In June the Annual Founders Day Service Was Held at St Dunstan's
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Issue 4 The Coopers' Company and Coborn School’s Alumni Newsletter—October 2016 In June the annual Founders Day Service was held at St Dunstan’s Church in Stepney. The church contains not only a fine stained glass window dedicated to the Worshipful Company of Coopers’ but a memorial to the founder of one of our schools Nicholas Gibson, who is buried within the precincts of that church. The year seven students and accompanying staff made this annual pilgrimage which incidentally marked the 480th anniversary of Gibson’s school. The school has been lucky over the centuries to benefit from the generosity of many benefactors including the late and much respected, Miss Joyce Honner whose munificence helps many of our students to pursue their love of music. I am informed that some alumni have indicated that they intend making a bequest to their former school a gesture much appreciated in these financially straightened times but under the circumstances we are fully prepared to wait! This edition of the Bugle is later than anticipated and for this I apologise. I hope that you will find the wait worthwhile. I also apologise to those who have contacted me and whose news does not appear in this edition. As in the previous Bugle and following the deaths of two former well respected members of staff, Tony Walker and Alan Pearce and alumna Amy Haskew there is sad news to report and tributes to be made. There is, however, some good news to be shared from the Highlands of Scotland! Mr David Baker a former Senior Teacher and dedicated exponent of outdoor skills was presented with a special award by HRH Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh in recognition of David’s forty-seven years as an assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. HRH told David that he was the longest serving assessor and thanked him for his commitment. The scheme is now very popular in school and at last year’s prizegiving the admirable Joseph Harrison (2009-2016) was the first recipient of the David Baker Duke of Edinburgh Award. David and his wife Chris, formerly a teacher at Havering Sixth Form College run a business in Glencoe where during the winter survival skills might just come in handy! I should be happy to put any of David’s former students in touch with him. David Baker 1 It was good to hear from Mark Dunn who joined the school in 1982 and who like many alumni works in finance in the City. Mark has passed on The Bugle to his cousins Andrew and Heather Murdoch and Mark tells me that he is in touch with Ben Simister, Glen Collins and Craig Livingstone. If you are able to email this to friends please do so and please get in touch with your news. Coopers’ Coborn has again been on the television. Before the summer some eloquent year eleven students were being questioned about the pressure exerted by social media on young people. One former student who contacted me was greatly impressed by the articulate way in which these young people expressed themselves in front of the camera. More recently Mrs Regan and her year nine class of pizza makers appeared on our screens in an item about the importance of being able to cook. Mrs Regan was a natural in front of the cameras and there is speculation that she might be tempted away from her classroom to take over from Paul Hollywood! Matthew Clemenson (2005-2012) is working as a journalist and wrote a report in a local newspaper at the time of the controversy over contact sports and the lobbying that took place to limit them in schools. Matthew based his article on an interview with a member of staff and students currently at the school. Matthew is following his mother, Jacqui Hatton (1975-1982) into the world of journalism. Jacqui was editor of “Woman”, “Woman’s Own and is now in charge of the popular “Best” magazine. I have a fond memory of Jacqui and her friends on a trip to Germany in 1977 led by Joan Sweeting. We overnighted in a hotel in Ostend en route to the Rhine. The hotel and its ambience had seen no great changes since the Great War and the food was truly dreadful. Miss Sweeting asked the girls how they had slept and they replied that they had not slept well because of the “continental” bedding. On inspection the beds had not been made up and the girls had endeavoured to sleep on horsehair mattresses and pillows with feathers bursting through the ticking. One cannot imagine today such ladylike and stoic composure. Jacqui Hatton I was interested to read a reference in a national newspaper to “London’s fashionable East End”. Former alumni of the Coopers’ school in Bow might be interested to look at the website of the Bridge Property Company Limited which is marketing the apartments created in their former school to see how fashionable “The Old School E3” as it is described has become. The photographs reveal a tasteful conversion of the building and the grounds. Of the few properties left one four bedroomed loft apartment is selling at £1,100.950 in what is described as “the most breath taking building seen in Bow”. Perhaps for sentiment’s sake a former Cooper’s boy might be tempted to invest in “one of London’s most sought after Squares”. Alumni will be pleased to note that the school hall is still very much in evidence but would not recognise the comfortable sofas and shady foliage. 2 While in a less fashionable part of the East End and in the local CO-OP I bumped into James Williams. James is living in the newly created Hallsville Quarter another revitalised and reinvented part of the former Docklands. James when at school was a great presence in all things musical and is a superb pianist. He studied in London and is now a professional musician. James has recently sung the role of Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutti and on November 18th he will sing the role of Dr Falke in Fulham Opera’s production of Offenbach’s Die Fledermaus at St John’s Church in SW6. This August anyone watching events unravelling in Nice that followed the dreadful terrorist attack would have been greatly impressed by Ben Bland’s (1995-2002) highly professional and sensitive handling of the extensive coverage on the BBC World News. Ayshea Buksch is also much in evidence on BBC Ben Bland London dealing with topics of social Ayshea Buksch significance. Former School Captain and a speaker at a school prize-giving Alison Picton, is now working very closely with the new Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. The press have described Alison’s role as being the “Keeper of the Gate” and she was recently in New York and at the Labour Party Conference in Blackpool with a team supporting the Mayor. Alumnus Darren Brockwell appeared in a documentary about the City of London police. Darren who has had a long career in the police force was seen dealing politely but firmly with an offender in the Square Mile. Darren’s sister Natasha also attended the school. As I have said before our alumni are everywhere! I shall endeavour to contact the above and ask them to contribute to the Bugle! With the approach to Christmas and the purchase of presents on peoples’ minds two people closely associated with our school have recently published books. Kevin Chapman who fully retired last year after forty two years dedicated service to the school has wasted no time in publishing his first and meticulously researched novel “The Midnight of her Soul”. For those who have read or seen the films of Sebastian Faulk’s “Charlotte Grey” and Irene Nemirovsky’s “Suite Francaise” this is a must. Set immediately before the Fall of France and during the German occupation it is a tale of human endeavour and survival and is based on the real life fortunes of the family of Jacques Duval who lived in Morvan in Burgundy. It is also a reminder of how war and occupation bring out the very best in some and the very worst in others. It can be ordered on Amazon and is available on Kindle. There is also a website www.midnight-of-her-soul.weebly.com . 3 An email from David Mansfield alerted me to the fact that Rylan Clark Neal (aka Ross Clark) had published the autobiography of his early years entitled “The Life of Rylan”. The author states that he has written the book himself but was thwarted by his publishers who would not countenance the title he wanted, namely “The TOOTH, the WHOLE TOOTH and nothing but the TOOTH”. The book is frank and witty and Rylan makes reference to several incidents and personalities at Coopers Coborn School. He speaks well of Dr Davina Lloyd and I was touched by his kind reference to me and I shall make sure that the person having the task of compiling my final eulogy has a copy of that section of the book! The book is proving very popular amongst his many fans and the reviews from them have been effusive! An alumna and a star of the TV screen is Rochelle, formerly Wiseman who is married to JLS singer Marvin Humes and was formerly a member of “S Club 8” and “The Saturdays”. During her successful singing career each group achieved ten hit singles including a number one. Rochelle spent two years with us before transferring to Collins’ Theatre School and has enjoyed enormous success in her varied career.