In the late 1970s, retired Grimsby schoolmaster, Harry Goulding, wrote his memoirs, longhand, on sheets of paper rescued from a skip and they lay for many years in the safe-keeping of his grandchildren until they were transcribed into two books; the first (this book) detailing his childhood days up until the end of his college days; the second, `Man's Estate,' chronicling his often-turbulent career as an eccentric schoolmaster in Grimsby.
In `Henry the Ninth' we learn of the poverty of his childhood; the struggle to supplement his 1/2d per week pocket money; the rat-catching and the pig-keeping; his annual trips on the trawlers; the yearning for independence from his domineering father; the family war over his grandfather's will; his struggles at school; and his eventual and reluctant choice of profession, among many other incidents, happy and bitter. In addition, his story represents a valuable local history insight into life in the poor quarter of Grimsby in the early part of the twentieth century.