Top of the class: Ken takes a seat in his old classroom, now located in the Taranaki Pioneer Village.
Top of the class: Ken takes a seat in his old classroom, now located in the Taranaki Pioneer Village.
Ken Frank clearly remembers his days as a pupil at Pembroke School more than 80 years ago, and was delighted to visit the school on a recent trip back to New Zealand from his home in Australia.
In his autobiography, A Taranaki Lad published last year, Ken recalls his mother was concerned about him starting school, as he was very slow to talk.
He says a neighbour's older child took him along the hilly and windy two mile gravel road to the school on his first day.
"I arrived home on top of the world. I had found a broken pocket watch and a penny on the side of the road."
During his recent visit back to his old stomping ground, Ken visited his original classroom, now located at the Taranaki Pioneer Village, as well as the school itself on Pembroke Road.
The classroom at the village, he says, is just as he remembered it.
"There was a chip fire in the corner and we sat in straight lines at the desks."
On arriving at Pembroke School to meet some of the pupils there as well as principal Caroline Beissel, Ken says the first thing he noticed was all the space.
Chairs in straight lines have been replaced with beanbags and comfy chairs and the blackboard has been replaced with whiteboards and a projector screen.
"It's certainly different," Ken says. He thinks his school experience would have been quite different to that of the youngsters he spoke during his visit.
"I remember getting the strap when I did something wrong, and we had to write with slate pencils before we were allowed ink pens, with the little ink wells kept in a special hole in each desk."
Ken also remembers going to the Stratford Technical School where the boys would have woodworking classes and the girls would learn cookery.
"We were making hobby horses one time, and painted them grey and red. Jack Jeffares, he took one of the tins of paint and shook it so hard that the lid flew off and it went everywhere!""
The pupils at Pembroke school had lots of questions for Ken about his memories of school life as well as his life in general on a farm on Pembroke Road.
Whole new world: Ken sits in one of Pembroke School's current classrooms.
Mya Baskin (11) says she thinks school is better now than it was in Ken's days.
"We don't get the strap for example."
Loegan Peita (12) also thinks the strap wouldn't have been fun, preferring school as it is nowadays.
"I liked most of the subjects we studied. They were interesting enough, although English was my downfall." There can be no doubt the education he received in Taranaki stood him in good stead, as Ken's autobiography reveals he has since led a fascinating life working all all over the world. His working life started with The Ridd Milking Machine Company, before he joined the RNZAF during World War II, serving in the Pacific as a wireless mechanic servicing aircraft and transmitters for long distance communication.
During the Korean conflict in the early 50s, Ken worked as a United Nations War correspondent for New Zealand Broadcasting. On his return to New Zealand he spent six weeks broadcasting for the Royal tour before moving to England for study. He stayed in England working for EMI and Marconi before heading to Australia where he installed and commissioned many of the earliest television studios throughout Australia. He installed the Melbourne studios in time for televising the 1956 Olympic Games.
"It's been a good life, I have been a very lucky man really," says Ken. "It was lovely to meet the pupils, they were all very nice indeed."
To purchase a copy of Ken's book, email 90kenfrank@gmail.com. $30 plus postage.
