www.silhillians.net THE SILHILLIAN 2011 President’s Letter 2 Old Silhillians’ News 24 The President Elect 4 Dinners & Luncheons 38 Editorial 6 Lodge & Chapter 44 Main Committee 8 Obituaries 46 Headmaster’ Letter 10 Sports Sections 64 Alumni Matters 17 Acknowledgments 75 1969Jerroms Leavers Jan Ad:Layout 1 2 27/12/07 11:34 Page 1 Specialists in Accounting, Tax and Business Planning “WORKING WITH YOU FOR YOU” If you haven’t worked with us before, you should ask yourself why? As Accountants and Business Advisers, we have assisted many businesses to become the success story they are today. Whether you are a start-up company, a PLC or just have an innovative idea, sound financial advice is something you simply cannot afford to be without. The Exchange, Haslucks Green Road, Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands B90 2EL Tel: 0121 693 5000 Contents Fax: 0121 745 5156 Email: [email protected] Web: www.jerroms.co.uk “ T H E S I L H I L L I A N ” the magazine of the The Old Silhillians’ Association Limited (The Former Pupils of Solihull School) Memorial Clubhouse and Ground Warwick Road Copt Heath Solihull West Midlands B93 9LW Telephone: 01564 777680 Facsimile: 01564 775151 Email: [email protected] Website: www.silhillians.net ISSUE 62 NOVEMBER 2011 President 2011 John Harrison 1 Dear Fellow Old Silhillian, When Malcolm reminded me that “it’s that time again – I need your report for the Silhillian”, my immediate thought was “it can’t be – where has the year gone!?” Of course, there are still a couple of months of my year in office to go and several very important events still to come, but it really has flown by and been thoroughly enjoyable throughout. It has been a busy year for the OSA and for the School, and I cannot remember a time when the relationship between the two organisations has been stronger. At the start of the year we took the opportunity to take a good hard look at the OSA - our objectives, what we do, whether there is more that we should be doing, how we work alongside the school, and, as best we are able, what the future might bring. The opportunity seemed appropriate with the Headmaster, David Lloyd and the Chairman of Governors, Mark Hopton (OS) both relatively new in their respective roles. David and Mark have engaged in ongoing discussions with us and their honest talking and clear Letter from the President from Letter thinking have been invaluable in helping us to re-assess the role of the Association and ensure that it is ‘fit for purpose’ in today’s changing world. Our critical look at ourselves has actually concluded that we are pretty good at what we do, but that there are some things we could do more effectively and other things we need to address. One of these is the need to provide more real benefits for the increasing number of girls leaving Solihull School. Another is to take a more active role in helping current pupils and recent leavers in the increasingly difficult task of finding careers advice, worthwhile work experience and perhaps by providing mentoring; we former pupils have a huge range of experience, knowledge and contacts which the School would love to be able to better ‘tap into’ to assist today’s pupils. You’ll find a separate article about how we hope to achieve this elsewhere in the magazine, and I urge you to consider how you might personally help - it can make a huge difference to the younger generation of Old Sils especially. It has long been recognised that we also need to increase the awareness of the OSA within the School, and increase OSA membership levels among new leavers. I am pleased that we are mak- ing significant progress in this. We shall shortly have an OSA office on-site at the School (located in the Old Music School), and another room there is currently being converted to house an archive of school memorabilia and, of course, access to the extensive web-based archive of documents funded in recent years by the OSA Trust. I would like to hope that these developments, being undertaken in partnership with the School, should see increased ‘visibility’ and lead to increased membership levels in the coming years. Many of my predecessors as President told me that it is the visits to the School which are the highlight of the job, and I agree completely! Over the year I have been privileged to attend events such as the Carol Service in Chapel, the musical Grease and the Summer Concert - all of these have been quite excellent and demonstrate the outstanding levels of talent and ability of the pupils. The Speeches, only last week, highlighted that as well as playing hard and excelling at all things extra-curricular, today’s students obviously also put equal hard work and energy into passing their exams! Back to OSA matters, the re-structuring of the way we run the clubhouse and grounds, mentioned by Max Levenger in his letter last year, has continued to move forward. A special note of thanks and appreciation must go to Andrew Clutterbuck who has taken on the challenging role of leading the sports clubs and others who use the facility into managing it too (and thus leaving the main committee to concentrate on its primary function of looking after the school alumni). Andrew has drawn together a new team whose task has also been to turn around the trading position of the facilities at Copt Heath. In difficult economic times this is not an easy job and has required some tough decisions; Andrew has put in a huge amount of personal time and energy and encouraging 2 results are now starting to be seen. Letter from the President from Letter Whilst mentioning the grounds, I should also mention John Griffin, who has shown a commitment to the OSA and the sports clubs over the last few years which goes ‘way beyond the call’. John’s voluntary work in preparing pitches and on other ground maintenance, and latterly in finding us a new grounds-keeper, is very much appreciated by all of the many sportsmen who use the facilities. Another vote of thanks is due to Roger Flood, who has stood down as organiser of the Over-60s lunches, which continue to provide a highly popular occasion twice a year for more ‘senior’ former pupils to meet up. Mike Smith, Bob Standley and Nigel Holmes have taken over. I would like to also record my appreciation to the many people who put a great deal of time into the day to day running of various aspects of the OSA; thanks therefore to Keith Waterhouse and the clubhouse staff, the management team led by Andrew Clutterbuck, sports club representa- tives, and especially to the Main Committee under the chairmanship of Barry Allen, and to Mal- colm Lawrie for producing another excellent edition of The Silhillian. And finally, I am delighted that Peter Davies has agreed to take over from me in December; he will make an outstanding President at this exciting time for the Association. I wish him every success for his forthcoming year as your President, and pass on my best wishes to you all. Kind regards John Harrison THE OLD SILHILLIANS’ ASSOCIATION - PAST PRESIDENTS 1921/22 Dr AV Bernays 1955 JT Rolfe 1983 DD Cox 1923 C Aldrin 1956 VO Hawley 1984 DW Edwards 1924 WR Ludlow 1957 FR Bishop 1985 SC Mackay 1925 PE Martineau 1958 LG Highway 1986 JRD Orrett 1926 PH Reading 1959 HA Steele 1987 G Stubbings 1927 HA Hughes 1960 CWD Cooper 1988 MS Saunders 1928 HS Matthews 1961 HT Wilcox 1989 HJC Taylor 1929 TA Furse 1962 WP Townsend 1990 MJD Smith 1930 CH Palmer 1963 DH Billing 1991 RJC Graves 1932 LC Reading 1964 HB Callaghan 1992 BW Allen 1933 LE Horton 1965 CT Coton 1993 GM Hughes 1934 F Burnett 1966 MJ Wheelock 1994 HE Blow 1935 RH Whitehill 1967 PJ Hill 1995 AJ Richardson 1936 CL Hughes 1968 BJW Swift 1996 P Callaghan 1937 FJ Osborne 1969 FAR Moon 1997 MC Bettridge 1938 HD James 1970 JEJ Baggs 1998 PA Thomas 1939/43 WRL Horton 1971 RG Toy 1999 JM Batsford 1944 FL Nock 1972 TG Jones 2000 J Woolman 1945 AG Bragg 1973 JMB Urry 2001 BJD Wilde 1946 JB Mayers 1974 DM Powell 2002 MA Cutler 1947 CW Bragg 1975 MJ Cusack 2003 N Smith 1948 EG Wilcox 1976 RC Young 2004 R Jerrom 1949 AJD Mansell 1977 KJ Foster 2005 BW Allen 1950 JM Urry 1978 T Jackson 2006 PA Thomas 1951 KW Highway 1979 DA Gurnham 2007 SD Allso 1952 Dr. KD Waters 1980 PBL Instone 2008 JA Platt 1953 BE Hatton 1981 JLR Hare 2009 RJ Young 1954 MAD Cooper 1982 RC Cupit 2010 ME Levenger 3 Dear Fellow Old Silhillian My memory is certainly not as good as it used to be but I clearly recollect my early days at Solihull School. It was in the summer of ‘69 (to quote the words of Bryan Adams) that I joined 3A2, having just moved to the Midlands. The President-elect As I had no previous contact with the area I knew nobody when I joined, but I soon made strong friendships. Many of those last to the current day. Indeed, Keith Waterhouse, the Manager at Copt Heath, was one of the friends I made all those years ago, and he has been a best man at all (or should I say both) of my wed- dings! I can honestly look back and say that I enjoyed (almost) every moment at the School.