NEWSLETTERJUNENo.4 – June – 2013

For the Members, Family and Friends of the

OLD WEALDEN ASSOCIATIONJoint Editors:

ALISTAIR McGECHIE (1957)PETER LUCK (1943)

YOUR NEWS: Please send to: alistair.mcgechie@btopenworld.com or

p.luck123@btinternet.com

Your News …

MANY THANKS for yetanother excellentemail edition of the

OW newsletter. I really enjoyreceiving them as they containup-to-date information, ratherthan waiting for the printednewsletter where the newscould be up to a year old!However, I still think I wouldlike to receive the printed ver-sion. As you say, it is good to sitdown and read it! In addition, itwas good to have the pictures ofthe buildings in the last oneand to be able to look at themwithout looking at a screen!

I have not been able to attendthe last few reunions, but hope

to be able to attend in thefuture.

Many thanks for all yourhard work, and for everythingthat is done by the committeemembers. It is much appreciat-ed.

Regards,Maggy (Price) Gardner (1958)

[Sent from my iPad]

—————

THANKS for the MayNewsletter and the update

on the recent OW Reunion.Sadly, I wasn’t able to attendeven though I wanted to bethere as it was the 60thanniversary of my leavingHarrow Weald in ‘53. Asexpected, I had a phone call

from Chas Reeves this morningto find out if I was O.K. andwhy I hadn’t been among therepresentatives of the ‘47intake, so I heard about theevent first hand, so to speak.

I was really sorry to hearthat David Lush had died, andalso, Pat Crisp, who was in myyear and was showing signs ofadvancing dementia the lasttime she came to a reunion. Ialso couldn’t decide whetherClive J. Biggs was the JohnnyBiggs who was in my form atHarrow Weald; the obituarynote was from his wife,Jennifer, but I always thoughthis wife’s name was Gillian,and at the last count, he livedin Hitchin.

I thought you might be

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WEBSITEThere is another website running now. The address is

www.brookshil lblog.comFor those of you who have access to a computer please have a look, it’s in the course of

being built up and there is the facility to make comments on the pieces which appear.

The alternative is at www.oldwealden.org.uk

interested in the followingcoincidental anecdote concern-ing a contemporary of mine atHarrow Weald, who has justrecently re-surfaced in my lifeas the mother of my closefriend’s newly acquired son-in-law! (Her daughter met andmarried Sheila Gilmour(Pain’s) son down in Bristol....)

I just thought it illustratedvery well what a small world welive in, and how one can neverentirely escape one’s past.

Best wishes to all,

Jan (Ryan) Woodward (1947)

–––––Again, many thanks.All good wishes,

Marion Mole

_____

Dear Alistair:

Reading about the anniver-sary of Roy Cook (who was inmy form at HWCS – Class of1936) I thought I would let youknow that my wife and I arejust celebrating our 67thanniversary.

We have been living inCanada since 1956 but I am stillin regular e-mail contact withmy schoolday sweetheart,Mollie Villar.

Anne and I were married atSt. Mary’s Church, Harrow-on-the-Hill, on June 29th, 1946. Wehave two married sons, bothlawyers, practising in Toronto.

I served in the RAF as a pilotfrom 1943 until the end of thewar, but never saw operationalservice. Until my demob in 1947I was a Physical TrainingInstructor, working with RAFApprentices at Halton.

I greatly enjoy news of the old

school, much changed though itis in its purpose, and send youmy good wishes.

Sincerely

Peter Brannan (1936)

peterajb@sympatico.ca

—————

Hi Peter

Many thanks for May’s emailnewsletter. This is an excellentidea – although my poor oldcomputer groans a little underthe weight! I read it and thendelete it immediately! Arethese monthly or two monthlyor quarterly?

It seems the reunion was asuccess again and everyoneenjoyed their cake and bubbly –a jolly good idea and not toomuch organization involved.

The sun is out with avengeance here today – veryhot.

Keep well.

Cheers,

Thelma (Gyoury) Wood (1943)

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Roy Cook (1936) writes …

Thanks Peter, enjoy reading itbut your suspicions are right,nothing like the real thing andwhen it has been read it sits onthe coffee table for odd refer-ences until the next one.

Best wishes from us both –

Roy and Evelyn

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Pat (Pamplin) Mitchell (1943)writes …

Immediately after the reunionwe went off to Cumbria..and Ifeel very remiss that I didn’t

send my congratulations andthanks for all the hard workthe committee had put intomaking the 80th anniversary sospecial to all of us lucky enoughto attend

Many many thanks !

I think that you knew I wasconcerned that I might notknow anyone …but there weresome friends … and even folk Ididn’t know were extremelyfriendly and I thought therewas a super atmosphere there… again no doubt due to thegood organisation.

Our old neighbours were withBill Broadhurst as originalscholars … and so Bill and I hada good chat.

It was interesting as heremembered my father well asthey had both been on the com-mittee that decided to have theBarlow Butlin Memorial win-dow installed. What a pity it isnow cracked

Instead of feeling my age itreally made me feel younger tobe talking to someone about myfather ! !

Needless to say it was alsogood to chat to your sisterRosemary …

Again my thanks and bestwishes.

Pat Mitchell

–––––

Some more pictures from the Reunion from our TreasurerKeith Mayes’ camera …

John Baker tickles theivories as usual, keeping usin tune, and in time, for theritual singing of the hymnand School song.

Foundation pupils BillBroadhurst and Wallace

Mackenzie take the first sliceinto the specially prepared

Anniversary Cake.

AUDREY JOAN(ROBERTS) CONWAY(1941) writes fromWebster, N.Y. USA …

A brief view ofHWCS 1941-42

As pupils it would change ourworld view.

ON THE FIRST DAY we walkedup the hill silently, not

knowing what to expect. Inplace of the splendid uniformsof the 1930s we wore a varietyof wartime clothing. Mine wasa very short dress printed withtanks and guns which I keptpulling down – how embarrass-ing.

On entering the classroomwe found our places alphabeti-cally and sat down – againsilently.

The following are someexplicit instructions in our cur-riculum which our teacherswere too courteous to expressverbally.

1 – English: Perfect yourgrammar. By the third form we

shall expect you to know it.Better treats are in store. Weshall not be teaching you to typeor write a resumé. What we offerhere lambkins, is education, nottraining.

2 – English Literature: We shallstart with Henry IV parts one andtwo. Here we have the greatestdramatist in the English language.You may not understand it allnow but you will. Understandinghuman nature is a biggie Ipromise you.

3 – Geography: Look at thislarge map on the wall. Memoriseall the names and places, espe-cially the pink ones. These maychange, you never know.Topography, natural resources,imports and exports are importanttoo.

4 – History: You will not have tomemorise the names of kings andqueens, you can learn these inyour leisure reading. Here westart with the Magna Carta 1215and the parliamentary machina-tions which follow. Democracy isin there somewhere.

5 – Science: This is a lab.Those metal and glass thingswhich you see are not orna-ments or toys. Mr Bergin willhope to teach you how thephysical world works. Theatom? Yes, it will be split. Justyou wait and see.

6 – Math: Make sure you knowyour fractions and percentagesnow. The third form onwardwill bring geometry and algebraand, heaven forbid – calculus.

7 – Religious Instruction: Thisis a bible. We may have a statereligion, the Church ofEngland, but by golly there isno proselytizing here. The oldand new testaments are right upthere with Shakespeare. Thebible is also history, culture andliterature.

8 – French, German, Latin:But the English only ever reallylearn their own language,more’s the pity. Arabic anyone?

By the third form we have lostour timidity. We may not realiseit but the world and all thingson it is our stage.

7 67 8 5

5 9 75 6 1

4 2 6 98 5 7

5 9 34 5 1

9 2

SUDOKUIf you’ve got a spare moment try this Sudoku.It’s standard 9 x 9: you need to fill the gridhorizontally, vertically and each 3 x 3 boxwith the numbers 1 to 9.Degree of difficulty – 70%

Miss Hirst’s 4A

Barbara (Penny) Summerfield writes … “Please send my good wishes to everybody and I do havethis wonderful photo of our class with Miss Hirst.

Front row , l to r: June Stanbridge, Joy Swallow,, Joyce Clothier, Enid Edwards, Miss Hirst, MaureenDavies.

Second row (l to r:) Elizabeth (Martin) Balet (now deceased), Marigold Ruffle (now deceased), Jean(Upton) Barlow, Me, Barbara (Penny) Summerfield, Pat (Norton) Jones, Celia Daly (lives in CapeTown), next we think her surname was Morgan, next we can’t remember, and last Dorothy Wright. [notall married names available].

Back row, l to r: Peter Cook, John Tysoe, Keith Charlton, Don Welham, Albert Kempster, Tony Colwell,Me (PL), Ken Freeman, Derek Mills, John Simpson and Ted Davies.

We would be grateful if members reading this would confirm whether, between us, we have got thenames right, and if not please tell us.

43ers pictured circa ’47 as 4A

Tailpiece …

A man went into a restaurant and said to the waiter: “Do you servecrabs?”“Please sit down,” said the waiter, “we serve everybody.”

–––––The Romanians came to the Olympics last year and took home gold,silver and bronze – and all the lead they could find, as well !