Your memories: 'We got on well, there wasn't any bullying'

From that moment on, the answer to 8x9 was forever ingrained in Bill Lamb's head - as was the beating he got for the incorrect answer he gave his teacher.

There he was, just a young boy at Murrayburn Primary, getting the belt for his error. "I knew the answer was 72, but in the heat of the moment, I answered incorrectly," says the retired civil servant, 68.

"I thought that was slightly unfair. My wrist was marked and I remember my mother taking me back to school and telling the teacher that if it happened again there would be consequences."

Education in the 1940s was strict, but apart from this one experience, Bill, who grew up in Sighthill Gardens but now lives in Balerno, loved school.

"People say your primary school days are the best of your life. I can truthfully say they were - I had no worries at all," he says. "I got a comprehensive and rounded education too."

Pictured here, on the back row fourth from left, Bill joined Murrayburn in 1948, leaving in 1955 for Trinity Academy. He started primary school later than his classmates after a bout of scarlet fever lasting six weeks left him bed-bound in the City Hospital.

"I do remember crying on my first day when I was separated from my mother," he laughs. "The best thing about the school was the companionship between the pupils. We all got on well and there wasn't any bullying.

"I do remember one time a girl threw my pencil and I shoved her into a wall though - I got the belt for that too!"

• A reunion for pupils of the 1955 Primary 7a2 class (pictured here) takes place at Northfield Hotel on September 7. Any interested former classmates should contact Bill Lamb on 0131-539 9315 or e-mail [email protected]