I would like to pay tribute to my dear grandad, Basil Youings.

Grandad was a West Buckland old boy and sadly passed away peacefully on the 18th December, aged 89. To say grandad was a asset to the school maybe a little bit of a lie.

He would tell us girls some funny stories of his time there, most of which implied he was pretty mischievous.

Apparently, on his last day at West Buckland, himself and a few friends decided to sneak into the chemistry labs next to the small quad and experiment by making a small explosive. I have no idea what they were intending on doing with it (my grandad was a very gentle man so pretty certain they never wanted to use it in any untoward way). Anyway, they placed the gunpowder in a test tube and started to turn it gently over a bunsen burner to seal the end. I am sure you can imagine what happened next!

Grandad and his friends didn't see the gunpowder gradually descending down the test tube and it subsequently blew up! Remarkably they all only received minor injuries but hasten to say they got in a lot of trouble, in fact I think they got expelled! Luckily neither myself or my sisters inherited his mischievous genes (well not by those standards anyway) therefore we probably made much less of an impression.

He will be greatly missed, sleep tight grandad.

Heather Walters (nee Youings) (93-98B)