During the summer holidays, our Maintenance team made an unexpected discovery beneath the stage in the Memorial Hall,  2 mysterious black boxes, tucked away in a long forgotten section that even our most experienced staff had never seen before. To their surprise, the boxes turned out to be a time capsule chronicling the life of a former pupil, Mr Raymond Banks.

Uncertain how the boxes and their contents came to be hidden in the Memorial Hall, the team brought them to the Development Office at the Lodge for further investigation.

Over the next few weeks, Jane from the Development team pieced together the life of Raymond from the documents that were contained in the boxes.

Raymond Banks was the only child of Charles and Flora (nee Dawson) Banks and grew up on North Road in Hull. The black boxes contained a range of personal effects, including letters his mother received during the First World War when his father went missing, as well as a letter from the King regarding his father's safe return.

Born in February 1916, Raymond attended Hymers from 1927 to 1934 before going on to study Natural Sciences at Oxford University. Among the contents were more than 20 envelopes of school report cards, which praised his academic performance though several noted that he "needed to work on his handwriting." During his time at Hymers, Raymond was an active member of the Chemistry Society and also took part in the School's Cricket and Drama clubs.

Raymond in later life, went on to pursue a career as a councillor in the Nottingham area. Photographs and posters found in the box suggest he was later a member of the Joseph Rowntree Players, and his name appears in programmes for various theatrical productions, a passion he seems to have carried beyond school. Raymond was listed as performed in 'Service' by Dodie Smith & 'Banets Folly' by Jan Stewer in the late 1930's/ early 1940's. 

Documents uncovered in our digital archives indicate that Mr Banks returned to the School in 2002 and generously donated funds to help design a new Science Laboratory in the New Junior School (Completed in 2003) which included a state of the art projector and interactive whiteboard. Sadly, our research shows that he passed away later that same year. Despite all the meticulous documents that were kept, from rations books to documents of house purchases, job contracts to theatre programmes, there was so many documents yet we cannot locate that Raymond ever married nor had children, the only family member we can locate is an Aunt, on we believe his mother’s side, Jessie Dawson. 

Did Raymond leave the box behind during his final visit? How did it end up beneath the stage in the Memorial Hall?

We’re eager to learn more about this extraordinary find and the life of Raymond Banks. If you have any information or memories that might help us shed light on this remarkable story, please get in touch.