The Peterite
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THE PETERITE Vol. LX OCTOBER , 1974 No. 391 Edited by D. G. Cummin, J.P., M.A. EDITORIAL As we enter the last quarter of the year, we might be forgiven if we felt that the sooner 1974 is finished the better. The year of confrontation; the year of the slag-heaps; the year of the assassin, of the kidnapper and the sneaking 'bomber% worst of all, the year of the 'expert': the one with instant comment on every ill; with wisdom after every event, and with ready prophecy of further gloom to come; like the American 'expert' who not only knows that we are destined to become the poorest country in Europe but pities us because we are not able to see it. One expert wrote 'considering the manifold complaints of men, touching the decay of this Commonwealth and Realm of England, that we now be in ...'. But that was in 1548, two generations before Englishmen were even interested in North America. We are a people familiar with crisis, but we don't always let our apprehension show. In schools, for various good reasons, the 'year' is not the calendar year; and our school year ended last July. How different its markers would be from those of the calendar year. For us it was perhaps the year of the trumpets, when, at the St. Peter's Day service the Minster rang with the splendid sound made by our trumpeters who, in their rehearsals among the endless tourists, had been proud to say where they came from. Or was it the year of the poets, when five among eighteen poems selected and broadcast by the BBC were by boys of our first year? The year of the House plays? when surely more boys than ever before found creative enjoyment in some varied and very good productions. And perhaps in the most obvious way it was the year of the Sports Centre, when the completion of the magnificent building made inevitable the massive act of faith to find the money for it by appeal. A very different scale of values between the year 1974 and the school year 1973-74. Does it mean that we are out of touch with the world of hard economics and of social problems? Does the stream of politics pass us by? Unfortunately there can be few communities more vulnerable to economic change and political puffing than the independent schools, and St. Peter's is no 'island, entire of itself'. But if education means anything at all, surely it must first be a demonstration of confidence in the future; otherwise it is worth nothing. And it is this underlying feeling of con- trolled hope that makes us look for the best that has happened in our year while at the same time learning from the things that have gone wrong. The difference between the school year and the calendar year seems to be that in schools we look back critically and forward with hope, while the modem 'expert' seems to look back with easy hindsight and forward with despair. Successful schools must depend for their prosperity on a good measure of faith, which St. Paul defined as 'the substance of things hoped for', 1 CONTENTS PAGE Editorial 1 School Notes ... 2 The Common Room 3 Frederic Waine 10 Commemoration, 1974 11 Valete 17 Salvete 18 The Chapel 19 Music ... 20 Combined Cadet Force 23 Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme 26 Modern Languages Society 28 Cricket 28 Boat Club 43 Shooting 44 Tennis 45 Swimming 46 Fencing 49 The Oxford Cup, 1973-74 50 Rugby Fixtures, 1974 52 Walking Club 52 The Chess Club 53 Orienteering ... 53 House Notes ... 58 The Threshold 64 Letters 68 Old Peterite News 72 and when we look back on a school year we like to pick out the events and developments which justify hope and establish faith. The fears of the experts of 1974 may be well founded, and if so then the hopes we draw from our school year must contribute to the confidence needed to face the future. If we neither ignore the fears nor distrust the hopes we can look ahead as did that most forthright of Englishmen, Oliver Cromwell: `Well;your danger is as you have seen. And truly I am sorry it is so great. But I wish it to cause no despondency: —as truly, I think it will not.' The Editor wishes to thank the many contributors to The Peterite a would welcome correspondence and articles of general interest fr Peterites past and present. SCHOOL NOTES We offer our good wishes to The Most Reverend F. D. Cogga' D.D., MA., and to Mrs. Coggan on the Archbishop's translation t Canterbury. We thank them for the warm interest they took on the' many visits to the school. * * * We welcome four new masters: Mr. J. R. Lee, B.A. (Durham), and Mr. J. P. Orr, B.A. (St. Peter's College, Oxford), to teach Maths; Mr. W. R. Hutt, Dip.Ed. (Leeds), M.Sc. (Aston), to teach Physical EducatioAr and Mr. B. Macdonald, BA. (Durham), to teach Geography. * * * Mr. R. D. Wilkoff, B.A. (University of Colorado) M.A. (California; State University, Long Beach) will teach here for the School year. H has made an exchange with Mr. D. R. Du Croz, who will take his pla in Los Alamitos High School, California. * * * We offer our deep sympathy to Mrs. Waine and her family on t death of Frederic Waine, the former. Director of Music. There was Memorial Service in Chapel on June 1st. It has been suggested that a suitable Memorial to Frederic Wai would be the provision of a good concert piano, and those interested furthering this idea are asked to be in touch with R. A. Stevens, 0.P 15 Bootham Crescent, York YO3 7AJ (Telephone: York 24512). * * * Miss M. Frame, S.R.N. has been appointed Sister in charge of th Sanatorium. Miss Pat Ellis, who left the Sanatorium last February, h. received the Habit of The Convent of the Sisters of Charity. * * * The Summer Term started on 21st April. * * * The North East Secretary of I.S.C.O. visited on April 30th. * * * General Deedes, Army Schools Liaison Officer, visited on May 2 2 The Principal of St. John's College, York, Mr. J. V. Barnett, M.A.. came to talk to the Lower Sixth General Studies set on May 7th. * * * The Boat Club Dance was held on May 1 1th. * * * Students from Doncaster College of Education visited the school on May 13th; and the same day there was an Area Meeting here of I.S.I.S. * * * Comniander Holmes, R.N., Schools Liaison Officer for the Royal Navy visited on May 16th. * * * The Scholarship examination was from 20th to 23rd May. * * * Half-term was from 24th to 28th May, and there was a Party for Parents of Lower VIth on the 24th. * * * The Annual Inspection of the CCF was on June 4th. The Inspecting Officer was Major General G. de E. Collin, M.C., General Officer Commanding North East District. The Music Prize Competition was on June 5th. * * * Common Entrance Examination was from June 10th to 12th. * * * A play, 'The Unvanquished,' was staged by farm Ma on June 18th. * * * The Sports Centre was opened on June 22nd by Councillor J. M. Wood. * * * The Choir Supper followed Choral Evensong on July 5th. * * * Commemoration week-end was from July 12th to 14th, and Term ended after the Service on the 14th. THE COMMON ROOM Four masters left us in July: Mr. S. G. l'Atzson and Mr. A. J. Leng to take up other appointments; Mr. R. C. T. Hall to retire through ill- health after a valiant but losing battle to keep going, a battle in which he greatly appreciated the kindliness and helpfulness of all around him in the school; and Mr. R. F. Harding who retires after a remarkable career which brought him to St. Peter's in 1938. Such a career of course em- bodies a good deal of the recent history of the school, and Mr. Frank 3 Wiseman, formerly Senior Classics Master and the author of the latest history of St. Peter's, has written the article which follows. Robert Harding joined the staff of St. Peter's in September 1938 after completing a year's specialist course in Physical Education at Carnegie College in Leeds. His qualifications as Games Master were very impres- sive: so impressive, in fact, that John Dronfield deserves considerable credit for persuading him to accept the appointment: for the fortunes of the school at the time were at a low ebb: but in so persuading him, he did by the stroke of a pen free himself for most of the next thirty years of any concern for the major sports activities of St. Peter's. Rugger and cricket were in very safe hands. As a boy at Tonbridge, Robert (`Cone' to successive generations of Grovites) was more prominent at cricket than rugger. He had three years in the XI as a slow left arm bowler: it may be added with some certainty that he was a magnificent fielder and, from the majestic way in which in later life he dealt with a rising ball at the wicket, no mean batsman. In any event, he was good enough to be selected by the Royal Empire Society in his last year at school to join a party of schoolboys on a four- months tour of New Zealand which took him round the world. One season as fly-half in the Tonbridge XV was little indication of the great things that lay ahead for him on the rugger fields of Oxford and elsewhere: but it was only at Oxford that he developed the now familiar broad shoulders and massive chest of the natural athlete.