ANo. 38l|dOctoebern20 10 hamiana

Published by THE OLD ALDENHAMIAN SOCIETY Aldenham School, Elstree, Hertfordshire WD6 3AJ, England Email: [email protected] www.oldaldenhamian.org Tel: 01923 858122 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Fowler for the School and an editing team of Roger Payne (CR71-2000) and John Edwards (B46-51) . We hope that I am delighted to take over the role of President of the OA many OAs will want to purchase a copy of the interesting and Society at a time when its affairs are in fine shape and our attractive colour A4 ‘coffee table’ volume. Further details can membership is buoyant. I am committed to ensuring the OA be found later in the magazine or from the OA and Society continues to prosper and ask for your help by Development Office. supporting the Society through attending its activities over the We are well advanced in planning a combined Aldenham coming year. School and OA Society trip to Ypres on Friday 6 May 2011 to commemorate the 163 OAs who fell in the Great War by My first task in this letter is thank our former President, Mike dedicating a plaque in St George’s Chapel. These events will Taylor CBE DL (SHE56-61) for his outstanding leadership of the Society over the past 7 years, such a long tenure testifies be followed by a reception where OAs will be guests of the to Mike’s true dedication to the Society. During that time many School, Sunset ceremony at the Menin Gate and a restaurant OA Society initiatives have been successfully developed and dinner. The next day, Saturday 7 May, there will have a guided delivered. Fortunately we will continue to have the benefit of tour of several of the most interesting sites led by Colonel Mike’s wise counsel as he has accepted the role of Vice Tony Hacon , an expert in this field. Further details and an President, subject to agreement of the 2010 AGM. application form can be found inside. It promises to be a very memorable trip which I know will be of interest to many OAs. The Society’s finances continue to be well managed by Finally, my thanks on behalf of the Society for the excellent Richard Peart (SHO55-60) and the Society has provided grants to several OA Society clubs, as well as sponsorship of support we receive from the Headmaster, James Fowler , and worthwhile adventure pursuits of Aldenham pupils. We are his academic and support staff, and to the OA and considering changes to the membership of the Society to Development Office, Molly Barton and Jackie Wilkie , without reflect the broadening of the Aldenham School pupil whose efforts much of what we do would be impossible. And population and will bring proposals to the next AGM in 2011. off course our dedicated OA Committee, who have helped to Our aim will be to retain membership flexibility for the future manage the Society’s affairs during another busy year. We are while securing a core of normally eligible pupils from the very keen to have representation from younger OAs on the senior school. Committee so if you would like to volunteer or hear more then please contact me via Molly Barton. Meanwhile, my thanks to Our main OA event of the year was on 27 May 2010 OA Day Aldenhamiana’s editor, Trevor Barton (K71-75) , for pulling which was very well attended and enjoyed by over 90 OAs. It together another excellent magazine. was a Beevor’s Gaudy this year and we were particularly pleased to see Beevor’s OAs and House teaching staff from Neil Sutherland OBE pre-war years right up to those who left only last year. The tried and tested format of a Chapel Service, drinks reception and a OA SOCIETY PRESIDENT RETIRES delicious lunch in the Dining Hall, under the watchful eye of Richard Platt. Afternoon entertainment was provided by Following the 2010 AGM England playing in the World Cup on widescreen TV in the Mike Taylor CBE DL (SH56-61) Beevor’s Lower, which was less successful than the excellent retired as President of the OA exhibition of Beevor’s memorabilia kindly prepared by the Society and handed over the Housemaster and his Deputy, Stuart Mainwaring and the Rev reins to Dan Bond, to whom grateful thanks are given. Neil Sutherland OBE (B66-70) . To mark the occasion Our OA sporting societies – Football and Golf – continue to the Headmaster presented attract good quality players and always welcome new OAs. Mike with a copy of the The OA Football Club has had a difficult year after its Quatercentenary Print of the withdrawal from the Arthurian League last season. However, School by Charlotte Halliday. the Club is now back in the Arthurian League for the 2010/11 season and is keen to engage new OA players so that it can field full First and Second XIs. For further details, please see HEADMASTER’S LETTER the OAFC advert on the back page of the magazine. I write to you at the beginning of another school year with Our next major event is the OA Dinner on 19 November all the hopes and expectations that the 413th year of the 2010. We have ‘refreshed’ the this year’s format to include School’s existence will be as distinctive as many that have what promises to be a most interesting pre-dinner talk in the preceded it. As I reflect on the last School year, I will of School Theatre by , who Major Russell Lewis MC (S86-91) course be drawn to think about the high points: a wonderful will recall his time in Afghanistan leading a company of paratroopers in some of the fiercest fighting the British Army CCF inspection carried out by Lord Vincent; a splendid has engaged in since Korea. After the talk we will adjourn Visitation Day conducted by the High Sheriff of direct to the Dining Hall for an excellent dinner where we will Hertfordshire, Gerald Corbett; the opportunity to hear the welcome our principal guest and speaker the Headmaster, new school harp in recital for the first time; and our James Fowler , who will update us on the many inaugural John Dewes Cricket match at which our most achievements of the School this year. Please make every distinguished OA cricketer was present to award the trophy. effort to support the event. Yet, I am as excited by the smaller things that go to make up pride in the School on a daily basis as any of this, such Another activity with OA involvement is the new Aldenham as when a prospective parent tells me that it is the School History which is being driven forward by James

2 distinctive warmth of the greeting that they received on Work on this volume is already well underway with their first visit to the School that means they will be John Edwards (B46-51) and Roger Payne (CR71-2000) choosing our school for their son. acting as our Editors. I hope that this book will offer the perspective on our shared past that many will value. These parents will recognise that what will shape their child’s future is far more than the simple academic Of course the writing of such a History will in no way stop programme that they will be following, although of course our planning for the future and therefore I am delighted to it is in the classroom that our students excel so often. I am tell you that the next year will see the completion of sure that you will be delighted by the very good results planning and the start of building of a wonderful new Sixth achieved by our students at A Level and at GCSE which Form Centre and enhanced Music School. At the time of are noted below. For any pupil to gain more than four our last major development of the Theatre your support in grade As at A Level is a considerable achievement and yet so many ways was invaluable and I look forward to giving three boys did so last year. We have little doubt that you more details of this project and our appeal for its parents now again recognise that bright children as well as successful completion later in the year. If this new building those of more average abilities flourish in the School. I is as highly valued and as well used as the new Theatre fully believe this is because of the confidence in the has been we will be able to look forward to another exciting approach of the School which our teachers exhibit, not enhancement of School life. I very much hope that we will least by their loyalty to the idea of a fully rounded have the chance to welcome you to the School over the education. And I am especially delighted that the next year. Governors of the School show a similar commitment to our ethos. Amongst our new governors over the last year we James Fowler have been able to welcome two more distinguished OAs, Alan Day (K69-74) and Trevor Barton (K71-75) , whose support is already proving invaluable. A LEVEL RESULTS

This is clearly indicative of our wish that the School and the The results for the year group who completed their A Levels OA community should be able to work in tandem and I in 2010 are shown below, together with the results for the would particularly commend to you two events that will previous two years. As a result of these results the mark this association over the next twelve months. Firstly in students were able to gain places at universities for further May 2011, the opportunity for you to join the School in study ( 75% to their first choice university). Overall the honouring OAs who fell in the First World War at a results were some of the best achieved by students at the ceremony in Ypres. I hope that many of you will want to join school with a 98% pass rate and 54% of the examinations us on this momentous trip for the unveiling of a plaque and being graded at either A*, A or B grades. Therefore the a ceremony at the Menin Gate. Secondly, the publication of combined figure for A* and A grades of 24% meant a very a fully illustrated History of the School in Autumn 2011. good year for our top achievers.

A Level Grade 20 10 Grade Boys Boys (%) Girls Girls (%) Total Pupils Total (%) A* 13 63967 A 39 19 2641 17 B 58 29 12 34 70 30 C 49 24 6 17 55 23 D 25 12 5 14 30 13 E 16 8514 21 9 Entries 202 25 237 A Level Grade 2009 Grade Boys Boys (%) Girls Girls (%) Total Pupils Total (%) A 36 19 3 12 39 18 B 52 28 4 16 56 26 C 45 24 9 36 54 25 D 30 16 6 24 36 17 E 17 92819 9 Entries 188 25 213

A Level Grade 2008 Grade Boys Boys (%) Girls Girls (%) Total Pupils Total (%) A 36 19 8 32 44 20 B 42 22 8 32 50 23 C 57 30 6 24 63 29 D 31 16 3 12 34 16 E 16 80016 7 Entries 191 25 216

3 GCSE Grade 2010 orders and a few cheques, bringing in an annual total of over £3000. Sadly, 5 members died last year, and a few did Aldenham National not renew standing orders which expired, but we have had Grade Pupils Average some newcomers. A* 7.70 % 7.5% A 22.5% 15.1% As so few members attend the annual meeting in March, I B 29.7% 20.6% feel it is appropriate that you should know a little of our C 21.2% 25.9% finances. Our main income is from the 20-year D/E/F/G 14.6% 30.9% subscriptions collected from students in their last years at the School. This was almost £20,000 last year. Last year GCSE Grade 2009 we received £2,620 interest on investments and £518 profit Aldenham National on the annual dinner. The total income was £26,280. Grade Pupils Average Our main expenditure is on the production of A* 7.70% 6.30% Aldenhamiana and postage. Last year this was £7,600, but A 21.30% 13.10% is set to rise with the increase in postal charges. At this B 32.90% 19.10% point I must thank Trevor and Molly Barton who put C 25% 25.80% together all the articles and assemble the layout. We also D/E/F/G 13.20% 35.70% paid almost £7,000 for secretarial assistance from the School (Molly Barton and Jackie Wilkie), and £857 for GCSE Grade 2008 software and website maintenance. Aldenham National We continue to support the OA Football Club and the OA Grade Pupils Average Golfing Society and some small grants to school leavers, A* 7.80% 6.70% together with the excellent social event Aldenham.net. A 26.80% 13.90% Overall expenditure was £19720, leaving a surplus of about B 30.50% 19.80% £6560. C 23.60% 25.10% D/E/F/G 11.30% 34.50% We have investments of about £65000 in Treasury Stock and corporate bonds, to set against future expenditure, and 16 of the 79 students in the year group achieved at least 2 we keep a reserve of £8500 to fund the production of the A grades from their A levels with the top performers being new History of the School, which we expect to be published Anthony Lourides (A*/A*/A*/A), Yoel Noorali (A*/A*/A/A) in 2011. and Jordan Glassman (A*/A/A/A). All these students If anyone would like more details of the accounts, please achieved places at their chosen universities which will see email me at [email protected], or write to my address Aldenham students beginning studies at almost every top given at the back of Aldenhamiana . university across the country including Bristol, Exeter, Imperial, KCL, Liverpool, Loughborough, Manchester, Richard Peart Nottingham, Reading, Royal Holloway, Sheffield, Sussex, UCL, and Warwick. We congratulate all the students and staff on their efforts to EDITOR’S NOTES achieve these superb results. Sorting through, reading and editing this edition of Aldenhamiana , I have been struck by the rich history of GCSE RESULTS which we are part and the sheer variety of events in which OAs, and the OA Society, continue to be involved. Aldenham pupils were able to celebrate extremely Firstly we are proud to acknowledge the debt owed to those successful results at the end of Y11. 31 of the 82 students OAs who gave their lives in the First World War, some of in the year group gained 5 or more A*/A grades with the top whom appear on our front cover. This performers being Joshua Carr, Luke Moss, Hendre van Aldenhamiana Vuuren (11A*/A) Alex Porter, Robbie Porter, Jarrett Silver, features an invitation to OAs to join the School next year at Joseph Stephenson (10A*/A). The school as a whole was the dedication of a plaque in their memory in Ypres. able to record that 35% of all GCSEs taken were graded We also focus in this edition on Fives as well as our regular either A* or A against the national figure of 23% (JCQ). reports on OA Football and Golf; our obituaries recognise These results are a testament to the work of all the pupils and tell stories of some remarkable men; and the OA News and teachers involved. The majority of these students will section not only gives readers the opportunity to learn what proceed to study A Levels at the School and will hopefully be equally successful in completing those more demanding OAs are doing around the world, but also records some qualifications over the next two years. splendid OA events, where fond reminiscences mix with laughter and new friends are made. We hope that you will take the opportunity to participate in TREASURER’S REPORT an OA event soon, or send us your news, and in the meantime I hope you enjoy this Aldenhamiana . I am pleased to report a continuing interest in voluntary subscriptions to the Society. We now have 205 standing Trevor Barton

4 A PLEA FROM THE OA OFFICE FOR EMAIL ADDRESSES [email protected] Whilst we don’t want to bombard OAs with emails, email makes it a lot easier for the OA Office to keep in touch, particularly when we want to let you know about events, often at short notice, that are not in the calendar. Very good recent examples of this were Bill Kennedy’s funeral and Memorial Service. We also frequently get requests for contact details for OAs in different countries and email is by far the easiest way to get in touch. Currently out of 3538 members on the OA Society mailing list we have 1491 email addresses – so just over 50%. Whilst we understand a number of OAs don’t have email addresses, if you do, please can you share it with us.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 20 10 Saturday 9th October 2010 OAs v School Football Match. Kick off 1.30 pm followed by tea. Wednesday 27th October 2010 Regional Lunch in Northampton. Saturday 6th November 2010 Arthur Dunn Cup 1st Round 1st XI v Old Radleians (away) Venue and Time to be notified. Saturday 14th November 2010 Vets XI v Old Reptonians (home) - Arthurian League Vets Cup 1st Round, Kick off 11.00 am Friday 19th November 2010 OA Annual Dinner at the School – see flyer in this Aldenhamiana . Wednesday 15th December 2010 School Carol Service in St Albans Abbey at 7.00 pm – if you would like to attend contact the OA Office.

2011 Wednesday 3rd March 2011 Aldenham.net Tour of Tring Brewery with Talk, Ale Sampling, and Fish and Chip Supper. 7.15 – 10.15 pm. £16 per head. If you would like to join the tour contact the OA Office. Wednesday 9th March 2011 OA AGM – see flyer in this Aldenhamiana . Friday 6th May 2011 Dedication of Aldenham Plaque in St George’s Memorial Church, Ypres. See notice in this Aldenhamiana . Sunday 26th June 2011 OA Day featuring a Gaudy Reunion for Paull’s House – see flyer in this Aldenhamiana .

ALDENHAM.NET Do you have an office, premises, or other venue in the London postcode area in which the School could host an Aldenham.net event? Typically the event runs from 6.30 – 8.30 pm and there are drinks and snacks to eat. If you can help the Development Office would like to hear from you - please write to [email protected]

ALDENHAM SCHOOL: OA BOW TIE A FOUNDATION FOR SUCCESS Thinking of attending the OA Dinner? Want to look your best and impress your friends from School? You should A REMINDER definitely purchase an OA Bow Tie. The latest in sartorial OAs should by now elegance, and affordably priced. have received a colour brochure for the new book – Aldenham School: A Foundation for Success . In it you are invited to subscribe for a discounted copy of the book and to send Price £12.00 in contributions for inclusion. Contact The School Uniform Shop is now run by Stevensons Schools details are in the brochure and on the Outfitters of St Albans. You can order OA Ties and Bow Ties from their mail order department tel. 01727 853262 Option 1. Alternatively come School website. We look forward to to the School Shop, Monday to Friday 1.00 to 4.00 pm during term hearing from you. time. Get your order in…in plenty of time before the Dinner!

5 YPRES Friday 6th to Saturday 7th May 2011 On Friday 6th May 2011 the School will be dedicating a your own arrangements to visit Ypres for the Service or plaque in St George’s Memorial Church, Ypres, Belgium to choose from the following organised options. commemorate the members of Aldenham School who gave their lives in the Great War and subsequent conflicts. 163 Options and Costs per person OAs and former Masters died serving their country in the 1. The full trip including coach, ferry, dinner, hotel B&B, First World War. 129 are buried or remembered in France packed lunch and tour. £150* and Belgium, 29 of them in the Ypres Salient. 2. The full trip including coach, ferry, dinner, hotel B&B, The Headmaster is pleased to invite all OAs to join the packed lunch and tour plus single room supplement. School for the Dedication Service in St George’s Church. To £180* enable as many OAs as possible to take part in the Service 3. Dinner on Friday night, and the tour and packed lunch Neil Sutherland, President of the OA Society, with the on Saturday only - you make your own travel and hotel assistance of the OA Office, is organising a coach to Ypres arrangements. £90* and back. The coach will depart from the School at 8.00 am 4. I would like to attend the Dedication Service and on Friday 6th May, catching the ferry from Dover to Calais, Headmaster’s Reception. I will not take part in the tour staying overnight in the Novotel in Ypres, and returning to the and I will make my own travel, dinner and hotel School at approx 9.00 pm on Saturday 7th May. arrangements. No Charge OAs will arrive in Ypres on the Friday in time to join the For OAs making their own travel and hotel arrangements School at the Dedication Service at 4.45 pm. Following the we have arranged a group rate at the Novotel in Ypres. Service you are invited to join the Headmaster at a reception at the Novotel and then at 8.00 pm to witness the Last Post Email [email protected] , or telephone (+32) 57 Ceremony at the Menin Gate, at which the School will lay a 429600, Juanita Bogaerts and ask for the Aldenham wreath. On completion of the Last Post Ceremony, dinner Group Rate. has been arranged at a restaurant in Ypres. A useful website is http://www.ferrycheap.com. After breakfast on Saturday there will be a guided tour, by a Bookings for the trip, using the reply slip opposite (or a professional guide, of important sites in the Ypres area. photocopy) and enclosing a deposit of £50 per person, Museum entrance is included in the price and the tour will should be sent to the OA Office by Friday 29th January include: 2011. Please make cheques payable to “The Old • Sanctuary Wood Museum , one of the few places on Aldenhamian Society”. You can also download the reply the Ypres Salient battlefields where an original trench slip from the OA Section of the School Website layout can be seen in some semblance of what it might www.aldenham.com . have looked like. *If you would prefer not to have the arranged three course • Tyne Cot Cemetery , the largest Commonwealth dinner, the price for all of the above options will reduce by cemetery in the world and the most important reminder £20. Please email or write to Molly Barton in the OA Office of the battle of Passchendaele. to let her know [email protected].

• Langemark German Military Cemetery , the largest and THESE PRICES ARE CONDITIONAL AND MAY HAVE TO only one of four First World War German cemeteries in CHANGE IF THERE IS NOT A GOOD TAKE UP OF PLACES. the Flanders region. A complete contrast to the Commonwealth cemeteries.

• Essex Farm Advanced Dressing Station and Cemetery , this is believed to be the location where Major John McCrae wrote his famous poem In Flanders Field. We recommend that if you participate in the tour, you wear sensible walking shoes. On the Friday you will be able to buy a meal on the Ferry, or bring a packed meal. On Saturday a packed lunch will be provided. On completion of the tour we will return to Calais for the ferry back to Dover. The School hopes that as many OAs as possible will take part in the Dedication Service. You are welcome to make

6 YPRES Friday 6th to Saturday 7th May 2011

Name: .....………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Years at Aldenham: from ……...... ….. to ……...... ….. House ……………………………… Address………………………………………………………...... ….…………………………………… …………………………………...... …..…………………Post Code…………………………………... Tel: Home …………………………………………… Business……………..………………...……………… Mobile ……………………………………………….. Email …………………………………………………..

Name(s) of other guests ……………………...... ……………………………………………… Options: Cost: No of Places:

The full trip including coach, ferry, dinner, hotel B&B, £1 50 ………………… packed lunch, museum entry and guided tour.

The full trip including coach, ferry, dinner, hotel B&B, £1 80 ………………… packed lunch, museum entry and guided tour, plus single room supplement.

Dinner on Friday night, museum entry and guided tour, £90 ………………… and packed lunch on Saturday only - you make your own travel and hotel arrangements.

I would like to attend the Dedication Service and No Charge ………………… Headmaster’s Reception. I will make my own travel, dinner and hotel arrangements and do not want to take part in the guided tour.

Please tick box:

□ I/We would like a twin room □ I/We would like a double room.

Please send this reply slip to the OA Office, Aldenham School, Elstree, Herts WD6 3AJ by Friday 29th January 2011 enclosing a cheque for deposit of £50 per person made payable to “Old Aldenhamian Society”.

7 Ladies and Gentlemen If you would like to join the OA Society Committee (and volunteers would be warmly received) please contact the Honorary Secretary, Frank Rogers, whose details appear at the back of Aldenhamiana .

OLD ALDENHAMIAN GOLFING SOCIETY Grafton Morrish (Qualifier) 10 May at Royal Ashdown Forest Result: Did not qualify for Finals (81 points) Team: JMB Clemow & M Wallace 31 points SP Radin & J Surridge 27 points NJM Corbett & A Thrussell 23 points Thanks to Adam Thrussell who stepped in for Joel Bloomfield, who injured his neck the night before.

The Mellin Salver 9 July v Loretto at West Hill Result: Lost 1 - 2 Team: I Wilson-Soppitt & PJR Marsh Lost 1 down RRWB Cooke & JJ Irwin Won 1 up PJ Easby & IR Eggleden Lost 1 down

The Mellin Plate 9 July v Mill Hill at West Hill Result: Won 2½ - ½ Team: I Wilson-Soppitt & PJR Marsh Halved RRWB Cooke & JJ Irwin Won 3&2 PJ Easby & IR Eggleden Won 4&3

10 July v Felsted at West Hill (Semi Final) Result: Lost ½ - 2½ Team: I Wilson-Soppitt & PJR Marsh Lost 5&4 RRWB Cooke & RJ Coombes Lost 2&1 PJ Easby & IR Eggleden Halved

2 July v Lancing at West Hill Result: Lost ½ - 2½ Team: I Wilson-Soppitt & PJR Marsh Lost 5&4 RRWB Cooke & RJ Coombes Lost 2&1 PJ Easby & IR Eggleden Halved

The Peter Burles Salver 8 July v Loretto at West Hill Result: Lost 0 - 2 Team: FC Simeons & M Weatherhead Lost 8&7 MC Capon & K Dallas Lost 8&7

The Peter Burles Plate 8 July v Mill Hill at West Hill Result: Lost in play-off at 2nd extra hole Team: FC Simeons & M Weatherhead Lost 3&1 RC Chaventre & MW Blake Won 7&6

The Bunny Millard Salver 8 July at West Hill Result: Did not qualify with 18 points Team: RJ Coombes & CR Brown

8 Match v Old Leysians 12 May at Brookmans Park Result: Won 3 - 0Team: Team: P Bailey & FC Simeons Won WH Gamble & ND Melvill Won DS Oram &M Weatherhead Won

Match v Littlehampton 8 June at Littlehampton Result: Lost 2 - 3 Team: RRWB Cooke & K Dallas Halved IR Eggleden & ND Melvill Lost 1 down RJ Coombes & MC Capon Lost 2&1 MW Blake & RJ Buckley Won 3&2 FC Simeons & M Weatherhead Halved

Match Over 30's v School/Under 30's 30 June at Porters Park Result: Under 30s beat Over 30s Halved match but Under 30s won 1 hole more Teams: PJ Murphy & MC Capon Halved Over 30s DJ Vezey & JDL Yule Won 1 up ND Melvill & IR Eggleden Lost 2 down

Tom Clarke & Ashley Stephenson Under 30s Alex Milligan & Max Parker James Boothby & David Boothby

Other Meetings Further events are open to all members and include the Autumn Meeting and the Captain’s Invitation Day. We also play friendly matches against other schools, some in the afternoon, some all day and some at weekends. They are not so much of a competition as a social event and a lot of fun is had by all who attend, whatever their handicaps. We are always keen to welcome new members of all ages and handicaps so if you are interested, contact the Hon. Secretary whose details you will find at the back of Aldenhamiana .

Ian Eggleden (SHE58-63) sent in the following: I was given the attached photo by a golfing friend who played last year with these 3 OAs at Brancaster in Norfolk. They are (from right to left) Dick Hoff (SHO38-41), Ben Rust (SHE34-38) and Hubert Sheringham (SHO35-38).

Hubert was a farmer and also Chief of the famous Auctioneers in Aylsham but sadly has died since the pictured golf day. Dick is also a farmer and played for the OAs with Bob Coombes (SHE44-47) in the finals of the Bunny Millard Trophy at West Hill last year at the age of 86. He and Bob won the Trophy together in 2005. Ben ran a milling business.

9 HALFORD HEWITT 2010

Aldenham were once again well represented at the Halford Hewitt Tournament, which is held annually at Royal Cinque The team and results were as follows: Ports Golf Club and Royal St Georges. The competition is R.Alter & J.Stott won 2&1 played – 10 aside, in foursomes matchplay and we were SGO Williams & J.Surridge won 3&2 drawn against Downside in the 1st Round at Royal St Georges. J.Clemow & M.Wallace lost 2&1 Not only did we have a strong looking (and youthful!) team N. Corbett & J.Field lost 20th hole but we also had 23 stalwarts who were there to cheer the A. Thrussell & S.Radin lost 3&2 team on. The weather was benign with perfect sunshine and a mild breeze all week. We also had a new team captain in Nick Corbett, who took over the reins from Peter In the plate competition we defeated Mill Hill and lost in the Easby, who had been captain for many years. We also had 2nd round to a strong Wellington team. 2 ‘rookies’ in Jon Stott and James Surridge.

On paper our team was stronger than Downside but While a loss in round 1 is certainly a disappointment, we foursomes matchplay is always a difficult and unpredictable can take pride in the fact that our 2 new rookies won their game. matches and that we have a team now that is capable of Our top 2 pairs managed to win their matches and our 3rd ‘going all the way’ in the years ahead. and 5th pairs lost, so all was set for a deciding match 4. A big thank you to all the supporters who are an essential Nick Corbett and Joel Bloomfield were 1 up with 1 to play ingredient to the event – it was also great to see Robin and and Nick hit a splendid long iron that went just through the Carolyn Chaventre coming for the day despite Robin’s back of the green, unluckily leaving Joel in a very poor lie. medical difficulties. The opposition took 2 from just off the green and we took 3... On to the 19th hole…. Joel’s second shot underclubbed Others attending were: fractionally and finished under a steep face in the bunker Iain Muir Roger Cooke just short of the green – Nick could not even stand in the Guy Green Bob Coombes bunker. Downside’s second was fairly adjacent to the flag. Nobody knew of Nick’s ability as a contortionist (his Robin Chaventre (and Carolyn) Robert Aram nickname was D’Artagnon but that had more to do with his Michael Capon Keith Dallas small beard about 10 years ago – memories are long!!) and he succeeded miraculously to get the ball out of the bunker Warren Gamble Marcus Blake and close enough for Joel to rattle in the putt for an unlikely John Yule Phil Murphy half in four. Clive Simeons Ben Thrussell The ‘2 musketeers’ went to the 20th and there again were Tim Stranack Dick Hall unlucky with Nick’s excellent second which finished in a very difficult spot through the back of the green (too much Peter Easby David Rawlinson adrenalin?!). Downside got their 4 and we took 5. Amidst Ian Eggleden Phil Marsh great disappointment we repaired to the bar and duly celebrated with Downside their excellent win – the spirit in Steve Adams Neil Melvill which this tournament is played does great credit to public A good time was had by all! school education. It is a shame that this is not the case with all sports. Peter Easby

10 OA FOOTBALL CLUB

Robert Hill (K64-69) , newly appointed Chairman of the "Resuming competition in the First and Third Divisions of Club, reports: “Unfortunately memorable for the wrong the Arthurian League and the Veterans Cup our three reasons, last season imploded soon after our versatile teams will be aiming to restore the Club's fortunes and goalkeeper levelled a 2nd round Arthur Dunn Cup home tie banish memories of the very recent past, including an v Tonbridge in the 120th minute of a fiercely competitive unenviable disciplinary record, while building on the match in front of a large partisan crowd. Once a (to an positive aspects of OA football that have been seen in extent, inadvertent) serious breach of Dunn Cup and recent years, including great club spirit, a good relationship Arthurian League rules had been acknowledged we with the School, and some excellent performances on the withdrew from both competitions; there were no additional pitch. sanctions and the Club has been fully reinstated. “All OAs interested in joining the Club at whatever age and “The process of rehabilitation continues with a new standard of play are invited to get in touch with any of the (actually, quite old) Chairman and some structural contact names at the back of Aldenhamiana . Training takes alterations to the Club's governance and administration. place on the School astroturf pitch every Thursday at 8 pm, Matthew Allen (M86-91) accepted an invitation to return as and notable early fixtures include an under-25 1st XI v the Hon. Secretary and Toks Peters (K96-2003) takes over School on 9th October and an Arthur Dunn Cup 1st round the finances from Hanif Moledina (SHO82-87) , who over match away v Radleians on 6th November - winners at several seasons did more than could reasonably be home to Harrovians on 11th December. " expected to keep the accounts in order and the Club solvent.

ANOTHER AGE? Frank Rogers (SHE Dear Mr Bateson, 53-58) , Hon Secretary of the OA Society, was AFA SENIOR CUP V HALE END ATH 31.10.1987 sorting through some At their meeting on 3.11.1987 the Cup Committee fined your club £3 for being at old committee papers responsible for the kick off being at 2.23 instead of schedule time of 2.15. This was and came across this apparently due to the match ball not being inflated correctly at k.o. time. letter from the The committee were also concerned that no refreshment was offered to either the General Secretary of referee or the opposition. Whilst appreciating that this may be due to “half-term” we the Amateur Football do require an assurance that refreshment will be available in future AFA Cup games. Alliance to James Bateson (K75-80) , Yours sincerely, sent in 1987. General Secretary

ALDENHAM FIVES CLUB - www.aldenhamfives.co.uk Martin hangs up his Secretary’s gloves Martin Lindsay (retired as Secretary of the Aldenham Fives Club in February after 23 years service in the role. The long-serving left hander passed on the baton to fellow Heath player Phillip Lyndon (K76-81) at an awards ceremony in the Roundbush pub. Martin was awarded an engraved tankard and a special pair of golden fives balls by way of thanks for more than two decades as Secretary. Martin said: “After so long in the job, I thought it about time that I handed over the reins to someone else. It’s been an enjoyable 23 years during which I have seen a huge number of players come and Retiring Secretary of the Aldenham Fives Club, Martin go but always with a smile on their face.” Lindsay, shows off his new tankard. New Secretary Phillip Lyndon added: “Martin will be a hard act to LtoR Back Row: Simon Shepherd, Phil Lyndon (K76-81), follow. I dread to think what state I will be in if I last as long as Andrew Fraser (Aldenham’s Bursar), Rubel Malik (B96- Martin has. Luckily for Martin, he can now continue to play for us 2003), Josh Rose (B94-99), Paul Kendall (K76-81) without permanently carrying around a box of balls in the boot of his Front Row: Graham Pulsford (M71-75), Martin Lindsay, car. I’ve got the box now.” Jim Fredenham

11 FIVES IS FLOURISHING AT ALDENHAM BY MARTIN LINDSAY

The School has a long and distinguished tradition for fives, Whilst it is not strictly an OA club, over half of its players are so it is good to see that the courts are in use and the game either OAs or current school boys and the present Hon. is still played regularly to a high standard, particularly when Secretary, Phillip Lyndon, is himself an OA. Ages range the adult game has been struggling to find and retain from pensioner to teenager and everything in between, with players. mixed abilities (although the overall standard is good). Much of this is attributable to The Aldenham Fives Club - The club operates virtually every Tuesday in the year – started some 25 years ago as The Heath Eton Fives Club summer fives can be very pleasant – commencing at 7.30 by the then headmaster Mr Boorman, a few OAs and and playing to about 9.30 whence members adjourn to the several local players. Early years saw considerable Roundbush for refreshment. Quarterly curry nights are a success in the League with The Heath winning the Second post-play feature and there’s an annual dinner which division twice and seldom dropping below third place (the lamentably is not often annual… option to move up to the Premier division was always Anyone wishing to revisit Eton Fives will be more than rejected as members had a deep-rooted aversion to welcome. Just turn up on Tuesday or contact Phil Lyndon travelling to the Midlands to play!). whose details can be found at the back of Aldenhamiana . By popular consent, the club then left the League, preferring to concentrate upon the social game played ‘at home’ every Tuesday evening, followed by drinks and THE 2010 HEATH TOURNAMENT sandwiches in the Three Horseshoes. Several large ‘meetings’ were instigated, pitting The Heath against massed Berkhamstedians, conglomerates of Old Citizens and other denizens and a high-turnout fixture at Eton against a similar club called The Brigands which continues to this day. In addition the club set up and ran a monthly tournament at Eton called Funky Fives which was attended by many of the country’s top players and organised several Fancy Dress Fives evenings at the Aldenham courts. The Club hosts the successful annual Heath Tournament, capably run by Graham Pulsford, which is restricted to Club members and specially invited guests. Three fixed-length games are played, the winners being those with most points scored, followed by a barbecue at the courts arranged through the kind auspices of the Bursar – who is also a club member. Aldenham also hosts the Eton Fives Association (EFA) Ladder competition twice a year and the latest initiative is to start a Club Ladder in similar format which will also be open to any of the School pupils who attend the regular soirees. Virtually all club players belong to the EFA and we LtoR Gareth Hoskins, Simon Turpin, Paull Kendall have a proud record of no fewer than ten members of the The annual Heath Tournament was played on Sunday 9th May and was won by Simon Turpin (B2002-07) and Gareth Hoskins. Ten exclusive Jesters Club. pairs competed, mainly club members, and one current pupil Carl Some three years ago the club’s name was changed to The Rennie, son of Simon Rennie (SHO70-74) . The pictures shows last year’s winner Paul Kendall (K76-81) presenting the trophy to Simon Aldenham Fives Club with the objectives of cultivating and Gareth. closer connection with the School, being seen as a natural venue for OAs wanting to play social fives and of helping to enthuse and train any pupils who wanted to participate.

12 EROS RUN

Once again, while the rest of Hertfordshire slept, various Aldenhamians, staff members, OAs and friends of the School gathered at the School for the minibus journey into central London. An hour later, after a stretching of muscles, the traditional photograph with Eros in the background observed by other (open- mouthed at 5.00 am) inhabitants of Piccadilly, a last gulp of water, the 30 or so runners were Runners gather at Eros, Piccadilly off on the annual Eros to Eros run. Up Regent Street, left at Oxford Circus, along Oxford Street, turn right up the Edgware Road, and dig in for the long haul on, on, up and over. With brilliant support from the many helpers, drivers, waterers, monitors, timers, all made it safely to the finish. All OA participants were made very welcome and ran strongly. Come and join in next year – it is an inspirational, inclusive event of which the School is rightly proud. Let the OA office know if you are interested. Jonathan Shubert (K98-05) Alan Philips (M77-82) reaches the end

A REMINDER OF THE SUBSCRIPTION ARRANGEMENTS FOR OA SOCIETY MEMBERS

New membership subscription arrangements were unanimously approved at the Society’s AGM in 2002, in order to put the finances of the Society on a sounder footing and to enable the Society to provide members with an improved service, particularly by way of an expansion of the web site.

From September 2002 pupils who wish on leaving the School to join the OA Society (or their parents) have paid a lump sum which gives membership of the Society for a fixed period of 20 years. Thereafter such members will be invited to continue their membership by paying an annual subscription.

As a further part of these new arrangements, all existing Life Members of 20 years plus standing (i.e. who left the School twenty years ago or more) are invited to pay a voluntary annual subscription to the Society. This works on a rolling basis and, as the years go by, further batches of OAs will fall into this category. It is hoped that most OAs, once they pass the 20-year point, will be willing to pay the voluntary annual subscription. An appropriate sum would be £10 per annum. The Society would of course welcome larger voluntary subscriptions.

So, key points for existing Life Members: • If you left the School in summer 1990 or before, you are invited to start paying a voluntary annual subscription to the Society. • If you left the School after Summer 1990, your 20 years is not up yet!…..but as each year passes the Society will invite another year’s worth of Life Members to start paying voluntary annual subscriptions.

A Standing Order form for voluntary annual subscriptions is included in this issue of Aldenhamiana , will also be included in future issues, and is on the website.

HONOURS MARRIAGES In the 2010 New Years Honours List C D M Roberts The marriage took place on 4 July 2009 on the Greek (SH53-58) was appointed MBE for services to the island of Milos between Mr Richard James Tant community in Merseyside. (SH&L88-93) and Katerina Amanda Mathioudakis.

13 GOLDEN WEDDING DEATHS Clive Creelman (P43-46) J A Adams SHE1951-56 7 January ‘09 to Dorothy Fraser (pictured) J D Allen SHO1943-47 13 April ‘10 on 18th July 1959 at The 7 March ‘10 Crown Court Church of J D Ball P1944-48 8 July ‘10 Scotland in Covent Garden. E J Batterham P1939-43 G H Battle M1948-51 24 December ‘09 John Sugden MBE (M46- 4 March ‘08 and Jennifer Hilder on P A Benjamin SHO1957-61 50) 31 July ‘09 23rd May 1959 at St P R Billinghurst P1946-50 Nicholas Church, Shooters W Bradley-Brian B1942-45 20 November ‘09 Hill, London. D H Cavey SHO1945-49 13 April ‘10 R A Clarke SHO1956-61 28 March ‘10 29 February ‘08 DIAMOND WEDDINGS F R Colin York M1942-44 17 November ‘09 At Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Harpenden, Hertfordshire D Collyer B1955-58 23 April ‘10 on 22nd April 1950 between John Anthony Barrett P S Dewes B1942-47 20 December ‘09 (M40-42) and Winefride Florence Beech. M F Down P1939-44 P J Farr M1939-43 5 May ‘09 1 November ‘09 OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES J A D Freeman P1928-30 N S C Gent SH1940-41 18 January ‘10 On Saturday 8th May 2010 the School held a memorial R T Gill SHO1929-34 2 1 August ‘08 service to celebrate the lives of two members of the A N Gillman P1931-35 26 April ‘10 Kennedy family. The Reverend John Kennedy, Headmaster A N Grayson B1942-44 3 July ‘10 1877-1899, and his son, Bill Kennedy, Schoolmaster and R J Guthrie SH1946-51 19 December ‘09 Housemaster 1934-1959. Pictured below are some who 5 January ‘10 attended, and we also reproduce the tributes to the two B D Hanscomb SH1970-74 great men that were read at the Memorial Service. V Hargreaves B1951-56 15 April ‘09 B R Hazlitt P1947-51 19 September ‘09 W E Henley SH1938-42 19 February ‘10 I N Holland SHO1969-74 11 June ‘10 R G Hunt B1929-34 10 January ‘10 W H Kennedy CR1934-59 6 December ‘09 C C W James SHO1944-44 8 December ‘09 D K Jervis CR1989-89 15 January ‘10 J S Langford SH1929-31 1 June ‘10 M A Logan P1946-50 30 October ‘09 G N B Longe SHO1948-50 28 August ‘09 P R Lucas SH1967-69 31 January ‘10 J P Mead SHO1937-42 27 September ‘09 P Michael CR2003-08 10 March ‘10 J I Miller M1946-51 20 January ‘10 J H Newman B1932-35 9 June ‘10 J M Ormrod SHO1936-40 16 October ‘09 A Oxley SHE1963-68 2 November ‘09 S Pilcher P1988-90 18 November ‘09 D C E Pockney SHO1935-40 1 June ‘10 F N M Pusinelli B1933-37 17 July ‘10 H J G Renwick SHE1943-4 7 September ‘09 P F Rodwell SH1928-31 14 August ‘10 J S Rollings M1941-45 22 November ‘09 P R Thompson SHO1935-40 27 March ‘10 D Titcombe P1930-33 1 April ‘10 E A R van Den Bergh M1938-42 17 October ‘09 G D B Waddell SHO1950-53 26 October ‘09 J C F Winkley P38-43 2 September ‘10

14 OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES surprise the boys further by appearing on the field anxious to JOHN KENNEDY – BY LIZ MERRICK, play football. JOHN’S GRANDDAUGHTER “The legend of John Kennedy the full back had begun. “On the evening of July 22 1931 John Kennedy retired for the “My father described his father as ‘unafraid to have a night. He stumbled on the stairs and fell forward, striking his physical confrontation with his opponents – the kind that head. The doctor was called and he was helped to bed. He nowadays would warrant a red card’. In the early 1880s there died the next morning. He was eighty four years old. were no compulsory games or matches against other “When he left Aldenham over thirty years earlier, his decision schools. Instead, matches were organised against local was precipitated by the sudden failing health of Miss clubs. Henceforth, from the touchline could be heard the Wiggins, the renowned School House matron – his long time cries of ‘Look out for the Headmaster’. Once, when playing counsellor and friend. She had been his nurse as a child. with J R Paull (then a schoolboy), who was approached by a John had implicit trust in her character and judgement. He dangerous Watford forward. JK shouted ‘Take the ball Paull chose to leave Aldenham and wanted to provide a home for – I’ll take the man’ – and the forward was no longer her retirement. Johnny Goodfellow, the respected handyman dangerous. and general factotum, his widowed mother, a School House “He played in forty four matches during his time at Aldenham cook, and one of the housemaids also left at the same time. and the notable school record of the 1897 season shows 18 They all wished to continue working in the Reverend matches played, Aldenham winning 14 and drawing one. The Kennedy’s household. football success of Aldenham remains a legacy of the “In the days before John’s funeral, Johnny Goodfellow Headmaster’s enthusiasm for the game. He derived great constructed a bier and filled it with branches and flowers on pleasure from the football prowess of his boys at school and, which to rest the unpolished oak coffin. Then he walked at later, should they be awarded a blue at university. He thought the head of the funeral procession. After the service John any scholar a better man if he also played football. Other was buried next to Miss Wiggins in the tiny cemetery a sports were encouraged in his time - cricket, fives, stone’s throw away from their home and Johnny swimming, athletics and archery. Goodfellow’s cottage. “John Kennedy, the teacher, had a commanding presence, a “John Kennedy’s headmastership at Aldenham begins in fiery temperament and his discipline reflected his hatred of 1877. His academic background and credentials were bullies. He was a deeply Christian man and Sunday worship remarkable. He came from a long line of notable scholars was strictly observed. In the classroom, as an enthusiastic and clergymen. His father was an Inspector of Schools. John classicist, he always demanded a precise interpretation of was educated at Eton. He was an impressive classical the text and he had high expectations of his pupils. Their scholar, winning the Newcastle Medal and the Tomline scholarship success is a testimony to their teacher. Mathematical Prize. He went on to King’s College, From 1879 to 1901 there were forty one scholarships to Cambridge, gaining two further scholarships and a First in Cambridge and seventeen exhibitions, with one scholarship Classics. to Oxford and five exhibitions. A remarkable success record “He taught at Sherborne School for six years before coming for the size of the school. to Aldenham. His first impressions would have filled any new “A recollection from Reg White, who was at school when headmaster with despair. Workmen were busy repairing the John Kennedy first came to Aldenham, was of ‘his kindness damage caused on the last evening of the previous term - to a youthful schoolboy. He was young, active and a ceilings down, windows shattered. The new term had to be wonderful scholar. He soon endeared himself to all, save a delayed. His challenge was to change the mindset of forty small minority of reactionary diehards. Joining up in our seven pupils and to raise the morale of the three resident games of cricket and football. At all times accessible and members of staff, one of whom was Mr McGill. soon regarded as our friend’. “On the first morning of “The reminiscences of Colonel Buckley, an OA of John term he told the boys of Kennedy’s time in the early 1890s, said: ‘He knew how to his high academic teach, although he might be smiling one moment and in a expectations and storm the next. His furies never lasted long and he was instigated an extra fifteen always just. His memory was prodigious and he would have minutes of work in the lesson read over, close his book and remember every evening school. As all line and every word’. three classes were taught in the same large “An amusing story from Colonel Buckley describes his schoolroom his presence parents sitting with John Kennedy in his drawing room in and teaching style had an School House. His mother observed to her horror an immediate effect on enormous rat appear to join the deliberation. Mr Kennedy everyone. In the free time was a great sportsman and he said ‘Don’t let it go’! So the of the afternoon, he would door was shut while he went for his fox terrier, then the

15 “He was fifty nine and she was twenty five. Ethel’s family had OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED moved comparatively recently from Kensington to Headmaster and his father hunted the rat while his mother Charmouth. A fortnight before their marriage, he writes to her stood on a chair with her petticoats tucked up round her - ‘I know, of course, that your temper is not perfect, but then knees’. mine is angelic which will make up for it. So we shall be a “John’s tenure at Aldenham could have come to an end in happy couple.’ He also joked that among the other marriage 1890 when he applied for and accepted the headship of vows should be the words ‘for older, for younger’. Tonbridge School. For several evenings he cried at evening “H E Gilbert, a former pupil of John Kennedy’s and now a prayers. He went back to the governors of Tonbridge and master at Aldenham, was the best man at the wedding in explained that he could not leave his boys. The Aldenham February 1907. governors were happy to reinstate him. “By the outbreak of World War One, John and Ethel had a “The generosity of John Kennedy should be acknowledged family of two boys and two girls, aged from just five years at this point. Thinking that he was leaving, he refused to down to two months. My father was the third child. The day accept a pension from the school, saying he would not need war was declared John Kennedy is out of the country for a it, and instead insisting on giving a leaving present to the fortnight, salmon fishing in Norway and Ethel writes in boys of a second swimming pool. This was built the following anxiety over his return ‘I read of one of our cruisers going to year. the bottom through striking a mine. I don’t want to be silly but “When John arrived, Aldenham was considered a small you don’t know how miserably anxious I am’. On a lighter grammar school with only forty seven boys, the School note, she writes ‘Billy always comes and puts his fat hand in House, a play shed, three fives courts and nine acres of land. mine when it is time to go downstairs. He has been When he leaves, there are one hundred and seventy five reasonable though sad over your absence and says boys, the size of the School House is extended and holds something that means ‘holiday’ and ‘puff puff’ very ninety boys. His development plan had created two new frequently’. boarding houses, a sanatorium, a chapel, new classrooms, a “At Fernhill John’s children had a happy though frugal science laboratory, a gymnasium and two swimming pools lifestyle. Ethel often wished that her husband had accepted set in over twenty acres of grounds. In the eyes of the outside a pension from the school. Through their childhood, John world he left Aldenham a public school. He was described by taught his children the classics every morning of the others as a brilliant organiser, always aware of what was holidays. All his children had successful careers - three of desirable, possible or imperative. It is not surprising that the them went to Cambridge and two returned to live in Aldenham Register calls him the Second Founder. Charmouth. The Register also recalled him as a headmaster with a clear “During John Kennedy’s retirement, his hospitable nature cut scale of values, having an uncompromising hostility to meant there were many visits from masters and former that which he held evil - and an insistence that whatever was pupils. He must have been sad as he heard news of the to be done must be done with all one’s soul and strength. “In deaths of thirty eight of his old boys during the course of the December of 1899 he retired from Aldenham School and the war - two were Cambridge scholars and two Cambridge governors invited him to join the governing body. In the exhibitioners. minutes of this meeting the Clerk recorded: ‘His invaluable services and unselfish devotion have raised the school to its “How long could John Kennedy be said to have influenced present high standard’. Aldenham? He taught here for twenty three years and he sent his eldest son, also John, to McGill’s. In the Register “Around this time, Johnny Goodfellow was enlisted to search there is a fine photo of the Headmaster surrounded by nine for likely retirement properties. I know from one of his letters of his staff. The year is 1894.“Of these masters, three were to my father, then at McGill’s, that Johnny gets the credit for taught by the Reverend Kennedy as boys at Aldenham and finding Fernhill, a large, rambling house in the countryside on were to become the renowned housemasters Mr Beevor, Mr the outskirts of the seaside village of Charmouth, in Dorset. Paull and Mr Mariette, the second housemaster of McGill’s. He describes telegraphing the Headmaster and then the two of them walking the five miles deep in conversation from “Five of the nine in the photo were to continue teaching at the Axminster station to Charmouth and Fernhill. Johnny was to school for over twenty years into the next century. One of continue working for the Kennedy family for the next forty these was Mr Beck, appointed to the staff in 1893, who would years. become headmaster from 1920 to 1933. “John Kennedy decides to purchase the house and leaves “And so my talk has followed the John Kennedy spirit through Miss Wiggins there with a small household staff. He returns fifty six years, from 1877 to 1933, and within a year a to university life as a Fellow of Pembroke College, youthful, newly qualified graduate walks for the first time Cambridge, but after only two years he chose an early through the gates of Aldenham. He is a Cambridge classicist retirement. Now he could enjoy the flora and fauna of the and a keen sportsman, tall and with a fine, full head of hair – countryside. He loved playing golf on the links just up the hill a school master you all knew, WHK”. from his home. He served as a JP, at the same time as Thomas Hardy - and he became engaged.

16 BILL KENNEDY BY BRYAN ROBSON stakes involved, he promptly reversed my disastrous (M 1949-53) refusal, but was wise and shrewd enough to make it seem as if that choice was mine. Suffice it to say that from that moment I never looked back. To Bill I owe the satisfaction and creative enjoyment of my life on stage at Aldenham and subsequently, as frankly as other OAs acknowledge his inspirational influence both in the classroom and on the field. “Scholar and Games player, he was not a performer in the other sense. He had come late to an enjoyment of theatre and touchingly records, in his sketch of GCF Mead in the 1982 edition of the Register, being driven by him in the mid- 1930s, when Bill was an assistant master and a house tutor, to the West End to see the first play he’d ever seen. I don’t think Bill ever got over this experience in my time his encouragement of acting skill in both school and house drama was unfailing. Yet there was at least one occasion in the classroom when his own declamatory powers were stamped on our minds. We were construing with him a passage from Ovid’s Fasti , a description of a storm at sea, to whose terrified victims the monstrous waves and angry skies seem to be changing places. Some ‘moderate “According to legend, C.A. Stott, that civilised, lovable man, scholar’ was trying rather monotonously to follow the Librarian and Senior Master in my day, used to bring a small scansion, when the patience of the Cambridge First in bag of boiled sweets into chapel with him at Mattins on Classics (with a Distinction in Latin verse) snapped a string. Sunday. The first Aldenham sermon of a certain (ex-Rugby) ‘ME MISERUM! Quanti montes volvuntur aquarum./ Jam, incoming headmaster was of such length that Cecil Stott jam tacturas sidera summa, putes.’ Four years ago I had the ran out of sweets. I only pray that no similar crisis will be fun of re-enacting this moment for Bill. He had forgotten it charged upon me this afternoon. and enjoyed it hugely. “'Nec quaerere nec spernere honorem'. It sounds like a “The fact is, Bill was an inspiring teacher. It was impossible family motto, and were it not that the Kennedy family motto, to sit in his classroom and not to learn standards of 'Respice finem', is still current, it would have been entirely excellence from him, whether the subject were Classics or fitting as the motto of both the Kennedys whom we are here History, and many OAs have testified to this. Bill himself, to give thanks for, and to honour as they deserve. Neither of who had won scholarships both to Marlborough College them sought such honour; nor at the same time would they and to St John’s College, thought no scorn of coaxing the have spurned it. Until quite recently, I assumed that I knew, most ‘moderate’ of scholars through O Level Latin by a not just from long-cherished memories as a boy in McGill’s, single mark: by at least one such beneficiary he is saluted but also from a renewal of our acquaintance in his declining as the ‘only man who could have got me anywhere near a years, something about Bill Kennedy and his beloved wife, pass’. Pauline. But the more I have learned, from family records, “By many old boys he will be remembered more readily for papers and memories kindly and generously shared with his passionate enthusiasm for Games. I am not sure that I me by Bill’s delightful daughters, Anne and Liz, as well as was even consciously aware that Bill coached the Hockey from the personal recollections of other OAs, the more I First XI from 1947 onwards. To this he was so committed have come to grasp what an outstanding man Bill Kennedy that, according to Tim Law, who was captain of the XI for was, and what a special and creative partnership it was that three years running, Bill’s gloom after a resounding defeat bound him and Pauline together, wherever they happened (4-nil against Rugby, on one occasion) could be dispelled to be. only by going out to the shed and planting onions. The “Where to begin? It seems almost an indulgence to evoke comradeship and team-, not to say, competitive-, spirit of the housemaster to whom I found myself entrusted, when I the Games field was in his blood. Bill’s capacity for volubly arrived as a rather unhopeful youngster in the summer term coaching, refereeing and playing simultaneously was of 1949. I was virtually innumerate, a sort of mathematical legendary. He coached Fives too and as a cricketer once Holy Fool and in practical subjects what Bill used to call a made a century for his boyhood village team, Charmouth. ‘very moderate scholar’, no good at Games and with a poor But all that would not have made Bill Kennedy the rarely- health record. Oh, yes I had been a star singer and actor at gifted housemaster he was. What he understood so clearly Edge Grove: but of what use was that? It was Bill who kindly was the importance of finding one’s feet in whatever talents but firmly answered that question for me, when, at the very inhered: it was this which gave a boy a sense of identity, of start of my second term, I instinctively shrank from belonging, of being someone. On the touchline Bill would accepting a leading role in The Rivals . Alert to the high take note of any player’s special contribution so that he

17 even discussed converting to it (our mothers would have OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED had a fit). To blaze a trail for these preoccupations we could give due praise, whatever the final score. And if it resolved to rescue the Latin graces, both of which were wasn’t in Games or Athletics, it must lie somewhere else; used in McGill’s, from what we felt to be the accents of the and wherever it did, Bill would spot it. I think it was partly for philistine and invest with them with a Vatican ring instead. It his sake that I eventually made an effort at Games and fell to me to make a start with the second grace. ‘Konkady succeeded in mastering and enjoying them. Dominy Deeus’ it usually began. ‘Conc[h]ede, Domine “The first thing we noticed about Bill was his boundless De[h]us...’ I started, continuing thus preciously to the energy. So it must have been for his troops on the Khyber ‘Amen’. Every boy in the house was looking at Bill. After a Pass. On promotion to the rank of Major in the 7th Battalion, pause he announced, loudly, ‘I don’t care for Conshady!’ the Frontier Force Regiment, he transferred to a training and strode down the hall. That was that. That same week, centre for jungle warfare in Assam. He finished his service Bill sent me off for a soul-saving chat with the Chaplain and as Chief Jungle Training Instructor. At least one OA made arrangements to restore me to the house as a remembers, presumably from the classroom and in the late boarder. I had become a day boy for almost two years, for 1950s, Bill’s enthralling tales of soldiering on the North West financial reasons. I was to board again at his own expense, frontier. On the eve of being posted to the Far East Bill had my parents being urged not to make this known to me. It sent to his love, Pauline Nott-Bower, a succinct telegram. was not. My next and final term was blissfully happy and in The telegram, so Bill’s daughters understand, was meant to its course I continued to benefit from Bill’s friendship and read ‘WILL YOU MARRY ME? BILL.’ But our war-time Post advice. Office had notoriously to abbreviate and what arrived was “Resisting a tide of anecdotal reminiscence that might well the immortal: ‘WILL. BILL.’ Pauline’s reply must have been engulf us, I want to quote to you extracts from two letters, satisfactory. both from fathers of McGill’s boys, which testify to that “Thanks to the War they had to wait for each other for four depth of moral character in Bill which was so frequently years. He was not released from the Army until January remarked on by his colleagues: 1946. We of course were wholly ignorant of all this as Bill did not harp on his military career: he was plain ‘Mr.’, not You and Pauline have been superb in your handling of our ‘Major’, Kennedy to us, nor did he refer to his former son (and me for that matter). Never once during the whole connexion as an officer with the school’s CCF. The true of his time have we felt anything other than thankful that he quality of the man is admirably illustrated by an incident should have such a wonderful influence to guide and when he was leaving India to return home. Bill had worked correct him. I think specially of the happy home influence for hard to ensure a good relationship with all sections of the him to see, the wise and just guidance you gave him, the local community, where his troops came diversely from all confidence you have placed in him, the magnificent of the main religions. He said ‘goodbye’ to everyone except example you have set him of how to control a house firmly the religious teachers of the Mohammedan, Sikh and Hindu and yet let them all feel that you were a friend as well as a faiths, whom he could not find. Instead he left a message for schoolmaster. each of them. At the railway station he saw a small carriage “A similar letter dedicates its thanks to Pauline as well as to being driven rapidly towards him. Out stepped the three Bill: teachers, who came on to the platform to talk to him and We sent you a very difficult boy who might very well have stood together as his train pulled out. It’s a moment worthy gone the wrong way for many reasons. You have handled of the camera of a David Lean. Bill was particularly touched him with wonderful tact and patience and have done more by this, as the faith teachers did not traditionally associate for him than anyone in his life so far. with each other, but had put their differences aside and come together to see him off¬¬ a signal tribute to his gift for “Raised from childhood in a love of Aldenham, Bill Kennedy getting on with many different kinds of men. first came to the school as an assistant master in 1934. For many of us, his departure in 1959, to be headmaster of “No accumulation of tasks and responsibilities could weary Kirkham Grammar School, had an awful finality about it. By Bill. In addition to housemastering, teaching, coaching, this time he was Senior Master at Aldenham. An giving time to his family, he spent ten years as Secretary of affectionate Aldenhamian magazine valedictory ended with the O. A. Society, which entailed meetings, dinners, and a a bleak, heartfelt sentence: His loss to Aldenham is flow of correspondence. Resourcefully supported and irreparable. That he was admirably fitted to be a balanced by Pauline’s demanding work backstage, as well headmaster no one could doubt. When, less than two years as her soothing presence among us, Bill’s dominance of our later, Aldenham’s headship fell vacant, Bill did not lack McGill’s community may be hard to imagine in these days informal, friendly encouragement to apply for his father’s old of committees and management teams. It is only fair to say post and his accession is what many OAs would have that if one pitched into the life of the House and did one’s wished. But he had assured himself to KGS and would not best for it, Bill’s response was reciprocally warm. To me he put himself in the running. Disappointing as this may have was memorably indulgent and generous. been, it was not the end of Bill, far from it. “During my last summer term, Bill Keatley my study-mate “In a substantial feature on KGS in Lancashire Life in 1969 and I developed a fascination with Roman Catholicism and

18 Bill is described as a ‘tall, kindly and scrupulously fair man’. Photographs suggest that the life of the school was adventurous, disciplined and varied and, significantly, the boys are not long-haired. At that time Bill had managed to raise numbers by 100; but further hopes of expansion were impossible to realise at a time when the fate of grammar schools was thrown into crisis by political interference. Unusually for a grammar school, KGS had a boarding- house, not detached from but incorporated within the headmaster’s house. For Pauline this meant a challenging continuation of the cares and responsibilities she had just relinquished at Aldenham, which, needless to say, she undertook as vigorously as before. Not content with that, she was prominent in social work locally, where she set up and ran the Meals on Wheels scheme for the WVS. She was well known and loved in the town. Bill himself assisted her with this during holidays and was to be seen, as well, McGill’s OAs at Bill’s funeral reception in Taunton on (from top, working alongside prisoners from an Open prison in the John Strouts (53-56), Justin Ward (57-60), Roger Crabb (57-61), Bryan Robson (49-53), John Kinross (47-52), Geoffrey Dunn (47-50), clearing of a local churchyard. Of many touching stories Anne German née Kennedy. Front Row left to right: Tim Law (45-51) which Pauline recorded of their time at KGS, my favourite is Elizabeth Merrick née Kennedy, Derek James (43-48) , Joan Law, this: On a first day of term Bill [then a new headmaster] read Mark Phillips (53-57). out the name of each boy and his form, and the assembly “After all, I have not quite done Bill justice. I’ve left out of dispersed except for one curly-haired child. He said his account his bursts of laughter, his Attic wit, his Dickensian name was Kao. After a few questions it became clear that glee when presiding at our Christmas term House suppers, he had arrived at the wrong school. When the bus stopped his thunderous glooms if there had been some rare case of he had simply followed all the other boys. He was kindly seriously bad behaviour. When I admitted to a lifelong taken by car to his right school. McGill’s friend the pleasure I found in writing letters to Bill in “Because of Pauline’s illness Bill announced in September his final years, he told me: ‘You know what’s happened? 1971 that he would retire in the following April. The You’ve turned Bill into a father-figure.’ Maybe so¬¬ and why Divisional Education Officer, James Walsh, at once wrote to not? For as I wrote, at the same time, to another OA friend: him as follows: ‘Let them say what they like. You and I both know how lucky we were to be there then and to be Bill Kennedy’s boys.” I should like, even at this early stage, to tell you how much I hold you, both in esteem as a colleague and, may I say it, personal affection. There are many excellent Head Below are further reminiscences of Bill Kennedy: Teachers, but in my experience you stand out, not only for ): “Bill Kennedy taught your depth and clarity of thought but for the quite Neil Durden-Smith (SHE1947-51 me Latin and somehow I managed to get a credit in School remarkable compassion and gentleness with which you Certificate, mainly due to his inspired teaching. I must have have tempered your judgements and actions. I cannot done something right because I avoided his hair-pulling speak too highly of the personal and professional regard in antics, much to the envy of my contemporaries! which I hold you. “He was also Master in charge of Hockey and in 1950 he “I wonder how many headmasters either receive, or even became exasperated that from the right-wing I tended to go deserve, such a tribute as that? inside the opposing left half, rather than trying to tackle him “In their long and busy retirement at Bishop’s Hull in on the outside. So he asked me to go down to the Upper Somerset, Bill and Pauline continued to support and enjoy with him after school for some one-to-one coaching. On the the company of his mother, his brother and his sisters, while second occasion I ran straight into him at full speed – trying Pauline’s father and sister lived close by. As well, Bill and to pass him on the outside as instructed – and knocked him Pauline both flourished in and served their local community flying. He landed flat on his back motionless, winded and with the energy and commitment which characterised them speechless and I wondered what on earth I could to help throughout their lives. They kept in continual touch with a him – there were only the two of us on the deserted playing wide circle of old boys, old friends, former colleagues and fields. When he eventually surfaced after what seemed like domestic staff. In 2003 Bill lost Pauline, after 55 years of an eternity he sat up, said “I think you had better play on the their wonderfully happy marriage. ‘She was the sun of my left wing in future” and roared with laughter! life’, he wrote to me. Never a man to dwell on personal “That was a measure of the man and if life had been woes or feelings, Bill recorded simply, not long ago, ‘For different I am sure he would have been an admirable years now I have felt Pauline’s loss every day.’ But above Headmaster of Aldenham, like his father before him.” that he had put, underlining each word, ‘I have been a very lucky man’.

19 being fair in his decisions and maybe unwittingly giving us OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED many a laugh. His long innings has come to an end and : “I very much regret that I will be Brian Parsons (M44-49) may he rest in peace knowing that his job was so very well unable to attend the memorial service for Bill Kennedy, for done. whom I have had the greatest respect since he took over as Housemaster of McGill’s from Sam Cox just at the time “I would add that only a fortnight ago my wife and I had a when Houses ceased to be named after the incumbent delightful dinner with Robert Gardiner (M1945-49) and his Housemaster and took the names of each House’s founding wife who were visiting Melbourne to celebrate family Housemaster. I was therefore in Cox’s House renamed as birthdays. We both produced photos of our time at McGill’s during my time at the school from 1944-49. Bill of Aldenham including the 1949 1st XI cricket team and I gave course had joined the Common Room in 1934, but then him one of the 1949 1st VI Fives team in which we both served his country during the war before returning as featured and which he had not seen before. More Housemaster. As I recall he had not long been married to importantly, he agreed to return to the school a Corps his charming wife Pauline and, perhaps because they were swagger stick which was found amongst my late brother’s a much younger couple than their predecessors, we boys (The Rev Derek Parsons, Cox’s 1940-45) belongings after found it somewhat easier to relate to them. I was fortunate he sadly died in 1992. I hope a place can be found for it. enough to be appointed a School Praeposter in the (Ed. The swagger stick is now in the Museum Cabinets in Christmas Term 1948, my fellow occupants of our little the Whitbread Room at the School)” slightly decrepit but homely study being Michael “Spike” Hughes (M44-49) as House Captain, Brian Gibberd (M45- Sadly December also saw the death of 49) and Tim Law (M45-51) . My friend Spike left Aldenham The Right at the end of the Easter term 1949 and, much to my Reverend Colin James (SHO40-44) , a Vice-President of disappointment Bill appointed Brian Gibberd as House the OA Society and former President 1995-99. We reprint Captain. He did explain to me however that he believed it with acknowledgements to the Daily Telegraph : “The Right was in my best interest not to take on that responsibility for Reverend Colin James, who died on December 10 aged 83, my last term as it was essential that I concentrated on was Bishop of Winchester from 1985 to 1995; highly attempting to pass my Higher School Certificate, which I intelligent if without claim to intellectual gifts, he was one of had narrowly failed the year before when aged 16. I still the Church of England’s most effective pastoral bishops, recall him saying to me that if I failed again he would never and his somewhat patrician style went down well in be able to look my mother in the eye! Luckily I managed to Hampshire, where he was a popular figure. pass. I have very fond memories of Bill Kennedy, who always seemed to be in a hurry, his hair unruly, gown flapping in the breeze as he ran from McGill’s over to the classrooms, calling out “non bender” to some unfortunate boy who failed to get down to field a cricket ball, his rivalry with Fred English over who had the best sweet peas (always maintaining that Fred’s were far inferior being “buzzle headed” whatever that meant). He didn’t do things quietly and on one Sunday evening when I had been working late in our study when I should have been supervising in my dormitory after lights out, I was horrified to hear him bellow “Who is that creeping up the stairs?” as he turned his torch on me and I was well and truly caught in its beam! Towards the end of the 1949 summer term, a Colin James is pictured in the centre with fellow Bishops number of fires broke out over a couple of weeks in various parts of the school, later found to have been lit by a “His name was twice mentioned as a possibility for the disgruntled ex employee who had been sacked. The worst Archbishopric of Canterbury: first when Dr Michael Ramsey of these occurred in the Chapel vestry and I have a vivid retired in 1974, and again in 1990 when a successor to Dr memory of Bill passing me in full flight as we both ran to Robert Runcie was needed. But this was never an help. He got to the fire extinguisher first and immediately appointment for James, and it is doubtful whether he would proceeded to let it off with a direct hit on a boy ahead of him, ever have accepted it. who was somewhat hidden in the smoke. Most Sunday evenings, Bill & Pauline would invite three of the praes (the “James belonged essentially to the Catholic tradition of his fourth being on dormitory duty) to dine with them in their church, and he was strongly opposed to the ordination of private dining room and this was always most enjoyable, women to the priesthood. But he was not generally usually treated to a glass of sherry beforehand and good conservative in his outlook and, as chairman of the adult conversation. He was a great Aldenham character, a Liturgical Commission, presided over the compilation of true leader and I pay tribute to him for the example he set many new forms of worship. He was also involved in a us boys in cementing our knowledge of right and wrong, in controversial report on the use of inclusive language which recommended that the use in worship of words such as "he"

20 and "man" should be reduced, in favour of words with which toughness which the northern clergy and laity much women might be more easily identified. appreciated. “Colin Clement Walter James was born on September 20 “In the central administration of the Church, his experience 1926 in Cambridge, where his father was vicar of St Giles. as a broadcaster was put to good use when he became He attended Kings College Choir School, but not as a chairman of the Church Information Committee, responsible chorister, and shortly before Christmas one year broke the for the press and radio and television departments at school rules by going to the cinema. There he contracted Church House, Westminster. He was also chairman of the chickenpox, which he passed on to the choir, causing doubt Central Religious Advisory Council for the BBC and the IBA as to their availability for the Christmas services. They during a period when religious broadcasting was losing its recovered just in time to sing at the Christmas Eve service protected position, and there were some who believed that of Nine Lessons and Carols. he conceded too much to unsympathetic broadcasters. “He went on to Aldenham and, after serving in the Royal Navy in the final stages of the Second World War, returned “When the bishopric of Winchester, one of the Church of to Cambridge to read History at Kings. Englands senior sees, became vacant in 1985 it seemed “He prepared for ordination at Cuddesdon, and in 1952 natural that James should be translated to the diocese he became a curate at Stepney parish church. There James knew so well. After the prophetic, visionary episcopate of was a member of a large team of curates exercising a hard- Bishop John Taylor, his pastoral and administrative gifts working, traditional East End ministry under the leadership were needed; and his friendliness and warm sense of of the redoubtable Canon Edwyn Young. humour made him a welcome visitor to the churches, vicarages and country houses of the diocese. He greatly enjoyed this, but in 1965 left London to become chaplain of Stowe School. This proved to be a much less “James had an instinct for what was really important, and satisfying experience, as the Low Church tradition of the turned a convenient blind eye when trivial rules were school did not suit him. broken. When the General Synod decided that women could become priests he was not himself prepared to ordain “In 1959 he joined the staff of the BBCs religious any, but arranged for one of his suffragans to undertake this broadcasting department. He was soon recognised as a responsibility. Once they were ordained, he regarded the highly competent producer, and from 1960 to 1967 he was women in exactly the same way as the men. He also won in Bristol as religious broadcasting organiser for the south the allegiance and affection of evangelicals and others who and west. did not share all his Anglo-Catholic beliefs. “His next appointment took him to the diocese of “Like his predecessors, James was Prelate of the Most Winchester as vicar of St Peters, Bournemouth – the central Noble Order of the Garter, and besides the chairmanship of parish church of a seaside resort which by this time had far the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel he was too many underused Victorian and Edwardian churches. It president of the Woodard Corporation. fell to James to lead the pastoral reorganisation of Church life in the town and, although he was prevented by many “Colin James married, in 1962, Sally Henshaw, who died in entrenched interests from ranging as widely as he thought 2001; they had a son and two daughters. necessary, he managed to establish the Bournemouth city centre team ministry. and sent in “In 1973 he was appointed to a newly-created suffragan James (M68-72) Neal (M70-75) James-Crook this fond tribute to their father, J bishopric with particular responsibility for the northern half ames Francis George , who passed away of Winchester diocese. The traditionalists intended the new James-Crook (Cox’s House 1941-44) on 5 February 2009: “Our father was born in July 1926 and suffragan see to take its title from the ancient Christian at the tender age of 6, like many of his generation, had his centre of Silchester, but the Prime Minister, Edward Heath, first taste of boarding school at Northcliffe House Prep said that the Church must be identified with more recent School in Bognor Regis. Two years into the Second World developments – so James became Bishop of Basingstoke. War at the age of 14, Jimmy began his first term at “He was not, however, permitted to live in the new town, for Aldenham in Cox’s House, now known as McGill’s, where the Church Commissioners had decreed that the new some years later his two sons, James and Neal also bishopric must be combined with a residentiary canonry of attended in the same House. Winchester Cathedral. This arrangement was not much to “Not many people knew that Jimmy, as he was fondly James’s liking, for his hands soon became full of episcopal known, possessed a talent for carpentry and made a work and he was also diocesan director of ordination beautiful bookcase, toolbox and tuck box for which he won training. the School carpentry prize. At the time, little did he know “Four years later he was translated to the bishopric of that these skills would be put to good use later in life when, Wakefield, and although Yorkshires West Riding was not his in 1948, he joined the family firm as the fifth generation of natural scene, he soon became a highly respected figure in London based Funeral Directors, James Crook Ltd. the area, combining pastoral sensitivity with a degree of “Jimmy enrolled in the School Cadets which put him in good

21 “Jimmy and Phyllis were married for 56 and a half years, OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED and together with Phyllis, he leaves two sons, James and stead as, within days of leaving Aldenham in 1944, he Neal and also a daughter, Denise, as well as five signed up for the Army with the King’s Own 3rd Hussars and grandchildren, Laura, Lillibet, Jack, Emma and Luke.” was dispatched to Palestine, celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem.

“In 1950, Jimmy met Phyllis, his future wife, at the National At his younger brother David's (D I Miller M50-54) request Association of Funeral Directors Annual Ball when Jimmy’s Bryan Robson (M49-53) put together an obituary for father was National President of the National Association of James Ivimey Miller (M1946 - 51) who died on 20 January Funeral Directors (NAFD) and indeed, two years later when 2010: Phyllis’s father was also National President of the NAFD, Phyllis and Jimmy were married at Bishop Hannington Church in Hove, West Sussex. John Webb (M1941-1943) who, incidentally started at Aldenham on the same day as Jimmy, was one of the Ushers. “Over the next few years, Jimmy was appointed Managing Director of James Crook Limited, also President of Round Table and later President of the Rotary Club as well as President of the Chamber of Commerce and Master of the Worshipful Company of Bowyers, 1994-1996. “Jimmy was Chairman of the Local Conservative Association in Pulborough, West Sussex and a member of the Pulborough Masonic Lodge as well as a member of the James in 2008 at St Barnabas College, Lingfield Pulborough Society, his wife, Phyllis, being Chairman. She said to me, ‘Oh, do you study Greek?’ “At Jimmy’s funeral, Neal recounted to the large ‘No,’ I replied, ‘Biology’s my trade. congregation packed into the tiny 12th century St Mary’s Who’s that girl dancing in the greenish skirt?’ Church in Pulborough that there was really only one thing ‘That’s Sarah Jenkins. Failed Higher Cert. he could remember his father doing wrong during his life, She had a frightful headache all last week.’ driving through a red light on the way to work. Apparently, And I replied, ‘Orange, or lemonade?’ when stopped by the police, Jimmy explained that due to an (‘Sixth Form Dance’) extra cup of tea that morning he was trying to avoid a personal inconvenience! (Good excuse) “James Miller’s stylish poem, buried in a 1951 number of The Aldenhamian, must for many readers now evoke the “Jimmy and Phyllis retired down to Pulborough where they verse of John Betjeman, whose name most of us were not immersed themselves fully in local life – Jimmy volunteering to know until after we had left school. Its gentle, to help with the local minibus, though, as one elderly accomplished irony was characteristic of its author’s many- passenger recalled, he was usually to be seen scanning the sided brilliance. James entered McGill’s as a Scholar, in the Obituaries column in the Daily Telegraph! Christmas Term of 1946 (Bill Kennedy’s first term as “At his 80th Birthday party, no fewer than eight OAs housemaster). He left as Exhibitioner (Modern Languages) attended including John and Tim Glazier, Richard of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He remained at Cambridge as a Bothams, Andrew Crawford and Trevor Barton. research student after taking his degree in Theology. He was a fine New Testament scholar and a regular contributor “Jimmy was fond of tending his extensive vegetable garden to theological journals. which is still kept neat and tidy to this day. “In 1961 James became a Deacon. Ordained priest in 1962, he served as a curate in Blackpool and Willerby, near Hull, before being appointed Rector of Cockfield, Suffolk, from 1973-78, but was barred from continuing in his ministry as priest on grounds of the epilepsy which had occasionally laid him low at Aldenham. He worked as Secretary and Treasurer for Ipswich Diocesan Housing Trust until his early retirement. “Whilst I was to meet him occasionally at his Stanmore home on visits to his younger brother David, who was a close friend of mine, it is as an Aldenhamian that I most John Glazier (P44-48) Andrew Crawford (M68-73) Tim Glazier (P47-51) vividly recall James. In a school story, he would have been Jimmy James-Crook (M41-44) Trevor Barton (K71-75) the absent-minded, unfathomably brainy ‘Gig-lamps’ type, Neal James-Crook (M70-75) Richard Bothams (S70-74) James tolerated because of his geniality. He was an essentially James-Crook (M68-75) on the occasion of Jimmy’s 80th Birthday.

22 genial, kindly person, outgoing rather than self-absorbed, Tripos. While here he served as President of the Stokes his smile as memorable as the Cheshire Cat’s. Even when Society and was Secretary of the University Engineering coping with the formidable task of getting the house up in a Society. He was also active in the University Christian Unison Song for the annual Inter-House Music Competition, Union; he retained a strong Christian faith throughout his James’s good nature did not falter. It was a ‘Swanee’-style life. ditty, whose refrain is lodged in my skull to this day. “Tom’s career was devoted entirely to aeronautical Tibby-hey, rig-a-jig, in a jaunting-car research. He began with two years at RAF Farnborough. He was then recruited by the newly-formed Aircraft Way-ho, way-oh, are you ‘most dar?... Research Association. This had the objective of helping all “James was a pianist and string player. His musical tastes aircraft engineering companies in the UK. It built a were extensive, but a marked interest in early music (one I transonic wind tunnel which in its time was the largest in shared) was unusual in a schoolboy of that period. Music Europe and was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956. remained a lifelong passion. It was involved in the design of Concorde. Later it took part “Like me, James was, as RJ (‘Jock’) Evans might have put in international projects. it, no ‘cracker-jack’ at games. The arts absorbed what time “Tom took early retirement in 1987 and moved to Surrey. he did not devote to scholarship. I recall him appearing as He worked for some years at Wandsworth Prison a housemaid in McGill’s’ Seniors’ (1950) production of a interviewing prisoners about their parole. He married creaky and improbable thriller, The Crooked Billet. At the Audrey Wright in 1967. He died on 26 November 2008. time, his taking a feather-duster to the walls as well as the : “At Pembroke, Ian kept a low furniture of the set seemed absurd; later I understood it as Ian Wastell (SHE1944-48) profile, to use one of today’s expressions. I remember the typically detailed observation on James’s part. I also many supervisions we had together, and I still have the remember sitting, a fourth-former, in the (‘Eros’) Memorial recording he made of the Chapel Choir – tape recorders Garden once, where James was locked in discussion with a were a rarity in those days. He seemed to blossom after fellow-scholar. His grasp of human subjects beyond my ken going down, perhaps because the following year he met made me feel as if I did not have what you could call a mind Audrey, his marriage partner for 53 years. at all, so Coleridgean was the flow of his ideas. “Before coming up in 1950 he had trained as a pilot in the “James’s wife Mary predeceased him. He spent his last RAF. He flew Spitfires, which sounds very exciting, but years at St Barnabas College where he met Christopher characteristically he never spoke about it very much. After Leigh-Hunt (B1936-40). Blessed with better health, he leaving Pembroke he joined his father in the family would almost certainly have been elected to high office in bookselling business – mainly supplying libraries with the church, and distinguished it as Christopher Herbert educational and children’s books – and remained in it does at St Albans: a man to whom one can listen for the throughout his working life. reassurance of his humanity as well as his intellect and learning.” “Family businesses are not always the easiest, so perhaps it’s not surprising that Ian found considerable fulfilment writes: “I thought you might Geoffrey Smethurst (P44-48) outside in the community. He was a magistrate for many be interested in the enclosed brief obituaries of two OAs years, and very much enjoyed this work – a greatly from my College’s annual gazette, Pembroke, Cambridge. respected member of the local Bench. He was also a keen “Tom Bateman was a very gentle soul and we became Rotarian. In 1982 he became a Governor of Bishop Stopford quite close during our days at Aldenham. Somehow, C of E Secondary School in Enfield and later Clerk to the because of our very different courses (his Engineering and Governors, making a considerable contribution to the life of my Classics) we drifted apart, but he was always a staunch the School in a typically conscientious way. He remained in supporter of College events. that office until his death on 15 September 2008. Earlier that year he had been diagnosed with cancer, which he accepted “I had known Ian Wastell at my prep school (Bickley Hall) and had always liked him. I hardly remember him at with great stoicism – “It’s just one of those things”. Happily Aldenham (the Houses could be very close communities in he and Audrey were able to enjoy a final visit to their holiday those days), and again, at Pembroke had no close home in south-west Ireland, which he loved, and his three association, partly because of the way the College had sons were with him on the day before he died. At his funeral developed; one could be an awful long way from someone service he was described as a “wonderfully good-natured, at the other end of the College, and Ian was probably in humorous, gentle and kind man” – a lovely epitaph. ‘digs’ for either 1 or 2 years. But I have affectionate Anthony Battle (M51-55) wrote to the OA office to report his memories of him – a kind and very cultured soul.” brother Geoffrey Battle’s (M48-52) death on Christmas Eve 2009 and kindly enclosed the obituary below which was Thomas Eric Barton Bateman (P1944-48) : “Tom was born on 5th March 1930. After attending Aldenham School he written by one of Geoffrey’s great friends and appeared in the took an apprenticeship at Bickers Armstrongs, whereby he Harper Adams Journal : “Geoffrey was born in Lincolnshire also obtained a BSc at London University. Then, in 1950, and educated in the Home Counties at The Knoll, Woburn he came up to Pembroke to take the Mechanical Sciences Sands and then at Aldenham in McGill’s House.

23 “Following the OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED family’s move to “He came from a well- Essex, he known Lincolnshire became, at age agricultural family seven, a much involved in founder pupil at arable farming and Widford Lodge the sugar beet Preparatory industry. On leaving School school he entered remaining there Harper Adams in the until the Autumn Term of 1952. outbreak of the Of a quiet reserved Second World nature, he was an War in 1939, active member of the whereupon he College Field Sports was sent to Committee and Seafield School regularly followed the at Bexhill, in Sussex. Because of wartime air raids, the Shropshire Beagles. school was evacuated to Dartmoor. On the moors, a He was a keen shot vigorous outdoor curriculum served well to develop the as well as being an pupils’ stamina, powers of initiative and self reliance. In enthusiastic fisherman enjoying the latter to the very end of 1942, Warren was enrolled at Aldenham, joining English’s his life. House where he remained as a boarder until 1946. To his “On successfully completing the NDA course in 1954 he numerous friends, and family, he spoke often of his deep joined the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards serving as enjoyment of the Aldenham years, and of the way in which a National Service officer. Subsequently, he served as a TA the rules of life learned at the school had provided a firm officer in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, retiring as a and durable foundation enabling him to deal effectively with Major and was awarded the Territorial Decoration. He kept the many differing people and events of his adult life. in close touch with the Regiment for the rest of his life. “His initiation into matters military was provided by the “Following National Service Geoffrey joined the British Aldenham OTC, in which among other duties, he performed Sugar Corporation as a fieldman based at the Spalding as side-drummer in the Corps band. This was to arouse an factory. Whilst there, he won the cup given every year to interest in the British Army that would endure for the the fieldman who, from the whole country, most accurately remainder of his life. estimates the tonnage of beet to be delivered to the factory “Called up for National Service in 1946, Warren trained with in his own area. After a spell as Trials Officer at Barney, he the Essex Regiment before being commissioned into the transferred in 1967 to the Bury St Edmunds factory to take Royal Army Service Corps in October 1947. As a young up the position of Factory Agricultural Development Officer. subaltern, he served for a year with the British Army of the This involved moving to Flempton in Suffolk where he lived Rhine at Cologne, Bochum, Kiel, Hamburg and Echenferde, for the rest of his life. In 1972 Geoffrey was promoted to and was, for a while, attached to the Amphibious Tank Unit, Agricultural Manager at the Bury factory which at the time an experience which included “exercises” of a dubious was the largest sugar factory in Europe. Here he earned the nature in out-dated equipment of questionable efficiency far respect of growers, factory staff and colleagues for his out upon the partly frozen Baltic Sea! straightforward approach and supportive management style. “Following demobilisation Warren took up studies at St Andrew’s University. This enabled him, also, to maintain ties “On retirement from British Sugar he continued to take a with the Army, joining the recently reformed Territorial force keen interest in agricultural matters and was Chairman of as a member of the Highland Division of the R.A.S.C. his family’s farming company. The large number of East Within the division, he was an active participant in a number Anglian farmers in the crowded congregation at the Service of Annual Camps. of Thanksgiving held for him in Potterhanworth Church testified to the esteem in which he was held by the farming “After University, came the introduction to what would be his community.” lifelong work within the oil industry, management training with the then Regent Oil Company’s head office in London. Warren rose steadily within the Company to a supervisory We received obituaries for Warren Bradley-Bryan (B42- post at Avonmouth, finding himself responsible for the 45) from his sister Glenda Bryan and his daughter Cherrie cargo-discharging of ocean-going tankers, the loading of Noble. Our thanks to them both. His sister writes: “Warren barges, coastal vessels, railway and road vehicles and Bradley-Bryan was a Kentish Man, born west of the supervision of rebuilding programmes for tankage, loading Medway at Maidstone on 16th April 1928. bays and office buildings following a disastrous fire. It was

24 during this period that Warren met and, in due course, Marcus Blake (P51-56 ) wrote to the OA Office asking us to married Patricia, secretary to the Avonmouth Installation include the following tribute for his cousin Michael (Mick) Superintendent. Down (P39–43) who died on 20th December 2009: “Mick arrived at Aldenham just before the war with two cousins “1952 brought further promotion to Assistant and . Ray Superintendent and a transfer to the installation at David Blake (P39-43) Ray Wurtzburg (P39-43) died in 2007, but David, still living in Wickham, Hampshire, Immingham, where he was appointed Berthing Master for remembers Mick with great admiration for his physical incoming tankers. His ten years at Immingham enabled prowess. He was awarded a special prize as a gymnast, also the continuance of Warren’s activities with the T.A., and led the Army Section, was Keeper of Fives, and ended as his promotion to Captain with the Grimsby R.A.S.C., with Head of School. David added that ‘nobody picked a fight which he attended - and thoroughly enjoyed - many more with Mick’. annual Camps. “Following Aldenham he went to Pembroke College, “With this period of service on the Humber completed, Cambridge to read Agriculture, and with the R.N.V.R. Warren transferred to the Granton oil installation at served on minesweepers, cruisers and aircraft carriers. Edinburgh, at the same time furthering his military career with a re-muster to the Royal Military Police, a move which “Mick had the gift of playing the piano by ear and in spite of brought with it an accompanying rise in rank to Major and never having a piano lesson would spend hours playing for appointment as Officer Commanding the East Lothian his own enjoyment, from the classics to jazz. District. “Mick joined Jacob Hoare & Co as a wool broker spending “As a consequence, Warren became the second highest much of his life in Chile and The Argentine. After travelling ranking officer of Military Police in Scotland, subordinate widely he finally retired to Harpenden, his family base, only to a Brigadier who served in the Borders region. In this where his interests were looking after a beautiful garden, role, he found himself responsible for all security exercising his sisters’ horses and beagling. arrangements for Edinburgh Castle and its Garrison, as well “He married Colinette Trery in 1953 and had three sons, two as for the annual Military Tattoo. of whom J M Down (M68-71) & C D Down (M69-71), went “The offer of an appointment as Transport Manger for Gulf to Aldenham, and two grandchildren” Oil brought about the transfer to Cheltenham in 1970. : “It is with There, he was to enjoy eighteen happy years before John Webb (P1935-40) writes from Yorkshire great sadness that I have to inform you of the death of retirement, becoming Operations Manager and a Company on 1st June, 2010. David Director. David Pockney (SHO35-40) came to School House in September 1935. He made his “Retirement was to bring little curtailment of activity in mark in a very short time, both in the classroom and on the Warren’s life, going on as he did to devote his energies to playing field. During his years at Aldenham he became a Rotary, Probus, the Military Police Association and The House Captain and played for the school at football and Royal British Legion. For many years, he was President of hockey. In 1940 he went up to Queens College, the Gloucestershire Royal Military Police Association and Cambridge, where he obtained his BA degree in held this post until his death. Warren served also as Mechanical Science in 1943. Scientific Advisor to the local Authority, and as Administrator “After war service in the Royal Navy, David trained in law and Organiser for the Gulf Retirees, a post which afforded and qualified as a solicitor, practising in Bristol until his him much pleasure and enjoyment. No less enjoyable was recent retirement. He leaves his widow Ann, to whom I the golf he played with friends on several days of each have sent our great sympathy.” week! “Patricia having died in 2001, Warren Bradley-Bryan is survived by his sister Glenda, his daughters Cherrie and Heather, three grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and by Carol, the close friend of his final years.

“An extract from a poem written in memoriam by his associate Joe Nash sums up the feelings for Warren shared by his family and his many friends, ‘.....our most gentle friend Who -- respected and loved, we all could depend Whatever the call, whatever the need His word was his bond, his actions his deed....’”

25 B G OA DAY - BEEVOR’S HOUSE GAUDY REUNION - SUNDAY 27th JUNE 2010 He then joined the battleship HMS Howe, the flagship of the OBITUARIES AND TRIBUTES CONTINED British Pacific Fleet. He was demobbed in Portsmouth in is now retired, living in Puerto Alex Titcombe (P57-62) 1945. He remained in the Royal Navy Voluntary Reserve Rico and fondly remembers his father Donald Hereward for a further 10 years. After a spell at the ENT Dept at : “I am sad to report the Mcallister Titcombe (P30-33) Manchester Royal Infirmary, he entered general practice in death of my father, Donald Titcombe, who passed away Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire where he practiced for 30 years peacefully on April 1st, 2010 at the age of 93. where he was well liked and loved by his patients and colleagues. “He spent the last 33 years of his life in Wilmslow where he spent a happy and busy retirement and was married for the second time in 1987 to Patricia Cooke (my mother Julia, died some years earlier). “He had a wide range of interests. During his long life he played competitive Hockey, Tennis, Skiing, Golf and he also sailed. He loved music and opera, and religious architecture, a love inherited from his father. He was a talented and prolific painter. During his many travels, he was able to paint scenes from memory and with the aid of photographs. Each family member had their favourites, and it is nice to think that his paintings will now hang on walls around the world and will provide memories for his far Donald Titcombe (P30-33) on the right with his brother John Titcombe flung family to cherish (I live in Puerto Rico and my sister (P35-38). John’s son Charles (P64-68) is also an OA. lives in Australia). Latterly his garden in Wilmslow was a “Born in 1916, he was the son of a medical practioner in huge pleasure to him and was always a mass of colour and Disley, Cheshire. His mother also came from a medical contrast. background, having met her husband as Assistant Matron “Although not in the best of health during his final years, it at Ancoates Hospital in Manchester. My father had a was a peaceful end to full and fulfilled life. younger brother John Titcombe (P31-35) , and both brothers followed the medical route eventually graduating “One of his most recent joys was the arrival of his great from Manchester University Medical School. He then grandson, Sebastian, when he was well enough to worked as a house surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary. appreciate it. He was immensely excited and proud to know that there was a new Titcombe to take the family name “He then joined the Royal Navy as a Surgeon Lieutenant, forward to the next generation. He is survived by his wife during the Second World War, first serving on the cruiser Patricia.” HMS Liverpool which was torpedoed on the Malta convoys.

OA DAY 2010 FEATURING A GAUDY FOR BEEVOR’S HOUSE On a perfect summer’s day, OAs, mostly from Beevor’s House enjoying their Gaudy, gathered to enjoy OA Day. Once again the Chapel resounded to lusty singing, and there followed an excellent lunch provided by the Brookwood Partnership Ltd, the School Caterers. As the day clashed with the World Cup tie between England and Germany there was a fairly hasty exodus after lunch as some OAs hurried home to watch the match. Those that remained enjoyed the kind hospitality of Beevor’s Housemaster, Stuart Mainwaring, and settled down to watch in the comfort of Beevor’s House.

THE FOLLOWING ATTENDED OA DAY 2010: Rosie Abbott-Drake (B84-86) Christien Bembridge (Beevor's House Tutor 2007) Fred Allen (B93-97) Adam Bobroff (R97-2002) Julian Anyiam-Osigwe (B99-2006) Gary Bokobza (B90-94) Chris Arkell (B46-52) Richard Bolt (M45-48) Alaster Armitage-Brain (B2001-7) Dan Bond (Beevor's House Tutor 2007-) Sue Barnard (B56-91) Douglas Bonn (SHE64-69) David Barnes (B59-64) David Boothby (Beevor's Housemaster 95-2005) Simon Barnes (B88-93) Thalia Bornefeld (B2000-2) Trevor Barton (K71-75) Simon Bradfield (B81-86)

28 Nora Burghart (B2000-2) Phil Lyndon (K76-81) Derick Burlingham Johnson (SHO39-41) John Macleod (B44-48) Adam Chandler (B2002-9) Stuart Mainwaring (Beevor's Housemaster 2008-) Roland Chant (B60-65) John McAllister (Beevor's Housemaster 82-95) Graham Chapman (B54-59) Ellie-Mae McNulty-Watson (B92-93) Nigel Church (B44-47) Deborah Meadows (Beevor's House Tutor 80-85) Jon Clark (B70-75) Simon Mitchell (K70-73) David Couzens (B92-97) Anne Morgan (Beevor's House Tutor 86-94) Tony Dey (B52-57) Julian Nicholes (B2001-8) John Edwards TD (B46-51) Robert North (B42-45) Ulrike Engelmann (B2001-3) Joshua Oommen (B2001-8) James Evans CBE (B46-51) Michael Palmer (Beevor's House Tutor 58-63) Martin Field (Beevor's House Tutor 89-2005) Richard Peart (SHO55-60) Rodney Fitzgerald MBE (B39-41) Geoffrey Prall (SHE36-40) James Fowler (Headmaster 2006-) Peter Purton OBE (B46-51) Warren Gamble (B52-55) Andrew Reid (B80-85) Clive Gessing-Richardson (B66-70) Richard Schooley (B63-68) Kevin Greene (B58-63) Charles Siu (B77-82) Andrew Grose (B71-74) Nick Slater (B72-77) David Haim (B71-75) Geoffrey Smethurst (P44-48) Nicky Hancock (B90-92) Michael Somerville (B47-50) Richard Handel (B78-83) Jonathan Stait (Beevor's House Tutor 2003-) Isla Hart (Beevor's Matron 71-99) Peter Stevens (P64-69) Tony Harvie (B70-75) Neil Sutherland OBE (B66-70) Jeremy Hawkins (B49-52) Mike Taylor CBE DL (SHE56-61) Tony Hunt (B49-54) Charles Tubbs (SHE69-73) James James-Crook (M68-72) Roger Turpin (B71-75) Nick King (B60-65) David Vezey (SHE59-62) Simon Kitchen (B68-73) Andrew Vos (B78-83) Jack Knight (M40-43) Chris Whitelock (B2000-7) Gary Kwok (B2002-7) Gareth Wilson (B62-66) Miles Laddie (B61-66) Brian Woodrow OBE DL (B51-56) Ian Luetchford (B48-51) Lyn Worrall (B91-93) Mark Lycett (B88-93) Robert Wright (B60-65) Dawn Lyndon (B80-82)

THE LETCHMORE TRUST The Letchmore Trust, the trustees of which comprise OAs and former members of staff, exists to be the custodian of a number of works of art in the School and also manages a modest portfolio of other investments with the assistance of professional advisers. The income from the Trust's investments is used for the benefit of the School, for example in the past the Trust has contributed to the cost of restoration of the organ in the Chapel. This year the Trust was very pleased to donate £3,200 to the Art Department, to purchase four plan chests for storage of pupils' art work. Some of the Trustees are pictured above presenting the cheque to Hannah Nield, a teacher in the art department. If you would like to find out more about the work of the Trust, perhaps because you have a particular interest in art From Left: Trevor Barton (K71-75), Hannah Nield, John Rimer (P56-60), or music, please contact the OA Office, who will put you in James James-Crook (M68-72) touch with one of the Trustees.

29 OA NEWS HOME AND ABROAD New Zealanders there; never did I think that I was to become a Kiwi Gunner Officer (Territorial) 15 years later. Many apologies to John English (P43-48) for publishing his email address incorrectly in Aldenhamiana 37; his correct “After graduating from Oxford I started my teaching career, email addresses are [email protected] and as future Headmaster of Aldenham, Peter Mason, had done [email protected] and his website is 20 years before, at Cheltenham College, which led to my www.budurl.com/ryma later interest in Lindsay Anderson’s film “If…”. School House alumni who saw it will have been very familiar with has lived in New Zealand since David Ellison (SHE46-51) the scenes which were shot there. I particularly liked the 1964 and writes from there: “The excellent No. 37 scene in the “Cubs” dormitory, where I spent my last year, , full of photos of friends of mine, persuades Aldenhamiana which showed (in black and white to represent perverse me to write again from a New Zealand perspective. Molly dreams) the Housemasters wife wandering around the beds Barton has told me that there are 19 OAs currently living in naked at dead of night. The second half was filmed at New Zealand, covering the years from 1937 to 1993 and the Cheltenham, and when I saw it in 1970 I was delighted to whole length of this land, possession of which was claimed see my rather poky former classroom being used by the by Captain James Cook in the name of King George III in main conspirators in their planning for the armed revolt. 1769. We are the most remote, at 11,700 miles, from our tells the story of ‘If…’ in his alma mater. Distances here make a New Zealand branch Simon Worrall (K1964-69) splendid article in no. 36. of the OA Society impracticable, but I hope that other Kiwi Aldenhamiana OAs might write to Aldenhamiana with their news. “I moved to New Zealand in 1964 and spent the final 23 years of my teaching career at Christ’s College in “I remember very well my first winter at Aldenham – even Christchurch. Apart from the maths teaching, I spent much colder than that of 2010 – when I was one of the most time involved in music and as O.C. Cadets for 15 years, as enthusiastic skaters on the lake at Aldenham House, in well as being master i/c mountaineering and skiing spite of the ruling the our revered Headmaster, George throughout my time there. I retired in 1992. In 1995 my life Riding, that “no boy may skate, except on water passed by was jolted by a stroke. In thanksgiving for my survival I the Headmaster”. In my memory’s eye I can still see that founded a Charitable Trust, which is now the main focus of historic notice posted on the HM’s board. my life. I am also much involved in the life of the “National Service took me to war in Korea. Like Dick Christchurch Cathedral, as Canon Almoner and Patron of Vincent (SHE45-50), Chris Brown (SHE46-51), Jim its Choir Society. I like to think that I might be able Toogood (SHE46-51) and other friends I had followed the sometime to revisit the school at the top of Boydens Hill.” advice of our O.C. Cadets, Hugh Kirkwood (CR46-72) writes: “Congratulations on (and further encouraged by the 25 pounder gun deployed in Derek Redmayne (SHE45-50) producing such a brilliant and newsy magazine! I spent a the Shed) into joining the Gunners, and I found the most enjoyable and enlightening evening yesterday. Very experience of dealing with the challenges of the harsh impressive and most reassuring. Keep it up. Best wishes.” climate in Korea both stimulating and exciting. I met my first

JOHN DEWES CRICKET MATCH Aldenham’s only Test Cricketer, John Dewes (B40-45) , returned to the School on Wednesday 8th July to present the John Dewes Trophy which John and his wife, Shirley, had generously given to the School, to the winning side at the inaugural John Dewes Cricket Match. John played for England, Middlesex and Cambridge University, playing 5 Tests between 1948 and 1951. In 137 First Class matches he scored over 8000 runs averaging including 18 First Class Centuries. The match was played between the School 1st XI and the Headmaster’s Select XI which included Tom Pettet (K2004-09) . The match was umpired by Chris Rowley (M48-51) . Several OAs visited the School to watch the match which will become a regular fixture on the OA Calendar.

John Dewes seated front centre surrounded by the teams and match officials.

30 The Senior House Hockey photo below was sent by Roger “The final was on 30th March between us, English’s and Ost (B42-47) to the OA Office, which wrote to Hewlett Cox’s. It was just before the House names ceased to be Thompson (B42-47) asking for help to name the OAs. those of the current Housemasters and became Brilliantly he replied with names and the following report: permanently called after the original; Cox’s became McGill’s and English’s became Beevor’s. “It was a very warm spring afternoon, near the end of term with the Senior House Acting Competition to follow in the evening. At half time the score was 1-1. Then Cox’s raced ahead to lead 3-1, but we clawed back to 3-3. Extra time had to follow, by the end of which we moved ahead to win 4-3, our efforts mainly due to the two natural games players Anthony Bradley (42-46) and Patrick Dewes (B42-47) (brother of J G Dewes (B40-45) the England cricketer) sitting on either side of the Captain.

John Berridge (B43-47) and James Fowler (B41-46) are no longer living, the remaining nine all over 80. My leg was pulled when the photo was distributed because my nose was rather in the air whereas everyone else is looking at the camera with modest smiles. You may wonder at the extent

Front Row left to right: John S Berridge (B43-47), Anthony H M of my memory after 64 years, it is helped by having kept Bradley (B42-46), John M Page (B42-46) (Captain), Patrick Dewes diaries.” (B42-47), John Morris (B42-46) (Ed. – sadly since Hewlett wrote Patrick Dewes has also Back row left to right: John L C Perry (B42-46), Geoffrey Hewlett died. Anthony Bradley is a “lost OA”, does anyone know his Thompson (B42-47), Christopher J Arkell (B42-46), John Singleton (B42-47), James A Fowler (B41-46), Roger Ost (B42-47) whereabouts?)

REGIONAL LUNCHES! Three Regional Lunches were held in 2009/10. Two in the UK and one in Spain. Many thanks are due to Robin Danvers-Glasson (P55-59) for getting the Spanish lunch off the ground and organising it with assistance from the Development Office. If you are living overseas and would like to organise a lunch/dinner for OAs living near you please contact the Development/OA Office, who are always happy to help. Look out for the details of the next regional lunches in Dates for your Diary and on the OA Section of the School Website.

BURY ST EDMUNDS 14th OCTOBER 2009

Tim Barrett (P55-60) Richard Levin (B73-78) Geoffrey Prall (SHE36-40) Molly Barton (Development Manager) David Massey (SHE43-47) Peter Scott (B51-55) John Cockett (SHO41-46) Michael McNeill (P55-60) Colin Shield (SHO45-49) Michael Daniels (M41-45) Nigel Morrison (M57-61) Don Shield (SHO44-49) James Fowler (Headmaster) John Page (B42-46) John Witter (SHO49-52) Andrew Houston (P57-61) Ian Partington (SHE52-55) Eleanor Witter Ian Hutchinson (P60-65) Barbara Partington

31 Andrew Houston brought along to the lunch the photo ELCHE, SPAIN, 22nd May 2010 below of the Jazz Band taken in March 1961. Andrew had an idea that the band might like to get together for a reunion. If this appeals please contact the OA Office. Bob Macaulay is a ‘lost OA’; can anyone help with his whereabouts?

Back Row: Trevor Barton (K71-75), Tim Carr (M78-83), Gary Bokobza (B90-94), Robin Danvers-Glasson (P55-59), John Griffith (M57-61) Andrew Houston (P57-61), Peter Laird (hidden) (SHO56-61), William Front Row: Molly Barton (Development Manager), Maria Jesus Carr, Susi Rowe (SHE56-61), John Pollard (M54-59), Bob Macaulay (P56-61) Bokobza, Pepe Danvers-Glasson, Carol Griffith

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 28th April 2010

Derick Burlingham Johnson (SHO39- 41), Jim Cockburn (SHE57-61), Catherine Cockburn, Clive Creelman (P43-46), Dorothy Creelman, Geoffrey Dunn (M47-50), Sue Dunn, Tony Engel (P56-59), John Glazier (P44-48), John Handcock CVO DL (SHE44-47), Jonathan Handcock (SHE79-83), Peggy Handcock, John Hodge (B52- 55), James James-Crook (M68-72), Simon Mitchell (K70-73), Nick Pulman (Senior Master), John Schofield (P65- 70), Robin Sharp (B37-42), Paul Shelton (P65-70), Geoffrey Smethurst (P44-48), Derrick Swain (SHE56-60), Jackie Wilkie (OA Assistant).

John Kinross (M47-52) wrote to the Editor kindly enclosing DRUM PHOTO some memorabilia: “I have been having a turn out and enclose two school Whilst at the Spanish photographs you may like to reproduce. Lunch Robin Danvers Glasson (P55-59) “Also enclosed, from my scrapbook, is a copy of a burnt mentioned he had page from the chapel book room fire of 15 May 1949. Dick another photo of the Vincent’s fire brigade put it out but not before Bill Kennedy Drum featured in the tried out a fire extinguisher and nearly suffocated with the previous edition of smoke. Aldenhamiana : “Here’s “I was Hon. Secretary of the School History Society (I the photo. Hope that it expect it no longer exists) and arranged a coach trip to the reaches you with the Festival of Britain (receipt enclosed for £9.6s) and two right quality. The photographs. I think St Margaret’s Bushey went on the drummer was Michael same day, which was of more interest to some of us than Higgens (SHO55-59) , the very crowded exhibition! and the date “Also enclosed the menu for the 1954 OA Supper which somewhere in the was very basic! 1957/8 period. The same Higgens was the “P.s. My wife is ex SMB!” person who rode a horse across Australia: one of the first, if not the first, to do that.” (Ed: copy of the OA Supper menu is reproduced - we hope to have space for the other items sent in future editions)

32 I suppose I had better let you know what I’ve been up to.

“Deborah and I were married at Longstock, Hampshire, in September last year. We live in Stockbridge, at No 3, East End Cottages, Hampshire and the post code is SO20 6HH. We have a telephone (01264-810520) and I have a mobile (07966-516177).

“Remarkably, I also appear on page 34 of issue No 37, sitting to the right of David Orwin (SHO51-56) and Jonathan Thompson (SHO52-56) and a couple of places removed from Jack Waddell, with Donald Parren, Keith Montgomery (SHE51-56) and Basil Maddox (SHE51-56) on the Evens side of Piggy and his missus. I shared a study with Keith Montgomery.

“I held a grudge against PGM for many years as he single- handedly destroyed the budding pop idol careers for myself, David Orwin and Jon Thompson ( the singing Praeposters) by not allowing us to take part in the Music Competition when we failed to turn up for Chapel one Sunday evening because we were rehearsing ‘Ain’t She Sweet?’ and ‘The Sandman’. Still rankles. (Although he did very kindly write, commiserating with me for failing to score when I opened the batting for Sandhurst against the MCC at Lords in 1958.)

“My latent artistic talent was similarly jeopardised by Mr Parren’s reluctance to believe that I had the necessary horsepower to write a readable poem. I managed to convince him that I hadn’t plagiarised my submission (I confess never to have been a poetry addict anyway) and it appeared in the Aldenhamian that year. Maybe with a little more encouragement the School might have boasted a Laureate as well as the ruler of a State and an England hockey player.

“I was sent to Libya when I left Sandhurst and quickly decided that helicopters were more comfortable than armoured cars and got myself posted to Middle Wallop. I Many thanks for the copy of " Aldenhamiana " that you very flew Skeeters, Bell 47 (Sioux) and Scouts in Ireland, Cyprus kindly sent to replace the one that went missing. It is an and Germany when I wasn’t playing cricket or football, excellent publication and a very much appreciated means skiing or sailing. I left the Army in 1972 and started of keeping in touch, although it is sad, as the years roll on, ‘Agricopters’ in 1976. Our main task was to cover carefully to see the passing of an increasing number of selected regions of the countryside with slightly noxious but highly efficacious chemicals. By 1992, when the contemporaries from the nineteen forties/early fifties. Alan government decided to ban crop spraying as anti-social, I Dickinson (SHE47-52). was able to sell six helicopters to the Greeks and spent Roland Chant (B60-65) emailed: “Having completed 5 several years teaching ex air force fighter pilots how to use years as Principal of The British School of Brussels 2003- agricultural helicopters, repair them when they bent them 2008, my wife Jill and I spent a year working in rural and coping with their ‘birthplace of democracy’ way of Ethiopia under the auspices of Voluntary Service Overseas. business and payment of outstanding invoices. We were involved in teacher training in a large village which was the cluster centre of 9 primary schools. “I kept a couple of helicopters until 2000 and got involved in I have now retired but not totally at ease with retirement!” building a small business park at Chilbolton. I still freelance in Jet Ranger helicopters every year trying to prevent Ramsay Farran (K62-67) emailed from British Columbia, bracken from taking over the hills of Wales and in 2007 flew Canada to say: “Now retired at my cottage by the sea. my beloved Cessna 180 (taildragger) aeroplane down to Offering sailboat charters in the Broughtons (British South Africa where I sold it to a German IT mogul who Columbia, Canada) where wildlife (Orcas, Bears and lots of wanted to use it to take paying guests over his newly Salmon ) abound.” acquired game park.

Peter Boîtel-Gill (SHO51-56) : “I was disappointed to learn from “I have a daughter North of Sydney and one on Samso, an my cousin (David Lavers SHO51-55) when I met him for lunch island off the Danish coast. I have six grandchildren and a earlier this week that I was officially ‘lost’. ( Aldenhamiana No boxer called Cally. 37/October 2009). Notwithstanding the above, I was delighted that my engagement had triggered somebody’s long term memory. “That’s enough extraneous information for anyone I think.”

33 THE ROLE OF OAS IN THE BURMA CAMPAIGN On the Sixty Fifth Anniversary of VJ Day August 15th to Imphal and took part in the 2010, a fine contribution from Alan Gelson (SHE56-61) : defence and subsequent lifting of the siege and the This seems an appropriate moment to remember a few of later pursuit and defeat of the the men from Aldenham who fought, and some who died, Japanese in Burma, ending in this Campaign. the war firstly as General Seventy two OAs served in Burma during the Second World Officer Commanding the 5th War and five lost their lives in the conflict, all save one being Indian Division and finally as buried in The British and Commonwealth Cemetery just General Officer commanding north of Rangoon - Colonel Elliott (P1913-16) of The First British forces in Siam. Berkshires is buried in Comilla (in modern day Bangladesh) He wrote the definitive account of the siege of Imphal from wounds sustained at Imphal. Flower On Lofty Heights together with Anthony Brett- Six OAs were awarded the Military Cross, one a DSO, as James. Anthony’s first book Report My Signals was well as a Distinguished Flying Cross, an American Bronze dedicated to his brother J Ivor Brett-James (SHE39-40) Star, a CBE, two OBEs and an MBE. There were who was an Old Aldenhamian killed in action in Sicily in numerous mentions in dispatches. 1943. Anthony Brett-James (an Old Millhillian) was clearly Four OAs served in the Chindits, taking part in extremely a great admirer of Geoffrey Evans and was his Signals’ arduous and dangerous Special Service operations Officer at Imphal and in the Arakan. The book is beautifully behind Japanese lines. Our Former Headmaster Paul and engagingly written with many fascinating anecdotes Griffin also served with this elite force, which under the and much background understanding of the local peoples Command of General Orde Wingate did so much to raise and terrain as well as describing the military aspects of the Allied morale at a bleak time in the campaign, which siege and break out. It is a masterpiece of military history. initially saw the British and Indian Armies swept The Japanese forces advancing on Imphal were initially unceremoniously out of Burma and being subjected to the held up at Sangshak by a small force holding an exposed longest and most humiliating retreat in their history. hill position for a week, which gave the main allied forces Many other OAs fought at the crucial battles of Kohima and vital time to organise the defences at Kohima and Imphal Imphal which halted and turned the Japanese advance at where the Japanese advance was finally held up preventing the march on Delhi. the Indo-Burmese border. Major Everall (B25-30) was a member of The Queens Own Royal West Kents who, as a Colonel Bernard Abbott (M20-25) , who played a key part of a garrison of 1500 men, held Kohima in an epic part in this desperate encounter, left Aldenham in 1925 stand – the last great stand of Empire against a force of with a prize cadetship at Sandhurst. He later joined The 15,000 Japanese. Major Peter Parish (SH28-32) of The Frontier Force Rifles in India transferring during the war to Rajputana Rifles and Colonel Francis Elliott (P13-16) of the 50th Indian Parachute Regiment. He thus found the First Berkshires died at Imphal. himself commanding The Indian Forces at this savage and terrible battle. Lieutenant-General Sir Geoffrey Evans KBE CB DSO and Two Bars (B15-18) was one of the most I quote from an official history [ The Battle of Sangshak by distinguished soldiers to emerge from the Burma Harry Seaman]: Campaign, with a military career every bit as glittering as “The battered heart of the defences during the siege was that of . Sir Richard Gale (SH11-13) in the hands of a remarkable man, even among so many. Geoffrey Evans was one of only a very few soldiers to Colonel Bernard Abbott, ‘Abbo’ to all, was Brigadier Hope- have been awarded two bars to a DSO. He left Aldenham Thompson’s deputy. Of military qualities he lacked none; in 1918. After Sandhurst he stayed on in the Army, erudite and coherent, cool and decisive, his qualities were beginning his Second World War career in North Africa common knowledge throughout the Brigade. What no one and the Middle East, where after distinguished service he could have predicted was his unfailing equanimity during went to Imphal on the Indian border as Brigadier to the the awesome storm. Nothing but nothing impaired his General Staff. It was from here that he went to the Arakan judgement or disturbed his composure. Men who can on the southern front to oppose a new advance by impart such a feeling of security at a time of mortal danger Japanese forces. are rare; those who achieve it simply by their normality are He arrived at a desperate time and was put in charge of priceless-but Bernard Abbott was one of them. As hope defending the Admin Box at Sinzweya, having to quickly dimmed throughout the day, so the man burned brighter: organise along with a small regular unit cooks and drivers a singular embodiment of leadership.” and other non combatants into a fighting force. As a result of Major Harry Buchard recalled him saying at the height of his inspired leadership the Japanese suffered their first battle. “Harry, I am determined to die in old age from a defeat on land in the Second World War. He then returned surfeit of port”. By some miracle he did survive and as the

34 remnant under orders abandoned the position Bernard There was another grim message when we arrived back. Abbott, described as “a large heavily built man with florid Another Carabiniere’s tank had been blown up in exactly features”, was seen carrying another survivor Colonel the same way. A Jap Soldier with a large stone in his hand Hopkinson away from the abandoned position. had been sitting on an aerial bomb under a culvert waiting for a tank to be driven over before striking the detonator to The battle at Sangshak should never have been fought blow both himself and the tank to smithereens. This time and was a result of blunders higher up the chain of it was the turn of , a command and faulty intelligence. Such a small force Captain Hubert Cornaby (M34-37) 24 year old officer of A Squadron.” should not have had to face a Japanese Battalion. Colonel Abbott, described in the history as “not one to mince his In the Htauk-Kyan Cemetery in Rangoon there are neat words”, made his views felt on return to Imphal and in rows of head stones. Captain H P Cornaby and his five consequence did not further ascend the military ladder, men lie in beautifully kept gardens containing hundreds of although he received an O.B.E in 1945. large butterflies fluttering around in the sunshine. They died together and are now remembered together. In Arthur Freer’s History Numshigum I found this entry: Such were the OAs of the Second World War generation, “March 3rd 1945 on the approaches to Mandalay in whom we have every reason to take pride.

For car enthusiasts, another photo of Tony Dron (P59- 64) from the Goodwood Festival of Speed, this year driving the oldest surviving Mercedes in the world –a 1902 Simplex. Tony says “This was the last run on Saturday night and I didn’t want to miss out on the Veuve Clicquot before dinner.”

Chris Joel (SHO46-51): I was greatly impressed by this A nostalgic Letter from Fred Hechtel (SHO46-50) who new edition (Aldenhamiana 37) and have perused it writes from Germany: “On seeing the photo of the Naval very thoroughly. With reference to the Sea Cadet Photo Section taken on the deck of HMS Duke of York in 1949 on p.30 – HMS Duke of York 1949 I am No. 1 in the 2nd I was deeply moved. I was in the photo, but can no Row (partly obscured) whilst No.3 is JTC Knowles longer recognise myself. However, I can recognise the (Jimmy) (SHE46-50) . The two officers are Lieutenants third lad in the second row, namely Harrington and Griggs.

LtoR

Back Row: D Fowler 2345678K Prosser

2nd Row: C Joel 2 J Knowles 4 Lt Harrington Lt Griggs 78910

1st Row: R Willoughby C Arkell 3 J Lilly 5678 9

Seated: M Weisz 23 456

35 Jimmy Knowles (SHE46-50) . I have a faint suspicion “I do hope that others have been able to fill in at least that it is me sitting between Knowles and the officer, but some of the names. I believe the junior officer’s name would be happy to defer to anyone with a better claim. I began with ‘H’ (Hadington / Hadley?)” have toyed with the idea that I might just be the seventh, tenth or ninth in the second row. If memory serves me We reprint the 1949 Sea Cadet photo one more time right I was a Leading Seaman in 1949; might I already with some more names filled in. Can anyone help with have been promoted to Cadet Petty Officer? I know that the blanks? by 1950 I had reached that exalted rank. Much depends emailed: “An update upon whether I had three stripes at the time the photo Ken (Kim) V Albertsen (M65-66) from an American who attended Aldenham for one full was taken. Was the picture taken in 1949? The only year - an eventful year for me. other person I can recognise was Lieut. (Cmdr?) Griggs, the sixth person in the second row; he was the senior “Memories include: England winning the World Cup, all naval officer and ran the Sea Cadet unit. I can’t cheering in the Common Room. Cassius Clay winning a remember the name of the second officer sitting on fight against an English boxer. No cheering in the Grigg’s right. The picture was taken on the foredeck Common Room, though I was inwardly ecstatic. during the two week annual summer sea cadet camp. “Playing fives, great game. “I don’t understand how Robin Willoughby (P47-51) , in the Naval Section in 1949, reverted to the army section “Me doing well on the Track and Field team. Coach had to carry the big drum in 1950. I seem to remember one to lie about my age (saying I was 2 years older), in order had to spend a year in the army section before one to enable me to go to the meets. I got a blue ribbon in could choose to join the Naval section (the Air Force the javelin throw. section had ceased to exist at about this time). During my more senior years at Aldenham the big drum was “I fondly remember , carried by , who became a Peter Crawshaw (M65-69) Peter John Moncur (SHO46-50) , and some professional soldier, only to be killed some years later Taylor (M65-69) Woodrow Sim (M65-69) others my age in my house. I also remember two older whilst leading his platoon in Aden. Before my promotion boys; and from Leading Seaman, at the time Moncur carried the Nigel Sproates (M63-68) John Grob (M61- who were kind enough to converse with me, even bass drum, I ‘played’ the cymbals. On ceremonial 66) though it was against the rules at the time (younger boys occasions Sarge provided new cymbals, which sounded were not permitted to converse with older boys). truly magnificent, whereas for practices I had to use the old ones which looked rather like large maggot-eaten “Currently: am single and residing in northernmost biscuits and made a sound commensurate with Thailand. Am developing an outdoor Rock Climbing and appearance. Adventure Park. Today, I strung a 180 meter zip line (flying fox) with my worker friend Mai - he's a 20 yr old “The following year, my last at Aldenham, the two week immigrant from Laos. I pay him $7/day, which is $2 summer visit took place on HMS Warrior, an escort more than he could earn in Bangkok. carrier. One or other of the cadets at the time might remember an incident which took place towards the end “Fond memories of Aldenham.” of our visit. I had taken a few cadets out sailing in a whaler; we were returning to Warrior to berth between J her and a destroyer which was just about to be handed onathan Shubert and over (or was actually being ceremonially handed over) (K98-2005) to the Indian or Pakistan navy. The gap between the Chris Cernuschi are both destroyer’s stern and Warrior’s stern was small and as (K98-2005) considering a career we were coming in gently to berth a gust of wind drove in teaching and us against the destroyer. Our prow carving a ‘scratch’ returned to Aldenham along the side of the hull. All observed by Warrior’s earlier this year to do officer of the watch from the quarterdeck. I can’t some work remember whether there were any repercussions or experience. whether we had seriously marred the destroyer’s beauty. Including myself, there were probably only four of us in the whaler. That was my last Sea Cadet camp. Peter Shaw (B52-56) writes from New Zealand: “Thank you “The Navy had been my first love; I had wanted to make for the October the Royal Navy my career, hoping to sit the exam for edition of the Dartmouth. However, I was duly told by my uncle that , which as both my parents were not British at the time I was not Aldenhamiana I have read with interest. Just a couple of points: eligible; not long after the outbreak of war in 1939 my father became stateless and remained so until shortly “1. You say that only Flying Officer Manser was before his death. awarded the Victoria Cross. I remember a portrait of Captain Albert Ball in School House Dining Room. Captain Ball enlisted into the Sherwood Foresters in the

36 WW1, and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Not Parren’s witty, and effective, English lessons, and the only did he win the VC, but also three DSOs, and one consequences of learning Latin from G T Crawshaw. MC. Was he not an OA? (Ed: The legendary Captain Maths with George Fletcher was so instructive. He was Ball VC DSO (Two Bars) MC was not an OA. There is a also a very kind man, as was Geoffrey Bolt. I am sure picture of Flying Officer Manser VC in the Dining Hall but he knew I was limited at Chemistry, but he gave that not one of Captain Ball. Can anyone throw any light on sparkle of encouragement. Then there was Elsie, and Peter’s memory of a picture of him?) one more person, whom I shall mention further down. Elsie was the scullery maid in the kitchen. She washed “2. It gave me great delight to see photographs of up, while we would dry, or rather continue to smear the that delightful character, John Saxby (M52-55) . I damp grease around the plates, with filthy cloths. Elsie always will remember, during a careers session, when was happy. She enjoyed our banter. She was not too we were asked to indicate what we wanted to do when bright, but the world needs Elsies, and we need to value we left school. Replies were standard, such as doctor, them. engineer, accountant, etc. “Saxby?” “Make pork pies, Sir!” He still looks cheerful!” “I also enjoyed an episode involving C E Arkell (B46- 52) , who was the head of house during my first two Peter also wrote the following letter to the Headmaster, terms. Two of us had to clean his naval cadet uniform. remembering his time at school: “I have read with We did this for one term, with little thanks. At the interest the comments about P G Mason in beginning of the next term we contrived to make just Aldenhamiana , particularly as they coincide with having enough of a poor standard, not to be punished, but just read Sir Michael Parkinson’s autobiography, in sacked. It worked! which he was somewhat critical of his experience at Barnsley Grammar School, and the recent comments by “I liked art, but after two years of lessons, it was not Sir Ranulph Fiennes about his life at Eton. There will, of available, and nor did the sports schedule, I mention course, be boys from their schools, who thought life was below, allow time for it. I won an art competition, and fantastic, and there will be varying degrees of opinion continued it as a hobby after I left school. Doing about the experiences at Aldenham. something like sketching the inside of Lincoln Cathedral, while the choir was rehearsing, was far more moving “I left over fifty years ago, and to what I have referred than a day at Lord’s! above have made me think, and write my views. Did I enjoy my time there? On balance, I think I did not. That “An event which had a lasting positive effect on me was may seem odd, because I went on from there to Peter Goodchild’s (B52-57) production of “Murder in Sandhurst, which could be construed to be a more the Cathedral” for the Senior House Play Competition. disciplined environment. There was some bullying at The costumes were fantastic, and the scenery was so Aldenham (probably more psychological than physical) real. He had most of us involved. I could see how it encouraged by the ‘boyes’ and privileges systems, and brought out the non-sporting talents of so many. I only seemed to be little respect for boys who were no good had a walk on part, so I suppose I was able to stand at sport, and had worthy hobbies. To fail at Athletics back and admire. But I wonder where the school saw it Standards in Beevor’s was a sin! And a second sport relative to a first team game. after 5 o’clock call, as opposed to another interest was absurd, as was not being allowed to refer to my brother “Cricket was my free time saviour. It meant I did not as “my brother”. Polishing tables until they shone, ready have to do another sport after 5 o’clock call. I was also to be dulled by prep., or made to do again by someone excused Standards. I could fill in time enjoyably down exercising his (bully) power, was also rather silly. at the nets. Mr Mason would come to watch matches on occasions. He never once spoke to me; nor can I “The background to my psyche was that I was brought recall him ever smiling. But I liked it when he arrived, up from an early age by an aunt and uncle to respect because I really fancied the look of one of his daughters. people for who they were, and not what they were. It On reflection, I think I may have been seen by him as concerned me that the school had a gladiatorial someone only good at the one activity of cricket, and approach to success. I think I just got away with this, that was confined to wicket-keeping. because I played cricket for the 1st XI for three years. How things happened certainly did not come across as “One other OA commented on the opinion that perhaps a family approach. I left these thoughts with Chris Mr Mason did not like the parents. My aunt and uncle Wright, the housemaster, when he and his wife gave me shared that opinion! a private farewell dinner. It seems that, later, those in Dr Wallace Hadrill’s house benefitted from a more “I can recall only one conversation with the Headmaster. respectful attitude. I also learnt that Chris Wright It was a couple of days after I had handed in the letter changed things for the better, much to the chagrin of the from my aunt that I was leaving school at the end of term boys who had been through it! in December. He expressed surprise that I was leaving after one term of the academic year. I told him that I “So what and who gave me enjoyment at Aldenham? would be going to Sandhurst in January. He explained to I really liked Mr W G Hook’s enthusiasm for music, me that I was useless, and did not stand a hope. I incorporating choral works. That has continued to give expressed confidence in myself, and we parted. me so much pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed Donald “I felt I could not have been that bad, because, in the

37 previous term, I had been secretary of cricket, and head “I was commissioned into the Worcestershire Regiment, of the lower house in Beevor’s. I was also sharing the and had to get past an interview with General Sir study with the current head of house. And Chris Wright, Richard Gale to be accepted! Sadly, at the age of who tried to dissuade me from joining the army for twenty-eight, I was medically discharged. My last pacifist reasons, also asked me to stay on to captain the appointment was that of an adjutant. But my aunt, cricket the following summer! people like Sarge, Sandhurst, and the army had set me up for an enjoyable and successful future life. “Later in the term, when I had been accepted for Sandhurst, Sergeant Major Buckingham came all the “My late elder brother (C R Shaw (B49-52) ) had his own way over from the armoury to Beevor’s to see me. “I experience of Aldenham. As a small boy, he had rickets knew you would do it, boy!” He was the only member creating an un-athletic body. He also suffered dreadfully of staff that went out of his way to congratulate me. from hay fever. In other words he did not fit into the There was no family spirit smile, or comment, from the demands of the gladiator class. He won a form prize in headmaster. But my guardians were sent the fees for his first year, but he was ruthlessly bullied. In my first the next term. The explanation was apparently that the term he ran away from school. In my second term I saw school had rejected their resignation letter! Sarge’s him dragged past me in the junior changing room to the attitude exemplified all that my aunt and uncle taught me senior one. He was naked, and covered ALL over in about respecting who someone is, and what he wants to boot polish. They were now going to scrub him clean. achieve, whatever that is. Someone in authority must have known about that; the head of the upper houseroom?; the head of the house? “I took that lesson with me to Sandhurst. I really No-one was punished. To what sort of family did my enjoyed my two years there, and established huge brother think he belonged? Dr Wallace- Hadrill was the respect for the senior NCOs, in particular, who guided only person to whom my brother could ever turn. He me through. Unlike at Aldenham, I was happy to return held him in high regard for the rest of his life. Richard after holidays. I started off small and fairly immature, was taken away from the school soon after that, but it all but I knew they wanted me to succeed. I felt valued. It put the fear of God into me! was tough. I grew up, and also a further four inches in those two years! I was asked to say what academic “It may well not be appropriate to publish this letter, but subjects I would like to do. I said French, because it I had to write it, because I am sure there are a number was an international language, and ‘Human Physiology of boys who did not, and do not enjoy school. It and Diet’ so I had an understanding of how we humans therefore seems to me that before any such place basks ticked. I was accommodated. When I made the similar in its glory, it is mindful that it is providing a service for request for A levels at Aldenham, I was coldly told the which a considerable fee is paid. I just hope that staff school was not there to pander to the whims of pupils! are now are closer to the pulse than they seemed to be back then, leaving it almost solely to the boys to run the “I did not make the Academy cricket XI, but I was invited social aspect of the school. to join the staff club, the Sandhurst Wanderers as a wicket-keeper batsman. I played football for the “On a more intriguing last note, much of my life there Academy alongside Peter Boitel-Gill (SHO 51-56 ). I has been some form of link with the school. After the had a game or two for the hockey 2nd XI. Worcestershire Regiment, I spent most of my civilian career with Whitbread!”

ALDENHAM SCHOOL WAR MEMORIAL EDUCATIONAL FUND The Fund, a registered Charity, was created after WWII to assist financially in the education of the sons of OAs and others, and for wider charitable purposes considered by the Trustees to be beneficial to the School’s pupils. In 1987 the definition of those who may benefit was widened to include girls. There are presently four Trustees, all OAs, who manage a modest portfolio of investments with the assistance of professional advisers. In consultation with the Headmaster the Trustees use the income from those investments to provide financial contributions towards the fees of a number of pupils, both boys and girls. We focus on the cases of financial hardship, where the parent or parents would otherwise have real difficulty sending the child to Aldenham or keeping him or her there. If any OA would like to find out more about the Aldenham School War Memorial Educational Fund, please contact the OA Office, who will put you in touch with one of the Trustees .

38 OA DINNER 2009 format this year it will be preceded by a talk in the School Theatre given by Major Russell Lewis MC (SH86-91) . It was billed as the last OA Dinner but turned out to be so Russell was awarded his MC for service in Afghanistan and successful that it will be repeated this year! And will talk about his experiences on the front line there. There onwards….? The 2010 Dinner will be held on Friday 19th is a flyer with dinner details and an application form for November at the School. As a change from the traditional tickets at the back of Aldenhamiana .

OAs who attended the 2009 Dinner were: Trevor Barton (K71-75) Guy Green (SHO71-73) Simon Mitchell (K70-73) Martyn Berg (B89-94) John Handcock CVO DL (SHE44-47) Hanif Moledina (SHO82-87) Robbie Blackman (P2003-08) Patrick Harding (L97-02) Peter Norman (SHO56-60) Adam Bobroff (R97-02) John Hodge (B52-55) Richard Peart (SHO55-60) Richard Bolt (M45-48) Paul Hubbard (P92-97) Michael Powles (SHO69-74) Graham Brady (K98-02) Simon Hunt (L90-95) Geoffrey Prall (SHE36-40) Derick Burlingham Johnson (SHO39-41) Tony Hunt (B49-54) Derek Redmayne (SHE45-50) Mike Capon (SHE48-51) Melissa James (B2000-02) John Rimer (P56-60) Chris Carnaghan (SHE56-61) James James-Crook (M68-72) Robert Sentance (SHO56-61) Yianni Charalambous (P95-02) Owen Jenkins (L98-03) Daniel Shafron (L98-03) Robin Chaventre (M49-52) David King (SHE57-61) Toks Sotande-Peters (K96-03) John Corp (SHE56-61) Mike King (SHE60-65) Neil Sutherland OBE (B66-70) Robin Dawson (SHE57-62) Simon Kitchen (B68-73) Derrick Swain (SHE56-60) Alan Day (P52-57) Oliver Lawton (L97-02) Robin Taylor (P90-95) Andrew de Moleyns (SHO57-60) Philip Leonard (M71-74) Mike Taylor CBE DL (SHE56-61) Robert Eastwood (P97-02) Ian Luetchford (B48-51) Gareth Thomas (K2004-09) John Edwards TD (B46-51) Trevor Marcuson (P53-58) Roger Turpin (B71-75) Ian Eggleden (SHE58-63) Dan Marsh (B86-91) David Vezey (SHE59-62) Keith Fowler (SHO47-52) Phil Marsh (M58-60) John Vezey (SHE56-59) Warren Gamble (B52-55) Neil Melvill (K65-70) Mark Weatherhead (M54-57) Alan Gelson (SHE56-61) Matt Miel (K96-03) Saul Wise (P2003-08)

39 Back Row (l-r): L S Mills (SHE55-61), G L Aird (SHE56-60), I Macleod-Carey (SHE55-60), R A R Arthur (SHE55-60), J C Corp (SHE56-61), J J R Cockburn (SHE57-61) Front Row (l-r): C J Croxton (SHE56-61), A P A Tripp (SHE57-60), M J Catchpole (Capt) (SHE55-60), D H King (SHE57-61), D W Swain (SHE56-60)

After the dinner Derrick Swain (56-60 ) sent the OA Office “As it was 70 years ago I can be forgiven for not the photo above of the victorious School House Evens remembering all the names but have tried (below). Senior House cricket team of 1960 as three members of the team attended the Dinner. “If by any chance you would like to read more about me I have written my mini-memoirs. They are on line Another Cricket Team photo, this time the 1939 Beevor’s http://www.oldspotinn.co.uk/Ken_Hall.htm - 80 Blinking Cricket Team, was sent in by Ken Hall (B38-40) : “I enclose Years. The life and times etc. Look out for reference to John a copy of the photo I mentioned. It must have been after Dewes who played for Middlesex and England. rationing was introduced in the War because there are only ten in the team! Amongst them is R Fitzgerald who I see got “I still have a school blazer, tie and hooped cricket cap, the MBE for political services. I would like to hear more. which have only been seen on my grandson at a fancy dress party!”

Back Row: Ken Hall (B38-40), John Brydon (B28-42), Rodney Fitzgerald (B39-41), ?, Peter Small (B38-41) Front Row: Alexander Baillie (B35-39), ?, Reginald Hackett (B36-40), ?, John Gough (B37-41) (Please let the OA Office know if you can fill in the gaps.)

40 JOHN WILLMOTT (SHO65-69) – MY FAMILY’S CRAZY GAP YEAR

Some of you may have spotted Channel 4’s programme night-time and at the Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal, it “My Family's Crazy Gap Year ” or an article in the Times was so cold that we had to sleep fully clothed including newspaper Body and Soul section, both of which hats and shoes!! These were even colder than on the featured John Willmott and his family. Here John gives a glaciers in Patagonia, and the hammocks with mosquito potted version of their recent adventure: nets in the Amazon could hardly be described as comfortable. “We have just returned safely from our family gap year around the world. I took my younger family of 3 children “As you can imagine there were many highlights during and my wife Rafia to 26 countries in 52 weeks and our year away: We had a private audience with His managed to climb on to 71 aircraft including an old Holiness the Dalai Lama where he blessed us all and Antonov bi-plane that still operates in the Venezuelan gave the children valuable advice for their futures. In the Amazonia. Amazon we saved a baby that we felt was a day away from dying of malnutrition, fortunately we had some “The trip was intended to be educational as well as powdered milk and honey as well as a syringe and once spiritual and by a strange quirk, the rather more unusual he was stronger, we arranged for him to be flown to a aspects were filmed for a Channel 4 documentary series hospital – a happy bouncing baby is now being well cared known as “My Family’s Crazy Gap Year” – about our tribal

John and his family with the Dalai Lama

for and will be adopted. The wildlife of the Galapagos stays. The programme will have already been transmitted Islands was quite amazing and the trek in Peru where we by the time this piece is published and the media have, at were able to sleep alongside old Inca temples will always the time of writing, been busy helping promote the series be remembered. using us! “I have currently just started writing a novel about our trip, “Our trip was quite incredible and made particularly and should any OA be considering such an adventure interesting by living with some of the world’s unknown then do please get in touch as we may be to offer some tribes and by staying in homestays in some of the help or advice on [email protected] remotest parts of the world. We gained some inspiration from the BBC series known as “The Tribe” and did in fact “The film Director, James Nutt was a marvellous asset to visit some of the same areas. our trip as we learnt much from him about the world of film-making and using a camera as well as providing us “There were many times when we were seriously with a superb film of our trip, which will be a lasting roughing it, that I thought back to my days at Aldenham memory for our children. I can recommend such a trip to when central heating and hot running water were often everyone, albeit some may wish to take a more leisurely unavailable!! The Ger in Inner Mongolia was freezing at approach!”

41 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL EVENSONG AND RECEPTION – 30 JUNE 2010 OAs who live in the Winchester area were invited to join Evensong sung by the School Chapel Choir in a prestigious David Watts, the Director of Studies, his wife Kate, Deputy location has become an annual event, which all OAs are Head of the Prep School, and parents when the School welcome to attend. Please keep your eye on the OA Section Chapel Choir sang Evensong in the Cathedral. After the of the School Website for details. Evensong Service OAs joined the Director of Studies for a drinks reception in the Visitor Centre.

The OAs listed below died before 2008 and their deaths have not been previously listed in Aldenhamiana .

M F Abbott SH1910-13 19 July 1961 A E M Hoyer B1919-21 1971 C H Aylen SH1880-82 11 February 1961 E A Jarvis SH1913-15 26 October 1972 C S Aylen B1918-21 14 September 1978 I P MacDonald SH1919-21 1972 L H Aylen B1912-15 29 September 1963 L H Margetts SH1917-20 12 September 1961 V H D Bascombe SH1918-19 6 September 1967 E H Moore SH1916-19 27 November 1992 J L T Bennett SH1919-21 1939 G F Norton M1919-22 1961 W Bowles B1916-17 20 September 1977 R E Nuttall SH1918-20 1970 P Bull SH1916-18 7 April 1975 R M S Pearsall SH1905-07 1971 C E Cade P1913-16 12 August 1967 F H H Pipe SH1919-22 7 April 1968 W E Campbell-Baugh SH1913-17 11 January 1966 J S Pitcher M1918-21 1994 F C Chatfield M1903-07 1958 L W Pocock B1911-12 9 January 1966 E M Clark SH1918-1918 18 May 1979 M C Sivakara M1915-17 5 March 1960 B W Cooke SH1919-22 17 February 1980 J B L Smyth SH1917-19 23 April 1976 J M Cormack B1958-62 29 November 2000 C L Story SH1913-17 8 April 1967 N L Crawley SH1908-10 1935 A K Taylor M1916-19 1980 G R F Daubeny SH1919-21 12 March 1988 E A Y Trery SH1919-22 1947 T G V Davies SH1919-23 7 December 1968 J F Turpie SH1914-17 26 November 1957 E M Dougall SH1916-17 1975 G Wagner B1918-23 13 October 1999 P L Drayson B1928-31 9 December 2005 L O Welch P1919-21 1989 J P Emerson SH1916-23 16 April 1964 F S West B1900-02 1979 B E Garnham B1913-15 3 February 1950 H V Whitaker M1913-14 1949 N P Graham P1917-18 6 April 1981 A M D Wolff SH1910-13 1976 F Hankin P1912-15 27 December 1971 J T Wood SH1920-24 5 May 1986 T A Holland SHO1973-76 13 July 2007

42 THE OA SOCIETY COMMITTEE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU, THE OA SOCIETY MEMBERS -- TELL US WHAT MORE YOU THINK THE SOCIETY CAN DO FOR YOU……….. DIFFERENT EVENTS? INFORMATION? OA REGALIA? PLEASE LET US KNOW! YOU CAN WRITE TO THE OA OFFICE WHO WILL BRING YOUR MESSAGE TO THE ATTENTION OF THE COMMITTEE.

SPORTS CLUB OFFICERS AND SECRETARIES

FOOTBALL GOLF Hon. Secretary: Matthew Allen Hon. Secretary: Ian Eggleden 11 West End, Weston Turville, 2 Sunningdale Buckinghamshire HP22 5TT 40 London Road, Harrow HA1 3LY mobile: 07881 552487 mobile: 07500 958876 email: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

Club Coach: Matt Miel CRICKET mobile: 07989 150729 Currently there is no official OA Cricket Club. email: [email protected] If you are interested in playing please contact Vets Organiser: Scott Goodfellow the OA Office. mobile: 07957 138221 email: [email protected] FIVES Hon. Secretary: Philip Lyndon Mobile: 07866 410141 e-mail: [email protected]

OA SOCIETY FREEMASONRY President: Neil Sutherland The Old Aldenhamian Lodge, No. 4884 (founded c/o Aldenham School, Elstree, Hertfordshire 1926) WD6 3AJ Master: F E Burlingham Johnson Hon. Secretary: Frank Rogers The Old Aldenhamian Lodge, which exists Carisbrooke Cottage primarily for past members of Aldenham School, Millmere, Mill Lane, Yately, Hants it’s Governors and its teaching staff, present and GU46 7TQ past, meets at 10 Duke Street, St James, e-mail: [email protected] London SW1 on the second Wednesday in January, the first Wednesday in March, and the Hon. Treasurer: Richard Peart Strathyre, Hadley Green, Barnet, Herts, EN5 4PS third Wednesday in June and October. Email: [email protected] Full particulars of the Lodge can be obtained from the Secretary:- B S Tan , 5 Busch Close, Park Road, Isleworth, Middx TW7 6UE Home: 020 8580 2966

43 OLD ALDENHAMIAN SOCIETY ANNUAL DINNER 2010 at Aldenham School on Friday 19th November 2010 7.30 to 11.00pm Dinner

6.15 pm Pre Dinner Talk in the Library by Major Russell Lewis MC (SH86-91)

Major Lewis was awarded his MC for service in Afghanistan and will speak about his experiences serving on the front line there. After his talk there will be an opportunity to ask him questions.

Principal Guest and Speaker The Headmaster, James Fowler MA

WIVES, HUSBANDS and PARTNERS ARE ALSO INVITED DRESS BLACK TIE or LOUNGE SUITS

or at the special disTcoIuCntKedEraTteSof C£2O5 pSerTpe£rs3on5foPr tEhoRse uPnEdeRr 3S0 oOnN the day of the Dinner (Includes a half bottle of wine, 3 course dinner & coffee) ------Please complete and return this form together with your cheque made payable to “Old Aldenhamian Society” to: I G Luetchford, Esq., 41 The Rise, Elstree, Herts WD6 3JS

Name, house and dates at Aldenham: ....…………………….…………………………......

Address: ……………………………………………………………………......

………………………………………………………………...... Post Code: .………………......

Telephone No: ……………………...... e-mail address: ….…………....……......

I would like ……...... tickets for the Dinner at £35 per ticket

I would like ……...... …. tickets for the Dinner at £25 per ticket and enclose a cheque for £…………......

Please indicate if you have any special dietary requirements

……………………………………………………………………………………………...... ……………  I will arrive in time for the pre dinner talk Old Aldenhamian Society ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

6.00 pm on Wednesday 9th March 2011 in the Whitbread Room at the School

AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Minutes of the 2010 AGM 3. Matters Arising 4. Election of Officers (Hon Treasurer & Hon Secretary) 5. Election of Committee Members 6. President’s Report 7. Headmaster’s Report 8. Honorary Treasurer’s Report 9. Constitutional Change 10. Web Site Report 11. Aldenhamiana 12. OA Charities – Update 13. OA Day 2010 & 2011 14. Annual Dinner 2010 & 2011 15. Election of Honorary Members 16. Register & History – Update 17. OA Sports Clubs Update 18. Any Other Business - OA Visit to Ypres 19. Next Meeting

Followed by a Buffet Supper for OAs and their guests, for which there will be no charge, at 7.30 pm.

If you are unable to attend the meeting you are welcome to attend the Supper only Please park in the School Yard. ------

If you plan to attend the meeting and / or the supper please complete and return this form to the OA Office, Aldenham School, Elstree, Herts WD6 3AJ UK or email [email protected]

Name, house and dates at Aldenham: …………………………………….…………………………......

Address: ……………………………………………………………………………......

………………………………………………………………...... ….Post Code: .………………......

Telephone No: ……………………...... …… e-mail address: …………………………....……......

I shall attend the AGM / Supper / both, and will bring ...... guests to the supper.

Please indicate if you have any special dietary requirements

……………………………………………………………………………………………...... ……………………….. OLD ALDENHAMIAN DAY Sunday 26th June 2011 OAs from all Houses are welcome on OA Day and are invited to lunch. OA Day 2011 will additionally feature a Gaudy Reunion for

PAULL’S HOUSE who will be sent an invitation in the post. Please could OAs from all other Houses fill in and return the form below

10.30 am Coffee in Paull’s House 11.30 am Chapel 12.30 pm Drinks Reception in School House Garden 1.00 pm Lunch 3.30 pm Cup of tea, and carriages.

Please come for all or part of the day and bring your wife / husband / partner

------

If you were not in Paull’s House please complete and return this form to The OA Office, Aldenham School, Elstree, Herts WD6 3AJ by Wednesday 1st June 2011.

Name, house and dates at Aldenham: …………………………………….…………………………......

Address: ……………………………………………………………………………......

………………………………………………………………...... ….Post Code: …………….…......

Telephone No: ……………………...... …… e-mail address: …………………………....……......

I will bring a guest(s) whose name(s) is/are:...... ………………………………………………………

Please indicate if you have any special dietary requirements

……………………………………………………………………………………………...... ………………………... OSldTAAldeNnhaDmiIaNn SGocieOty,RVoDlunEtaryRMeAmbUersThiHp SOubsRcriIpTtioY n

Full Name: …………………………………….…………………………...... ……………………………...

Address: ……………………………………………………………………………......

………………………………………………………………...... … Post Code: …………….…......

Telephone No: ……………………...... … e-mail address: …………………………....……......

I would like to make a Voluntary Membership Subscription to the:

Old Aldenhamian Society of £ ______each year . Starting on (date at least one month ahead): ______until further notice OR for a period of: ______years

Your Bank Details Name(s) of account Holder(s): …………………………………….…………………………......

Bank name: …………………………………….…………………………......

Bank full address: ……………………………………………………………………………...... ………………………………………………………………...... ….Post Code: …………….…......

Account no: ………………………………………………………………...... …. Sort Code: / /

Please Pay: Name: Old Aldenhamian Society

Bank: National Westminster Bank PLC

Branch: 72/74 High Street, Watford, Herts WD1 2BQ

Account No: 48759414

Sort Code: 60-00-08

Please debit my/our account accordingly.

Signature: ...... Date: ......

For OA Office and Bank use only Bank please quote as Ref: ……………………………….…………………………......

Please return the completed form to:

Old Aldenhamian Office, Aldenham School, Elstree, Herts WD6 3AJ