Last Saturday evening, I had the pleasure of looking at Mr. Lowcock's DBS report card for the summer term of 1947 at which time he was in Class 2A (equivalent to Form 5). At the time Mr. Lowcock was 16.7 years old while the average age of his 24 member class was 17. This information is contained in a recently published book by Anthony Sweeting titled Education in Hong Kong, 1941-2001 : Visions and Revisions (HKU Press, 2004.) I have just ordered a copy and the price is HK$350. I have met the author and he is a resident of Hong Kong and his wife is a DGS graduate. I spoke to Mr. Sweeting last Saturday evening and he was on his way to Oxford for a visit. Sweeting knows our former teacher Bill Smyly and in his book, he has drawn on Smyly's material, The History and Records of the Diocesan Boys' School (unpublished typescript, Hong Kong Public Records Office, HKMS88.)

Since I only had a chance to flip the book, following are key points of interest :

Lowcock's Report Card. (Page 229)

On English, Mr. Lowcock was ranked 10th in his class of 24 and he got a score of 54 points. The English teacher's comment was : "A very careless and untidy writer. His oral work is good. Not afraid to ask questions. He has improved in steadiness and also a little in restness recently. Has some very good ideas." In Math, Mr. Lowcock ranked 1st in his class of 24 with a score of 81.2. The teacher's comment was "Ex. An excellent and most exploratory student. Most earnest and diligent." For Elementary Cantonese, only two in the class and Jimmy came first. The class teacher's comment on Jimmy (from Mr. Goodban) was "Shows promise to others and think for himself , generally interested in his work. He ought to be severe in his own carelessness." The headmaster's comment (again Goodman) was "He has done very well for his age, and is a pleasant boy to teach." Apparently, this report card was produced with Mr. Lowcock's permission.

This book also contains DBS's school rules in 1950 and somewhere in the book, it mentioned about out former teacher Y.S. Chan placing an ad offering tutorial lessons. For DGS girls, I am sure this book may also be of interest as certain passages deal with DGS.

Best Rgds,
Steven Chow (64)

(07/04)