Mark Sherwood, an Old Skinner

Below is the life story of Mark Sherwood, an Old Skinner, as recounted by him in an interview.

I joined Skinners in 1968 at the age of twelve after passing the “Eleven Plus Examination” taken at Primary School and left Skinners in 1974 after taking my “A Level” Examinations.

The first year saw us grouped into three classes named “One Green”, “One Blue” and “One Red”. I was in “One Green” and a member of “Hunt House”. Our Form Master was Mr Feather (“Tickle”) who was popular with all the boys. I think he taught mathematics.

In those days, we went to school on Saturday mornings and I remember that a daily quart bottle of milk was given to all the pupils. The bottles were left in crates outside to the gym building. From memory, these practises ceased in 1969.

During the second to the fifth years, we were streamed into classes A, B and C according to our academic abilities – I went into Class 2A, however my academic results were not good and in the third year I was placed in Class 3B and my academic achievements were much better.

Our Headmaster, Mr Cecil Horace Beeby, focused the school’s emphasis into academic and sporting achievements. He was “old school”, traditional and well respected by the boys.

First year students had to wear short trousers. Our school uniform meant wearing a head cover whenever we were outside the school grounds which entailed wearing a school cap or in summer donning a boater. Sixth formers were allowed to wear a standard issue school suit in charcoal or grey instead of wearing the school blazer. Sixth formers also did not need to wear any head covering. Various school ties were issued according to puplis’ seniority and sporting achievements. Our desks were old wooden, practical objects with ink wells and a lid under which we kept our school books. It is to be noted that fountain pens and pencils were allowed but the use of biros were absolutely forbidden as were calculators that started to come into public usage when I was in the sixth form.

Mark's Boater

Lessons always began with the class standing in silence when the master arrived. He would say “Good morning/afternoon, Boys”, we would reply “Good morning/afternoon, Sir”. He would then say : “You may sit”. Teachers were all addressed as “Sir” and the boys were always called by their surnames. Our first names were never used by the masters and not commonly used either amongst the boys unless you were friends.

Academically, I have fond memories of some teachers. We used to refer to them as “Masters” rather than teachers in those days and generally they wore a black university cape over their jackets and they always wore a shirt and tie. Here are some of my favourite recollections :

Mr Wells (“Foxy”) was the deputy head-master and taught history. He had a small frame and was ex-army having served in WW2. He would sometimes arrive in the classroom with strips of paper that were distributed to everyone and he would rattle off questions relating to the period of history under study where you had to write down very quickly a date, a name of a person or a location of of a battle. He controlled immense respect and discipline in the classroom.

Mr Bailey was our Latin teacher. He was old school, a little eccentric but likeable. Before one class, we turned the blackboard upside down and moved some items around in the classroom to see his reaction. He arrived put his books and papers down on his desk at the front of the class and walked out. We were very perplexed, but during the 5-10 minutes that he was away, we put the classroom back in order. Mr Bailey returned without a word and conducted the lesson as usual as if nothing had happened.

Mr R.G. Baker (“Doughy”) was our French Master. He used an unforgettable text book called “A la Page”. “Doughy” had snappy ways for us to remember French grammar. For example to recall the verbs that conjugate with “etre” in the past tense, he gave us an acronym with the first letters of each verb in a memorable format – “DRAPERS VAN MMDRTRP” He also personally arranged for me to stay with a family in St Brieu during the summer holidays to improve my spoken French ahead of my A level.

One peculiarity of this time, was that Mr Beeby did not allow the School to play soccer against other schools, although we knew that in previous decades there was a school soccer team. Instead, the school was to be focused exclusively on Rugby.

Mark playing rugby

I was actively involved until the sixth form in playing Rugby during the Autumn Term, Cross Country Running during the Winter Term and Cricket in the Summer Term. Every Saturday I was representing the School team either at home at Southfields Park or away at other schools’ facilities. We were transported to other schools by coach and I can remember us singing some fairly raucous songs to pass the journies.

Other sports offered to us were Hockey and Tennis. We had four hard tennis courts in the school grounds and four grass courts at Southfields Park. There was also an open air swimming pool at the school situated in front of the old cricket pavilion. We were very pleased when a brick structure was built to house and cover the pool, but it was never heated.

Our Rugby Master was Mr Peter G Day. He played second row forward for Harlequins and then Blackheath. He was huge and towered above us boys. He taught us the rudiments of the game, especially how to tackle correctly. His coaching did not allow us to kick the ball at all during the first year of school except for drop kicks and place kicks. His theory was that we firstly had to learn how to properly pass the ball and keep it in hand. We were actually sent off the pitch if we tried to kick the ball into touch, even when playing against other schools that were freely allowed to kick the ball.

I can remember the names of some of the boys playing in the Rugby team with me and it would be interesting to know if anyone can fill in the gaps. Here are the names/positions and House in brackets :

3/4s : Fullback - Pete Collins (S), Scrum Half – Jenkins (S), Fly Half - Nigel Exell (A), Inside Centre – Kelland (K), Outside Centre - Pete Keane (K).

I played Left Wing but I cannot remember who played Right Wing. Was it a boy called Ludden?

Forwards : Hooker – Basson (K), Flankers – Dave Young (H) and Alec Kitchen (S), Second Row – Ian Montcrief (S), Peter Knight (“Plunk” ) (H), Number 8 – Nigel Streatfield (S).

Music became an important part of my life at Skinners. Mr Derek Watmough was our music teacher and I remember our very first music lesson was dedicated to learning the “School Song”.

In 1971, Mr Beeby announced that one of the verses from the School Song was to be omitted at the annual Skinners Day presentation at the Assembly Hall in Tunbridge Wells . We were outraged and a petition was organised and signed by almost all the boys against this idea. The petition was presented to Mr Beeby. I am pleased to say that the Verse survived to be sung with full lustre and vigour at the Event.

I learnt to play the trumpet at Skinners. To my knowledge, I became the first boy from Skinners to be accepted into the Kent Youth Orchestra which was considered at the time to be the best youth orchestra in the country apart from the National Youth Orchestra.

Mr Watmough and later his replacement Mr Hatfield, helped kick start my musical development and accompanied me on the piano at various external Trumpet Music Examinations. I also have fond recollections of playing trumpet solos at some school concerts with my parents and grandparents in attendance.

Mark playing the trumpet, circa 1970

Being very much involved with the school orchestra, there are some boys names that come to mind such as Dave Young (H) paying clarinet, Jeremy Roy (K) on French Horn, Michael Rayner (H) our flautist and Stephen Yates (S) with his Viola. I was always impressed by Yates who I thought was an exceptional pianist in the sense that he used to sit alone at the piano and immerse himself during break periods improvising in a classical style reminiscent of Beethoven’s music.

Friday afternoons were given over to “Other Activities” such as the Scouts, Community Work or the CCF (Combined Cadet Force). We had two Scout troops, Traditional and Modern, which basically meant wearing different uniforms. Community Work saw boys visiting old people’s homes and

generally helping in the town’s broader community in a charitable way. The choice of Activity was ours and I chose the CCF.

Our CCF was aligned to the Army.

I remember that our first lesson involved being given a Lee Enfield 0.303 rifle ex WW2 (design from circa 1939) to completely strip down and re-assemble. The rifles weighed around 4 kgs each and were made from solid wood. They had an adjustable pop-up sight and the magazine held six bullets.

In the armoury we also had two Sten Guns (sub machine guns from WW2) but there were no magazines or bullets for these. The armoury was organised by Mr Allen who was the school caretaker and ex-army RSM.

Mr Allen used to take us to the shooting range located at the rear of the school grass area near the swimming pool. We used live rounds at the Range and blank bullets when practising on the Ashdown Forest.

The School had its own army Bedford RL truck parked at the School to take us mainly to the Ashdown Forest. I think it was Mr Tony Holding (Master) who gleefully drove this huge truck. Mr J.D. Wallace (German Master) was also usually in attendance on these excursions.

On the Forest we learnt map reading skills (orienteering) and I also recall being instructed to run down a hill where we were told to shout at an invisible enemy in the valley below whilst firing blank bullets “at will” from our Lee Enfield rifles.

I passed the tests for my CCF Army Proficiency Certificate in August 1972 but not after a lot of practice in marching up and down in front of a mirror at home!

Cdt Sherwood in CCF uniform

My Army Proficiency Certificate was signed by Mr J.D. Wallace holding the rank of Major and a Brigadier from the regular army.

Post Schooldays

In 1974, after finishing my A Levels, I decided to venture into the business world instead of going to University unlike the majority of my contemporaries.

Another choice open to me was to follow the path of a Musician and enter one of the London Music Colleges. However, I felt that I would never be good enough to succeed as a soloist and the itinerate life of an orchestral player was not for me. Therefore, I started to play the trumpet for fun in amateur dramatic societies in Kent that staged mostly Musicals or church events such as the Messiah and the Brahms Requiem.

I made a conscious decision to make a career exclusively in the City of London, which in those days was centred around the Bank of England and Moorgate. This was before Canary Wharf appeared on the scene. I found the City of London was really “buzzing” and an exciting place to start my post school endeavours.

Initially, I embarked on an Accountancy Course at the London Polytechnic in Moorgate but soon gave this up as it was far too boring. I then looked at banking opportunities, joining Chase Manhattan Bank and afterwards the Bankers Trust Company which were two substantial American Banks. However, I was still trying to find my niche in the City.

Curiously enough fate intervened. I was playing trumpet at a musical, “The Wizard of Oz”, at the Cranbrook Vestry Hall for a week in the evenings after getting back from work in London. In the orchestral pit, sitting next to me was a clarinet player called Clem. He was a Director of a company on the London Metal Exchange (LME) and said that I should come along during my lunch time and see how the Exchange worked.

The LME at that time was situated in Leadenhall Street Market amongst quaint old Victorian streets and shops selling vegetables and meat. Nevertheless, once inside the Exchange Building, the atmosphere was electric with people scurrying around with papers in hand for buy/sell orders and shouting prices as trading started with the ringing of a bell and coloured lights to announce the particular metal being transacted. For a young guy like me, it was a whole new world of adventure. Clem initiated an introduction for me to one of the companies on the Exchange and I found myself leaving banking and employed on the LME.

This opportunity gave me the first insight into Commodity Markets which was to become the staple of my working career.

I progressed from trading in “Metals” to “Soft Commodities” in 1978 and left the LME to take up employment with an International Trading Company. Meantime, the London scene was becoming even more lively. The appointment of Magaret Thatcher as Prime Minister saw the generation of City “yuppies” being born, clutching huge mobile phones and inspiring an ethos of work hard and play hard. I felt that the grounding garnered from my experiences at Skinners were standing me in good stead.

My initial trading activity in Soft Commodities was in Grain and Grain By-Products.

In 1980, I was given a new role to trade in Vegetable Oils and in particular to represent a large Palm Oil producer in Malaysia. I was sent to Malaysia for a month to learn about the industry and visit plantations and factories. Palm Oil was a new product for Europe at that time and only just starting to be used as a cooking oil and in cosmetics. My client base was worldwide and this offered many more opportunities for travel.

I recall an occasion when visiting the State Buying Organisation in Czechoslovakia. At that time, the country was under Soviet Union control. It was by design that you could not fly in and out of Prague on the same day, thereby forcing visitors to stay overnight and pay for a hotel. I was accompanied by a Malaysian Sales Manager who was shivering most of the time in the cold climate. After our meeting, I remember walking around the streets of Prague and we got completely lost. I asked everyone for directions to the Intercontinental Hotel, but no matter how many people I asked using English and German, no-one replied. Then as from nowhere, behind me I heard a voice speaking perfect English. I turned around to see a man dressed in a suit and raincoat who came straight out of a John Le Carre spy novel. He gave us clear directions to find our way back to the hotel and needless to say we did not venture out again until taking a taxi back to the airport the following morning.

In 1983 I was sent to attend a Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) Course for a month. The CWB invited participants from companies around the World that were involved with Commodities Trading, Shipping and Produciton. Everything including the flights and accommodation was paid for by the CWB as a promotional exercise for the Canadian Grain and Seeds industry. Although based in Winnepeg. we travelled right across Canada and stayed in towns such as Calgary and Vancouver.

One of our Company’s German customers was Unilever and we used to sell them large volumes of Rapeseed and Linseed for their Crushing Plants. My colleague usually handled the Unilever account but I took over when he was on holiday for a couple of weeks. I found myself talking to a charming girl in Hamburg every day to discuss prices. When my colleague returned to the office, I decided to fly to Hamburg to meet her and after a whirlwind romance, we were married in 1983. My wife has supported me throughout my career ever since and has been a rock behind the scenes.

In 1990 I was “head hunted” by a Commodity Broking company in Paris. I was married seven years with two dogs and decided to grab the opportunity of a new adventure. We rented out our house and moved to Paris. The company employed me to start their trading operations in Vegetable Oils. Whilst in Paris I was also introduced to trading in Oleochemicals which was the main activity of the company. Oleochemicals are chemicals derived from Vegetable Oils and mostly used in cosmetics and detergents. My business continued to be international and I travelled extensively in Asia and Europe where my main customer base was focused.

In 1996 after six years in Paris, it felt right to head back to the UK and set up my own Commodity Brokerage business with my wife. The company was based around trading Vegetable Oils and Oleochemicals. We also started activities in Biofuels, selling to major players such as BP, Esso, Total etc. I remember on one occasion going to the BP Headquarters in Canary Wharf to give them a presentation of our company’s activities. The conference room and facilities were very impressive. I felt a sense of achievement in summarising all our company’s trading activities and investments. A milestone for us was hitting an annual trading volume of 200,000 mt in 2004 which surpassed my expectations. Our company is still active and we celebrate 30 years of trading in December 2026.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about my life’s journey since joining Skinners School.

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