OS Newsletter - June 2011 (57)

Old Suttonians Newsletter June 2011 1

A member of the UnitedWestminster Schools’ FoundationRegistered Charity No. 309267

Founded in 1576 by William Lambe

InformationFor information about Sutton Valence School, please contact:

• the Admissions Office at Sutton Valence on 01622 845206 or email [email protected]

• Sutton Valence Preparatory School on 01622 842117 or email [email protected]

OS InterviewMelissa Saggers (1999 S)Well, having been asked to sit down and remembermy life from Sutton Valence to now, I have to admitit’s quite fun remembering the journey!!

OLD SUTTONIANSNEWSLETTER

June 2011 N0. 57

In this issue:

Damian Penfold Page 4

Yuppies Reunion Page 8

OS Hockey Page 34

Reunions Page 8

OS News Page 14

Cricket News Page 32

Dates for your Diary Page 36

My interest in aircraft began at a very early age though, on joining SV in 1994 (on anart scholarship of all things!), I had just lost the good friend who had initially fired thisenthusiasm, in an aircraft crash. This meant that the first few months were certainly not

Melissa flying into Barcelona on her last flight on the Boeing 737

Continued on page 2

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Old Suttonians Newsletter

easy for me. We had moved house justafter my grandmother had also died; Itherefore had to board, so I don’t thinkmy first impressions could ever havebeen positive!! However Sutton House,and notably Dreana the Matron, mademe feel relaxed pretty quickly and I rap-idly became immersed in school life.

The CCF was an obvious activity forme – unsurprisingly in the RAF section- and I loved the gliding and flying wecould experience. I also enjoyed gettinginvolved in the musical side of SV, fillingmy non-aviation time in the choir or theorchestra and string quartet, playing theviolin - learnt with the great Mr Holmes!I chose the typical pilots A-level subjectsof Maths, English and Physics; the latterwas probably the most helpful of these,especially as I was lucky to have theyouthful exuberance of Simon Stebbingsand the ex-RAF enthusiasm of GeoffPiper. With Geoff’s support from theCCF I was also lucky enough to securean RAF Flying Scholarship, giving me20 hours of free flying courtesy of HerMajesty! I already had my PPL (PrivatePilot’s License) by then, so used thistime to gain a rating to fly in InstrumentMeteorological Conditions, the first todo so at the time. I left in 1999 feelingpretty busy as Head of Corps, Prefect,Head of Sutton House, leader of Or-chestra and Captain of 2nds hockey.

Fun as it was, it’s fair to say I was readyto leave, as I was raring to go and all Iwanted to do was fly. I was accepted byseveral universities to study Aeronauti-cal Engineering, but realised that Ididn’t want to be an aeronautical engi-neer and couldn’t afford to do a degreeas well as my flying exams. Instead, aftera gap year to consider my options, Ielected to work and save up for what Isimply seemed destined to do. This didnot impress most of my teachers, but it’sfair to say I’m pretty stubborn so Iworked for just over 4 years; this in-cluded unpaid work in a hangar workingon vintage aircraft, which I then flewaround Europe to air-shows (I am luckyenough to still do this now) plus admin-istrative duties for corporate jet compa-

nies, washing aircraft and many other re-sponsibilities.

I started my ATPL (Air Transport Pi-lots License) in spring 2003; after 14written exams, 3 flying exams, sweat,tears, every penny of my savings and aloan, I finally passed my final flyingexam - the widely feared InstrumentRating on 2nd March 2004, and soonafter started flying corporate jets for thecompanies I had been working for in mytime saving to pay for my courses. Thisincluded owners such as Norman Foster(the architect) and Grampian CountryFood!!

I really enjoyed this type of flying, butfreelance work was nerve-wracking witha loan to pay off, so I joined London Ex-ecutive Aviation a year and a half laterfor the salary!! In December 2006 I leftthis company, gained my Instructor’srating and then thought I’d see what theAirlines were like, so I joined Easyjetflying the Boeing 737. This remains myfavourite jet, although I have since beentransferred to the Airbus A319/320 asthis is their new fleet of aircraft.

I am now 30, a Senior First Officergoing through the command process

and I teachMulti-Crew Co-operation toexisting and new crew in the airline.

It has been an amazing journey that Ihave really enjoyed. The job is hardthough and certainly not as glamorousas it is perceived to be. The hours arevery long and awkward and there are noexciting night-stops! However the viewsare special, the people are varied and in-teresting and there is always so much tolearn, which suits my inquisitiveness!!We have a lot of European bases so I amconsidering a move to one of these soon,or a move back to corporate jets. Fornow though, I get to see the sun everyday at work, even though it is from in-side a loud, vibrating pressurized tube!!I still get to fly the beautiful vintage air-craft that inspired me to become in-volved in aviation in the first place, andI now own a 1932 De Havilland GipsyMoth which feeds my desire for“proper” flying!

The industry is changing rapidly and Idon’t know how I would go about start-ing on this road now, however if anyoneis interested they are very welcome toget in touch and I will give any help andadvice I can.

Continued from front page

Melissa in her Gipsy Moth (flying from the back)

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June 2011

Chris Scragg (1969 F)Brought up in thevillage I entered SVS asa member of Foundersin 1962, following timeat Underhill and DCPS(Tubby Craven was thethen Housemaster).

At school I put more energy into sportthan academic matters, scoring somesuccess at rugby and athletics. ManyMasters includingMessrs Porter, Oliver,Chance and Douglas just about ensuredI passed the requisite exams! LeavingSVS in 1969 as a School Prefect andHead of House, but with no clear careerplan, I managed to get a one year schol-arship from the ESU and went off toLouisville, Kentucky.

After a great year I returned as a bitof a hippy. My father suggested I jointhe army. Instead after a year workingon local farms, The Great Danes, andthe Marley factory at Lenham I headedfor Westminster Hotel School. Threeyears later (and with extra training fromDick, Jill and Vic in The Swan) I leftwith an honours pass and was let looseon the unsuspecting industry.

In the early years of my career Iavoided, bar one job, public companies,finding more scope for individuality inthe private sector.

In June 1982 I took the job of GeneralManager at The Hythe Imperial. Atthat time it was trading at a loss. Withina year we were in profit with much im-proved service. By the end of the 80’s,The Hythe Imperial was doing very welland I was in charge of the 2 other hotels,then owned by the Marston family.

Soon a shareholder, I started to growthe business into a real group. By or-

ganic growth, careful acquisition andcontrol we had 16 hotels by 2000. By2005 another 6 large 4 star hotels wereadded and the few 3 star hotels takenout of the portfolio. We won manyawards including the AA Hotel Groupof the Year.

Along the way half the shareholderswere bought out and as we progressedinto the first decade of the 21st CenturyI was, as Chairman and MD, very muchin control of my own destiny.

Through the boom years of 2003 –2005 we had many approaches for thecompany. By summer of 2006 it becameapparent that the bubble must burstsooner or later, so when the next venturecapitalist knocked on the door with a bigoffer we said ‘yes’. Thus in November2006 some 24 years based in Hythe cameto an end. The equity in the businesshad grown from £1m in 1982, 100 fold.

Through those 24 years life was not allwork. I got married (1983 – 2010) andhad two lovely children, tried my hand

at off road racing, off shore power boat-ing (2 National Championships) andmore latterly motor racing which I stilldo. Indeed, one of my greatest pleas-ures came when I competed with my sonAnt in the AstonMartin GT4 Challengeof Great Britain in which we won everyrace in 2010.

Having ‘retired’ in November 2006 Isoon got bored without any business in-terest so we acquired The Spa Hotel inTunbridge Wells. Now 3 years on andfully restored it is trading well and I amactively seeking other opportunities tokeep me amused between the racemeetings I compete at in historic Astonsand Jaguars.

When I reflect on how my life hasturned out, considering my lack ofcareer planning, I am pleasantly sur-prised. SVS must have done me somegood after all!

Any contemporary OS visiting Tun-bridge Wells are welcome to drop intoThe Spa and if I am there have a coffeeand a chat (or something stronger).

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Damian Penfold (1994 W)Damian's professionalcareer began in 1998with his appointment asthe first AssociateConductor of the EnglishSymphony Orchestra atthe age of only twenty-three.

A graduate of Manchester University,for two years he was conductor of theUniversity Chamber Orchestra, and wasinvited to become conductor of the Tod-morden Orchestra in Yorkshire. The dis-tinguished conductor Kenneth Alwynprovided Damian with his earliest con-ducting tuition, and following his stud-ies in Manchester, and as the recipientof the 1997 Barthel International Prizefor Excellence from the ConcordiaFoundation, Damian studied at theSaint Petersburg Conservatory with IlyaMusin and Leonid Korchmar.

His appointment as Associate Con-ductor of the English Symphony Or-chestra followed a concert performanceof the Bruch Violin Concerto withoutrehearsal. In addition to his scheduledconcerts, he also had to stand in on anumber of occasions, often at the short-est notice, for indisposed conductors.He conducted concerts in the ESO'ssubscription series, worked extensivelywith the ESO Children's and Youth Or-chestras and regularly rehearsed andconducted in concert the ESO Choir.He was conductor for the ESO Choir'shighly successful tour to Bavaria, theirfirst appearances abroad, where con-certs included the German premiere of awork by Geraint Lewis, and the first per-formances of a work written for the tourby the Spanish composer Pablo Dene.In 2002, at very short notice, Damian

was invited to work as assistant conduc-

tor at the Opera National du Rhin(Strasbourg) on a new production ofElektra and the French Premiere of ThePrince of the Pagodas. Whilst in Stras-bourg he was invited to rehearse theStrasbourg Philharmonic for a concertconducted by Rozhdestvensky. He re-turned to the Opera National du Rhinin the 2002/03 season as assistant con-ductor for a new production of Les Con-tes d'Hoffmann, and also worked withthe orchestra of the Strasbourg Conser-vatoire. He has since been invited to re-turn to the Opera National du Rhin ona number of occasions.

Damian has a great love of Englishand Russian music which led him to es-tablish an orchestra to champion unfa-miliar music from both countries. Thedebut London concert of the Ilian Or-chestra included the UK premiere ofMieczyslav Weinberg's Chamber Sym-phony No.1 along with works by Elgar,Finzi and Tchaikovsky.

In May 2001 he conducted the DanishNational Radio Symphony Orchestra asone of only two Britons selected for theNicolai Malko International Competi-tion for Young Conductors, and in Sep-tember 2001 conducted the BBCPhilharmonic in the BBC ConductorsWorkshop. In September 2002 he par-ticipated in the seventh Leeds Conduct-ing Competition, and later conductedthe Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Or-chestra as a shortlisted candidate for As-sistant Conductor. Selected by EsaPekka Salonen, Damian took part in thethird Sibelius International ConductingCompetition in Helsinki in September2005, and was particularly praised in theHelsingin Sanomat for his work onBeethoven Symphony No.1.

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June 2011

4 generations of Old SuttoniansBarr Family Tree

Andrew Barr (1964 W) – Memories of Sutton Valence

James Barr (1928)(deceased)

Robert Barr (1934)(deceased)

Hugh Barr (1929)(deceased)

Andrew Barr (1923)(deceased)

Andrew Barr(1964 W)

Alan Barr(1993 W)

Oliver Barr(at SVPS)

Ella Barr

Andy D Barr(1988 W)

Ewen Barr(at SVPS)

Katy Barr(at SVPS)

James Barr(1990 W)

Siena Barr Jared Barr Benjamin Barr

My father, Andrew Barr and hisbrothers James (Pip), Hugh and Robertall attended SVS in 1920/30’s. Andrew,James and Robert all became farmers inKent, while Hugh (evidently verybrainy) travelled the world in the oilbusiness.

I entered Bennett House in 1957 aged11. Situated between the King’s Headand the Queen’s Head it was sometimesquite noisy at leaving time! Our great ri-vals were Holdgate House, who weplayed at table tennis, home and away.Mr Richard Horn and then GrahamFoulkes were my housemasters. Theywould read to us at `lights out’.

Then I went to Westminster (becauseall previous Barrs had been there). Inform II (there was no form I) I wastaught by one Norman Bentley (`Pub-lius’, or `Pub’). One of the first Latinsentences we had to translate was `Pub-lius is a wise master’. When I came first

in a Latin exam he asked “Where didyou get your Latin from? – certainly notfrom your father”! Pub was very popu-lar, a stalwart of Sutton in his day who itwas said had stopped SVS from beingpulled down in WWII because it was alandmark for evening aircraft.

Richard Horn was again my house-master in Westminster and he and hiswife Margaret were two of the nicest,fairest people I met at SVS and when Ilook back it was this sort who reallymade the most impact on my developingmind.

I played a huge amount of sport andstill proud that I gained my colours in allthree major sports and athletics, where Iachieved the javelin record (helped byMr Benbow who was the very good ath-letics master at the time). I was alsoCaptain of Cricket and I believe we onlylost one match. Howard Evans (1964 F)was one strike bowler; he was extremely

fast (and son of Godfrey Evans the Kentand England wicket keeper). AndrewDixon (1966M) scored most of our runs(Kent 2nd XI). Apart from that we werea very good fielding side and practisedfielding regularly. After leaving school,I went down to Seale Hayne Agricul-tural College in Devon.

I’ve kept in touch with several OldSuttonians, namely Anthony Catt (1963W) (who sadly died), P Hukins (1963W), P Charlton (1961 F), regularly, WWiggins (1964 W), N Houghton (1964W) and I Kellie (1964 W) (both in Aus-tralia) and recently have made contactwith J Pye (1963W). Some that I wouldlike to hear from again since I don’tknow where they finished up are: G Far-row (1964 C), R Cant (1964 L), M King(1964 L), H Evans (1964 F), J Brown(1963 W) and Fred Thiele (1963 W)(USA Student) and anyone else whowould like to make contact, [email protected].

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Colin Shaw (1955 W)Colin’s service to theSchool and OSA wasmassive.

He may have revered Edward Cravenand all the work that gentleman did, butColin’s contribution was no less thanEdward’s and in many ways substantiallymore since he was the one who began tomake sense of the mass of records thatEdward had accumulated.

Since the beginning of this millenniumthere has been much emphasis in formalgatherings of the students to remindthem of the particular ethos of thisSchool, recognised in a succession ofSchool Inspections as providing exactlythe right balance of respect for eachother, concern for the welfare of othersand the determination to do one’s best.The recent demise of the house systemhas made this necessary because of theloss of the passing down of received wis-dom from older pupils to the youngerones. What has not yet been acknowl-edged, but is absolutely the case, is thatthis ethos has been maintained and de-veloped largely by the work and influ-ence of a small band of men, of whomColin is a distinguished member, thatsaw service at the School right throughthe last century, overlapping with eachother each generation picking up fromthe previous one. WW Hunting, TMJames, WW Holdgate, Edward Cravenand Colin Shaw.

A very great number of Old Suttoni-ans have contacted us at school, lettingus know of their recollection of Colin.They are unanimous in their remem-brance of someone who was firm butfair, one who had humility and also em-pathy for those in his care. He is re-membered as one who could give a stern‘telling-off’ but retain a twinkle in hiseye to assure the culprit that the end ofthe world was still some distance off andthat the matter could easily be put be-

hind the culprit if lessons were learned.

Colin was just the same in his dealingswith the Old Suttonians’ Association.His guidance in their deliberations wassurefooted and consistent. By the end hehad more than fifty years of accumu-lated precedent, knowledge and wisdomto call on and he used this informationsuperbly. He was rarely the one to takea lead in debate, but his summations, in-sight and thorough understanding of theissues meant he nearly always had thelast word before decisions were made.

Over 150 friends from all corners ofthe country turned up on 19th March toa memorial service of thanksgiving forhis life; a plaque was dedicated to hismemory in the Chapel. Requiescat inPace Colin.

David Pickard Hon. sec. OSA

Article from Robert Chance (Ex-Staff1961-1993)Colin and I first met at Clare College,

Cambridge where, under the tutorship

of Dr John Northam, we each read Eng-lish. Colin had won his place 2 years ear-lier but was required to sign up for hisNational Service before matriculating inSeptember 1957; by contrast, I took upmy place straight from school with achoral exhibition award. As a conse-quence, Colin, two years older and withservice abroad behind him, appeared tome considerably more mature andworldly. We met at lectures and semi-nars and I well remember him sayinghow much he valued the education hehad received at SVS and sensing, too,how fond he was of his old school ofwhich, at that time, I had very littleknowledge.

Our paths crossed again when we eachaccepted the offer of a place at ExeterUniversity's Department of Educationto study for The Certificate in Educa-tion. With digs at opposite ends of thecity and our respective practice termscompleted in different schools contactwas limited and at the end of the year wewent our separate ways, Colin to WellsCathedral School and I, quite coinci-

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June 2011

Linkedin OS NewsletterNew Name?We have set up a group named Old Suttonians on the professional

networking site Linkedin to mutually benefit all OS. We currentlyhave over 300 Old Suttonians in the group. Please request to join thegroup Old Suttonians on www.linkedin.com.

FacebookWe have also set up a group named Old Suttonians on Facebook.www.facebook.com

Mentoring SchemeWe have had quite a few requests for help from recent leavers ask-

ing if we may contact other Old Suttonians who may be in a positionto offer work experience or become a mentor. If you are able to helpplease contact Rebecca Riggs: [email protected].

dentally, to Sutton Valence. It was tenyears later, following further experienceat Bearwood College, that Colin was ap-pointed by Michael Ricketts to be Headof English at his old school in January1971. Together with our respectivewives, Colin and I shared a very happyreunion over dinner at Lingfield, at thattime a school house situated along ChartRoad.

During the course of the next 20 yearswhen for the most part Colin remainedHead of Department, we enjoyed a verysmooth working relationship, one thathad at its centre genuine mutual respect.In his own conscientious and efficientmanner, Colin ensured that, despiteproblems emerging briefly in the lateeighties, the department ran as harmo-

Colin Shaw sadly died on 1st January 2011.

We are hoping to rename the newslet-ter with an original and imaginativename! Please send in your suggestionsto [email protected]. Prizes for theadopted name.

EmailsPlease help us to reduce postal costsby sending in your email to

[email protected] you.

niously as possible; in addition, I wasvery grateful for his willingness to helpout on the games field-so typical of hisconstant desire to contribute to the lifeof a place at which he himself had beennurtured.It was very fitting that David Pickard

should arrange a farewell lunch forColin at Cranbrook just prior to hismoving to Hampshire. Those of us pres-ent, including Michael Beaman andDavid Bunker, spent a cheerful andfriendly afternoon together having, ofcourse, no idea that in less than 2 yearswe would be gathered in the SchoolChapel paying tribute to Colin and allthat he had contributed to Sutton Va-lence both as pupil and member of theCommon Room.

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Yuppies ReunionAlmost 100 Old Suttonians attended the Yuppies

reunion on 25th September 2010. There were a lotof nervous faces and for some Old Suttonians it wastheir first time back for almost 30 years. The year of1991 received champagne as their year group hadthe most in attendance.

Yuppies reunion

Cyprus OSReunionIn June 2010, Jeremy Wall (1954 M), Colin Boys

(1955 DB), Michael Groves (1958 F), and CliveTurner (1948 W) all Cyprus retirees all met up in arestaurant by the sea not far from Limassol. Manystories were told, and although their times onlyslightly overlapped here and there, they had muchin common with masters and other boys, some ofthe former attracting remembered praise andhappy memories, and some garnered neither!

1940s Lunch William LambeDinnerA group of 12 Old Suttonians including R O F Hard-

wick (1940 M), E V Beaton (1941 M), I F Kay (1941 M),HRHearn OBE (1945W), P H Scott (1945M), J B Lewis(1945 W), M J Solomon (1945 W), H C Hardwick (1945M), M H Pym (1945 M), P H Scott (1945 M), J R Walter(1946 W), J P Waters (1946 W), M F Beaman (1952 W)met for lunch at the Strand Palace Hotel in March 2011.

Ghillie James (nee Studd) (1993 V), Frances Sayers (nee Yonge) (1993 S),Gabrielle Baker (nee Browning) (1993 V), Victoria Bussey-Moon (1993 V),

Kathryn Hannah (nee Choonara) (1993 V)

The William Lambe Society dinner was held on 24th Mayin the Headmaster’s house and attended by 5 Old Suttonians.If you would like further information on leaving a Legacy tothe School, please contact the Development Office.

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June 2011

1953-1956LunchA small group of 1950’s leavers met

for lunch at the Oxford and CambridgeClub in October 2010.

Clyde Britton (1954 W), Rodney Stub-blefield (1955 M), Willy Ellis (1956 M),David Bunker (1954 M), Colin Shaw(1955 W), Ewen Moir (1954 W), MarkGrundy (1955 W), John Evans (1953 W),Michael Bartlett (1954 W), James Croft(1955 M)

West Country ReunionA group of 60 Old Suttonians, met on 14th May 2011 at

Haynes Motor Musuem in Somerset. Leaver dates rangedfrom 1945 to 1989. John H Haynes OBE (1956 L) kindlyprovided a personal tour of the museum.

John H Haynes OBE and Old Suttonians in the red room

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Old PhotographsHouse Focus - Lambes

We are in touch with most of you inthis photograph. Please help if you arein touch with: Stuart KMurray, RichardWCraig, Anthony C Taylor, AnthonyMSkinner, John T Harris, John Muscroft,Neville Cook, A Kantarat, Peter Chap-man, David Luget, John Field, G. TobyOliver, Alan Booth as we have lost con-tact with these.

Those featured in photograph wrote:

Blaine, Philip (1964 L)My wife June and I regularly see

Jonathon and Poppy Sewell and Nickand Jean Neal. Last autumn we also metCharles and Sally Bazzard during onesof their trips to the UK from Canada.Along with Jonathon and Poppy we hada mini reunion at Denbies Vinyard atDorking.

Last Year you also put me in touchwith Steve DiChico from the US, whowas one of the Exchange Students in1964/1965. We have exchanged emailsand its time I wrote to him again.

Beglin, Chris (1963 L)Many memories come to mind from

those days ... a few are described as fol-lows:

It was decided by a few of us, Mem-mott (1963 L) and Rutter (1963 L) inparticular, that the then laundry areawas haunted. To check this out we gotup one night and as a "team" wentthough to explore, with torches, in thehope of finding some ghouls. End resultwas, no ghouls and a lot of fun!

The cadet small bore shooting teamwas very successful but I recall at one

point cleaning one of the .22 range riflesin the "End Show" - which was sharedwith Peter Chapman (1962 L) and JohnJackson (1963 L) I seem to recall, and(stupidly) doing a chambering checkwith a live round. The end result, fortu-nately having followed safety rules to thestage of not pointing at anything onewould wish to harm - was a loud reportfollowed by realization that a bullet hadjust gone upwards, through the ceiling,and probably made a hole in the rooftiles. Oops! In later years my gun han-dling and safety improved way beyondthis.

Another very vivid memory was to dowith the dining hall. There was some-thing about breakfast which encouragea totally unhealthy devouring of themain course, which might well havebeen fried bread (before saturated fatswere de rigour), beans and bacon. Theobjective was to finish super fast and be

well in front of any queue for "seconds".I learned very fast that to satisfy a hugeappetite I needed to ingest "phase one"very fast so as to be able to go up formore. Sometimes even "thirds" wouldbe managed. These days as a very much"senior" person I am lucky to eat fastenough to even stand a chance of mak-ing such a queue!

Cooper, Michael (1965 L)I have three children Amanda(36)

Emma(34) and Edward(28) and twogrand-daughters Evie and Bea - afterschool I worked for twenty years in thefamily steel business before selling upand diversifying into property and DryCleaning - businesses which I still runtoday. After playing club rugby (my sidehad two England Internationals) andtennis, I now play golf at least three daysa week throughout Europe - like school-days, never let work interfere too muchwith sport!!

1962-1966 Lambes sent in by Christopher Beglin (1963 L)

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June 2011

Dicicco, Stephen (1965 L)I have spent my career in independent

school education (public school in UKvernacular). In 1987, I started a consult-ing firm which has worked with over 400private schools here in the US.

I spent a wonderful year at SVS in1965 as a BAEF Student (BritishAmerican Exchange Foundation). I be-came great friends with Robert Lynden-Bell (1965 L), Martin Couchman (1965L), Philip Blaine (1964 L) and Christo-pher Buzzard (1966 L), all of Lambe's.Robert was student head of school. Ihave recently touched base with Robertand Philip by email and would love toreach any or all from the Lambe's group.

Stephen also sent this funny story.The Headmaster at the time (Evers)could not, for the life of him, discern thedifference between S. DiCicco (theYank) and Richard Lay (the Canadianstudent). We both tried (and we werenot similar in looks, nor accent!) andfailed.

During the Spring break, I happenedto be sitting on the Via Veneto in Romewith my parents whenMr. Evers walkeddown the Via. He walked right up to myfather and said, "Good Day, Dr. Lay, Weare so pleased to have Richard amongstus."!

Ford, Adrian (1964 L)Having left SVS in 1964 I worked in

the City of London with Lloyds Registerof Shipping for 18 months. I decidedthat a sedentary life in the City was notfor me and emigrated as a 'Ten PoundPom' to Sydney in 1966. For the first 8months I worked as a Jackaroo on a44,000 acre sheep station in the Outbackof Western New South Wales and had a

marvellous time fencing, shearing sheep,riding horses and spending my entireweekly earnings ($AUD4.00 per weekall found) every Friday night in the local(one hour distant) pub!

Realising that I could remain thereforever with no money or assets accru-ing, I decided to return to Sydney andget a proper job. This I did and joinedP&O Orient Lines, selling Pacificcruises to the general public. It waswhilst working at P&O that I met my fu-ture Australian wife, Liz, and we mar-ried in Sydney shortly thereafter. Ourdaughter Emma was born in 1970.

I moved from P&O to Colgate Palmo-live in 1968 and whilst there I studied forand gained aMarketing Diploma at Syd-ney University. I joined H.J.Heinz Com-pany in 1970 as a Marketing BrandManager and my portfolio comprisedBaby Food and Soups!

Liz, Emma and I returned to the UKin 1973 and I joined Grandmetropolitanin their Brewing Division as a RegionalSales Manager. In 1976 I was appointedSales Director for the Watney MannTake Home Company.

In 1980 I left Grandmet and startedmy own Sales &Marketing Consultancybased in West Sussex. My Clients inthose days were Bacardi, J.Sainsbury,Tesco and Waitrose. A chance meetingwith the Chief Executive of a large Aus-tralian Wine Producer in 1981 changedthe course of my career completely andI agreed to represent Berri RenmanoWines as their Agent for UK, Scandi-navia and Mainland Europe. Australianwines at that time were hardly knownand as far as the wine cogniscenti of theday were concerned they were some-

thing to be mocked. Little did they knowthat within 20 years they were to outsellall French wines in the UK! Times weredifficult then and whilst turnover grewgradually, our funds were insufficient tosustain the business and I agreed to joinBerri Renmano as an employee ratherthan as an agent. I was appointed Man-aging Director of Berri RenmanoEurope and in 1993, we took over theHardy Wine Company in Adelaide. Thenew company was named BRL HardyEurope Limited and we set about takingEurope by storm! In the period from1993 to 2003 our turnover rose from£11million per annum to a little over£1billion per annum and we were mar-ket leaders in UK. Sadly, in 2003 we our-selves were taken over by a hugeAmerican organisation, ConstellationWines & Spirits. I worked with theirowners for a few months and decidedearly retirement would be preferablerather than see all our hard work deci-mated by their approach to the Euro-pean Markets. Thus in 2003 I left thecompany.

Sport has played an important part inmy life with Cricket and Rugby havingbeen my passions. I joined Harlequins in1965 playing at the Stoop. On arrival inSydney, I joined Mosman Cricket Clubin 1966 and played First Grade cricketfor seven years moving to Northern Dis-tricts in 1971. I also joined GordonRugby Club in Sydney and played GradeRugby for them. A truly wonderfulsporting experience. I became amemberofMCC in 1971 and am a Trustee of TheFriends Of Arundel Castle Cricket Clubwhere I had the good fortune to play forBernard, Duke of Norfolk and then cap-tain Her Grace, Lavinia, Duchess ofNorfolk's X1 in three of her matcheseach season. I was appointed Chairman

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of The Sussex Martlets Cricket Club in1997 and served in this capacity until2001.

I have recently been in touch withJonathan Sewell and Chris Beglin andwould be delighted to hear from any ofmy old friends and acquaintances fromSVS. My e-mail address [email protected]

Frostick, Colin (1963 L)I believe that I was prefect of Valence

House (now returned to private use) atthat time and had a very comfortablestudy there!

Jesty, Peter (1966 L)There are no specific "stories" that

come to mind. When I first came (Janu-ary 1962), the school dining room wasstill in Lambes house, but after it movedto the new Refectory there were manychanges and modern features appeared,e.g. personal desks! I suppose the onecontinuous memory is that of walk-ing/running up and down the steps aminimum of 8 times a day (I think itwas) - no wonder we always seemed towin the inter-house cross-countrymatches! It also enabled me to gain theskill of going down stairs multiple stepsat a time - and I still do 2 steps withouta handrail on occasions (though its trick-ier with vari-focals!). My principal sportwas Shooting and so I spent a lot of timeon the range, and in the summer went toConyer and Bisley for a number of years- I hope the 0.22 Anschutz rifle + kit Igave to the school in the mid-1990's isstill proving useful.

Shaukat Fancy (1959 L)Shaukat Fancy kindly sent in photo-

graphs. The photograph was taken out-side Lambes on a memorable day whenwe were appointed prefects.

from top Brian Pow (1959 L), JamesHamilton (1959 L), Alistair Biggs (1959 L),Martin Welch (1959 L), eggy? and Shaukat

Fancy (1959 L) outside Lambes.

RegionalReunionsWe are hoping to set up

further regional reunions.If you would like to be-come a regional represen-tative, please contact:

Rebecca [email protected]

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June 2011

News from ArchivesGHOSTS ATSUTTON VALENCE?

Is the School a rival to Pluckley as ‘themost haunted place in Great Britain’?

For all the time I have been at theSchool there have been stories of ghostsoccupying the premises. The first Iheard of was the tale of a ‘little drum-mer boy’ who haunted Prefect’s Lawn.Then there was a supposed ghost livingin the ‘tunnel’ between the main Schooland Lambe’s. Some people say theyhave seen a ‘lady in white’ floating aboutin the upper corridors of Centre Block,and it is a very brave soul who is pre-pared to wander through the Lambe’sbuilding at night without much lighting.The whimperings of a dog are some-times heard, though to my knowledgeno-one has seen an image of its masterwho killed it and himself in a fit of de-pression one Christmas not too longafter WW2.

stories relating to the School? If so, arethey fiction or tales of real experiences?What is your version of any of the sto-ries? It would be interesting to see ifthey agree with the versions I haveheard, and any contribution will help meto log them all and to write each one upin detail for our records.

I’m looking forward to hearing fromyou.

David [email protected]

Now there has emerged news of twoor possibly three more. Various mem-bers of the kitchen staff have been dis-turbed by a ‘servant girl in a mop capand pretty white apron’. She is benign,but another, darker, image has also beenseen and this one may well have been apoltergeist. A cricketer has also beenknown to pass through the dining areas.He seems to be pleasant and causes nofear, thus he is probably not the darkpoltergeist.

I am conscious that in a boardingschool it is quite likely that some ofthese stories may have been a bit fanci-ful. They may have been one way of‘spicing up’ cocoa time for junior boysjust before they went to bed. However, itmay be that ‘paranormal experiences’may have occurred. Is it possible thatmembers of the Old Suttonian commu-nity can help to clarify matters? Haveany of you had a ghostly experience orencounter whilst in School? Are any ofyou aware of the stories mentionedabove? Do you know of any other ghost

Awards2010/11

BBeennnneetttt--HHuunnttiinnggAAwwaarrdd

Rory Bowman (2010 W)

Benjamin Brunger (2010 G)

Elliott Chacksfield (2010 Cl)

Luke Ellmers (2010 Cl)

Nicholas Holmes (2010 W)

Jemma Hosmer (2010 H)

Emma Johnson (2010 H)

Harriet Johnson (2010 S)

AAttcchhiissoonn AAwwaarrddSophie Appelt (2010 Cl)

Thomas Champneys (2010 G)

Charlotte Douglas (2010 L)

Joe Waters (2010 Cl)

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News of Old SuttoniansANDERSON, George (Ex-staff 1978-

1983)After a further 2 years in teaching I

went into Financial Services. For the last17 years I have been an Independent Fi-nancial Adviser running my own firmwith my wife Judi. We have two childrenwho are at university at the moment.We are very involved in our local Churchand I still keep pretty fit mainly throughfrequent trips to a local gym. I am inregular contact with Bob Chance (Ex-staff 1961-1993) and I also keep in con-tact with Chris King (Ex-staff1979-1983) who is Headmaster atLeicester Grammar School where Itaught for 2 years

BAILEY, Christopher (2006 Cl)Graduated from Heriott Watt Uni-

versity with an MA Management withBusiness Law.

BAKER, Roger (1968 F)Not much to up date with my career, I

am still running my own ArchitecturalPractice as sole Practitioner here in theVale of White Horse. I resisted the urgeto expand the Practice in the mid'noughties' and although this meantworking long days and weekends it doesmean that, now work isn't quite so plen-tiful, I do not have the problem of downsizing. In fact I am still very busy but ata level befitting my advancing years. Asmall but important and very enjoyableelement of my work load is dealing withhistoric buildings. I have been an ap-proved architect to carry out quinquen-nial inspections of churches in theOxford Diocese for some years and re-cently I have been appointed in thesame capacity in the Bristol Diocese. Inow look after eleven local churches,several being grade 1 Listed Buildingsand ranging in age from early Medieval

to Victorian, all with different chal-lenges and opportunities!. By far themajority of the work in the Practice isresidential including one off houses forprivate clients, flat conversions for de-velopers and extensions etc. to privateresidences. Recently completed are alarge extension alterations and externalworks to my brother's (Peter Baker –(1971 F) house near Alton in Hamp-shire. Taken on with not a little trepida-tion (an old maxim in the business isnever work for family and friends!) theproject went well so we still get invitedto visit.

BARNES-PHILLIPS (Phillips whenat SVS), James (1966 M)After a few attempts to find the “per-

fect” job, I settled in 1970 into the earlyworld of IT, installing computers forBanks in UK working for BurroughsMachines (later to become Unisys).After about 10 years there were 2 devel-opments. I got married to Daphne andwe celebrate our 30th anniversary nextyear, and I also moved on to the moreinteresting side of computing, workingon large Main Frame systems. In 1994,I got involved with the Mobile Phonerevolution and moved away from hands-on installation work and into the ProjectManagement of Voice Mail Systems.Our first UK customer was Orange andthey outstripped the capacity of theirfirst system in 4 weeks – it was meant tobe enough for the whole year, and fromthen on, particularly during the freneticdays around the millennium, we were in-stalling systems at a rate of 1 every 6weeks in the UK alone, as well as allover Europe. By 2006 our team ofnearly 30 based in London had dwindledto just 3 of us and when I was made re-dundant (voluntary retirement!) in 2008I was left to “turn out the lights”. There

was still just one system to be commis-sioned which I returned to do in Janu-ary 2009, having now set up my owncompany. In September 2009 we movedaway from the hustle and bustle ofReading and have new set up a new lifein sleepy Exmouth in Devon.

BECKETT, Stephen (1982 C)Stephen recently found himself on the

missing list and contacted us. He is nowa Captain flying with British Airways.

BENNETT, Martin (1982 W)1982 was good year for rugby at Sut-

ton Valence. The 1st XV had a big pow-erful scrum and at 6’7” I recall playingmy part along with the likes of IanRoscoe (1982 L), Sean Kirkaldie (1982C) and Paul Heron (1981 L). If weweren’t unbeaten that year we musthave been close to it. After a year off,which is best not mentioned in detail, Iwent to Southampton University tostudy geography. I rapidly switched togeology without any real idea of wherethis would lead. There was no work forgeologists in the oil industry back in1986, so after a short stint on a farm Iheaded on a round-the-world trip withvague plans of playing rugby in NewZealand and picking fruit. As it hap-pened I didn’t make it to New Zealand,having been offered a contract with amining company that had a project inthe West Australian bush. The follow-ing 10 years were spent workingthroughout Australia from the tropics tothe desert, often sleeping in a swag andspending months in the bush. I met mywife while working in Adelaide, then weexperienced life in Canberra before aperiod in Kalgoorlie, where Emily (11)was born. After six enjoyable years wesettled in Perth, but not without the oc-casional travel and adventure! I have

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June 2011

just completed a year working at a minein the Red Sea Hills area in Sudan,which proved to be a very rewarding ex-perience. We are hoping for a quieter2011!

BERNARD, Michelle (née Sherriff)(2000 S)Michelle is now married and working

as Head of ICT at Battersea Park Schoolin South London.

BOTTOMLEY, Stephen (1972 W)

Clare, Charlie and I summitted Kili at6.30am on 21 December after 5 days ofhiking, clambering up mountainsidesand shivering in tents at night even withtwo thermal layers of clothes and arcticcondition sleeping bags. Awe inspiringas we crawled onto the summit with avivid red horizon on one side as sun wascoming up in East (usually does!) and afull moon fading in West. Journeywas tiring but achievement was incredi-bly fulfilling. Can't remember last time Iwas so exhausted. When we arrived backat our average hotel at the foot of Kili, itfelt like a 7*. First shower after 7 dayswas like no other shower and then Iheaded off for bottle(s) of Kili beer withCharlie. Clare was real star of climb.

Thanks for all your support - we haveraised over £14,000 and still climbing.

BOYS, Colin (1955 DB)After spending most of our lives in

Africa (Kenya, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe andMalawi) plus Saudi Arabia my wife,Heather, and I retired to Paphos,Cyprus on 3rd May 2001 to enjoy a re-laxed and quiet life. Our plans for relax-ation have not materialised as we nowseem to be as busy as ever. Not that weare averse to this for we are blessed withgood health and remain active.

Cyprus is a beautiful island and we areblessed to live in a villa high in the hillsbehind the town of Paphos in the west-ern area of island particularly famousfor the visit that Saint Paul made duringhis first missionary journey in the 1stcentury. The Mediterranean weathersuits us well particularly after a lifetimein the tropics and we enjoy a panoramicview from our home across the sur-rounding countryside and out to sea.The island has, of course, been dividedbetween the Turkish/Cypriot north,known as the “Turkish Republic ofNorthern Cyprus” or “T.R.N.C.”, andthe republic of Cyprus controlled by theGreek Cypriots. We live in the southernpart of the island which became a fullmember of the “European Union” in2007. For many years various talks havetaken place to reunite this divided landbut to no avail to date. As I write thisnote more unification talks are takingplace but amongst the general popula-tion there is little hope of a settlement.

I have regular contact with two OldSuttonians in Cyprus being Clive Turner(1948 W) who lives just across the roadfrom us and Jeremy Wall (1954 M) whoresides in a quaint village some 20 min-

utes drive away. We get together fromtime to time and often discuss our timeat Sutton Valence in the 1940s and1950s.

BROCKHURST, Rowan (1953 M)

After reading the latest OS Newslet-ter and the submissions of John Pye(1941 M) whom Rowan knows as a fel-low resident of Fordingbridge, Hamp-shire, and Ronald Osborn (1953 M) withwhom he shared the ‘End Show’ andwho has even produced a photograph inwhich Rowan appears, prompted him tosubmit a note.

Leaving SVS in 1953, I entered Arti-cles, qualified as a Solicitor in 1958 andwas called up for National Service at thebeginning of the following year. Afterits completion I became a partner in afirm of solicitors in Ringwood (Hamp-shire) from which I retired (as seniorpartner) in 2002 having served as Presi-dent of the Hampshire Law Society in1978. In retirement I am living in Ford-ingbridge on the western fringes of theNew Forest, indulging my fondness forwalking (locally and, when possible, inthe Lake District or Switzerland) and re-maining much involved in local commu-nity activities. Married to a professionalmusician, I have two children, two step-children, seven grandchildren and onestep grandchild. (In Ronald Osborn’sphotograph I am on the extreme left.

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The others are from left to right,Hopton, Light and Jones.

BROOKS, Tom (2003 G)Has just started his 5th year of Brooks

Marquee Hire and is happy with the ex-pansion of the business over this period.He lives in Sutton Valence and playsrugby for Cranbrook.

BUTCHER, Anthony (1979 H)Has been working at the European

Commission in Brussels for the past 17years and dealing recently with Eco-nomic Partnership Agreements with theACP counties (Africa, Caribbean andPacific).

CAPLE, David (1960 W)My parents liked their wine tipple, and

I thought it would be nice to have a ca-reer in the Wine Trade. Consequently Ijoined the Whitbread Beer Group um-brella. Firstly starting with Sandeman,moved to Sichel, and then Stowells ofChelsea, from there to Thresher back toStowells. Thresher, Whitbread and fi-nally First Quench, having spent 38 veryenjoyable years in the Wine Trade andvisited many European Vineyards.

For the last 3 years we have been tour-ing the country in our caravan trying tofind our ideal place to retire, and foundBury St Edmunds in Suffolk to our lik-ing. Woolpit was our first choice as it hasa great community spirit. We decided totest the market, and very suddenly foundourselves cash rich and asset poor, backto the caravan, over to Bury St Edmundsand 4 weeks later found our house. Wehave and will be very busy, as the houseneeds a lot of TLC.

I married in 1974 to Heather, we havetwo Daughters, Lucy who is 28 years,

and works at Middlesex University, andAmy is 19, at Nottingham Universityreading Psychology.

CARTER OBE, Commander William(Jack) (1944 W)Jack Carter telephoned with informa-

tion about rugby. During 1940 a NewZealand Army division was stationedclose to Sutton Valence. Four to five ex-All Blacks were amongst the divisionand came to the School to coach Jackand his team mates. In the season of1941-1942 the School were in the finalof the Rugby Sevens tournament for thefirst time as a consequence and shouldhave won, according to Jack, had it notbeen for the referee!

CASTLE, Alistair (1984 C)Alistair is currently working for BAE

Systems Int as Director, Thailand.

CHANCE, Bob (Robert) (ex memberof staff 1961-1993)Having spent 4 years helping in vain to

plan for an athletic track in Maidstone,Bob Chance is delighted that a state ofthe art facility has now been constructedat Sutton Valence. Set up in the NE cor-ner of BM, the project was very muchthe brainchild of Joe Davies (Head-master 2001-2009) whose initiative anddrive ensured that athletics in theMaidstone area have the facilities theyhave sought for over 30 years.

Bob continues to play cricket, partici-pating regularly in the King’s Rochesterfestival and representing Kent over 70’s.Music and running the choir at Head-corn are still important parts of his lifewhile, in addition, he has been involvedin the presentation of several pro-grammes of climatic readings in thearea.

CLEAVE, David (1974 F)I have recently moved to Moscow

after spending 12 years in Kiev, Ukraine.I now take up a new position as CFO forthe International Science & TechnologyCenter seconded by the EU. The ISTCis a multi-government organisationwhich project finances R&D & S&Tprojects. As well as this, I also am work-ing with and seconded by IFC as an In-dependent Director on the SupervisoryBoard of 2 Banks. One in Ukraine & theother in Armenia, thus keeping mybanking career ticking along and assist-ing these banks with corporate gover-nance and strategic and financial crisesmanagement.

COLLENETTE OBE, Peter (1940 M)Peter recently sent a letter to us just

after his 89th birthday. Peter was inLambe’s House for the first four of thenine years he was at SVS. The Schoolhad a very good influence on his life.When he left he went briefly to Birm-ingham University as a Royal Engineercadet and after six years in the RoyalEngineers, went back to take a degree ingeology and had a long and pleasant ca-reer overseas, retiring aged 65. Petersent one of his twin sons, Richard, toSutton Valence. Richard had a flying li-cense in his last year and in his last termfrom time to time cycled down to Head-corn Flying Club to take a plane and flyaround and over the School. His careerhas been in the RAF and civil flying.

COPLAND, Edward (Ed) (1995 L)I left the Royal Engineers in 2006,

spent a year travelling around Africa,then 2 years working as a constructionproject manager. To prepare for careernumber 3, I’m currently studying for an11-18 PGCE at Sheffield University inScience (specialising in Physics).

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June 2011

COSTAIN (nee Moon), Katherine(1994 V)Katherine lives in Lenham with her

husband Rory. Having competed formany years, including representingEngland around the world in ShowDance, they both now teach Ballroomand Latin American dancing; Katherinelocally in Kent, Rory for Len Goodmanof Strictly fame.

DHUL, Nikhil (2005 W)Nikhil graduated from Durham Uni-

versity with a Business Degree (with BAHonours).

DODD, Matthew (2006 W)Mathew has graduated from univer-

sity and currently looking for a job andconsidering going into personal trainingwith the view of going into athlete sportsconditioning with a professional rugbyclub.

DUNCAN, Robert (1960 W)After fifty years - where do I start?

Since the mid-sixties I have been earn-ing a dubious living as a cartoonist. Seewww.duncancartoons.com.

I also wrote the play of Cluedo, whichtoured the country for ages, and stillholds the record as the most successfulshow ever at the Theatre RoyalWindsor. My children’s book OnceUpon a World has been around on andoff since the seventies and did very wellat that time. It was recorded by Dad’sArmy star John Le Mesurier, and has re-cently been re-released on CD.

On a daily basis I sit in my wonderfulstudio and produce advertising and de-sign stuff, cartoons, silly ideas and, oncein a while, bits of genius.

I was married to Carol for nearly fortyyears and our daughter is the TV chefLotte Duncan. Her book ‘Lotte’s Coun-try Kitchen’ is about to be published.She has a 20 year old daughter, mygranddaughter, Daisy. Sadly Carol diedfive years ago and to Lotte’s horror Imet Cathy, who is Lotte’s age – and atthe tender age of 66 I now have a oneyear old son Jamie. (He’s Daisy’suncle…).

I wouldn’t mind seeing a few of the oldSuttonian types.

DUNDERDALE, Michael (1991 W)

Mike Dunderdale, managing director ofhospitalityfinder.co.uk and Old Sutton-ian arranged for England Player TobyFlood to visit the School.

After meeting the Headmaster andsome of the senior rugby players it wastime to get on with the training and firstup were the 7’s squad. According tocoach, Bill Buck, the enthusiasm and ap-plication displayed during this sessionsurpassed anything he’d seen before, butthe bad news for the boys is he’ll be ex-pecting to see it again.

After spending some time with thePrep School Under-10’s, Toby explainedthe do’s and don’ts of place kicking to agroup of boys from various schoolteams. As you can imagine everyone was

paying close attention. Having listenedcarefully and made the necessary ad-justments to their technique it was timefor a competition. The prize in this kick-ing competition was bound for DemelzaHospice Care for Children. Toby is am-bassador for two Maidstone companies,h o s p i t a l i t y f i n d e r . c o . u k a n dWatchfinder.co.uk, who were sponsoringthe competition in aid of Demelza.

After a round of goal kicks the playersraised £450 which they successfully dou-bled to £900 when Will Miles hit thecrossbar from an impressive distance.Toby had been impressed. “There’ssome real talent here, he said. "if theywork hard, listen to their coaches andput the effort in, it wouldn’t surprise meto see some of them at the top levelsoon”.

Mike was delighted with how the dayhad gone. “A great day, the boys lovedit, you could see them almost having topinch themselves to make sure theywere on the field with an England rugbystar and not dreaming”.

GIBBONS, Scott (1962 F)Retired a couple of years ago having

spent a life jetting around the world ar-ranging corporate incentives and inter-national meetings. My wife, Yvette, andI now divide our time between Francewhere we produce our own olive oil, andthe UK where we have 6 grandchildrenbetween the ages of 18 and 1.

I have become a governor of the localsecondary modern school which occu-pies a considerable amount of time aswell as helping out in the local museumand one or two other local committees.In fact life seems busier now than whenI was working full time.

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I received a couple of newsy emailsfrom OS Nigel Excell (1960 F) who iscurrently living in Australia but apartfrom annual Christmas cards fromDavid Kershaw (1961 F) I have not seenor heard from any contemporaries foryears. I did however run into the nephewof my old housemaster “Tubby “ Cravenat a neighbours party a few years back.Small world.

HALLER, Siw (née Castberg)(1986 V)

I started Sutton Valence in 1985, sowas only there for one year – but what ayear ! I arrived from Singapore to fin-ish my O’levels and went on to collegein London before starting to work. I wasbrought up in Singapore with the Colo-nial English so was a little surprised orrather relieved that not all Englishmenwore black shiny polished shoes, highwhite socks and khaki shorts! I had agreat time at Sutton Valence and I thinkI was in the first co-hort of girls! Va-lence House was very popular with theboys always conveniently suddenly likingcoffee and spent a fair share of theirpocket money in the coffee shop oppo-site Valence House. I made some goodfriends who I am still in touch with.Now having an English husband the Sut-ton Valence year was very formative to

my understanding, love and respect forEngland. We live back in Singaporeagain (20 years now!) with a 14 year olddaughter who now in fact goes to thesame school as I, before I arrived to Sut-ton Valence (United World College OfSEA). Running our own business, I havestayed active with my sports. Was on theprofessional water skiing tour for 10years or so and retired after two succes-sive years as Norwegian National Cham-pion. After several knee surgeries amnow an avid Cyclist active in events inthe Asian region. I would send mywarmest regards to the teachers andother Alumni who may remember me(for good or bad) and would love to hearfrom them! Warmest Regards [email protected].

HARBER, David (1965 C)After leaving SV I went to the Royal

Agricultural College, Cirencester andthen went on to qualify as a CharteredSurveyor. I then took a gap year inSouth Africa, working my passage outon the Southampton Castle as stockmanwith 20 Hereford cattle, and back as adining room steward on the WindsorCastle, with many adventures in be-tween.

I have now lived very happily inNairobi, Kenya for 38 years and havehad my own business- Kenya Valuersand Estate Agents- for 32 years. I ammarried to Jenny, a Chartered Account-ant and have 3 children –Jack (20) atDurham, Mathew (18) and Laura (16)at Cheltenham College.

I run regularly and am about to do ahalf marathon in Lewa Wildlife Conser-vancy. I also play a bit of squash buthave a problem beating my childrenthese days.

I enjoy building and have recentlybought 20 acres on Lake Naivasha(about one hour from Nairobi) with sev-eral old houses which I am renovatingand extending. Alot of game visits theproperty including buffalo, giraffe,zebra, hippo, water buck, python, Thom-sons gazelle .The lake has a wide varietyof birds including fish eagles.

I keep in touch with Robert LyndenBell (1965 L), Jonathon Sewell (1964 L),Chris Wheeler (1964 C), Colin Hosmer(1965 C).

HARRISON, Gavin (1967 M) Gavin found himself on our web site

on the missing list so got in contact.After leaving School, Gavin was a labtechnician and then studied biology andimmunology, gaining a PhD at Birming-ham University. He met a New Zealandgirl and moved there in 1978. They mar-ried and now have two daughters. Gavinhad an interesting career in science,mostly studying immune mechanismsagainst parasitic worms in sheep. Hemanaged to get some of his work pub-lished in the prestigious science journalNature.

He recently retired and lives withChristine on his small farmlet just northof Wellington. Cricket and hockey arelong gone but he can still hack aroundthe golf course and the strains ofarthritic blues guitar can still be heardoccasionally.

HARRISON, Neville (1956 L)Profession - Chartered Civil Engineer

C.Eng. FICE - specialist in soft groundtunnelling - currently as a consultant toMott MacDonald (MM).I was a Resident Engineer (RE) for

Ambric on the Cairo Wastewater proj-

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June 2011

ect in the mid 80's and was then in-volved in the Channel Tunnel project asa design liaison engineer until 1990. Thiswas followed by a posting to the RoundHill tunnels (the A20 Folkestone by-pass) as RE followed by 3 years in On-tario as Construction Manager on theSt.Clair Tunnel - a major link forCanadian National Railways, betweenCanada and the US. This was followedby an itinerant period between Egyptand Japan seconded to a Japanese con-sultant working on the 2nd Suez cross-ing.

I then completed my full time em-ployment with MM as the tunnel spe-cialist in the Govt. team for the HS1line. This continued for around 10 yearsand has been followed as an adviser toEDF on the construction of theirOlympic Cable Tunnels which I have justcompleted. I am married to Jackie, bywhom we have two children - Richardaged 35 and Joanna 33. Richard is mar-ried to Kate, lives in Cornwall and hastwo children, Elliott 3yrs and Mabel 1.He works as manager of 'Surf''s Up' - asurf school in Polzeath. Joanna is single,lives in Cowfold and works with BondInternational as IT consultant to the re-cruitment industry.

Whilst in Canada we met up withMarecq Child (1956 W) and his wife -he is County Coroner for Essex (On-tario). We also keep in touch with KeithRobertson (1956 W) and Henry Mac-Donald (1958 W) and try to attend/par-ticipate in the occasional OS cricketgame and hence keep in touch with nu-merous of the OS cricketing fraternity.

HINCHEY (née TAYLOR), Janine(1991 V)I am literally just back from my wed-

ding and honeymoon in Ulusaba, SouthAfrica! No OS present (only 9 of usthere in total plus some hippos and as-sorted other animals!).

After leaving SVS in 1991 I went tothe University of Plymouth where I stud-ied Social Policy before spending a fewyears working in insurance .

It had always been an ambition ofmine to work in the aviation industryand I was lucky enough to join VirginAtlantic Airways in 1997. I’ve had vari-ous jobs here and now work as a Re-cruitment Advisor, which is how I metmy husband Darren (I was involved inPilot Recruitment and he flies for us onthe B744).

I’m still in touch with several OS andregularly see Sally Pettengell (néeHooper) (1991 V) and Louise Cobbold(1991 S). Facebook has been a revela-tion and meant that I’m in touch with afew more OS that I’d previously losttouch with.

HOLE, David (1963 C & F)I am now living in Minneapolis with

my own Hospitality HR consulting busi-ness. I am married to Vicki since 1981and have a 16 year old son Edward.

I left UK in 1973 and worked in theMiddle East and Africa finally movingto the US in 1979 with Holiday Inns In-ternational. I did spend a short time inBermuda with Trust house Forte andthen worked for Hyatt in Palm Springs,Hawaii and San Francisco. JoiningFairmont in 1995 I worked in San Fran-cisco and eventually took over as the na-tional HR person until a take over byCanadian Pacific Hotels in 2001. Priorto Minneapolis I did work in Dallas for

five years with Adams Mark Hotels. Idid play for Maidstone and Hove Rugbyclubs after leaving SVS and while in theMiddle East was loose head prop for theBahrain team.

My father was the landlord of the BlueDoor on the Sutton Road and later theCock Horse in Detling. He died in 1981and my mother still lives in Maidstone. Ido visit occasionally and meet with myold classmates Russ Lister (1962 F) andPeter Harrison (1960 F).

HOLLOWAY, Christopher (1950 M)This year I completed an eighth edi-

tion of my principal text “The Businessof Tourism” – published by Pearson andnow in its 27th year of publication – andfollowed this up with a humorous biog-raphy of my experiences as a draftee inthe US Army which hasreceived favourable rev iews(see www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk ). As aresult of this, I was interviewed for anhour on BBC Radio Bristol in Novem-ber, on Dr Phil Hammond’s ‘SaturdaySurgery’.

We have recently purchased a flat incentral St Ives, which we are using bothas a holiday flat for our family, and forrental during the peak periods.

HURRELL, Tom (2010 G) andJOHNSON, Harriet (2010 S)Tom and Harriet received the Duke of

Edinburgh Gold Award at St James’Palace on 2nd November 2010. The guest speaker was Samuel Gar-

dener (an international off-roadtriathlon athlete) who spoke brieflyabout his background (he's a full timefire-fighter at the same time). ThenHRH Prince Philip popped in and spoketo us in our groups of 30 and asked a few

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questions about our D of E. He askedabout international expeditions soHarriet told him all about her expedi-tion in the south of France where shefollowed WW2 escape routes throughthe Andes which he was interested in.He was very light-hearted and joked toour parents about putting up with all ourgallivanting. They also had a quick chatby the Head of D of E for our regionabout the scheme and how rare it was tofinish gold.

JEFFERSON, Alison (2002 H)After leaving SV my husband and I

went to live mostly in France. We de-cided to sell our Kentish farmhouse andbought a flat in London which offeredus a real contrast in lifestyles.

In 2007 we left for a posting inShanghai. Paul continuing with his ca-reer and me as the ‘trailing spouse’ ifyou can imagine that! After the initialshock of living in this megapolis, I grad-ually adjusted to life in this amazing city.Only here can you pass someone cyclingalong with his trailer piled 3m high withplastic bottles to recycle and earn about50p per day and then you turn the cor-ner and are faced with a Porsche speed-ing down the street on the wrong side ofthe road. Fancy western restaurantscontrast with street vendors sellingdumplings or crispy chicken feet; smallcrumbling traditional houses in the ‘li-longs’ in Shanghai are gradually disap-pearing along with the community lifetherein whilst the glitzy skyscrapers inthe Pudong area astonish even moderntastes especially with the 490m highWorld Financial Centre. The 98th flooroffers a great place to sip champagne.

This life of ours is one of contrasts, butalso a city that it is essential to make the

effort to get to know. So although I missmy garden here, I lead groups aroundthe parks and give talks about the ic gar-den here and the plant hunters whocame to China to enrich the gardens ofthe west. Currently I am working on sec-tions of a presentation book which willbe offered by the British Pavilion for theWorld Expo in 2010 and in my sparetime am giving a few higher level IBmaths lessons, just to keep my hand in.

All this when we are not travellingthrough the magical lands of Indochina.

JONES, Robin (1971 L)Since leaving

School I haveundertaken var-ious jobs but forthe last 36 yearsI’ve worked inthe Wine trade.For 30 years in

my family’s company Mayor Sworder &Co where I was made a director beforewe were taken over, and in the last 5years I’ve worked for Laytons, one ofLondon’s established Merchants. I did25 years in the Territorial Army with theHonourable Artillery Company in theCity of London rising to the rank ofColour Sergeant with the appointmentof Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant,and was awarded the Territorial Effi-ciency Medal with 2 bars. I am still a vet-eran member. I am a supporter andseason ticket holder of HarlequinsRugby Club, a club I have supportedsince just after leaving School. I’ve livedat my present address for 17 years. Ihave never got round to getting married.

KNOCKER, Will (1977 C) Will has a new venture –

www.nairobitentedcamp.com.

KOJECKY, Roger (1961 L)Roger is Secretary of the Christian

Literacy Studies Group: www.clsg.org.Last year at the society’s annual Oxfordconference he gave a paper on‘epiphany in the novels of WilliamGolding’ and then abroad at theJagiellonian University, Krakow, thePalacky University, Olomouc, andTsinghua University, Beijing.

LEE, Menelik (1993 W)Attended medical school and gradu-

ated with MBBS at King’s CollegeLondon. Currently working as a Spe-cialist Registrar in Obstetrics andGynaecology department at RoyalCounty Hospital at Winchester. GainedMRCOG (membership of obstetrics andgynaecology in 2009.

LE FORT, Anthony (1961 M)Working in the entertainment indus-

try in Los Angeles but spending as muchof the summer as possible in SouthernEurope…France and Italy mainly.

LEONARD (neé Talimonova), Nina(1996 S)My life has seen a number of major

changes in the last few years: I’ve di-vorced two years ago, and started train-ing as an integrative humanisticpsychotherapist at approximately thesame time. This course is almost overand I am already practising in that fieldin my spare time.

My full-time job is with NHS as a low-intensity CBT therapist, for which I amalso completing postgraduate course inpsychological therapies. My particularinterest is in Compassion-Focused Ther-apy, Mindfulness and Sandplay.

I also work part-time in the field of

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June 2011

special needs, and deliver self-manage-ment courses for people living with de-pression for the Co-Creating Healthproject run in partnership by the HealthFoundation and Torbay Care Trust(NHS). I’ve trained to facilitate commu-nication skills workshops for clinicianswith the same project, and have deliv-ered a number of those in the last yearjointly with a Clinical Psychologist.

I have a very warm, loving memory ofSutton Valence. It was a tough time forme and my family: we fled home(Russia) following my Dad’s political in-volvement, his support of democraticparties, which took place at the cost ofdaily death threats to his family. I’llnever forget the day I first saw theschool - its magnificent buildings, thelush green fields around. I often lookedout of the school windows and cried withappreciation of the beauty in front ofme, my new-found safety and all the op-portunities that were now open to me.

LONGDEN, Andrew (1956 L)

Andrew has recently returned fromthe Norfolk Broads having sailed withLaurence Burrell (1956 L). They weremoored at Potter Heigham and spottedthe yacht Flight which was the sailingboat used on the trips which took placefrom School in the spring vacation.Cruisers were the mother ships andsome boys managed to alter the gover-nors making them go much faster!

The picture shows Flight goingthrough the second restoration. Andrewis sure it will bring back memories. Itwas the first introduction to sailingwhich led him to RYA Coastal Skippertheory and practical and has sailed ex-tensively in the Solent and the WestCountry.

MARTIN (née Pagonakis), Sally(1996 V)I live in New York with my husband

and daughter and am currently a VicePresident at a financial public relationsfirm. I gave birth to my first child MeganIoanna, on 8th August 2008.

MACNAUGHTAN, John (1962 L)After leaving School, John attended

the University of Sussex and gained a 2.1Degree in History. 1965 -1967Graduate Trainee with Tube Invest-ments including Diploma of Manage-ment with Aston University1967 – 1972 Based in South, Cen-

tral and East Africa with TI companies

1973 -1976 General Manager of Raleigh Cycles in Aus-tralia and New Zealand

1976 -1977 Advisor to Raleigh Ind. Nigeria Ltd to setup Accessories divisionin Port Harcourt and Aba in East Nige-ria.

1977 – 1997 Sales and Marketing

Director of Sturmey Archer Ltd

1997 – 2003 Director of Irrawaddy Flotilla Co – cruises inBurma

2001 - Managing Director of Raleigh International LtdNon- exec Director of Pashley Holding Ltd

Married to my first wife in 1968 andhave a son, Alistair, born in 1973 who inturn married in 2007 and who has a son,Tod, born in Dec 2008. Divorced in1984 and remarried, Ane Marie, in 1999and have twins born in 2001, a boy,Timothy, and a girl, Amalie. I am stillworking and travelling extensively in myjob. I proudly sport my SV cane in myoffice at home.

MARKS, Malcolm (1972 F)Since leaving university in 1979 I have

been working with or in Africa on vari-ous development programmes, apartfrom a relaxing 4-years as a biologyteacher in Northampton. I kicked off mycareer with 4 years in Nigeria and havesince lived and worked long-term, inSenegal (twice), The Gambia, Botswanaand now Bangladesh. During the period1993 - 2003 I was based in France andthen in UK, working as an independentconsultant in Ecology and visiting over20 different African countries for mywork. I count myself incredibly lucky tohave seen so many, varied cultures aswell as having made so many excellentfriends over the years.

From early 2003 until 2006 I workedlong-term again in Senegal, specializingin environmental policy and monitoring& evaluation. But from early 2007, Imade a gigantic career move by finally

22


changing continent; and for the firsttime found myself in Asia. Bangladeshto be precise.

Working as a member of senior man-agement with responsibility for theM&E and research department in anenormous poverty alleviation pro-gramme financed by DFID (UK). Veryinteresting and rewarding work mostlyoperating on temporary river island,prone to severe erosion and home tosome of the poorest people in the world.If you are interested, take a look at thewebsite: (www.clp-bangladesh.org).Moved up to the team leader position inMay 2009 and am now awaiting ourmove to the second phase (£70 million)of our programme in the new year.

Our base is still France (Rhone-Alpes)where we have a lovely old farmhouseand other various buildings that weseem to be continually doing-up. I sup-pose that retirement is not too far offbut I'll keep working while I continue toenjoy it! www.clp-bangladesh.org

MURRAY, Alan (1971 C)After many memorable moments at

SVS circa 1967 - 1971, most of thesemore notably on the rugby pitch, I leftschool and Cornwallis House to pursuea career in the arts and mediaworld…and with nearly 40 years ofworking in the advertising and publish-ing industry, I find myself in Adelaide,South Australia enjoying another longhot summer of daily average tempera-tures of 35c +.

A tad warmer than one would haveendured on No. 4 Rugby field on a Feb-ruary afternoon where I recall playingagainst Tonbridge Under 16s in snowand ice on the ground - I still have the

scars to illustrate the point – with MrBeaman wrapped in three scarves and avery substantial ex regimental over-coatscreaming at the top of his freezing voiceinstructions to “go low” or “move up” or“scrum break”.

All good preparation for one’s futurelife, even if at the time 15 young menwere not so enamoured with the chantsfrom BB on the relative comfort of thesidelines.

One of my fondest memories of myacademic experiences at SVS (and I usethis term very loosely) was our Art andArchitecture lessons with Mr Simmonswho held us all attentive with the prom-ise of visits to local architectural pointsof interest if we “shut up and listened”to his contributions to our education –the lessons were illuminating and hispromises always kept.

Being a 16 year old boarder and min-imal contact with the human world out-side the main gate, any opportunity toventure into The Weald or throughMaidstone was akin to Sir EdmundHillary scaling that hill in Nepal. Greatreward for applying oneself to Mr Sim-mons’ erudite words: I am still inter-ested and in awe of our Norman (?!)fore-father’s design and architecturalskills in creating buildings and structuresof beauty and charm for us all to marvelat today.

So one could say quite legitimatelythat Mr Simmon’s sojourn into theKentish countryside with Upper 5thcontributed to the development of myearly career path – from the hallowedfields of SVS to attended HastingsSchool of Art to study Graphic Art andDesign, and enjoyed every moment of

the diagnostic and vocational designcourse….not to mention the freedom tocommune with my fellow students andto appear in public without an leavepass.

Soon after landing in Adelaide, I wasmost fortunate to find employment atYoung & Rubicam Advertising inAdelaide, as their Production Managerfor all divisions and commenced a 15year stay with this great USA foundedagency enjoying many successes, pres-sures, wins, losses and working fulfil-ment. Y& R was established in NewYork in 1923, so by some wonderfulirony, I was still working in a small spaceof New York, even though I chose totravel east to Australia from The Econ-omist.

My family comprises of my long suf-fering wife and three daughters (28, 23and 6 years old – there’s a first marriagein this story somewhere) and we live inthe eastern suburbs of Adelaide just 5minutes from our respective works andour youngest daughter’s school. So allone’s needs are met without arduousdriving, parking, people rushing chal-lenges…in fact, I have often said to myfamily (who laugh uncontrollably) thatwe could survive quite well without ourcars as we live so close to work, rest andplay (it’s a Mars Bar lifestyle !).

After a few years as a freelance con-sultant in Adelaide, I was ‘head-hunted’(very painful) and offered a job inSydney to join a design company as Pro-duction Manager. They obviously didnot check my references on my CV andI took this opportunity gladly in 2005.For nearly three years I commuted fromAdelaide (Mon – Fri) to Sydney and rel-ished the Sydney working and social

23

June 2011

lifestyle. My Cremorne digs (bed-sit)was only 15 minutes walk from my officein North Sydney and the work was chal-lenging and very rewarding. Lots of stufffor QANTAS, Woolworths, ANZ Bank,Sydney Opera to name (drop) a few…

The regimen of commuting to Sydneyevery week and spending Sunday/Fridaynights on a Virgin 737 lost its appealvery quickly – albeit very healthy fre-quent flyer accumulation – and when Iwas offered a position back in Adelaide,I promptly signed the bottom line andhave been working just 5 minutes fromhome since then. No more furtive un-happy looks from my young daughterand panic attacks from our pet dog whowould become quite distressed if shesaw me packing my suitcase on a Sundaynight.

This is just a taste of the MurrayClan’s life in Adelaide that I hope willbe of interest to those who read thismessage: including Lee Bacchus (1971C) who was my very dear friend atSutton Valence School and with whom Ihave regrettably lost contact since leav-ing for Australia.

Every moment and every experiencein one’s life propels us forward to thenext – Sutton Valence School was an im-portant part for me in the movementfrom child to adult – I feel my time atSVS contributed to the way I see theworld around me – in working, socialand most importantly, in human terms.Whatever we strive for in life involves ef-fective human rapport and relationshipto make it work.

NAYLOR, Nigel (1962 M)Nigel (known as Nick) found himself

on the missing list and got in contact.

After leaving School, Nick found him-self in the Army and after 37 years leftas a Lt Col in 2001. Following that, hewent into the Private Sector where hehas been ever since with 3 different com-panies. He is now an independent ITSecurity Consultant with his own com-pany.

OLIVER, Frank (Ex-staff 1996-2006)

Having spent a combined 28 yearsworking at Sutton Valence School it wasno surprise that Glynis and I took awhile to adjust to retired life. However,the arrival of two new grandchildren inthe autumn of 2006 provided our firstdistraction.

Our ‘seaside home’ at Herne Bay,which we started building eight yearsago, was finally finished and as a resultwe have had the pleasure of entertain-ing a lot of visitors.

Dinghy sailing has remained our pas-sion, taking us all over the country, rac-ing at different clubs as well at our homeclub, Hampton Pier Yacht Club. In 2008we became National Champions for thesecond time, particularly pleasing be-cause we were the oldest sailors com-peting!

The ‘Brief History of the Oliver fam-ily’, which I started writing just before Iretired from SVS has now grown to ninevolumes! Glynis and I have travelled

thousands of miles, sat for many days incounty archives and even appeared onBelgium television in 2009!

In April 2010 we visited Steve Broomeand his family in Queensland, Australia(Steve was Dan Keep’s predecessor) andhe sends his best wishes to anyone whoremembers him!

PATTINSON, J Stephen (1965 L)It was really good to return after 45

years on the day Roger Bannisteropened the new Athletics Track.

I took early retirement from StandardLife after heart problems but feel reallywell again. However both my Runningand Motor Racing days are far behindme. This year Valerie and I will go toMonaco and Oberammergau. Mydaughter Juliette is lecturing atStrathclyde University so we go toScotland regularly. Best wishes to Staffand OS.

PRESCOTT, John (1964 M)

After leaving the school, emigrated toSouth Africa for 8 years. Returned to‘Settle down’ and spent 15 years in theholiday/travel business. Then trans-ferred into the computer software busi-ness. Sold that after a further 20 yearsand am now retired.

24


Two wives, 3 children and 3 grandchil-dren later, I have a full time hobby thathas turned into a retirement business ofoperating Rolls-Royces & Bentleys aswedding cars. Also now operate an En-thusiasts website for the cars and theirowners throughout the world – keepsthe brain active and me out of mischief.

RICHARDS, Neil (1967 F)Having retired from teaching, I am

now a member of the British BiologyOlympiad committee and am responsi-ble for setting the questions for Part Aof the 2010 British Biology Olympiadcompetition. Last July I served on theJury of the International BiologyOlympiad held at Tsukuba University,Tokyo, Japan. I have also been invited toserve on the Jury for the 2010 competi-tion to be held in South Korea in July. Ijust check that the questions are writtenin ‘proper English’ and leave the aca-demic bits to the other members of theJury who are, by and large, Professorsand post-doc researchers! All the ques-tions for the 4 practical papers and the 2theory papers are written in English bythe ‘host country’ and had to be trans-lated by all bar 7 of the 57 (59 in 2010) ofthe competing nations. The whole eventis, very much like an Olympic gameswith parades and speeches beforehandand a parade and more speeches fol-lowed by a huge party after the final-daypresentations. In 2009, the UK teamwhom I assisted in pre-event trainingfinished ‘top’ in Europe - a fantastic ex-perience and achievement for all in-volved.

Have played cricket for Kent Over60’s in the County Championship com-petition, BUT there are no fleet andagile fielders to take the catches of-fered!!!

RICKETTS, Charles (1979 F)Charlie is a senior director and part-

ner of Cenkos, a company dealing incorporate finance. He is married to Jilland they have 3 sons. The eldest,Joseph, has just left school and is fillingin a year before going to OxfordBrookes to study Architecture. He hasjust passed a Master Mariners coursewhich he hopes will bring in some cashin the university vacs if he can find somewealthy clients who would like theiryachts delivered to fancy places.

RICKETTS, James (1980 F)James is unmarried. He is a senior

film director in an advertising agencycalled Tag. He has been there for 4years after leaving similar jobs in Pragueand Budapest.

RUFFELL, Tony (1958 M)

David Harverson (1956 M), KeithGilham (1959 M), and Tony Ruffell(1958 M) met in August 2010 for an en-joyable lunch. So successful was the oc-casion that they would like to make it aregular event and invite others who livein the Oxfordshire and surroundingarea. Please contact Tony [email protected].

SCOTT-WILSON, Peter (1974 M)BA German from Southampton. Mar-

ried Corinne Kronauer in 1976. Oneyear teaching in Reggio Calabria (Italy).PGCE TEFL from Leicester. Four chil-dren (Julia, Hew, Guy and Ursula) by1986. Taught languages in Stockport andFolkestone until 1989 and took a post-graduate Diploma in Teaching French.Divorced 1990 and left teaching. Re-trained in Houston (USA) as a DrillingFluids Engineer. In the early 1990’sworked on oilrigs in the North Sea,United Arab Emirates, Germany andSwitzerland from a base in Aberdeen(Scotland). After working as technicalsupervisor of an oil industry environ-mental services company and in adrilling product research lab, learned tofly (PPL) and completed a distancelearning MSc in Integrated Environ-mental Management from Bath in 2000.Since then has worked for RSK Envi-ronment Ltd as an environment con-sultant working on international oildevelopment projects. On 50th birthdayin 2006, married Carmen GarcíaCarballido. Still enjoys learning to playmusical instruments and learning tospeak languages (currently reading allthe Harry Potter books in Spanish).Moved to Spain in 2009, but hopes tomove back to an independent Scotlandbefore long.

SIEWERT, Ralf (1982 W)My two daughters Anna and Lena are

growing up very fast and they are veryactive. That keeps me young and active.I still play Football with the Bank I workfor and we won the "WestLB Pokal"twice in the last 5 years. Both my daugh-ters are growing up bilingual, as I amspeaking only English to them. Anna hasa great advantage now that she goes toschool. I have to teach them to read andwrite the language now. All in all she isenjoying school and Lena the Kinder-

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June 2011

garten and I am thinking of sendingthem to Sutton Valence for a year or twowhen they get a bit older. We want tocome and visit the school sometime inthe next couple of years.

On the work side, I am still workingfor the same "Sparkasse" (TSB) i havealways been working for during the last20 years. I am now responsible for thewhole institute deciding what PensionFunds, Closed End Funds, HedgeFunds, Bond Funds and so on we sellour customers. I am enjoying work verymuch and as I live 15 minutes away fromhome, I have lots of time to spend withmy family.

SOU, Celso (2006 W & H)Currently studying a degree in Busi-

ness Studies at City University London.

SPEAR, Kelvin (1965 C)We have recently re-established con-

tact with Kelvin Spear. After a few ca-reers, Kelvin started his first businessDerby Domestic Agency. He now hasvarious businesses including the exportof steel from Holland to Yugoslaviamanufacturing bicycles and importingthem to the UK. Also, a self storage inGuildford, Aldershot and 2 facilities inBarcelona where he lives with 3 of hischildren. He skis, sails, plays tennis and

still plays fives although he plays Etonfives now rather than the rugby fives.He has bought an old fortified CatalanMasia near Barcelona which was an en-tire village 600 years ago where he hopesto make a fives court eventually.

STILL, Richard (1949 DB) Richard was admitted to Sutton

Valence in Spring term of 1942. Therunning term, cross country and track.Also fives, tennis, rugby and football.

In 1944, we used to have double peri-ods of music and singing! I am tonedeaf, they did not want me in thoseclasses; so I requested to have extrawoodworking classes with J H Richards(Chips as he was known) – a very strictman if you were not interested, heavenhelp you.

J H Richards was a very practical andintelligent man, he taught me, not onlywoodwork but also how to use every ma-chine in the workshop including the cir-cular saw bench. One day while havinginstruction on how to re-metal a bearingA B Derrick came to the workshop re-questing Chips to cut him out someframes for his BEES! After he hadgone, Chips said to me just the job foryou, you can use the saw bench! I en-quired what are frames? When athome, he puts wax foundation into themfor his bee hives. Quite easy Chips said,all saw cuts, which it was, they must beaccurate, he said, “Bees are funny in-sects”.

All the machinery in the workshopwas belt driven off of shafting, a largegas engine supplied the power. So intime I cut out the frames and thought Icould make some for myself, plenty ofwood and seasoned at home. I then got

some plans of ‘how to make a Beehive’.WBC seemed the one to make, the tele-scopic type. The hive I made at homeand was ready and waiting for bees.

STOCKMAN, Kate (née Murray)(1992 V) is currently working in the catering de-

partment at Sherborne Girls in betweenbeing a Mum to her 3 children (Maisie,7 and twins Archie and Amelia nearly5).

SYKES, Roger (1967 C)Roger was a partner with Whitehead

Monckton in Maidstone from 1979 untilretirement from private practice in 2002.Latterly his main area had been the rep-resentation of children in care proceed-ings.

Appointed HM Coroner forMaidstone in 1986 and for Mid Kentand Medway in 1996. Roger has beenthe Under Sheriff of Kent since 1999.

THORMAN (née Boorman) Charlotte(1988 V)

Charlotte recently got back in touchafter finding herself on the missing list.Charlotte married Malcolm Thorman acraft teacher and moved out to theBahamas where her husband taughtauto mechanics. The school was quitedeprived and she was able to raisemoney for the school through her art

26


work and resident celebrities. Charlotteand her husband are now living in Som-erset and continuing with her art work.

TOBIN, Jake (2004 M)Jake sent us a photograph of Old Sut-

tonians who all work for Lockton Com-panies LLP.

TOWNSEND, Susannah (2007 G)Susannah has come back from playing

professional hockey in Belgium and isundergoing senior England assessment.

WIGGINS, Paul (1967 M)I left SVS whilst Evers was still HM.

My recollections of “Beam”, as he wascheekily known by us boys because of hisfixed facial expression that was not al-ways a genuine smile, were of him as alight-footed participant in his fond pro-ductions of G&S. Also of his ever quiv-ering right foot which he wouldrepetitively joggle up and down in arhythmical bounce on the ball of his footwhenever seated at a desk.

At school I spent more time on sportthan learning, and on leaving I playedHooker in rugby for the Midland Bank1st XV, (my first job) and as a represen-tative for United Banks 1st XV againsthome county sides. At age 22 years Imoved jobs to Hambros Bank and latermoved to playing rugger for Sevenoaksclub.

At age 23 I came to a personal faith inJesus Christ whilst attending St Helen’sChurch in Bishopsgate where Rev DickLucas was the minister. During my timeat SVS the school Chaplin, following onfrom Rev Beasley, was Mike Gibson, anOlympic trialist at javelin and discus, Iseem to remember. It was Gibson thatinvited Dick Lucus down to preach inchapel to us heathen boys seven yearsearlier, and by a ‘strange’ coincidence Ifound myself attending his lunch-timeservices in the City.

I married Meryl McDonald at age 29,a wonderful girl from N Ireland and myBest Man was Colin Molyneux (1966 C).Meryl & I remain in wedded ‘bliss’ to

this day having two daughters, one mar-ried and one still looking.

I then moved jobs again, this time toBarclays and advanced to branch man-ager at Russell Square in 1989. In 1990 Ispecialised in High Net Worth ClientBanking and took Financial Adviserqualifications. At age 54 I resigned frombanking and am now self-employed as aFinancial Consultant.

WIGLESWORTH, Roger (1956 M)We have recently re-established con-

tact with Roger and he reports that afterleaving School, he immediately took Ar-ticles to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor,Auctioneer and Estate Agent and hasbeen in private practice in Warwickshireand West Midlands, only recently retir-ing. He was High Sheriff of Warwick-shire in 2003 and is currently a DeputyLieutenant of the County. In retire-ment, Roger continues to be active inchairing and/or as Trustee for a numberof significant charitable trusts, most ofwhich have property holdings in their in-vestment portfolio.

WILMSEN, Viola (2002 S) is theyoungest and now a permanent memberof the orchestra of the Opera in Berlin(Deutsche Open Berlin).

WORKMAN, David (1970 W) hasbeen appointed Director General of theConfederation of Paper Industries (CPI)and relocating from Yorkshire toSwindon.

YATES, Stephen (1971 F)My brother Martin (1966 F) and I had

a wonderful time seeing former class-mates and masters at the middle-agedspread reunion dinner in September lastyear. It was amazing for me to see

Pictures painted by Charlotte

Tom Hester (2004 W), Jake Tobin(2004 M), Brett Warburton-Smith (1987W), Oliver Miles (2010 W) and NevilleMiles (1979 C), taken at their work

Christmas Party

27

June 2011

Messrs Chance, McCormick andBeaman after more than 30 years!

I now live in Ramsgate and work inCanterbury at Chaucer College, which isthe British campus of Shumei Univer-sity, Japan. As a consequence, all of ourstudents here are Japanese and are un-dergraduates in their first year of study.My particular responsibility is co-ordi-nating – here in the UK - the faculty ofteacher education, which, in only its sec-ond year, has sent us the grand total of 2trainees! A major part of their pro-gramme is to visit schools in Kent and inEurope and to make comparisons withJapan. Last month we travelled toStuttgart, the month before to Amiens.In March I fly to Berlin. This all seemsquite appropriate for me, as it gives methe chance to practise the languages Istudied to university level all those yearsago but then abandoned when I took theTEFL route (the modern umbrella termis TESOL, which more or less means theteaching of English to foreign learners)– there I have stayed ever since!

I would always be happy to hear fromanyone who remembers me and whowishes to make contact. My email [email protected]

BirthsBILLS on 1st October 2010, to Char-

lotte Bills (née Basham) (1992 S) andNicholas Bills (1992 W), a girl, IsabelleKathryn Emily Bills.

COSTAIN on 10th June 2009, toKatherine Costain (née Moon) (1994 V)and Rory Costain, a boy, David Costain.

ELLIS on 3rd March 2011, to NikkiEllis (née Aviss) (1991 V) and MarkEllis, a girl, Penny Kay Ellis.

MILLS on 12th October 2010, toCatherine Mills (née Day) (1995 V) andGavin Mills, a girl, Amy Rebecca Mills.

MORGAN on 23rd July 2010, toDidde and Tom Morgan (1999 L), a girl,Freya Emily Morgan.

SKINNER on 21st October 2010, toSophie Skinner (née Hutchinson) (2003H) and Jack Skinner, a girl, Esme Is-abella Skinner.

WATERS on 23rd May 2009, toPamela and James Waters (1991 L), adaughter, Francesca Mae Waters.

WATERS on 29th April 2010, to Lizand William Waters (1994 L), a son,Howard Ruben Waters.

WILLETTS on 21st June 2010, toLaura Willetts (2007 Cl) and John Tol-hurst (2004 L), a girl, Emily Elizabeth.

MarriagesBABA-ISHIHARA on Friday 24th

September 2010. Dr Toshiaki Baba(1997 M) and Satoko Ishihara were mar-ried in the Shinto Temple at Kamakura,Yokohama. The ceremony was attendedby family. Toshiaka's family home is inKanazawa, Yokohama and Satoko'sfamily are from Fukuoka. The couplenow live in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

On Saturday 25th a reception andevening party were held for friends and

colleagues in Tokyo at the Jiyu GakuenMyonichikan. (Translation is: TheSchool of Free Spirit).

Guests in attendance included OldSuttonians: Shun Shimizu (1996 M), Ju-nichi Yairo (1997 M), TatsuyaHashimoto (1998 W), Yuki Soga (1996S).

Pictured from left to right: Shun Shimizu, Junichi Yairo, ToshikiBaba, Tatsuya Hashimoto, Yuki Soga.

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DUDLEY-SMITH-CLIFTON on 10thOctober 2010. Chris Clifton to JessicaDudley-Smith (2002 S) in SVS Chapel.

SAGROTT, Stefan (2005 Cl) on 26thFebruary 2011. Stefan Sagrott to JessicaParrish at Houstoun House, near Edin-burgh. Old Suttonians in attendancewere Michael Perry (2005 L), HarrietBardsley (2006 Cl), Jake Wilson (2005Cl) and Penny Saunders (2005 S).

DeathsAISHER, Michael (1960 W), died on

9th August 2010.

ASHBY, Colin (1957 M), died inFebruary 2011.

Around 400 people attended a memo-rial service for Colin Ashby. Mr Ashbyleft Sutton Valence School as a recordholder for the 440 yards dash and with agood reputation as a good rugby player.After a short apprenticeship with ahaulage firm in Rye, he started his ownbusiness in 1960 with a bank loan andthree trucks, based at Butlers Farm inLangley. The business expanded andmoved base to Boughton Monchelsea.Eventually Colin sold out to MichaelDaniel, who continued the companyunder the name Daniel Ashby Trans-port. Mr Ashby then became interestedin commercial property sales. He com-pleted his last deal just two weeks beforehis death.

His cousin Jonathan Jempson, who gavean address at the memorial service, said:“Colin was an acquisitive and successful en-trepreneur, but he managed all this whilemaking lots of friends along the way.”

BALDOCK, Edward (1991 W), diedon 10th December 2010 at RoyalBrompton Hospital in London.

BARROW, John (1956 W), died on24th September 2011. John arrived at Rev. Josh Nicholl's

Holdgate House, SVS from AberdourPrep. School, Banstead in 1952. Both hiselder brother Michael and youngerbrother Bob also attended SVS. Johnwas appointed Head Boy of Holdgate in1953 and went up to Ponts in 1954. Heplayed 1st XV Rugger in 1955 as well asbeing a valuable member of the CrossCountry VIII in 1956. He left SVS afterthe Lent term 1956 and joined WrittleAgricultural College near Chelmsford,later to farm at North Walsham, Norfolkwhere he came to chair the Young Farm-ers Club and to play Rugby and Cricketin Norwich. After marrying Helen in1961, he moved on to work for a nurserynear Norwich growing pot plants underglass. Both daughters of the marriagewere born at this time, Margaret in 1963and Jane in 1965. John was made re-dundant when the nursery was sold andthe family then moved to Mortlakewhere he accepted a position of TraineeProduction Manager with WatneysBrewery but was made redundant againin 1980. He then joined a mineral waterbottling factory where he stayeduntil1993. During all this time John hadpursued his love of things grown andwon many awards for vegetables andflowers grown on his allotment. He alsojoined a running club in Kingston, com-pleting over fifty marathon races in aidof charity, raising large amounts ofmoney, indeed a book of raffle ticketswas placed in his coffin. The family re-turned to Norfolk in 1993 where Johnpursued his great love of all aspects ofthe garden. It was in March 2002 whilst

running a marathon around Berkham-stead that he had the family heart attack.Happily he was successfully treated inHemel Hempstead Hospital. Unhappilyneither his mother nor his two brothershad survived their heart attacks. Johnhad his cancer operation in 2006 whichgave him two more years but not beforehe'd delayed the operation for twoweeks in order to take part in the'Round Norfolk Relay'. Typically Johnremained cheerfully positive until theend, remarking "Well old friend, I've gota bit of a scrap on this time". Rest inPeace John Richard Johnstone Barrow,a truly good man whose wife, Helen,daughters Margaret and Jane andgrandaughter Hannah survive him – ByJohn Johnson (1956 W)

BENTLEY, Raeph (1942 W), died on7th January 2011. After leaving SVS,Raeph was commissioned from Sand-hurst into the Life Guards Regiment inJune 1943. He served through Europein WW2, then in Egypt and Palestineand later in Korea, where he wasawarded the US Bronze Star Medal, andthen in Tokyo. Returning to England in1954, he resigned his commission andemigrated to Canada where he workedin and with the logistical arms of the oilindustry at Toronto, Calgary, Montrealand Ottawa until his retirement in 1990.His last 10 years were marked by beingthe Canadian representative on the In-dustry Supply Advisory Group to the In-ternational Energy Agency and for 3years as Secretary to the Energy Sup-plies Allocation Board in Ottawa.

He was a member of the Cavalry andGuards Club, London and was Presidentof the original Household Brigade ofNorth America, later serving as Presi-dent of the Grenadier Guards Associa-

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June 2011

tion of Canada. He founded the Oil-men’s Golfing Turtles. He was a dedi-cated gardener and left lovely gardensalong his trail. He will be sorely missed.“For trees around his homestead, andflowers about his gate.”

Raeph was very found of SVS andgenerously donated many books to theSchool library. He is survived by his wifeMary, son Mark, grandchildren andgreat-grandchildren.

BRETSCHER, Gordon (1967 W),died in October 2010.

CAMPION, Richard (1969 M), diedon 21st May 2010.

CARTER, C Martin (1940 M), diedon 21st March 2011.A good shot and a fine athlete and

rugby player at School he left us to go toLondon University, but the war cur-tailed that. He joined the Fleet Air Armin 1941 and saw service on aircraft carri-ers in the Mediterranean. He sold ma-rine navigational aids after the war,working for a subsidiary company ofAGA, travelling extensively in Africaand Australia, the Middle East, and FarEast, where he became manager of theIndian company for 7 years, before re-tirement to Herefordshire.

CHASTAIN, Tom (1955 W), died on11th February 2011. Tom was an Eng-lish Speaking Union Exchange Pupil.

CLEMENT, Frederick (1962 C), hasdied after a short illness at the beginningof 2011.

COMRIE CB, Rear Admiral Peter(1942 W), died on 13th April 2011.Peter was Head of School.

COUTTS, Robert (ex-staff 1953-1977), died on 4th October 2010.

Robert Couttscame to SVS,via Oxford Uni-versity, Strathal-lan School inPerthshire andQueen Eliza-beth’s G.S.Blackburn. Hehad a long andlasting impact here from 1953 until1977, when he gave up the geographydepartment that he had led so well andtook on part-time duties for one moreyear before full retirement.

His contribution to the geography de-partment was very strong. He was a veryconscientious and successful teacher andproved himself a good all-rounder bytaking on the leadership of the CCF andorganising the shooting team in a periodduring which consolidated its position asone of those very prominent in the listof those regularly awarded prizes in thisactivity. Robert was also Housemaster ofBennett House for some years where hiscare and concern were as deep as histemper was long. He was a very good ad-ministrator and spent his final few yearsacting as ‘Headmaster’s Assistant’ andfor a very brief spell when both theHeadmaster and the Senior Masterwere unwell, he was Acting Headmaster.

For all the above he was greatly re-spected. That respect was made all themore certain when one remembers hisvisage - he had a very squashed nose. Itwas suspected he had had a distin-guished pugilistic career (and Robertwas not one to deny this speculation);boys were wary of incurring his wrath.

Little did they know. He was a real gen-tleman and very mild-mannered.

It was not a surprise when, as he leftthe school, he was described by one ofhis contemporaries as ‘a completeschoolmaster’. He remained in contactwith the School for several years sincemany of his close friends and colleaguesremained at Sutton Valence for sometime before their eventual retirementand departure from the area, and oursocial occasions were always enhancedwhen he turned up as one of the morewelcome guests.

Robert had a very long and eventfulretirement of thirty years spent inCranbrook and latterly, Goudhurst.Here he made a strong impact in a com-munity that appreciated his gentle de-meanour and his firm commitment tothe friendships he made. He will begreatly missed.

DANIELS, Keith (1973 F), died inMarch 2011. Bob Chance wrote: I wasHouse Tutor for several years before be-coming Founder's Housemaster in Sep-tember 1971 and so knew Keith verywell.

Keith Daniels entered Bennett Housein 1966 before transferring to Founder'sHouse in 1968. It was not long before hestood out for the way he committed him-self to all he was involved in and as timewent on it was clear that he both lovedthe School and took great pride in beingthere. He made a considerable impacton the sporting scene ending up in a verysuccessful 1st XV rugby team, for whichhe played tirelessly in the pack andgained his Full Colours as well as beinga loyal and reliable member of the Fivessquad. But it was to cricket that he was

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most devoted. He loved the game. Herepresented 1st and 2nd XI (Captain insuccessive years) over a period of threeyears and earned this fitting tribute fromthe 1st team coach: That great supporterof School Cricket, Keith Daniels, madea welcome and successful return to the1st XI, and I am most grateful to him forthe important supporting role that hehas played over the last few years.

It was no surprise when he was pro-moted to the post of School Prefect atthe close of his school career.

After school Keith took and educationdegree and taught in West Sussex. Hecontinued his interest in rugby, playingregularly for Chichester. He leaves hiswidow, Jenny, and two children.

DAY, Roly (1931 W), died 12thJanuary 2011, aged 95.

Such a great character a few words donot do him full justice. Roly was a greatsportsman, first here at Sutton Valenceand then later with West Farleigh Crick-eters and the Mid Kent Staghounds. Hehad several winners as a point to pointrider. On the outbreak of war he joinedthe army and refused a commissionsince he wished to stay with his friends.He defended battle of Britain Airfieldswith his Bofors gun, surviving despitethe high casualty rate. He was also partof each of the forces that landed in NAfrica, Italy France and at Arnhem. Theextent of his active service was onlyknown to his family well after the event.It must have been quite an adventurebeing towed along in a glider togetherwith the gun and its equipment. Land-ing must have been a bit scary, too. Afterthe War he devoted himself to farmingand to Hunton Parish Council for whom

he served for 32 years.

DOWNES, John (1947 M), has died.

HARRINGTON, John (1939 W), hasdied.

HATCH, Alex (2001 F), died March2009.

Before Alexdied, he be-came a rovingcoach and re-cruited almost50 members tothe Bethers-den Tennis

Club. The club was on the brink of fold-ing when Alex took up the role, along-side several friends. The tennis club hasnow moved from strength to strengthdue to Alex’s efforts.

HOOKER, Anthony (1943 M), diedon early 2010. Whilst at School,Anthony was in the shooting team,received colours for football and on theSports Committee. He was also aPrefect.

HOOKER, Chris (1969 M), died on5th September 2010 of cancer in St Wil-fred’s Hospice, Chichester. Whilst atSchool, Chris was a House Prefect, inthe under-15 hockey team, junior fenc-ing team, L/Cpl in CCF and the Conjur-ing Club Chairman.

JANES, Peter Norman (1939 M), died7th March 2011. Father of Iain Janes(1978 M). Peter had distinguished him-self at swimming but he missed out ofhonours in rugby, having suffered a seri-ous injury in a match which put him inbed for a whole term! He had a distin-guished war record, rising to the rank of

Captain in the Oxford and Bucking-hamshire Light Infantry, but that duringactive service he was wounded and per-manently disabled.

He made a great contribution to localgovernment in Eton after the War and,in his own words he had ‘a slightly eso-teric’ interest in equitation, becomingsomething of an expert about the designof floors of indoor riding schools, count-ing Windsor Castle and BuckinghamPalace among his clients.

LINDSEY, Peter (1940 W), has died.

LOVE, Daniel (Danny) (2006 M),died on 6th August 2010.

NEATE, Paul (1956 W), died on 21stFebruary 2011. Paul Neate was head ofhouse in his final year. He was captainof athletics, but also contributed stronglyin swimming and with the choir. Afterschool he served briefly in the Army be-fore a lifelong career with Rothmans In-ternational Tobacco. He becameDirector of Operations UK.

NINER, Aubrey (1938 W), died on26th November 2010.

“I hate to put it down to luck. It wasjust brazen cheek really” These were thewords of Aubrey Niner in 2004 describ-ing the only successful “home run” fromthe East Compound of Stalag Luft IIIduring WW2. He was recounting the re-markable “Wooden Horse Escape”. Forthree months he had been one of thosewho vaulted day after day over the bar-rier so that the three who escaped coulduse it as a cover for their tunnel.

Aubrey Niner came to Sutton Valencein 1932. He was a good all-rounder, but

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not distinguished in any one area. Hisown account of that time concludes thathe was ‘utterly without distinction, but Ienjoyed the cricket’. This is too modest.He obtained good grades in the Schoolcertificate and he played for the 2nd XIand was capped while in the fifth form.

Within a couple of years of leaving hehad become a Flight Lieutenant in theRAF, and in 1942, aged only 20 he be-came a POW. During a low-level run ata target near Lille his Boston bomberwas hit by flak, disabling the starboardengine and setting fire to the wing. Asthe fire approached the fuel tank andthe wing appeared to be buckling underthe heat, Aubrey looked for somewhereto crash land. In the centre of Lille thereis a large open area, Champs de Mars.He chose this space and with great skill,all the greater because most of his rud-der had been shot away, he managed toput the aircraft on the ground.

Incarcerated in Stalag Luft III helearned all about liquor distilling andgolf ball manufacture the better to whileaway his time. He was also involved in‘The Great Escape’ though not as an es-capee. After surviving ‘The LongMarch’ and the one of the coldest win-ters on record he was discharged fromthe RAF at the end of 1945.

He returned to the family firm, Har-ringtons and subsequently became a di-visional director within the CourtaldsGroup and Chief Executive of the Na-tional Children’s Wear Association.

PRIOR, Christopher Martin (1956M) died in August 2010.

PYNE, Frank G, B.Sc. (Econ) FCAFCMA (1952 F) died in July 2010.We are sad to record the death in July

of last year of Frank Pyne. After gradu-ating from the LSE he had a successfulaccountancy career with Rio Tinto, TheStanford Research Institute and thenworking for himself as an internationalstrategic consultant to many large com-panies in the field of ‘Problem Resolu-tion’. This involved travel throughoutthe world, especially in Africa. He wasProject Controller for the UK manage-ment team of the Anglo-French Chan-nel Tunnel Project and, on secondmentto the Civil Service he helped to plan theNational Employment Service andTraining Agency. He further volun-teered to serve on National Committeesof the Institute of Chartered Account-

ants and the Institute of ManagementAccountants.

REYNOLDS, G Alan (1928 W), diedon 22nd March 2011, aged 99 years.

RUBIN, Peter (1983 W), died on 7thNovember 2010. Peter had spent mostof the last 20 years living in New York.For the last two years he had been trav-elling in Spain and Morocco. There wasa thanksgiving for him in Manhattan. Ifanyone would like to make a donationin his remembrance, Peter’s parentshave asked they be made to MIND.

SHELLEY, Leonard Mark (1982 M),died on 13th October 2010 after a shortillness due to cancer. Mark was wellknown for his artwork in the Hastingsarea. Len was as much a maker of fa-bles as he was a maker of boxedtableaux. His art consisted of the cre-ation anthropomorphic characters act-ing out roles in scenes that seem to eachreal life but which, at the same time, arerooted in theatre and fairytales. In thesummer of 2010, Len married Angie, anartist and sadly Angie also died of can-cer, only 3 weeks after Len.

TONGE, Keith (1958 W), died March2011.

TRIPP, Peter (1938 W), died 11thDecember 2010. J Peter Tripp obtainedhis CMG in 1971 for his excellent workin HM Diplomatic Service. He was Am-bassador to Thailand from 1978 until hisretirement, having previously served asAmbassador in Libya and as High Com-missioner in Singapore.

At SVS from 1935-1938 he was ahouse prefect in Westminster and mostof his activity at School was non-sport-

Niner being led away after crash-land-ing his bomber, photo The Telegraph

Aubrey with Don Hodges (1937 W),2010

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ing; he was in the Drama Soc and on theLibrary Committee. He left us to go toFrance where he studied at the Univer-sity in Poitiers. At the onset of War hebecame a Marine in which service hewas mentioned in despatches. There-after he joined the Diplomatic Corps,serving mostly in the Middle East coun-tries.

WARBURTON, Bernard (ex-staff1954-1980), died on 2nd August 2010.Bernard was Head of Science at theSchool. He studied Science at Durhambut the War interrupted his studies.After training to be a teacher his firstpost was at Wallingford GS where it wassuggested he should shave off hisbeloved moustache! He refused. To-gether with facial appendage and unrulyhair, he came here and made a massiveimpact right from the first day. Histeaching was idiosyncratic and highly ef-fective and his habit of using the Bunsenburner to light his pipe was a source ofamusement. He was a significant con-tributor to out-of-school activities andstaff activities in particular. Was it be-cause he was a scientist he learned tobowl ‘swingers’ – and could he makethem swing! He retired first to Ross onWye, and then Stroud Wesley Courtwhere he was very active in local charitywork and the Christian Community hehad joined. A real ‘Mr Chips’ and anengaging character, Bernard’s opinionswere wholehearted and stoutly de-fended, whether concerning the meritsof a hymn tune or a technicality of examentry.WATSON, John (1947 W), died on

21st April 2011. Son of John W Watson(1921) and father to Stuart Watson(1979 F) and James Watson (1980 F).

• • •

OSA AGMand DinnerThe OSA Dinner for 2011 was held in

the School on 19th March. 109 OS andtheir guests sat down to a pleasant meal,after which we were entertained by asplendid account by Grahame Chilton(1977 L) about how he was prepared for‘life’ by his adventures at the School andhow, later, he climbed the ‘slippery pole’to success in business. Grahame hasbeen the Chairman of Aon Specialty, aunit of Aon Corporation and has beenChairman of Aon Benfield sinceDecember 2008. He serves as Chairman- strategy marketing and client develop-ment at Aon Benfield Group Limited.He also serves as Chairman of Aon Spe-cialty Re, Inc., a subsidiary of Aon Cor-poration. He served as Vice Chairmanof Aon Group, Inc. Indeed he sits veryhighly on a very tall pole. Grahame’s ad-vice - have integrity, be loyal, be true toyourself and never dissemble - was welltaken by the school prefects who were inattendance en masse and whose contri-bution to the night’s fun was good to see.They are an articulate, confident and en-tirely charming group.

Report on OSCricket 2010A few years ago on Upper it was more

or less impossible to win a game by bat-ting first. The wicket was so flat thatgood bowlers struggled to contain a flowof runs, let alone bowl out a side thatdidn’t want to get out. It was a bit dif-ferent this year. A combination of indif-ferent weather, and heavily used wicketswithout pace meant that batting wasn’tquite so easy.

The upside is that it creates more in-teresting games, and the first two gamesof the week were won by the side battingsecond. In both instances, entering thefinal over all results were possible. Can’tget much better than that, although it ispreferable to be the winners (weweren’t). The game against the School afew weeks earlier wasn’t as close as we’dhave liked. Phil Higgins had to cope withlate drop outs – the scourge of matchmanagers, and it reached epidemic pro-portions in the week – but the Schoolwere much stronger, beating us com-fortably by 90 runs, in spite of WesJackson’s 6 wicket haul. The OS sidelooked good on paper but not many hadbeen playing regular cricket and thisrustiness showed in both batting andbowling. The School, on the other hand,had some serious talent in the top orderand plenty of economical bowling.

The big event of the season – doesn’ttake much to get an OS cricketer excited- was the arrival of new OS cricket caps,after several years of debate on the sub-ject, kindly organised by Blair Hart.

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June 2011

These came in the form of light blueAustralian style baggy caps with the oldSchool crest prominent. En masse theywere very fetching, and certainly dis-tinctive. “Come on the baggy blues” haseven become the sign off on OSFacebook message walls.

The Scorpions match was as enter-taining as ever. The dreaded dropoutsmeant that at 10.30am we had about 9players but a flurry of phone calls got usto 12. Fortunately Scorpions were in asimilar position so each side batted 11and rotated the fielders. As it happenedwe maintained our 55 or so year agespan of players with Neville Harrison (aspritely and 5 wicket taking 71) andHenry Macdonald (who appearedrather irritated at just turning 70), tak-ing the field alongside two newlyblooded pre GCSE lads (Sam Russell-Vick and Harry Bee) both of whom set-tled quickly into OS cricket.

The Roffensians game was a bit morelike an old style fixture with a high scor-ing and somewhat sedate run chase. Wethought we had posted a good score,with Simon Higgins contributing amaiden OS 100, and sharing a partner-ship of 157 with Matthew Day and then92 with Ben Daking. Two days later hewas rushed to hospital to have his ap-pendix removed, so just as well he gothis innings in first. UnfortunatelyRoffensians opened their innings with aBrisbane 1st grade cricketer (who is onthe staff at Rochester) and he pro-ceeded to make a mess of our declara-tion until he succumbed, with 35 stillneeded, to the hard working Pat Stile-man, who bowled right through the in-ning. Like the Scorpions the day before,they won with 3 balls to spare, so a goodcontest.

So on to Marden where we met SamCourtley, who had just left SVS, andturned out to be quite a handful on avariable track, putting Messrs Fether-ston and Rutherford back in the hutchin his second over. Although Braddersand Richard Mee (in his first OS matchfor about 10 years) both scored 55, 172was nothing like adequate for our gag-gle of occasional or inexperiencedbowlers to defend. With any luck MrCourtley will turn out for us next year.Richard Mee and Harry Bee bothbowled for OS but unfortunately for anybudding Brian Johnstons in the com-mentary box that they did not operate intandem.

Less said about the game against BlairHart’s All Star XI the better, not somuch for the match, which was aban-doned shortly after lunch when theheavens opened. The main problem wasthat half our team didn’t appear. Matchmanager Mathew Wooderson was onhoneymoon (a bad piece of scheduling)and although Richard Bradstock hadagreed to run the team on the day hehad about 6 players shortly before thestart. Several guests and friends wererounded up but, as they say, lessonswere learnt!

We beat Peter Davies XI with some-thing to spare, Pat Stileman working hisway steadily through them, with helpfrom Jack Field and Michael Coles.There was a bit of a 1972 reunion withTony Rutherford, Paul Latham andDesmond High all gracing the side. Paulgenerously gave Tony a chance of an in-nings by getting out when the scoreswere level

The final match with Dragons is in-variably hard fought and we were able to

introduce Chris Vernon and TylerGriffin from the 2010 leavers to OScricket. After a cautious start, adjustingto a slower wicket after some matcheson the County 2nd XI circuit which hadincluded facing Steven Finn, the Eng-land bowler, Chris demonstrated hispedigree with an unbeaten 151. Wethought 268 was gettable and Braddershad worked the declaration to givenDragons as many overs as we had facedbut Pat picked up another 6 wickets,once again with strong support fromJack Field and Michael Coles.

In terms of individual performancesChris Vernon’s was probably the high-light of the week. As importantly for OScricket, he clearly enjoyed the experi-ence and let’s hope he comes back formore, although he may well be commit-ted at a much higher level. As alreadynoted Simon Higgins scored a maidenton, and Neville Harrison continued toshow the youngsters the importance ofline and length. Bradders had a quietyear by his standards, only posting two50s, but still scored more than PatStileman (there was money riding onthis). However Pat had the last laugh,taking 18 wickets in 4 matches, includ-ing two sixes and a five. Shades of NeilRichards….talking of which 2010 was astrange year by OS standards, in that it isprobably the first year since about 1966that neither Neil Richards or AndrewScott, founder members of the Bidden-den mafia, have taken part. Both havestruggled with injury or general wearand tear – Scotty taking time to adjust toa new hip, and Neil suffering from adodgy knee. Some would say it isn’t justhis knee that is dodgy but I couldn’t pos-sibly comment.

On the support side Philip Higgins

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kindly umpired whenever he was avail-able, given his Kent League commit-ments, and off field the School Scorer,Dan Hammond, made his OS debut andbrought an array of technological giz-mos to the job.

Food was as good as ever with Lorna

High taking the lead this year with sup-port from Kathy. The importance ofgood catering to fixtures of this sortshould never be underestimated!

Ian and his team did a sterling job onthe ground as ever, but as noted aboveconditions didn’t make it easy for them.

And as ever our thanks to theHeadmaster for making Upper availableto us. More often than not A Level re-sults coincide with the week and Head-masters tend to be in evidence.Unfortunately it wasn’t the case this yearas we were early but hope that BruceGrindlay will be able to turn out for us in2011.

Desmond High (1973 F)

SVS 223 (C Vernon 77, T Griffin44, W Jackson 6-36)

OS 133 Lost by 90 runs

OS 216 (Bradstock 84) Scorpions 217-8 (N Harrison 5-40) Lost by 2 wickets

OS 282-4 dec (S Higgins 118, MDay 78)

Old Roffensians 283-7 (Stileman5-108)

Lost by 3 wickets

OS 172 (Bradstock 55, Mee 55) Marden 175-3 Lost by 7 wickets

Blair Hart All Stars XI 119-3 Match Abandoned

P Davies’ XI 146 (Stileman 6-41) OS 150-4 Won by 6 wickets

OS 268-4 dec (C Vernon 151*) Dragons 196 (Stileman 6-56) Won by 72 runs

2010 results in summary

2011 CricketCricket Tour:

Dates: 3rd-5th August 2011Destination: Somerset/BristolCost: £140 (approx)

The OS attending are a mix of the old and new so every-one is welcome. The tour will consist of a 20/20 march onWednesday 3rd followed by two afternoon fixtures on theThursday and Friday. Please contact Richard Bradstock(2000 L) at [email protected].

OS HockeyThe OS v SVS matches were held on 20th March. The scores were as follows:

1st Team 6-2 to OS2nd Team 4-2 to OS3rd Team 2-1 to OS

Next year we may need to play these tournaments out of season on a Saturday. Also, we are looking for new captains to head the Girls and Boys 1st teams. Please get in touch if you would like to help out.

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June 2011

OS Hockey

OS 2nd team and School 2nd team presented with the Alex Hatch Memorial Trophy

OS 3rd Team

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OS Hockey

NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL

OS 1st Team and School 1st team

Over 60 Old Suttonians attended Westminster Abbeyon 8th October 2010. The occasion was a celebration of100 years of Association with United Westminster SchoolsFoundation. The whole school attended the service andIan Kay (1941 M) and Christina Paca, current pupil, kindlyagreed to give speeches.

Westminster Abbey

Ian Kay (1941 M) and Christina Paca

Dates for yourdiary

Saturday 25th June 2011 1950s Leavers Reunion, contact Jeremy Wall (1954 M), [email protected]

Sunday 26th June 2011 OS v SVS Cricket Match, Upper at 11.30pm, contact Philip Higgins, [email protected]

Friday 8th July 2011 Lashings v School Cricket, all OS welcome, contact Rebecca Riggs, [email protected]

3rd-5th August 2011 Cricket Tour, Destination: Somerset/Bristol, contact Richard Bradstock (2000 L), [email protected]

Saturday 8th October 2011 Oldest and Boldest Reunion

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