Loudon's Childhood Dramas and Education (1927 - the Thirties and the Forties)
Loudon, who was born in 1927, says: "My earliest memory was being circumcised. People were standing around me, peering down at me. I was crying.
Alice, a former nurse, comments, "In those days people thought it was cleaner."
Loudon continues: "The next alarming incident was by the edge of a Loch, probably Loch Ness. I was running along a shingly beach when, suddenly, I fell into a watery hole. Everybody was screaming and shouting.
"I was shocked. My Aunty Ivy picked me up. She took all my clothes off and dried me. It was very humiliating. Then we drove home.
"My third memory is my first day at school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Royal High School, Junior School, Jock's Lodge. It was a big school - with a running track."
I asked, "A state school or a private school?"
"A private school. Edinburgh has lots of fine schools but this was the oldest, originally in Carlton Hill where the Greek Temples are.
"At school we did English, French, Latin, Chemistry and Physics, Lowers and Highers, the Scottish equivalent of O levels and A levels.
"Loads of boys who went there went on to become famous in Edinburgh and the world. But after I left, the Scottish government turned the school into offices, with no plaque because they are against privilege. I believe it's now a Council housing estate with houses and what have you.
"I used to travel to and from school on the tramcar. One day, when I came home from school on the tramcar, as I got off at the stop I met my father. He had come home from work early and was in a hurry to get onto the tramcar to go and play golf.
He was wearing plus fours, which was what you wore golfing in Scotland, a tweed jacket and short knee-length trousers, also called knickerbockers. I said to my father, 'You shouldn't be wearing a bowler hat!' He'd been in such a hurry he'd forgotten to remove it, so he had to rush back to the house again.
"At Edinburgh I did a degree in Technical Chemistry, like chemical engineering, but more on chemistry. You have to be able to read scientific German, after a 6 month course.
"After I graduated my degree enabled me to get a job. I went south to London to work at Kodak in Harrow and Wealdstone, where I worked all my life (and later our son Robert worked there). And through my friends at work met Alice, my wife-to-be."
Loudon, who was born in 1927, says: "My earliest memory was being circumcised. People were standing around me, peering down at me. I was crying.
Alice, a former nurse, comments, "In those days people thought it was cleaner."
Loudon continues: "The next alarming incident was by the edge of a Loch, probably Loch Ness. I was running along a shingly beach when, suddenly, I fell into a watery hole. Everybody was screaming and shouting.
"I was shocked. My Aunty Ivy picked me up. She took all my clothes off and dried me. It was very humiliating. Then we drove home.
"My third memory is my first day at school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Royal High School, Junior School, Jock's Lodge. It was a big school - with a running track."
I asked, "A state school or a private school?"
"A private school. Edinburgh has lots of fine schools but this was the oldest, originally in Carlton Hill where the Greek Temples are.
"At school we did English, French, Latin, Chemistry and Physics, Lowers and Highers, the Scottish equivalent of O levels and A levels.
"Loads of boys who went there went on to become famous in Edinburgh and the world. But after I left, the Scottish government turned the school into offices, with no plaque because they are against privilege. I believe it's now a Council housing estate with houses and what have you.
"I used to travel to and from school on the tramcar. One day, when I came home from school on the tramcar, as I got off at the stop I met my father. He had come home from work early and was in a hurry to get onto the tramcar to go and play golf.
He was wearing plus fours, which was what you wore golfing in Scotland, a tweed jacket and short knee-length trousers, also called knickerbockers. I said to my father, 'You shouldn't be wearing a bowler hat!' He'd been in such a hurry he'd forgotten to remove it, so he had to rush back to the house again.
"At Edinburgh I did a degree in Technical Chemistry, like chemical engineering, but more on chemistry. You have to be able to read scientific German, after a 6 month course.
"After I graduated my degree enabled me to get a job. I went south to London to work at Kodak in Harrow and Wealdstone, where I worked all my life (and later our son Robert worked there). And through my friends at work met Alice, my wife-to-be."
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