Teen singer charmed all those who she met

The teenage singing sensation was invited to the summer fete at Bayswater School, Headington, Oxford, in 1962.

• Helen Shapiro with Henry Harris’s son, Robert, Miss Bayswater, Jean Ramsden, 15, and PTA secretary Audrey Baughan

Headmaster Mr K M Gallop, although admitting he wasn’t ‘with it’, praised her for her good manners. And PTA chairman Henry Harris and secretary Audrey Baughan agreed.

It was Mr Harris’s idea to invite the singer to visit the school in Bayswater Road.

He recalls: “We were looking for someone to open our fete and I remembered reading that she was due to appear in Oxford.

“We contacted the New Theatre, who gave us the name of her agent, and that’s how it was arranged.

“We then contacted the mayor as we thought it would be good to have someone important to meet her.”

Contrary to what was reported at the time, Miss Shapiro opened the fete, not the mayor, Alderman Evan Roberts.

The teenager had become the youngest female chart topper in the UK with You Don’t Know and Walkin’ Back to Happiness in the early 1960s.

She was so popular that nearly 2,000 people flocked to see her when she arrived at the school.

Mr Harris tells me: “The fete made £2,400 for school funds that day. I remember we spent some of it on table tennis tables.”

Mrs Baughan, of Pound Way, Templars Square, Cowley, recalls: “I and a fellow PTA committee member were taken by taxi to pick up Helen from the Mitre Hotel.

“Like Mr Gallop, I was immediately impressed by her poise and friendly demeanour, and her eagerness to be fully involved in the afternoon’s celebrations.

“It was my pleasure to chaperone Miss Shapiro for the majority of the afternoon, then take her back to her hotel when the festivities finished.

“She took a great interest in all the afternoon’s activities and was very happy to sign autographs and continued to do so long after the half-hour set aside for this, in fact whenever she was approached by excited children and parents.

“I have extremely happy memories of this lovely, successful event. “ As we recalled (Memory Lane, June 9), Mr Gallop used Miss Shapiro’s visit to drive home a message to pupils – the importance of good behaviour.

He told parents and pupils at the school’s prizegiving a week later: “Her manners impressed all those who were present.

“Her complete naturalness and poise were an excellent example to our teenagers.”

Mr Harris agreed, describing her as a “great girl” – and he was even more impressed when he met her again three years later.

“She appeared in concert at the Playhouse and afterwards, I went to the stage door and asked to see her. She came out and remembered me from the fete.”

• Mr Harris

Mr Harris, of Routh Road, Barton, worked at the Pressed Steel car body factory at Cowley for 42 years and became well-known as a steward at Oxford United’s Manor Ground and as clerk of the course at Oxford speedway.

Memory Lane this week
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