 At one point at Morley Memorial Junior School he was taught by Roger Waters'mother, Mary. Later, in 1957, he attended Cambridgeshire High School for Boys (with Waters). His father died of cancer on 11 December 1961, less than a month before Barrett's 16th birthday. Also on this day, Barrett had left the entry in his diary for this date blank. By this time, his brothers and sisters had left home and his mother decided to rent out rooms to lodgers. Eager to help her son recover from his grief, Barrett's mother encouraged the band in which he played, Geoff Mott and The Mottoes, a band which Barrett formed, to perform in their front room. Roger Waters and Syd Barrett were childhood friends, and Waters often visited such gigs. At one point, Waters even organised a gig, a CND benefit at Friends Meeting House on 11 March 1962, but shortly afterwards Geoff Mott joined the Boston Crabs, and the Mottoes broke up.
