Champion of Swedish Poetry Paul Britten Austin (G, 1935–39)

Transcription

The TRUSTY
SERVANT
NO.109
M AY 2 0 1 0
Porcinum Os: What bankers must do to earn customers’ trust
The Rev’d. JD’EE Firth (Coll, 191218; Co Ro, 1922-54), always knows as
Budge, was Master of the Temple and priestin-charge of the Temple Church in London.
Before that, he was for many years a chaplain
and Housemaster of Trant’s (1939-46). As a
pupil he captained Lord’s in 1918 and took all
ten wickets in Eton Match. The ball with
which he did so is preserved in our archive.
This sermon was preached at St Michael’s
Cornhill, in the City, on 11 May 1955 for the
annual service of Barclays Bank, whose
chairman at the time, AW Tuke, was a fellow
Wykehamist and classical scholar.
clergy are bidden to be ministers of God’s
word and faithful dispensers of God’s
sacraments. Teachers are set to be faithful
dispensers of truth, moral and intellectual
alike, to children who are not their own.
It is the first rule of true medicine that it
always puts the patient first.
‘It is required of stewards, that a
man be found faithful.’
1 Cor. iv. 2
In preparing this address, I thought at
once of the text which I have chosen, and
searched no further. For a steward is one
who is entrusted with the safety, the good
condition, and the use of the property of
somebody else. He is a highly responsible
agent, an expert in his own department; he
has to take decisions, often far-reaching, on
his own, without the beneficiary being
compelled to check, or even being able to
check, what he is doing. Yet all the time he
must remember that the property is not his
own; the true steward never forgets that he
is a steward only, acting for a principal.
Now in this way and now in that, all
the great professions have in them this
element of stewardship; and Our Lord
Himself, during his earthly ministry, made
it clear that He was not here to do His
own will but the will of the Father. The
But of no profession in the world is it
more obviously and directly the case than it
is of your own that its members are called to
be stewards. You – the bankers – are
stewards in the clearest possible sense, for
you look after the public’s money, and do for
the public what it could not do for itself or
at least would be very ill-advised to attempt.
One sign of your stewardship is the
unquestioning trust reposed in you by your
clients. People pay into you across the
1
counter their money, about which they
very reasonably care a great deal, with
absolute confidence – not only without
questioning but without giving the basic
principle of the system, or its mechanism,
a single thought. They just know that all
will be well with their money, and that the
amount of their deposit will be there for
them to draw upon whenever they like. If
this were not so, the consequences,
material and psychological, would be
immediate and grave; but it is so. What is
more, people simply assume that, when
they consult their bank – and they often
talk frankly, really talk, to their bank
managers – they will get the advice which
is the best for them, both enlightened and
disinterested. In these facts you will, I am
sure, find much of your deepest
professional satisfaction and your richest
professional reward.
And they are very remarkable facts.
In the long, and at times, chequered
history of banking, this public confidence
has not always been present. But it
certainly exists now. It has grown up
through many generations, by goodwill
and confidence steadily accumulating
and – perhaps we may dare to say – in our
own country to an unsurpassed degree,
and in a mode somewhat special to
ourselves. Our race, in diverse and
notable ways, has developed concerns
originally of private origin into public
institutions – not all necessarily publicly
owned, but in the widest sense publicspirited. What was at first founded for the
honourable, but limited, purpose of
T H E T R U S T Y S E RVA N T
private profit has become, imperceptibly,
a branch of the national service. In the
process, a code of ethics, largely selfimposed and internally administered, has
become accepted and traditional.
It is certainly not for me, or for
anyone outside your own ranks, to attempt
to say anything about the detailed content
of the ethics of banking. For it is of the
essence of professional ethics that they are
determined and judged inside the
particular profession itself. For inside any
profession there are temptations; and there
are pressures from the world. There are
forces operating upon professional men
and women all the time to bribe or bully
them into compliance with corrupt,
ignorant or short-range considerations of
what may seem right, as against what, by
our training and experience, we either
know to be unsound or are not sure to be
right. If I may venture for a moment into
the public quotation of Latin, we have to
be armoured and adamant alike against
the vultus instantis tyranni and the civium
ardor prava jubentium: against the frown
from above and the clamour from below.
And there is further, and more subtle,
temptation which arises from the power
given to us by our professional knowledge
itself. The layman cannot argue or
compete on equal terms with the expert
surgeon in his own consulting room, the
expert teacher in his own classroom or the
expert banker in his own office. As you
pray, then, for the moral courage to advise
and to do what your professional
knowledge assures you to be true and right,
whatever the laity may say, will you also
pray for the humility always to remember
that you are indeed rightly on the
vantage-ground of the expert, and yet that
you, that we all, are also but ‘creatures not
meant to be too wise or good for human
nature’s daily food’.
If we ask, ‘upon what do professional
ethics, and their claim upon us, ultimately
rest?’, the answer, I would suggest, is that
they derive from a simple and direct moral
intuition. This intuition was once well
expressed, in its most generalised form, by
Sir Edward Grey, when he was asked how,
as Foreign Secretary, he could see his way
through the maze of a particularly difficult
international negotiation. ‘I see my way
clear’ he replied, ‘because I have always
believed that to do the right thing is the
right thing to do.’ This correctly centred
conscience, purifying the trained intellect,
the specialised knowledge and the
accumulated experience, enables true
professional men and women, whatever
their special vocation may be, to be
faithful stewards of that which is committed
to their charge, and helpful servants of
those who so deeply trust them. We must
pray for God’s help and protection in
keeping us all steady and true in our
professional life to that which, by the
conscience which He has implanted
within us, we already know to be right. ■
The Winchester Keep Boards –
First World War Memorabilia
Suzanne Foster, College Archivist, writes:
Once in a while working with records
and items in the College Archives is like
doing a jigsaw – everything unexpectedly
slots neatly into place.
In January this year, I was contacted
by a Mr Lush, the grandson of a Sergeant
WJ White of the Royal Berkshire
Regiment. He wrote:
‘I am researching my grandfather's
service in WWI and would relate the
following story.
During his time in France, my
grandfather, Sgt W J White, of the 2/4 Royal
Berkshire Regiment, found himself in a
farmhouse together with other troops, one of
whom was an officer who was an Old
Wykehamist. This officer asked if there was
anyone present who could carve wood as he
wished to prepare a board listing the Old
Wykehamists whom he knew to be in France
at that time (it may have been who had
already died in France). My grandfather was
a joiner and so volunteered and the board was
prepared. It was subsequently crated and sent
to Winchester College where it was
understood to have been installed on the
armoury wall. I saw, many years ago, a letter
that my grandfather had, addressed to the
Tommies who had packed the crate, from the
ladies at Winchester College who had
unpacked it, so it is clear that this is a true
2
Sergeant WJ White of the Royal Berkshire Regiment
sure that there
were originally
three boards, and
that his
grandfather had
carved one of
those still in our
possession. We
were both
delighted to fit
the two sides of
the story
together – it is
extraordinary
after over 90
years to know
who carved one
of them. Mr Lush
also kindly gave
us a copy of the
trench map to
show the
location of the
Post and a
photograph of his
grandfather; and
he has
subsequently
visited the site
and sent me
photographs of
the area as it is
today.
story. I once called at the College, with the
letter, hoping to follow up on this story but it
was school holidays and there was no-one
there to help me. The letter passed to my
mother but after several house moves and my
parents’ deaths I no longer know of its
whereabouts but am most anxious to do what
I can to find out more.’
I knew of two carved wooden boards,
plus a little background information, kept
in Wiccamica Room. The boards list the
names of those OWs on active service
who passed through a particular Keep or
Post in the Laventie area of Flanders. Mr
Lush came to see the boards and we felt
I also found a
reference in The
Wykehamist for
February 1917 which recorded that a
second ‘Winchester Keep Board’ had been
sent to the Headmaster and would be
placed alongside the first in Memorial
Buildings.
We’d like to know a little more about
these boards and their history. If any of
you remember them in either the
Memorial Buildings or in Armoury, please
do let me know. Does anyone remember
three boards? And, if so, what happened
to the third?
We know the boards were in
Armoury in the 1930s because I have also
found a caption explaining a trench map
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sent by Major-General JRE Charles (Coll,
1889-92) to accompany the boards after a
recent visit to Winchester in October
1930. Major-General Charles also
wrote:‘the naming of this Post is not without
interest. Early in 1915, (when I was a junior
Staff Officer on that front), it was apparent
that a long period of trench warfare was likely
to ensue, and it was decided to organize the
trench system as thoroughly as possible. As
fresh troops were always coming and going, it
became necessary to identify the roads, which
were unnamed on the French maps, by
allotting English names to them. I accordingly
gave the names of certain Public Schools to
various roads that passed through or along our
front, and, not unnaturally, used the name of
my old School to distinguish one of these roads.
Subsequently we were ordered to strengthen
the front system of trenches by building a series
of supporting posts a few hundred yards in
rear, and the officer who was responsible for
building a post alongside Winchester Road
must obviously have called the post after the
road which was in its proximity’.
The names commemorated on the
two boards are:
Major HM Richards (B, 1882-1887);
Capt H Campbell (F, 1888-1893);
Lt Col PE Ricketts (G, 1881-1886);
Capt AN Palmer (B, 1900-1906);
Capt CS Baines (C, 1904-1908);
Brig-Gen GGS Carey (Coll, 1879-1883);
Lt CB Hunt (B, 1894-1899);
Maj-Gen RB Stephens (C, 1882-1886);
Maj-Gen HB Williams (I, 1879-1883);
Major S Low (G, 1901-1907);
Major JA Don (F,1896-1900);
Capt AH Moreing (B, 1904-1906);
Capt C Gordon (H, 1907-1911, killed in
action 16 Aug 1917 near Ypres);
Lt GH Greenwell (C, 1909-1914);
Capt CJ De B Sheringham (E, 1897-1902);
Lt VAL Mallett (F, 1906-1911);
2nd Lt RC Barrett (A, 1908-1913);
2nd Lt JA Middleton (D, 1908-1914).
Please do contact me if you know
anything about these Keep Boards – my
email address is [email protected].
■
Life in College
Alastair Land, Master in College, writes:
I am a northern grammar school boy,
and thus, by inclination and upbringing,
sceptical about boarding. The intensity,
endeavour and joy that I see in the life of
the Collegemen makes me a convert, with
all the ardour and urgency concomitant
with that state.
Royal Charters for Winchester College
were granted to the Founder in 1382 and
the business of College was inaugurated on
the morning of 28th March 1394 (medieval
building contractors being about as fast as
modern ones), when the Warden, priestfellows, scholars and Quiristers walked into
Chamber Court in solemn procession. Life
in College represents an unbroken tradition
of learning and growing up in this most
wonderful, challenging, yet comforting
environment since that time.
Collegemen, along with the Master in
College, College Tutor and College Matron
(in Bethesda), live in College. So life in
College, as well as being headily academic
and traditional, includes prosaic essentials:
in other words, it’s rather normal. We take
our meals in Hall. The Chamber ladies
clean and keep the whole plant in good
order. The handyman lights fires in the
Chambers in the winter time. There’s a
boot and Corps uniform room, and musical
instruments are practiced in Ist, IIIrd and
School; folders, dictionaries, violins and
cricket bags get left on the strat racks in
VIIth Chamber Passage. There is a
computer room, a place to watch television,
a library, a games room and a bogle store.
I think the food is special: as a biologist
I would inevitably stress its significance.
The Kitchen staff work hard and with
imagination to cook good meals and the
Hatches team present them with
dedication and care. We meet weekly to
discuss menus and debate great matters
such as waffles, porridge and fruit salad –
trivial perhaps to the observer but highly
significant in boarding life. That all our
meals are taken in College Hall, even when
we are taking it for granted, cannot but
instil a sense of pride in the foundation.
Hall has great moments: I love the dark teatime of winter when the panelling gives a
warm rich feeling, and conversely, in
summer brightness the stained glass sparkles
at lunchtime. Celebratory suppers are
inevitably all the more enriched by the
room in which they are enjoyed. Giving
speeches at College Supper has an immense
frisson as I look around the room at the
faces of the Collegemen, the portraits of
their forebears above them and of the kings
and bishops on the beam stops.
But if College is different (scholars
aside), it isn’t because of Hall: it is because
of the life in Chambers. At the end of a
preceding term the College Officers gather
convivially in my dining room in the late
evening and choose Chambers for the next.
Thus cross-age groups are formed that will
live, work and socialise together, for a term
in a Chamber, until the process is repeated.
The precedent for this is laid out in the
Statutes. Without bedsits or mugging hall,
the Collegemen play out their lives of work
and recreation openly and confraternally.
Ideas are exchanged and augmented freely
and rapidly; a senior don once commented
that the great thing about chambers is that
if you tell two Collegemen something up to
books, then the rest of them will know all
about it by breakfast the next morning. It is
in the milieux of IInd, IVth, Vth, VIth,
VIIth and Thulé, that the scholars without
inhibition, embarrassment and indeed
sometimes guilelessly brace each other’s
ideas, form and test their own and develop
grand schemes. In such a stimulating
environment it is no wonder then that
Collegemen form such a considerable and
vigorous presence in the life of the School.
Whilst one might anticipate a substantial
4
leavening of scholars in Choir, Orchestra
and on prize lists, the Chamber spirit gives
Collegemen the drive that makes us
Steeplecha- champions for the third year
running and represented in the first (and
indeed also humblest) teams for nearly
every sport.
Collegemen are very fortunate to have
all of their accommodation in Chamber
Court and in the new and recently
upgraded Bethesda. The reformed upstairs
Chambers and bidets are a delight to look
at and civilised to live in: I show them off
proudly.
College is full of minutiae, quotidian
traditions and ways of living that are very
attractive and instil the essence of
Chamber Court life: high table on
Mondays and Thursdays, gowns in Preces
(over any order of dress and thus covering a
multitude of sins), toys with individual
decoration, sweat lists and Officers’ notices
on the phall’ and Chamber Teas.
Bethesda is a unique College
phenomenon and despite the move away
from old Sick House remains a cornerstone
of College life. Here, under Matron’s careful
ministration, all the usual medical matters
may be attended to, but more importantly it
offers a refuge, a place of stillness and
reflection. For Collegemen to play in
ensembles, compete athletically, write tasks
and complete Olympiads (sometimes all in
the same day) means that they often
operate at 110%, thus becoming a little
frayed or ‘pale and interesting’. Bethesda is
the place to regroup, for an afternoon,
overnight or longer. Collegemen may
award themselves the luxury of some time
there or have it foisted upon them by
Matron or me. They might instead spend a
therapeutic afternoon working in the
vegetable garden or revising under the
apple tree.
Above all College is about being a
teenager in the company of other scholars.
This indeed was Wykeham’s trenchant
insight: that greater things will come of
lively minds if they learn their thinking
with those of a similar caste. This has
always been intuitively and anecdotally the
case – one can feel the sense of it and watch
it happening. I recently gave a lecture in
School (another of College’s gems) on
three of College’s greatest men of the 20th
century, and in doing the research for it I
was gratified to light upon contemporary
evidence for the Founder’s insight.
Neurophysiology shows us that in the years
leading up to twenty the brain is still very
active and forming itself: connections
between nerve cells are still being made.
The fashion and richness of such joining is
determined by the stimuli to which the
conscious mind is subjected. So being in
College does in fact change your mind,
bringing it nearer the optimum level of
sophistication and capacity that ever its
genetic potential might allow. College, in
cognitive terms as well as the rest, most
luxuriantly nurtures your nature.
■
Godliness and Good Drawing
Many readers may recall the cartoon
map (see page 28), drawn by Canon Ian
Dunlop (C, 1938-43) during his last year
in the School. Ian kindly offered this
poem, should The Trusty Servant ever
have another ‘Poets Corner’. He wrote
and decorated his poem whilst staying
with an old friend in France, in response
to the announcement of the birth of his
son, Arnaud de Contades.
■
PRAYER
FOR
ARNAUD DE CONTADES
I could have asked for Grace that he might live
With all that Nature, all that Art can give,
With every noble virtue which we find
Enrich the soul or ornament the mind;
Of God’s abundant treasury aware,
Eager to taste and generous to share;
Ready for pastures new when times move fast,
Yet always mindful of the cherish’d past;
That in each chosen walk he might pursue,
Whate’er is Good and Beautiful and True,
Nor yet disdain, engrossed in worldly strife,
The saner pleasures of a Simple Life.
My faith forbids. It is not in my Creed
To tell my Maker what He knows we need.
These may be pearls which we must sacrifice
To gain that one true Pearl of costly price.
So grant him, Lord, that only gift Divine
Which turns life’s water into purest wine;
Thy richest, dearest blessing from above,
His God, his neighbour and himself to love.
Ian Dunlop
5
Book review:
The Russian Countess: Escaping Revolutionary Russia
by Edith Sollohub
Tommy Cookson (I, 1955-60) writes:
Wykehamists of the late 1950s and
early ’60s often saw Countess Sollohub,
by then an old lady, making her way up
and down Kingsgate St. They knew she
was Nic Sollohub’s1 mother and, vaguely,
that she was a Russian aristocrat who had
somehow
escaped the
Bolsheviks.
Few can have
known the
astonishing
story of her
life.
The first
third of the
book is an
account of
her childhood
in St
Edith (r) with her sisters, 1898
Petersburg.
Edith Sollohub was the eldest of three
daughters of a tsarist minister and professor
at St Petersburg University. She doted on
her parents, especially her father. She was
educated by governesses, enjoyed the
glitter of winters in the capital and
summers at an estate in Livonia, a Baltic
province. She loved the outdoor life,
particularly shooting. Married at 20, she
joined in the running of her husband’s
estate, Kamenka, south of St Petersburg, as
well as bringing up three sons, all born
before war started in 1914.
When her husband and many of his
workforce left to join the army, she took
over the management of the estate. Initially
nervous, she learned to negotiate with
buyers of her timber, to help with the
logging at the end of winter and to watch
1
Co Ro 1954-80
rumours of a marauding Wild Division.
Then in December 1917 Kamenka was
‘nationalised’ and Edith summoned to
appear before the Lissino District
Rural Committee and a hostile
crowd of peasants. Edith refused
to be cowed. The first priority
was the safety of her boys: in the
summer of 1918 she got them
out of Russia into Germanoccupied Estonia but was forced
back to St Petersburg by the
need to salvage all she could
from her parents’ flat. While she
was there the frontiers were
closed. As a bourgeois, she was
under suspicion and unable to
travel. And by Christmas 1918,
although she didn’t know it, her
husband was dead.
Edith (r) with her
for fires in the thousands of acres of forests
in the summer. She shot elk and even bears.
The Russian countryside became a part of
her. ‘In the
stillness of the
air I feel the
symphony of
mother and sisters,
1903
As she looked for ways of
getting back to
her sons, she
had to earn her
living. She
worked as a
porter at the
Nikolayevsky
Station,
collecting
luggage on her
sledge and
dragging it
through the
Edith and Alexander – their
streets to its
engagement photograph,1906
destination. But
without the
scents and colours, one which
kindness of
reveals the very soul of this
Edith with her three sons in 1917
former servants
landscape.’ It was an Eden from
Nic (aged 3) is on the right
she might not
which she was soon to be driven.
have survived: one had been made
Commandant of her block of houses and
The summer of 1917 brought the first
went out of his way to protect her;
signs of impending revolution. There were
6
moments are
invested with a
touch of the
ordinary which
makes them seem
natural and
credible, whether
she is escaping
military patrols
during curfew,
enduring prison or
bluffing her way
into the Smolny
Institute and
hearing what Lenin
had for lunch.
Local reviewers
often make
allowances for
books written by
local authors. This
book needs no such
indulgence. It is a
masterly account of
an extraordinary
experience.
■
Bear hunt 1915
another became a ‘bag lady’ who bartered
her domestic items in the countryside in
exchange for food; another, from
Kamenka, made the dangerous journey to
St Petersburg to offer Edith all his savings.
The attitude of the peasants was less
predictable: ‘Communism is not so bad as
long as there are things to be taken. But
when everything has been taken—we
won’t need communism any more.’ The
attitude of the Cheka, the security police,
was one of ruthless hostility. Fear of house
searches, of being arrested in the street, of
the disappearance of friends was constant.
By the end of 1919, escape across the
Polish border became a possibility. In
January 1920, Edith assumed a Polish
identity (she had learned enough Polish
for this) and went to join a train in
Moscow. The plan fell through. She was
imprisoned in the Lubyanka and for a
time in the nastier Butyrki. Finally
released, she made her way south-west
with a new identity towards Poland as a
violinist in an orchestra; and when the
Polish army’s advance made retreat
eastwards essential, as a red cross nurse
travelling towards the front.
The account of her escape is
compelling. She relied on an uncanny
ability to foresee problems, a cool head
when in difficulty, the kindness and
courage of numerous people-and on luck.
She comes across as a heroine because she
does not see herself as one and has no selfpity. Like a large-scale Victorian novel,
her pages are crowded with sharplyobserved characters from all walks of life:
even the commander of the Lubyanka
prison appears momentarily human when
she spontaneously grasps his hand on her
release—‘his red moustache moved, a
glimmer of a smile played on his
impassive face’. She avoids sentimentality
and one of her funniest characters bursts
on the scene at the very moment of her
leaving Moscow, knowing she is unlikely
to see it again. Even the most dangerous
7
All these are illustrations from the book "The Russian
Countess: Escaping Revolutionary Russia" by Edith
Sollohub. Impress Books, Hardback, £18.99 ISBN
13:978-0-9556239-5-0 obtainable from P & G Wells
Bookshop and other leading booksellers.
Countess Sollohub in Winchester ca.1960
Charioteer rescued from bomb shelter
John Falconer, Curator of Treasury, writes:
One by one the few survivors from
the old Museum’s once extensive
collection of plaster casts are being
rescued, restored and returned. Last time
it was Hermes; now the plaster cast of the
Delphi Charioteer has been given a new
right hand and base, and placed in the
Treasury, pending the creation of a more
accessible museum in the Warden’s
Stables. While the bronze Hermes sat
rusting at the back of the PE centre, the
Charioteer had been consigned to a much
greater indignity, imprisonment in the
fetid vaults of a Second World War bomb
shelter behind Art School (once the
Sanatorium). For many years rumours had
been circulating of statues hidden in a
hut, but it needed the investigative skills
of Robert Ferguson, former Senior
Chaplain, to track it down to the bomb
shelter. The casts were deposited there at
the time of the conversion of Museum to
Common Room in 1983 when the floor
must still have been dry. But the rise of
the water table in the intervening years
meant that many of the smaller casts were
disintegrating, and the Charioteer was
perilously near to collapsing, saved only
by his reinforced base. The restorer,
Martin Holden, with his colleagues
carefully wrapped the Charioteer in clingfilm and succeeded in manoevering him
safely up the slippery stairs without further
loss of plaster.
The original bronze of this early 5th
century BC charioteer stands in the
Delphi Museum with some of the bronze
reins still in his hand. He was dedicated
by Polyzalos, tyrant of Gela in Sicily,
following a victory of his horses in the
chariot race. When the statue was
excavated in 1896 the left arm was
already missing, and only small fragments
of the horses were found. It is not known
when the right hand of our plaster copy
was broken off, but an accurate
replacement was eventually made from a
mould in the collection of Chiurazzi, the
Naples company which made our Hermes
copy and still supplies casts from the old
moulds. So eager was this firm to
complete the statue that our first request
to replace the broken right hand
produced their imagined version of what
the missing left hand would have looked
like. However, we resisted the temptation
to fit this on, and it was returned to Italy
in its box.
Earlier requests in the Trusty Servant
for recollections of what happened to the
rest of the cast collection have so far
drawn a blank, and it is unlikely that any
further relics of the old Museum will now
come to light. But any new information
8
The Charioteer in the Treasury
would be very welcome, as would be
stories of how the now flooded bomb
shelter was used in times of war. The
Charioteer, with his eyes still painted in
an intense red to reproduce the onyx inset
into the original bronze, must have
despaired of his years of dark, damp
imprisonment. His present home in the
old Beer Cellar is shared with a horse
from the Tang dynasty, a culture which,
like the Greeks, greatly prized the nobility
of horses. If they ever find their way to the
Stables, they may feel more at home
there, beside the ghosts of our own former
age of the horse.
■
Colditz, Uncle Jock and my grandfather
This is the text of a talk given by Tom
Pumphrey at Pilgrims’ School in June 2009,
then aged 12. Tom’s ‘Uncle Jock’ had been at
Clifton, but his sons, Tom and Ben were both
Wykehamists (in Cook’s, 62-67 & 68-73),
whilst his grandfather was Sir Laurence
Pumphrey KCMG (C, 29-34), all of whose
four sons, Matthew, Charlie, Jo and James
(Tom’s father), were also in Cook’s.
Surprisingly perhaps, Tom will be entering
Hopper’s in 2010!
most were recaptured and sent to
Eichstatt. Being an engineer, Jock helped
design and work on the Eichstatt Tunnel;
63 soldiers escaped, including Jock and
my grandpa, but they were all recaptured
and sent to Colditz.
On Jock’s arrival at Colditz, he
quickly drew a detailed survey of the
castle for the escape organisation. He also
made a set of skeleton keys and became a
Colditz Castle was a maximum high
security POW camp for notorious Allied
officers who had escaped from other
camps. I want to tell you about two
officers imprisoned there during the
Second World War.
Not even the famous ‘Warburg Wire
Job’ could help Jock or grandpa score a
‘Home Run’, which means making it all
the way back to England! Jock helped
design and build the jointed ladder to
cross the fence; lots of men escaped, but
In April 1945, the Americans came
over the hill and started shelling Colditz,
thinking they were German. Bader, the
famous fighter pilot who was standing
close to my grandpa, had his legs blown
right off him in a mortar blast; he fell to
the floor, but not to worry - he wasn’t
hurt; he’d lost his legs in a flying accident
before the War; he just needed help to
find his wooden legs again! The Union
Jack sewn by grandpa, Jock and others was
hung out of a window and the Americans
came to their rescue.
Jock never scored a ‘Home Run’, but
he never stopped trying. He was
awarded the Military Cross for his
bravery at the end of the War. My
grandfather married my
grandmother soon after the War.
Jock was invited to the wedding and
met my grandfather’s sister for the
first time. They were married two
years later!
In 1941, my grandfather was
captured in Crete and taken to a
camp near Lübeck. He was
transported by truck to Warburg
where he met Jock HamiltonBaillie for the first time. Jock was a
professional soldier and an awesome
escaper.
Jock attempted many escapes,
twice from camps near Rouen and
Peronne before being recaptured and
sent to Laufen. Here he escaped by
climbing a fence and, when caught, was
sent to Titmoning. In his next escape
attempt, he cut through barbed wire and
travelled miles across Germany before
being found just metres from the Swiss
border; his small scale map had misplaced
his position. He was arrested by a border
guard and sent back to Titmoning. The
Commandant congratulated him and
then sent him on to the Warburg camp.
At Colditz, grandpa had a photo of
his sister by his bed. Jock fell in love!
skilful lock-picker. He designed a sewing
machine made from Red Cross boxes.
They made a huge Union Jack just in
case, and it was lucky they did.
In Colditz, my grandpa acted in plays,
slept lots and set up the ‘Pumphrey
Special Squad of Stooges’, being look-outs
for German guards while escapes were
being planned. He told me it was just like
being at boarding school!
9
Jock took home some Colditz
memorabilia, including his set of
skeleton keys which he used 50 years
later when, on a tour of the castle, a guide
was unable to open a door. Jock pulled out
of his pocket his skeleton set of keys and
opened a door that hadn’t been opened for
years. The flag he made was draped over
the coffin at his funeral which my dad
helped carry a few years ago.
My grandfather is now 93 and thinks
no one is interested in his stories about
the War, but I am.
■
Sir Laurence Pumphrey died on 23rd
December 2009, aged 93, not long after
learning to his delight that his grandson’s
article would be in this issue.
A German Officer at Caen
This extraordinary incident is reported to
have taken place in Normandy on 3rd
August 1944.
The following narrative has been
taken from a book: Caen: Anvil of
Victory, written by Alexander McKee,
OBE, and first published by MacMillan
paperback in 1964:
to interfere with a 60-ton tank, armed with no
more than a rifle, and while Powle stalked the
Tiger, he stalked Powle. A British revolver
would have been no use to him, but his Luger,
like all German automatic pistols, had a high
accuracy even in his inexperienced hands. He
hit Powle in the arm, spinning him over.
The German then stalked forward and
….. He quickly came
back, to report a Tiger
with a track off, borrowed
a captured German
rifle from one of the
cars, and set off for
a slice of lone
sniping. When he
did not return,
Corporals Bradbury
and Bland moved
cautiously down the lane on
foot. ‘Then,’ says the
Household Cavalry
Regiment historian.
‘they halted, for in
front of them,
standing in solitary
splendour, was a pair of
British Army boots! Of
their Troop Leader – not a
sign.’ Lieutenant Powle
had met his match.
The Household
Cavalry was the most
glittering Regiment of
the ‘Establishment’; and
on his first (quite unofficial)
reconnaissance back in July, their Colonel
had been hopelessly distracted by a covey of
partridge, which he had attempted to ‘walk
up’, in spite of the fact that the birds were in
a minefield. Old habits die hard. But now
Powle met the appropriate sort of German,
lying back at his ease while he watched his
crew repair the broken track. Frankly, he
thought it was presumptuous of Powle to try
introduced himself in perfect
public school English. ‘I was at
Winchester. Where were you?’ After
fifteen minutes of security-conscious
conversation on both sides, the Tiger was
repaired, and the German said casually, ‘As a
matter of fact, we’re rather pushed. Your
chaps, as far as I can make out, should be
advancing towards this spot, and we have
10
been ordered to retire. I trust you not to look
where we are going. When we are out of
earshot you can make your way back to your
lines, I hope? However, as a formality, I shall
have to ask you to leave your boots behind.’
Huge lengths have been taken to try
to ascertain the veracity of the story, going
through School rolls from the 1920s and
1930s to find German surnames, but a
blank was drawn.
However, if the
German officer’s
mother had been
German, but his
father English,
this would not
reveal his dual
nationality.
Against this, it
is important to
balance
McKee’s
undoubtedly
high reputation
as a military
historian. The
story is also
credited to the
historian of the
Household
Cavalry
Regiment,
fighting as part
of Guards’
Armoured
Division in the
bocage area
behind the
beaches.
Regardless, the
inference intended is that, in
spite of the potential consequences of such
an incident, it is still possible for a degree
of mutual respect to exist between foes. ■
Champion of Swedish Poetry
Paul Britten Austin (G, 1935–39)
‘He wrote books
about Sweden
and translated
some Swedish
works; he had a
particular
interest in 18th
century Swedish
poetry’,
Paul Britten Austin
recorded the
Trusty Servant cautiously. This was a
distinct understatement, given even what
little I knew of Britten Austin.
As well as writing history and translating
Bellman’s poetry into rhyming and
scanning English verse, Britten Austin
worked for Radio Sweden’s foreign service
(1948-57) as head of English-language
broadcasting, then directed the Swedish
Tourist Office in London until 1967.
While ‘commuting on “staggering wheel”
between Victoria and Haywards Heath’,
he ‘cudgelled his brain for rhymes or to
elucidate eighteenth-century Swedish
texts’ in the ‘draughty and unsprung
carriages of British Railways’.
On consultation, the Swedish Immigrant
Institute didn’t mention his 20-year
project to write an acclaimed trilogy,
1812, on Napoleon’s disastrous foray to
Moscow, but it did say he was awarded the
Swedish Academy’s special prize for books
on Bellman, as well as its translation prize.
And it listed his 28 books and 5
translations.
The work of bringing a poet from a far-off
time and little-spoken language to life is
not easy. Britten Austin uses carefully
detailed history, analysis, reconstruction,
portraits, maps, facsimiles, translations
and quotations to draw the reader into
vanished worlds, both real and imagined.
It was not just any 18th century Swedish
poetry, then: it was the ‘Genius of the
Swedish Rococo’ as the subtitle of Britten
Austin’s book The Life and Songs of Carl
Michael Bellman, has it.
But Bellman is
practically
unheard of in
England. He has
been described,
inadequately, as
‘Sweden’s
Shakespeare of
Carl Michael Bellman
the guitar song’.
by Per Krafft, 1769
Britten Austin
suggests he is rather ‘the Mozart of
Swedish poetry. He is also its Hogarth.
When words and music have faded into
silence it is the visual image that remains.’
And he laments: ‘What, the greatest of all
song-writers, in any language, unknown?’
For instance, Britten Austin explains that
Bellman’s Epistle 48 ‘describes the poet’s
return by boat from a night out among the
islands of the Mälaren. No one who has
ever risen on an early Swedish summer
morning to see the sun shining from a
clear sky on the placid water and has
heard or read this song, with its breezy
familiar air, can ever forget it.’
In the boat are Marjo, a peasant girl, with
a cargo of birch-sprigs, milk, and lambs;
and her father, proudly puffing his pipe at
the helm. It is, comments Britten Austin,
a charming picture.
We meet Movitz the cellist, and Bellman’s
dream-mistress Ulla Winblad. Britten
Austin comments: ‘Everything occurs
with apparent haphazardness. Yet each
stanza is a little picture, framed by its
melody. We remember it all, seem to have
lived through it, like a morning in our
own lives. It is true, even in translation,
11
through Britten Austin’s skilful work.
Britten Austin remarks ‘the poem is one
of Bellman’s greatest. At a stroke he
created in Swedish poetry a new vision of
the natural and urban scene. Fresh as
Martin’s. Detailed as Hogarth’s.
Frail and ethereal as Watteau’s.’
Britten Austin deftly steers us through
Bellman’s crazy mixture of pubs, officials,
drunks, musicians, and prostitutes in
Gustavian Stockholm; and behind that, a
merry procession of classical nymphs,
maenads, and gods.
He points out that the poetry works even
when Bellman makes a rainbow burst
across the sky after the sun has set: ‘and
the reader realizes with surprise that he
hadn’t noticed anything strange about
that, so vivid is the description, so apt the
music.’
Somehow, Britten Austin knows that
Bellman’s 80th Epistle is ‘virtually a
paraphrase, almost a translation, of the
opening lines in Boileau’s L’Art Poetique
on the proper composition of pastorals:
Telle qu’une bergère, au plus beau
jour de fête…’
only to continue ‘It is more lovely in
Swedish:
Liksom en herdinna, högtidsklädd,
Vid källan en junidag...’
Britten Austin’s Bellman is a huge
achievement. Like Bellman’s songs, it is
also oddly comforting, celebrating life in
the full knowledge of its brevity.
■
Ian Alexander (G, 1967-72)
Wiccamica
Go Bo
Long Roll
In September last year, having become
Warden of New College, Professor Sir
Curtis Price took over the seat on the
Governing Body previously occupied by
his predecessor, Professor Alan Ryan; and
just in March Professor Christopher
Sachrajda replaced Professor David Hanna
as the representative of the Royal Society.
MMX Long Roll is now nearing
completion and is available to all comers at
£10 a copy. Should you wish to purchase a
copy, please contact Alastair Land (Master
in College) on [email protected], or
Stephen Anderson (Senior Tutor) on
[email protected].
Co Ro
No fewer than ten dons will be leaving us at
the end of Cloister Time. They are Paul
Thomas, who has taught in the Economics
department since 2003; Mike Thompson,
who has been a Chemistry don since 2005,
and Head of that department since 2008;
Madeleine Copin, who came as a Wykeham
Student in Mathma in 2006, and
subsequently stayed on; Stephen Finigan,
Wykeham Student in Classics 2008-09, and
in Mathma ‘09-10; David Freeman,
Wykeham Student in English since 2008;
Rory Malone, Wykeham Student in
Geography since 2008; Scott Steven,
Wykeham Student in Biology since 2008;
Yolanda Alonso, Wykeham Student in
Spanish since last September; Anupa
Jayakrishnan, Wykeham Student in Art
since September; and Hugh Salimbeni,
Wykeham Student in Mathma, also since
last September. We wish them all well for
the next stage of their careers, and offer
particular congratulations to Mike
Thompson, who is to be Head of Science at
Rugby, and Madeleine Copin, who has been
appointed Head of Maths at The
Portsmouth Grammar School. In addition
to these, Peter Metcalfe, formerly Housedon
of Cooks, and more recently Head of
History, left at the end of Common Time.
We offer our heartiest congratulations to
Alastair Land, Master in College, and to
Madeleine Copin (again!) on their recent
engagement. The wedding will take place
later this summer.
Eton Again - Again!
Dick Wilkinson, Head of Spanish, writes:
Dear Editor, As a plant originally nurtured
in Eton clay, but currently flourishing in
that of Winchester, I was interested to read
James Sabben-Clare’s account of how he
took a top-up of Winchester soil to Eton in
case the original deposit should be
disturbed. But it cannot have been
destined for ‘School Court’ as there is no
such place there. The enclosed spaces that
at Winchester, as at Cambridge, are called
courts, and at Oxford quadrangles, at Eton
are all called yards: so it is in School Yard
that the soil rests. Perhaps JPS-C as a
historian of the College can explain why
the different seats of learning use different
descriptors for such a common feature of
their topography.
I am, Sir, yours etc
R.D.Wilkinson
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
On Sunday, 24th January, the Winchester
College Christian Fellowship (WCCF)
helped create a service to mark the Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity: a service led
by the chaplaincy involving the
Winchester College Parents’ Prayer
Group (WCPPG), the School Christian
Union (CU) and the Society of Our Lady
at Winton (SOLAW).
Mark Stephens (F, 1955-59), one of the
founder members of the WCCF, gave the
address. Malcolm Archer, the School’s
Director of Chapel Music, composed an
12
exquisite anthem for the occasion, In
Christ there is no East nor West. A Member
of SOLAW composed the prayers,
members of the WCPPG read the lessons
and members of the CU led the
intercessions. Next year we will be
marking the Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity again on Sunday, 23rd January 2011
– an event to which all OWs are invited.
Book Review
Matthew Huntley, late of P & G Wells, writes:
Andrew Rutter: Winchester - Heart of a City
This important new book on Winchester
has been published by P & G Wells in
association with the City of Winchester
Trust, and with sponsorship from the late
Albert H. Gordon of New York and his son
Dan Gordon (E, 1968-69). The author,
Andrew Rutter, was Winchester’s first
Conservation Officer from 1974 to 1997
and has an unparalleled knowledge of the
city, in particular its architecture and its
planning politics during the last thirty years.
With an impressive attention to detail and
a profusion of illustrative photographs,
drawings and prints, the book looks at
each street in the Conservation Area of
Winchester and considers why it has
evolved the way it has, what might have
been, and how it is coping with new
planning imperatives. This detail extends
to the natural setting, including not least
the trees, and constantly draws attention
to the interaction of townscape with
landscape. The book attempts to answer
the difficult question: how can we
reconcile healthy economic growth with
the need to conserve historic buildings
and remain sensitive to the heritage of a
city like Winchester? It is therefore
relevant to many other towns and cities
faced with the same question.
The area covered starts with the walled city
divided into 9 sections and follows with
chapters on the ‘old’ suburbs: northern
(Hyde), eastern (St Giles’ Hill), western (the
College), and finally St Cross. There is an
excellent final chapter on the archaeological
and historical development of Winchester,
which could usefully be read first.
This handsome, highly illustrated book is
available from Wells [email protected] - at £35 (or £40
if mailed within U.K.)
Water Polo Instructor retires
Tom Noyce, having instructed water polo at
the College for the last 12 years or so, has
decided to give up at the end of this term at
the age of 78. After a very good innings,
which has been unpaid, Andrew Leigh (don
i/c Water Polo) is organising a send-off for
Tom after the OW vs Win Coll match on
Winchester Day. Andrew has been trying to
get in touch with OWs who used to play
water polo; should you wish to be involved,
please contact him on [email protected].
Win Coll in India, March 2010
David Baldwin (Co Ro, 1969-2009) writes:
With more money raised for our project in
India than I had dreamed of, it was now
time to go and see what our efforts had
achieved on the ground. And so, on 19th
March, 22 boys, all currently in VI2, and 4
adults set off for India. We flew to Delhi
and in the evening of our arrival took an
overnight train to Kathgodam to the
north-east of the city. Old Delhi Railway
Station at night comes as quite a shock to
those who do not know India, but once on
the train, the boys settled into airconditioned couchette-style sleepers. We
disembarked at first light, finding ourselves
already in the foothills of the Indian
Himalaya. Progress by road is necessarily
slow: the lush terraced valleys are deep and
steep-sided, the roads narrow and uneven,
the towns choked with traffic. Clouds over
the distant mountains hid the peaks of
Nanda Devi and the Pindari Range from
view, but we were to get glimpses later on.
The next day took us in a convoy of jeeps
through Bageshwar and on up to the end of
the road, the last part a steep, dusty and
bumpy climb with sheer drops and no
safety barriers. And thus began the trek
part of this adventure. We walked for two
and a half days, reaching 9,000 feet at one
stage, surrounded by rhododendron trees in
full bloom. Our bags were carried by horses
The Wykehamist party with their Indian fellow-workers
13
and mules; we camped overnight in
breathtaking locations.
The last day, quite a tough one, brought us
down to the village of Tarsaal, our
destination and the site of the new primary
school which we are funding. Tarsaal lies at
6,400 feet, a scattering of houses on a steep,
terraced mountainside. The delicate green
of wheat covered the terraces, down in the
valley flowed a rock-strewn stream beside
which we camped, high up in the distance,
Nanda Kot, at 6861 metres, gleamed a
brilliant white between two green
shoulders of mountain against a perfect
blue sky. This was the backdrop to five days
of hard work, which the boys set about
with great energy and enthusiasm. The
three-room stone building was not yet
complete but all the stone for the
construction had been broken by hand and
this required a lot of shifting. The boys also
excavated a high bank and dug
foundations, working alongside local
women who proved their equal in strength
and endurance. We were all struck and
moved by the ready smiles, the happy
namastes which greeted us every morning,
the shy waves of women and children
peeking out from tiny
upper floor windows.
Another job was to paint
and decorate the
two–room building
which presently - and for
a while yet - serves as the
school. The team which
took this on transformed
the building, leaving it
shining white on the
outside with lovely blue
tendrils and red flowers
decorating the pillars. In
one of the two rooms we
painted coloured numbers and letters,
three comic bees, a map of the world, a
colourful fruit tree and a height chart
which recorded the name and height of
the tallest Winchester boy, a height no
Indian is likely to reach!
We had managed to cram into our luggage
lots of small toys and clothes for the
children, even some footballs, as well as
pencils, crayons, pens and exercise books,
many of which were generously donated by
P & G Wells. These we distributed on our
final day in the village, and we put on an
entertainment for the children into the
bargain. And then began the long journey
by road back to Delhi, where we had a day
and a half for some sight-seeing and
shopping, with the obligatory Hot in front
of the Red Fort. We finished in style with a
dinner in a smart Delhi
hotel with seven Old
Wykehamsts, among them
the Nawab of Pataudi,
who gathered in the city
for the occasion. I am
most grateful to Rohit
Poddar (E, 1987-89) and
William Muir (K, 199297) for organising this.
We were all filled, I am
sure, with a great sense of
achievement at the end of
this adventure, and an
adventure it certainly was.
The people of Tarsaal will not forget us.
The boys are equally unlikely to forget
them and the experience of India. Many
wish to return.
It now remains for the next year group to
take the project forward into the next
phase. This means raising money for two
more rooms and the first part of a hostel
for children from outlying villages which
have no school at all. Another party will
be going out to India with me next March.
Crystals, Wings and X-ray
Machines
Alastair Land writes:
For as long as there has been empirical
science there have been illustrations and
artefacts associated with the testing of
hypotheses. Fossils, preserved specimens,
crystals, micrographs, x-rays have all been
connected directly with expanding and
enriching the sum of human knowledge.
Photographs, notes and plans have
catalogued how experiments were done –
crucial in the restless scientific quest to
both diversify and refine experiments and
observations.
In Wiccamical terms science education is
relatively young having only been part of
the curriculum in some form for 140 years
(following the reforms of Headmaster
Ridding). Science, from its inception at
Winchester, imbibed the school’s tradition
of collecting and cataloguing its business;
thus the Science School Museum and
Archive has an unparalleled collection of
items: birds, beetles, butterflies, and one of
the first x-ray machines and vacuum tubes.
As well as their intrinsic significance is the
history and philosophy of science, they are
aesthetically pleasing too. Encouraged by
the Collections Committee, the Science
School Museum and Archive presents
fifteen images illustrating a taste of the
collection. Should you wish to see these
for yourself, they cost £5 a set and are
available in Science School and
Cornflowers or from the Development
Office, 17 College Street, Winchester,
SO23 9LX together with your address and
a cheque for £5. Please write SSM & A on
the back of the cheque.
■
Old Wykehamist News
The Editor would like to draw readers’
attention to the comments on page 24 in
‘From the Director’, given the paucity of OW
News in certain sections of this and earlier
issues.
Academic
MH Feltham (D, 77-82): Master of the
Queen’s Scholars at Westminster School.
PG Nunes-Carvalho (H, 85-89) teaches
Economics at Sutton Valence, where he
also runs football and the Fives Society and
takes teams in rugby, hockey and cricket.
advocacy director at its international
secretariat there.
Appointments/Elections
CE Garrett (C, 76-81), a diplomat, has
been appointed Head of International
Affairs for the London Olympics 2012.
SP Crawshaw (C, 68-72) worked for The
Independent for many years, then joined
Human Rights Watch, where he was
London director and then its UN
advocacy director in New York. He
returned to London to work for Amnesty
International and is now international
14
Sir Hugh Roberts (K, 61-66): Surveyor
Emeritus of The Queen’s Works of Art.
PP Wilson (H, 89-94): Chief Press Officer
at the Dept of Energy and Climate
Change.
Arts
CPK Edwards (B, 83-87) played Oberon
opposite Dame Judi Dench as Titania in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at Sir Peter Hall’s
Rose Theatre in March 2010. The play was
directed by Sir Peter, with Titania the Fairy
Queen imagined as a version of Elizabeth I,
and Oberon as the Earl of Essex.
Books
According to the Public Lending Right
Office, AJ Beevor’s Berlin: The Downfall
1945, published in 2002, was the history
book most often borrowed from a
selection of public libraries between July
2008 and June 2009. AJB (K, 60-64)
plans to produce a large volume in 2012
about WW2, covering the entire conflict;
so, too, does Sir Max Hastings.
Colonel HME Cadogan, RWF (G, 4853): The Road to Armageddon. The Life and
Letters of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry
Cadogan, RWF (1868-1914), Bridge
Books, £20. ISBN 9781844940561.
making of the Western World, Yale UP, £25.
ISBN 9780300148787.
DR Markham (K, 55-60): Playing Through
– the History of West Surrey Golf Club, £25
+ £5 p&p from the publisher, West Surrey
Golf Club, Enton, Godalming, GU8 5AF.
JGD Musson (F, 79-83): Up and Down
Stairs: the history of the country house
servant, John Murray, hb £25, ISBN
9781848543003, pb £9.99, ISBN
9780719597305. In an article in Country
Life, illustrated with a large picture of the
Trusty Servant, the author explained the
origins of his interest in this subject. Win
Coll is indebted to Jeremy for his
considerable contribution to the recent
Annual Report, in which he wrote up his
five interviews covering a cross-section of
topics.
AAS Philps (C, 68-72): The Boy from
Baby House 10, a non-fiction account of
how one child escaped from a Russian
state orphanage to build himself a new
life. Weidenfield & Nicholson, £18.99.
ISBN 9780297858935. Published in
Germany as Wolkengänger, Kiepenheuer,
ISBN 9783378011083.
Andrew Rutter, Winchester’s first
Conservation Officer, 74-79: Winchester –
Heart of a city, published by P & G Wells
in association with the City of
Winchester Trust with sponsorship from
the Albert Gordon Trust and Dan
Gordon (E, 68-69); £35, available from
[email protected]. ISBN
9780900796043. See review in
Wiccamica section.
Robert Sackville-West (F, 71-75):
Inheritance: The Story of Knole and the
Sackvilles (Bloomsbury, 2010). £20. ISBN
9781408803387
RE Dunbar (G, 76): How Many Friends
Does One Person Need?, Faber, £14.99.
ISBN 9780571253425.
IK McGilchrist (Coll, 76-81): The Master
and his Emissary: the Divided Brain and the
Prof. PR Stanley-Baker (I, 56-61), (ed.):
The Tale of the Genji: Its Picture Scrolls,
Texts and Romance. A collection of essays
by six international scholars addressing
the Tale of Genji scrolls and the Tale of
Genji texts in the context of new critical
theory relating to cultural studies,
narrative painting, narratology,
15
comparative literature, and a global view
of medieval romance. Kent, £55. ISBN
9781905146755. The Tale of Genji is a
10th century novel by Murasaki Shikibu.
JCK Wells (K, 81-86); The Evolutionary
Biology of Human Fatness, CUP, £60.
ISBN 9780521884204.
Commerce and Industry
AH Fergusson (B, 85-90) has returned
from banking in New York to London as
an IT consultant.
AJ MacKinnon (E, 92-97) is in
investment banking.
Ecclesiastical
SM Gordon Clark (G, 51-55) was asked
in 2006 to cut the ribbon at the opening
of the Bishop of Angola’s new house near
Luanda; he was the only representative of
the Church of England present.
Dr SJG Spencer KSG (Coll, 33-38)
celebrated his 90th birthday with a Mass of
Thanksgiving on four occasions during his
birthday week, starting on 4th May 2010
(SJGS’s actual birthday) at Corpus Christi
Church, Headington, Oxford, then at St
James’ Church, Spanish Place, London,
again in Headington (for Catenians and
others) and finishing at Ampleforth Abbey
in Yorkshire. The correspondent attended
the first of these services, taken by no less
than three Roman Catholic bishops, and
witnessed the delivery and reading of a
personal message from His Holiness Pope
Benedict XVI, containing the Apostolic
Blessing.
Honours
2010
GCVO: Sir Hugh Roberts (K, 61-66) on
relinquishing his appointment as Director
of the Royal Collection and Surveyor of
the Queen’s Works of Art.
KCVO: Rt. Rev’d. David J Conner, Dean
of Windsor (former Senior Chaplain and
member of Common Room).
MBE:
AR Beevor (E, 53-58) for voluntary
service to Fairbridge youth organisation.
R Chester (F, 48-53) for services to young
people through the Explore charity.
Dr SN Liversedge (E, 63-68). According
to the Bolton News, ‘Dr Liversedge
enjoyed incredible success co-ordinating
the Big Bolton Health Check, in which
more than 67,000 people in Bolton aged
over 45 were given free health checks to
identify those at risk of heart disease.’
AM: LN Walford (A, 41-45) was made a
Member of the Order of Australia on
Australia Day 2010, so AM now follows
his name. The award was for service to
the performing arts, particularly in the
field of theatre restoration and decorating,
and to the profession of interior design.
Legal
TJH Pattinson (G, 69-74): district judge
(magistrates’ courts) assigned to SE circuit
from May 2009.
Medical
O Coldrick (H, 86-90) has a diploma from
the American College of Veterinary
Pathology, is a Fellow of the Royal College
of Pathologists, and is now working in a
private veterinary laboratory in Exeter.
SP Hettiaratchy (Coll, 83-87): appointed
as a Consultant Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgeon at Imperial
College Healthcare NHS Trust, based at
Charing Cross Hospital, specialising in
microsurgical reconstruction and hand
surgery. He is still active in the Army
reserve, serving as part of 16 Air Assault
Brigade; he has been deployed to
Afghanistan between May and July this
year as a surgeon and has met AP Speed
(F, 82-87) and AJ Reynolds (Coll, 80-84).
AR Mehta (F, 99-04, Gonville & Caius 0407, New College 07-10) passed with merit
the Final BM exam (clinical medicine) in
January, and will graduate as BM, BCh in
July. In March he was on his medical
Elective in India, then going to Toronto for
an 8-week special study module in
Movement Disorders such as Parkinson’s
Disease. In August he takes up his job as an
Academic Foundation Year 1 Doctor in the
Cambridge Deanery, spending most of the
first year in Bury St. Edmunds Hospital in
general medicine and surgery.
CE Musters (K, 91-96) was appointed
Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist at
Newham University Hospital, East
London, w.e.f. August 2009.
Prof. AJ Pawson (I, 65-69) was awarded an
honorary doctorate of Medicine in May by
the Karolinska Institute (Sweden).
Services
Maj. Gen. JJC Bucknall (A, 72-76):
Colonel of the Coldstream Guards and
currently Assistant Chief of the General
Staff, he has been promoted Lt. Gen. with
effect from 10th August 2010. He will
command the Allied Rapid Reaction
Corps, this being the only Corps level
command in the British Army.
Maj. Gen. NP Carter (H, 72-76) now
GOC 6th (UK) Div, to be Director
General Land Warfare from February 2011.
RGS Luckyn-Malone (A, 98-03 and
Univ. Coll. London) was commissioned
into the Light Dragoons last summer.
Sport
GC Nash (K, 02-07) rowed at No. 3 in
the winning Cambridge crew in the 2010
Boat Race; it is refreshing to find a 20
year-old undergraduate taking part on
such an occasion!
The same three OWs competed in the
121st University Golf Match, held at
Royal Porthcawl Golf Club in Wales on
18th to 29th March 2010, as did at Rye in
2009, though this year it was the turn of
Claudio Consul (C, 00-02) and Ben
Twiney (G, 97-02)’s Oxford to have the
better of James Whittington (Coll, 01-06)
and his colleagues in the Cambridge team.
The President’s Putter had to be held later
than usual because of weather conditions.
TQG Hawkings (G, 76-81) and AGM
Goodrich (B, 68-73) lost in round 2 after
walkovers in round 1; GHE Winkworth
(K, 91-96) lost in round 3, following wins
in 1 and 2; CA Consul (C, 00-02) lost in
16
round 4, following a walkover in round 1
and wins in 2 and 3.
RJA Noble (E, 59-64), holder of the
world land speed record 1983-97, is
working on his Bloodhound project,
which aims to smash the present land
speed record of 763 mph by some 200
mph in the desert in the Northern Cape
of South Africa next year.
NA Bird (A, 62-66) was the military
historian who, in the spring of 2009,
guided the England cricket team on their
pre-Ashes tour of Ypres. The players were
much moved by what they saw and heard,
but it was also a convivial occasion. [Ed.
With apologies to Nicholas for having
omitted this from the previous issue.]
Wykehamist Sailing Club – Second
Solent Cruiser Rally 8th/9th May 2010
Following the successful WSC rally in
2009, the second rally took place on 8th
and 9th May 2010. As before, the aim was
to link up Wykehamists in the School with
yacht owners and to give the young dinghy
sailors the opportunity to helm yachts.
Four boat owners and eight Wykehamists,
accompanied by Richard Shorter (former
Housemaster of Furley’s), met at Hamble
Point Marina at lunchtime on the
Saturday. Lionel Hoare (B, 72-76)
brought his Grand Soleil 46.3, Alcyone;
David Anderson (Coll, 69-74), the Vice
Commodore, helped by David Baldwin
(former Housemaster of Chawker’s),
brought Stardust, his Hallberg Rassy 312;
Christopher Beer (D, 60-65) and his wife,
Angie, came in Geronimo, their Rustler
36, and Graham Stott (G, 69-72) and
Charles Pinder (G, 69-72) brought
Graham’s Moody 33, Family Affair. The
yachts were flying the very smart new
WSC burgee, designed by Rear
Commodore Calum Sillars (A, 72-76).
After lunch, the Wykehamists, led by Ed
Thomas (F), Captain of Sailing, were split
up across the boats and a race took place
from Hamble Point to Cowes, started by
Calum Sillars and James Ekins, an
honorary member of WSC. Peter Hunter
(I, 53-58) was on the Royal Yacht
Squadron line to count the boats in.
The boats berthed in the Royal Yacht
Squadron and were joined by Roderick
Walker (G, 79-83) our other flag officer,
who had brought his trimaran, Tinkerbell.
Following drinks in the Royal Corinthian,
a group of 23 dined in the Royal Yacht
Squadron, hosted by Sir David Clementi
(E, 62-67), Warden and Commodore. A
hot took place after dinner which resulted
in a draw in OTH’s favour.
The following morning dawned grey and
calm, but this did not prevent the
organisation by Peter Hunter, the race
officer, of two very enjoyable races
starting on the Squadron line. Richard
Oswald (D, 77-81) joined these races in
his yacht, Little Emily, after which the
crews returned to the Squadron for a
prize-giving in the Haven, presented by
the Commodore. The Wykehamists then
returned to Winchester whilst the older
generation sat down to a roast lunch.
It was a very successful weekend and plans
are already in train for the 3rd Solent rally
on 7th/8th May 2011. Any Wykehamist
yacht owner interested is encouraged to
contact David Anderson at
[email protected] or the
Club’s Secretary, Claire Webster, on
[email protected].
Congratulations go to the OWFC
Veterans’ XI upon reaching the final of
the Derrick Moore Veterans Cup (the
Veterans equivalent of the Arthur
Dunn Cup - qualifying age: 35), played
at the Bank of England Club,
Roehampton, on 21 March 2010. Having
beaten the Reptonians, 7-4, the
Cholmelians, 3-2, and Lancing, 3-1, along
the way to the final, they ultimately lost
1-0 to the Salopians. This is first time
OWFC have reached the final since the
start of the competition in 1992.
Particular tribute to John Hornby (I, 6772), who has played in every one of the
past 18 years’ action. Athletic over-35s
still in possession of football boots are
encouraged to contact Gordon Baker
Back row: Hugh Green (H, 75-80), David de Lanoy Meijer (A, 84-89), Gordon Baker (H, 84-89) (capt.),
Nick Lloyd (G, 84-89), John Hornby (I, 67-72), Richard Hall (B, 85-89), Tomaso Cremonesi (A, 87-89),
William Drew (F, 85-89)
Front row: Nicholas Hall (B, 87-92), Olly Gorton (I, 84-88), Johnny Hewitson (F, 80-85),
Tony Scott (G, 85-90), Seb Beloe (I, 85-90), Ben Donald (I, 85-90)
([email protected]) for a part
in next year’s campaign.
Obiter dicta
Guy Beadon (H, 32-37), among many
others, much enjoyed reading Peter
Lipscomb’s article on John Manisty’s
code-breaker role at Bletchley Park, in
the November 2009 edition of The Trusty
Servant. Guy was with the Royal Corps of
Signals and readily recalls his four-year
stint in a very small signals unit, based in
the Middle East, which specialised in
monitoring German stations in Southern
Europe. The results of their many
interceptions of the enemy’s messages
were highly valued by both Bletchley and,
indeed, M16. Guy is the last of this
particular tiny unit. We salute him and
his former comrades.
TJC Eggar (K, 65-6) was appointed on
behalf of George Osborne and the
Shadow Treasury team to lead a review of
the North Sea oil and gas industry.
JC Fayers (D, 90-95) was married in
Sweden in June last year to Jessica
Nyberg, whom he had met when they
were living in China; when he wrote,
they were living in Singapore. OWs
present at the wedding were MLT Pussard
17
(D, 90-95), GN McLachlan, RHS Black
and RN Cooch (all F, 89-94) and HDJ
Phillips (H, 90-95).
PEHS Gale (A, 75-79) was the subject of
an article last December in The Sunday
Times about the transformation of his
garden in Cornwall.
An article in The Times about the possible
abolition of cheques included a mention
of AP Herbert (C, 1904-09), who
celebrated 60 years of writing for Punch by
acting out one of his own fictional cases,
The Negotiable Cow, writing (in very large
letters) a cheque on the side of a Golden
Guernsey, and walking the cow into the
bank, where the cheque was duly cashed.
Alistair Houghton (B, 89-94) set off on
24th April 2010 with his brother-in-law,
Richard, on a cycle challenge to raise
money in aid of the CFS Research
Foundation, a charity funding research
into M.E. They cycled from Southampton
to Edinburgh in only 8 days, covering
nearly 600 miles and carrying all their own
gear. In 2007, Alistair’s brother, Ross (B,
91-96), died after a painful and brave eight
year fight with M.E. (also sometimes
known as chronic fatigue syndrome). The
photograph in front of Edinburgh Castle is
intended to prove that they didn’t just go
on holiday for a week. If you should feel
that their tremendous effort deserves your
support, even after the event, you can
achieve this through the quick and easy
online giving service at Everyclick, the link
for which is www.everyclick.com/
cyclechallengeforme. Alistair apologises
for not taking his razor on the trip and,
borrowing the words of Sir Steve
Redgrave, volunteers: ‘’If anyone sees me
on a bike again, they have my permission
to shoot me’.
JFX Miller (staff 72-89, Housemaster, B,
82-89, HM Newcastle RGS 89-08) retired
with his wife Ruth to a house in
Herefordshire; they were interested to find
that the previous owner was Rear Admiral
Peter Hogg (Secretary of Wyk. Soc. and
then the first Works Bursar, 80-88, who
died in 2007). Just before Christmas 2009,
James suffered a burst disc in his lower
back which seriously damaged his health.
He is now confined to a wheelchair but is
determined to make the most of things,
and plans to be present on Winchester
Day (19th June) and at the Toye’s
Anniversary Dinner on 30th June.
RA Pagnamenta (I, 86-91) is Energy
Editor of The Times.
CH Perry (B, 54-59) has been African
Bureau Chief of Time magazine since 2006.
Alistair Houghton (B, 89-94) with his
brother-in-law, Richard
The Internat. Forum of Sovereign
Wealth Funds had its inaugural meeting
in Baku, Azerbaijan, in October 2009;
two OW presenters, Sir Andrew Large (F,
56-60 and former Warden) and RFC
Dobbs (D, 79-84) travelled from the UK
and Korea to attend.
AC Lovell (B, 67-72) reports that he and
his wife, Ginny, and their two daughters,
and Peter Stansfeld (C, 64-68), who has
lived in Australia for many years, and his
wife, were astonishingly on the same 50passenger boat on a 10-day trip to the
Antarctic Peninsula over New Year. A
hot was duly held in broad daylight at
midnight on New Year’s Eve; OTH were
convincing winners.
Last October Bhanu Singh (A, 89-94) was
married in Delhi. Six days of festivities and
feasting included a polo match between the
bride’s team and the bridegroom’s; the score
was 3-3. The ceremonial culminated in the
triumphal Bharaat procession, with the
bridegroom, magnificently accoutred in
gold, riding a white horse along the avenues
of New Delhi to join his bride, Rakhi, for
their final wedding rites, administered by
two priests under an ornate canopy, with an
impressive mix of formality and bonhomie
– the senior priest’s mobile phone rang in
mid-ceremony and he answered it, briefly
and unabashed, as the natural thing to do.
The guests all wore splendid turbans,
revelling in and contributing to the colour
and pageant of the occasion. Among them
were the following Old Furleyites: Mánus
Sweeney (85-89), Christopher Peters (8691), Ali Khalpey (91-93), Karl Balz (88-93)
and the bridegroom’s exact contemporaries
Sam Hoexter, Jonathan Kan, Oliver
Kingsbury, Edward Lascelles, David
Luyombya, Fionn Sweeney and Ian Van
Every, accompanied by their wives and
partners – and their Housedon, Henry
Thompson. Most of those had been present
only three months earlier in Dublin at the
wedding of Fionn and Catherine Sweeney;
and in London the previous October at
that of Ian and Nadya Van Every. In a
18
happy conclusion, Ed Lascelles announced
his engagement the night before they all
left Delhi.
Ferret Soc? – Can any Freddieite from
the 1970s please help Toby Stubbs (E, 7277) to soothe his troubled mind? He has
recently written the following to DWLF:
Dear David,
We mentioned this august soc when we last
spoke and I have been trying hard to recall
some of the detail. It was formed in around
‘74/5, mainly by disaffected Freddieites who
weren’t made members of the Croquet Soc.
A tie and colours for a sweater were ordered
from Gieves. They resembled the Freddies’
colours with the white stripe replaced with a
yellow stripe. We dined at the Southgate & I
think Jo Bain was our patron.
I kept my ferrets (Justerini & Brooks) at David
Matthew’s parents’ house opposite Hunter
Tent, from where they could easily be retrieved
en route to a ratting expedition on the sewers on
the side of Hills, or a gentle afternoon in
Morestead churchyard catching rabbits in nets.
Monday morning was a highlight in my last
half, as it comprised only books-chas and was
thus spent on Twyford Down (pre M3!).
David Matthew (71-76) was a good
supporter along with, I think, Jeremy Griffith
(70-75) & his brother Dominic (73-77).
It is likely that only a nostalgic meal at
Winchester’s Hotel du Vin (formerly The
Southgate Hotel) will satisfy him, no
doubt downing a few bottles of Justerini
& Brooks’ best. Please could any fellow
ferreter contact Toby on either
[email protected] or 0207
984 8569.
From Tortoise to Helping Heroes
Picture the scene: a thirteen-year-old
bespectacled Kennyite, not much seen
outside the library, standing in a gloomgrey Winchester College P.E. kit in the
December chill being relentlessly taunted
for his clear lack of physical ability by his
six-foot companion, also a Kennyite. The
pair are standing outside Hunter Tent,
(not so) eagerly awaiting the start of Jun:
Jun, a race in which the bespectacled one
will achieve the mighty position of 107th
(i.e. last) two years in a row. Half-way
round the course he is seriously regretting
why he even bothered putting on his
running kit while his gazelle-like
companion has given up his teasing and
galloped off into the distance. In fact, he
has probably finished by now. He’s
undoubtedly in a nice warm shower,
munching on a Kit-Kat, feeling invigorated
after a jolly jog. Meanwhile, miles behind
on the galling slopes of St. Catherine’s Hill,
his friend scrambles around foolishly,
wishing by now that he hadn’t even been
born. The two actors in this comedy were
myself (playing the Bespectacled Weed)
and Tom Ryan (playing a male Paula
Radcliffe). It was 2003 and I hadn’t even
heard of Helmand Province.
Fast forward seven years and I’m getting a
strange sense of déjà vu. Tom and I are
standing at the start line of the Kingston
Breakfast Run; it’s 0800, 11th April 2010.
He’s still taunting me. Actually, he’s been
doing that for nearly a decade now. Not
much has changed, although Tom’s height
has seemingly doubled. And we’ve seen fit
to rid ourselves of the grey P.E. kit. And
I’ve done some training for this one.
Months of it. In fact, I’ve been running
twenty to thirty miles a week for the last
two years. What on earth happened over
those seven years that made me don a set
of running lycra, find a talented
sportsman and decide that running 27
kilometres along the Thames would be a
good idea?
On 11th August 2007, that far off conflict
zone of Afghanistan suddenly became a
much starker reality than it ever had
been. My brother, Acting Company
Commander of C (Essex) Company, 1st
Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment,
Captain David Hicks, was killed in action
fighting the Taliban at Forward Operating
Base Inkerman, seven kilometres north of
Sangin. He was posthumously awarded
the Military Cross. Life has been
somewhat different since then.
Returning to Kenny’s a few weeks after his
death was not easy. It was the sort of thing
that everyone knew about (it had been
splashed across the National Press for the
last month), but few dared mention.
School life was punctuated by military
events, memorials and, on one
particularly memorable day, a trip to
Buckingham Palace and Downing Street.
Two things eased my way through this
challenging time.
First, I found I needed to focus on setting
myself challenges and overcoming them.
At my brother’s funeral, a retired MajorGeneral, on hearing that I was applying to
the same Oxford college as the one at
which his daughter was a first-year, said to
me, ‘Get in. Get in for him.’ I wanted to
succeed not only for myself but for my
brother, who would no longer be able to
see my successes. So I started running
with a mind to raising some money for the
wounded members of my brother’s
regiment. For me, it was an immense
challenge. I had been allergic to sport for
almost five years, as those who have
suffered my presence on the football or
cricket field will testify. Now, however, I
wanted a physical challenge, something
truly hard and completely divorced from
my otherwise utterly academic life. By
October 2008 I had done my first charity
run, a 10k assault course run by ex-Royal
Marine Commandos and had raised over
£1,500 for my brother’s regiment. But I
didn’t stop running there. It became
somewhat addictive (and besides I could
pretend to all those girls at university that
I was a toned athlete and not a soggy
bookworm...). By that time, I was lacing
up my running shoes at least three or four
times a week.
My friends in Kenny’s were the second
aspect to my coping strategy. There are
only so many people in the world who
will conduct great feats of engineering to
lock you in your room and film it, but
then it is exactly these people, who know
you so well and with whom you have
spent so much time, good and bad, that
you need when Fate turns round and slaps
you in face. It is no surprise that when
looking for a new running challenge, it
was a fellow Kennyite who suggested an
event and became a much-valued running
partner. And there we were, Tom, exHead of House, and I, shivering in the
morning sun, limbering up for sixteenmiles of what my thirteen-year-old self
would have called sheer madness.
Ed Hicks (on the left) running with Tom Ryan
19
The 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian
Regiment, also known as ‘The Vikings’,
are again in Helmand Province. Their
tour has again been costly. The first
fatality in 2010 was a Viking. More have
happened since then. I ran the Kingston
Run in a red and yellow T-shirt, the
colours of the Regiment, with the names
of the nine men from the 1st Battalion
killed in 2007 on my back. Three of them
were killed by friendly fire, the victims of
an American pilot’s misplaced 500lb
bomb. The Rifles, the regiment with
which Winchester CCF is affiliated, are
suffering very heavy losses on their
current tour of duty. As previous editions
of The Trusty Servant demonstrate, a
number of Old Wykehamists have served
or are serving in Afghanistan. It is an
unfortunate fact, but we can never be far
from the effect of the War. For this reason,
Tom and I chose to raise money for the
charity ‘Help for Heroes’. This charity
helps service personnel wounded on
operations in our most recent theatres of
war, Iraq and Afghanistan, and provides
much needed assistance to over-stretched
institutions such as Selly Oak and
Headley Court. I hope that our small
gesture will go some way in easing
someone else’s passage through a difficult
time, just as my Winchester friends
helped me through mine.
Tom and Ed’s fundraising page:
www.justgiving.com/ryanandhicksybreakf
astrun will remain open for the next
month. Visit their Facebook Group at
‘Ryan and Hicksy dominate the Kingston
Breakfast Run’
■
Obituary
If you would like a copy of any press obituary referred to, please contact the Winchester College Society office. You can request either by email to
[email protected], telephone +44 (0)1962 621217 or by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the Director, 17 College Street,
Winchester SO23 9LX. ‘Obit’ indicates that a copy of some other tribute is also available.
We apologise for two unfortunate clerical
errors in the notice about Peter Graham Haig
(D, 33-38) in the last issue: Alistair and
Charlbury were not his Christian names, but
were accidentally copied from another OW’s
entry in the Register; and he moved to
Hobart, Tasmania, in 94, not 92.
Rev. Lawrence Heber Waddy (staff 38-42
and Chaplain 46-49). Marlborough,
Balliol Coll., Lit. Hum. OU Squash
Rackets 35-6, Rugby Fives 34-7. Asst.
Master Marlborough 37-8. HO, d 40, p
41. Naval Chaplain 42-6, RN Squash 46.
HM Tonbridge 49-62. Hon. Canon
Rochester 62; Education Officer BBC 623. Chaplain The Bishop’s Sch., La Jolla,
Calif. 63-7; Lect. In Cl. And Hum.,
Univ. of Calif., San Diego 69-80; V., Ch.
of the Good Samaritan, San Diego 70-74;
joined the staff of St. James’ Episcopal
Ch., La Jolla. Died, aged 95, on 21 March
2010, survived by his wife and
stepchildren. See Times.
Elizabeth Margaret Nash (Staff, 1982 – 97),
Lecturer at Oriel College Oxford. Died of
cancer 11 May 2010. There will be a
memoir in the next issue.
Rt. Rev. Colin James, Bishop of
Winchester 1985-95 (and therefore Visitor
of Win. Coll.), died on 10 December 09,
and is remembered with great respect and
affection. See Daily Telegraph, Hampshire
Chronicle, and Times.
David A Quayle (Fellow, 98-08), f of SAQ
and EOQ, was a founder, with Peter Block,
of B&Q. He joined the Go Bo in 1998, and
made a valuable contribution for ten years,
during which he became the first Chairman
of the Works Committee. He died on 6
April 2010, while he and his wife were on a
cruise ship returning from South Africa. He
is survived by two sons and a daughter from
his first marriage, one son from his second,
and two step-daughters. See Daily Telegraph.
Shaun Wylie (Coll, 25-31), one of the Ten
Sen Men. Leaving Exhn. Sch., New
College. Commonwealth Fund Fellowship,
Princeton 34, Procter Fellow, Ph.D 37;
Robbie Schol., Aberdeen 37; Lect. Ch .
Ch. Oxf. 38; Fellow of Trin. Hall, Camb.
39. Played hockey for Scotland 38. Univ.
Lect. In Math., 38-9. Asst. Master,
Wellington College, 39-40. Joined
Bletchley Park, Hut 8, which was working
20
on solving intercepts of German Navy
messages on the Enigma machine, 41.
Transferred to work on ‘Tunny’, a German
teleprinter cipher, 43. The series of
machines built to decipher ‘Tunny’
included ‘Colossus’, now considered the
world’s first electronic computer. Fellow at
Trin. Hall 48-58, when he became chief
mathematician at GCHQ in Cheltenham.
Retiring in 73, he taught Maths and Greek
at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys for
seven years. An accomplished chess and
bridge player, he compiled crosswords and
was a keen long-distance walker, a founder
member of the Social Democratic Party
and an active supporter of the Liberal
Democrats. He took part in activities of the
University of the Third Age in Cambridge,
including play-reading in the original
Greek, which impressed his fellow readers
until the end of his life. Died 6 October 09,
survived by his daughter and two sons, predeceased by his eldest son. See Daily
Telegraph and Times. Obit.
James Elliott Moncrief Melville (D, 27-32),
one of the Ten Sen Men. Magd. Coll.,
Camb. MB, BCh; London Hpl. 35-39,
MRCS, LRCP; MB, BChir (Camb.) 40.
House officer, London Jewish Hpl. 39; R.
Hants. Co. Hpl. 40. Lt., Ind. MS 41; India,
SEAC. In India he contracted TB and was
advised not to return there after the war; he
did so as a medical missionary in 47, but his
health soon gave way. After recuperating in
England he went to help a friend in India
before joining Stanes School, Coimbatore,
as Warden, and housemaster of the
boarding house. On return to the UK he
enjoyed the company of his family and gave
excellent lunch parties (cooking the lunch
himself). He worked part time for the NHS
and at the end of his sixties he twice went
to Nepal to work as an unpaid anaesthetist.
In 09 he was admitted to hospital and then
to Brendoncare, Winchester, where he died
on 2 November 09. Obit.
Maj-Gen. Ian Argyll Robertson of Brackla,
CB, MBE (H, 27-32), one of the Ten Sen
Men. Lords 31-32, Soccer XI 31-2 (Capt.).
Trin. Coll., Oxf. Seaforth Highlanders 36,
Capt. 40; N. Africa (wounded) 42; psc 44;
Bde-Maj. Normandy 44; Instr. Staff Coll
44; despatches. AAG, NEI and Malaya 459 (despatches); Joint Services Staff Coll.
49; OC Highland Brigade Depot 50; GSO1
52; OC 1st Bn. Seaforth Highlanders 54;
Comd. Support Weapons Wing S of I 57;
Comd. 127 (E. Lancs.). Inf. Bde. 59; Nat.
Def. Coll. Delhi 62; Cmd. S of I 63-4 and
Highland Div. TA 64; Dir. of Army
Equipment Policy, MOD, 66. Retd. 68. He
played cricket for the army and golf for the
Highland Brigade, had a keen interest in
carpentry, painting and music and was for
many years the representative in Scotland
of Spink & Son. In retirement he was a DL
and, 80-88, Vice-Lord Lieut., Highland
Region (Nairn). Died 10 January 2010,
survived by his wife and two daughters. See
Daily Telegraph.
Michael Henry Asquith (H, 28-33), one of
the Ten Sen Men. It is believed that MHA
died at some stage in 2004, but little else is
known. Any more information would be
much appreciated.
David Whinfield Barclay Baron, OBE
(Coll, 28-33), one of the Ten Sen Men.
Sch. Hertford Coll., Oxf. HM Overseas
Civil Service 37-66; Ceylon 37; E. Africa
High Commission 48; Hong Kong 51-66.
Elected 64 to Exec. Cttee. of the Internat.
Conference of Social Work in Athens, and
served on both the Hong Kong Exec. and
Legislative Councils. Exec. dir. of the Nat.
Bureau for Co-operation in Child Care,
Gulbenkian Foundation London 66-7;
Exec. dir. of the Nat. Extension Coll,
Camb., under Michael Young, 67-71. Died
9 March 2010, predeceased by his wife,
survived by his daughter. See Times.
Sir John Laurence Pumphrey, KCMG
(Exhnr., C, 29-34), b of JMP. Steeplechase,
Gold Medal for Gymnastics. Leaving Exhn.
New College, Lit. Hum. 1; half-blue for
cross-country running. Inns of Court Regt.
39, Northumberland Hussars 40; Greece 41
(Greek MC); POW 41; Germany until 45,
for the last two years in Colditz. HM
Diplomatic Service 45; Private Sec. to PM
47-50; Counsellor as head of Establishment
and Organisation 55. In 56 he was told by
someone who worked in the Conservative
Central Office that the latest change in
bank interest was already widely known
there before it was announced. He
concluded that this was proof of
government malpractice and reported the
matter to the Labour Opposition; a tribunal
concluded that the allegation was
unfounded, but there were no
recriminations and he ‘went quietly on in
his department.’ Counsellor to the
Commnr.-Gen.’s office in Singapore 60;
No. 2 in Belgrade 63; Dep. High Commnr.
Kenya 65; High Commnr. Lusaka 67;
Ambassador to Pakistan 71-6. Retd. 76.
‘Always honest and direct with little taste
for ‘flannel’, a hard worker who sought to
master his job and its problems, a
pragmatist and a sceptical realist.’ He kept
up his intellectual interests to the end: on
the night before he died, he was found
reading War and Peace in Russian and, on
the morning of his death, reading the New
Testament in the original Greek. Died 23
December 09, survived by his wife, four
sons and daughter. See Times.
Laurence John Vigor (Coll, 30-35). Sch.
New College. RA 39; India and Burma
41-4; Aachen 45, wounded. OU Dipl.
21
Educ. 47. Asst. Master Stockport School
47; King’s Sch., Peterborough 50-5; sen.
Classics master King’s Sch., Macclesfield
55, and Beechen Cliff Comp. Sch., Bath
71-7. Died 22 September 09, survived by
his second wife, Helen, son and two
daughters. Obit.
Gp. Capt. Hugh Anthony Shipley Disney,
OBE (H, 31-36), f of PWWD. Soccer XI
34-6 (Capt.), VI 33-5 (Capt. twice), Bisley.
Exhnr. BNC. Oxf. OU Soccer XI 36-8,
OU Air Sqdn. RAF: 608 Sqdn. 40; S/Ldr
48 Sqdn, Gibraltar 44; LO with US Navy,
Casablanca 43; W/Crd (establishments)
HQ Coastal Command 44; despatches;
Dep. Chmn. Asian Estabs. Cttee., Ceylon
and Singapore 45-6; Estabs. Advisor to
Govt. of India 46; DD Joint AntiSubmarine School 47; CO 201 Sqdn. 50;
Air Plans, HQ Coastal Command 50 Asst.
Sec. to Chiefs of Staff Cttee. (Army, Navy
and Air Force); Task Force Cdr. Nuclear
Tests Australia 57; CO RAF Kaitak, Hong
Kong 58; CO RAF Kuala Lumpur 59; Sen.
RAF Instr. Joint Services Staff Coll. 60-3;
retd. Man. Dir of QB Ltd 63-73 and
Hazells Ltd., 73-6 (both in the printing
business). In retirement he worked in
printing and publishing and tracing his
family history. Died 2 November 09,
survived by a son and three daughters from
the first of his two marriages.
Douglas Charles Earle Lyne (A, 34-39).
Trin. Coll., Oxf. RA 41; 8th Army, N.
Africa and Italy 42-5; Intell. Corps, Italy
and Austria 45-6. Script-writer for films
47-52; reader MGM 52-7; press and p.r.
officer Engineering in Britain Info.
Services, British Printing Machinery
Assoc., National Careers Exhn, etc.
Archivist, Father Ignatius Memorial
Trust, from 1968. Died 22 January 2010,
survived by his two daughters.
Richard Borlase Adams, CBE (F, 35-39),
3rd generation Wykehamist, b of HWA
and WMA, f of JRA. Soccer XI 38. Trin.
Coll., Oxf. Essex Regt. 40; RB 41; N.
Africa and Italy 42-4; Maj.; Austria and
MEF 45-6; despatches; wounded three
times. Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co.,
Calcutta and New Delhi 47, Hong Kong
57; Bombay and Calcutta 60. Chmn. Islay
& Co., Singapore 63; Br. India SN Co.
London, dir. 66, man. dir. 68, chmn. 70;
P&O SN Co., dir 69, man. dir. 79-84;
Middle East Navigation Aids Service, dir.
70-83. Clerical Medical, dir. 75-88. Died
8 November 2009, survived by his wife,
two sons and daughter.
William Mercer Adams (F, 37-41), 3rd
generation Wykehamist, b of HWA and
RBA. Trin. Coll., Oxf. RB 42; N. Africa,
Egypt, Italy and Austria 43-5; MEF 45-6,
Capt. Stockbroker, Vivian Gray & Co.,
London 47-9; Francis Drummond & Co.,
Nairobi 49-63; Philip Hill, Higginson,
Erlangers 63; Hill Samuel 65; Laing &
Cruickshank, London 67 and Eastbourne
80; retd. 88. Died 2 March 2010, survived
by his wife and daughter, predeceased by
his son.
Henry Graham Mackrill (I, 38-43) b of
IRM and DM. RNVR 43; Sub –Lt. MGB;
S. India and Ceylon 46. Trin. Coll., Camb.
47. Family business (oil-processing), Hull
49; the company changed to plastic
industry in 65 and was sold in 74. Farming
and managing Elmswell 66. JP 72. Yorks.
and Lancs. Agric. Lands Tribunal 78. Died
25 March 2010, survived by his wife and
two daughters.
John Francis Ashweek Archer (C, 38-43),
b of PGAA. RA 43; India 45. New College
47. Barr. (Inner T) 50, Bencher 85;
Recorder of Crown Court 74; QC 75;
member of Criminal Injuries
Compensation Board 87. A keen bridge
player. Died 2 November 09.
John Charles Inglis (A, 38-43), b of CRCI.
RAC 43; 2 Lt. Gren. Gds. 44; BLA and
Palestine 45; transf. to 15th/19th KR
Hussars 45; Cricket and Tennis; Capt. 51;
Maj. 58; Staff Coll. Course 59; Lt.-Col. 67;
CO 15/19 KRH 68-70; retd. 72. Field Sec.
The Salmon and Trout Assoc. 72-86 and
ran fishing tours to Kashmir, Labrador and
the Falkland Islands. Died 11 December 09,
survived by Rosaleen (his wife for 50 years)
and two sons. Obit.
Robin Andrew Stormonth Darling (C,
40-44) b of PMSD, half-b of ASD. Sen.
Co. Prae, Steeplechase (jun 42, sen 44), 1
mile 44. RNVR 45; RAC OCTU 46
(Belt of Honour); Scotland 48, reg.
comm.; ADC to GOC-in-C Scottish
Command 50; Capt.-Instr. Mons OCTU
52. Laing & Cruickshank 54, member
Stock Exchange 55, partner 56, chmn.
80-7; member of Stock Exchange Council
78-86, Chmn. SE Quotations Comm. 815, and of Disciplinary Appeal 85-90; dep.
Chmn. Panel on Take Overs and Mergers
85-7; member of Securities Investments
Board 85-7, CBI working party on
City/Industry Co-operation 87. Member
of the Bd. of Brit. Motor Corporation 6076. After retirement from full-time
activities in the City he served on the Bds
of several investment and other financial
companies and was also Honorary Consul
for Mexico in Scotland for 15 years. He
was a first-class shot, an enthusiastic skier
and pilot, regularly completed The Times
crossword ‘and was a quick performer in
any mental arithmetic or word game’.
Died 17 October 09, survived by his third
wife, Carola, whom he had married in 81,
by a daughter and three sons of his first
marriage and by two stepsons. See Times
and Daily Telegraph.
John Hedley Leathart (F, 40-44). RAC 45;
15th/19th KR Hussars 46-8. Magd. Coll.,
Camb. 49, Rural Estate Management. Asst.
agent Lord Iveagh’s Burhill Estate 52; asst.
WH Cooke & Arkwright, Hereford 53-5,
Mold 55-60; asst., then partner, Osborne
King & Megran, Belfast 60-88; retd.
FRICS, FLAS. Died 12 August 09, survived
by his wife, two daughters and son.
Alexander Strachan (Tim) Watt (B, 4045), f of JNW and APW. RNVR 45;
Sub-Lt. 47-8. Pemb. Coll., Camb. Instr. Lt.
RN 51; Cdr. 66; retd. 82. Died 20 March
2010, survived by his wife and three sons.
John Parry Challinor Evershed (D, 41-45),
f of AJPE. Welsh Gds.: 2 Lt. Queen’s Royal
Regt. 46. Balliol 48; asst. master Copthorne
Sch. 50; Sandroyd School. Farming from
63. Died 11 June 07, survived by his wife,
three daughters and son.
Derek Nigel Parham (Coll, 41-5); Fencing
22
Team, Kirby Foils 44. Exhnr. New College;
OU Fencing 45-9 (Capt. 48): Executive in
chemical industry; retd. 88. Died in 2008.
Richard Gordon Scriven (I, 42-46), b of
JRDS. VIIII 46, XV 45. Scots Gds. 46-9.
Freeman of City of London 49; Past Master,
Salters and Leathersellers Companies; Gen.
Commnr. of Income Tax; member, London
Court of Arbitration and Instit. of Export.
JP 64. Scriven Bros., Ltd.; ED Sassoon
Banking Co., Ltd. 67-72; Morgan Grenfell
& Co., Ltd (retd. 84); consultant on Local
Authority Finance for Phillips & Drew
until 87. Governor of various hospitals and
schools. Died 1 December 09, survived by
his wife, two daughters and son.
Warine Miles Martindale (B, 42-45).
London Univ. Schoolmaster and private
tutor 49-52; Inspector, EMI Electronics 568; LCC school (Christopher Wren) 57;
head of Physics, Endsleigh Sch., Colchester
58-9. Founded Highlands Sch., Needham
Market 61; the sch. closed in 83. Part-time
lect. Ipswich Civil Coll., 69. Dist.
Councillor till 86. Organist, various Suffolk
parish churches, and author of articles in
School Science Review, he was keen on
astronomy and a talented painter in oils,
mostly of the countryside. Died 4
September 09, survived by his wife.
Adrian John Quentin Frith (D, 42-46).
RASC 47; R. Corps of Mil. Police 48.
Queen’s Coll., Camb. 49. Commercial
asst. Bombay Burma Trading Corp.,
Singapore, 52-4; teaching in Sec. Mod
and Grammar Schools, ending as Sen.
History master. Craigmyle & Co.,
Harpenden 85-7. Appeal Dir. Edinburgh
Univ. 87; retd 88. Died 5 November 09
predeceased by his wife, survived by his
daughter.
Arthur James Keble-White (F, 43-48).
RC of Sigs. 49; MELF. Trin. Coll., Camb.,
Mech. Sci. C. Eng., FI Mech. E: FCIBSE.
Man. Dir. Carrier Engineering Co., Ltd.,
57-75; consulting engineering 75; Assoc.
Partner Pell Frishmann & Partners 75-81;
dir Ove Arup & Partners 81-93. Died 11
January 2010, survived by his wife and
three daughters.
Arthur Christopher Llewelyn Smith (Coll,
43-48), f of MWS, JRCS and NPHS.
Leaving Exhn; Ed. Wyk. Solicitor since 56;
Partner Freshfields 60-88; dir Imperial
Continental Gas Assoc. 72-87, Contibel
Holdings plc 86-8, JR & A Smith 83-7,
Tennants Consolidated and Susse Fonduer
SA 88. He ran the Paris office of Freshfields
before his retirement, which he spent in
travelling, reading and enjoying the food
and wine of the Loire Valley. Died 12
March 2010, survived by his wife, daughter
and three sons.
Dr. James Roderick (Roddy) Campbell
Morton (F, 58-63), b. of DAJM, AMM and
MGEM. VI 62, 63 (Capt.), Soccer XI 62,
63 (Capt.), Running 63 (Capt.). Pemb.
Coll., Camb; St Thomas’s Hpl., MB,
B.Chir., D. Obst. RCOG, Soccer XI
(Capt.). Partner, Friarsgate, Winchester,
75-07. As one of the school doctors, he will
be remembered by many OWs. On 16
December 09, he was out shooting, which
was one his favourite sports, when he had a
stroke and died in the evening. Survived by
his wife, three daughters and son.
Christopher Lubock Verity (I, 46-51), b of
HGV and TMV, f of JWGV. ½ Running
Blue. Suffolk Regt. 54-6. Co. Sec. Malaya
56-66; tobacco co. executive 66-80; mktg.
dir. Spinneys Ltd. 80-7; Lloyd’s Syndicate
Exec. 87-9; Officers’ Assoc. 89-98. Died 28
March 2010, survived by his wife and two
sons. Obit.
Rev. Mark Hewett Ashton (C, 61-66).
Sen. Co. Prae, VIII 66, Boxing Colours,
XV. Sch. Ch. Ch., Oxf., 67-70; Trin. Coll.,
Camb. Theology, and training for
ordination at Ridley Hall, 70-2; rowed in
Camb. Goldie crew 71. C. Christ Church,
Beckenham 73-7; Chaplain, Win. Coll. 7781; Nat. Sec. Church Youth Fellowships
Assoc; V. The Round Church, Cambridge
(now the Round Church at St. Andrew the
Great) from 1987 until his death of cancer
on 3 April 2010; he is survived by his wife,
two sons and daughter. See Times.
Sir John Napoleon Ruthven Barran (K,
47-52), 3rd generation Wykehamist. 5th
R. Inniskilling Dragoon Gds. 52-4,
Fencing. Advertising, UK and US 64;
FCO, 1st Sec. Information, Brit. High
Commn, Ottawa, to 67; Central Office of
Info., Head of Overseas TV and Film
Unit, Documentary film Unit, Head of
Home TV Production. Head of
Information Technology; retd. 88. Died
25 March 2010, survived by his wife, son
and daughter.
Roland Nicholas Younger (I, 48-53), b of
GWY and SGY. Magd. Coll., Camb.
Metallurgist; research office BWRA;
Davy Ashmore; Rio Tinto Zinc Corp.
Technical dir, Davy McKee; ch. engineer;
Fellow, Institution of Metallurgists. Retd.
98, then took a Music degree at Leeds
University. Died 7 April 2010, survived
by his wife and three sons.
David Merlin Bennetts (Exhnr, D, 5762). Capt. of Fencing 62. New College.
Peat Marwick McClintock from 67. ACA
71; FCA 79. Partner Middle Eastern firm
75-8; partner Continental European firm
78-85; partner UK firm 88. Died of cancer
14 November 09, survived by his son and
daughter.
Nicholas Frederick Darms (F, 66-70).
York University, Economics & Statistics.
From 75 his career was in the MOD; in
York; with the RAPC in Worthy Down;
in Cyprus for a year; from 81 in England,
working on Costing and Management
Accountancy, Policy, Human Resources
and Business Improvements, one of the
team leaders looking after the MOD’s
Enterprise Architecture. Died 3 January
2010 after suffering a heart attack while in
the gym. He is survived by his wife and
daughter.
Richard Eustace Murray Affleck (D, 7074). The first to be awarded Colours for
fishing, which, with shooting, remained a
lifelong passion. Pembroke Coll., Camb.,
Land Economy. He worked as a land
agent, and with John D Wood, set up
Egerton in London in 86, and ran it with
Peter Egerton-Warburton from 91. He
then owned and very successfully ran The
Boot, a pub in Houghton near
Stockbridge. Died unexpectedly on 5
April 2010, survived by his ex-wife.
23
Marcus Chung Ching Lim (A, 86-90). As
a member of Furley’s he is remembered as
bright and accomplished, and with a wide
range of interests. He went up to
Cambridge, graduated and gained blues
for tennis and polo, and became an
ophthalmologist. Many polo players later
took to wearing goggles after he had
warned them of the risk of eye infections
from the mud churned up by the horses’
hooves. He was an experienced diver and
keen underwater photographer, but on 25
October 09 was in a diving accident at
the dive location Seven Skies, near Pulau
Aur, Malaysia, when he was using rebreather equipment, became unconscious
and soon died. He is survived by his wife
and two young sons.
We have been told of the following
deaths and, if we have further
information, will include it in the next
issue.
C W Wordsworth (C, 43-47) on 10
December 2009
J F Marshall (H, 29-33) on 16 January 2010
M J McCleary (C, 48-52) on 28 January
2010
R Wootten (D, 1945-49) on 4 May 2010
E J Baden (K, 41-46) on 13 May 2010
Sincere apologies are extended for having
omitted Charles Blackham’s second name
in his Obit. Charles’ good friend, Henry
Mason (also Coll, 00-07), tells us that his
full name is: Charles Michael Arthur
Herbert Blackham. He was a jealous
guardian of all of these names, and it
greatly irritated him when — as happened
frequently — the ‘M.’ was omitted from
his initials on school lists (mostly, in his
case, prizes and commenda- s on the HM’s
No.Bo.). Despite Charles’ best efforts to
have his initials changed on the master
database, the ‘M.’ seemed always to drop
out, as it has in his obituary notice (T.S.
no. 108, p.22).
■
Winchester College Society
Office
17 College Street
Winchester
SO23 9LX
Telephone: 01962 621217
Facsimile: 01962 621218
E-mail:
[email protected]
Web site: www.winchestercollege.co.uk
Directors: David Fellowes (I, 63-67)
Lorna Stoddart
Deputy
Director: Tamara Templer
The Council
William Eccles (H, 73-77) - Chairman
Rod Parker (A, 61-65)
David Fellowes (I, 63-67) - Director
Andrew Joy (C, 70-74)
Richard Morse (K, 72-76)
Toby Stubbs (E, 72-77)
Rupert Younger (F, 79-84)
Alasdair Maclay (Coll, 86-91)
Andrew Wilson (A, 88-90)
Michael Humbert (B, 90-95)
Mark Toone (E, 90-95)
Ed Mathews (K, 91-96)
Peter Joost (past parent)
Dr R D Townsend - Headmaster
Lorna Stoddart – Director of Development
TEN SEN MEN
A G C F Campbell Murdoch (C, 24-29)
D J J Evans (F, 25-29)
M C Burn MC (F, 26-31)
M R Evans DFC (H, 27-30)
Dr J Gask (K, 28-33)
The Reverend F D G Campbell (K, 28-33)
J S T Gibson (Coll, 29-34)
Lt. Col. The Lord [GNC] Wigram MC
(H, 28-34)
P W Ward-Jackson (G, 29-33)
Dr J F Monk (A, 29-34)
From the Director
More about ‘Class of …’
Reunions
I am delighted to report that it has been a
case of ‘so far, so good’ (or even ‘so very
good’), according to the touchingly
appreciative feedback from those who
have attended the three ‘x Years-on’
gatherings that have been held in 2010 to
date. As can be seen from the reports
which follow, the two events in
Winchester (20 and 40 Years-on) were
poorly attended by most standards, but
the enlightened few who did attend have
invariably urged me to persist, as they
enjoyed themselves enormously, whilst
those at the much better attended
London event (a lunch for the 50 Yearson) are keen for a repeat performance in
five years time, with some hoping for it to
be held in Winchester – I have promised
nothing yet, but am happy to listen!
A 30 Years-on Dinner has now been
arranged in London on 6th October 2010,
as was implied in the last issue, but
encouraged by the above feedback, and
even by some senior OWs protesting ‘and
what about us?’, I have booked The
Cavalry and Guards Club for lunches for
the 60 Years-on group on Thursday, 14th
October, and for the 65 + Years-on group
on Wednesday, 8th September 2010.
In 2011, I plan to switch things around, at
least to a degree, partly as an experiment
and partly in the spirit of compromise, by
holding the 30 and 50 Years-on reunions
in Winchester in Common Time (to
coincide with XVs and VIs) and the 20
and 40 Years-on reunions in London in
the autumn. This programme is still very
much in its infancy, but I am convinced
that it is worth persisting with – please
bear with me whilst I test these
permutations on your behalf.
24
And one more thing: I know that some of
you have struggled with the concept of the
‘Class of …’ (for reasons which defeat
me!). Suffice it to say that we shall
continue to invite only the year-group that
fits the existing format, but if you should
feel that you would rather be associated
with a ‘year-group’ on one side or other
from your own, you are always more than
welcome to ask for an invitation to be
included therein!
OW News, this publication and
the website
I would really appreciate as many
volunteers as it takes to be my ‘eyes & ears’
out there in whatever sphere of existence,
as our ‘OW News’ section is, almost
inevitably, only as good as what you tell us
about yourselves or, indeed, about each
other. If I could know I had, for example, a
‘City Editor’ and an ‘Industrial Editor’ etc,
or even just a ‘Business Editor’, I would
feel a lot happier that we stood a better
chance of capturing more of your news.
The same applies to any of your
achievements, however whacky they may
be – we can but ‘store them safely’, if any
should be ‘unsuitable’! Put modesty aside
for once and share them with this
10 Years-on Reunion for the
‘Class of 2000’
I still live in hope that a ring-leader from
among the 2000 Leavers will step
forward to organise a reunion in London
for his contemporaries. He will be
stepping into the illustrious shoes of past
organisers, all of whom have reported
really successful evenings. Even some
funding/sponsorship may be on offer!
Please contact me ([email protected])
to ensure that this enjoyable notion does
not wither on the vine in what should
be its fourth year!
readership. Likewise, may I encourage
you to take a look at the School’s website
(www.winchestercollege.org) and,
indeed, our own (www.wyksoc.com); log
in and help to kick-start a thriving
discussion forum.
Generations of Wykehamists
Judging from the enjoyment derived by all
those involved in the ‘Wigram visit’ on
28th January this year, more of you should
step forward! Allow me to explain: I had
the undoubted pleasure of organising a visit
to Win Coll for [Lord] Neville Wigram (H,
28-34), his son, Andrew (H, 62-67) and his
grandson, William (H, 97-02). This started
in Outer Court with a visit to the Archives,
where certain Wigram ‘memorabilia’ were
displayed; it was followed by a walk through
War Cloister on our way to lunch with the
Headmaster and Mrs Townsend in their
house opposite South Africa Gate and
ended in Trant’s, where the Housemaster
had kindly commandeered the services of a
fourth-year man to show us round the
House. Nostalgia was much in evidence,
which seemed also to affect our noble
young guide, who noticeably warmed to his
ordeal the more he observed the common
bond of reliving an experience that his
party had shared not only with each other,
but also himself! Please don’t hesitate to get
in touch with me should you wish to enjoy
something similar; Win Coll would
certainly enjoy making a fuss of you!
hesitate to let me know. (Now, I still
haven’t mentioned any of the School’s
financial needs, have I?)
Some events – from late October
2009 to mid-May 2010
OW Bath Dinner – on Friday, 30th
October 2009, at Bath Spa Hotel. As
ever, a very convivial occasion, with 30 in
attendance to hear the Warden, Sir David
Clementi (E, 61-66) as Guest Speaker.
All those present were encouraged to
bring an OW guest next year in order to
ensure that this very special annual
dinner should continue its almost
unbroken run from 1804 for the benefit of
future generations.
You need not live in the area to attend
this dinner; should you be interested,
please apply to the dinner’s Hon Sec,
Jonathan Wyld – [email protected].
William Stanley Goddard Lunch – on
Friday, 6th November 2009 in School. A
record number attended the annual lunch
for members of the Legacy Society and
their guests.
OW Reception – as ever, a popular event,
held on Wednesday, 18th November in
the Old Hall, Lincoln’s Inn, attended by
approximately 190, representing all
generations of OWs. Dennis Armstrong
(H, 36-41), Sen Man, was among the
audience who enjoyed a brief update on
the School’s ‘current affairs’ from the
Warden and the Headmaster.
20 Years-on Reunion Dinner (‘Class of
1990’) – 16 OWs returned to Win Coll
on Saturday, 6th February 2010, some
arriving in time to witness a particularly
close XVs on Meads, Houses beating
Commoners with the last kick of the
match. After a welcome cup of tea in
Dons Common Room, Peter Cramer
(former Housemaster of Toye’s and
current History don) ‘took Div’, leading a
discussion on Leonardo’s drawings, which,
much to their surprise, was hugely
enjoyed by all! Drinks in School were
followed by a peaceful 15-minute
Compline in Chantry, before returning to
School for Dinner. Rob Wyke (Second
Master and formerly Housemaster of
Hopper’s) spoke about the School, with
Sen Man, André Sokol (D, 85-90),
responding. Other guests at the Dinner
were John Brooks and Peter Cramer, both
current members of Common Room.
Under 25s Reception & Buffet Supper –
on Friday, 12th February 2010, at The
Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s
Inn Fields. Ian Fraser, Head of Biology,
entertained nearly 50 young OWs as
Guest Speaker, his general theme being to
explore ‘Why are the best lessons in life
rarely experienced in the classroom?’ The
Sen Man was Freddie Martelli (G, 98-03).
Legacies
It has not been my practice to use these
pages over the past six years to foist upon
you the financial needs of the School, nor
indeed do I intend to start now.
However, having practised as a ‘private
client’ accountant for many a year, I find
that old habits die hard when given a
suitable platform; hence my inability to
resist the temptation of simply drawing
your attention to the obvious Inheritance
Tax advantages of including a charitable
legacy in your Will or Codicil!
Seriously, if any reader might consider
leaving a legacy to Win Coll, please don’t
The Headmaster addresses the OW Reception in November
25
Bristol Undergraduates – your Director
hugely enjoyed his fifth ‘Pizza Reunion’ in
Bristol. Paddy Halling (E, 01-06) easily
persuaded 23 of his fellow OWs to join
him in Brown’s for a couple of hours on
Tuesday, 2nd March 2010.
1970’) – 21 OWs returned to Win Coll
on Saturday, 13th March 2010, for very
much the same fare as for the younger
‘Class of 1990’, as described above,
including Peter Cramer’s Div, this time on
Baudelaire’s essay on ‘The Painter of
Modern Life’. There was also another
excellent game on Meads, this time of VIs,
between Houses and Commoners (the
writer is persuaded to suggest that those
interested in the result should refer below
to avoid further uncalled-for
triumphalism). Michael St John Parker, a
current Fellow and former member of
Common Room, and Sen Man Tim Eggar
(K, 65-69) were the two principal speakers
at the dinner in School. Other guests
included former members of Common
Room: Michael Baron, Geoff Hewitson,
Henry Thompson and David Smith.
50 Years-on Reunion Lunch (‘Class of
1960’) – an excellent turnout of 45 OWs,
including 43 (40%) of those eligible,
attended a memorable lunch in The
Cavalry and Guards Club on Thursday,
18th March 2010. Geoffrey Sladen (H)
had travelled from Miami to be with his
contemporaries, whilst Nick Majendie (I)
had travelled from the far side of Canada;
Nick was particularly pleased to meet up
with his fellow-Hopperite, Tommy
Cookson, who was equally relieved to be
attending as a member of his own ‘Class
of’, rather than in any other capacity!
Mark Loveday (H, 57-62 and a current
Fellow) addressed his seniors on matters
relating to the modern-day Winchester,
with Charles Dinwiddy (C and former
Sen Co Prae) responding as eloquently as
has come to be expected of him!
The Northern Dinner – Robin Brims (K,
65-69) was the Guest Speaker at the
Northern Counties Club in Newcastle on
Thursday, 22nd April 2010. 30 attended
the dinner, principally made up of OWs
and their wives, with guests including
Geoff Hewitson and Henry Thompson.
John Johnson (C, 41-46) was Sen Man.
OW Sporting Societies Reception –
there was a wonderful response from the
OW sporting fraternity, with over 150
attending the Reception in the Old
Hall, Lincoln’s Inn on Thursday, 13th
May 2010, ‘in Celebration of OW
Sport’, covering the past couple of
centuries. A ‘Hall of Fame’ power-point
presentation was displayed on a large
screen throughout the evening, whilst
the speeches recalled many fine, mixed
with some quirky, sporting
achievements, performed principally by
those in the audience!
Edinburgh Undergraduates – the
Director continued north to the Scottish
capital and hosted an entertaining group
of Wykehamist students to supper at
Amore Dogs in Hanover Street on
Monday, 26th April 2010. He was most
grateful to Freddie Blackett (E, 01-06) for
having persuaded his fellow OWs to tear
themselves away from their revisionstudies for just a couple of hours to
partake in what transpired to be a lively
and wide-ranging ‘discussion forum’!
N.B. DWLF reminds OWs at other
universities that he is invariably up for the
challenge of hosting similar gatherings, subject
only to a respectable quorum being raised.
Max Woosnam (F,1906-11)
The late Max Woosnam (F, 1906-11)
was pronounced Win Coll’s Victor
Ludorum. In spite of there being many
other worthy contenders to draw from
over the past couple of centuries, there
can surely be little argument when the
following has been written about you,
even some 27 years after your death: ‘he
was, quite simply, the most extraordinary
sportsman this nation has ever known’
[Patrick Collins in The Mail in 1992].
In response to several requests, both the
presentation and the speeches can be
50 Years-on Reunion Lunch
26
found on the ‘Past Events’ page of the
website: www.wyk.soc.com. For those
who were not there, the Director repeats
that a sympathetic line be taken with
regard to ‘E&OE’!
Philip Whitcombe (B, 36-41) and Rob
Tillard (D, 37-42), both of them no
mean sportsman themselves, were the
two Sen Men.
The undoubted highlight of the evening
was the Warden’s recognition of Stuart
Churchill’s 40 years ‘not out’ on the
ground-staff, the last 28 of them as Head
Groundsman. The thundering applause
for Stuart’s outstanding contribution to
life at Win Coll reflected the audience’s
huge appreciation of the exceptionally
high standard of the all grounds and
gardens. Stuart’s wife, Susan, and son,
John, were also there to witness the
occasion, on which they will, no doubt,
report to his daughter, Ruth, who was
unable to attend. In addition to
honorary life membership of the OW
Cricket and Football Clubs being
bestowed on Stuart, the existence of a
well-earned collection was made known
to him, for which it would be a gross
understatement to say that he was ‘most
grateful’!
Win Coll Football – Results in
2010 :
Singles (The Foster Cup):
XVs – Houses beat Commoners: 44 - 41
Xs – Commoners beat College: 54-42
Xs – Houses beat College: 60-36
V1s – Houses beat Commoners: 47 - 39
V1s – Commoners beat College: 51 - 32
V1s – Houses beat College: 53-34
1952: MD Scott (A)
Rackets News
1944: HE Webb (G) & GHJ Myrtle (D)
1945: HE Webb (G) & GHJ Myrtle (D)
1949: PM Welsh (G) & MR Coulman (D)
1950: MR Coulman (D) & AD Myrtle (D)
1951: MR Coulman (D) & AD Myrtle (D)
1953: RTC Whatmore (K) & DBD Lowe (A)
1972: AC Lovell (B) & PG Seabrook (E)
1992: NR Hall (B) & MN Segal (K)
2008: SM Knight (H) & CH Portz (H)
2009: SM Knight (H) & CH Portz (H)
2010: CH Portz (H) & BDH Stevens (E)
Princes (Christian Portz, H, and Ben
Stevens, E) won the Public Schools title
at Queen’s Club for third successive year,
thus entitling the School to retain the
trophy in perpetuity. Christian completed
a remarkable personal hat-trick in having
been in all three winning pairs, thus
emulating just two players: Mark Faber, of
Eton, in the mid-sixties and our own
Mike Coulman (D, 46-51). Christian also
won the prestigious Foster Cup in the
Public School Singles in December, thus
becoming the first Wykehamist to have
done so since Howard Angus (E, 57-63)
in 1962. Many congratulations to both of
these boys.
Just for the record, Winchester has won
the following titles over the past 70 years:
1951: AD Myrtle (D)
1962: HR Angus (E)
2010: CH Portz (H)
Doubles:
1943: GHG Doggart (E) & JB Thursfield (H)
The 2010 Lords Season to date
Lords have enjoyed an excellent start to
the season, with 7 wins out of 7 chalked
up, having played Portsmouth Grammar,
Charterhouse, Marlborough, Canford,
Bradfield, XL Club and Harrow.
■
Chris Mallett talking to Barry Reed and Philip Whitcombe
Richard Priestley presenting Stuart Churchill with his OWCC tie
27
Dates for your Diary in 2010 & 2011
Reception for 3rd & 4th Year Parents –
Wednesday, 2nd June 2010, in Winchester.
Charlie Van der Noot Cricket Match –
Wednesday, 9th June 2010 at 4.30pm, at
Burton’s Court, off the Kings Road, London.
Winchester Day – Saturday, 19th June
2010, in Winchester:
• 10.15am Chapel Service
• 11.30am Lords & 2nd XI v. OWCC
on New Field & Meads, respectively
• and several other School attractions
• Hunter Tent Donors Lunch on New
Field (by invitation only).
Toye’s 150th Anniversary Dinner –
Wednesday, 30th June 2010, in London.
Royal College of Surgeons in London.
1980’) – Wednesday, 6th October 2010,
at The Cavalry and Guards Club in London.
60 Years-on Reunion Lunch (‘Class of
1950’) – Thursday, 14th October 2010,
at The Cavalry and Guards Club in London.
OW Bath Dinner – Friday, 29th October
2010, at the Bath Spa Hotel (you need
not live in the area to attend this special
annual dinner, which has been running
ever since 1804; please apply to the
dinner’s Hon Sec, Jonathan Wyld –
[email protected] – should you be
interested). The Guest Speaker will be
Richard Southwell QC (D, 48-53).
William Stanley Goddard Lunch –
Friday, 12th November 2010 in School,
for members of the Legacy Society and
their guests.
OW Reception – Tuesday, 23rd November
2010, at Lincoln’s Inn in London.
Illumina- – Friday, 10th December 2010,
at 4.45pm on Meads.
1991’) – probably on Saturday, 5th
February 2011, in Winchester.
Under 25s Dinner – tba, probably in
February 2011, in London.
1971’) – probably on Saturday, 12th
March 2011, in Winchester.
Domum Dinner for 5th Year
Parents – Saturday, 3rd July
2010, in Winchester.
65 + Years-on Reunion Lunch
(‘Class of 1935’ – and earlier)
– on Wednesday, 8th September
2010, at The Cavalry and
Guards Club in London.
Wykeham Day – Saturday, 18th
September 2010, in Winchester.
Shropshire Lunch – Sunday,
26th September 2010, at
Albrighton Hall, by kind
permission of David Thompson
(F, 67-71) and his wife, Marika.
Reception for 1st & 2nd Year
Parents – Tuesday, 28th
September 2010, at Lincoln’s
Inn in London.
25s – 40s Dinner – Thursday,
30th September 2010, at The
Please read the following carefully: The Data Protection Act 1998.
All data on Old Wykehamists, parents and others is securely held in the Winchester College Society database and will be treated confidentially for the benefit of the Society, its members and
Winchester College. The data is available to the Win Coll Soc office and, upon appropriate application from its membership, to recognised societies, sports and other clubs associated with the
School. Data is used for a full range of alumni activities, including the distribution of Win Coll Soc, Wyk Soc and other School publications, notification of events and the promotion of any
benefits and services that may be available. Data may also be used in fundraising programmes, but may not be passed to external commercial or other organisations, or sold on auction sites.
28

Champion of Swedish Poetry Paul Britten Austin (G, 1935–39)

Transcription

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