Old Fritz and Old Wilf

22/8/2015

Last week, I visited Germany's Versailles, the splendid Sanssouci summer palace of Frederick the Great at Potsdam outside Berlin. It was enchanting, and the palace itself - only twelve rooms in total - has astonishing rococo work. But the magic was the memories it awoke of studying Frederick the Great, the commanding Prussian king of the eighteenth century, at school rather a long time ago.

The palace includes the most renowned of the portraits of Frederick, a king known fondly as Old Fritz. That too tugged at my memory. Back I went to history lessons at Leeds Grammar School, and to the teacher we nicknamed Wilf. He seemed to be of the same vintage of Frederick the Great, and clearly held the Prussian monarch in great esteem.

'Wilf' was Walter Batty the old style head of history at LGS. Disorganised, on occasions grumpy, but with a real passion for history which he communicated to some of his students - and certainly to me. I remember him with gratitude. Somewhere I have a book he gave me and wrote in for me. He was hugely generous and supportive to me

Frederick the Great

Walter Batty was brought up, as I recall, in Warmfield near Wakefield, which - when he was young - had its own grammar school. I visited him there a couple of times. He lived with his elderly father, whose great passion was keeping a couple of pigs, for which Walter was forever boiling potatoes as feed. He had a fairly humble background, and for a head of department at a direct grant school, a fairly humble lifestyle.

The story went, indeed I think he told me it, that Walter secured a scholarship to University College, Oxford to read history. He was a contemporary there of Hugh Trevor-Roper. They both got Firsts, but Walter's was the better First. He was asked to do doctoral research but declined. He needed to earn a living to help support his parents and so went into school teaching. He helped me to follow a similar path (not the teaching bit, mind) - to Oxford (Keble, with an exhibition) to read history, and securing a First. It took me another thirty-five years to get my PhD.

All this was brought to mind by Fritz's Potsdam palace. And it prompts me to say, very belatedly - thanks, Mr Batty!

18 Comments

Peter Levine

18/10/2015 18:12:12

My sentiments entirely . Forever grateful to him. We visited him together as you will recall

Andrew

18/10/2015 18:33:58

Hi Peter - yes I do. I went back a few years later, I guess about 1978, and it was sadly a very different Walter Batty that I met.

Peter

18/10/2015 22:30:15

You must tell me about that sometime. Will email you to catch up

James Hargrave

1/3/2017 18:07:53

I too visited Walter at Warmfield - it was Normanton Grammar that he attended, I believe - both in 1973/4 and again perhaps a decade later. As you say, much changed (alas). He died just before Christmas 1989. One if the pair of cottages (there were his two spinster cousins next door) was for sale a few years back.

I'll add at this point that I am back from Melbourne and lurking in Mid Wales. And my PhD came a lot earlier and mentions Walter, not long deceased, in the acknowledgements etc.

Peter Whitehead

26/4/2017 14:11:11

Andrew
I've just found your website. Having seen the reference to Wilf Batty, I naturally assumed that the reference to Fritz was to Fritz Turner (our form master of 1T).
Very interesting blog, by the way.

19/6/2017 14:20:17

I too had assumed it was Fritz Turner (though he never taught me).

6/7/2017 20:30:47

Yes, I remember 'Fritz' Turner - though not why he had the nickname. He commanded the bookroom on the ground floor, just opposite his classroom, from which - if anyone ventured in at lunchtime (not advisable) - a fug of pipe smoke blasted out. I don't think Wilf Batty smoked (or did he?) - but he must have been smoked like a kipper from his regular lunchtime chinwags with Fritz, whose other main lunchtime activity was filling up the kettle for the perpetual brew.

Jeremy Landey

18/4/2019 23:23:43

Andrew. Just came across you blog. I had the privilege of Wilf as a form teacher in 1976 or 77. This was his final year at LGS. I recall him as a frail gentle man with a passion and enthusiasm for history. He had a small library of history text books in the classroom and on his final day he presented each member of the form with one or two signed books. I suppose he didn't want to carry them home but prefer to think that it was just his generous way of sharing his passion for history and perhaps ensuring that we remembered him. I think Wilf was one of the only teachers who had the questionable honour of having taught (or perhaps tolerated) my father (Clive), my uncle (Norman) in the late 1940's and myself.

22/12/2019 09:13:58

In memoriam, 30 years on.

Stephen Bower

22/12/2022 14:21:08

Sorry Andrew this is a bit off-topic I'm afraid but...unless I'm mistaken you (James Hargrave) are my cousin "Jamie" that I've had no contact with for the past 50 years and apart from replying to this comment, I haven't got a clue how to get in touch. I know you were in contact with my mum but she sadly passed away last year. It would be nice to hear from you. If you reply to this comment, then maybe Andrew would be so kind as to pass on my email address to you and then we can go on from there. Sorry for abusing your blog Andrew, I hope that it's okay.

24/12/2022 16:26:22

I will put you in contact in a week or so, Stephen - I can’t do so earlier for logistical reasons (unless you can message me your email address).

24/12/2022 17:37:56

Thanks Andrew, I've sent you my email address.

24/12/2022 13:42:22

I have passed on details to Andrew. I welcome contact.

24/12/2022 15:11:35

Excellent! Looking forward to getting in touch.

2t3m4m5m

14/11/2020 10:14:52

My first year at LGS was 1963/64 - I was in 2t ( 'Fritz' Turner's form). 'Wilf' Batty taught history and 'Nod' Stevens divinity.
I bumped into old classmate from those days in a Leeds takeaway in the late 1980s who could still recite the surnames of the whole class ( we rarely used forenames back then). I can remember Benjamin, Bickerdike and Box...

Robert Mellor

14/7/2023 15:48:52

A Facebook post about ex Leeds Utd player David Batty prompted me to Google Wilf Batty (assume no relation) and brought me to your site Andrew.
My interest in history was first prompted at LGS Junior School by Mr Roper (forget his first name - Gerry?). That and a field trip up the Aire Valley to Saltaire in an ancient school bus driven by Mr Watkins led to my opting for history O Level with Wilf. At the time many of our classmates were enticed instead to study Greek (after some heavy marketing activity by the Classics Dept). I am glad I did although I remember that we were fast running out of time for the syllabus as we approached WW1. I didn't take my history studies as far as you Andrew but in recent years studying my family history has helped to fill in a lot of gaps in both social and military history of the last 250 years. it still staggers me how little most people seem to know about how we all got to where we are.

18/7/2023 08:40:19

Thanks Robert. Very good to hear from you. Yes, I remember Gerry Roper .., and Ma and Pa Ev. It's now almost 60 years since we first assembled at LGS junior school!

18/7/2023 08:45:35

Robert. I visited the Worth Valley Railway about a decade ago and met John Reddyhoff, he was firing the locomotive. You and I last met briefly ca 1981 in Durham, if memory serves.

James H

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