The Sternian 2013 Sternians' Association of Lord Wandsworth College - ._-.. ft- L- -l VI • U6th Leavers 2013 BACK ROW Jack Berg-Allan, Tobi Oyewumi, Ben Poulsom, Kris Cook, John Primavesi, Dominic Vaughan, James Adams, Will Reynolds, Charlie Dean, Fergus Hill, William van der Bijl, David Easterbrook, Sebastian Bampton, David Radkiewicz, Dan Hill, Liam Price 3RD ROW Luke Warner, Chris Allum, Hayden Martin, Luke South, Edward Cole, Will Gee, Harry Puttock, Jake Whitby, Tom Burgess, Emmet Fitzsimmons, Alex Hammond, Owen Payne, Henry Graham, Niklas Brockmann-Smith, Will Adams, Jamie Rogerson, Tom Tardif 2ND ROW Iciar Albinana Gracia, Jayne Lincoln, Robert Hopkins, Ricky Bevins, Sam Webley, Chris Stanton, Katherine Pilkington, Charlotte Page, Charlotte Gunn, Clark Zhang, James Marks, Joe Chan, Daniel Bailey, Mark Thomas SEATED Holly Janaway, Oliver Derham, Rupert Green, Beth Harris, Daphne Cheung, Rebecca Hodge, Megan Dawson, Mr Radmann, Mrs Allmark, Mr Harris, Claire Dong, Midori Yamashita, Zoe Flanagan, Daisy Simpson-Crew, Grace Beadle, Annie Yip, Alex Towse The Sternian 13 Contents Crazy Enggrish: Pioneers of the Philippines 2 Diary Dates 2014 5 2013 Chairman's Report 6 New Chairman Chris Gibbs 7 From the Headmaster 7 The Sternian Year 2013 8 Who are we gonna call? 13 Combat Stress 13 Dambusters 70th Anniversary 14 1950s Class Reunion June 2013 16 Organizing a successful Class Reunion 17 Reach for the Sky 17 Life at Stern Farm 18 Congratulations Mr President 20 Life after LWC 20 Classroom Hero 21 The Day a Lawyer decided to become a Chef 22 Armed with a new Suitcase - Gosden House Memories 24 Not so Fast and Furious 25 Review of the Year 2013 26 Sternian News 28 Obituaries 30 Notified Deceased Members 34 The Matthew Elvidge Trust 35 Not so easy being on Top of the World 36 Contemplations from the Chairman 39 Autre Temps 40 News from the Staff Room 42 Where were you when... 44 If 45 Reflections on LWC 45 The Sternians Trust Fund 46 Sternians'Association AGM 46 Officers of the Association 48 The Sternians'Association, Lord Wandsworth College, Hook, Hampshire RG29 1TB Tel =01256860356 Email: [email protected] Website: www.sternians.org.uk All the news, views and review of the year 2013, from The Sternians' Association of Ijord Wandsworth College The Sternian 13 Crazy Enggrish Pioneers of the Philippines The LWC Scuba Diving Academy celebrates its tiny islands, made famous for sleepy white sand beaches, and augural generation of graduate professional scuba unaffected by mainstream tourism. A mecca for the journeyman divers. After four years of training, a team of seven diver, the region is an unearthed gem for thresher sharks, manta divers who began their journey in 2009 with a rays, sardine shoals, whalesharks and macrolife. Here the jewel fascination for the underwater world by training as in the Philippine crown is the island known as Malaspacua. Open Water Divers took a greater journey into trying Despite the abundance of marine life, the corals have taken a few to improve reef-dependent communities through hardships with little infrastructure to protect the island from poor teaching and scuba diving. fishing practices as well as the region's natural predators and climate conditions. Throughout the academic year, candidates attain qualifications in After isolating Malapascua as their mission's location, they set advanced level diving, rescue skills, teaching and conservation out for a two-week expedition in August to document the region specialties to build their experience to become PADI Divemaster and test the group's collective spirit. After an 18-hour flight via professionals by the time they complete their Upper Sixth. In Singapore, the team entertained a 4-hour culture shock, overland addition to improving their scuba dive skills, the 2013 LWC drive through Cebu before taking a private 'banca' (traditional Divemasters in training built their confidence by studying varied outrigger) to the island of Malapascua. As the boat calmly cut and groundbreaking conservation initiatives during term time. through the shimmering aqua-blue waters before sunset, there was Added to their experience of improving marine eco-systems on a sense of excitement as our associates welcomed the divers on their expeditions to Malta & Indonesia in 2011 and 2012, the divers the white sands of Bounty beach. decided that this summer they would like to build the first artificial reefs (known as Biorocks) in the Philippines. Candidly speaking, a relatively young group in the diver world harvesting great ambitions to complete technical tasks is often a The divers wanted to take the teachings of the Biorock process tricky hurdle to overcome. After 24 hours of travel, a team meeting with the Gili Ecotrust in Indonesia and apply their knowledge was called in Bungalow 1 to challenge the divers to step up to to improve another part of the world's Coral Triangle. Half way the plate and prove to everyone they were here to represent down the Philippine Map are the Visayas, the central region of themselves the best way possible. They would have to build trust The Sternian 13 with the dive centre, the local community and each other to show that they were ready to handle the challenges of diving safely in the Philippines and inspire the local community to believe in their x . Biorock project. After all, the legacy of their work would only be • realized if people would continue their initiative. Once the divers made that pledge during the team brief, they never took a step back. a lOOmetre passenger ferry that was taken in a typhoon over 25 years ago. Now teeming with a variety of marine life, it is a cleaning station for fish such as eagle rays & spade fish, which allow the smaller residents of the wreck to removal parasites from the animal's body (both externally and internally). The team's efforts to understand the Malapascuan reefs and promote the Biorock concept did not go unnoticed by our associate dive centre. They were delighted by the example the LWC students had set and sponsored the materials and transportation to install the islands' first Biorocks. With the resources required, the team set about designing two new artificial reefs that would be made from steel rebar lattice. As a pilot project, the Biorock would need to inspire the local community, yet remain low profile in order to deal Over the course of the first week, LWC divers worked with local with the rigours of the Cebuan underwater currents during the rainy divemasters to learn valuable information about the dive sites, season. secrets on how to find the country's rare macrolife such as sea horses and nudibranchs. They learned about keystone species Biorock is a method whereby metal structures are built and placed of the reef and why certain types of hard coral and sponges underwater. Corals are then attached and a low voltage electrical thrived. On some days divers were up at 4:30am to deep dive current passed through the rebar. The electricity is harmless to with the elusive thresher sharks, completing a PADI conservation marine life, but has been found to promote coral growth up to six specialty to understand the behavioral patterns of the endangered times faster than under normal conditions. The electricity promotes animal. On other days they would complete full day dive trips to limestone growth on the metal, and this in turn promotes growth the national parks to dive some of the marine protected inlets of rates of coral and other reef organisms. Bits of broken, but still Gato Island and compare the marine life to some of the more local viable coral can also be attached and find strength, which in turn "house reefs". provides homes and nurseries for a variety of marine life. The reefs Unlike many other dive locations, the divers were startled by the savageness of the Visayas marine life. They documented the breeding habits of puffer fish; the alluring movements of Spanish dancers, the predatory patterns of lizard and lionfish hunting damselfish and learned how to effectively deal with the carnivorous Crown of Thorn (COT) starfish. A fast-breeding natural predator of the reef, an adult COT can eat up to 6 square metres of living coral a year. During the first week, the divers documented night dive experiences with local staff to see a variety of photogenic critters hunting in the darkness and dive the famous Dona Marilyn wreck, All the news, views and review of the year 2013, from The Sternians' Association ofljord Wandsworth College The Sternian 13 also provide a great opportunity for inexperienced divers & tourists the broken coral was going to a good home. The coral was taken to to learn about the importance of the reef eco-system to the island be stored underwater overnight in containers near to the eventual and how tourists should respect local laws in order to preserve the site, ready for installation. natural environment. The next day was the big day for all concerned - the Day of the When the project had finally been given the green light, the divers Sinking! The dive shop was full of excitement at the culmination of felt the pressure to complete the mission successfully. After all, they a week's hard work; the day when the structures would be sunk were all due to go to university as undergraduates in Engineering, and the coral attached. Using lift bags and the small boats, the Physics, Biology and Art. Once the two blueprints were approved, structures were placed in close proximity to a sheltered inlet on the the labour of working rebar into the shapes of a 6-metre south of the island and anchored with cement blocks.