Tony Cunnane's Early Years 1935-53

One day, out of sheer boredom I started to teach myself to type on the huge, ancient, long-carriage Remington machine. Normally Mr Johnson Jnr typed all the letters and invoices – using one finger of each hand. Before long I was able to type business letters for the Bosses – using one finger of each hand! A few weeks later they showed me how the various books of account worked and it was then that I realised the firm was teetering on bankruptcy because they were owed money by so many of their clients. The two George Johnsons were embarrassed and not very pleased when I pointed that out to them.

In November a letter for me arrived at our Salford home from the Grammar School, marked on the envelope in large letters ‘Post Office Please Forward to new address in Wakefield’. I do not know how the Post Office worked out that I was not in Wakefield but still living in Salford but we just took it for granted because the Post Office was a wonderful institution in those days. The letter contained my "Old Boy’s" invitation to the school Prize-Giving Day to collect my School Music Prize. Before leaving school at the start of the summer holidays, prize-winners were asked to choose what book they would like to have as a prize. I had chosen a rather erudite book on the works of Henry Purcell, price 10s 6d. I went to the ceremony to collect my prize but left as soon as I had collected it from the luminary who was doing the presentations. I still have the book but I have never read it all through.

It was not until mid-December, when I had worked 12 miserable weeks at the building firm, that Dad wrote home to say that our new house in Wakefield was finally ready for occupation. In the confident expectation that I would be able to start again at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, I took my violin out of its case and started practising again. I was elated. Just one week into the New Year, Dad collected the keys and we moved in on 22 January 1953. The hammer blow came the very next day: QEGS would not accept me back. They gave me two reasons: not only had I already missed a complete term when I should have been in the 6th Form, but also, and crucially, they did not have a 6th Form music course. The other Grammar School in Wakefield, Thornes House, would not accept me for the same reasons.

It finally dawned on me that my school days were over and my hopes of a career in music were finally dashed.

My diary for 17 January 1953 (on the right - click on it to enlarge it) shows that I left my first job without any regrets.