| Administrative History | Mr. J.M. Reid was a former Aberdeen University student |
| Description | Interview with Mr John Madden Reid recorded on the 7 September 1990 by Colin McLaren
Transcript of Interview :
(Part only) beginning of recording failed.
JR … In the main, I was on a bicycle and I was one of the few on a bicycle.
McL You mentioned as your aim that you wanted the blue and you wanted an Office and the Debater is the Office that you acquired. First of all, what other institutions and societies did you join?
JR For a time, the Conservative Society and I wasn't very impressed with that and there was a Catholic Society of some kind where I became the President. Otherwise, none.
McL And you attended the Debater fairly regularly?
JR Yes, yes.
McL How would you characterise the standard of debating?
JR Well my standard was appalling but I mean not too bad, not too bad.
McL Had it the caché that the unions had in Oxford and Cambridge?
JR No, no.
McL So what sort of people went to debating sessions on Friday evenings wasn't it?
JR I think so, I can't remember, I mean it was - I don't even know how I got into the Debating Society but I did and for some reason, they elected me. And I remember going down to Glasgow on one occasion for some Scottish University function, but as far as I can recall, it wasn't all that well attended and it wasn't all that good. There were one or two people who were quite good at it … but it wasn't one of the great, I mean it was recognised as one of the three major offices but it didn't deserve that reputation.
McL Your other ambition was to get a blue and you got a half blue in squash. What would you say was the place of sport at the University?
JR Not as high as it should be. I mean I was well able to represent the University at swimming and did in fact my first year but I didn't enjoy the swimming. I also had a go at athletics and I wasn't cut out to be an athlete and although I represented the University as a second string, I think it was my third year I was appointed Secretary of the Association and I organised, that was my forte but I don't think that sport at the University carried a lot of weight. Those who were good took part, but it didn't actually draw people into it - sport.
McL Was there any encouragement from the staff to include in one's week, a period of physical exercise, I mean was there any …
JR No, not to my knowledge. I mean the students were left very much themselves and there was a rugger clique and they were quite good, there was an athletic clique, cricket, hockey, also shinty, squash, tennis, swimming but I don't think any great efforts were made to look for talent or to enrol people just for the fun of it.
McL How and where did you make your friends in the University?
JR Well, largely among those of my age, some of whom I'd known before and it didn't really extend much beyond that. There were one or two of the younger people with whom I made friends but again looking at photographs of the parties that I had, they were largely my contemporaries and there was the odd girlfriend but we were much more - we didn't have long-standing girlfriends. I mean we took out any girl that we fancied and it was no great shakes, it was just, we had a good evening and that was that. Whereas the younger ones seem to get into the sort of relationship, much more modest than today and they would have regular girlfriends and, I mean I can recall that if I thought that a particular girl was one that I'd like to take out and she said "I'm sorry I've got a boyfriend," I would only have to wait six weeks and she was available. But I didn't want a girlfriend, I simply wanted somebody to take out. There were hops and there were balls, there was the cinema and one wanted a girlfriend to go out but in the main, we used to come to the Saturday night hops, we used to go to the balls, we used to have the odd drink. Being in the squash club, there were social activities attached to the squash matches etc. and we went down to Esk, The Burn on one occasion but again they were all our contemporaries.
McL Were you aware, or would you in retrospect, think that alcohol was heavily used or not heavily used in the community as such?
JR Not heavily used, I mean none of us had a great deal of money. Very often on a Saturday night, we'd have three or four pints but otherwise we didn't. No, it was - I wouldn't say that it featured at all. I mean we never drank wine except at one of the balls. We never really drank any alcohol except to meet people and perhaps on a Saturday night before the union hop, we would assemble in the Kirkgate and have two or three pints and that was all. On the whole, we were a sober lot and there was only one party that I can recall and I was host and it was a birthday party and we had dinner in the Athenaeum, about a dozen of us, fourteen of us, and I bought the meal and they bought the drinks and that evening, everybody took a stack on board but we rolled home and that was the only occasion I can recall where we had had too much. On the whole it was a pint or two and if you were feeling bold, a chaser but that was all.
McL Would you care to comment on the financial situation in which you found yourself?
JR Well, I was on a grant, I can't recall what it was but it seemed to be adequate, and my father gave me, I think it was £17 a month in addition and I lived quite comfortably on that. I mean I can't recall what I paid for my digs but it was all found except for lunch. My clothes were sent to the laundry every week and were washed. I got around town on a bicycle and I never had to work. At Christmas, I went home to my family. At Easter, I went to - I mean I was brought up - I lived abroad and so during the war I was sent home and we had a home from home on a farm in Sussex and I would go there and in the summer, we went out to Switzerland where somebody arranged a job and so we went out there and worked but that was simply to ensure that we had a good summer holiday rather than because we needed to.
McL Would you say that this was rather exceptional for the university community or were by that time students able to get abroad?
JR Oh no, I think that it was exceptional. I don't know how the younger boys and girls managed, whether they were on grants or their parents paid for them. But our lot, the ex-service lot were all on grants and I was one of the fortunate ones in that my father contributed towards my upkeep and I always had a little spare cash, the others managed somehow. But nobody seemed to be all that short of money, there wasn't any real poverty so how it was organised by and for the younger ones, I've no idea.
McL You mentioned not being terribly satisfied with the Conservative group that you joined. How would you characterise the degree of politcal awareness in the University community?
JR Well, I mean it was run by the Communists. There was a chap called Alfie Minto who was very active and he was probably the most active in the political field I don't know whether there was a Labour club or society but I do recall the the Conservative Society was not very active and I was only in it for a couple of years and then I quit. But the SRC was … one could see the seeds of the modern National Union of Students in the SRC at that time, and it was people like Alfie Minto and I can remember the other guys who were stirring it up. We didn't have a lot of time for them.
McL What about the silent majority?
JR They were silent.
McL And of a Conservative or a pinkish mould would you say?
JR I don't think they had shred of colour at all. I mean the … [Break in tape] … boy or girl student was not very extrovert and they were simply there to get their degrees and they didn't take much part in anything. Much the same as today, I just had two boys who went to university and they really didn't … I mean, although I said that I thought a university was somewhere where you could get not only a degree but a great deal more, they didn't, I don't think, make the effort to exploit the advantages that were available. I mean the sporting facilities, the social facilities etc. etc. Too much emphasis is given to getting a degree and I can tell you that although I had my degree on my CV when I first started, it has never been of any value whatsoever since and nobody has ever been the least bit interested in what degree I had. They were much more interested in the way I presented myself which came from a broader outlook which I think is what counts. I mean I'm a head-hunter, I'm in the business of assessing people and I don't mind what sort of degree a person has. Certainly it's a measurement of their intellectual ability but what concerns me is what else they are, what they've got, what sort of character they are, what sort of drive, what sort of interest. And I think that universities ought to be humming with all sorts of outside activitiues rather than work, like sporting activities etc. so that people are broadening their minds and I think that, in retrospect, I perhaps shouldn't have taken Economics, I should have concentrated more on a subject that would have developed my mind and not being so concerned with how practical it was going to be in after life. Because I took Economics in the hope that it would be practical and it wasn't in the least bit. I have a very poor view of Economics, in fact, whereas History or French or English or any of these subjects would have broadened the mind and would have given me an interest which would have developed the character and personality. I think that students who come to universities ought to be told what is available to them and that a degree is only one part.
McL Thank you very much indeed.
End of interview
|