Central Foundation Boys' School Newsletter
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DECEMBER ISSUE 2013 Central Foundation Boys’ School Newsletter CONTENTS: Alumni: Law 02 Alumni: Sports 03 Central Foundation Boys’ School is proud of its long history and leg- Alumni: Presenters 04 acy dating back nearly 150 years. This issue of the newsletter takes a look back at some of the success stories to have come through the Alumni: Infrastructure 05 school’s doors. Alumni: Academia 06 Alumni: Fashion 07 We understand the importance of ensuring that our students have Founder’s Day 08 every opportunity to both learn and to progress in life. These alumni Key Project: Awards 10 can be held up as an example of what can be achieved by hard work, determination and desire, and we hope that they can inspire current Key Project: Tutors 10 students to similar greatness in a number of fields. Tower of London 11 The Guardian visit 11 Buckingham Palace 12 DanceQuest 2013 12 Christmas Comedy 13 Table Tennis stars 14 Youth Election 14 Key Dates 16 P AGE 2 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Law Sir Kingsley Wood Kingsley Wood was born in Hull in 1881 to a Wesleyan Methodist but soon moved to Islington as his father was appointed minister of Wesley’s Chapel. Wood came to Central Foundation during the final dec- ade of the 19th Century and by 1903 had qualified to be a solicitor. He acted as a poor man’s lawyer and wrote for the Methodist Times, advocating legal repre- sentation for the poor around Poplar, Bow and Hoxton. In November 1911, Wood allied with the Conservative party and stood for Woolwich in the London County Council, defeating his Labour opponent by 556 votes in 15,000. During the Great War he continued work relat- ed to pensions before campaigning for a Ministry of Health in the War’s aftermath. In 1931 he became Postmaster General, evolving the Post Office into a quango that modernised the depart- Lord Grabiner, born 1945 ment with motor vehicles for speedy delivery. His final post was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1940. Hav- Baron Grabiner QC ing to control hugely increased public expenditure be- cause of the Second World War, Wood pioneered Pay Anthony Grabiner came to the Central Foun- As You Earn (PAYE) tax to help with the war effort. He dation School in 1956 and went on to read died in 1943 on the day he was due to announce PAYE Law at the London School of Economics. to the House of Commons. After graduating with a Master of Laws, Gra- While Minister of Health in Stanley Baldwin’s govern- biner was educated at Lincoln’s Inn before ment, Wood returned to speak at Founder’s Day in being called to the Bar in 1968. He worked 1924. In his speech he advised the boys not to let their as counsel to the Department of Trade be- “wishbone be where their backbone ought to be.” fore taking the silk in 1981 and becoming Deputy High Court Judge in 1994. In 1999 Sir Kingsley Wood (1881-1943) as Secretary of State in 1940 the Queen conferred the dignity of Baron Grabiner of Aldwych upon him. In 2010 he was instructed by Slaughter and May to lead the dispute over control of Liver- pool FC, winning the case which led to the club’s purchase by Fenway Sports. In 2011 he was appointed chairman of News Corpora- tion’s management and standards committee in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. In 2013 he returned to Central Foundation as guest speaker for Founder’s Day. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 3 Alumni Sport Did You Know? Karim Kerbouche Karim Kerbouche and Bola Omoyele were in the same year of Central Foundation and remain in contact. Born in London to Algerian parents, Karim Ker- bouche attended Central Foundation in the mid 1990s. A year into his schooling he began a long love affair with ice hockey after playing it on his Sega Mega-Drive games console. After school, Kerbouche played for the Haringay Wolves before setting out on his mission to pop- ularise ice hockey in his ancestral home of Alge- ria. In 2008 he achieved this dream as Algeria fielded their first national ice hockey team in the Arab Cup. Kerbouche scored in their match against Morocco. He has since been signed by the Lee Valley Lions. As President of the Algerian Ice Hockey Federa- tion, he splits his time between England and Al- geria, working in small communities to aide chil- dren’s ice hockey and sports. Karim Kerbouche born 1982 Bola Omoyele born 1982 Bola Omoyele Bola Omoyele was always interested in sports and enjoyed PE lessons at Central Foundation, espe- cially football. After leaving school and keeping a keen interest in football, Omoyele turned to mixed martial arts as a fitness discipline. Omoyele made his debut in 2010 and has an im- pressive 7-2 record of largely first round wins which has earned him the nickname Cashflow. The highlight of his career was being chosen as one of the eight welterweights (second left, above) chosen to represent the UK in a special edition of the highly rated documentary UFC: The Ultimate Fighter in late 2012. In a themed UK vs Australia version of the series dubbed ‘The Bashes’ (a play on the England/Australia cricketing rivalry The Ashes), he was eliminated in the quarter-finals but nevertheless gained significant exposure. P AGE 4 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Presenting Did You Know? Both Reggie Yates and Trevor Nelson were instrumental in presenting the London 2012 Olympic Games. Mr Nelson was one of three people who commentated Dan- ny Boyle’s acclaimed opening ceremony, Isles of Wonder and Kim Gavin’s closing ceremony A Symphony of British Music. Mr Yates, meanwhile, hosted a number of shows that docu- mented the games and interviewed many sports stars. Trevor Nelson MBE Born in Hackney, Trevor Nelson attended what was then the Central Foundation Boys’ Grammar School in the 1970s and early ‘80s. After finishing school and working in a shoe shop to get by, he became one of the first DJs on the fledgling Kiss FM in 1985 before becoming station director. An avid fan of urban music, Mr Nelson was a club night DJ and worked for EMI Rec- ords before his innovation saw him scouted by the BBC. Reggie Yates born 1983 In 1996, he hosted The Rhythm Nation for Radio 1 which was the first national R&B show in the UK. Since Reggie Yates then he has regularly hosted shows on Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra and Radio 2. Nelson has also presented on televi- Reggie Yates attended Central Foundation in sion, again championing R&B on MTV as well as hosting the late ‘90s. He split time between school Five’s NFL UK coverage of the American football and guest-presenting CITV’s Saturday morn- league. He was appointed MBE in 2002 for his charity ing show Diggit. Before long he was hosting work and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award Sunday’s Smile alongside Fearne Cotton, by the Sony Radio Academy. with whom he would later host Top of the Pops. By the time he left school he had al- Trevor Nelson born 1964 ready appeared in The Bill and secured a re- curring role in Grange Hill soon after. Arguably his biggest honour came in 2007 when his weekend breakfast show with Cot- ton transitioned into The Radio 1 Chart Show. From 2009, he hosted the show alone spanning a five-year stint counting down the week’s most popular singles until December 2012. In 2011, Reggie Yates returned to the school as guest speaker for Founder’s Day. C ENTRAL F OUNDATION B OYS ’ S CHOOL N EWSLETTER P AGE 5 Alumni Infrastructure Richard Seifert Born Reuben Seifert, the Swiss son of a cinema manager soon changed his name to Richard; later in life he insisted on being called Colonel. While attending Central Foundation in the 1920s, he earned a scholarship to the University of Lon- don. In 1960 he made a major mark on the archi- tectural world with Tolworth House in Kingston. Having established his style he would not con- form to convention. Despite opposition, he built a 36 storey building, bizarrely clad with glass and concrete-framed. This 116 metre tower is now known as Centre Point. Not satisfied, Seifert set his eye to record break- ing when he devised the ‘NatWest Tower’. Once again he faced opposition and it took him 10 years to build. Upon completion in 1980, Tower 42 stood as the tallest building in the UK for a decade, until One Canada Square overtook it. Richard Seifert born 1910 Dennis Wesil born c1960 Dennis Wesil Dennis Wesil attended Central Foundation in the 1930s and though his name may not be famous, his legacy has left a stamp on the daily life of al- most every person in the UK. In the 1960s, he played an instrumental part in expanding the postal code to serve the entire na- tion. Beforehand, only ten British cities had post codes but Wesil helped devise a way that every road in the country could be charted. Although this was initially done to aide the post- ing of letters, an increasingly uncommon task, We- sil’s legacy remains intact due to the convenience of post codes for Google maps, smart phones and satellite navigation systems. P AGE 6 D ECEMBER 201 3 Alumni Academia Professor Aubrey Diamond Aubrey Diamond attended Central Founda- tion in the 1930s leading into the Second World War.