 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 . 
