Remembering old times

Although Selwyn House School moved into the building in the early 1960s, when Westmount High relocated to a sprawling and modern campus on St. Catherine Street, Alex Ross has fond memories of the stately school on Côte St. Antoine Road.

Ross, who grew up on Grosvenor Avenue, came in from Nova Scotia, where he has lived since 1975. "I graduated from here in 1960," said Ross, who attended the old Westmount High for two years in 1958 and 1959.

"This was Westmount High. This was where I spent my days. I never knew it as Selwyn House until a couple of years ago when I came back. I would walk from Grosvenor down to here in the morning, and back at noon." Ross said it was his first time attending a WHOBA function.

"I know there are a lot of people out there who have information," he said, adding that he's been putting together a CD of digitized information on WHOBA reunions held since 1930. "This is how I find out where the material is and hopefully I'll have something to present in another year."

Richard Lord, another WHOBA member who graduated from the Côte St. Antoine school in 1948, said he was the only black student at Westmount High at the time. He and his family were living on St. Antoine Street near Atwater.

Lord excelled in hockey and football, went on to graduate with a background in science, and has since pursued a successful career in immigration law. Among the friends he remembers from his days at Westmount High were Ted Tilden, founder of the former Canadian rent-a-car chain.

"Every year we have a reunion for the old boys," he said, adding that it provides an opportunity to pay homage to Westmount High alumni who died in World War II.

"We lost more men in Westmount High than any other school in Canada, and they were all volunteers," Lord added. "That's why we honour them, because they were young people. We are proud of this sacred ground. Of course, the school's no longer our school. But it's still our sacred ground."

While many other WHOBA members were unable to attend the reunion, Lord said replies were received from places as distant as South and North Carolina in the United States, and even from Denmark.

"They're very loyal and have very long memories," he said.

WHOBA was established in 1936 for the benefit of all male alumnus of Westmount High School. At its 2002 spring annual general meeting, the group officially declared that all its activities, benefits and membership were open to male and female WHS alumni, teachers and staff.

Among the stated purposes in WHOBA's mission statement is a clause to the effect that the organization should "perpetuate the remembrance of all Westmount High School alumni who made the supreme sacrifice in the military service of their country, Canada."