John Di-Mascio 1969 to 1974
John Di-Mascio, St Mary’s 1969 to 1974, pictured with his wife, Milly, in Mexico in 2020
As I’ve said before, this project is not about suggesting everything in the St Mary’s garden was rosy and there is room for opinions of all kinds.
Erith’s John Di-Mascio, for instance, did not enjoy his five years at the school and has, he says, forgotten much of it.
Though, when prompted about Fr Graystone, he had this to say and his memory shows a pastoral side to the headmaster that was not always apparent: “‘Black Harry’ of course! I should have remembered as I spent a lot of time with him - he must have considered me a challenge. For most of one particular year, I had to see him every morning with my homework (and yes, I did sometimes do it on the bus). Fr Graystone would make sure I was doing it and it was up to a sort of standard. Overall, I think he tried hard to pull me around.”
John did get involved in the sporting side of the school and played tight head prop in his year’s rugby team.
“In reality, St Marys was not the right school for me and I guess I just made it hard for myself!!! The thing I did not really like was that if you stepped out of line, even accidently, then the repercussions would be, shall we say, painful,” recalls John.
“But, having said all that, St Mary's did stir an interest in a subject which, even though was not part of the curriculum, would shape my life some ten or so years later. Graham Field started a weekly lunchtime computer club - which I became enthralled with. This interest continued after leaving school and I entered banking as a career.
“Some ten years later I had an opportunity to pioneer office computing which was unheard of at the time - this would have been around 1983. I had a very successful career in computing till I retired at the end of 2015. During this time, I was fortunate enough to work regularly in Europe, USA (where I picked up my email address back in 1995) and Asia.
“Once I left St Mary's, I never kept in touch with anyone which on reflection is a shame.”
One person that John did want to reconnect with was Vincent Bunce who was in his year and later went on to teach Geography at the school. Sadly, Vincent died from illness several years ago. RIP Vincent.
John concluded: “And, just to show, no matter what opportunities presented themselves, I still live in the same town that I went to St Mary's from - Erith!”