TITLE HERE 1 THE SALOPIAN SALOPIAN CLUB FORTHCOMING EVENTS n More details can be found on the Salopian Club website: www.shrewsbury.org.uk/page/os-events THE SALOPIAN Issue No. 159 - Winter 2016 n Sporting fixtures at: www.shrewsbury.org.uk/page/os-sport (Click on individual sport) n Except where stated email: [email protected] All Shrewsbury School parents (including former parents) and guests of members are most welcome at the majority of our events. It is our policy to include in all invitations all former parents for whom we have contact details. The exception is any event marked ‘Old Salopian’ which, for reasons of space, is restricted to Club members only (e.g. Birmingham Dinner). Supporters or guests are always very welcome at Salopian Club sporting or arts events. Emails containing further details are sent out prior to all events, so please make sure that we have your up to date contact details. Date Event Venue Wednesday 11 January, 7pm A Celebration of Epiphany Service St Mary-le-Bow, London WC2V 6AU led by Revd Gavin Williams (former Shrewsbury School Chaplain) with a choir conducted by OS Patrick Craig and Richard Eteson Wednesday 18 January, 5.30pm Salopian Club Committee Meeting London Thursday 2 February, 7.30pm Shrewsbury School in Concert with Barber Institute of Fine Arts a pre-concert drinks reception in the Birmingham B15 2TS Gallery at the Barber Institute Contact: [email protected] from 6-7pm Wednesday 22 February, 6.00pm OS Sports Committee Meeting London Thursday 23 February, 5.00pm Evensong at Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey London SW1P 3PA conducted by Revd Gavin Williams, followed by a tour and then drinks Monday 6 March, 5.30pm Shrewsbury School Chapel Choir sings Lichfield Cathedral Evensong, followed by a reception in Contact: [email protected] Lichfield Cathedral Sunday 12 March, 6.00pm Joint OS/School Concert at Cadogan Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ Hall; high tea to be served in the Contact: [email protected] foyer before the concert 4.30-5.30pm *Thursday 16 March OS Birmingham Dinner St Paul’s Club, St Paul’s Square Tickets will be available via the website Birmingham B3 1QZ Thursday 23 March Schools’ Head of the River gathering Blue Anchor, Hammersmith W6 9DJ Wednesday 24 May, 6.30pm Private viewing of the Canaletto Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace exhibition with talk by OS Desmond SW1A 1AA Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, and drinks. Saturday 3 June OS Masonic Lodge Meeting Bowring Room, Shrewsbury School Boathouse 2016 Winter 159 - Issue No. Saturday 1 July Speech Day Shrewsbury School Saturday 1 July Henley Royal Regatta gathering Henley Cricket Club, Henley Saturday 30 September Old Salopian Day Shrewsbury School OLD SALOPIAN NEWS 95 arrangements could be made. He took over the dreaded After leaving Oldham’s in 1972, Jane and Michael remained on accounts, but finding himself struggling to find enough time the School Site for some years, living in Gorswen. On Michael’s to do them properly and on learning that Jane had become final retirement from teaching, they made their home in proficient, he rather tentatively asked her for help. After a Bayston Hill. Here Jane created a very productive garden: the couple of sessions, he even more tentatively asked her if vegetables, the apples, pears and strawberries were generously she would join him for a cup of tea. It wasn’t long before distributed far and wide. When Michael became increasingly they were engaged. This was the beginning of their lifelong immobile in his later years she would often be found on her partnership of nearly 62 years. kneeler in the vegetable garden, weeding, sowing, planting, They married on 15th April 1953 and their first home was harvesting; happily engrossed, the sitting room doors wide Tregwynt in Port Hill Gardens. In 1959 Michael took Jane, open so that she could hear him if he called or rang the bell. Ruth and Anne - David was not yet born - to Kisumu in In their retirement she also used the old skills from her social Kenya on the edge of Lake Victoria where he been offered a work days to train, and then to work for the church, as a year’s sabbatical as vicar. Jane often talked with pleasure of most effective counsellor. During this time they went regularly their time there. to Jerusalem where Michael took his turn as Chaplain at the Garden Tomb, ministering to the many pilgrims and tourists On returning to Shrewsbury they moved briefly into The who visit. Poplars before starting ten years in charge of Oldham’s Hall in 1962. Running a boys’ boarding house in the 1960s was Jane cared for Michael devotedly during his illness for four extremely hard work for the wives in particular. Jane now long years, determined to keep him at home. After he died, it had three small children to look after and the responsibility was quite remarkable the way Jane began to re-build her life. of a large domestic staff and the feeding of around 60 hungry She re-kindled old village and church friendships; she loved teenage boys during term time. Oldham’s had been designed going with Adrian Struvé to the pensioners’ lunch at Dobbies; by a bachelor and no one could possibly argue with the fact she began to re-plan her garden and think about installing a that whilst it was a handsome and spacious building, it was new kitchen; she had several short trips away. On Christmas an extremely inconvenient family home. However, using her Day she was at Holy Trinity Church, helping with the annual excellent organisational skills and her very good brain, Jane lunch for over a hundred people. made light of this and other inconveniences and supported She was a wise friend and counsellor to a great many Michael tirelessly; the boys were well fed and the children people. In the words of her daughter, Ruth: “Mum never put loved having the school grounds to play in, the swimming a foot wrong: she was an amazing wife, mother, daughter, pool and tennis court on the doorstep and a pony not far grandmother and great-grandmother. She understood and away. Jane and Michael made many good friends during this fulfilled all the roles really well. She knew when to be in the time, both boys and their parents, who stayed in touch for long front leading, when to be beside or behind, supporting.” years afterwards. Catherine Trimby Peter Williams (SH 1955-59) (having never adapted to computerisation, he purchased a Peter Robert Sinclair Williams was born in 1942 and 16-column analysis cash book which lasted a few months attended Mostyn House School, Parkgate on the Wirral before he employed an assistant with a computer!) to before coming to Shrewsbury in 1955. He shared a happy attending to snagging and complaints. In connection with childhood with his brother Nicko (SH 1954-58). the latter, he once told a customer who complained that they had left a small step between house and conservatory After Shrewsbury, he served articles under Cecil Taylor at over which her husband was prone to trip “you should put Wilson de Zouche and Mackenzie (WZM) in Liverpool, more tonic with his gin”. where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1965. There followed a brief spell at Peat Marwick & Mitchell Life at Interglaze removed PRS from the Artists Club, with where he began to develop his own individual style. Years which by that stage he was also somewhat disillusioned, after he left stories abounded, including that of his briefcase saying at one time, “The problem is that there are people which contained little more than the Daily Telegraph and coming in here today who don’t know the difference his lunch which comprised sandwiches and several bottles between a pub and a club”. However he soon found a of beer! new retreat, the Fox & Hounds in Barnston which he then referred to as his ‘Barnston Club’. From Peats he moved at the invitation of his cousin Mike Moon to become a Partner in Blease Lloyd, from whence Whilst PRS was above all a family man, he was also a highly both moved to WZM in 1972. Here practice life suited proficient and able accountant who was doggedly loyal to PRS, who demonstrated great flair in dealing with his his friends. ‘broad church’ of clients and balancing his work with the His family life centred round his home at Northfield, where attractions of the Liverpool Artists Club, Ma Boyles and he was a keen gardener who was proud of the supply several other haunts. He was popular, entertaining, irascible of home-grown vegetables. He was also a practical man and usually fair. and enjoyed making improvements to the property. His By 1992 he had become disillusioned with the direction that favourite intellectual pursuit was the reading of history, his business life was taking. As he said to an old friend and which influenced his thinking on the modern world. His fellow Partner, “when some years ago I became a Chartered views were generally conservative and he greatly enjoyed Accountant, I joined a profession; recently it has come to indulging in debate, conversation being for him something my attention that it has become a trade”. Well, if you can’t of a sporting encounter. It was particularly hard, therefore beat them join them! PRS duly retired from the Partnership than he suffered the loss of his voice, a burden which he and went into secondary glazing. He undertook a number bore stoically, as he did his last illness, in which he was of roles with Interglaze, from being the accountant closely supported by his wife.