b'A H I S T O R Y O F C O O G E E P R E PHe never bought a car, nor acquired any property. He leased hishouses just as he leased the school rooms, notwithstanding Eileenswish that he should purchase a property for the school. Perhapsthis contributed to its survival for, apart from the schools reputa-tion and the balance of the ninety-nine year lease, there was noth-ing for another organization to take over. Nor was Nimmo resolutein pursuing unpaid fees. Boys who were in arrears were allowed tostayand,indeed,duringtheDepression,therewouldprobablyhave been no school if he had done otherwise.Nimmo was a friendly, approachable man with excellent rap-port with the boys. Indeed, he was far more at ease with hispupils than he was in adult company: he dreaded Speech NightwhenhehadtostandanddeliverhisAddress.Hemadeanindelible impression on generations of boys, who continue toremember him with great respect and affection. Thirty or fortyyears after they had left the school, old boys would come backto see him, still calling him Sir. The warmth was reciprocated.In 1964, he told a newspaper reporter: One of the greatest plea-sures of the job is seeing my old boys. I dont remember theirfaces at first, but I can always recognise them by their eyes. Nimmo was a man of his time. Conservative and a tradition-alist, he wanted to imbue his school with all the positive attrib-utesofthegreatpublicschoolsofEngland.HeappointedaSchool Captain each year, assisted by four or five prefects. Eachyear also, Captains would be appointed to the First XV; the FirstXI; Athletics; Swimming and Tennis. The boys Christian nameswere never used and, for the most part, remained unknown toteachers and boys, other than close friends. When Nick Brown,who was his parents only child, started at the school at the ageoffivein1944,hewasknownasBrownV.WhentheolderBrown I left, Nick was promoted to Brown IV. In his views too, Nimmo reflected the conservatism of his time.Once he told a boy that if King Edward VIII abdicated, it would betheendofthemonarchy.Hewasprobablyright.DuringtheSecond War, he was one of many who resented having to be savedby the United States and he made little attempt to hide this emo-2 9'