There was to be no slovenly behaviour when this school picture was taken.

Ties straight, jackets on, shoes polished – and everyone in the front row to fold their arms!

Strict discipline appears to have been in force when pupils posed for this photograph at Salesian College, the Catholic grammar school in Crescent Road, Cowley, Oxford, in 1948.

The picture comes from Hazel Hussey, of The Green, Horspath, whose brother Keith Buller is among the boys.

She writes: “I am sending it on his behalf to see if anyone recognises themselves as he would love to hear from them.”

The school had a short history in Oxford, providing education for boys for just over 30 years.

The first Salesian College in the UK was founded in Battersea, London, in 1895 by a religious order, the Salesians of John Bosco, an Italian priest also known as Don, who dedicated his life to improving children’s education.

His dream was to establish a Salesian presence in Britain so that he could piggyback his principles on to countries in the British Empire.

Lessons began in Oxford at the start of the Second World War when the Battersea premises were requisitioned by the Army. The school was incorporated into the Oxford education system when the war ended in 1945.

Pat Duffy, of Benmead Road, Kidlington, was one of the first pupils at the Oxford school, after being bombed out in London while attending a school in Clapham in October 1940.

He recalled: “By chance, my mother had a cousin in Kennington and having got a scholarship, I cycled from there to Salesian College over the rather scary planks to Sandford lock when the Thames rose quickly in the winter of 1940.”

The achievements of pupils featured many times in the Oxford Mail.

In 1955, Campion House, winner of the school sports for six years, recorded yet another victory, beating their nearest rivals, Napier House, by 106 points to 97. Nine school records were broken on that occasion.

Later the same year, at the annual prizegiving, the Prefect of Studies, the Rev Father J Maguire, described the year as “gratifying in its achievements both in study and in sport”.

In General Certificate examinations, 53 boys had passed at ordinary level, 14 at advanced level and nine at scholarship level.

In sport, P King had won the British schoolboys’ boxing championship at the Royal Albert Hall in London and C Bell had reached the semi-final.

Father Maguire added: “The three football teams and two cricket teams seem to have won and lost with almost equal consistency, but athletics and running are flourishing.”

The school closed in 1970 after it was found impossible to fit it into the scheme for reorganising Catholic education within the new comprehensive system.

The buildings became a target for vandals and squatters after years of delay in deciding what to do with them. Finally, in 1991, work started on turning them into flats.

* Any memories of Salesian College to share with readers? Write and let me know.