He was our most beloved Headmaster; the trademark moustache, the cane, the stern look, the smile that could warm a young boy’s heart. We owe him for the freedom of expression we enjoyed; the stimulating environment to learn, explore and discover who we were.
At DBS, I had schoolmates and teachers whose ancestries were American, Australian, Canadian, Chinese, British, Indian, Portuguese and Thai. There were those who walked or took transit to school, and some who came in Rolls Royce or Porsche. We all mingled together without any difference of class, creed, language, race or religion. We were brought together under one roof – DBS and one umbrella – Jimmy Lowcock.
When we looked back, he was truly ahead of his time. He brought us into a multi-cultural and diverse environmental setting when those phrases were not widely used yet. He prepared us as young men to face the world ahead of us. We were actually living in the future 38 years ago.
I would like to share an incident with you. I think it was a Wednesday afternoon in the Spring of 1976. Our teacher did not show up for class and no one came to supervise us. Some of my classmates started going around removing others’ pants. After they had done that to almost everyone. They looked for something “more interesting to do”. They started throwing things around. At the end, the desks and chairs all piled up in a “heap of ruins”. But still no teacher came, so we all went off to our last class – art with Mr. Y.T. Kwong ( 排骨佬 Spare Rib Lo).
Finally the news got out and Mr. Lowcock came and asked who were responsible for the carnage. After repeated questionings by him, none came forward to admit it nor report the ones who did it. So he gave everyone a good caning. Somehow it seemed that he knew who were the ones who did it. He gave some quite a lashing, but for most of us just one stroke. After school, I went to the swimming pool with the freshly minted red stripe on my thigh and behind, covered only by a small Speedo.
He must have been upset by what the boys had done and disappointed that they did not “Do The Right Thing” by owning up to it, yet I think he took comfort in the fact that our whole class stood by each other through thick and thin. None of us betrayed others for our own preservation. That experience was well worth the temporary pain of the only caning I received at school. It enriched my experience at DBS.
Thank you Jimmy, you will be greatly missed.
Samuel Hsu
Class of 1979
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
