Charlie Key was taught in a school which has since been torn down to make way for a road. It was, however, replaced, and Mr Key, now aged 84 and enjoying his retirement, talked to DAN COOMBS about his years spent at the newer school as a governor and the most recent threat it faces

IT WAS IN the 1930s that Charlie Key attended what was then Sipson and Heathrow Primary School, close to Bath Road in Sipson.

Back then, he could not have expected that, in 2009, he would still be serving his community in his 80s. Because after working for many years as an electrician, Mr Key became a councillor with the old Yiewsley and West Drayton District Council, and his life went full circle.

"I spent 21 years working in education and I was on the governor's commission," explained Mr Key, of Briar Way, West Drayton.

"I was always interested in helping children; the committee was one of the things I enjoyed being on. Over the years I got to know people who were running the schools, and became a governor myself."

Two weeks ago he retired from his governor's post at Heathrow Primary School, in Harmondsworth Lane, the school which replaced the one where he was once taught.

"My old school was ripped down in the 1960s when the motorway expanded and they built the (M4) spur road on top of it, so they rebuilt it in Harmondsworth Lane.

"It was a very well run school. I can still remember the first day I went in. I recall the blackboard and the chalk and the times tables stuck to the walls, which we had to learn in parrot fashion. I still know them today.

"On the playground we had to drink a third of a pint of milk because we were told we needed lots of calcium, and when it was cold we had a big pipe running round our classroom to heat it up."

Mr Key also has a message for councillors of today, and urges them to get involved with their local schools.

"I'd like to see more councillors as school governors, it does not matter what political persuasion you are.

"It lets you see what it happening on your doorstep, and I always like to think I have been a help."

He is a familiar face to many in the borough, and is an active volunteer on the West Drayton and Yiewsley Welfare Committee, the deputy vice-chairman of Hillingdon Forum for the Elderly, and the deputy church warden at St Mary the Virgin Church in Harmondsworth.

"Elderly people need to keep active," he explained. "It's no good sitting in a chair watching the television all day."

But now a threat to the school to which he dedicated many years of his life has arisen. If a third runway is built at Heathrow Airport, its location in Harmondsworth Road, Sipson means it would have to be demolished.

"I hate the idea of a third runway. It is already polluted enough round here with the fumes from the M25 and the M4 so close by," said Mr Key.

But he is satisfied with his years of service and calls on others to follow. "I feel like I have done a service to my community, and not everybody has a chance to do that.

"Today's volunteers are few and far between; it's a problem to get them.

"There are a lot of worthy causes - people need to come forward. I'd like to see young people get involved. They would get a real kick out of it, like I did."

Mr Key also worked at Brunel University in Uxbridge, as a handyman, at Technicolor in Bath Road and at Guinness in Park Royal, and during the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean.

"I was on HMS Queen Elizabeth, the battleship, for three years. It was a real experience, and we were shelling the Japanese. It was the only time I have been away from the borough in my whole life.

"I am very lucky. I have lived a colourful life and have a great family.

"My wife couldn't be better - she looks after me and I look after her."