Old Silhillians Hockey Club Another Year Saw Another Fantastic 12 Months for the Club

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Contents Headmasters News of Former Pupils John Butt OBE Former Choristers Girls’ Reunion Headmaster’s Reflections The OSA Trust Main Committee Editorial The President Elect President’s Letter

With the right kind of support,

5 3 2 2 2 1 1 8 7 4 2 7 2 9 6 0 3 0 anything is possible. 0121 693 5000 | jerroms.co.uk Old Sils v Old Warwickians Obituaries Clubhouse Redevelopment Relations Office Development & Al Work Experience Shenstonian Lodge Dinners & Lunches Acknowledgments Sports Sections

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6 8 7 7 6 6 6 9 8 8 2 1 0 5 4 1 2 4 “ T H E S I L H I L L I A N ” the magazine of the The Old Silhillians’ Association Limited (The Former Pupils of Solihull School) The Leonard Stevens Building Solihull School Warwick Road Solihull West Midlands B91 3DJ

Telephone: 0121 703 2963 Facsimile: 01564 775151 Email: [email protected] Website: www.silhillians.net ISSUE 64 NOVEMBER 2013

President 2013 Joe Bates 1 Dear Fellow Old Silhillians

I can hardly believe that I write this as I approach the end of my year as President and can I start off by saying what a pleasure and an honour it has been.

The events which I have attended this year have all been without exception very much enjoyed although many of them were very differing in their nature. I have “survived” the Golf Society, Rugby Club and Hockey

From the President From Club dinners all of which were fantastic evenings and I would not wish to be drawn The Bates having a Ball! on which took the greatest toll on the following day. However, particular congratulations to the rugby club as the dinner on Saturday evening coincided with the first team winning promotion that afternoon so clearly it was a time of great celebration. In March I attended the past Presidents’ Dinner at the Club House which was a most enjoyable evening and I think an excellent format, and the right mix of formality and informality. My first Over 60s Lunch (before qualifying!) was attended by over 100 Old Silhillians and, I believe, a record number of new attendees. To listen to people’s stories on their lives between leaving school and arriving at the lunch was truly fascinating and I believe the event represents the Association at its best. I understand attendance is almost guaranteed just by announcing the lunch which surely goes to show how popular it is.

Once again we held a Summer Ball in the marquee (Page 63) and my thanks to my wife Denise for her assistance with organising this and her support throughout the year. The week after the Summer Ball we had a fantastic event, first of all at School and then back at Copt Heath in the evening when we held a reunion of former female pupils, celebrating 40 years of their attendance at the school. My congratulations to Julia Skan and Alison Bond who with others put in so much time in organising this event (page 20).

Another event which I never foresaw was one Monday morning in April when together with John Loynton I visited Sunrise at Copt Heath to meet with John Tustain and his family who, I believe, is the oldest Old Silhillian (I am sure I will be proved wrong) and had just celebrated his 100th birthday. We had an enjoyable time with him and his recollections of his time at School were truly amazing. This was particularly poignant for myself as he would have been at school with my own father and he did say that he remembered him. Can I also say that if you ever want to meet a mine of information regarding Solihull School for any period you only have to talk to John Loynton for a short while. John also brought along some old school magazines from the era and it is fascinating to read what they wrote about pupils in those days, comments that would never be allowed today!

March this year also saw the London Dinner taking place once again after a gap of some 18 months at its new time in the year and proved most successful. An excellent gathering of Old Silhillians from London and the surrounding area took place at the RAF Club supported by a number of Old Silhillians from Birmingham and fantastic support from the School including the Headmaster and Chairman of Governors. Particular thanks must go to Mark Lucas for many years organising this as he now steps down.

As I write this, I am organising the President’s Dinner on Saturday 23 November and I do hope to see as many as possible at the Club House at what is always a most enjoyable evening.

Turning now to relations with the School, I believe these continue to be excellent and my grateful thanks to the Headmaster David Lloyd and Chairman of Governors, Mark Hopton for that in particular. This year has also seen a fantastic addition to the School staff, Alison Bond, the first Director of Development and Alumni Relations, who joined in January. She immediately made her presence known and has been a wonderful link between the Association and the School and her enthusiasm for helping out with organising events and preserving contact with former pupils is delightful to behold. This can only be of benefit to both the Association and the School 2 and my grateful thanks to her for all she has done. From the President I have particularly enjoyed going back to School this year to attend various events suchas the Christmas Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, the Open Day in January and the Summer Concert in particular. Again, my thanks to the Headmaster and his staff for always making me feel so welcome when I am at School. The OSA office at the School continues to be staffed one afternoon per week, and having Alison Bond in the next office only goes to help with the flow of communication.

Turning now to Copt Heath, we have experienced the ups and downs emotionally, first getting planning consent for the Clubhouse but not the Care Home then finally getting that too in July. The success of getting this project to where it is would not have been possible without first of all Rupert Young who must have worked morning, noon and night on it and also Andrew Clutterbuck, John Griffin, Barry Allen and Peter Davis. On this occasion, I was grateful to be a humble accountant and therefore not able to contribute to the vagaries of planning laws! In any event, we live in exciting times and can look forward to the future with great optimism and hopefully to a Club House which will be brought into the 21st century.

I would of course like take this opportunity to thank everyone who has served on the committee this year. Until I got involved I had no idea how much time and effort went into the affairs of the Association on just routine matters let alone when we have exceptional issues to contend with like the Clubhouse redevelopment. I believe everyone on the committee dedicates a great deal of time and effort to the future of the OSA and it is pleasing to see that this is starting to be rewarded as we go into the next year.

Finally, I turn to my successor and am delighted to say that with the overwhelming support of the committee Julia Skan has been chosen as President Elect. This is clearly a milestone in the Association’s history in that she will be the first female President. After 40 years of girls at the School this is clearly not before time and some might say it is possibly overdue. In any event, I personally feel this is a fantastic development for the Association and will whole heartedly support her in her role. Needless to say she has my best wishes and I am sure you would also wish to join me in wishing her a happy and successful year. Regards

Joe Bates (Fetherston, 1967-75) THE OLD SILHILLIANS’ ASSOCIATION - PAST PRESIDENTS 1921/22 Dr AV Bernays 1956 VO Hawley 1985 SC Mackay 1923 C Aldrin 1957 FR Bishop 1986 JRD Orrett 1924 WR Ludlow 1958 LG Highway 1987 G Stubbings 1925 PE Martineau 1959 HA Steele 1988 MS Saunders 1926 PH Reading 1960 CWD Cooper 1989 HJC Taylor 1927 HA Hughes 1961 HT Wilcox 1990 MJD Smith 1928 HS Matthews 1962 WP Townsend 1991 RJC Graves 1929 TA Furse 1963 DH Billing 1992 BW Allen 1930 CH Palmer 1964 HB Callaghan 1993 GM Hughes 1932 LC Reading 1965 CT Coton 1994 HE Blow 1933 LE Horton 1966 MJ Wheelock 1995 AJ Richardson 1934 F Burnett 1967 PJ Hill 1996 P Callaghan 1935 RH Whitehill 1968 BJW Swift 1997 MC Bettridge 1936 CL Hughes 1969 FAR Moon 1998 PA Thomas 1937 FJ Osborne 1970 JEJ Baggs 1999 JM Batsford 1938 HD James 1971 RG Toy 2000 J Woolman 1939/43 WRL Horton 1972 TG Jones 2001 BJD Wilde 1944 FL Nock 1973 JMB Urry 2002 MA Cutler 1945 AG Bragg 1974 DM Powell 2003 N Smith 1946 JB Mayers 1975 MJ Cusack 2004 R Jerrom 1947 CW Bragg 1976 RC Young 2005 BW Allen 1948 EG Wilcox 1977 KJ Foster 2006 PA Thomas 1949 AJD Mansell 1978 T Jackson 2007 SD Allso 1950 JM Urry 1979 DA Gurnham 2008 JA Platt 1951 KW Highway 1980 PBL Instone 2009 RJ Young 1952 Dr. KD Waters 1981 JLR Hare 2010 ME Levenger 1953 BE Hatton 1982 RC Cupit 2011 JN Harrison 1954 MAD Cooper 1983 DD Cox 2012 PG Davies 3 1955 JT Rolfe 1984 DW Edwards Dear Old Silhillians I am immensely proud to be writing this and making history as the first Lady President-elect of the OSA. A little bit about me: I grew up in Solihull, started my education at Ruckleigh and came to Solihull School in 1984 from King’s High, Warwick. Solihull School was absolutely the best thing to happen to me at the time. I loved school but had long outgrown the cloistered, all- girl and mostly female teaching environment of KHS. The President-elect My father was bored with late night drives to remote Warwickshire villages to find me at house parties and we had very different ideas over what time I should be collected. I needed a new challenge, more freedom and a local social life. I sailed through my GCEs, walked out through the blue door and did not look back. The prospect of being one of sixty girls among some 1000 boys was a little daunting: the Sixth form centre with everyone jostling for position; new teachers; new subjects; A levels in 2 years; new sports teams and boys to boot. During the first week the girls formed a protective circle of chairs but, thankfully, that soon dissolved. I knew a few people from my time at Ruckleigh and stuck with what I loved best: my languages, playing the clarinet, netball and making friends. I turned out on a Saturday to watch the boys play rugby. I played netball, took part in the production of Kiss Me Kate, played in the orchestra, got the chance to go sailing on Olton Mere on a Friday (result) and before long some of the boys were asking if they could copy my French homework. Stay true to your passion and the rest will follow. Very quickly I had a fantastic new group of friends, a full diary of activities, a boyfriend, and my father seemed more content. Some will remember my very poor effort as a cricket scorer for the 1st XI. We had a great season, a lot of fun, and I was officially nominated the worst scorer they’d ever had. I did knuckle down though, succeeded in my A levels and studied French and Italian at University of Kent. Fast forward to today and Solihull School has a lot to answer for. I returned to So- lihull three years ago to be closer to my family. My best friend is still Sarah Pagan (née Owen – Fetherston, 1984-86), who I met at School. We did a backpacking year together, supported each other through our respective weddings and I am proud god- mother to her middle daughter. She is still the person I call first when in need. My partner Miller Crockart (Pole, 1982-88) was in that cricket team of the summer of 1985. I enjoyed a 20-year career in London, using my languages in sales and business development in the chemical industry and later in banking. I still love classical music and the ballet and I had an amazing adventure sailing across the Atlantic in 2003/4. I feel incredibly lucky that I had the opportunity to come to School and be a part of it for two short years. My plan is to give something back and to encourage more girls to come back as well. The Girls’ Reunion in June was challenging to organise but created a lot of excitement and joy in reuniting old friends. I hope to be able to do more of that this year. It is true that for many of us we never leave school. I have heard several girls echoing my feeling that it was the best 2 years of their schooling. New, exciting Kitchen showroom open in Knowle, Solihull I look forward to meeting many of you during my year of office. German, French and British kitchens Kind Regards For more information please contact:

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07980 553539 5 PAST EDITORS

1. Bernard Owens (1950, 53-55) 2. Brian Coglan (1951-52) 3. Arthur Upton (1956-60, 63) 4. Robin Cooper (1961-62) 5. Mike Cusack & Mike Callaghan (1964) Available from 6. Mike Cusack (1965-67) 30th November at 7. Brian Knight (1968-71) 8. Geoff Herne (1972-74) 9. Nick Atkinson (1975-76) 10. John Woolman (1977-79) 11. Simon Wilcox (1980-82) 12. Martin Cotter (1983-85) 13. David Gilbert (1986-87) 14. Robert Chetland (1988-89) 15. Reg Instone (1990-91) 16. Richard Graves (1992-94) Tree Surgery, Hedge Cutting, Mowing, Turﬁng, Winter Tidy Ups, Wood Chippings & Logs 17. Claude Coton (1995-99) 18. Malcolm Lawrie (2000- )

the claim recovery specialists Harris Balcombe LLD 2a Bath Court Bath Row Birmingham B15 1NE T: 0121 622 6555 F: 0121 622 5494 Contact Steve Allso E: [email protected] M: 07860 544855 www.harrisbalcombe.com 6 UK Regional Offices in Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Worldwide Representation Editorial Dear Old Silhillians They say it’s unlucky for some, but this is my 13th Silhillian and I hope you enjoy it. It’s a bumper issue which reflects a very busy year for Old Silhillians. Being 92 pages long it is by far our biggest one to date. The size did cause a little concern with the printers, so if the magazine sprang open like a Jack-in-the-box when you opened the envelope it came in you know why... To celebrate 40 years since girls first attended the School a reunion was held on 22nd June 2013. I had the great pleasure of being in the same year as the first ten girls who arrived in 1973 and left in 1975. It was great to seeGinty Burns née MacMillan (Pole), Wendy Willans née Gill (Jago), Caroline Thomas née McLeod (Fetherston) and Christa Greswold (Windsor) at the event and Ros Elmes née Gittings (Pole) at the OSA Ball the week before. Pictures and a report of the Reunion appear later in the magazine. I continue to staff the OSA Office at the School on Thursday afternoons during term- time. It is with a great deal of pride that I can tell you every pupil who has visited the office to request work experience was placed with companies or organisations where Old Silhillians work. More about this can be found on pages 65 - 67. It would be remiss of me not to mention the new Development and Alumni Relations Office which has a section starting on page 68. I truly believe that the establishment of this office will strengthen both the OSA and the School. David Lloyd and the Gov- ernors are to be congratulated for their vision and I very much look forward to working with Alison, Charlotte and Debbie at school next year. That will be made all the easier now that the OSA shares an office with the latter two! It was with regret that I learnt that Peter Thomas (School House and Shenstone, left 1974) was to call it a day after a long stretch serving on the OSA Committee. His experience and stabilising influence on the Main Committee will be greatly missed. In particular I will miss the stream of risqué jokes sent to my phone during the more boring sessions! Peter will still carry on in his role as Chairman of the OSA Trust. My congratulations go to my old mate Paul Newby (Shenstone, left 1977) on his appointment as a Solihull School Governor. Paul was a couple of years below me at school and his eldest daughter, Becky (left 2009), was in the same year at Solihull as my daughter Alex (left 2009). They were both in Fetherston whereas Paul and I were in Shenstone and Pole respectively. It was an issue then and still irritates me now. Thankfully the School has now reinstated the tradition whereby children are put into the same House as their parents were in. Alas, too late for Alex who will never be able to say, “I was in the senior House - Pole”. Of course, she may disagree! As ever I must thank the contributors and advertisers for their input and support. Their backing really does help the OSA Trust. Please use their services or products if you can. My best wishes to you all.

Malcolm Lawrie (Pole, 1968-75) [email protected] 7 The OSA Committee 2013 Committee The OSA Joe Bates Julia Skan Pete Davies President President Elect Imm. Past President

Barry Allen David Lloyd Pete Davies Chairman Headmaster Hon. Secretary

Joe Bates Max Levenger Malcolm Lawrie 8 Hon. Treasurer Hon. Membership Sec. Silhillian Editor The OSA Committee 2013

Andrew Clutterbuck Mark Lucas Johnny Dugdale Management Chairman London Representative General Member

John Harrison Julia Skan Peter Thomas General Member General Member General Member

Please note that all enquiries concerning membership issues, subscriptions, change of address, etc., should be addressed to: The Old Silhillians’ Association Solihull School Warwick Road Solihull, West Midlands B91 3DJ or emailed to Rupert Young [email protected] General Member 9 It gives me great pleasure to present the Old Silhillians Trust 2013 Annual Report. This year we have tried to raise the profile of the Trust within the Old Silhillians’ Association, the School and the Alumni in general, though, with limited resources it is very difficult to make a significant impact immediately. With the Trust having made an extremely large investment over recent years with the development of the wonderful archive website I think it fair to say that this year our spending has necessarily been restrained though focused. We started the year by making a substantial donation to the school choir in an effort to support

The OSA Trust The OSA their ambition to assemble an ensemble of former choristers. This did in fact prove to be one of the highlights within the school calendar. Furthermore, I am particularly delighted that we were able to provide three part scholarships for pupils currently at Solihull School entering the sixth form. I would briefly like to talk about scholarships, as this is seen to be perhaps the most significant role of the Trust. Many ask upon what criteria scholarships provided by the Trust are awarded, so to clarify I have detailed below the agreed basis upon which the Headmaster makes his rec- ommendations to the Trust. Scholarships are awarded to members of the Upper Fifth who have made an outstanding contribution to the wider life of the School, both curricular and co-curricular. For example, those pupils who have made a substantial and sustained contribution to sport, music, drama, debating, the Bench and/or outdoor education, as well as maintaining exemplary effort in class. These pupils must be role models for the Solihull School community and ambassadors beyond our gates. These scholarships are not means tested. If the Trust is to make any real progress in helping to deliver its ambitions for increased support of the school, it must continue to grow and become more effective. It needs to reach out to new audiences, forge new alliances and demonstrate the benefits to decision makers and the wider public. It is my intention that we should invest significantly in this process, seeking views from our members and interested parties. I need to thank our Trustees for their enthusiasm, patience and understanding in what has, at times, been an unsettling year. I am confident, however, that we set out in 2014 with renewed clarity of purpose and a sustainable business better able to cope with the challenges we have set ourselves as well as those of the economic and social world around us. Peter A Thomas, Chairman [email protected] Trust Chairman Peter Thomas with this year’s recipients of the Silhillians Scholarships - Oscar Haynes, Joe Price and Olivia Eguiguren-Wray

10 THE OLD SILHILLIANS’ ASSOCIATION TRUST

The Lander Osborne Award

The Old Silhillians’ Association is able to offer this award as a result of the generous bequest of John Lander Osborne. The award is available to former pupils of the School who are in full-time education. The award can be to help research necessary for the completion of a full-time qualification, or to support work with a charity. The research or charitable work may be undertaken either at home or abroad. However, it must take place within one calendar year of the award. The maximum award is £750.00.

Applications are restricted to individuals and it is a condition of the Award that a full written report is presented to the OSA Trust Committee not more than three months after completion of the project. Reports should be approximately 1500 words in length and may be accompanied by any documents, illustrations and maps, as may be deemed appropriate. Applications will be reviewed twice each year, at 1st March and 1st September.

Awards will be made within one month of the deadline for applications.

Applications should be sent to:

Peter A Thomas Chairman of the Trustees The Old Silhillians’ Association The Leonard Stevens Building Solihull School Warwick Road Solihull West Midlands B91 3DJ 11 LLP

School Report We offer a comprehensive range of... auditing accountancy business planning & taxation services to both new and expanding businesses and individuals.

For further information please contact Joe Bates 0121 456 4456 [email protected] 12 www.clementkeys.co.uk No.8 Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 1QT Headmaster’s Reflections

The Headmaster joins pupils in their GCSE celebrations I wrote to you last year about the ever shifting education landscape and 12 months on schools are still grappling with change at the national level. Modularity at GCSE has gone and pupils are now embarking on linear courses akin to those many members of the OSA themselves will have followed, and a return to linearity at A Level is not far behind. Moreover, the future of AS Levels taken at the end of the Lower Sixth is in doubt and we continue to watch and listen as new edicts come down from the Coali- tion Government. If nothing else, it certainly keeps us on our toes.

Against this ever changing backdrop Solihull School continues to provide stability for over 1000 pupils and their families. Our results go from strength to strength and amidst gloomy national reporting we have achieved some of our best ever results. At GCSE, we achieved a record busting 77% A*-A grade, beating our previous best by 5%. 10 pupils achieved 10 or more A* grades, 25 pupils achieved 8 or more A* grades and 38 pupils achieved 10 or more A*-A grades. We are delighted with these results, particularly given that this is the first year of the higher entry threshold for our Sixth Form. For many years we have stipulated 6 B grades at GCSE, but from now on pupils must achieve two A grades and 4 B grades, including B grades in English and Maths. Joining Solihull School remains a privilege and the gulf between GCSE and A Level study is such that pupils must embark upon Sixth Form life with the strongest possible foundation. Complacency is never an option and there is no such thing as standing still, only moving forwards or backwards. The Midlands is awash with excellent schools for parents and pupils to choose at age 7, 11 and 16, and school improvement is a permanent priority agenda item. A further differentiating factor last year was the appointment of Hannah Fair as Transition Manager. This was a new role and designed to help new pupils and their parents settle in and make the most of their time at Solihull. Hannah has not only achieved this, but is forging strong relationships with many of our feeder schools.

At A Level, we achieved 83% A*-B grade and matched our best ever performance at A*-A grade with 58%, putting us firmly in the top 100 independent schools nationally 13 according to The Telegraph. 52 pupils achieved 3 or more A*-A grades and 11 pupils are going to Oxford or Cambridge, with 3 going to Oxford to read Medicine. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating pupils and staff for their hard work and dedication. Regardless of role, all staff are demonstrably committed to providing Solihull School pupils with the best foundation upon which to build successful and happy adult lives. At the end of last term we said farewell to a number of staff. Sam Baddeley (Classics and Windsor, 1998-2005) and Lydia Wolsey (Design Technology) left us after relatively short spells, with Sam winning a prestigious scholarship at Oxford University, researching New Testament Greek and Hebrew, and Lydia setting up her own jewel- lery making business. Eric Hadley (Languages), Jacques Grandrieux (Languages), Lindsay Brough (Junior School), Paul Brattle (Biology) and Niall Cluley (Careers) all retired and have notched Headmaster’s Reflections Headmaster’s up an impressive 104 years service between them! If Niall wins the gold medal for 42 years, silver goes to Paul for 30 years and bronze to Lindsay for 23 years.

Lindsay first welcomed girls to the School in 2005, laying the foundations forthe successful transition to coeducation at Solihull and under her leadership the Junior School has grown in size from 143 to its current 209 pupils. Congratulations go to Mark Penney, formerly Deputy Head of the Junior School, on his appointment as Lind- say’s successor.

Paul has worked tirelessly in the Biology and Sports departments for three decades, and more recently established and ran our very successful Medics Programme. This is the envy of many schools, identifying aspiring medics and helping them to prepare thoroughly and successfully for Medicine, Veterinary Science or Dentistry at university. Paul is with us this year on a part time basis to coach and induct a new Medics Coordinator and maintain momentum in this important part of school life.

The Rev Canon Niall Cluley joined in 1971 as a teacher of Economics and has also been Housemaster of Pole House, Ist XV rugby coach, a prolific writer for the rock music press and latterly, Head of Careers. Moreover, he remains a Magistrate and a member of the Renewal Christian Centre, recently celebrating his Doctorate as a Biblical Scholar. Niall has given his working life to Solihull School and service of this kind is an example to us all. Sir Alex Ferguson once said of Manchester United: “It is important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so.” Well, the same and more can be said of Solihull School and its leavers. Thank you and bon voy- age to all!

I hope it is not presumptuous for me to say that the School’s relationship with the OSA is currently very vibrant and purposeful. The OSA office in the Leonard Stevens Build- ing (formerly the Old Music School) is increasingly busy and our first ever Director of Development and Alumni Relations, Alison Bond, is 9 months into the job. All leavers now become automatic life members of the Association and Alison is successfully establishing university, regional, international and occupational alumni groups with more and more pupils benefitting from work experience offered by former pupils. Thank you for this, it is much appreciated. As a school, the message we are increas- 14 ingly emphasising to prospective parents is that when one joins the Solihull School cast members of Solihull School’s production of The Phantom of the Opera production of The Phantom members of Solihull School’s cast Simon Green (Pole, left 1973 - seated left) and James Bisp (seated right) with the principal right) and James Bisp (seated left) 1973 - seated left Simon Green (Pole,

15 Headmaster’s Reflectionst Headmaster’s

Simon Mayo (Windsor, left 1973) celebrates the launch of his new children’s book with boys and girls from the School community they are making a lifetime decision, with a seamless transition at 18 from Silhillian to “Old Sil”! Prior to a recent “management away day” I asked members of the OSA Committee to briefly put pen to paper to tell us what they think makes Solihull School special. The feedback was very helpful and we are very grateful for this; “ten out of ten” and a Merit for all those who replied! I then asked colleagues to attempt to encapsulate our ethos in three words, three words that reflect the School’s history, provide a route map for the future and will become engrained in all that we produce and do. It wasn’t hard to agree that these words should be AMBITION, OPPORTUNITY and COMMU- NITY, each one underpinned by our school mottoPERSEVERANTIA . So, if you hear me using these words in future, you will appreciate their derivation and place in Solihull School language. Allow me to elucidate (a little). Pupils and staff should be reflective and ambitious, acknowledging areas for improvement and aspiring to be the best they can, whether hitting hockey balls, singing on stage, teaching History or sitting in the examination hall. In addition, the breadth of opportunity here at Solihull is unrivalled and pupils and staff are encouraged to take full advantage of our rich and varied co-curricular programme. Professional development of staff is also a high priority and we aim to produce school leaders, catering managers, school accountants and many more who go on to bigger and better things here or in other institutions. Good schools should help all staff to fulfil their potential, even if it means losing them to other schools (as long as they are not too close!). And finally, this is a community, a life-long community, in many cases beginning at age 7 and through into retirement. Pupils, staff, parents and governors, whether past or 16 present, should enjoy a sense of belonging and are always welcome. The new Governor of the Bank of England has gone on record suggesting that due to Headmaster’s Reflectionst prolonged recession UK interest rates are unlikely to increase until 2016. This economic austerity has adversely impacted upon the independent school sector, but I am delighted to inform you that numbers here remain strong and firmly over 1000. I told you last year that the Junior School broke through the 200 barrier; well we are now running waiting lists in several year groups across the School. Clearly, this is disap- pointing for some families but we are constrained by external regulations, facilities and, of course, pedagogy.

In terms of infrastructure, we have just received planning permission to build our new Sixth Form Centre and this summer we have invested in more changing room facilities and wi-fi connectivity across the site. The Sixth Form Centre is scheduled to open in September 2015 and we “break ground” next summer holiday. Looking to the future, we are constantly debating future builds and both Sport and Science are making strong claims for pole position. Watch this space.

As well as benefitting from a hugely supportive and active alumni association, we are also fortunate to have a very committed Parents’ Association and last year the annual calendar of PA events raised nearly £30,000 for new school equipment, ranging from telescopes to fishing rods, all of which enhance the curricular and co-curricular experience for our pupils. In addition, both the OSA and PA are on hand to provide scholarships and bursaries, which allow some families to access the school and all it has to offer. It is vitally important that Solihull School is an integral part of the wider community and not just appended to the Town. Initiatives such as “Solihull Sings” and a range of collaborative initiatives with local schools and colleges are high on our agenda and important for fulfilling our moral and charitable objectives. Upper Sixth Form student Vicky Beech with her one of her artworks at the School’s Summer Art Exhibition

17 Staffing plans include the appointment of a new Careers Advisor and we are looking for someone who can provide professional guidance across the entire age range, in- troducing different careers and occupations to our Juniors as well as more specialised university advice to the Sixth Form. In addition, the new post holder will support recent leavers and those members of the OSA leaving university and entering the world of work. You may be aware that we did recently fill this role but for reasons that are uncontroversial we are once again looking for the right person. We have also invited Sally Walton back to the sports coaching staff this year, and she will continue to coach hockey throughout the School. Sally has recently returned from England duty in Europe and looks set to be an integral member of the Common- wealth Games team next summer. As Sally will be busy juggling coaching and training, we have also added Will Murray to the hockey coaching team. Will is coaching

Headmaster’s Reflectionst Headmaster’s a number of local clubs and universities and is also on the staff for England Hockey. Staying with sports news, I must inform you that our cricket professional and coach, David Hemp, is leaving us at the end of this term. The Hemp family are packing up and heading for a new life in Melbourne, Australia. This is great news for David, Angie and family but a huge loss to us. However, I delighted to inform you that we have recently appointed Darren Maddy, Warwickshire (formerly Leicestershire) and England, to carry on the marvellous progress made by David and his team of coaches. Darren has very recently retired from county cricket and I’m sure you will join me in welcoming him and his family to the Solihull School community. The School has embraced social networking as an increasingly important communication channel and the numbers following us on Twitter and Facebook continue to increase. Both are accessible through our new website, which now includes a virtual tour of the school campus. We have also added a new VLE (virtual learning environment), which is tantamount to a “virtual rucksack” and enables pupils to actively engage Linda Barker of BBC’s Changing Rooms and Owen Bate, Teacher in charge of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, are pictured seated centre in the Banqueting Room of St James’

18 Headmaster’s Reflectionst with learning through the internet. For our governors, a facility similar to the Parent Portal will also go live very soon.

Turning to all matters co-curricular it has been another action packed year. However, I will not duplicate the information about our co-curricular successes provided in the Greyhound, Shenstonian and website, but would like to thank the staff for their commitment and HRH Prince Charles greets Solihull School pupils and teachers at energy and congratulate the official opening of the new Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull the pupils on their continued success. If I were pressed on my favourite this year, it would have to be The Phantom of the Opera. The singing, acting, costumes, set and professionalism of all involved were fabulous. Coincidently, the “real professionals” were concurrently performing The Phantom at The Hippodrome in Birmingham and a number of them came to watch our pupils performing, claiming that whilst theirs was better (obviously), it was only marginally better. Even if they were being a little generous, all 5 nights were super and a great advert for the performing arts at Solihull School. To give you a flavour of how varied life is here, we need only look at this summer’s trips and this is not untypical of most years. As well as annual CCF and Duke of Ed- inburgh’s Award Scheme Gold and Silver camps, and pre season sports training and festivals, our boys and girls travelled the globe, ranching in Colorado, trekking in Cam- bodia, playing cricket in Barbados, enjoying water sports in South West France and fishing here in the UK. Clearly, success is not just measured in A*s and As and this year nearly 30 pupils travelled to the Buckingham Palace to receive the prestigious Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award. I am more proud than ever before of the herculean achievements of all involved with the School, including the OSA, and look forward to celebrating many of these successes and new ones at Speeches and beyond. Old Sils – you are always welcome here and if you would like to visit or reminisce over a school lunch, as Malcolm often does, then please do not hesitate to contact myself or Alison in the Development Office. Finally, and unexpectedly, I finish on the very sad news of the recent death of Michael Maxted, who was Bursar here from 1981–1996. Michael was a great friend of Alan Lee (Headmaster) and George Hill (Governor) and was instrumental in the strengthening the School’s financial position, from which we still benefit considerably today. He died peacefully, aged 81, and leaves his wife Annette who lives in Penryn, Corn- wall. Our thoughts go out to Annette and the family at this sad time. David EJJ Lloyd 19 Old Girls Celebrate 40 Years at Solihull School Former female pupils living as far away as Australia, Canada and the USA were reunited at a gala event to celebrate 40 years of co-education at Solihull School.

Girls’ Reunion Members of the School’s Senior Manage- ment Team, the Old Silhillians’ Association Committee (on hand with umbrellas to chaperone the girls to the George Hill Build- ing), former teachers and current Sixth Form girls welcomed around 100 Old Girls to the reunion at the school’s campus. The fun-filled day included tours of the School’s magnificent modern arts, teaching and sports facilities as well as the new Denis Tomlin Archive Room. Guests also enjoyed a strawberry tea in the specially decked out School refectory, where they were able to exchange memories and listen to performances by Solihull Junior School’s Girls’ Choir and the Senior School’s female flute and violin quartets. Ginty Burns (née Macmillan), one Welcoming addresses by Headmaster David of the first year of girls, who flew in Lloyd, Director of Development and Alumni from Canada The Welcoming Committee - Jessica Gooseman, Sarah Pagan (née Owen) and Helen Regan

20 Girls’ Reunion

Philippa Stevens (née Robinson), Vicky Beech (Sixth Form pupil), Cath Hunt (née Smith), Emma Gallagher, Karen Wilson (née Gallagher), Jane Withers (née Gough), Sue Payton (née Gahan), Karen Brown (née Cupit), and Sean Morgan (Senior Deputy Headmaster) Relations Alison Bond, and Sixth Form pupil Florentina Harris were followed by speeches from reunion organiser Julia Skan and Ginty Burns (née Macmillan), one of the first intake of girls in 1973 and now resident in Canada. Su Wallis (née Leake) was announced as the winner of a bottle of Champagne in a prize draw. Earlier a Former Pupils XI took on the might of Old Silhillians’ Hockey Club at the Old Silhillians’ Club and achieved a highly creditable 2-2 draw. Star Attraction - DHT

21 Girls’ Reunion

Emma Gallagher, Sue Payton (née Gahan) and Karen Wilson (née Gallagher) The celebrations continued into the evening at the Old Sillhillians’ Clubhouse where former girls and boys enjoyed a gourmet buffet and entertainment from Solihull School’s jazz band Saxophony and rock and roll band Freehold. Su Wallis (née Leake), Sarah Adams (now living in Australia) and Ruth Clements (née Propert)

22 Girls’ Reunion

23 Girls’ Reunion

Tracy Humphreys, Clare Gray (née Langford), Karen Brown (née Cupit), Nicola Killeen, Alison Palo (née Gledhill) and Sam Hadley (née Britt) Julia Skan said: “The event was a tremendous success and everyone enjoyed the opportunity to meet up with old friends, reminisce and strengthen their links with each other and the School. The welcome and hospitality that we received was fantastic.” More than 1,350 girls have been educated at school since 1973. Junior School’s Girls’ Choir

The Former Pupils Hockey Team: Pupils Hockey The Former (front row) Imandeep Kaur, Katie Morton, Alex Deol, Georgia Adderley and Frankie Levey Frankie Levey and Deol, Georgia Adderley Alex Morton, Katie Imandeep Kaur, row) (front (back row) Liz Hall, Kate Aitchison, Kat Berns, Corinna Frye, Hannah Rhodes and Olivia O’Malley Berns, Corinna Frye, Kat Aitchison, Liz Hall, Kate (back row)

25 Former Choristers Deliver Choral Epic Solihull School Chapel, Saturday 17th November 2012 By Richard Walker (Windsor, left 1974), former Chorister It was the inspiration of Oliver Walker, organist and choirmaster, and billed as an event to mark the formation of Solihull School’s Former Choristers’ Association. Instead it turned out to be a choral epic. How could it not? Three internationally renowned organists, one of whom is also a composer, a famous choral conductor

Former Choristers Former and stunningly fine voices combined to produce two stellar performances. The day started with Headmaster, David Lloyd, welcoming former choristers, organ scholars, chaplains, organists, choirmasters and former Headmasters to a refectory lunch. Many had not seen each other for years, and the place buzzed with pre-performance chatter. In the chapel, Simon Halsey, Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Cho- ruses and one of the world’s leading conductors, led the first ever rehearsal of the Former Choristers alongside current choir members. His direction was delivered with a combination of musical excellence, enthusiasm and decisiveness,- inter spersed with anecdotes and jokes. The result was amused attention and engagement with every choir member. Evensong was led by Old Silhillian Bishop David Tustin (Shenstone, 1944-54) with choral music selected from the repertoire of two great English composers: Charles Villiers Stanford and Charles Wood. The service began with the choirs Pupil Adam Visram Cipolletta with the late Terry Clifford

26 Former Choristers

The Choir enjoy a joke with their Conductor singing the poignant words from the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis prayer to Stanford’s C major setting. Simon Halsey then directed the combined choirs of around 160 strong to sing the wonderfully rich and emotionally expressive ‘O Thou the Central Orb’ by Wood, a piece originally written to celebrate the evocative words “dawning light in the midst of the darkness of wintry sin” by the Reverend H.R. Bramley. It was a great performance worthy of the finest of choirs. Paul Hale (Jago, 1963- 1971) played the chapel’s magnificent Nicholson organ to best possible effect as he had done countless times before as a Solihull School organ scholar. Currently he is Rector Chori and Cathedral Organist at Southwell Minster. Also in attendance was Professor John Butt OBE (Fetherston, 1969-79), former Solihull School organ scholar and now Gardiner Professor of Music at the University of Glasgow. Later, it was the turn of the Solihull School choirs to perform Requiem composed by David Briggs (Shenstone, 1974-81). A former Solihull School organ scholar, Briggs is one of the world’s greatest concert organists. As was apparent that day, he is also a brilliant and astonishingly innovative composer. Oliver Walker conducted the Requiem which was written for choir and instrumental ensemble with the organ providing a wide variety of colour and rich har- mony. The music is composed of classical to modern harmonies with continuous melodic development. It is complex with seemingly indeterminate key changes supporting exquisitely beautiful melodies. Tenor soloist, Simon Lytton (Jago, 1998-2003) sang with good intonation and confidence as did Sam Troth (Shenstone, 2000-11), the bass soloist. The fluidity of 27 Former Choristers Former

The Organists Oliver Walker, Paul Hale, Christopher Monks, Peter Irving, John Butt OBE, David Briggs themes made their entries difficult which was a challenge they both overcame with ease. Current pupil Soprano Julie Whiting sang with a delightfully pure and beguiling voice with broad appeal. Both soloists and choir delivered a confident and superbly blended sound with fine dynamics. It was a sublime performance. The result was congregational acclaim: “breathtaking”, beautiful beyond words”, “astonishingly wonderful”, “deeply emotional”, and “of the very highest order” were just some of the voiced praises. Oliver Walker concluded: “It has been quite the most moving thing I’ve ever conducted, and a wonderful Evensong led by Bishop David Tustin OS success upon which to in- augurate the Former Choris- ters’ Association.”

Join Solihull School Former Choristers’ Association If you are a former Solihull School chapel chorister or organist and want to take part in the “Former Chor- isters’ Association”, please get in touch with Richard Walker at - 28 [email protected] Professor John Butt OBE

Professor John Butt appointed an OBE We are delighted to report that “Old Chorister” Professor John Butt has been appointed an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours. He left Solihull School in 1979 to take up an organ scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge. Today, John is an internationally acclaimed orchestral and choral conductor, organist, harpsichordist and scholar. He has held the Professorship of Music at the University of Glasgow since 2001. I asked him: The 1973 photograph on the Old Choristers’ Association home page shows you as chorister of about twelve years old (second row, second from the left). Did you envisage then what your life could possibly be like now? I was, from about 2 or 3 years previously, obsessed with being an organist – possibly in a cathedral, but also as a touring concert performer. I probably would have been surprised by the variety of directions I’ve taken, particularly as an academic. My scholarly side touches on issues I could hardly have imagined in 1973. But I still play the organ, albeit sporadically, particularly because I feel it helps with my co- ordination, brain exercise and musical spontaneity. Were your family an influence on you, musically? Yes, certainly - my uncle was an organist and harpsichordist (he had been an Ox- ford organ scholar and I remember him in the 1960s as the organist of St Mary the Virgin in Oxford, where he used to set off speaking toys in the loft during the sermon – he didn’t last long). He later gravitated more towards jazz and then rock, working in various bars in London and eventually opening his own piano bar in Spain where he still lives. More consistent, if considerably more conservative, was the influence of my -fa ther, a well-known biochemist who was also a talented artist and a keen pianist. He’d learned the organ briefly in his youth, at Rochester Cathedral, so I ended up using some of his music, and still have much of it. His knowledge of classical music 29 was immense and he took me to many concerts in the Solihull and Birmingham area. What type of music appealed to you most during your school years? Well, certainly classical music in general and particularly church and organ music. I always liked music of the baroque (in which I specialise most today), but not exclusively. I also came to like jazz, although unfortunately had no aptitude for it. I was also fascinated by new music, although I didn’t have a tremendous knowledge of contemporary composers. What are your memories of Solihull School? I remember it as quite a rich environment, particularly in terms of the teachers. Professor John Butt OBE Professor There were some great characters about and some were very inspiring and help- fully demanding. In fact, I enjoyed quite a close friendship with several, something that would probably be frowned upon today, but I think that this was a crucial aspect of my development. Among many other things, some of these teachers taught me how to deal with alcohol at an illegal age, and I was very well alerted to both the responsibilities and fallibility of the adult world! So yes, I received quite a lot of extremely useful guidance over the years, but was also forced to make my own decisions. Who have been the greatest professional influences on your life? Well, it’s almost impossible to single out individuals, but I think one individual who was particularly important for me was Colin Edmundson, organist and choirmaster at Solihull School from 1973. He was (and is) a man with an astonishing range of talents and his entirely individual (even obsessive) approach to teaching was extraordinarily helpful to me. My most inspiring musical teacher after that was Gillian Weir, again someone who was hugely inspiring and utterly individual in her music making and teaching. Once at Cambridge, perhaps the largest influence was actually the body of students – who were collectively among the most talented musicians of their gener- ation (and many of these enjoy extensive reputations today as the leaders in their fields). My intellectual side was well developed at both school and university, but perhaps it was my move to UC Berkeley that led me into engagement with some of the greatest musical thinkers of the late twentieth century. Winning an organ scholarship to King’s College must have been your first great achievement. Can you remember how you felt? This was something I’d been obsessed with getting since I was about 12 (i.e. just after I started playing the organ). Getting it was remarkable – although perhaps it taught me the lesson that one should be careful about what one wishes for! I found the position extremely challenging from a number of angles, and it produced little of the sort of euphoria I had anticipated. Nevertheless, it proved a totally necessary and seminal step for me, and I think I would have achieved very little of what I have since accomplished without the incomparable experience 30 that this offered. Professor John Butt OBE Which of your professional accom- plishments so far, gives you the greatest pride? Difficult to say really – most of the books I’ve written have more or less accomplished the answering of whatever questions I had posed for myself, but I think of them mostly as steps in the progress of my knowledge and thought. The same goes for my performances, although I suppose the success of some of my recordings is something for which I am extremely grateful. Where do you see your work taking you next? Well, I have two book projects on the back burner, I’m not sure how or S77UU77U7&7C77h7v77b77U7p77v7U7Ug777 when I’ll really get round to them. U7U7777Ug777f7L7g777S77v7U7777U7KU7U777 7UU77h77777777UU7Ug7777777f7777h7777777 One is on the relationship (some- 407Y777777UU77777p77777U7777U7UtiU777 times close, sometimes uneasy) be- 77pp77tiUg77h7 tween classical music culture and religion, the other on the musicality O7U7S77h77777U7’7A777U77ti7U of Alfred Hitchcock’s film composi- P777777U77777777U701564 776287 tion. For recording my projects are 777777777777777 more clear-cut – we have a project 7Uq777777@777UU77UUU7U7U on reconstructing something of the first performance of Mozart’s Req- Standley & Co Solicitors 1612 High Street Knowle uiem, followed by another Handel Solihull B93 0JU Oratorio and Bach’s Christmas Ora- torio. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU What advice would you wish to give current Solihull School musi- C7U7777Utiv7, cians who wish to follow a career in music? SU7p77h7tiU7& Plan for as many possibilities as you are able to take on – you nev- S7U77b777AUv7U7 er know when certain skills might come in handy. Although it is excellent to be single minded about something, be wary of this always working out in the way you expect! 31 News of Former Pupils of Former News

Congratulations to John Tustain (Nomads, 1924-31) who achieved his 100th birthday landmark in April this year. John is pictured above with School Archivist John Loynton and OSA President Joe Bates Alan St. George (Fetherston, 1939-45) Wartime at School My time at the school coincided exactly with the war years, September 1939 to the end of the Summer Term of 1945 and started in Prep 3, form master Mr. Hornsey. I have tried to give a flavour of what those six years were like but reading through what I have written it seems that the beastliness of war permeated our lives. It wasn’t really as bad as that; it’s just that the bad bits are more memorable. On day one Prep 3’s unofficial top dogs decided that I should establish my place in the pecking order and arranged a bout between me and another new boy. It was an untidy affair during the morning break. Neither of us wanted to hurt or be hurt but my opponent bumped his head on something, went home at lunchtime and returned with a note from his mother. Mr. Hornsey gave me six of the best on my trousered bum. Good start. Later in the term Mr. H told the assembled class the fact that the pocket battleship Graf Spee had been scuttled in the South Atlantic after an engagement with three British cruisers did not mean that we were winning the war and that there were tough times ahead. The Battle of the River Plate did fire our imaginations though during the “phoney war”. Some of us spent our pocket money on Dinky Toy models of warships and naval battles were fought on our living room floors. My friend Alan Wooldridge (Pole, 1938-47) and I both got hooked and both sat (and failed) the exam for the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth when we were in form Shell A. The phoney war didn’t last long. My maternal grandmother’s house in Acton received two direct hits in the Blitz and she had to come and live with us in our small semi-detached house in Widney Lane. It was a tight fit; I was evicted from the south- facing double bedroom that I was granted because of my “weak chest” and banished 32 to the tiny north bedroom. It was from here that I saw the glow in the sky that was News of Former Pupils Coventry burning in November 1940. Shortly after two young brothers from the ruined city were billeted with the childless couple on the other side of our party wall. My father was in the business of selling office telephone systems and his work qualified him for an extra ration of petrol for his little Morris. His sales area was centred on Birmingham and I sometimes went with him on commercial travels during school holidays. The weather always seemed to be bad and car windows were shut tight so I enjoyed the maximum effect of inhalation from his chain smoking of untipped Play- ers. A “treat” was involved, lunch out in a restaurant. There was a national limit to the price of a lunch, 1/6d I think, which made it marginally better than school dinner. At one such lunch my father asked me what I was going to do with my life now that I was ten years old. All I could think of was the Navy so my course was set. Prep 3 was something of a doddle after the rigours of Miss Brown’s preparatory school in Shirley where class sizes there were about a dozen and her three assistant ladies kept strict order and worked us hard. As a result I was 18 months below Prep 3’s av- erage age. We were introduced to poetry, Latin, Jack London’s “White Fang”, simul- taneous equations and homework among other delights. Mr. H was a good teacher and didn’t bear me any ill will after my beating. One of our homework assignments was to learn John Masefield’s “Sea Fever”. Imbued as I was with my seagoing ambition this was pure pleasure, especially as I knew the work. My father used to sing it, along with “Bless This House” and other chestnuts to my mother’s piano accompani- ment on musical evenings. So, when I was ordered to the front of the class to recite I launched into the poem with gusto, except that I was performing the musical version and however much I tried, the spoken version was beyond me. Mr. H saw that I was not taking the Micky and that my dilemma was genuine, so what might have ended in another beating turned out to be a hilarious occasion. From day one of the war we had to have our gas masks with us at all times. These were issued in cardboard boxes with a string to go over the shoulder, a form of packaging demanding substitution by something more robust if the war was not going to be over by Christmas. One of the cheapest solutions you could buy (for 6d) was a black cylindrical tin into which you could just about cram the gas mask. As boys do we discovered that the black paint could be quite easily scraped off the tin to reveal colourful rural scenes; we had been sold biscuit tins with shoulder straps. By September 1940 I was in Form 3A, the Battle of Britain was in full swing and Presi- dent Roosevelt was fighting for his third term against “isolationist” Wilkie. Britain was alone against the Axis Powers and Mr. H’s warning was proving true, things were bleak. We all loved FDR of course because he seemed the more likely to come into the war and help us. 3A’s form master was “Bertie” Peake. He had been an army officer in WW1 and had the requisite power of command, even so he was easily divert- ed from his teaching subject if any boy raised his hand and mentioned Mars, he was crazy about Mars and would expatiate on the Red Planet for the rest of the lesson. I was to spend two years in 3A to allow my age group to catch up and because I was considered immature, as demonstrated by the following incident during a Divinity lesson. Mr. Goodfield, the minister of the Solihull Congregational Church, presided and was standing by my desk with his back turned to me. The temptation was too much; I wedged his gown between the front of my desk and the adjoining seat back. When he turned round there was the most satisfying sound of ripping gown followed immediately by the crack of his hand on the side of my head. Summary justice and not a word spoken. 33 News of Former Pupils of Former News

34 Food was always an issue. There was not enough and what there was pretty bad. News of Former Pupils School dinners were potato-heavy and otherwise meagre. If you managed to get a job as a “server” you could wangle a bit extra. But the school was unable to feed us all and some days we would have to go to the British Restaurant. It is not easy to con- vey the full horror of a BR. The smell of boiled cabbage and indescribable nastiness hit you as you entered and the ninepenny main course was inedible so my friends and I lunched off four threepenny puddings which at least filled us up. The best value by far was at the fish and chip shop in the High Street where for 9d you could get delicious, unrationed cod and chips if you were prepared to queue long enough. For some reason the Headmaster forbade us to go there in uniform, something to do with the class system suppose. During my first year in 3A I was in the lower maths set which Mr. Davies (“Boozer”) taught in 3B’s classroom. He was not an inspiring teacher but we did learn the names of various types of polygon and other not very interesting facts. I think he had given up on expecting us to solve problems. I was promoted to the upper set in my second year but the exam paper at the end of the year was set by good old Boozer. There were not many problems to solve but quite a few types of polygon to name...... Bingo! Later Bertie Peake, before announcing the name of the top maths brain, asked each boy to guess who it was. After the first ten or so failed he revealed my identity as top of the class and winner of the maths prize. My comeuppance came the following year in Shell A, form master Swotty Ansell. The calculus was my undoing and I slipped down the maths order of merit. Swotty and I never really hit it off and I received terrible comments for my behaviour in termly reports. One, which even my mother thought a bit off, was “vaguely unsatisfactory”. I’d rather he had said, “I hate the little bugger”. I think he had to write a report on me for the Dartmouth exam, a fact that helps explain the result. Not all masters had nicknames and I don’t know why. The headmaster, A. R. Thomp- son, whose name is customarily preceded by “the legendary”, was called “Stosh” by third formers and below and “The Old Man” by the more senior. The incident I remember best about him, apart from a beating he gave me, was a talk about the USSR given by a specialist on the subject after Hitler had launched his invasion in 1941. The picture he drew for us of an almost perfect society full of happy peasants in collective farms and factory workers united in the common cause, where there was no poverty and everyone contributed according to his ability and was rewarded according to his need enthused us no end and we gave him huge applause. Imagine our shock when the Head thanked the speaker but then proceeded to dismantle this rosy red picture and tell us the other side of the story. Mr. Easterling (Music and Latin) looked like a monkey and so was called “Jacko”, pronounced “Yarko” to accord with the way he pronounced his Latin. His music lessons consisted largely of Beethoven’s 5th symphony played on scratchy 78s and any boy he deemed not to be engrossed in the work would have the hair immediately above his ear grabbed and twisted in the most painful manner while Jacko told him what he thought of him through gritted teeth. For me a love of music came later. “Bun” Havinden (History) was very tall, upright and a man of few words. He devoted his life to the school and was the only master who took the house system seriously, the reason that Pole won so many trophies. He must have had first choice of all the new entrants into the senior school. He would enter a history class, tell us to sit then spend half the lesson writing in immaculate script on the blackboard what we had to copy into our notebooks. I achieved 26% in my last history exam in the Junior School and said goodbye to formal instruction in the subject. 35 There was no choice as to which subjects you took for your School Certificate. I was adjudged to be more “humanities” than “sciences” and so, paradoxically, was not allowed to take Art, the only subject I really enjoyed. My two years in Senior School, 4A and 5Lit were not happy ones. Form masters MacKenzie and Hey were not my favourites and neither was I theirs. My ambition was still to get away from home and school and into the Navy. Cricket was my passion and saviour, not at school but in the back end of Shirley park where Shirley Cricket Club played. All my free hours in the summer months and holidays was spent down there and with Double Summer Time that was a lot of hours. I could leave school at 4.15, get home, eat two rounds of bread and jam and finish my homework (a nominal 1½ hours worth) by 5.30. At the height of summer this left up to five hours for cricket in the park. Wednesdays were

News of Former Pupils of Former News Shirley CC’s net practice evenings and Buggy Johnstone, a year behind me at school, and I were there rain or shine and we got to play matches at week-ends if they were short of men. There was a back door way into the Navy. You could go to one of the merchant navy training establishments and join the RN class. Robin Buckingham (Pole, 1937-44), a year ahead of me, went to HMS Conway in the Menai Straits. I went to see him at his home and in his splendid cadet’s uniform. I think that whatever he told me about the old ship would have been irrelevant but he liked it and I applied. As it happened the RN was not to be my career beyond 1953, I contracted tubercu- losis in the frigate “Magpie” when stationed in the Mediterranean and was invalided out with a disability pension after a year of hospital and sanatorium time. The treatment in those days was still lots of rest followed by some pretty brutal surgery but new wonder drugs like streptomycin were the cure. A grateful government gave me a very generous grant to take me through a five-year course at the Architectural As- sociation School and I finally retired from architectural practice in Portugal in 1992. Mary, my wife, and I restored an old ruin on the coast near Lisbon where we have been happily looking out to sea from our hillside home for the last 30 years. Ken Willcocks (Fetherston, 1941-46) I came from Whitgift School in 1941 and studied at Solihull School until 1946. My closest friends were Richard Yorke and Don Coleman. I won School Colours in the Swimming and Gym teams. After a four year Apprenticeship in Solihull with the Rover Motor Car Company I became a R.E.M.E. Tank Recovery Officer with 6 Armd Div in Germany. Then for a year to Kingston Tech to qualify for my A.M.I.Prod E. In 1954 I emigrated to Canada and joined the Ford Motor Company in Windsor Ontario. 1955 joined Northern Telecom in Belleville Ontario as an Engineer supervising Early Warning Radar refurbishing. Mar- ried Leaone Vader - we now have three over 50 year olds and their families. 1958 qualified as A.M.I.Mech.E (UK) and Prof Engr in Ontario. 1968 bought an hotel in Ban- croft and later another in Cobourg, both in Ontario. In my spare time I became Superintendent of St John’s Ambulance, Colonel of the Hastings & Prince Edward Regiment (Militia), Aide de Camp to 7 Lt Governors of On- tario, Governor of Best Western Hotels International, President of both the Ontario Motel and later the Hotel Association. Now at 84, and retired, I am a Warden of my church, active with the local museum and other historical societies and, so far, in good health. Every now and then I recall other names but would be delighted to hear from any Old Silhillians. 36 [email protected] News of Former Pupils David F. Wood (David Fleming-Wood see below) (School House, 1946-54) Those Great Days as a Boarder at Solihull School and what followed! In 1947 I had experienced two years of schooling. The first was at St. Leon- ard’s, in Stafford where I spent most of the war years and then at George Dixon, Edgbaston. It appeared that neither school was capable of dealing with my total lack of learning ability! As a result of my “dunce” status, my parents applied to Solihull School to take me as boarder. This application proce- dure consisted of a brief meeting with the Headmaster, Mr. A R Thompson, and then a more detailed interview with Mr. O C Trimby, the Head of the Prep School, as it was then. With great trepidation Mr. Trimby and Mr. Thompson agreed to accept me but warned my parents of how far behind I was! This acceptance came about probably because it was the Saturday morning before school started the following Monday evening – just filling a vacancy in those austere years! I remember John Ball (School House, 1936-43) from Walsall, the Head Boarder, greet- ing us and he appeared to be a giant of a man! What a culture shock for a totally spoilt and protected child of nine. The fact that my father died six months before I was born as a first child probably accounted for the over-protectionism etc. from my mother. In those days it was the normal process to have tests, exams and Form Orders each month. Wood was always last out of the 24 pupils! I should add that I was born with a surname of FLEMING which my mother changed to WOOD when she remarried in 1940. I changed my name to FLEMING-WOOD in 1960 in order to satisfy both families. In those “good old days” of 1947 there was a mail delivery on Christmas Day. On this festive occasion an envelope arrived from school with my report, the school bill of some 47 pounds and a letter from the Headmaster requesting that my parents take me away from the school. My (step) father promptly got on the telephone on this eventful Christmas Day to the Headmaster and told him that he was paying the school to educate his son and not for Solihull School to “give up” after only one term. The Headmaster relented and I did return and continued through the 1947/8 school year as a constant last in Form Orders every month! At the end of the school year, my father’s persistence was again necessary for me to continue being at Solihull. It required an agreement whereby I stayed down a second year and repeated Prep 2 with Marjorie Thompson (no relation to the Headmaster). Academically I did improve a little in my second year and was reluctantly allowed to go into Prep 4 with Mr. Halstead. After my first year Mr. Trimby, the Prep School Headmaster, emigrated to New Zea- land and I never knew if I had anything to do with it! 37 Anyway, I did manage to get off the bottom of the Form Order in Prep 4 and it wasn’t until Form M (Mr. Louis Morgan, the rugby coach) in the 4th Form that I actually managed to reach the halfway mark in the Form Orders. The teaching staff understandably considered it a remarkable achievement! I was a very self-conscious child and lacked confidence for good reason. However, finding squash at school was a “game changer”. I had some natural ability and that allowed me to play with, and in, the School Squash V at a fairly young age. Eventually I was a constant member of the Team and Keeper of The Squash Courts. The teams in the last three years included ‘Willy’ John Upton (Shenstone, 1945- 53), A. E. ‘Tony’ Bannister (Pole, 1939-49), Bill Danter (Shenstone, 1946-53), Jimmy O’Gorman (School House, 1946-52), Jasper S Cooke (School House, 1946-53), Der- News of Former Pupils of Former News rek R P Morgan (Fetherston, 1943-51) and John Summerfield (Shenstone, 1946-53). My year included Ray David (Shenstone, left 1955), Peter J W Taylor (School House, 1950-59), Mike Cusack (Jago, 1946-56), Hayden Davies (Fetherston, 1947-54) and Tom Jackson (Shenstone, 1949-56). We were a strong team. The School did change in 1948 when Harry Butler Hitchens with his British Bulldog, Simon, took over as Headmaster when Mr. Thompson retired. Mr. Hitchen’s sister, Mary Martin, also moved into The Headmaster’s House.

Reunion of Marksmen At the Over 60s Luncheon in October 2012 a number of former marksmen from the 1950s and early 1960s were present together with Master in Charge of Shooting at that time John Jammes.

Terry Clifford, Martin Clay, Andrew Davis, Mike Doble, Mike Newell, John Baker, 38 Nigel Holmes, John Jammes and seated in front Peter Upton News of Former Pupils It was then that the Lower, Middle and Upper Schools appeared etc. After a few years, a satellite house was set up at Kineton on Warwick Road and together with about fourteen others, I was part of the first year experiment. The master in residence and in charge was Mr. Halstead ably supported by his wife. In addition, in order to “test” these teenagers, was an attractive nineteen year old matron, Olive Beacroft, who was also in residence. She was still there at the end of our year but I have no idea how long she lasted in that set-up! In 1954 I was made Head Boarder and the main House Master at the time was George D. Birtles and ably supported by Michael Hughes, Luis Morgan, Derek Burrell. Matron was Noel Evans and always treated me very well sick or not. The Oval 1951 Test against South Africa: Len Hutton out Obstructing the Field then Peter May out first ball followed by meeting Michael Hughes in the stand! The main group of boys in my year etc. were John C W Lock (School House, 1947-55) who spent the war years in Canada, Brian Perrett (School House, 1947-56), Gerry Clarke (School House, 1948-55), David Mackie (School House, 1950-56), Paul Kim- berly (School House, 1949-54), etc. Bob Terry (School House, 1947-54) was ahead of me in school but somehow we got together and hitch-hiked in France in the summer of 1954. Brian Stone (School House, 1946-52) was someone else ahead of me that I spent time with and that was probably because we lived close to each other in Great Barr. The eight years or so had really matured me and I left in December 1954 and was arti- cled to a Chartered Quantity Surveyor. In 1960, I married and emigrated to Canada, it was one of my school squash buddies, Derrek Morgan that introduced me to a distant cousin of his living in Toronto, John Tattersall – we stayed with the family on arrival and became very good friends as a result. In 1962 I was offered a Partnership back in Edgbaston – totally out of the blue! I accepted and returned in 1963 and stayed for almost four years of Harold Wilson! Another Old Silhillian was also an employee – Ken Snape (Shenstone, 1943-48), who at school always seemed to be Head Scraper in the Servery! I returned to Toronto in 1966 and I spent the Montreal winter on Ile Notre Dame in The Saint Lawrence Seaway, working on several buildings under construction for EXPO 67. These early years were followed by being VP for a Bovis Corporation subsidiary and then starting my own company which led to running a JV and living in Texas. Just before the Carter high interest rates the Texas properties were sold and in 1983 we moved to the island of Montserrat, BWI where we lived until 1992. The island was devastated by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and this was followed by the major volcano eruption in the 90s. In 1990 I was CEO of a US company in Warsaw, Po- land which was funded by a Texan. It didn’t take long to find that the Polish partners were running the operations in their own company! This was just after the Berlin Wall had been breached and, as I was told, by local judges, there was not, at that time, any law other than political law! In 1992 we relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a great place to live at about 7,000 feet in the high desert with many hours of sunshine even during the winter with snow around. I have been very fortunate as many things in life have worked out well for me up until 39 my 50th birthday. Afterwards life was not quite as kind. It all started when Lloyd’s started having its financial problems. Piper Alpha, in the North Sea, was the first of a succession of ELEVEN one billion dollar catastrophes in a very few years, which was almost the end of Lloyd’s! In the meantime, apart from the losses, all of my assets were “frozen” which made life very difficult. I was also not immune from the market crashes of the early twenty first century! In mid-September we are moving to South America and starting in Ecuador to take a Cambridge University sponsored course. I have all the Spanish that Mr. McKenzie (Bradford House) managed to teach me at Solihull! I well remember “Tengo mucho hambre”! The school’s website www.celtainecuador.com/welcome/ is interesting especially News of Former Pupils of Former News looking under the CELTA Ecuador tab and then Accommodation at Casa Cacique to see the thatched cabanas and compound etc. In order for this venture to work we have sold our home and the majority of our personal possessions including my set of Wisden! We fly from Miami to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, on October 2nd. Over the years, I have been ever grateful for many things but the following are the main ones over which I often had no control: • Born in 1937 and not knowing too much of the WW2. • Sent away to Solihull at a young age. • Squash and the subsequent successes and contacts around the world. • No National Service in 1960 as the Draft cancelled it! • None of my family being involved in active wartime activities. • Good health after my father dying of heart problems at 37. • A wife who is both loving and healthy. A few men may think up a crack-pot ven- OSA 105mmture like x 140mm mine, Ad.2013_Layout but very few wives1 01/10/2013 would be18:04 willing Page to 1 be involved with it! • Three healthy and successful children with equally good children.                 

  

           

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The Battleelds Trust

        

                         40              

News of Former Pupils Solihull School has always been with me as I have travelled the world and I trust that my friends and colleagues at Solihull have been as fortunate as me. Unfortunately, I know that this is not true for everyone, as at least two of my friends did not live to reach twenty-one! I also hear that several others are also no longer with us. I have always been convinced that being a boarder in a boys’ school was largely responsible for the progress that I made in my years at Solihull. So much so that my own three children also went to single sex boarding schools in Ontario. However, I did relent and let my daughter change to a co-ed boarding school, Ridley College, and that was a disaster and the subject of another article! The outcome being that she returned to a girls’ boarding school after a couple of terms. All three children have always been of the same opinion but have not sent their own children away! I wish you all good health and satisfaction with your life. If any would like to communicate with me, please do so at [email protected] I would really like to hear from any of my Solihull colleagues. David Lea (Blyth & Fetherston, 1946-48) David was in Blyth House when the other Junior School Houses were Arden and School. His family migrated to Australia in August 1948. David went to Melbourne High School 1949-52 and Melbourne University 1953-57. After graduating, David was appointed to the English Department of Essendon Technical School. He was promoted to Head of Department 1959-69, Vice Principal 1970-74 and Principal 1975-80. He was then appointed to Blackburn Technical School as Principal from 1980-85 as the school roll went from 400 to 850 in four years following academic, sporting and music achievement. In 1983, David was preselected for the Liberal Party in the State Parliament. He won the seat from the Labor Party in 1985. Using his time in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament he was a member of the Legal and Constitutional Commit- tee 1985-92, a member of the LaTrobe University Council 1985 -87 and the Victo- rian Curriculum and Assessment Board 1989-92. He was also secretary of the Liberal Party Education Committee, a member of the Australian Council of Education, the Commonwealth Council of Education Administration and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. Currently he is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. David is a life member of the Melbourne High School Old Boys Association, Old Silhillians and Melbourne University Graduate Union and a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club. David represented Victoria in Junior Soccer 1951 and was selected in the Australian University Soccer team in 1957. He was captain of Melbourne University Soccer team from 1956-59. When his playing days were over, David was a Junior Soccer coach until 1995. David played over 300 games of senior cricket principally with Old Mentonians 1960-88, was a former captain and awarded Life Membership in 1980. David has been a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa. In 2000, David and his wife Tanya, an English teacher, were invited to teach English in Southern China at Puning and returned on ten occasions until 2011. It was a special time in their lives. David is a keen poet and has donated a book of his poetry to the Solihull school library. He has two children Fiona and Cameron. David retired in 1992 and lives in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. Contemporaries of David were David Powell (Fetherston 1945-52), Bill Danter (Shen- stone 1946-53), Paul Lewis (Fetherston 1943-49), Mike Spriggs (Fetherston, 1946- 41 Steve’s Industries Ltd specialises in

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42 News of Former Pupils 50) and living locally, Phil Taylor (School House, 1943-49), Geoff Downman (Fether- ston 1944-51) and Derek Owen (Shenstone 1941-46). David looks back on his days at Solihull with great pleasure and pride in all the School stood for. [email protected] Bill Taylor (School House 1950-58) Contacts from the past…. Not that long ago I was pleased to be in touch with the Old Silhillians’ Association and The Silhillian magazine, a contact that arose purely by chance, as I was invited to a special birthday party that was to be held at the Solihull club premises. Reading the magazine for the first time inspired me to write a small article about my meeting in France with internationally based old school friends from the 1950s. Clearly The Silhillian has a wide readership of past students of my era as, from that article, I received many contacts from students who seemed, remarkably, to remember me from my days in School House and the boarding house - my second home from 1950 until 1958. Some of those contacts then networked with others and so the ‘snowball’ grew with around 25 contacts in all being unearthed to one degree or another. As one would expect the exciting and interesting contact revivals have not all been maintained but some have. Included in the survivors is a regular, inspiring and much valued contact with a student who I numbered amongst my closest school friends. I eventually lost that contact as my friend left at age 15 or so, to train for a life on the ocean waves. My pal I discovered now lives in Asia not all that far from my home in tropical Australia. So we are now able to chat to each other regularly about the old school days, our lives since school and our views on the world today. I recently received from him some school photos from our era and it was amazing how I could still name a majority of the students and even some of the masters, who were certainly and understandably more forgettable. So I do suggest to all past students that it may be a good idea to use the Old Silhillians’ Association Alumni News to see if you can raise up some old and valued contacts. It is easy to do and I am sure you would enjoy the revival of those school memories and contacts. An additional outcome from my contact with The Old Silhillians’ has been to be asked to act as one of the International Ambassadors for Australia . It is a role that I hope will put me in future contact with more recent students as they visit our country, where amongst other benefits they will be able to witness some great cricket (one hopes). Editor’s note - Bill is trying to make contact with Timothy May (Jago, left 1959), Roger Ellis (School House, left 1959) and Paul Archer (School House, left 1957). If you know the whereabouts of any of them please contact Bill through the OSA at osa@ silhillians.net There is a section on the OSA website for Old Sils who have lost contact with friends and would like to try and find them – http://www.silhillians.net/The-OSA/Membership/Lost-friends More about International Ambassadors may be found at – http://www.silhillians.net/The-OSA/International-Ambassadors 43 Peter Yeomans (School House, 1950-59) I was at School from age 8 to 17. I enjoyed life, particularly the sport, in the boarding house and was given much needed discipline. I will always be grateful to my parents for the sacrifices they made in sending me there. I started as a design draughtsman in an archi- tect’s office in Bristol doing local council work in the “swinging 60’s” and found time to travel to Dingle Lane to play rugby for the Sils most weekends.

News of Former Pupils of Former News Before emigrating to Australia in 1966, I hitch- hiked around most of Europe for 4 months sur- Peter Yeomans and David Adams viving on a shoestring (I sold 2 pints of blood for £35 in Istanbul at one point!) to make ends meet. Wonderful and varied experiences from living on deserted Greek beaches, camping next to the Berlin Wall to visiting Yugoslavia before the break up, finally finishing up with relatives in Villefranche - not the Rothschilds unfortunately. In Australia I continued in sales/design in the extruded aluminium industry and was involved in some large projects including the Sydney Opera House. I married Dorothy in 1969 and we have three children and six grandchildren. We have lived at Berowra, 35 miles north of Sydney, for the last 35 years. Sport has always been important for both of us and at long last the boot is on the other foot, viz the Aussies v Poms battle- ground, i.e. The Olympics, The Ashes and The Lions Tour (we witnessed the dismem- berment of the Aussies in Sydney). My hobbies include jewelry design, British stamps and antique/modern clocks. I also keep active making and fitting security doors and flyscreens. I still keep in touch with Henry Pinchin (School House, 1945-52), Johnny Johnson (School House, 1950-58) and David Adams (School House, 1951-58) and hope to visit the UK again shortly. I miss the old country greatly, particularly leafy Warwickshire and look back fondly on my formative years at school where I learned loyalty, team spirit and perseverance. Finally I wish all my contemporaries from school good health and fortune in the future and if any of them are reading this I would love to hear from them at dvaaca@ hotmail.com

David Adams (School House, 1951-58) Being an only child and after a slow start due to home sickness, I enjoyed boarding school life at Kineton under Ernie and Ruby Halstead and all the close friendships I made. On leaving school I was not really sure what I wanted to do but chose production engineering and completed a Student Apprenticeship Sandwich Course with Wilmot Breeden and Gosta Green CAT. In 1963 I joined the family pressworking/metal spin- ning business in B’ham and subsequently in Aldridge and helped run it until my retirement in 1995. I played hockey and cricket for the Sils straight from school at Dingle Lane and Copt Heath and made many life long friends. 44 News of Former Pupils I met Anne in 1965 and we married in 1967. She carted our three children to most cricket matches and some hockey games, helping out with teas. What a tolerant lady! The present count of grandchildren is four. We are fortunate in that, through the children, we have experienced two new cultures. Sally (45) married a Turk and they live locally with their two girls and James(39) who lives in NZ with his Kiwi wife and two boys. Joe (42) lives in South Leics. with his wife. We moved to Fisherwick (near Lichfield) from Meriden in 1980 and I continued to play a little hockey and cricket for Lichfield. We moved into a Queen Anne farmhouse, once owned by Sir Robert Peel, wonderful but very run down and spent the next 15 years doing it up as and when funds allowed. We downsized in 2005 and moved all of 30 yards into what was our woodshed which we converted into a bungalow. My main interests are family, gardening, dogs, classical music, E-Type Jags and researching the riddle of existence with the help of Mr Gurdjieff and others. Anne and I stay with Peter Yeomans (School House, 1950-59) and Dorothy in Sydney for a few days every other year when we visit James in NZ. Peter and I send our best wishes to old school friends (if there are any left ). Tim Benford (Pole, 1955-65) I left Solihull School in ‘65 and went to the RAF College Cranwell for 2½ years as a Sup- ply Branch cadet (my short sight prevented my piloting or navigating aircraft). Maybe that was a good thing, because I may not have ended up in the USA years later. The cadetshipPersonal trained me to beProtection a logistics (as it is now Equipment called) officer and took me to Sin- gapore, Germany and Colorado Springs during my cadet time in Lincolnshire. So, I got an early tasteand for the US.Warehouse Supplies

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462 Station Road, Dorridge, Solihull, B93 8HB Tel: 01564 772934 Email: [email protected] Order on-line at www.juel.co.uk 45 Posted to RAF Fairford, I did stints running a technical supply flight, air movements flight and got a 3-month tour as the supply guy in charge of the small team in Antigua resupplying the Army and London Bobbies in Anguilla. We lived in a beach- side hotel - it was much too much fun! After that tour I was posted to Sharjah in the Gulf, the RAF Staff College in Bracknell and sundry other places in England and Belfast, NI. On 4th March 1972 my brother Andy and I survived the world’s first fatal hovercraft accident while returning to

News of Former Pupils of Former News Portsmouth from a day on the Isle of Wight. By 1975 I was very happily married to Alison and we thoroughly enjoyed a three year tour across the Pond at Wright-Patterson AFB. I have to admit that our minds were turned by the life in Dayton: the fun-loving friends, the cheapness of everything (petrol at less than $1/gall, we owned two second-hand cars, etc.) and the wonderful national parks and sights to see almost everywhere. Needless to say, I was keen to return to the States at some point. On return to the UK on promotion to Sqn Ldr in Dec ‘78 and to a posting at the MOD at Lacon House, London, Ali and I settled into married quarters in Hendon. We shortly afterwards learned Ali was pregnant and that we wanted to move north of London and buy our first home. I was to commute via train to MOD and we found Leighton Buzzard was the ideal distance away for house prices and we made the move. Lu- cinda was born and we enjoyed our time as new parents in that delightful neck of the woods. Because they didn’t offer degrees at the RAF College in my day, I decided to get a BA through The Open University. A degree would be essential if I was ever to work in the US. So, I enrolled and did most of my studies on the train to and from Euston. I was posted from MOD as OC Supply Sqn to RAF Cottesmore where they were training German, Italian and British aircrew to fly the Tornado. Ali and I were delighted to welcome our son Noel to the family during that time and enjoyed our home in the little village of Essendine, Lincs. I heard from the RAF Warrant Officer who took over from me in the post in Dayton (Wright-Patt AFB) that he had successfully got a job in IT back in Dayton. As it seemed to me like the RAF was going to have to downsize, I began to think that this was a time to grasp the opportunity to emigrate. At the end of my tour at Cottesmore, I got notice that I was posted to the Staff College as a student and that I had to sign on past my 20-year point. I took this opportunity to decline the offer and open up channels to my pals in the USA. I was posted to RAF Leeming in N. Yorkshire for my last tour, as OC Supply. Leeming was closing down in order to resurrect as the Tornado base that I think it is today. All four of us enjoyed the N. York Moors and the local towns (North Allerton) and villages--always good for a Sunday drive. I flew to Dayton in Nov/Dec ‘84 to do some job-hunting. The RAF was very generous in those days. The flight and expenses were paid for by the MOD. In early ‘85 we all flew out to Dayton to meet my new colleagues from Contel Informa- 46 News of Former Pupils tion Systems who took very good care of us as we settled in. During my trip in Decem- ber I had bought a house in Forest Ridge, north of town. Eventually, the children who were 2 and 5, went to local schools and morphed into little Americans. My transition from RAF ‘loggie’ to US logistics consultant and then into an IT consultant took several years. Currently, I’m in the fourteenth week of my 26th job (11 postings in the RAF and 15 companies in the US since 1985) as a project manager at LexisNexis twenty five minutes drive away. I guess I ought to retire (66 last April), but I’d probably drive Alison to distraction unless I could find something to keep me busy. Maybe after the current contract is over... In ‘91, we moved from Forest Ridge to Oakwood (south of the center of town) and have lived here happily ever since. My brother Andy (Pole, 1959-68) is retired (as a Naval Commander) with his spouse in Oxfordshire. We communicate via Skype and Facebook. Their daughters live in north and south London. Alison’s sister and hubby live in Kent and have two married adult children living within a day’s drive. Our daughter is married and lives in Washington, DC. She has two boys. Lucy’s hubby is the executive producer of the Bill Press Show on radio and TV. Lucinda is a Les Mills fitness instructor in her ‘spare’ time. Our son and his girlfriend left Brooklyn, NY last fall and moved into a nice house in Dayton’s Oregon District. It is great having one child back in town--at least for a while. In an ironic twist, Alex (Noel’s girlfriend) has been accepted by university colleges in London and Oxford and they are both planning to emigrate together to the UK in the fall of 2014 to seek their fortunes. On the sports front, I never played rugby or cricket after leaving the RAF, but have kept up walking (started by all those school trips up Snowdon) and occasional running. My

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462 Station Road, Dorridge, Solihull, B93 8HB Tel: 01564 772934 Email: [email protected] Order on-line at www.juel.co.uk 47 main exercise now is daily walks and yoga. The latter I’ve been doing for some dozen years now. I wish I had started the practice when I was at Solihull School. Ali’s and my main avocation on the social front is going out to a restaurant with friends and on to a movie (or the other way round). We also enjoy the several theaters, mu- seums and metroparks in Dayton. We love to vacation by the ocean in the Carolinas - Charleston, SC is one of our favorites (Lucinda went to college there). Once we’re both retired, we’d like to revisit the US National Parks we saw in 1978 when we drove from Dayton to L.A. and back via all points west. Yellowstone is a must-see again. Meanwhile, we love living in tree-lined Oakwood, a city of 21/2 square miles within metro-Dayton; the Wright Brothers home (Orville and Wilbur) is a mile from ours. Dayton is a nice small city and easy to get around. And it’s easy going: News of Former Pupils of Former News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ieh3ZnmUfI Derek Colville (Jago, 1955-65) As I sit in my seaside home near Tenby writing a few lines I cannot believe that it is almost 50 years since I left school. Next year I will have been happily married to Ro- salind (née Kerton) for 40 years. We have two sons, Tom aged 38 and George aged 35 who have given us the gift of 5 very active grandchildren whose ages range from 1 to 7. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross in 1970, I then spent 2 years working/enjoying myself all over the world with the Inter-Continental Hotel Group. I returned to the UK and became a Partner in a firm of Chartered Accountants and live in Builth Wells. Fortune smiled on me and I retired in 1992. I still advise a number of clients, holiday all over the globe, and indulge in our hobbies of golf, tennis, swimming, cycling, walking and sailing. Much water has gone under the bridge since those schooldays. I have happy memories of the Naval Section, Brian Cuthbertson’s (Jago, 1960-67) cricket antics and field trips to the Mountain Cottage with Guy King-Reynolds, and some very eccentric teachers. Weekends were spent at Olton Tennis Club with close friends including Ri- chard Meere (Pole, 1958-64), ‘Titch’ Saunders (Windsor, 1956-61), John Birch (Pole, 1955-63), Bob Jones (School House, 1954-63), Richard Ollis (Shenstone, 1961-65), ‘Goof’ Horridge (Windsor, 1955-63) and others. Rosie and I visited the School in the 80s with Richard Meere and his wife Heather and more recently when Denis Tomlin kindly showed us the archives. I also enjoyed a wonderful round of golf on the OSGS December Vase when I stayed with John Birch. I hope to attend the Over 60s lunch soon, but if you are ever over in our part of Wales please send me an email – you are always assured of a very warm welcome. [email protected] Indrajit Mitra (Windsor, 1965-73) I was ready to move back to the UK from Canada, but a “huge” stone was dropped right in front of me recently that makes me have to postpone everything again. I was recently diagnosed with late stage 4 cancer of the oesophagus which has now moved onto other parts of the body and organs very rapidly. I have undergone radiation therapy and will start chemotherapy in the next couple of weeks. So, I wanted to let all my peers and friends know and hope that things turn out positive for me. [email protected] I know that all Old Silhillians will want to join me in wishing Indrajit the very best with 48 his treatment – Editor. News of Former Pupils Charles Briggs (Fetherston, 1989-94) I am now living in Aberdeen, working for Technip Offshore Wind Limited. Living in the oil capital of the UK is a slightly odd reality for someone working in the Renew- able Energy business. If you like supercars, you should visit the city. My current role is working within our Cables Division, laying cables in the offshore wind farms. Anyway, I can assure you that the Granite City is a good place to live; at least it is in summer. Ask me again when I have lived through my first winter! Alas my hockey days are over due to on-going problems with my ankle, so cycling is my new sport. Cricket is of course still important! Hopefully I can get some sailing in too over the next year, and a little overseas travel. If there are any Old Silhillians in the area it would be a pleasure to meet up. I can be contacted on 07825 433432. Ben Harrison (Fetherston, left 1994) I left Solihull School in 1994, I was hugely active there, 1st XI cricket and 1st XV rugby and full colours for both and also Head of House for Fetherston. I graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc 2(i) Hons in International Manage- ment & Modern Languages. I worked for two years as International Marketing Manager at Land Rover, but I re- signed in 2000 to pursue a dream career in sports management, to manage the careers of professional golfers. I started small, just helping a friend find money so that he could go out and compete in professional events. I was picked up by a small management group out of Surrey called Professional Sports Partnerships and worked with

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462 Station Road, Dorridge, Solihull, B93 8HB Tel: 01564 772934 Email: [email protected] 49 Order on-line at www.juel.co.uk them until the end of 2002, when things really started to take off! I was then picked up by a US management group in October 2002 and moved to Scottsdale AZ, where I was named Director of Corporate Marketing for Gaylord Sports Management. Clients included the likes of Phil Mickelson, Nick Watney and Mark Calcavecchia. After successfully marketing these athletes, I was brought back to the UK in 2006 to work with Chubby Chandler at ISM. I helped market Lee Westwood and I was responsible for man- News of Former Pupils of Former News aging the top young guys at the group at the time: Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Charl Schwart- zel, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace. We had a lot of fun and it really advanced my career to the point where Gaylord Sports Management hired me back to the US to help reinvigorate their player management division. As a Player Manager back at Gaylord Sports I made some key signings in 2008, notably Jonas Blixt. I have gone on to sign some of the top young players in the world including recent Solheim Cup winner and Major Champion Anna Nordqvist and probably my biggest signing of all, 2011 PGA Champion Keegan Brad- ley pictured above at the Ryder Cup with me in 2012. I am really enjoying life in the US and I now have citizenship. Our company was ac- quired by a large European company and is now called Lagardère Unlimited. I was recently promoted to Senior Vice President, Golf and am responsible for our company’s strategy in North America. My players have won numerous titles on the PGA and LPGA Tours and are gaining global notori- ety which is hugely satisfying. I was married until recently, but I have two wonderful girls, Lily (8) and Georgie (5). I spend as much time with them as I can. They are pictured here at the Solheim Cup, where they watched Anna Nordqvist win for Europe! I love Solihull and I am devoted to the Sils, particularly the golf team. When selected, I travel back to play in the Grafton Morr- ish - I will be there this year, as I was last! I also use my industry connections to get the team decked out in OSGS branded ap- parel. James Gribble (Windsor, left 1994) I was in the UK recently to speak at a fundraiser for The Puffin Magic Foundation in London which was a great success. See www.puffinmagic.org.au. Having started to play golf again at the beginning of the year, I also attended two disabled golf com- 50 petitions whilst in England. I was encouraged by the days and am working towards News of Former Pupils establishing a national disabled golf Association in Australia with the ultimate goal of seeing disabled golf join the Paralympics. Whilst abroad, my fiancée and I were lucky enough to spend 10 days of quality time with my future parents-in-law in Norfolk. It was fantastic to be back in the mother country especially during the summer. Now back in Australia Peter Bragg, Alison Bond, James and his fiancée, I continue to work towards a more Sarah, meet up at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea active inspirational speaking career and various business opportunities. Jeremy Bragg (Jago, 1988-99) Te Araroa: The Long Pathway I’ve been running ultra marathons for nearly 10 years now. Some of you with a good memory may remember my first race, the Marathon of Britain, reported in the Sil- hillian back in 2004. I somehow managed to win that first one and since then I’ve competed in all sorts of different races all over the world. I’ve run for Great Britain twice at the 100km distance and England three times. Up until a month or so ago, I held the fastest 100km time by a British athlete for 10 years, recording 6hrs 58mins on a 2.5kmCatering loop course in Janitorial,Galway in 2009. At school I dreamed of playing rugby for EnglandPrint – never and realistic Office – so it still feelsSupplies bizarre and unexpected that I gained honours in a completely different sport.

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New, exciting Kitchen showroom open in Knowle, Solihull German, French and British kitchens For more information please contact: 52 07980 553539 News of Former Pupils For most ultra running is pure madness, but for me it’s a wonderful opportunity to travel, explore and meet some of the most inspiring people imaginable. It’s not so much the road disciplines that I enjoy, it’s getting out on to the trails in the hills and mountains to really explore. Call it long distance hiking, taken a step further. When you dig beneath the surface you’ll find an increasingly popular selection of races and challenges throughout the world taking in some epic courses and scenery. The marathon is getting boring! Distances range from 50km (around 31 miles) to 150 miles or more. Yes, non-stop. The majority of my races are up to 100miles, and that’s the distance I’m probably best at. I’ve managed quite a bit of success with these types of races, particularly when the courses are hilly or mountainous, with plenty of podium finishes which is always the aim. Anyway, this is all context. Last year, as a sponsored athlete on The North Face Glo- bal Team, I had the opportunity to apply The Spectacular South Island for funding for an expedition. The team is made up of some of the world’s best skiers, snowboarders, alpinists, mountaineers, climbers and endurance runners. I’m still not quite sure where I fit in, but apparently I do. Each year the team gets the opportunity to apply for funding to go out there and live the dream – to complete an expedition of the athlete’s choice. Of course, it has to get the stamp of approval to receive funding, and competition to secure funding is fierce. So in late 2011 I came up with the idea of running a new trail (opened December 2011) in New Zealand called ‘Te Araroa’, which translates from Maori to mean The Long Pathway. By long, they mean really long. The route is around 2,000 miles running the full length of both islands from Cape Reinga at the top of the North Island, to Bluff at the bottom of the South Island. The aim was to run the trail in under 50 days, averaging around 40 miles a day. I would have a support crew tracking me the whole The ultimate French kitchen way to provide overnight accommodation in a camper van as well as general safety and logistical support. But the support vehicle aside, it was essentially to be a solo run. With the route 90% off road and traversing large areas of remote, inaccessible terrain, I would also be completely self-sufficient for some sections of the run, carry- ing everything I needed in a lightweight ‘fast pack’. In addition to a lot of unbelievably rough terrain, the route also encompasses river, estuary and lake crossings which I would aim to cross by kayak. And finally, there is of course the stretch of water between the two islands; the Cook Strait. In a moment of madness I decided to throw that in there as an objective, to cross the Strait by sea New, exciting Kitchen showroom open in Knowle, Solihull kayak, seeking to achieve a complete end-to-end traverse of the country, purely un- German, French and British kitchens der human power. This final part was rather audacious to say the least. Those of you For more information please contact: who have crossed the Cook Strait even on the Inter Islander ferry will know it’s rarely flat and calm. But there you have it; the plan for an adventure of a lifetime. 53 07980 553539 Funding was approved, including a professional photo and video team to record the journey and then nearly a year spent planning and training. I finally set off on my epic journey from Cape Reinga on 12th December 2012. I could write a book on all the stories and adventures of each and every day, and one day I News of Former Pupils of Former News hopefully will. I guess without Celebrating at the end of the journey in Bluff taking up too many pages of the magazine, you just need to know the expedition was a great success. I was incredibly determined to complete the run and that head strength was undoubtedly the most important ingredient for success. My mind led and my body followed. There were moments of severe danger, like the regular crossings of the notorious New Zealand rivers in wilderness areas, and negotiating high-level mountainous sections in poor weather and zero visibility. But equally there were moments of sheer joy; like finding those crystal clear river pools in the middle of nowhere for a quick swim, or reaching the end of the North Island in good weather with the potential of successfully achieving the Cook Strait crossing. In the end we had to abort our first attempt at the crossing, but only needed to wait until the next day for the right weather, ultimately completing a sea kayak crossing from Makara Beach on the North Island to Captain Cook’s monument in Queen Charlotte Sound on the South Island, a total distance of around 30 miles, in 9 hours. My father-in-law, Mark Taylor, accompanied me along with a local kayak guide. What a way to arrive on the South Island for the start of the second half of my journey. The expedition called upon all my deepest reserves of physical strength and mental fortitude, as well as the array of mountain skills that I’ve picked up through 10 years of running and exploring the hills of the UK. The rough terrain and unpredictable weather also suited me well from my British running background! The only significant hiccup was a three day hold up when I was unable to move anywhere due to a stomach virus. I wasn’t the same again afterwards, but despite my weariness I was always going to finish, given Bluff was then within relative striking distance, a mere 500 miles to go. But the challenge certainly cranked up a huge notch in difficulty from that point. So I now hold the record for the Te Araroa trail with a time of 53 days 9 hours and 1 minute. To complete it in the manner I did - with the Cook Strait crossing included - will take some beating and a big dose of luck. It was a slight shame to miss the 50 day target but being wiped out for 3 days and the sheer roughness of the terrain I was covering made it a tall order. It was without doubt the adventure of a lifetime. Huge thanks must go to my support crew of James Ashwell (Shenstone , left 1999) and Mark Taylor, without whom I wouldn’t have managed it. Also to my very understanding wife, Gemma. Jez wrote a detailed daily account of the run which can be found at: www.jezbragg.blogspot.com or contact Jez at: [email protected] 54 Jez’s photos courtesy of Damiano Levatti / The North Face Proud to support The Silhillian magazine. working Gateley is a top 50 national law firm with its headquarters in the West Midlands. Named with you ‘Best Legal Advisor’ in the 2012 Legal Week Client Satisfaction Report national league table, we are here for you whatever your commercial legal needs.

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Pete Davies dt: 0121 234 0058 [email protected]

www.gateleyuk.com 55 Richard Gilbert (Pole, 1995-2005) I was in my final year at Manchester University when my girlfriend put me forward for the Manchester University Challenge team for 2012-13. After going through some gruelling trial to my amazement not only was I picked for the team, they made me captain. Our first match against Lincoln College Oxford started badly and got worse; after 5 minutes we were -10 to 95, and with 5 minutes to go were still 100 points behind. Manchester were the current holders of the trophy and it looked like our defence was going flop at the first round and exile from the University Campus would be our fate. However with a run of correct starters we won the match with the very last question just as the gong went winning by 180 to 175. Mr. Paxman couldn’t believe it, neither News of Former Pupils of Former News could we. We made it to the quarter finals with a win over Magdalen College Oxford. To go through to the semi finals you had to win 2 matches out of a possible three. Our first match was against Imperial College London who after a nip and tuck game we won

pulling away. We tripped up in our second match losing convincingly to UCL one of the favourites; we now had to win our next match against St. George’s London which in the end was won with our highest score, giving us a Semi Final against Bangor Uni- versity. Again after a tight match we eventually won putting us into the final against UCL the firm favourites. In the final we knew we needed to start strongly which we did and as much as UCL pulled back we managed to keep them at bay wining the trophy for the second year running with as score of 190 to 140. The trophy was presented by the Astronomer Royal Martin Rees. After the win we became minor celebrities appearing on BBC Breakfast, BBC North and Radio 5 Live and the daily newspapers, even The Sun. People asked me what Jeremy Paxman was like but secretly I think he likes the students, after all we are the only people who want to answer his questions. Probably more nerve racking than appearing on the show was receiving the Univer- sity Medal of Honour when I had to make an acceptance speech on behalf of the team in front of an audience of 500 but it was a Richard Gilbert experience and now I 56 am back at Manchester doing my M.A. and hopefully Ph.D. Headmasters Two former pupils and one former Headmaster have been appointed to new Headmasterships this year. Below are the announcements from the various schools’ websites. Merchant Taylors’ School Mr Simon Everson appointed, effective September 2013 The School is delighted to announce that Mr Simon Everson (Fetherston, left 1984), currently Head Mas- ter of the Skinners’ School, has been appointed to succeed Mr Stephen Wright as Head Master of Merchant Taylors’ School, with effect from September 2013. Mr Everson was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Solihull School, Fitzwil- liam College Cambridge and Nottingham University. He has Master’s degrees in both English Literature and Philosophy and in addition holds the National Professional Qualification for Head- ship. Mr Everson has a distinguished career to date, teaching in the maintained sector in Coventry, Peterborough, and Westcliff-on-Sea and in the independent sector at Nottingham High School, and the Arnold School. Mr Everson also worked in Japan for a year as a teacher. In 2006, Mr Everson was appointed Headmaster of the Skinners’ School. In 2008 – and again in 2010 - he served as the first chairman of the Grammar School Heads Association. Like Merchant Taylors’, the Skinners’ School encourages both service and the values of community. The MTS community will appreciate that under Mr Everson, the Skinners’ School has not only maintained its academic pedigree (a recent report from the Schools’ Inspectorate deemed it to be an ‘outstanding’ school) but also sustained its reputation as one of the better rugby schools in the country. Much as at MTS there is a strong emphasis on sustainability and creative ap- proaches to the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Simon is married to Ginny, a psychotherapist specialising in the treatment of vic- tims of domestic violence and the provision of support for children placed in foster homes. The Chairman of the governing body of Merchant Taylors’ School, Mr Christopher Hare, writes: I am delighted to be able to write to let you know of the appointment of Mr Simon Everson as Head of Merchant Taylors’ School to commence in September 2013. A Cambridge English graduate, Simon was educated at Solihull School and has 57 since taught in a variety of state and independent schools; he also spent a year teaching in Japan. In 1999 he completed an MA in Philosophy at Nottingham Uni- versity and in 2008 he was successful in the demanding National Professional Qualification for Headship. Since 2006 he has been Head of the Skinners’ School in Tunbridge Wells – rated ‘outstanding’ at its last Inspection – which, under his leadership has enjoyed unparalleled success with improving results, national rec-

Headmasters ognition of its approach to sustainability issues, sponsorship of an academy and an extensive and imaginative building programme. He was also co-founder and then Chair of the National Grammar School Heads’ Association. Simon and his wife Ginny are both excited and honoured to be moving to Sandy Lodge and are very much looking forward to meeting all the members of the Mer- chant Taylors’ community. Simon Everson said, “I would like to thank the Governors for the opportunity to lead MTS, a great school with a great tradition”. As Governors, we were delighted to have had such a wide and experienced field of applicants from whom we were able to make such a strong appointment; we will work closely with Simon in the coming years as he leads MTS to further success. Wrekin College Governors announce new Headmaster Richard Chapman (Shenstone, left 1992) was educated at Solihull School where he was captain of rugby and cricket and Head of School. He studied Economics with Statistics at Bristol University before embarking on a brief career in retail as a trainee manager at Marks and Spencer. He then followed in his parents’ footsteps by joining the teaching profession via a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics at Warwick University. He combined his early teaching days with a career as a semi-professional rugby player for Birmingham and Solihull. After four years at Warwick School, Rich- ard was promoted to the position of Head of Sixth Form and held this post for five years. Mr Chapman has been Deputy Head at the King’s School, Worcester since 2007. He is a keen sportsman, a lover of Corn- wall and has an interest in National Trust properties and local issues. Mr Chapman will be moving to Wrekin College with his wife, Kate, who is a primary school teacher, and his sons, William, 10, and Hugo, 7. Commenting on his appointment, Mr Chapman said “I am delighted to be appointed as the next Head- master of Wrekin College. Kate and 58 I were immediately struck by the Headmasters warmth of the school, the focus on all-round education, the superb facilities and the ambition of the Governors. This is an exciting time to be involved in education and I am looking forward to the challenge of building on the excellent work of Richard Pleming and leading Wrekin College in the next stage of its history.” Westminster School appoints new Head Master The governing body of West- minster School has appointed Mr Patrick Derham to be Head Master with effect from Sep- tember 2014. Mr Derham is currently Head Master of Rugby School, a post he has held since 2001. Be- fore that for five years he was Headmaster of Solihull School. He read History at Pembroke College Cambridge and was awarded in 1982 a First Class degree, following which he taught for two years at Cheam School and 12 years at Radley College, where he served on two occasions as Head of His- tory and was a Housemaster. Patrick Derham and his wife Ali- son have two adult children. Robert Swannell, chairman of governors of Rugby School, said, ‘Patrick Derham has been an outstanding Head in so many ways. He has extraordinary energy and enormous interest in what he is doing and in the pupils in his care.’ He described himself as ‘extraordinarily fortunate to have been chairman during Patrick’s time as Head Master.’ The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster and chairman of the governing body of Westminster School, said, ‘There was a very effective advertising and search process and an extremely strong field of applicants, amongst whom Patrick Derham was the outstanding candidate.’ Patrick Derham said, ‘I am thrilled to be joining Westminster in September 2014. The opportunity to be involved with such an outstanding school is a singular honour. I look forward to continuing the excellent work of Dr Spurr and to leading Westminster in the next stage of its development.’ Dr Stephen Spurr will continue to give strong and effective leadership as Head Master of Westminster School until his retirement at the end of August 2014. 59 OSA London Group OSA

60 Lunches, Dinners & Balls London Dinner 2013 Old Sils are busy people, not least in November when the OSA sporting and social diary reaches a peak. We therefore held this year’s annual London Dinner (the 63rd!) in March, specifically on, for all you former Latin students and Shakespeare scholars, the Ides. There was a terrific contingent of thirteen from the school including, to name but a few, Lindsay Brough (head of junior school) in her final year at the school before retirement (a great loss to the school), Chairman of the GovernorsMark Hopton (Shen- stone, left 1973) and the new Bursar, Richard Bate (each relatively recent and happy gains). After a fine supper and before some rousing speeches and shared memories, David Lloyd gave a terrific tour by powerpoint of some of the new and some of the future facilities of the school, which was much enjoyed especially by those who had not been back to the school in a few years. The Old Silhillians’ Association is working on the next London dinner in close con- junction with the Development and Alumni Relations Office. The London dinners are incredibly enjoyable occasions – numbers have varied between 50 to 80 attendees in recent years and we are confident that we can increase the numbers. Please email [email protected] if you would like to receive invitations to all London events for alumni. Mark Lucas (Fetherston 1978-88) Over 60s Luncheons The luncheon in October 2012 was attended by 96 members including 13 newcomers, David Lloyd the Head Master, Peter Davies President of the OSA and Alison Bond newly appointed at the school as Director of Development and Alumni Relations. David Lloyd introduced Alison and her role, before giving an interesting summary of the school’s performance and activities, whilst Peter Davies gave us an update on OSA news and especially the re-development of the club house. The Naughty Table at the May Luncheon

61 Lunches, Dinners & Balls Lunches, Dinners

Entertainment was provided before lunch by the Junior School’s Girls Choir. John Bas- sett (Pole, 1943-49) heard one of the girls say, “Did these old men really go to Solihull School?” New comer Rodney Jones (Fetherston, 1953-60) informed us that he sat O Level Latin 5 times and on each occasion got a successively lower mark! Martin Clay (Shenstone, 1957-64) told us that in his A Level Physics Set the bottom 4 members became Chartered Accountants! The May 2013 luncheon was preceded once again by a tour of the school conducted by senior pupils. In attendance was the Headmaster David Lloyd who gave us as usual his customary update on all the school’s activities and the current President All the way from Canada - David Wood of the OSA Joe Bates. Joe informed the meeting that the plan to rede- velop the club house had received planning approval, but that the proposed care home on the site of the former steward’s house had not been approved and was subject to an appeal. There were 108 in attendance, an all time record! Amongst the 21 newcomers was David Wood (Fetherston, 1959-66) all the way from Calgary in Canada. It was interesting to learn from the - new comer’s speech of introduction the nearly 50% of them were either accountants or surveyors! The luncheon dates for 2014 are Thursday 15th May and Wednesday 15th October. 62 Nigel Holmes (Pole, 1951-60) Lunches, Dinners & Balls The OSA Dinner The OSA Dinner took place at the Clubhouse on 24th November 2012. 65 members and guests were in attendance. The principal guests were the Headmaster and Phil Holt. The Headmaster gave an interesting update on developments at the School. Phil Holt, who had recently retired following 40 years as a teacher at the School, gave a highly entertaining talk about his life at the School, with anecdotes about many of the former pupils present in the audience! Other guests were Christopher Warren, the outgoing Bursar, Richard Bate, the new Bursar, Ross Edwards, Head Boy, Sanika Karandikar, Head Girl and Sean Morgan, Dep- uty Headmaster. The food provided by Rupert Davies was to its usual high standard, and the Manager, Keith Waterhouse, co-ordinated the event with his usual expertise. It was a long and enjoyable evening and a fitting conclusion to my year as President. Peter Davies (Shenstone, left 1976) The Old Silhillians’ Past Presidents’ Society Annual Dinner Memorial Clubhouse on Friday, 28th February 2013 Twenty four members of the Association attended the 56th Annual Dinner of the Past Presidents’ Society. Bob Toy was unable to attend and Trevor Jones took the reins and welcomed the three guests of the Society: Headmaster, David Lloyd, President of OSA Joe Bates and Chairman of Governors Mark Hopton. A moment’s silence was observed to remember Mike Cusack who died shortly after last year’s dinner. John Harrison introduced Immediate Past President Peter Davies as the newest member of the Society after which President Joe Bates presented a full update on the progress of the Association’s plans to restructure the management and development of the Memorial Clubhouse and Grounds including the refurbishment of the clubhouse, the sale of the steward’s house and surrounding acreage, and the close relationship with the school. After the toast to the School, Headmaster David Lloyd responded with news of the School, new appointments, developments and spoke of individual pupils’ outstanding achievements during the past year. We are grateful to Rupert our chef, his team and Keith our Clubhouse Manager, all of whom enabled us to enjoy a very special and convivial evening. The next Annual Dinner of the Society will be held in the Memorial Clubhouse on Friday, 14th March 2014. Peter Callaghan (Pole, 1959-67) The OSA Ball The Summer Ball was held once again this year at its usual venue in the Clubhouse and Marquee on Saturday 15 June. Pre-dinner drinks were taken in the Clubhouse or the terrace for those who wanted to enjoy a balmy summer evening outside (well it wasn’t raining!) before moving into the Marquee for an excellent dinner as usual produced by Rupert Davies. We were delighted to welcome the Headmaster and his wife Debbie as well as Alison Bond and Nigel, Bryan Thomas and Donna Gordon from the Parents’ Association among our guests. Particular thanks must go to Mike Wise- man who is always a stalwart in supporting the Ball and this year proved no exception in his having two tables. 63 Lunches, Dinners & Balls / Lodge Lunches, Dinners

1975 Leavers at the OSA Ball Barry Allen, Neil Archer, Joe Bates, Roger Lates, Jez Harmer, Ros Gittings, Keith Benjamin, Malcolm Lawrie, Ginty Burns, John Harrison, Simon Westwood and Richard Cole

After dinner the entertainment continued with dancing to “The Zippers” who came recommended having played at the Hockey Festival in the past. They certainly did not disappoint and had a full dance floor throughout and everyone was definitely in the mood to party. I am not sure where the final couple of hours went but I do recall community singing in the Clubhouse at about 2.00ish and being poured out of the taxi around 3.00ish! Joe Bates

Shenstonian Lodge No. 5544 Worshipful Master W.Bro. Ieuan Jenkins (formerly Stuart Thorpe) (2013/2014) W.Bro. Chris Morris (2012/2013), Secretary: W.Bro. Joe Bates (01675 442586 and [email protected]) The Lodge is open to Old Boys, Members of Staff both present and past, Governors, Parents and Grandparents of present and past pupils. It continues to enjoy the unique combination of freemasonry and meeting at the Old Silhillians’ Clubhouse which provides a wonderful opportunity for Masonic and Old Sils fellowship. We are always delighted to welcome both initiates and joining members and also enjoy some excellent social occasions. The Lodge continues to attract new members of all ages and is one of the largest in Warwickshire. We are always pleased to hear from anyone interested as either new or joining members – please contact Joe Bates as above.

Meetings - second Monday in October (Installation), November, February 64 and March. Work Experience The School is in the process of appointing a Careers Advisor and careers advice is an area where Old Silhillians can really make a difference and provide invaluable assistance to current pupils. Whether it is help with CV writing, work experience or visiting school to talk to pupils we need everyone who is able to offer help to contact us - please email [email protected] Earlier this year two pupils dropped in to the OSA Office requesting work experience in the legal field. Pete Davies (Shenstone, left 1976) and OSA Honorary Life Member Murray Creed stepped into the breach..... During the summer holidays I undertook three days’ work experience which was organised for me through the OSA at the Crown Court with a Circuit Judge. Having never set foot in a court before, I was both anxious and excited. However it soon became obvious that all my preconceptions were incorrect. During my time at court I managed to observe several different cases, including the conclusion of a rape trial. The most fascinating part of the trial was watching the barristers give their summary speeches as, not only did it give me an insight into much of the background of the case due to the fact I had missed the start of the trial, but it also revealed the different ways in which the barristers approached the jury. Although I had already formed my own opinion on the trial in my mind, as each barrister spoke I felt myself being per- suaded by their words. I was very lucky in that each of the three barristers present had very different styles of ad- dressing the jury, this allowed me to as- sess which approach I thought was most likely to swing the jury in their favour. Frequently the barristers helped me to see the cases in different ways and Grace Evans and Amy Middleton pointed out that in this case there may be individuals who are not lying, but are actually trying to tell the truth and have simply got things wrong, alternatively there may be others who are lying, yet have added on snippets of the truth where convenient. Whilst the jury was deliberating on the rape trial, I managed to observe a pre-trial hearing in a case of alleged kidnapping as well as a sentence hearing. The pre-trial hearing was extremely interesting as it highlighted to me the problems the court sometimes faces as in this instance the complainant had failed to turn up at court and all efforts to contact him had failed. Although this is very frustrating for everybody involved in the case, there was nothing they could do about it and even though the evidence on paper appeared to be strong the defendant was allowed to walk free from court as the key witness could not be traced. 65 The sentence hearing was the final case I observed; this one gave me an insight into perhaps the more solemn side of court. It was a case of serious violence. The defendant had pleaded guilty at an earlier stage of the court proceedings. She was clearly quite seriously ill, but was nevertheless to be sentenced to serve time in prison. This was taken into account and her sentence was significantly reduced, allowing me to see how the Judge was able to place her in a certain bracket that determined the length of her sentence. Overall I greatly enjoyed my time at the Crown Court and found it to be one of the Work Experience Work most fascinating few days of my life. It has also confirmed my decision to study Law at university as I found court such an amazing experience. I can’t begin to thank both Malcolm Lawrie and Murray Creed enough for all of their time and help in organising this work experience and I can’t emphasize enough how valuable it has been for me. Amy Middleton This summer I have been fortunate enough to complete work experience in the legal profession to help me gain an insight into the sort of work that I could potentially be doing if I pursue a career in law. Firstly I spent a week at Gateley LLP in the centre of Birmingham. I was part of a group of 8 undertaking work experience with Gateley and made to feel extremely welcome by everyone. I was stationed in the construction department of the firm and was given a variety of different tasks to complete.These tasks included: drafting letters and emails to clients; researching different statutes which were then discussed among the team to agree on ways forward in particular cases and sitting in on client meetings. It was very beneficial in giving me a glimpse into the legal profession. All of the team made me feel very comfortable and were always happy to answer any questions I had and offer advice on any of the tasks I was asked to complete. Secondly, like Amy, I spent 3 days with a Circuit Judge at the Birmingham Crown Courts. This gave me a very different insight into the legal profession but no less interesting and important. I was able to see various functions of a court take place including a bail out, a jury out and a trial. I was impressed by the efficiency at which the court operated, handling many different matters in a single day. This highlighted to me that the qualities needed to be successful in the legal profession are determination and flexibility. I watched the first 3 days of a rape trial; I had never seen this type of trial take place on my visits to the public gallery on previous occasions. Therefore even though the subject matter was unpleasant I was able to experience opening statements, the giving of evidence and see the witness give evidence. I noticed how the barristers only asked questions that they already knew the answer to, so that they could manipulate the situation in their favour. I observed how different barristers have their own particular styles when they are in court, notably their body language and tone of voice. Through using these tools they were able to form an opinion in the jury’s mind very effectively. Over the course of the 2 weeks I gained invaluable insight into the legal profession and have been given vital advice if I am to succeed in my chosen career. I am incredibly grateful to Malcolm Lawrie who has given up his own time to help me secure both work experience placements. I am also very thankful to both Pete Davies, Partner at Gateley LLP, and Murray Creed for offering their time to help me and for being so 66 welcoming. Grace Evans Work Experience

‘Hard labour’ in the Metalform Inc. factory Standing - Nigel Holmes, Birte Becker and Kevin Gardner Seated - James Green and Isaac Webber Two more pupils, James Green and Isaac Webber, came to the OSA Office asking for help with a placement that possibly combined German and Engineering. A hard one, but a request was put out in the OSA’s quarterly email newsletter and ..... Nigel Holmes (Pole 1951-60) responded and made arrangements for James and Peter to work in their summer holiday at Metalform Incorporated Ltd. in Birmingham. Nigel founded the firm, which rebuilds Cold Heading and Threadrolling Machines in 1979. Metalform Inc. also designs and constructs machines for performing second operations on aerospace fasteners. Nigel who is a self-taught linguist has been retired since 2002, but continues to work as a consultant for the firm which has a very strong presence in Germany and France. James and Isaac were obliged to speak German and spent some time working in the factory with Frau Birte Becker and then in the Sales Office with Frau Jayne Davies, who showed them how quotations and invoices were produced in German. Pete Davies was also able to provide legal work experience for Tom Holt in August this year and Geoff Holloway at Jerroms has offered to place Chris Bevins, son of Stuart Bevins (Windsor, 1976-83), to get some experience in an accountancy practice in the Easter vacation next year. Please help us to help with careers [email protected] 67 For news, for connections, for support, for life The Development and Alumni Relations Office was established in January 2013 to advance the strategic vision and long-term ambitions of the School. The team is responsible for developing external relations and partnerships to enable Solihull to meet its long-term aspirations as a centre of excellence in the region and to strengthen its relationships with former pupils, current and past parents and other supporters of the School. The office works closely with the Old Silhillians’ Association in managing the alumni relations programme and enhancing the pupil experience at Solihull by encouraging successful alumni to continue to engage with the School, regardless of distance or passage of time. The Solihull School Alumni network seeks to enrich the professional and personal life of current and former pupils, as they go through University education, into their first job and beyond, into later life. Building the Network The School and the Old Silhillians’ Association have appointed a number of Interna- tional Ambassadors to help us to maintain a close relationship with former pupils living, working or studying overseas and to help them foster relationships with other former pupils in their area, as well as supporting current and former pupils interested in living, working, studying or doing business overseas in the future. Our International Alumni Ambassadors are at the heart of this work. Development & Alumni Relations Office & Alumni Relations Development The London Alumni group is also going from strength to strength, thanks to the excellent leadership of Mark Lucas over the past few years. Mark now hands on the baton to a new London Committee and future events will include a bi-monthly social gathering at a central London venue on the first Thursday of the month. The next gathering will be on Thursday 5 December. As well as International Networks, the Development and Alumni Relations Office is establishing Professional Networks in the areas of Law, Medicine, Finance and Engineer- ing, University Groups at the top ten University destinations for Solihull pupils, and class/year groups. We are also working with the Careers Department to find former pupils who will act as Careers Specialists in their chosen professional field. Reunion Day 2014 On Saturday 22 March 2014, the School will throw open its doors to all former pupils for a day of meeting old friends, making new ones and remembering happy School days, as well as having the opportunity to see the wonderful School that Solihull is today. The event will start at lunchtime, with an afternoon of activities, and will- con clude with an evening dinner. Please put the date in your diary! Visiting the School All former pupils, parents and staff are very welcome to come back and visit the school. You will be made to feel at home! Come and have a look at our wonderful Archive Room, have a tour around the school, and have a school lunch! Or join us for breakfast and assembly. It may even be possible for us to arrange for you to sit in a lesson or two! ‘Lost’ Old Silhillians Unfortunately, we do lose touch with some of our former pupils and are therefore unable to provide them with updates about their school, publications or to let them know about events. Can you help us to find them? If you are in contact with any 68 former pupils, please encourage them to get in touch to update their details with us. Development & Alumni Relations Office

The Development and Alumni Relations Team - Charlotte Ford, Debbie Lloyd and Alison Bond Supporting the School - meet two of our donors Ben Perry (Jago, 1985-92) Ben will be helping to fund a Sixth Form pupil over the next two years, through his generous donation to the Silhillian Fund, which has been established to support talented pupils who would otherwise not be able to come to the School. Ben was a one-time editor of the Shenstonian and is now a partner at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. Ben said: “I am very conscious that, without the support that I received at Solihull School, my career would not have developed in the same way. I am therefore making a donation to the School over the next few years as a way of saying thank you”. Philip Talboys (Pole, 1974 - 85) Philip became a corporate solicitor after graduating, initially working for Margaret Mountford of The Apprentice fame. Thanks to Philip’s generous donation, the School has recently commissioned a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, to be called The Solihull Service. The composer is Ben Parry, Director of the National Youth Choir of Great Brit- ain and the Junior Royal Academy of Music. The Solihull Service will have its premiere during Evensong on 9 February 2014, followed by its first London performance in St Paul’s Cathedral the next day. All former pupils are welcome. In memory of Eric Peyman On 15 March 2013, friends and family of Eric Peyman gathered at the School for a tree- planting ceremony in memory of the former Art Master. The tree, which now stands proudly in the Quad, was planted by Eric’s son and daughter, Hugh and Michal Pey- man. Hugh says, “My abiding thought is that my father would have been so pleased to see how art has become such a central part of the School, even whilst academic standards are maintained”. For further information on any of the above, contact Alison Bond [email protected] or on 0121 703 2898 or visit the Alumni website www.solsch.org.uk/development 69 Copt Heath Changing Room Redevelopment and Clubhouse Refurbishment Project After a planning hiccup in December 2012, we are making good progress with this initiative. In August 2013 the second planning application for the enabling care home was approved. A number of points were clarified including the nature of the care within the home (largely for dementia) the places to be offered to Solihull MBC, and the Silhillians itself being an open club. Resolution to grant consent was received, and the Government has decided not to call in this green belt scheme, so we only require the Section 106 (planning) agreement to be completed and the JR period to expire. The 106 relates to places reserved for the Council in the home and secures the reinvestment of the proceeds of the site sale by the OSA. In advance of the resolution we applied to Sport England for grant aid from round two Clubhouse Redevelopment of their improvement fund directed at sustainable projects. Our proposals include a number of green initiatives. The maximum grant is £500,000, and we have applied for £400,000. We are through to the final stage of this process. The capital has been allocated to the OSA provided that the application process is completed in the appropriate manner. The Head of the Fund, who is dealing with our application, stated they received 329 expressions of interest and 259 applications requesting £86.3 m of grant aid against Sport England’s budget of £9 m. Only 35 projects have reached the final stage. Initial applications for £100,000 each have also been successfully made with the RFU Football Foundation. The OSA project team is finalising the design and specification before going out to tender on a single stage Design and Build contract, to minimise the risk of cost over- runs, in late November. Depending upon the tender outcome additional works may be completed. We have a budget of £1.75 million including fees, base build, contin- gency, and non-reclaimable VAT. This is a very significant sum, but we aim to deliver a high quality facility requiring low levels of maintenance so the future of the Memorial clubhouse and grounds as a sporting facility for both former pupils of Solihull School and the population of Solihull is maintained in the future. If the grant aid applied for is forthcoming and the sale of the steward’s house to Gracewell Healthcare proceeds satisfactorily (with completion scheduled for Christ- mas 2013) we aim to start construction of the project in early April 2014 with completion in September. Hand in hand is the restructuring of the operations at Copt Heath. A new Commu- nity Amateur Sports Club (CASC) called Silhillians Sports Club will have a lease of the facility from the OSA for which it will pay rent. The terms are currently being negoti- ated. The lease is required so that SE & the other National Governing Bodies have confidence that the availability of the sporting facilities have been secured for the long term. An agreement for lease will be completed before the construction works commence with an agreed protocol for the handover of the facility. The lease will be signed once construction works are complete. CASC status enables sports clubs to take advantage of certain cost savings (for example rates relief) which are not available to the OSA. Further updates in relation to the development project will be provided via the regular OSA news letter. The OSA is grateful to Andrew Clutterbuck, John Griffin and Rupert Young who are putting significant time and effort into ensuring that a successful outcome is achieved. 70 Rupert Young Obituaries John Reginald Tittley (Fetherston, left 1933) We regret to inform you that John Tittley passed away last year. Dr A J Essex-Cater (Shenstone, left 1942) My father was an old boy of Solihull School in the years before the 2nd World War. He completed his national service in the Royal Air Force and went on to graduate in medicine from Charing Cross Hospi- tal in London in 1948. He married in 1947, remain- ing so for 64 years. He met Jane, my mother, while she was working as a nurse. He first went into Public Health in Croydon, and then went on to posts in Swansea, Birmingham, Manchester, Monmouthshire and finishing his career in the island of Jersey. He was a member of the steering committee for the reorganisation of the NHS for the Welsh Office, a founder member of the faculty of community medicine and his last appointment was as medical officer of health in Jersey. He took on a part time role as venereolo- gist to assist the service in Jersey and in retirement he worked in Tonga for the World Health Organisa- tion to help towards setting up a health service on the island. He was always concerned at the lack of resources in mental health and child welfare services. He was chairman of the National Association of Maternal and Child Welfare. My impression of him was that he was always popular with his staff and very fair-minded when it came to settling problems or disputes. On a more personal family level I am sure he would never have admitted to being the most practical of men. I think he understood this well; it was to his credit that he stayed well away from surgery as a specialism. On a lighter note I remember when as small children it was time for our annual vaccination, we knew this as Tony would start by thoroughly boiling up the stainless steel needles and syringes in a big pan. As there were no sharp disposables in the 50s, it was something to be borne with fortitude. The family survived however to settle in Solihull, Prospect lane. My younger brother Quenton (Shenstone, 1959-61) and I started at Solihull in 1959,and were there for the two years until 1961. Quenton died in Jersey very tragically in a domestic accident in March 1998. Tony’s school career came up against the start of WW2, the family history is a bit confused at this time, but certainly he moved around the country a fair amount in his trainee role as a young RAF Officer in medical training. His parents lived in ‘Barum’ the family home in Hampton Lane. Tony enjoyed sport; he played rugby at school for the First XV. He continued at a high level for his Medical School during the years following the War. I can just recall that he was good enough to have been offered a trial with the Swansea club when the family first moved to S Wales in the early 1950s. He declined this opportunity, as he now had a young family, but he maintained a passionate love of Rugby Union ever after. His Saturday afternoons were taken over by supporting rugby clubs from: Swansea, Moseley, the School 1st XV, the Old Boys XV, Wilmslow, Sale and latterly the much improving Jersey team. 71 At home his interests were more of the pastoral quiet variety; he loved classical music as well as jazz. He spent considerable spare time reading especially detective fiction, Ed McBain an early favourite. On holidays we spent many happy days exploring the old castles and abbeys and many historical monuments that this Country possesses. His father H.S Cater, was a distinguished journalist based

Obituaries in Birmingham. Tony though did not follow that path but after retirement he did try his hand at writing his own brand of detective fiction and printing it out on his new fangled computer. In truth I think he made the right decision to follow his Medical leanings rather than take up novel writing. That is not to say he had nothing published. Professionally, his comprehensive and ordered Medical volume ‘A Synopsis of Public Health and Social Medicine’ was certainly definitive in its time, first published 1960 and reaching a third edition in 1979. Incidentally the foreword was written by Professor Sir John Butterfield (Gaywood, 1929-39), himself a very distinguished Old Silhillian. The two had known one another since their schooldays at Solihull. In conclusion, my father maintained a long association with the School and many of his lifelong friends were made at Solihull, it always remained a part of his life. Although I was only at Solihull myself for two years, they were very memorable years as they included the 400th Anniversary celebrations of 1960 and the visit of Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Kent Jonathan Essex-Cater (Shenstone 1959-61) [email protected] Geoffrey William Eden (Shenstone, left 1943) We regret to inform you that Geoffrey Eden passed away on 9th September 2011. E ‘Ted’ G Harris (School House, 1939-44) A keen sportsman, Ted was awarded 1st XI Colours for both cricket and hockey. In 1943 he was made Head of School House where he had his own study. In 1945 Ted attended The Birmingham College of Bakery & Confectionery where he was awarded the national diploma and won the Students’ Challenge Shield. He was appointed a City & Guilds Examiner in these subjects and joined the family bakery business in Bournville. In 1946 he was commissioned in the Royal Warwick- shire Regiment and the following year served with the 2nd Battalion in Palestine. In 1948 he was detailed from Budbrook Barracks with W. Denis Butler (Jago, left 1941) to judge Cert. A Exams at Solihull School. The School achieved 100% passes! Following Army Service he returned to the family business and in 19650 married Sylvia Farmer at Mo- seley Parish Church with Denis Butler as best man. Sylvia died in 1984 and two years later Ted married June Laughton. In 1960 the family business was sold to Rank Hovis McDougall and Ted moved to Leicestershire and joined the Textile Division Board of John Wallace Textiles. Ted was Past President, Past Captain and Life Member of Rothley Park Golf Club in Leicestershire. Peter Sayer (Fetherston, left 1945) We regret to inform you that Peter Sayer has passed away. 72 Alan Tonkinson (Fetherston (1937-44) Obituaries Alan Tonkinson who has been a regular at luncheons until prevented by poor health, died at his home last Saturday 7th July. He played both cricket (wicket keeper/batsman) and rugby (full back) for the School and after completing his army service was a regular 1st XI member of the Old Silhillians’ Rugby Club alongside Claude Coton (Shenstone, left 1938) and Fred Moon (Fetherston, left 1943). J W ‘Wilf’ Harrison (Jago, 1939-45) Wilf was born in Lapworth, and lived all of his 84 years within 10 miles of Solihull. He won a place at Solihull School in 1939 and was there for exactly the span of the war years. It was, he said, a school that shaped his character and gave him the values and enthusiasm for life that stayed with him - a school he loved with a passion, of which he was very proud, and where he made friends for life. He was a sportsman – School Captain of hockey and PE and a member of the rugby and cricket teams. On leaving school, he was sent to the Army School of Physical Training at Aldershot and served in the army in immediately post-war Germany. Back in Solihull he was a regular 1st XI hockey and occasional rugby player at the Sils, and an active member of Lapworth CC. In 1950, he joined BSA as a clerk in their service department and began a career that saw him involved in the motorcycle industry for his entire life. He had always ridden motorbikes and rose through the ranks to become export sales manager, a role which gave him the opportunity to travel the world in the early days of the jet-age. His way of doing business was typical of his approach to life generally – “get to know people, spend time with your customers and make friends with them”. He made friends in some of the distant places he visited and was still regularly in touch with them forty years after his business connections had finished. In the Seventies, together with wife Dorothy and another ex-BSA colleague, he started his own successful business in Dorridge, importing European bikes and mopeds. Outside of work, he was at various times a committee member the Solihull School PA, secretary of the Rowington British Legion, organiser of Lowsonford flower show, sidesman at Preston Bagot Church, and involved in numerous other local organisations. He was for many years a regular at the Over 60s lunches. On retiring, Wilf also achieved a long held ambition and won his Pilot’s Licence – owning and flying a fixed wing micro-light – and this, together with the 500cc Honda he rode until the year of his death, rather cemented the impression on his three grandchildren that they did indeed have an Action-man Granddad! Wilf was Father to John (Jago, left 1975) and Granddad to Tom (Jago, left 2007). He will be remembered as an active, sociable, kind, positive, fun-loving ‘gentleman’ who lived his life to the full. He died in Warwick Hospital on 7th December 2012. John Harrison (Jago (1968-75) 73 John Bentley Johnson (Pole 1941 – 1946) John was born in Birmingham in 1929, but aged 4, moved with his parents to Knowle, where his father was to start the family garage business – F J Johnson & Son – which John joined after gaining

Obituaries a Special Place (scholarship) to Solihull School, subsequently completing an apprenticeship at the Rover Company and doing his National Serv- ice. Besides his many years in the business, John was also very active in various local organisations: he was a founder (and very keen member) of Knowle & Dorridge Rotary Club, twice being its Presi- dent; he enjoyed painting and poetry as hobbies for many years; he was a Warden at Packwood Church and involved in Knowle History Society. John enjoyed the Over 60s lunches, reminiscing with old friends, and was also delighted to return to school in the company of his son-in-law, David Wood (Pole, 1968-75), and grandson, Jonathan (Pole, 1994-2005) to show them his old classroom on the Quadrangle when in 4B, in which – he maintained – they still had his old desk! Having battled bravely against various illnesses in recent years, which had never stopped his going out and about, John finally passed peacefully away on 1 Janu- ary this year, just a few doors along from where he had lived as a school boy. He is greatly missed by his daughters, Liz & Kate, and grandchildren, Jonathan and Sarah (KEHS) of whom he was so proud. Liz Wood Dr John Ball CBE (Fetherston, 1938-47) Born in 1929 Dr. John Ball passed away on 27th November 2011. After service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), hospital posts in the Bir- mingham area and a traineeship in Stourport, John Godfrey Ball succeeded to a single handed practice in Foley Park, Kidderminster, in 1957, where he developed a forward looking group practice. Throughout his career John always generated warmth and humour, which is still remembered by his patients, long after he retired in 1995. Away from medicine John was a keen angler, in both river and still water. He also enjoyed the family cottage in Wales, where he continued to use his practical skills on various projects. His many friends will remember him best for his good company, his humour, and his welcome - he was always pleased to see you. The humour was backed by a near professional skill as a cartoonist, using the nom de plume “Tes.” John married Pamela, also a doctor, in 1957. She survives him, along with three children, five grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. David Hillcox (Pole, 1947-51) It is with regret that we inform you that David has passed away. David’s sons, Simon (Pole, left 1982) and Jonathan (Pole, left 1979) also attended school. Steve Powell (Fetherston, 1951-58) We regret to inform you that David has passed away. Steve was the younger 74 brother of David Powell (Fetherston 1945-52). Obituaries Terry Clifford (Fetherston, 1952-60) 31st August 1941 – 20th July 2013 (photo on Page 24) Music was a major part of Terry’s life and he was much encouraged in that by David Turnbull to the extent that he went up to St John’s College, Cambridge in 1960, as a Choral Scholar. Terry’s baritone solos were highly regarded and he spent much time after leaving Cambridge with Barry Rose OBE at the Guildford Cathedral Choir including the recording of some works such as Stainer’s The Cru- cifixion. He also returned to the school after that time to take part in some Com- memoration Concerts. Terry was an excellent shot and became Captain of the School Shooting VIII under the tutelage of John Jammes. He also became a House Bencher and was an indis- pensible member of the CCF band. Above all else, Terry enjoyed life to the full becoming an excellent cook in the process with an encyclopedic repertoire of jokes on virtually any subject to keep his many friends entertained. In his business career, Terry used his people skills to become an expert Sales Di- rector in a series of operations including an American engineering firm involved in plastic film manufacturing equipment which took him around the world many times. Finally he formed his own businesses culminating in a successful move into the printing world in Worcester. Terry leaves a mother, wife, 3 children and a granddaughter. Andrew Davis Stanley ‘Stan’ Bryan Bramley (Pole, 1951-60) Stan passed away suddenly on 30th April 2013, after appearing to have heroically overcome the traumatic affects of leukaemia which had been diagnosed in the previous August. Stan was the one of those rare people who would always put a smile on your face whenever you met him. He invariably had a new story to tell. If only he could stop himself laughing before the conclusion of the tale, we would have known how it ended. He started his school life at Russell Green Jun- ior School and then followed in his Father’s (Len) footsteps to the School in 1951. He married Hilary in 1968 and the family tradition was continued with their elder daughter, Alison (Pole, 1986-88), attending the sixth form. She married Old Silhillian - Ken Talbot (Shenstone, 1977-88), and their two children Jack and Ella are currently pupils at the School. Their younger daughter Nicola married yet another Old Sil, Andrew Franck-Steier (Fetherston 1980-91). In spite of Stan’s diminutive stature until he was about 16, he was a fine tennis and squash player representing both sports at the School, Solihull Lawn Tennis Club, Old Silhillians, and Warwickshire at both junior and senior level. He was encouraged at the School by the master in charge of racquet sports, Derek Garnier. For many years Stan organised a dinner for past members of the tennis and squash teams to meet up with Derek and other masters including Denis Tomlin, ‘Jammie’ 75 Jammes, and Harry Rickman at which everyone’s memories of their school antics were recalled with great hilarity. In more recent years Stan’s natural affinity to hit a ball was transferred to golf. He regularly played in the Old Silhillians’ Golfing Society events and it was amazing to see his drives leave the tee in the wrong direction only to curve round like a Obituaries banana to end up in the middle of the fairway if not on the green. After he left the School in 1960, he joined Rover as an engineering apprentice, prior to joining his family tool making company King Dick in Tyseley. In due course he ended up in London as a successful senior sales executive for publishing companies producing professional legal guides and handbooks. He never retired and his customers were still enjoying his company two weeks before he died. Hilary and her family were very moved when the School decided to fly the flag at half mast in Stan’s memory on the day of his funeral, which was attended by well over 300 family, friends and colleagues . He rests in peace at St John the Baptist Church in Berkswell. Stan will long be remembered for his extraordinary sense of fun, good humour and friendliness by all who knew and loved him. John Hare (Pole, 1956-61) Keith Pooley (School House, left 1963) Keith Pooley died suddenly at his home in Burntwood on Saturday 1st December 2012. He attended Solihull School as a boarder from 1956 to 1963. Both his parents were doctors and it was assumed he would follow in their footsteps. Thus Keith, after studying at the University of Birmingham, worked initially as a maxil- lofacial surgeon in hospitals in the Walsall area. A career move later saw him in practice as a dental surgeon in the Cannock and Birmingham areas. After early retirement about 12 years ago, he enjoyed travelling, music, photography and taking part in church activities. He leaves a brother and two sisters, to whom we extend our sympathy. Michael V R Heaven (Pole, 1957-64) We regret to inform you that after a short illness Michael succumbed tocan- cer on 18th August. Michael was a very active Freemason and Treasurer of the Shenstonian Lodge. His great passion was trains and he was heavily involved in modelling – not toy trains, but working scale models of both trains and real-life stations, which were reproduced down to the finest detail. He travelled to many places in the world during the 1980s including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Poland, East Germany and others to ride and record the steam era. Our condolences go out to his family and friends. Peter Lacey (Jago, left 1964) We regret to inform you that Peter W Lacey FCA, sadly passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on 1st April 2013 aged 67. He leaves behind his Wife of 43 years, Pamela, and three sons, David, Guy & Ben. Roger Hill (Pole, 1960-67) Roger, who left for Australia immediately after leaving school in 1967, died in May 2013 from health complications after a collision with a car whilst riding his bike in 76 a suburb of Perth. Obituaries He became a successful businessman and bought the Juniper Estate in 1996. Roger and his Chief Wine-maker Mark Messenger were widely respected within the wine industry for their role in making the estate into an award-winning outfit. The winery had an outstanding performance at the Perth Show in 2010 where it won 7 trophies. Mark Messenger, who had worked with Roger since he took over the estate, described Roger as a consummate but fair businessman who would be sadly missed. Andrew Binsted (Shenstone, left 1970) Andrew touched the hearts of all who met him. He was a wonderfully kind and generous son, brother, husband, uncle. All attest to his qualities. All were affected by his unflagging enthusiasm for life, despite the challenges that beset him. Andrew’s life had been conventional from the outset. He was clever and in the top sets at School. Andrew worked hard, took exams a year ahead of his peers and gained a place at Bristol University to read Chemistry. He was a talented chess player, active member of the Signals’ Section of the school’s CCF and a determined stamp collector. Disaster hit him at 19 at the end of his first year of university study. His stroke was to affect the rest of his life. Initially, Andrew took this misfortune in his stride and managed to return to Bristol. Sadly however he was not able to complete his degree and his life was not conventional thereafter, being somewhat in the shadows. My parents supported him constantly throughout. Indeed, Andrew worked with my father right up until his death. Andrew was a key member of the Solihull Seals and the Stroke Club. He was always up-to-date with the latest political developments, events and films. We were all constantly quizzed on the burning topic of the day. The family had seen Andrew’s stroke as a random act of God that robbed him of his glittering future. With the benefit of hindsight, it might be seen though as the defining of him. His life thereafter was an example of total fortitude. He was stoic, he had fidelity and had dignity in coping with his disability. He was devoted to all the family. He never complained about the cards dealt to him. He had a fulfilled married life with his darling wife Wendy. Married in 1983, sadly she was to predecease him in 2000. Andrew constantly mourned her loss and now he is reunited with her. We all lead busy, demanding lives and did not always have the time for Andrew that we should have had. Andrew though always thought about all the members of a wide family and remembered every anniversary and event without fail. Andrew was really unmaterialistic. He loved his holidays, but possessions meant little to him. An example to all of us as we strive for more in this demanding, competitive world. Andrew is at last at the end of his often difficult journey. Alan Keith Yardley (Windsor, 1966-76) Passed away in Linnich, Germany on 22 August 2013 aged 54. Alan was born in Solihull on 29 August 1958, the son of Keith Yardley (Shenstone, 1936-42). His formal education, like that of many Silhillians at that time, began at Cedarhurst from where he followed his elder brother James (Windsor, 1959- 69) to Solihull School. About the time he entered the Lower School he began to 77 show a keen interest in music and begged James to teach him the basics. He learned to play some simple tunes on the piano and the brothers developed a selection from The Sound of Music which they would play on family occasions. Showing promise,

Obituaries Alan began to take more formal lessons from Jill Godsall and would wake the household by rising early to practise before going to school, earning himself the nickname “Thumper” from his father. Alan also joined the chapel choir at school and began to take organ lessons from Colin Edmundson who was then Director of Chapel Music. Colin became a good friend of the family. The two brothers also went with him on many excursions to cathe- drals and other places of interest. Widening his musical interests, Alan took up the oboe which he played in the school orchestra, and for a time also tried the accordion, being noted for his rousing renditions of Ach, du lieber Augustin! In the sixth form Alan concentrated on Geography, German and Music. Holiday exchange visits helped greatly with his German studies. He then went up to Read- ing University to read music, but also taking some classes on German literature. During his time there he was involved in several important projects including in 1979 the first ever complete performance of César Franck’s opera Hulda. After graduating, Alan spent a year training as a teacher and then obtained a post at a girls’ school in Reading, but then decided that a teaching career was not for him, and moved sideways into the music recording industry, at first based in Lon- don but travelling to various parts of the world, particularly to German-speaking countries where his linguistic abilities were useful. Alan’s love of music often led him to the opera, where one evening he met Sarah Green whom he eventually married in Sarah’s home town of Brighton in 1987. Three years later their son Thomas was born in London, soon after Alan had taken up a new post in Germany with the company that later became Warner Music and is now Cinram. Alan found a flat near his office, in the Rhineland village of Breinig and his family moved in. In 1993 a daughter, Lucy, was born. Since cricket greens do not litter the German countryside, Alan became an avid supporter of the local football teams with Thomas and Lucy accompanying him to many matches. With some of his fellow football fans he formed Breinig’s first Cigar Club which met in members’ homes around the village. Feeling, however, that he needed to improve his fitness, Alan took up his racket again (having played in his Solihull garden as a child) and began to play tennis with Carmen Müller. After Alan and Sarah separated in 2002 Alan moved in with Carmen and soon found a new flat in the town of Stolberg, in the appropriately-named district of Donnerberg (“Thunder Mountain”). Although no longer living with Thomas and Lucy, Alan continued to see them often and took them on adventurous outings. It was on the return from one of these trips that Alan was diagnosed with an ag- gressive cancer. Throughout the following fifteen months Carmen cared for his every need and put his well-being above all else. His nurses and doctors were impressed by his determination never to give up or let his head drop. When he eventually lost the struggle, peacefully and in his sleep, his family were surround- 78 ing him just as he had wished. Obituaries His funeral at the woodland cemetery in Aachen, on a glorious September morning, was attended by over a hundred friends and colleagues who crowded into the small chapel to hear tributes to Alan in German and English, interspersed with his favourite music. There will be a memorial for Alan at the School on Friday 6th December. It will take the form of a choral evensong to be held in the School Chapel. Those attending are asked to arrive at 4.00pm for 4.30pm (organ music will be played before the Service). After the service there will be a reception with drinks and light refreshments in the David Turnbull Music School to which anyone who knew Alan is warmly invited. Paul Williams (Shenstone, 1970-78) Paul kept hens in his parents’ garden when he lived in St Bernard’s Rd, a fad that he kept on during his married life with Karen at their house in Robin Hood Lane. I met Paul on my first day at Solihull School in September 1971 and was immediately warmed to him. I do not know whether it was his mischievous grin, his relaxed outlook on life or his sense of humour but this friendship carried on throughout our school years and beyond when Paul went off to Matthew Boul- ton Technical College on day release from the TSB. It was at college that he met his wife to be Karen, who also worked at the TSB. Stints at Beneficial Trust and Greenwoods Financial Company followed and the friendship with Karen turned to romance and commitment, with them eventually marrying in 1993. Following the death of his father Paul once again moved jobs, this time to work at Birmingham International Airport. The move meant that he was able to spend a lot more time with Karen, some of which was spent on their allotment in Hall Green, where Karen was the Project Manager and Paul the labourer. The result of their joint efforts I have been advised was plenty of very tasty vegetables. Paul and Karen loved travelling and did so extensively visiting China, Bali, Viet- nam, Kenya, Egypt and Brazil. Paul was also a film buff and Karen and he spent many a happy evening at the Old Electric Cinema in Birmingham. Music was a common love with Paul’s likes being very eclectic including Abba, The Sugarbabes and Fleetwood Mac. However his biggest love for music were the Beatles and All You Need is Love, In My Life and Octopus’s Garden were all played at the funeral service. Paul’s love of animals and his commitment to their welfare continued throughout his life. The hens kept at Robin Hood Lane were rescue hens, who freed from battery conditions enjoyed retirement wandering around Paul and Karen’s garden. The rescue hens were joined by cats, rabbits and many more guineas pigs than they expected due to Paul’s error in sexing the first two they got as both female. He was never top of the class in biology. The theme of animals continued at the funeral service where anyone wanting to commemorate Paul’s life could so by making a memorial donation to the PDSA or Battery Hen Welfare Trust. When friends were asked to describe Paul, words such as amiable, gracious, kind, funny, and loyal came up. He was also a gentleman and devoted husband to Karen. Paul died suddenly in his sleep on the 15th September 2011 the eve of his 52nd birthday whilst he and Karen were on holiday on the Greek island of Zakynthos. His ashes were subsequently dispersed at Alikanas to where Paul and Karen were talking of retiring. Thank you for being my friend Paul. Martin Clayton (Windsor, 1971-78) 79 F Guy Wigley (Fetherston, 1973-81) Guy died in February this year aged 48. Like his father, F T ‘Bill’ Wigley (Fetherston, left 1936) and elder brother, Ian (Fetherston, left 1980), before him, Guy attended Solihull School for his secondary Obituaries education. He did well academically and was a good all-round sportsman, excelling at the javelin. It was here that he met David Newman (Fetherston, left 1982) and they were close friends for the rest of his life. On leaving school, he worked initially at various Trav- el Agents, a job which he enjoyed and did well at. At one stage he set up a company with a colleague and they were equal partners, although the venture eventually folded. Later on in life he decided to change career and followed his love of the outdoors by becoming a gardener, working mainly in the villages close to where he lived all of his life. Always very independent, he lived life very much on his own terms and in his own way. His death, from pneumonia, was sudden and completely unexpected and by judging from the large number of people who attended his funeral, he will be missed by many. Ian Wigley Paul Fox (Fetherston, left 1982) We regret to inform you that Paul died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve 2012 at the age of 48. Ed Shaylor (Shenstone, left 1997) It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that Ed Shaylor passed away after a fight with melanoma in May this year leaving behind his wife and baby son. Ed was a member of the Hockey section for a few years before becoming a cameraman at sporting events and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Beth Pittom (Housekeeper and Cook, 1951-81) Beth Pittom died in February at the age of 97 years. Beth came to work at Solihull School in 1951. Her job was as housekeeper and cook, with the specific task of helping Ted “Ernie” Halstead and his wife, Ruby, with the care of junior boarders at who were resident at Kineton. In 1960 Harry Morle took over as housemaster with his wife, Valerie and their children, Rosie and Chris. Chris remembers Beth as someone who had a real concern for the welfare of others and appreciated her “indomitable spirit” and “forthright views and frankness”. Beth remained at Kineton until it was closed as a boarding house in 1969, and she then moved to School House where 80 she performed a similar job caring for Obituaries the boarders there. I asked Denis Tomlin exactly what her job was and his reply summed Beth up – “She got on and did whatever needed to be done”. At school her most important role was with the boarders – attending to their needs both physical and emotional. She knew that triumph and disaster were both imposters and with a few well-chosen words she could put life back in per- spective after you’d been incorrectly judged out leg before wicket, or dropped from the rugby team in favour of some upstart who couldn’t catch, kick, tackle or pass. In the school refectory she and Kate Keeling formed a powerful no-nonsense al- liance. She seemed to be involved in almost every part of school life wherever domestic assistance was required. Denis told me that her great skill was to be there whenever there was an emergency, so it was no surprise that she was there at lunch and then produced the half time oranges ready sliced, had the cricket teas prepared just at the right time, and had the nibbles all ready for the prize-giving reception. In between times she would attend to the sprained ankles, grazed knees or bruised hands from the playing fields, or help to find someone’s lost PE kit in School House. She undoubtedly had a direct and forceful way with words if something displeased her. I suspect that there are some Old Silhillians who have, on occasions, been subject to some critical words from Beth. However, whatever may have been said, Beth’s intentions were always for what she saw as right. She did not intend any malice, but couldn’t stop herself if she saw or heard something that she felt was wrong. She was quite proud of one occasion when she had a stand-up argument with a member of the teaching staff who wanted a salad that had been reserved for a boy with diabetes. Beth won the argument and the boy had his salad! Beth was not afraid to stand her ground to defend what she saw as an important point of principle – namely that the needs of the boys came first in her eyes. She stayed working at school for 30 years, eventually retiring in 1981, but many of the friendships that she made at school have lasted throughout the rest of her life. She continued to attend school functions after she retired, and regularly met with former colleagues and friends for coffee or lunch at The Old Sils Clubhouse. Beth was always forward-looking; she wasn’t someone who dwelt on the past but was keen to get on with whatever was to be organised next. She did not accept that old age should reduce either her independence or her busy social calendar. After she retired she continued to live on her own in Shustoke Road, and was a stalwart of the local WI and Horticultural Society. In February 2013 she had a fall at her home and died after a few days in hospital. Her no-nonsense approach to life and clear sense of right and wrong will be remembered with affection and gratitude by those of us who knew her during her long service to Solihull School. Peter Halstead (Windsor, 1964-71) Michael Maxted (Bursar, 1981-96) It is with sadness that we report the death of Michael Maxted, who was Bursar at the School from 1981–1996. Michael was a great friend of Alan Lee (Headmas- ter) and George Hill (Governor) and was instrumental in the strengthening the School’s financial position, from which the School still benefits considerably today. He died peacefully, aged 81, and leaves his wife Annette who lives in Penryn, Cornwall. Our thoughts go out to Annette and the family at this sad time.

Please inform [email protected] if you hear of any Old Silhillian passing away. We will arrange for a notification to be put up on the 81 website and for an obituary to appear in next year’s Silhillian 81 Unfortunately the annual rugby fixture against the Old Warwickians for the Coton Cup had to be postponed, but it is hoped that the fixture will be re- arranged in the near future. However, the inaugural hockey fixture against the old enemy did take place at Copt Heath - Following the example set by Rugby for the Coton Cup, 2013 saw the inaugural Old Boys hockey match against Warwick for The Strover Shield named in honour of former Warwick School Headmaster John Strover, who Captained Oxford University, and went on to play for England and Great Britain in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. The day was a great occasion with many reasons to enjoy the event, but it was also tinged with a hint of sadness, as the match was also played in honour of Ed Shaylor (Shenstone, left 1997) who sadly passed away earlier this year. Ed was School 1st team hockey captain, and also played for the OSHC 1st XI for several years before work took over his Saturdays. His family attended and Ed’s widow brought along their son who had a wonderful day at the club’s great facilities. Before the game, a minute’s silence was held and the newly constructed video tower was named in his honour. As Ed worked as a cameraman in his professional career it seemed a fitting Old Silhillians v Warwickians tribute. The match itself proved to be a great spectacle – the Silhillians had made a great effort to focus on the ‘Old Boys’ element of the game and assembled a crack team made up of players who had left the school in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and even in the last 2 years. The side wore new shirts which paid homage to the school shirts of the 90s (see photo opposite). Each player had their house colour added to their shirt sleeve trim and the squad was made up as follows – 7 x Shenstone, 4 x Windsor, 3 x Pole, 3 x Fetherston and 1 x Jago. The squad put on a sterling performance, but in all honesty, the age profile of the Old Silhillians’ XI struggled to match that of the Old Warwickians’ XI with 3 of their players only qualifying as Old Boys because they left school in June 2013. The difference in the fitness levels of the two teams was fairly apparent in the last 15 minutes of the match. Nevertheless, the first half was an enthralling affair, with Solihull going behind to the first penalty corner of the game, but minutes later equalising through a slick move ending with a clinically finishedMark Hoefield goal – very much game on. The home side then took the lead a few minutes later with Hoefield picking up his second and the Silhillians looked very much in control. Unfortunately, much as the Old Sils team had a lot of possession, the Warwick side always had pace on its side. They exploited the tactic of stretching the play to good effect and just before half-time forced the equaliser as a midfield runner was not picked up and latched onto the initial save from Paul Lawrence in goal to fire home from the top of the D. In the second half the fitness and pace of the visitors proved too much. They scored 3 goals as the Solihull side tired, and took a 5-2 lead, but with a few minutes to go, Nathan Hemming latched onto a loose ball in the D and scored a consolation, to leave the final score at 5-3. Typical Silhillian hospitality was shown after the game with a few drinks and some excellent food for both sides, and whilst the The Strover Shield was reluctantly handed over, planning has already started for next year when a more ‘youthful’ Solihull side will be selected. If you wish to take part in or get more information about next year’s Strover Shield Game or the potential Inter-House Old Boys tournament that is being 82 suggested for Summer 2014 then please contact - [email protected] , , , (Fetherston, 1976-83) (Fetherston, (Pole, left 2012) left (Pole,

(Shenstone, left 1994) left (Shenstone,

(Windsor, 1999-2010) (Windsor,

, Nick Oppenheimer , Dan Chamberlain , Neil Mortimer , John Whiting (Shenstone, 1991-1997) (Shenstone, (Shenstone. Left 1994) Left (Shenstone. (Shenstone, left 2000) left (Shenstone, (Shenstone, 1990-96) (Shenstone, (Windsor, 1986-96) (Windsor,

Lawrence , Paul , James Snelus Tabb , Steve , Nathan Hemming , Andre Tchakhotine (Fetherston, left 1996) left (Fetherston, (Windsor, left 1979) left (Windsor,

(Pole, left 1997) left (Pole, (Shenstone, 1989-98) (Shenstone, Mark Dovey

(Pole, 1995-2006) (Pole,

, Gary Perkins Mark Hoefield Standing - Standing Mallory Percival (Jago, 1990-2001) (Jago, Kneeling - Iain Belcher Kneeling

Tom Bates Bates Tom 83 Old Silhillians Golfing Society http://www.silhillians.net/Sports-Clubs/Golf Our final event of 2012 was The December Vase, we had a record 84 competitors on the day – a superb turnout in foggy and frosty conditions. Tim Mulrey lifted the De- cember Vase with a staggering 43 points. Bertie Parkes (School House, 1959-69) won in handicap category 16-24, with Roger Cupit (Jago, 1948/58) collecting the David Powell Memorial Salver for Veterans. The success of the day can be gauged by the fact that it was a record afternoon for bar takings at Olton Golf Club! The photograph to the left is of the attendees at the lunch that day. Back in April I was honoured enough to be elected as Captain of the Golf Society. The OSGS remains to be the only society within the association whose members are exclusively Old Sils. We are very fortunate to have such an active society supported by the work of the unsung heroes on the Committee and from within the ranks. We had not fared so well in recent years with our results in our A Team Matches but 2013 has seen an upturn in our fortunes. The A Team achieved a half with Ladbrook Park at the start of the season and then had wins against Copt Heath and Robin Hood – these matches included some unlikely appearance from Harry Westall (Fether- ston, left 1999), who travelled up from London, just for the afternoon, and Seve Hamilton (Windsor, left 1977) who stood in at 24 hours’ notice, when visiting Solihull, away from his normal base in Thailand! Both of course provided us with wins. This undefeated record was put to the test in our annual 24 a side match against Olton, captained by our very own John Belcher (Shenstone, 1962-70), where it could be said that strength in depth did become a bit of an issue when, 48 hours before the match, I poached Olton’s best player and the Olton club Captain Louis Meryon (Fetherston, left 1995). Thus confirming that Louis’ allegiances of course are with the Sils! A hard fought game resulted in a narrow 5 – 7 defeat. It was, as always, a tremendous day – with a superb luncheon and great companionship! The support given by Olton Golf Club to the Society is so very much appreciated. 84 The B Team under the experienced captaincy of Paul Sports Reports

James Hetherington, Ben Harrison, Louis Meryon, Barney Dowding David Fleet, John Parrott (Captain-elect), Will Westall (Captain) and Richard Turner Gilbert (Windsor, 1966-74) started the season with a new fixture against The Av- enue Bowling Club – this somewhat less than renowned golfing institution managed to pull off a 5.5 – 0.5 win. Most likely due to ‘stand-in’ Captain Tim Platt (Fetherston, 1965-73) allowing the opposition full handicap difference! The ABC have been a great addition to the B Team fixture list and the Society thoroughly enjoyed a return match of snooker and dinner later in the summer – needless to say no one could remember the outcome of the snooker! Normal B Team service was resumed after this early season ‘blip’ with a win against Olton, a half against Old Eds and narrow defeat to Old Veseyans closed out the season. In Society competitions this year, The President’s men were again victorious against the Captain’s Team and won the A G Bragg trophy 11 – 9. The Wiseman Foursomes competition was won by Louis Meryon and Tim Mulrey (Fetherston, 1986-94) with an outstanding 65 net. The OSA Challenge Cup was won by Alan Schofield (Windsor, left 1973) with the Charles Hill Salver being picked up by the Captain, the Senior Salver was collected by the ever popular Pete Strickland (Fetherston, 1957-61) who announced his rare visit to the winners’ enclosure by buying everyone a drink! The day also saw the introduction of pupil members playing in Society fixtures, thanks to work done by last year’s Captain Damian 85 Kelly (Windsor, 1981-88), President John Duncombe (Shenstone, 1955-59) and school liaison officer John Loynton. We had a number of pupils playing on the day for the Challenge Jug which was won by George Taylor. The invitation event this year was played as a greensomes, which proved to be a very popular format with the highest entry for a number of years, won by John Lees (Windsor, 1951-61) and Mike Bowes who collected the Roy Letts Salver.

Sports Reports The Captain’s Away Day was held in early September at Astbury Hall, with 32 members and 20 guests playing on the day - this was yet another record attendance for the society. Fortunately we had the course and the club house, at Ast- bury Hall, exclusively for the day so there was no one to complain about our golf or halt our progress to the bar! The morning team competition was won by Bar- ney Dowding (Pole, 1986-95), Tim Mulrey, Harry Westall and Dan Forster – with Dan featuring on almost all of the holes! The afternoon pairs’ competition was won again by Harry Westall and Dan Forster with this time Harry doing his fair share of the work in shooting a career best gross 67! Astbury Hall was superb venue for such a day – probably the best greens any of us had putted on all year - we may not however be welcomed back after Bob Standley (Fetherston, 1957- 63) mistook the owner, Judas Priest Rock legend KK Downing, for a greenkeeper! Our annual pilgrimage to North Norfolk for the finals of the Grafton Morrish has just taken place in the last week of September at Hunstanton and Brancaster - with over 30 people joining us over the weekend we were by far the best supported team at the event. We had superb wins against very strong Millfield and then Epsom teams before losing to eventual winners Merchant Taylors’ in the quarter finals. The result of the match went down to the last game, last hole and last putt – could not have been closer. With 3 quarter-final appearances in the last 3 years, there are not many teams who can equal that. It’s been great to share my time in office with PresidentJohn Duncombe alongside the hard work of the Committee John Belcher, Tim Platt, Paul Gilbert and John Parrott (Windsor, 1967-73). With growing participation in society matches and competitions I can only see the Society continue to go from strength to strength. Will Westall (Fetherston, left 1993), Captain Old Silhillians Hockey Club www.silshockey.co.uk Another year saw another fantastic 12 months for the club. The question at the start of the season was whether the London 2012 ‘legacy’ really would deliver; quite simply, yes it has. The season saw the Junior section more than double in size, showing remarkable growth compared to the size of the section just 4 years ago before the astroturf was laid at the Silhillians – in 2009, the club had around 35 junior members, last year saw the club enrol its 170th Junior member, with all indications showing that 86 the club will exceed 200 in the 2013/14 season. Sports Reports The success of the club is not just about numbers though, and the highlight of the season was the Ladies 1st team charging up the table to win the Worcestershire League on the last game of the season, though promotion for the Men’s 2nds and Men’s 3rds were also great indications that the club is definitely moving in the right direction. The Club’s reputation and relationship building is also going very well, for the 2nd time in Jamie Clapham (Windsor; 1997-2003) and 3 years, OSHC was shortlisted Jamie Glynn (Windsor, left 2005) track back to for the England Hockey Club of break down an opposition attack the Year, and is also in the top 3 for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Community Sports Club of the Year (results announced 7th November). Perhaps most importantly, the relationship with the School is developing well, with many pupils playing for the club, and also the clubs provides regular coaching resource to the school teams, and this season, the School 1st XI will be umpired by an Old Silhillian – thanks to Jon Cloke (Wind- sor, 1980-85) for helping the school out. Away from the club, players have regularly been playing representative hockey, with around 10 players making it into the County (Academy) squads, and of those, 5 made it into the Regional squads. This is a further reflection of the work that has been going on to offer additional opportunities for all to play hockey. The club’s programme now includes U14 sides competing in National competitions against the likes of Cannock and Beeston (and beating them), BackToHockey which is an initiative focussed specifically on getting Ladies of all ages back into the sport, Rush Hockey for more casual players, and our ever popular Veterans team which continues to go from strength to strength. The upcoming season is already shap- ing up to be an exciting one, with the Ladies 1sts playing in the Midlands divisions for the first time in over 10 years, a Ladies 3rd team playing regular fixtures, which also includes a move over from the Worcestershire league to the Warwickshire league and a Saturday Lions development squad playing in the newly formed Warwickshire and Northamptonshire league, to add to the continuing Sunday Badgers and Vixens development sides. Hopes are also high for the Men’s section, with the Men’s 1st team having already won 3 trophies for the season, before the end of September – they won the West Midlands division of the Summer League, and then went on to secure the overall Mercia Summer League title defeating the winners of the Staffs, Warwickshire and Worcestershire divisions; but perhaps 87 most impressively, they won the Warwickshire Trophy in the first year of its re- running since it was discontinued 15 years ago. The future is looking incredibly bright, and the planned expansion and refurbishment of the clubhouse can only help lead to more success. It is not possible to look forward to a bright future without looking back on what has been achieved, and on that note a few notable things should be mentioned.

Sports Reports The Club introduced Chairman’s Colours for the first time ever which were awarded to all players (of recent years) who have played at least 5 years of 1st Team Hockey and held a Main Committee position for at least 3 years – these were awarded at the 2013 President’s Dinner (by Olympian Hockey players Helen Ri- chardson and Dan Fox) to Max Levenger (Fetherston 1983-94), James Clapham (Windsor, 1997-2003) and Andre Tchakhotine (Shenstone, 1990-96) from the men’s section and Susan Maule and (posthumously) Heather Linley from the ladies section. The club also held the inaugural Old Boys of Solihull v Old Boys of Warwick featured earlier in these pages. Finally, the club must thank the outgoing Ladies Club Captain Matt Fell for having helped support and grow the Ladies section so well during his 2 years in charge, which incidentally coincided with him stepping down from having been Men’s 1st team Captain for several years – considering he is an Old Bromsgrovian his support of the club has been exemplary (and continues to be, in a non-committee position). The club is always keen to hear from anyone wishing to play, and has almost every possible option to offer to people keen to pick up a stick – if you are tempted, please email Club Chairman Steve Tabb at [email protected] or get more information off the club website www.silshockey.co.uk Steve Tabb (Windsor, 1986-96), Chairman Silhillians Rugby Union Football Club www.silhillians.com On the face of things it’s fair to say that the 2012/13 season was pretty successful for the club. 1st XV champions, the Saxons challenging the top of their league once again, and a resurrected Saints side under the leadership of Ian White enjoying several fixtures. The Saxons have once again had another successful season. Led by Andy Cunning- ton with the help of Steve Allso (Pole, 1966-72) they have again finished amongst the top 4 in their respective league for the 4th consecutive year. The Saxons somewhat amazingly used over 65 players this season and this lack of continuity in selection makes their success even more impressive. However of those 65 there were been a few constants. Quentin Maclaurin did a great job in encouraging several of last year’s colts to make the step up to senior rugby. Chris- tie Maclaurin, Brad Stonehewer, Tom Wells, Ben Findon, Andy Graham, Olly Grant and Lini Frederick all deserve mentions. The majority of these lads played week in week out and there is no doubt that without their enthusiasm and commitment we would have struggled to get a 2nd team out. It’s great to see the future of the 88 club playing great rugby and enjoying themselves at the same time. Sports Reports

Tom Lee (Shenstone, left 2007), Matt Lee (Shenstone, left 2009), Lee Jones (Windsor, 1990-2000), Alex Kirke (Windsor, 2003-10),Dan Kelly (Jago, 2011-13), Matt Bacon (Fetherston 2000-11) & Ollie Beech (Jago, 2002-09) In all forms the Saxons played 25, won 17, drew 1 and lost 7. Only 4 of those losses came in the league and considering 2 of those were against the runaway league leaders, Nuneaton Development, it was a fantastic season. Highlights include, drawing at Newbold 25 all, edging out Old Yards 19-18, beating a good Stratford side towards the end of the season, the double over Old Covs and, of course, winning the Bog Seat. For the 1st XV The season started with a few changes, a new league, and a new coach. Pre-season went well and we started the campaign full of confidence, that was soon knocked out of us during the 1st 40 minutes of the season. Two de- feats at the start of the season to Stafford and Moseley Oak and I’m sure Gareth Taylor our new coach was looking at the small print of his contract! However, we then went on a 15 game winning streak. It wasn’t perfect but there were some great performances along the way. Some particular highlights are obvious. The demolition of Leek 42-0, defeating the then league leaders Wolver- hampton 39-18, an emphatic 60 points to 5 win over Spartans followed a week later by another hard fought victory 25-18 away at Leek. My personal favourite though has to be our 1st win and 3rd game of the season. Away at Spartans, a difficult place to go even without several players missing. Spartans threw everything they had at us, a massive defensive display and opportunistic tries made sure of a 19-12 victory that would kick start our season. The job was done with a 38-17 victory over Stafford and the celebrations started. With the league won we had one game left against Moseley Oak the following week. After suffering a defeat against them at the start of the season motivation was not an issue. In a tough game we came out on top with a last gasp try in the final play of the game which triggered more celebrations, the likes of which I’ll never forget. 89 Throughout the season there were top performances all round. Lee Jones (Wind- sor, 1990-2000) and Mark O’Leary, two of our more experienced players, helped guide us to victory on several occasions. We also had an influx of younger guys who brought enthusiasm and energy to the side on and off the pitch. Names that may well be familiar to you as Old Sils such as Ollie Beech (Jago, 2002-09), Ro- han Thompson (Jago, 2003-2010), Matt Bacon (Fetherston 2000-11), Matt Lee

Sports Reports (Shenstone, left 2009) and Nick Elliot (Windsor, 1998-2009) have all established themselves in the 1st XV and undoubtedly contributed huge amounts to our success. These guys also took our New Zealand import, Tamanui Hill under their wing who made a big impact in his first season at the Sils. This season sees us playing at the highest level in the club’s history and I’m extremely proud to be leading the side. Although not an Old Sil myself I joined the club 20 years ago playing under the leadership of Terry Morgan in a very successful youth set up and therefore feel very passionate about the club. Today our mini and Junior and Colts set up keeps getting stronger and stronger and is something the club can be very proud of. We have seen several players come through the ranks and now play an important role in the the club’s success. We have made a strong start this season in Midlands 1 playing some very attractive rugby and, if you don’t do so already, I invite you to come down and support the teams and catch up with friends, old and new. Pete Nicholls, 1st XV Captain Old Silhillians Squash Club http://www.silhillians.net/Sports-Clubs/Squash The on line booking system continues to operate well and has transformed our cash flow as members have to pay up front and it also mainly eliminates courts being booked but not used. Anyone wishing to view the new booking system or join the squash section can visit the website on www.squashbooking.co.uk/ silhillians We have once again participated in Division 5 of the Winter Warwickshire League. With only a small number of players to choose from it meant that on several occasions we had to field a weaker team than we would have liked. However all players performed well and the team finished a very credible third out of a total of nine. Players involved in team squash were Phil Guest, Phil Nash, Arthur Adair, Phil Davies, Steve Chant, Ray Mills, Teale Withers (Fetherston, left 1981), Andrew Tippings, Makhan Singh. The final league table is set out below: Team P W L D F A Pts 1 LA Fitness 2 16 14 2 0 198 108 276 2 Warwick Boat 2 16 12 4 0 185 112 253 3 Silhillians 1 16 10 6 0 154 150 217 90 4 Esporta 3 16 9 7 0 139 135 200 Sports Reports 5 Fox Hollies 1 16 7 9 0 150 159 193 6 Kings Heath 2 16 7 9 0 141 158 184 7 Coleshill 16 6 10 0 145 152 177 8 D Lloyd (Sol) 1 16 6 10 0 117 160 160 9 Wark Univ 3 16 1 15 0 95 190 108 Unfortunately we have had to remove the advertising sign at the main entrance at the junction with the Warwick Road due to Local Authority and Highway issues. This was an important advertising media for us. Membership levels have continued to remain fairly buoyant with numbers almost identical to the previous year. In a bid to promote both squash and racketball we have waived the joining fee for prospective members who join before the end of October. We are very keen to increase our membership for both squash and racketball for players of all ages and standards. Our subscription rates remain very competitive and anyone interested in joining the squash and racketball section should contact John Milne on 0121 733 6250 / 07736 110843. One of the main reasons we are finding it difficult to attract new members is the lack of facilities that we can offer and the unsuitable arrangement of changing rooms, courts and bar areas when compared with other local clubs. However, once the plan to refurbish the clubhouse is completed the new arrangement will solve many of the adjacency issues mentioned above and we are hopeful that the squash section will be far more attractive to prospective new members. We desperately need new changing rooms that are integral to the main building together with a clean access to the courts and bar areas. With these in place it is hoped that the club will prosper and attract new membership for both squash and racketball, especially juniors who we are very keen to encourage. This year we have continued to maintain both the courts and changing areas in a clean and sound condition on a limited budget but have postponed any major improvements to the changing areas until the planning consent was known. Roger Taylor (Fetherston, 1954-66), Chairman The Hicklin Cup The annual Hockey Club versus Rugby Club Golf match for the Hicklin Cup took place in early October returning to Stonebridge GC. After a few years of the Hockey Club being dominant, SRUFC Captain Jim Roper had secured a number of seasoned campaigners to strengthen the team and to give their ‘oppo’ a fight, which indeed they did. After a number of relatively close matches, the last match was the decider and the Rugby Club ended victorious to win the cup 4 - 2.

The match, followed by a very sociable dinner for all players back at the Club- house, will be continued in future years and hopefully the Hockey Club will be back on form to win it back next year. Max Levenger (Fetherston, 1983-94) 91 We acknowledge with thanks, the support and interest of the following:

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