock to all and he will be much missed. Robert’s family, friends and colleagues

The Kraushar Brothers

Peter (1947-53) and Chris (1953-58) tell their story

Part 1: Journey to St Paul’s

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a poignant time to recall our unusual journey towards becoming Pauline brothers.

This came about as a result of the unique triple act of escaping from the clutches of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.

In 1920 our father had fought against the Russians in the battle dubbed The Miracle of the Vistula, when the Polish army surprisingly defeated the Bolsheviks and stopped their attempted conquest of Europe via Berlin. He was wounded by an (illegal) Russian dumdum and died of his wounds 27 years later – if only there had been penicillin then! That he survived at all was thanks to his doctor father. Our grandfather qualified in Kiev at a time when both Poland and Ukraine had been absorbed into Russia. When Russia went to war against Japan in 1904, he was conscripted as a Colonel in the Imperial Russian Army to run their military field hospital in Vladivostok, where he learned to treat battlefield wounds and so later saved his son’s life.

In September 1939 our parents, our mother pregnant with Chris, escorted part of the Bank of Poland gold reserves being sent to London as far as the Romanian border. They intended to return to Warsaw, where they had left Peter with our grandmother, but the Soviet invasion made that impossible. They travelled on via Bucharest to Milan, where Chris was born. Remarkably they managed to get Peter to Milan.

Peter and Chris

The Italian consul in Warsaw helped by giving a 17-year-old girl a permit to travel to Milan on condition that she took a 5-year-old boy, so he travelled for 3 days with an unknown young girl, to find our parents in Milan together with a newly born brother. When Italy entered the war, we went into hiding in the remote Tuscan countryside until 1944. Our cover was compromised when one night our next-door neighbour appeared, drunk and brandishing a German rifle, claiming he had just killed a German soldier; usually that meant 200 nearest families would be executed. So, we set off to walk to Florence, 50 kms away, but were stopped by a German army unit. An officer checked our father’s fake Italian ID for ages but seemed satisfied – otherwise we would have been shot. We were in Florence when it was liberated by the Eighth Army, including the 2nd Polish Corps formed from some of the prisoners released from Siberia when Hitler attacked Russia. We joined the Polish army, our father as an intelligence officer, our mother as welfare officer and Peter and Chris as mascots.

When the war ended, but with Poland under the control of USSR as a result of the Yalta agreement, Britain did not know what to do with this large army, which had fought under British operational command but was a foreign force and, though on the winning side, had lost its homeland. Attempts were made to disperse its members back to Poland or to any other country which would take them, but with minimal success. Eventually the Government passed the Polish Resettlement Act, under which the Polish forces joined a new British Army unit named the Polish Resettlement Corps, from which they could be demobbed and allowed into England. We arrived in September 1946. Our first home was a Nissen Hut in an ex-Army camp on Salisbury Plain, one of 256 such camps used to house the nearly 200,000 arrivals. The last of these camps closed in 1969, but our parents rapidly decided that their future lay in England and moved out within a few months.

Part 2: Peter

On moving to London, I spoke little English, so the answer was to send me to boarding school.

My English improved, but my father died soon after and my mother decided that I needed to change schools. She happened to be passing Barons Court station one day where she saw a sign for St Paul`s School, found that it had a good reputation, so she phoned in July 1947 asking that I start in October. She was not put off by any problem, so a fortnight later I was in the school meeting the Surmaster, Alan Cook (1929-64 and Surmaster 1952-64), who gave me tests in 4-5 subjects. I failed each one except Latin, but he was so impressed by my mother and our story that I was surprisingly admitted in October.

I badly needed a bursary as we had no money, my English was still not good and I was clearly below par in most subjects. So, I had coaching for many months with Mr Flewett (Classics Department 1921-53) and he must have been a miracle worker, as I somehow obtained a bursary and managed to go into Remove and then Lower VIII followed by Upper VIII where I gained a State Scholarship and then a Major Scholarship to Cambridge. Extrovert Pat Cotter (1917-23 and Classics Department 1928-65) and introvert Walter Cruickshank (Classics Department 1947-73) ensured that all 32 of us won open scholarships or exhibitions to Oxbridge. I will never forget Friday afternoons when we had to convert Chaucer or Shakespeare into Latin or Greek verse. I gravitated into classics to my family`s surprise who suggested something practical, e.g., economics. When I mentioned this at school, I was immediately summoned to the High Master and told that only two subjects are worth studying – classics and pure mathematics! So, classics it was.

I was not good at sport, though I persevered with rugger, played full back for the 3rd XV and for F Club when we surprisingly won the club competition. Cricket was a mystery and boxing was horrid – hard to understand why such a wonderful school wanted to be the best boxing school in the UK. I preferred bridge and chess, became Chess Captain and played in many tournaments.

Alan Cook's decision was an important factor in my life and the bursary scheme was such a help. That is why I applaud and support the current scheme.

Part 3: Chris

I started at the local primary school knowing two words of English, Yes and No.

The teacher, in a class of over 40, made it her task to teach me English, and between her and fellow pupils I soon spoke fluently and, surprisingly, more grammatically than my new friends.

Our mother made our education her priority and, remarkably, got Peter into St Paul’s. It was then relatively easy for me to follow, with scholarships, first to Colet Court in 1949 and then St Paul’s.

My first year at St Paul’s was as a classicist in Remove, where I took my O levels in 1954. My mother was keen that I should do something more practical than Classics, in this respect not following Peter. Alan Cook and Jacky Moakes (1921-26 and Maths Department 1931-67) promised her that if I passed Additional Maths at O level, I could convert to Science in the top LMS8 set for the following year. Surprisingly, I scraped through Additional Maths. They honoured their promise and I went on to A and S levels in Maths, Physics and Chemistry, a State Scholarship and an Exhibition to Christ’s College, Cambridge, where I read Mechanical Sciences. With a year to spare before Cambridge, I was allowed to sit in on A level lessons in French and German, a good way of rounding off my time at St Paul’s.

While at St Paul’s I played rugby, boxed and rowed for school teams, cricket for F Club, and was a Prefect and Under Officer in the CCF.

Without doubt St Paul’s provided a vital foundation for the rest of my life. Living away from London made it difficult to keep in touch, but in recent years I have enjoyed playing golf for the OP Golf Society. 