Scholastically, at the end of the Summer Term Dick was placed 6th out of 24 in the Middle IV and at the end of the Winter Term was 11th out of 20 in Lower Shell - whatever any of that signifies! He was the intermittent receiver of “lines” - usually 100 or 150. The occasions on which he was given them and by whom are noted, as are their execution and often when handed in, but with one exception never for what offence - the exception being on 9 May 1934 “got 100 lines from C... for talking.” One might have expected Dick's activites of early May to have excited the notice of the authorities; on the 8th he “got 3 stink bombs”; which inevitably meant that on the 10th he “let off 2 stink bombs.” One left un-accounted for. Oh! wait a minute! what's this? On 13th “let off 6 stink bombs. Good fun.” Where did they come from? Not, I think, from his own chemical-warfare laboratory. The stink-bombing campaign seems to have gone unpunished; no mention is made of being told to write 500 times “I must not make a filthy smell.”

1933 seems to have been unmarred by tragedy until the very end when “this afternoon Peter the small kitten died and Dad buried him just behind the wall. Not very old. Blood poisoning due to Rat.”

1934 is unique in that there are two diaries; the usual pocket diary, more or less complete, and a larger, desk diary only partly written up from Jan 1st till March 23rd. What follows is taken from the latter, and therefore written when Dick was about 15½. It does not make for very gripping reading! Almost without exception each day's entry begins with a pretty complete summary of the weather. Then it is usually a question of things done, never reported speech. Here is one of the better entries for Monday 26 February 1934.

The weather today was not very good. It did not rain at all but it was very cold and windy. School today was alright. [sic] There were no games, and we had corps in the classrooms. We did not do anything, just sat there and listened to a lot of rot. I took my old 3 power microscope to school today and lent it to Woolcombe, as he might want to buy it for 12/6.

Woolcombe apprears not to have come up trumps, at least not before the diary entries stop at March 23rd. In a separate notebook ca 1935 among the many hand written lists Dick made (of books - whether read, to sell, or to buy is unclear; films seen; the date, subject, light, lens, filter, stop and exposure of every photo! and the result - v.good, fair etc; Christmas presents given and received; first aid (including snake bite); morse code; extracts from a number of plays and the price of season tickets between Windsor and Moorgate) - among all this lot is a short list of "Things for Sale" organized in 3 columns headed “Object”, “Price”, and “Buyer”. The objects are listed as “Air Pistol (warrior), Stop Watch, Microscoope (small) a one third share in throwing knife, sundry books.” There are no entries under “price” or “buyer”. Whether Dick was thinking of selling a one third part of the throwing knife while retaining a two-thirds controlling interest, or whether his only share in the said knife was one third whose value he was hoping to realise in cash, is not explained.

Mention of the microscope provides a clue to one of Dick's interests; there are a number of references to microscopy in the diary. Collecting cuttings from magazines seems to have occupied him as well; “I filed a large number of articles and pictures to do with motor racing, ships, aeroplanes, and the like” [10.i.1934] Pictures and articles about film stars were also of interest and he seems to have gone to the cinema frequently. In 1934 he saw 25 films at the Rialto in Maidenhead, 2 at the Playhouse in Windsor and 3 in London - according to the list of “Films I have seen in 1934” - whereas the year before Windsor was the favoured cinema with 12 visits, then Maidenhead with 8 and Slough with 6. He usually went with his mother plus a variety of other people - including on at least one occasion (3 April 1934) “Sir D“. Dick's father seems rarely to have been one of the party. There are also occasional references to painting or drawing - “In the afternoon I did a little painting. I only started it, - 'Cintra',[sic] in Lisbon.” This work is now believed lost.

He refers throughout his diaries to his parents as “Mum” and “Dad”. Other family members make brief appearances. His half-sister Doris had married in 1927 and already had two sons, Ian and David. Andrew would follow in 1936. However, back in 1934, on the 9th of February Dudley, his youngest half-brother, “came home for a few days from Australia” and stayed till the 11th, when “Dudley was here all day but he had to go back to the ship in the evening. In the afternoon, before he went, we had a game of 'Bicycle Polo' on the lawn. It was a good game. Dudley won 10 - 7.“ But on February 15th “Dudley came back in the evening for a few days” during which he was having dancing lessons, even on the Sabbath, for on the morning of Sunday 18th “Dudley went and had his dancing lesson in Windsor. I went with him and watched. He is quite good.” Bruce was a visitor in early March but on the 18th “went back to the ship (Mongolia) in the evening.”

There is also the occasional oddity such as this; “I came home early and fooled around in the house, and studied the ordanance survey map for some time. I discovered numerous strange places.” I daresay cartographers would claim others got there first. And on Jan 16th he records a trip by train to London with his friend Bass (no other people are mentioned as being on this jaunt) where they “wandered about in the morning before lunch. In the afternoon went to the London Pavillion and saw a very good show. The total cost was 10/3½ (each).” Occasionally he listened to a play on the ‘wireless’ including ‘Trent's Last Case.’

But far and away the most carefully recorded activity was reading. This is what one young lad of 15½ read in the first 3 months of 1934.

At which point the diary breaks off, but not the reading and collecting books which went on throughout his life with the oft-repeated refrain of “not more books!” from my mother. And while he was indulging in all the above extra-curicula reading he still found time to do his prep according to his diary!

An outbreak of measles was noted, but not chronicled in any great detail. Dick himself was off school with something which seems not to have been measles. There was at least one death however; on Feb 19 “I went back to school to-day, alright. I am off games and corps untill further notice, as I still have a bit of a cold. There are still numerous cases of measles. When I got back I discovered that M. STREET” [Dick's capitalization] “died of double pneumonia on last Friday evening. His people are in India.” The following day “In the morning we had a service in the Chapel in memory of M. Street. It was quite sad. Mr Beckwith looked very ‘cut up’ about it.” Mr Beckwith, or Sidney B as we usually referred to him years later, was to have the pleasure of administering numerous thrashings to me - all no doubt richly deserved but never for smoking on the roof, dropping stuff down the chimneys of staff rooms, breaking in to the school tuck-shop on a regular basis - in the company of others! I digress.

Other medical matters are noted - “Mum had an operation performed on her head today, as she had three cists cut out, by Dr Cudigan (assisted by Dr Gilespy). Mum was feeling very ill and rotten with a great deal of pain. Of course she was in bed all day” - which in fact turned in to the better part of a week. This diary ends with a medical mystery. On March 16 Dick wrote “There were no games but I think I have a bit of a cold. I have a slight tooth-ache in the broken tooth at the back (on my left). Made an appointment with the dentist for next Friday.” The following day he was confirmed by the Bishop of Oxford - just in case! I wonder if Dick had confessed to the Chaplain or anyone that on June 21st 1933 he had “made an Idol”? Presumably it was found inefficacious so other deities were resorted to - with what results God alone knows. Back to the tooth on the 19th “I did not go to school to-day as I feel rotten, and my tooth paining. The Dentist says it is an abcess and he will take the tooth out on Friday by gas, if it is better.” [sic!] On the 22nd “I did not go to school today. I stayed indoors most of the day, going out into the garden now and again. My toothache has almost gone now. I am having it out tomorrow.” Fast forward to ‘tomorrow’ but alas; Thursday 22nd February was the last entry in that diary. However, the pocket diary reveals that he “had my offending tooth taken out with gas.”

But not quite the end of the diary, as there is one final intriguing entry - the final one in fact. “In the evening Dad went to the meeting of the Windsor Fashists. Mum sat in the car. I read stories out of 'Chums' 30-31.” Five years later, almost to the day, Dick's father noted on the back of the photograph of Dick above the precise date (3rd March 1939) on which Dick “left home to join H.M.S. Resolution” to fight the German Fascists. ‘Dad’ went to a second meeting of the Windsor Fascists on 11 April 1934 with a Mr Law. Some other notable events for 1934 were;