President’s Letter Contents - WCBS Bow… · I suppose I have the excuse of ... President’s...

I hope 2007 will be kind to you! Theyear has got off to a controversialstart. Even at the time of writing, inFebruary, there has been a lot in thenews: from climate change, toCelebrity Big Brother, to Catholicadoption agencies.

In my second year of Presidency, the PPAhas been busy working on multiplestrands of activity. Communication withformer pupils continues to improve, usinga combination of old technology such asthe printed “Gossip Bowl” magazine andnew technology such as e-mail lists andthe PPA website. Do not be surprised ifyou start receiving text messages from uson your mobile! (Ed: Don’t get carriedaway, Mr President).

We have started the process ofbenchmarking our Association againstthe former pupils’ societies of otherindependent Catholic co-educationalsecondary schools. I will report on this atour next AGM in early December. We areplanning to stage an old boys’ rugbymatch on the afternoon of Sunday 2ndDecember with two fiercely competitiveteams: Pruett’s Panthers versus Davies’

Dragons! (see thefeature inside formore details). 2007marks the 30thanniversary of myyear group, and Iam hoping to seemany of my peersat the PPA dinnerand the weekend’sevents.

Fundraising will become more important,as the PPA moves to do more for formerpupils in terms of professional networkingand mentoring. Your support will be muchappreciated. We shall have a series ofPrior Park coffee mugs available soon.They will bear designs created by currentpupils at Prior.

So what can we do about climate change,globalisation, negative effects ofmulticulturalism, and state control ofmore or less everything? I think we canall play our part, which makes me feeleven more guilty as I have left a heavycarbon footprint, having travelled to teachin India. I suppose I have the excuse ofrelieving human suffering by medicaleducation, but I am also very muchlooking forward to seeing my classmateBalaji Krishnaswamy, whom I have notseen for 30 years. I hope I can recognisehim!

The good Lord has been kind to me and tomy family. May you be blessed with ahappy and healthy 2007.

Christopher Liu

T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E P R I O R P A R K A S S O C I A T I O N

President’s Letter

Issue 8 • Spring 2007

Christopher Liu in an auto-rickshawHyderabad, India

President’s Letter 1

From the Headmaster 2

Take pride in Prior Park 3

Gossip Bowl 4 - 9

Eye safety talks 10

Cricklade report 10

Weddings 11

Association Day, cricket 12 – 13and PPA sports

Reunions 14-16

PPA Dinner 16-17

Reports on Gap Years(part funded by PPA) 18-20

Report from the Paragon 21

Graduation News 21

Obituaries 22-23

Where are you now? 24

Do you recognise...? 24

Contents

How to contactthe PPA

We are always delighted to hearfrom Association members. Pleasedo get in touch with Debbie O'Bryanon [email protected] or write c/oPrior Park College, Bath BA2 5AH orcall 01225 835353 ext 244.

D E O D U C E D E O L U C E

The lastyear has seen rich

achievement for the College bothacademically and across the ever wideningco-curricular programme. It has also been ayear of important developments. The schoolroll has been at full capacity. Publicexamination results in 2006 show that weboth stretch the ablest pupils and supportthose who can struggle in some areas. Whatis also perhaps most telling about lastsummer’s results was the very considerableimprovement in the area of the middle gradesat A level. At GCSE 2006 saw our best results.

In our university entries all but 6 candidatesgained their first choice universities. Therange of degree courses reflected very wellon both Arts and Sciences at Prior Park. Fiveof our leavers gained places at Oxford orCambridge.

September 2006 opened a new chapter forPrior Park, following the merger with TheParagon School, Prior Park’s Junior School inBath. This was reported in the Spring 2006issue and the last 12 months have shown theenormous benefits for both schools in terms ofsharing resources and collaboration betweenstaff. Prior Park is now a 3 school foundation,the College, the Preparatory School atCricklade and The Paragon, serving the needsof over 900 children.

Our chaplain,Father Frederickde L’Orme,returned to hishome diocese ofWestminster inthe summer of2006, with thebest wishes and

gratitude of thePrior Park community. He

has been replaced by Father MalcolmSmeaton, a priest of the Southwark diocese.Father Malcolm began his ministry in theChurch of England before being received intothe Catholic Church with his wife, Angela. Weare delighted to have them both at the College,residing in St Peter’s. Father Malcolm is also,of course, the Prior Park Association Chaplain.It might be of interest to past pupils to knowhow closely Prior Park works with the widercommunity and with the Diocese. The Collegehosts an annual lecture, organised by the

Catholic Chaplain to the Universities of Bath,Father Bill McLoughlin, who is also our parishpriest and a Prior Park Governor. In the summerwe also host the Catholic Chaplaincy Summerreception. In February a special lecture wasgiven at the College by Canon Dr AnthonyHarding on the life and influence of BishopWilliam Clifford, an evening to mark the 150thanniversary of the ordination of Bishop Cliffordas a Bishop. I hope Canon Harding’s talk can begiven wider circulation, as it was a fascinatingaccount of this great man who, amongst otherthings, was the second founder of Prior Park,(the first, of course, being Bishop Baines).Priests of the Deanery meet annually for lunchat Prior Park. I have served for some years onthe committee of the Department for Schoolsand Colleges in the Clifton Diocese, chaired byBishop Declan Lang. It might also be of interestto past pupils that a new heating system isbeing installed this term in the Chapel of OurLady of the Snows.

The past year has probably seen the best periodof sporting results for both boys and girls at theCollege in all age groups. The school isattracting a number of Sporting Excellencescholars and a team of dedicated PE and Sportsspecialists, led by the Director of PE and Sport,Mr Steve Capon, have developed an impressivecoaching strategy. The College’s sportingreputation, which has always been good, hasrisen markedly in recent years.

Both choral and instrumental music at theCollege flourish, as is well known, to the point atwhich we now have a weekly lunchtimeconcert. The high point for the Performing Artsat Prior Park was the formal opening on 27thJanuary 2007 of The Mackintosh Studio, a twostorey building incorporating a dance studioupstairs and downstairs a seminar room,

changingareas and dressing rooms. This building linksthe Julian Slade Theatre with the classroomblock, an attractive piece of infilling. TheMackintosh Studio was opened by noneother than Sir Cameron Mackintosh himself,who was delighted with the studio and withthe evening, the early part of which consistedof performances of dramatical excerpts anddancing from pupils of various ages acrossthe school.

Boarding accommodation in St Paul’s hasbeen upgraded from top to bottom. Our twoboarding Houses and our girls’ House, StMary’s, offer a quality of boarding second tonone. It was a source of tremendous pride tohave this view thoroughly endorsed by TheCommission for Social Care Inspection,which rigorously inspects 52 standards forboarding! Our care was judged to beexcellent within the houses and tremendousaffirmation was also given to the MedicalCentre, led by our Sister in Charge, MrsRosemary Cole.

I warmly invite all past pupils to come andsee the Alma Mater. I think you will bedelighted and impressed. You will always bemost welcome.

2 Gossip Bowl www.priorpark.co.uk/ppa

Father Malcolm Smeaton

and his wife Angela

St Mary’s

From the Headmaster,Dr Giles Mercer

© Bath Chronicle

www.priorpark.co.uk/ppa Gossip Bowl 3

Take Pride in Prior Park’s PeopleLégion d’honneur for WWII hero

Now a knight ofthe Légiond’honneur, 92 yearold Patrick Barry’scontribution to theWWII commandoraid on St. Nazairein March 1942 wasrecognised by theF r e n c hgovernment at a

ceremony in June 2006. Patrick had beenworking as an artist and specialist screenprinter when he enlisted as a volunteer inthe Royal Marines and took part in whatbecame known as ‘Operation Chariot’. Aformer student at Prior Park, Patrick hasbeen a resident of St-Paul-de-Lizonne inFrance since 1998. The PPA sends theirwarmest congratulations to Mr Barry onthis great honour.

New Year’sHonours forformer pupils

Christopher LogueWinner of the Whitbread Poetry Prize in2006 for Cold Calls, the fifth instalment ofhis remarkable adaptation of The Iliad,Christopher Logue was appointed CBE forservices toliterature thisyear. Considered‘one of England’sgreatest livingpoets’, he wasborn in 1926 andlives in Londonwith his wife, thecritic, RosemaryHill.

Kenneth Macdonald QCK e n n e t hM a c d o n a l dtook up hispost as Headof the CrownProsecutionService andDirector ofP u b l i cProsecutionsin November2003 and was

honoured with a knighthood in 2007. Hehas twenty five years experience in highprofile defence law and is a foundermember of Matrix Chambers, where CherieBooth was one of his colleagues. Ken wasa student at Prior Park College, leavingafter ‘O’ Levels in July 1968. He went on tostudy PPE at St Edmund Hall, OxfordUniversity.

BBC YoungEnvironmentalistJournalist of the yearToby Nowlan,who left Prior in2005, won theprestigious BBCW i l d l i f emagazine’s youngenvironmentalistjournalist of theyear award inNovember of2006. His winningpiece was on NialMoores, a man who has campaigned toprotect East Asia’s birds and naturalhabitats since 1990. Toby describes Nial“an amazing, passionate conservationist”.Toby seems well on his way to achieving hisultimate career ambition – to become awildlife journalist. Toby is studying ecologyat Edinburgh University and has excitingplans for the coming year: a trip to Borneoto look at the impact of logging, and anecological expedition to Sri Lanka to look atthe human impact on elephants andleopards. Keep up to date with Toby’sprogress through his websitewww.ecoyouth.info .

Prior Rugby LegendJeremy Guscottrecently selectedJohn Palmer(PPC 68-76) asone of his top tenrugby centres ina feature in TheSunday Times.Jeremy wrote ofJohn: “he was aprivilege to play with at Bath and he wasone of the most skilful players I have everseen”. Whilst at the College, Johncaptained the Prior rugby team that wasunbeaten for three years and which wonthe National Sevens title in 1976. Johnplayed for Bath Rugby for many years andtaught at King Edward’s School in Bath untiltaking up a post as a coach with BathRugby. He played for England a number oftimes and in recent years has beencoaching the Bath Academy side. Johnvery kindly donated his England shirt, wornin the 1984 England South Africa match, tothe College. The shirt is framed and ondisplay in the pavilion.

Best International Boarder Award

During his final months at Prior ParkCollege, ShinWoo Kang, Head of School05/06, scooped the top prize in theHobsons International competition. He wasawarded ‘Best International Boarder in theUK’ in May 2006. The judges’ criteriainclude how successful the student hasbeen at integrating with the boardingschool and how he or she contributes bothto the school and the wider community.Described by Dr Mercer as a ‘remarkablestudent’, ShinWoo is now studying PPE atChrist Church College, Oxford University.We were delighted to see him back at PriorPark in December when he returned withfriends for the PPA dinner.

© Bath Chronicle


1960 and earlierMounir Faltas (PPC 53-55) paid a surprise

visit to the College with his wife in April of lastyear and was amazed to find girls present!His last visit in the late 70s, which had beenhis first since leaving the school 25 yearsearlier, was at a time when the ChristianBrothers were still present and he wasgreeted by Brother Beattie who, ratherimpressively, recognised the boy in the man!Although changes were evident then, theywere not so dramatic as those which greetedhim this summer! The PPA is delighted to beback in touch with Mounir who is now living inNorthern Virginia, approximately 20 minutesfrom downtown Washington DC and he can becontacted on [email protected]

Following a return to full health after aheart bypass operation, Reverend TimothyDean (PPC 50-60) is happily back in touch withthe PPA. He last attended the PPA dinner in2000 when Brother Miller was our guest ofhonour. In 1992 at the age of 50, Tim wasordained by the late Cardinal Basil Hume; Timhas been a priest of the Diocese ofWestminster for the past 14 years. Currentlyhe is a Cathedral Chaplain at Westminster,Chaplain to the Westminster Cathedral ChoirSchool and Editor of ‘Oremus’ the Cathedralmonthly magazine. Tim can be reached [email protected]

One of our most dynamic former pupils,Colin Tucker (who left PPC in 60), and who at65 years old, finds himself a student again (‘atrifle mature’!) reading for an MA inarchitecture. Semi-retired, Colin still keeps uphis film and television world contacts, runningscreenwriting workshops largely in Europe,recently in Slovenia and Munich, but also atthe London Film School. As Colin says, he is‘long-time married, kids, grandkids, the usualstuff…’ You can reach him [email protected]

Those familiar with the ‘south shore’ of theentrance to Vancouver harbour will shareBrian Long’s (PPC 51-55) distress at the recentstorms’ destruction of more than 3,000 trees inthe historic Stanley Park. The Lions GateBridge, one of only two links to the ‘northshore’ has been closed as a result, and thecost of repairs and replanting the park will bein the millions. Brian’s e-mail address [email protected]

One Saturday early in 2007 James O’Shea(PPC 43-45) and his wife came to visit PriorPark and Dee Miller very kindly showed themaround. We hope the PPA was successful inputting Mr O’Shea back in touch with his oldfriend George Atwell Thomas.

Anthony Finnigan (PPC 45-52) remarried 3years ago, after 4 years on his own followingAnnie’s death. Anthony moved from Oxfordafter having retired from 40 years as a GP, GPtrainer, College Doctor at Trinity & St. Hugh’sColleges, and Hospital Practitioner inPsychiatry at Littlemore Hospital – a career hefound very varied and interesting. Now livingin a quiet village 8 miles south of Leicester,with Janet’s family nearby, he walks, playsgolf and bridge and goes to the opera as oftenas he can. He keeps in close contact with hissix children, all of whom are married and haveproduced a total of ten grandchildren.Anthony has recently been in touch withKevin Tucker, still based in Nairobi with hiswife Geraldine, and planning a UK trip in Juneof 2007, and with Geoffrey Bowder, whounfortunately suffers from impaired sight butis otherwise in good health. Anthony’s brotherJohn still lives near Leeds and is a keenUnited supporter! Anthony has long beenhoping to make contact with Peter andGeoffrey Barratt who used to live inManchester. Unfortunately, the PPA has nodetails on the Barratt brothers. Can any oldboys out there help us? Anthony can bereached on [email protected]

Over the course of the last year or so, AlanSeccombe (PPC 40-46) has been in touch withBrian Smith, Rae Carter, John Dunbar andRichard Buckley. Alan has recently returnedfrom a five week skiing trip to Val Thorens; hespends a lot of time in France where he hastwo holiday homes. He is now Chairman of hisfamily business, but working fewer hours!Please make contact with Alan [email protected]

The PPA archive of old school magazineshas been enhanced by the gift from ProfessorTony Watts (PPC 53-59) of several beautifullypreserved old copies of Prior Park Collegemagazines dating from 1886 to 1891.Apparently these were spare copies whichhad been given to Tony by one of the ChristianBrothers during a sort out! Prior to Tony’sadditions, our oldest magazine dated fromJuly 1929. Tony is still enjoying doingconsultancy work on public policy relating tocareer guidance, plus pursuing his new-foundobsession with Handel operas – and goingregularly to the Latin Mass at Our Lady andEnglish Martyrs in Cambridge where thesublime early music and plainsong revivespowerful memories of the training at Prior!The most exciting news however is that Tonyhas kindly agreed to be our Guest of Honour atthe forthcoming PPA Annual Dinner to be heldat the College on Saturday 1st December 2007.Please see the separate feature and keep thedate free in your diary! Tony can be contactedon [email protected]

The PPA was delighted to welcomecontact from Robert Hi Kon Lau (PPC 53-56)who believes he was the first Chinese boyever to attend Prior Park. He was known by allsimply as ‘Lau’. He remembers a youngerstudent who joined Prior after him, Kwan,from Borneo. We are grateful to Barry Plewswho visited Lau in Nelson, South Island, NewZealand on a recent trip, and encouraged himto get in touch with the PPA office. Lau can becontacted through the PPA office.

We hear that Anthony Corrigan QC (PPC46-55) now spends his retirement years inHong Kong, but winters in Cape Town. Everyother year Tony returns to the UK with manyfamily and friends to visit: his brother Terry(PPC 57-64) in Bournemouth, his sister inDunster, his cousins Michael and David inBristol and Father Pat de Wolf, now inretirement in Clifton.

After three years as a student and twoyears National service, seeing service inAden, Richard Blenkin (Cricklade 47-49 & PPC50-53) joined the family firm. In 2000 he soldup and retired. Richard is married with fivechildren and nine grandchildren to date. Heand his wife enjoy going on cruises – “Just topass the time, of course!” Richard is in touchwith John Mahoney, Peter Bracchi, HowardRoe, and catches sight of Mario Morellioccasionally. You can reach Richard [email protected] .

Dan McInerney, who left Prior in 1960,married a girl from Sweden in 1969 and movedthere some years after qualifying in medicineat RCSI. They have been blessed with threechildren and now three grandchildren. Dan isa consultant anaesthetist in Ystad which is asmall medieval town on the southern coast ofSweden. He would be happy to contactanybody who remembers him - his e-mailaddress is available from the PPA office.

1961 – 1970Andres Guillen left Prior in 1961 and moved

to Tokyo (where his father was serving asAmbassador) and in 1965 obtained his BSc inEconomics at the Jesuit run Sophia University.Then he joined Panama’s diplomatic corps,serving in Japan, South Korea and Hong Konguntil 1970 when he resigned, following amilitary coup in Panama. Andres thenfounded Panama Fleet Services Inc in HongKong to assist shipowners in the Far Eastwishing to register ships in Panama and otheropen ship registries. Andres remained in HKuntil 1997 – he was married there to RosalynLobo and they now have two grown upchildren – a son and a daughter – and to date,one granddaughter! Other successfulbusiness ventures in the Far East included atravel agency and a reinsurance brokeragefirm successful enough to allow Andres toretire ten years ago. As fate would have it,after General Noriega’s ousting by the USinvasion of Panama in ’89, the new democratic

Gossip Bowl


government appointed Andres acting ConsulGeneral in Hong Kong, picking up hisdiplomatic career where it had left off 21 yearsearlier! Since 1997, Andres and his wife havebeen living in Panama, enjoying retirementwith their six cows, five dogs, three horsesand even a playful alligator in the pond! Theirhouse in Panama is large and they wouldwelcome any visitors from PPC! Having madeonly one return trip to the College in all thistime, and having lost touch with all his oldclassmates, Andres would dearly love to makecontact again. Please e-mail him [email protected] .

As a belated 60th birthday present for herhusband, Jonathan Palmer’s wife, Vanessaframed a fabulous black and white photo ofthe Parksville Jazzmen dating from 1962 or 63.This school jazz combo included: Jonathan,Ian Haddon on double bass, David Dixon ondrums, Nigel Horrobin on trombone, SimonWallace on trumpet, Peter Lynch on guitarand banjo, Peter Broadbent on keyboard andBrian Akers on tuba. We were extremelygrateful to Peter Lynch who quicklyremembered the name of the band for us.Interestingly, Ian Haddon owns an oldfashioned tape recording of the band playingat his 21st birthday celebrations – doesanybody have access to equipment whichwould allow us to digitalise this old recording?We could play it at the next PPA event!

Geof Acton (PPC 66-68) put us right on thedate of the swimming team photo whichappeared in the last edition of the Gossip Bowl– since Geof only joined the lower sixth atPrior in January 1966, this photo must bedated 1966, not ‘65 as we had falsely claimed!Updating us on news from Australia, Geof’sdaughter, Beth, now aged 8, is proving to besomething of a serious athlete, regularlywinning gold medals at track events –congratulations to Beth and we wish herevery success – although London 2012 couldcome a little too early for her! Geof also askedus to remember him to Tony O’Sullivan – Geofformed part of Tony’s first A Level Economicsclass in 1966 – with the proud record of a100% pass rate in the summer of 67!

Wilfrid de Freitas (PPC 56-62) is still livingin Montreal. He and his wife Susan continueto run their highly successful antiquarian bookbusiness. They travel all over Canada and theUSA exhibiting at various book fairs. Everysummer they come to the UK to visit Wilfrid’smother, and take the opportunity to replenishtheir stock and exhibit at one or two specialistbook fairs. He keeps in touch with PeterHilton and Chris Lennon in the UK andMichael Somerscales and Gerry O’Reilly inthe USA. He can be contacted [email protected]

Sharing the same surname, Jack Keegan(PPC 59 -65) contacted the PPA office forinformation on his old Christian Brotherteachers: Brother Jack Keegan, who was his

housemaster at St Paul’s and teacher ofelementary maths (and who is now living inReading) and Brother Gregory Miller, aninspired teacher of English (who is now atBuckfast Abbey). Happily, we were able to putJack in touch with his old mentors!

Julian Roberts (PPC 66-68) has recentlymoved from Canada back to the UK. He is nowProfessor of Criminology in the Faculty of Lawat the University of Oxford. He is lookingforward to participating in more PPAactivities, since Oxford is a lot closer thanToronto! Julian can be contacted [email protected]

For the last 5 years or so, Ronald Turley(who left PPC in 68), has been working for abig US petrochemical company in Qatar in theArabian Gulf, as a company trainer. His wife,Elsie, and their young daughter, Chloe, plan togo into semi-retirement living in their housenear Davao, Mindanao in the Philippines laterthis year. Ronald has taken part-time teachingat a local university and is helping out at aschool for rescued street children. Any sparetime will be spent aboard the good ship ‘YKnot 2’ exploring eastwards towards Paulauand Micronesia. Anyone who remembersRonald would be very welcome to contact himon [email protected]

Having left Prior in ‘63, Peter Cotton hasreached 60 and a rail pass! He lives in Lymm,just off junction 20 of the M6, with his wifeRobyn and their three sons aged 24, 22 and 18,who come and go! After working for BritishLeyland and Leyland Trucks for 35 years, Peteropted for early retirement in 2002. However,he keeps busy being a magistrate, working forCAB, doing some consultancy work and houseand garden maintenance! Peter still playstennis and golf regularly and has been backfor the golf day at Prior, but is not in touch withany of his contemporaries. He would be keento meet up with old friends – please contacthim on [email protected]

With a change to his original plans, TimPardoe (PPC 59-66) will be retiring fromgeneral practice in June of 2007 at the age of59. Tim’s wife Geraldine has been diagnosedwith early Parkinsons disease and they wantto take the opportunity to do more thingstogether – Tim is looking forward to this timegreatly. He can be found [email protected]

Having done a late first degree – Sociologywith Psychology – Ian Sandison (who left PPCin 62) has just entered the completion year fora PhD in Sociology, at Essex. His research isbased on the Street Homeless, Substance Useand the Agencies with whom they engage, orotherwise. Ian’s fieldwork was conducted inWestminster as a Voluntary Outreach Workerwith The Big Issue. Recent events on his‘home front’ have also been interesting – heended up Chair of the ManagementCommittee for his Housing Co-Operative inStratford, East London – a site which is being

compulsorily purchased for the LondonDevelopment Agency for use in the 2012Olympics. Through the process of anunsuccessful appeal against the CPO, it wasdiscovered that the housing had been built onan old landfill site (explaining the rising drainsand sinking courtyards) where radioactivewaste had been dumped on the site in thefifties. He has found his battle with the localauthorities a ‘Kafkaesque’ experience! Ianwould be delighted to hear from old friendswhom he has not seen since 1962! He hasbeen thinking about his classmates sincerenewing his acquaintance with the PPA andhaving never come across any former PPCstudents in the course of his working life.Please e-mail Ian [email protected]

2006 was a year of mixed fortunes for PeterHilton (PPC 58-62). In March his daughterSophie was married to James, which provedto be a very joyful family occasion. The yearwas however marred by the unexpecteddeath in August of his younger brotherMichael (PPC 58-64). In 2007 Peter and hiswife Marie-Blanche will be celebrating their40th wedding anniversary and looking forwardto becoming grandparents in September,when Sophie is expecting her first child.After four years as President of the PPA, hehas maintained his close links with theAssociation by volunteering to act asMembership Secretary with the specific taskof ensuring that the Web Alumnus database iskept up to date. Apart from his fellowmembers of the PPA committee, he isfrequently in contact with Wilfrid de Freitas,Sean Lacey and Peter Waring.

Brother Patrick Burke’s niece, based inNew York, contacted the PPA for informationon her uncle. We were delighted to be able tosend her family a spare copy of the 1971school magazine which contained a formalobituary and photograph and to let them knowthat the sports pavilion is dedicated to hismemory. Brother Burke taught French and REand was a great enthusiast for sport at theCollege.

1971 – 1980Owing much to Ronald Palmer’s inspiration

and support, Peter Gravelle (PPC 63-71)doubts whether he would have finished hiseducation at Prior without it! Peter wanted tothank the late Mr Palmer and will certainlynever forget the teacher who was – ‘abeautiful breath of fresh air’. Now aphotographer and author, Peter left England in1979 and has lived and worked in Italy, Japan,the States, Canada, Holland and Greece.Peter returned to London in 1999 and would bepleased to hear from likeminded associatesfrom his era at Prior – Peter is thinking ofsetting up a London reunion – please get intouch with him on [email protected]


Mark Stevens responded to Robin Fisher’srequest for news of Frank Galliano in lastyear’s magazine – unfortunately the very sadnews is that Frank was killed in a skiingaccident in the 80s when he was a Captain inthe army. Henry Coelho (PPC 68-75) was ableto give us further details – the accidenthappened when Frank was on a clandestineexercise on the slopes of the Sierra Nevadanear Granada, Spain. We send our deepsympathy to Frank’s wife and his two children,who we believe still live in Gibraltar. Henryhas memories of many happy times spent withFrank at the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club. Henrywas also able to bring some news of KennethBonnavia (as fellow students from Gibraltar,Henry used to stay with Kenneth at hisparents’ hotel in Earls’ Court). They last saweach other about 8 years ago, and Henry tellsus that Kenneth had an illustrious career inlaw and believes that he is still living in Madridwith his wife and children.

Nick O’Brien (PPC 69-74) finished hiscareer in the police as a senior diplomatrepresenting the Association of Chief PoliceOfficers (the ACPO) as the Counter TerrorismLiaison Officer at the British High Commissionin Canberra, Australia. Nick coveredAustralasia, South East Asia and the Pacificregion. Nick has now taken up a post asAssociate Professor Counter Terrorism atCharles Sturt University and will continue tobe based in Canberra. Nick can be contactedon: [email protected]

Having left Prior in 1973, Dr David North-Coombes is well into his career as a GP inChertsey, Surrey. He has four grown upchildren, none of whom has followed in hisfootsteps. His younger brother, Simon, lives inBrentford, London and dabbles on thestockmarket! His youngest brother, Philip,arouses some sibling envy with his glamorouslifestyle, since he has carved out a successfulcareer for himself in fashion photography andtravels the world with beautiful women in tow!Philip is married with a grown up daughterand has recently been involved indocumentary work, notably Everest ER, whichformer pupils may have seen. David is intouch with Commodore Gerry Thwaites RNwho is married with 3 daughters and Davidhas recently caught up with Richard Bryson,also married, but with 3 sons, and who is MDof a chain of Caribbean hotels – eagerlyanticipating an invitation! Please get in touchwith David on [email protected]

Head Boy in 1972, John Hickey (PPC 66-72,and Cricklade before that) qualified as adoctor in 1977. He became an anaesthetistbut found it too dull, and is now chiefexecutive of MPS, an organisation thatprovides professional indemnity to 240,000doctors and dentists around the world. Johnplans to retire in June 2007 to travel and do afew non executive and charity jobs. He ismarried with two children aged 23 and 18 andlives in Northamptonshire. John is in contactwith a few old friends from Prior Park:

Richard Cutclifffe, Peter Pitt, Al McLeod,Andrew Zulver, Johnny Boylan and MikeVieyra and can be found [email protected] Hisyounger brother Malcolm (PPC 69-76, andCricklade before that) is a GP in North Walesand his elder brother Patrick (PPC 57-63), alsoa doctor, is now retired. Both John andJohnny B appear, together with other friends,in this photo of the cricket first XI from 1971:

On leaving school, Graham Sharp (who leftPPC in 74) trained as an architect and becamechartered in the early 80's. Since then he hasworked all over the country for a variety ofclients including both national and localbodies. Presently a director of TurnerWoolford Sharp Architects based inBirmingham, he has been happily married for25 years, with a 23 year old son who lives inMelbourne, Australia. Both Graham’s parentsare still alive and living in Instow in NorthDevon and two of his sisters also reside inDevon. Other than that, Graham reports fondmemories of the old school and is determinedto visit Bath more often – please catch up withhim on [email protected]

Taking a trip to the UK from his homelandMalta with his wife, Denise, we weredelighted that Henry Copperstone (PPC 77-78)paid a visit to Prior in February of this year.Contemporaries can reach him [email protected]

The community of former pupils in Gibraltaris strong and Anthony Lombard (PPC 69-75)kindly updated us on his fellow student JoeHolliday, (who left Prior in 1977): Joe waselected into Parliament as a member of theGibraltar Social Democratic Party in 1996, andhas served as a minister ever since. Joe wasinitially appointed Minister for Tourism andTransport and under his leadership theTourism sector enjoyed extraordinary growth,following years of decline. His talents did notgo unnoticed and his ministerialresponsibilities were increased. Some yearsago he was appointed Deputy Chief Ministerof Gibraltar in addition to the 8 ministries heruns. Recently, Joe’s political party negotiateda fresh constitution with the United Kingdom,effectively granting Gibraltar near totalindependence. Historic antagonisms withSpain were resolved and resulted in ‘theCordoba Agreement’ between the UK, Spainand Gibraltar, whose outcome will see thedevelopment of Gibraltar airport and the

economy as a whole. Joe continues to run thevery successful Holliday family business ofthe Castle Marketing Group with interests inthe fields of imports, exports and propertyownership including retail outlets. Joe’s sonJoey is the fourth generation Holliday to workfor the family firm. Joe and his wife Michellealso have two daughters, Nicola andAlexandra, who are both at secondary school.Joe’s e-mail address [email protected] and he would bedelighted to hear from his old school friends orreceive them in Gibraltar should they visit.Our thanks to Anthony Lombard for supplyingall Joe’s news. Anthony is currently Chairmanof the Traffic Commission and Member of theTransport Commission in Gibraltar and he canbe reached on [email protected]

‘The old boys failed again’ confesses NickBailey (PPC 68-74) about his meeting withMark Stevens that never happened!However, for those former pupils with accessto the internet, but without the time to visitPrior, Nick has found an amazing websitewhich will give you a stunning aerial view ofthe College and grounds http://locallive.comAll you need to do is type in the postcode BA25AH and then use the compass on the left ofthe screen and you can zoom in and out atwill. Nick was able to see some of thechanges that have taken place at Prior sincehe left in 1974 – new buildings and playingfields. He spotted the old Priory which in histime was a deserted building and out ofbounds for the boys – although apparently,this didn’t stop them! Now of course it is agirls’ boarding house. Nick can be found [email protected]

1981 – 1990Alumni, and especially those living in the

USA, would be very welcome to get in touchwith Bunmi Jinadu who left the College in1986. Please e-mail Bunmi [email protected]

Congratulations from all at the PPA toPeter Donnelly on his wedding day – it allhappened on February 25th 2006.

We were delighted to welcome JacobSchwartz (PPC 83-86) back to the College forGerald Davies’ appearance at the PPA dinnerin December. Jacob was born and raised inDenmark and returned to his homeland afterhis years at Prior. He graduated as MD fromthe University of Copenhagen in 1993 andfollowing some years as a house officer andthe completion of national service, he didresearch into aneurysmal bleeds in the brainand defended a thesis for his Doctor ofMedical Science degree in 2003. Jacob’sinterest in neurosurgery took root during hismedical training – he was drawn to theprofound (and sometimes black) humouramong the neurosurgeons as well as theacademic rigour of the field. Havingcompleted his doctoral thesis, he commenced


his formal training to become a neurosurgeon.Our good luck was that this brought him to theUK in 2006 for a year’s training in Southampton.As Jacob points out, the entire population ofDenmark is 5 million and the catchment area ofthe neurosurgical unit in Southamptonnumbers 3 million; this has given Jacob theopportunity to see a great number ofneurosurgical cases. He has found it difficultto be parted from his family for the year, but theexperience has been very rewardingprofessionally, and he has appreciated theopportunity to compare and contrast theDanish health care system with the NHS.Jacob can be contacted [email protected]

As part of a trip to the UK, we weredelighted to welcome Alan Castillo (PPC 83-86) back to Prior on an impromptu visit. Hewas thrilled to bump into former teachersGerald Davies, Denis Clarke and RichardWells. Although he had been unable to joinEdward Mason’s reunion earlier in the year,we sent him back to London with the addressof La Capannina - Paolo Frattini’s familyrestaurant – where he was hoping to eat thatevening before flying back to Malta thefollowing day. We also managed to obtainMarco Proietti’s e-mail address for Alan tomake contact. Alan can be reached [email protected]

Happily, Captain Nicholas Scerri (PPC 84-87 and Cricklade before that) cannot think of amore wonderful career than his own! He hasbeen working as a Captain on motor yachts,ranging from 45 metres up, for the last 6 years,and has been in the industry for 13 years now.Currently, he is in the Virgin Islands and will befinishing the season in Barbados, thencrossing the Atlantic to Naples where he isbased for the summer. Nicholas lives inSweden, is married to Anna and has two boysJulian, 7 and Felix, 5. They have a retailbusiness that Anna runs, selling high endclothing, shoes and accessories. Pleaseget in touch with Nicholas [email protected]

Michael Morgan (who left PPC in 86) isliving in Haslemere, Surrey and working in theCity for Marsh & McLennan. He was marriedto Karen in 2000 and their son Alexander wasborn in 2001. They have been back in the UKfor just over 3 years now, returning fromBermuda where Michael had been working for5 years. Please make contact with Michael [email protected] . Michael’solder brother Stephen (who left PPC in 83) hasbeen living in Madrid for many years now, andhe and his partner Elena are delighted to beexpecting their first child in April 07.

Orange UK is the workplace for two of ourformer students - Larry Brien (who left PPC in89) and his old class mate, Steve Powers.Larry would be very pleased to hear from oldschool friends on [email protected]

Dr Stephen Tsao (PPC 84-89) is still living inLeicester with his wife Belina and their twoyoung children. Stephen is busy setting up aclinical trial involving patients with boweldisease. Through his work, he has bumpedinto John Evans (PPC 86-93) who is working asa trainee surgeon in Leicester. Feel free tocontact Stephen on [email protected]’s brother, James Tsao (PPC 86-93)recently had a baby daughter.

Still regularly in touch with John Devlin,and occasionally with Adam Dowdle, NeilBrown (PPC 82-88 and Cricklade before that) iscurrently working as an HR Manager for BAESystems in Saudi Arabia, on his second ‘tour ofduty’. He is married to a Finnish lady and theyhave a baby, Maya. After working last at thenaval base in Portsmouth, they still have ahouse in Southsea. Meanwhile Neil would bevery happy to receive e-mails from the ‘oldboys’ and especially those living or working inthe Gulf: [email protected]

Hannah Robinson (who left PPC in 1990),now Mrs Grehan, met her Australian husbandShane ten years ago, whilst living and workingin London. They moved to Queensland in 2000and live in a gorgeous hinterland village 15 kmfrom the beach, and an hour and a half fromBrisbane. Shane designs and builds for thefamily and others – the Grehans have movedseven times in the space of six years! Hannahruns a t-shirt design company with a friendand also does supply teaching at localschools. The family now includes Noah, 4, andLoa-Libellule, 1. Hannah would love to hearfrom the girls she boarded with [email protected]

Many congratulations to the proud first-time father, Edmund Layet (PPC 84-86) whosewife Lucy gave birth to Dominic in February of2007! After years of being ‘Uncle Ed’ tonumerous nieces and nephews, Edmund isdelighted at his promotion to ‘dad’. Pleaseget in touch with him [email protected]

Having obtained his MBA from IUE inBushey Heath, Camille Saliba (who left PPC in83) went on to work in the City from 89 to 93 asa Financial Broker for the Arab BankingCorporation, specializing in equities. Early in1993, he returned to Jordan for the familybearings business. Then in 1998 he opened hisown company (again bearings and seals) andis proud to represent Jordan in the followingbrands: NSK in Japan, INA in Germany, Coramand Original BIRTH both in Italy plus TTO inTaiwan. His company is now the market leaderin bearings in Jordan. On the personal side,Camille was married to a lovely Jordanian ladyin 1994 and they were blessed with twins in1995 (a boy and a girl) and with another boy in2002. Camille’s e-mail address [email protected]

Many congratulations to Dr Miles Hember(PPC 79 – 86) who married his Polish bride inWiltshire in April 2006 – bringing a complete

choir over from Gdansk for the ceremony!

Giles Watson (PPC 82 -87) has left the armyand is now teaching history – he was sad to beunable to attend the PPA dinner with GeraldDavies due to his new work commitments! Wewish him all the very best in his new career.

Chris McMahon (PPC 80-82) is thoroughlyenjoying life working in the City. He hasrecently been promoted to Global AccountDirector at Complinet - which means he gets totravel occasionally in Europe. His brotherNick is still teaching in Australia.You can reach Chris [email protected]

1991 – 2000The Simper triplets John, William and

Oliver left Prior in 2000 and John has kindlyupdated us as follows: John is working as anecologist with the Game Conservancy Trusthaving previously gained his BSc inCountryside Management from AberystwythUniversity and an MSc in Rural Surveying fromHarper Adams University College. Williamobtained his BSc in Zoology and Botany atReading University, and with his PGCE fromAberystwyth, he is now AssistantHousemaster teaching biology at BedfordSchool. Oliver has also gone into the teachingprofession and is teaching geography atOakham School with his BSc in Geographyfrom Exeter University and PGCE fromCambridge behind him. Please get in touchwith John (and his brothers) [email protected]

Chocolatier is Marc Demarquette’s newmetier (PPC 87–91), having spent the last twoyears training in France. On his return toEngland he opened his own shop in Chelseaand business is good! Have a look at hiswebsite www.demarquette.com and if you liveor work in London make sure you call in atMarc’s chocolate empire. Prior to the cocoarevolution, Marc had been working as amanagement consultant for Ernst & Young andthen for Capgemini. Marc can be contacted bye-mail on [email protected]

Jessica Penny (née Smallwood) (PPC 90-92) would be very happy to hear from oldfriends on [email protected] .Jessica was married in Bath in 2002 and nowlives in Wokingham. Her first child, Alexander,was born in February of 2006 and she isworking as corporate fundraiser with a charity.

Half way through her PhD in prostatecancer and type 2 diabetes mellitus at theDepartment of Oncology Pathology at theKarolinksa Institutet in Stockholm is RonaStrawbridge (PPC 93-00). She can becontacted on [email protected]

Now based in Bristol with her husbandAlex, Sarah Robins (née Livingston) (PPC 87-94) is enjoying motherhood and work – their


son Matthew was born in July 2005 and Sarahis working as an Independent FinancialAdvisor. She can be e-mailed [email protected]

Married to Jason Williams, RosemaryAdamson (PPC 92-97) has moved toManhattan, New York, where she iscontinuing her training in general medicine atNew York University Medical Center. They leftthe UK in May of 2006 and took the opportunityto travel to New Zealand and to Sydney,where they were pleased to meet up with JoO’Donnell. Rosemary can be reached [email protected]

Congratulations to Suzi Mills (ex PPC 93)who is getting married in August 07. Thewedding will take place in Somerset. TheMills family are all well and looking forward tothe celebrations! Suzi’s brother Simon isthriving and is in the process of buying his firsthouse. He is teaching in the IT field and Suzi’smother is also still teaching, but part-time.Suzi is still in touch with John Sayers who isalso a lawyer, Dan Mason, a priest, and “thelovely” Mr Barnes, Suzi’s former Spanishteacher and mentor. Suzi would love to hearfrom old friends on [email protected]

Travelling to different corners of the worldis a bonus for Rob Weightman (PPC 88-92) inhis work in Far East imports for a housewarescompany. 2007 is shaping up happily as Robwill be marrying his fiancée Eva in the summer– a European wedding! Many congratulations.2006 saw a spot of nostalgia as Rob met upwith Matt Parkes and shared a couple ofbeers outside a London pub. Rob would bevery happy to hear from anyother former classmates [email protected]

We wish Freddie Sayers (PPC 94-99) all thebest for his wedding this year! Freddie is stillliving in Toronto, working as a QuantitySurveyor. You can reach him [email protected]

Still working as a journalist covering thearts on the Bristol and Bath area magazine,Venue, is Steve Wright (who left PPC in 93).He is looking forward to moving into a flat inBristol with his girlfriend Rachel this spring.Steve can be found [email protected]

Mrs Mays or Maria McEnery (PPC 88-93)has been living in the Cayman Islands with herhusband Ben for the last 3 years, working as aParalegal. Maria was delighted when AbigailJames (now Purcell) came out to the Caymanson a visit with her husband in December.Maria is also still in regular touch with AndreaGreen (now Asbury), Emma Tobin (nowKenyon), Gwen Padfield (now Cardiff) andFrances Wright (now Macintyre). All six hadplans to meet up during Maria’s planned trip tothe UK in February of this year. Maria’sbrother, Jonathan McEnery (who left PPC in95) is working as an actuary in St Alban’s and

really enjoying life there. Her sister, Julie(who left Prior a few days before Maria!) iscurrently Mission Scientist for NASA based inWashington DC with a telescope/probe she isworking on, due to launch from Florida’s CapeCanaveral base in November on a BoeingDelta II rocket! Maria says: “She clearly hasthe most interesting job of the three of us!” Ifanyone is in or near the Cayman Islands,Maria would love to hear from them [email protected]

Liz Gavin (PPC 92-93 for the GCSE years,and so effectively part of the Class of ’95)recently worked at the Sussex Eye Hospital asa junior ophthalmologist and found theConsultant Ophthalmologist was none otherthan Christopher Liu, President of the PPA! Lizcan be contacted on [email protected]

Having arrived in Kuwait eleven years agowith just a suitcase, Juliet Lambert (PPC 89-91) now finds herself happily married to Jim,with two young children, Holly and Sam. Afterfinishing at Prior, Juliet obtained her teachingdegree at Reading University and nowthoroughly enjoys her current post at anEnglish school in Kuwait. Juliet has kept intouch with some school friends but has losttouch with others and would be delighted tohear from anybody who remembers her [email protected]

We were pleased to be updated byAnthony Swan (PPC 94-99)’s mother, who letus know that Anthony has moved up to Halifax,Nova Scotia with his wife Nancy. Anthony isawaiting his residence papers, in the hopethat he can join the Halifax Police. Anthonycan be contacted via the PPAoffice.

Working as a yacht Captain full time keepsBen Edwards (PPC 94-97) abroad most of theyear – he generally spends only five weeks ayear in the UK. However he likes to keep upwith events at Prior and sends his bestregards to Denis Clark. Ben’s e-mail addressis [email protected]

Gareth Duggan (PPC 84-94) is still workingon his film, ‘Original Remake’, first reported onin last year’s magazine. Gareth is in theprocess of buying a club in Shoreditch,London as a security for the financial backingfor the film, since his original deal fell through,delaying the start of filming. Undaunted,Gareth still has Danny Dyer on board and willsoon be filming again with his new bar as thebackdrop to some of the shoots. Watch thisspace to make Gareth’s club your newwatering hole in London! Gareth is stillsupporting The Cystic Fibrosis Trust with hisfilm and the revenue from the bar. You canreach Gareth on [email protected]

Since leaving Prior, Maggie Fleming (PPC95-00) travelled around Australia for eighteenmonths and then moved to London where sheis currently working for an investment bankcalled Lehman Brothers in the Liquid Marketsdivision. Maggie lives in Primrose Hill and is

planning to relocate to Sydney in the nextyear. She would be very pleased tohear from old friends [email protected]

It is fabulous that the Speller familyrequire a category of their own to span theyears the five children studied at Prior! TheBursar, Captain Charles Freeman, very kindlypassed on the latest news – Harry (PPC 90-97)is now living in London and working for VisitBritain; Robert (PPC 94-99) has passed hismedical degree and is currently a first yeardoctor at Bloomfield Hospital nearChelmsford; Maylee (PPC 97-02) continues tostudy fashion at Bath College; Fenny (PPC 00-05) is based in London studyingpharmaceuticals but hoping to transfer to amedical degree in 2008 and James (who leftPrior in 2006) has taken a gap year, with aplace at Canterbury studying psychologystarting in the autumn of 2007.

Annie Frere (née Taylor) (PPC 88-95) wasrecently married at Prior Park to Julian Frere,brother to Lawrie, Toby, Kit and Elsa. Thecouple now live in a cottage they haverenovated in Weston Village, Bath. Julian isan independent financial advisor with AWDChase de Vere, specialising in trusts, taxationand investments and Annie is setting up herown life coaching and lifestyle managementbusiness. Anyone who is interested in talkingto Annie about how life coaching or lifestylemanagement can help them is invited to callher on 07738 072076 or [email protected] . Annie is offering aFREE introductory session to all Prior Parkpupils (former or current).

2001 onwards…Univeristy College London, where she is

studying Speech and Language Therapy, hasbeen home to Sarah Ross (PPC 2003 - 2005)since October of 2006. Sarah had a great gapyear in Borneo with Raleigh International,then spent some time travelling with MattieEdwards and Flora Blathwayt in Indonesia,finishing with a visit to family in Queensland,Australia. You can contact Sarah [email protected]

Phoebe Mahon (ex PPC 2004) is gettingvery little sleep – due to the happy arrival ofAlfie on 8th October 2006! Manycongratulations! Phoebe can be contacted [email protected]

Medicine at Cardiff University is proving afantastic choice for Megan Humphreys wholeft Prior in July 06. Megan is loving hercourse! She is planning to link up with LucyHowe this summer and travel to Trinidad andTobago in the Caribbean. Please getin touch with Megan [email protected]


Donald Lopez One of our former students Donald Lopez

who was at Prior during the war years, hasrecently published his autobiography ‘DonEmilio’ and was kind enough to send us a copyfor the school library. The book containsfascinating accounts of life at Prior in thesedramatic times and the PPA invited Donald,now aged 80, to write something for themagazine:

“Having had a chance to read the morerecent Gossip Bowl publications, I have cometo the conclusion that the current studentswould appear to be very much brighter anddefinitely better behaved than my generation.I think perhaps the war had something to dowith it; there was a certain ‘devil may care’

attitude, as the future was by no meanscertain by day or night!

Most of my time at Prior was during thePresidency of Rev Bro J S Roche, who, forsome reason, was most kind and considerateto me… it could have been my refugee status,having escaped from Civil War-torn Spain andbeen bombed out of St Boniface’s in Plymouth.

I have fond memories, of course, of my timeat Prior and especially of the friendships Imade, which sadly I did not follow up afterleaving. I remember Patrick Murphy-O’Connor, his younger brother, Cormac andolder brother Jim. It was just as well that I hadno idea what eminence young Cormac was toachieve, but it does not surprise me.

Luckily, we were due to return from holidaythe day after the Luftwaffe dropped two sticksof bombs on St Paul’s and the new buildingopposite, which housed the gym, theatre andclassrooms. When we did come back a weeklater, we found literally hundreds of lettersmarked ‘TOP SECRET’. The new building hadbeen commandeered by the Royal Navy as asecret Command Post, but we knew!

As the bedrooms in St Paul’s had beengutted, we were moved to the Mansion. Mybed was directly under the big chandelier…not exactly reassuring, when we could hearand see the glow from the bombing in Bristol.This was the first time that a crowd of us hadslept together, with our beds only two feetapart. Fortunately, the Head, Rev Bro Rocheslept very soundly or we could not have hadthe pillow fights which occurred most nights.As well as regular visits to the kitchen to makeourselves toast and marmalade; the besthowever were door-step Spam sandwiches,not made from the pathetic Spam we havetoday, but the real thing from America in long

golden tins.

Numerous dangerous dares were on offerat any one time. The most memorable was theringing of the bell in the mansion belfry atabout one in the morning… with not a buildingbetween Prior and Bath, the noise must havebeen loud and clear… it was deafening wherewe stood. The ringing of bells was to alerteverbody to an impending invasion! The airraid wardens arrived promptly, together with adetachment of the Home Guard! It wasagreed that no one should own up, as we hadall encouraged the action… we all suffered insilence and were not allowed to go to thevillage, and so could not visit our pub, whichwas officially out of bounds, but had one roomwith the name ‘Prior Park’ over the door!

Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, regularlyvisited the school, sometimes with thePrincesses, and very often unheralded. Oneparticular afternoon after a rugby match, Itook a short cut from the showers to theMansion, and running with my head down, I hitsomething hard. It turned out to be the whalebone stays of Queen Mary’s corsets. I wasmortified and could only splutter someincoherent babble. Expecting the worst, I wasamazed when she just smiled and said “runalong, you are obviously in a great hurry”.

I am sure it was due to the War that I onlyvisited the school twice, once to play in the oldboys’ rugby match very soon after the war andagain in the late fifties with my wife and threedaughters.”

Donald’s autobiography is published byAthena Press ISBN 1-84401-518-1

Sophie Willingale,who left Prior in 2000,will be taking part inthe gruelling MongolRally which involvesdriving over 10,500miles from London to

the capital of Mongolia. Sophie will be settingoff from Hyde Park on the 21st July 2007 andaims to reach Ulaanbaatar approximately 4 - 5weeks later. The team consists of Sophie, co-driver Helen and ‘Daisy’ their trusty NissanMicra. Their aim is to raise money for charity.

Their chosen route to Mongolia will take themthrough countries including: Azerbaijan,Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Russia, beforefinally reaching the western Mongolian border.The rally lifestyle involves driving from dawn to

dusk in temperatures of up to 50°C and ondubious road surfaces, repairing the car,camping every night and trying to figure outwhere the next meal and shower will becoming from.

They are campaigning for two charities: MercyCorps in Mongolia which supports ruralcommunities and herding families, andSworde-Teppa, a small reconstruction anddevelopment charity in Tajikistan committed tosustainable projects. When, and if (!), the carreaches Ulaanbaatar, it will be donated to anorphanage. All funds received by the team aregoing direct to the charities and are notbankrolling the trip. Despite generous offers,Sophie is still in need of sponsorship, andmaterials. Please consult the websitewww.freewebs.com/drivingmissdaisies for

information on how you could contribute andto track her progress.

Sophie is still in touch with many of her friendsfrom school, travelling to Brazil last year to bebridesmaid at fellow Prior Park pupil AnaSzmrecsanyi’s wedding to Hugo Martins. Shecredits Brazil forgiving her thetravel bug!

Former pupil takes to the wheel in the world’smost extreme car challenge


Update from Prior ParkPreparatory School

A purposeful and organised approach to theirstudies ensured another triumphant set ofscholarship results for Prior Park College andother senior schools – seventeen awardswere offered to thirteen of our Year 8 pupilsat the top of the school.

A superb performance of ‘Joseph and theAmazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ and ourannual St. Cecilia’s Concert within the spaceof ten days provided a very stimulatingexperience for our school musicians whoalso achieved their customary successes intheir external music exams.

‘Toad of Toad Hall’ was the major school

production with involvement for seventysenior pupils. The lead characters rose tothe challenge of a demanding script withenthusiasm and the whole cast’s enjoymentshone through.

Our important policy of involving all childrenin school sporting fixtures has continued thisyear and it has been good to see suchcommitment and sportsmanship from ourplayers – our U.13 Girls’ Hockey team withonly one defeat from thirteen matches wereour most successful team – they also wonthe Jersey Hockey Tournament for tenschools this year. It has been good too to see

such improvement in Boys’Hockey and Rugby VIIs in theLent term.

Art in the school continues togo from strength to strength.With an unprecedentednumber of children involved inScholarship preparation, they

were treated to two Art Workshops acting on‘Emotions through the Human Form’ and‘Printmaking’ – both were inspirational.

Our greatest excitement centred on theAstroturf project which we plan will beoperational for September 2007. This willimprove our facility for Hockey and Tennissignificantly. The Parents’ Association hasbeen very busy raising money for this projectin all sorts of ways – few will forget thetremendous Burns’ Night Evening inJanuary!

Charity, as ever, has been high on our list ofpriorities with donations being made to thetwo charities nominated by the SchoolCouncil, The Starlight Foundation and CancerResearch as well as CAFOD, MacMillanNurses, the Cotswold Care Hospice, theHelen House Hospice and the Green HutCentre in Swindon.

All in all it has been a happy and purposefulstart to the school year at Cricklade.

After a successful 2005-2006 year, we were delighted to start the newyear in buoyant style. Our intake for two Year 3 classes was full tocapacity – their ‘buddies’ in Year Five ensured a happy start.

A skill he must have honed as aschoolboy at Prior Park, ChristopherLiu pulled back on the rubber bandand his carefully folded paper missileflew expertly across the hall at anamazing speed. Demonstratingclearly to the Cricklade children thedanger of this sort of game, should themissile hit you in the eye. Christopherexplained the importance of a healthydiet to the preservation of good sight,together with a healthy respect for thesun’s rays. Students clamoured todemonstrate the correct way ofwalking with scissors, blades pointingto the floor, and passing pencils safelyto their friends. Hands were wavingwith interesting questions aboutparents’ and grandparents’ eyeproblems and about the diseases thatcan be passed on by pets.

Leaving Cricklade, Christopher andDebbie took the eye talks roadshow on

to the Paragon where two differentage groups had differentpresentations. Then on to Prior Parkwhere a more sophisticated talkcatered to the teenage and sixth-formaudience.

Christopher explained that just the daybefore the talk he had been operatingto try and save a boy’s eye from apaper missile game that had gonewrong. He answered questions aboutthe health aspects of eye make-up,about careers in medicine and hespoke to students individually. Theslide show included some shockingimages of diseased eyes, and theimage which drew the most cries ofrevulsion from the audience was of afish hook embedded in an eyeball! Thestudents were impressed andengaged – Christopher had put themessage across in a very vivid way.

Come and listen to Christopher Liu speak on

“How to Look After your Eyes”

Christopher, President of the P.P.A. (the formerpupils’ society) is Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon

and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Brighton.

He will entertain us with an informative talk on how diet,smoking, alcohol, ultraviolet light, sex and

injury can affect our eyes and what we can do to keephealthy eyes and prevent premature ageing.

Christopher is a well known speaker in the internationalophthalmic circuit and you will not be disappointed!

Wednesday 18th October 2006 in the Slade Theatre

Eye safety roadshow comes tothe Prior Park Foundation!

Julian Frere and Annie Taylor have known each othersince their school days in Bath. They finally got togetherin May 2005 when they were both living back in Bath.They were engaged two months later and got married onFriday 25th August 2006.

Father Tom Gunning and Father Peter Cornwellconducted the marriage service in the Chapel of Our

Lady of the Snows at Prior Park. A drinks reception followedin the Mansion Hall. As well as current pupil Elsa Frere,guests included Eileen McPeake and former pupils: Lawrie,Toby and Kit Frere, Katherine Lloyd (née Taylor), JohnHarcourt, Sally Price, Tony Atkins, Tom, Harry and FloraBlathwayt and Ben Please.

A marquee in the Frere family home in Perrymead was thevenue for the reception and the happy couple spent theirhoneymoon in Italy. The day was photographed by SarahCameron (www.sarahcameronphotography.co.uk) and wasfeatured in the first edition of Beautiful Weddings magazinein February 2007.

“Well, I finally did it! Found the rightgirl and got married!” proclaimedAdewale Onabanjo, who was a studentat Prior from 1978 to 1983. “I marriedKathryn James at Prior Park College on1st September 2006”.

The service was conducted by FatherBill in the school Chapel, followed by areception in the Academy Hall. It was avery colourful affair, with morning suitsmingling with traditional Nigerian attire.

The bride and groom were delighted by the spontaneoussinging of Nigerian Yoruba songs as they arrived at theAcademy Hall! Guests at the wedding included former

Prior students Abass Arole, Marielle Hunt,Brimah Kebbie and Mario Proetti.

Wale and Kathryn held their evening reception atthe Bath Spa Hotel with more canapés, drinksand dancing the night away. Other formerstudents including Tony Jiggins, Paul Sewell,Claire Perry (nee Platt), Chris and PaulMcMahon and Ian Cordwell joined the eveningcelebrations.

Not content with one marriage ceremony, thecouple had a Nigerian celebration in Londonthe following evening! Now, both are happilyenjoying married life.

On 19th May 2006 at St. Patrick’s Church in Bermuda, SilviaParussini (who left Prior in 1989) was married to StefanoRizzetto.

They continued festivities with a further celebration andblessing in Venice, Italy, where both families come from.

Shortly after leaving Bermuda, Stefano was offered a jobwith Bermuda Telecom. As they both love the place and

since it is also Silvia’s birthplace, they couldn’t turn down thisopportunity. So they will soon be leaving their home inChiswick for a few years, to live on the beautiful island ofBermuda. The couple met whilst working in thetelecommunications sector in London.

The seams of Prior Park Chapel were bursting with guests,here to celebrate the marriage of Kate Brodie, a Prior studentfrom 1986 to 1993, to Nicholas Craig Waller, on Saturday 19thAugust 2006.

When Nick proposed, Kate explained that she knewimmediately that she wanted to get married at Prior,and was thrilled that her fiancé agreed so readily.Kate was overjoyed that Father Peter Cornwell, whohad been the College Chaplain whilst she was a pupilhere, was able to perform the ceremony.

The service was magical and the marriage vowswere exchanged whilst a dramatic thunderstorm

unfurled outside. The fabulous Capella NovaChoir received a standing ovation from thecongregation at the end of the service.

Happily the storm had cleared for the brideand groom’s exit from the Chapel andstunning photos were taken on theMansion steps. Kate’s brother Ben (PPC90-95) was an usher and another former student,Jemma Crawley (89-94), was one of Kate’s bridesmaids. Thereception was held at Bath Spa Hotel.

Mr & Mrs Craig Waller are now living in South West London.Kate is a Headhunter in the City and Nick a Marketing Director.

WeddingsJulian and Annie Frere

Kathryn and Adewale Onabanjo

Silvia and Stefano Rizzetto

Kate and Nick Craig Waller



“There’s a breathless hush in theclose tonight,10 to make and the match to win –a bumping pitch and a blinding light,An hour to play and the last man in.”

Such was the scene at the Old Boys’triumphant return to Prior Park for the 2006Cricket Match, with all rounder and sportslegend Lee Dokic stepping up for a classicfinish to a match which was full of fun,surprises, and memories for all.

Playing against the PPC First XI, supported byAustralian fast bowler and gap year studentTom Wilson, Captain John Moore had fieldeda team of old salts who almost all had theirname inscribed on the Pavilion wall, (whetherin sports awards or graffiti). Suffering slightlyfrom the inevitable reunion evening, whichleft most feeling the worse for wear, SimonBrandon, Lee Dokic, James Etheridge, James

Edmund, Paul O’Dea, Charles and JamesO’Brien, Simon Philips, Alex McLennan, oldtimer & batting legend Peter Haddon (playinghis 50th match for the old boys), and a greatsupport team stepped up and delivered forthe Old Boys side their first victory in years.

There were glimpses of the true skill we allknow and remember, such as a sublime catchin silly mid off from Simon Philips thathappened before anyone really knew it,Dokic’s final four or the calm and experiencedhandling by Haddon of the first team’sfearsomely paced bowling. Aggressive fieldplacing from captain Moore and his able vicecaptain Simon Brandon was clear from theoff, although that did not prevent a fewboundaries being achieved by the youngerteam as the old boy’s hangovers madethemselves apparent.

Credit does go to the first team, who werefacing their record-setting predecessors andwere somewhat surprised by the fact theycould play at all, given the defeats of the OldBoys last year and in 2004. However in termsof captaincy, body language, and the wayplayers responded to him, Moore’s tacticaldomination of the match supported by vicecaptains Simon Brandon and experiencedstrategist James Etheridge was clear, andtheir prematch team talk was a powerfulmotivation to the determined Old Boys thatlikely gave them the edge overall.

A call goes out to all those potentialsupporters who could have seen the triumphto come this summer, and enjoy a beautifulafternoon talking with staff and pupils and

watching sport at its very best, in the placealmost untouched by time that is the PriorPark top cricket field.

The hospitality provided by Debbie O’Bryan –tireless worker on PPA affairs and the keyorganiser for this event was second to none,and the contributions to the tea were enjoyedby all.

Thanks to everyone who came to this event,and an invitation to all that didn’t to join theOld Boys this year for another afternoon toremember at PPC.

And it’s not for the sake of aribboned coat,Or the selfish hope of a season’sfame,But his Captain’s hand on hisshoulder smote“Play Up, play up, and play thegame!”James Moore

Result: 1st XI PPC 197 for 6 off 40 overs

PPA old boys 198 for 8 off 38 overs

After a somewhat one-sided game last year(with the school victorious), it was great tosee a much tighter and more competitivegame this time round. The élite players ofyesteryear, dominated by the vintage crop ofthe late 1990’s, turned up keen to show theirtrue worth. And so they did…

Batting first, the young school side, includingonly four sixth-formers, scored well with noone making a big score, but lots of smallercontributions. Simon Williams again showedhe’d lost none of his bowling prowess, as didOliver Lawson, coming back from kneesurgery. A competitive score was posted,with Josh Goulding (40 n.o.) and TollyHumphreys (38) putting on 80 for the sixthwicket.

The old boys struggled earlyon, largely due to the extremepace of the school’s Gap Yearstudent, Tom Wilson, but oncehis overs were bowled, theruns flowed. In particular PaulO’Dea and Simon Brandon,batting with real force and skill,adding to the earlier good workof James Edmund. Always on,or above the run-rate, at 180 for5, it looked comfortable.However, 3 late wicketscreated a minor flutter, only forLee Dokic to have the honour ofmaking the last few. A great, competitivegame.

Much credit, and thanks again must go toJohn Moore and Simon Brandon for rallyingthe troops, and to Debbie O’Bryan for herorganisation of the school ‘end’. These lastthree years have seen this fixture re-

established as a real celebration of Prior Parkcricket, and I hope that this will continue foryears to come, as more and more old boyssee it as a great chance to catch up with eachother, and the school.

Tom Owens (1st XI Cricket Master)

Old boys victorious! 18th June 2006

Triumphant return to Prior Park


22 former pupils and staff took part in a mostenjoyable day at Cumberwell Park. We were delighted to welcome for the first time: Mounir elKhoury, Mike Baker, Julian Fonseca and Dominic Eedle. Someimpressive golf was played and Martin Woodhouse maintainedhis record, with best gross score of 79, walking away with the PatMcMahon Cup again this year. The runner-up was Mike Stevenswith a score of 83. The best net score went to Tony Bury, 66, andthe Rae Carter Medal for best Stableford score of 44, went to amember of staff, Tom Owens, Deputy Head of the sixth form. Tomalso won the nearest pin prize, and another member of staff,Vince Shannon, achieved the longest drive. Paul McMahonagain swept the board with most lost balls and earned himself abottle of wine!

Again, our thanks to Ian Cordwell for arranging the day, despitethe clash with his house move!

Chris Blunden havingtrouble with hisputting!

Left to Right: Andy Owen, Mounir el Khoury, PeterBrooks and Michael Stevens

Our apologies tothose brave andloyal men, theirfriends and familymembers, whoturned up on thefine, crisp afternoonof Saturday 16thDecember to play in

the Old Boys’ Rugby Match, only to find that we hadjust 11 match fit former pupils.Fear not, rugby fans! The 2007 event will go ahead on the old fixturedate of the day after the PPA formal dinner – this year the rugby takes

place on Sunday 2nd December! We will be celebrating GeraldDavies’ final year of teaching at Prior with his team, Davies’ Dragons.2007 also marks the tenth anniversary of Giles Pruett’s leadership ofrugby at Prior Park and his team, Pruett’s Panthers, will battle it outwith the Dragons.

So, how do you get to play? We will need two squads of around twentyplayers so please get in touch with Gerald [email protected] and with Giles on [email protected] ifyou would like to play. If we do not hear from you shortly, you willreceive your call up direct from your former coaches! Giles andGerald will each nominate a Captain of their team who will beresponsible for rallying the troops!

Please make a note in your diary now. If you have any queries aboutthe 2007 rugby event, please contact the PPA office [email protected] .

Mass on Sunday 18th June, whichalso happened to be Father’s Day, wasdedicated to the Association, andprayers were said for our deceasedmembers.Several former pupils, including Ian Haddon, TonyJiggins and Mike Hamerton, together with theirguests, joined the PPA committee members for adelicious roast Sunday lunch in the Refectory. Weenjoyed the longest, warmest rays of sunshine tomake themselves felt on Association Day in the last

few years, and an afternoon of exciting cricketkept us entertained. As in previous years, wejoined forces with the SPF (Society of Parentsand Friends) who celebrated the day with atennis tournament, boules competitions andfamily sports.

If you would like to attend this year, maybe takea tour of the College, relive some old memoriesand watch the PPA cricket team defend lastyear’s victory, please save Sunday 24th June2007 in your diary.

Association Day Sunday 18th June 2006

PPA Golf Day 2006

Old Boys’ Rugby 2007

Michael Daldry

John Rowland

Lee Dokic

James Whittleton

Stephen Wheadon

Richard Clayton

James Etheridge

James Edmund

John Moylan

William Paskell

Andrew Haworth

Guy Looker

Simon Hemmings

Patrick Quinlan

Sebastian Grinke

Magnus Hind

Kate Acton

Rachel Botley

Alice Maddicott

Zena Kamash

Nancy Gardener

Olivia Mckay

Rachel Lax

Hana Stott

Kyla Brawley-Seale

Georgina Dunn

Brigid Kennedy

Andrea Palacios

Talei Rounds

Georgina Dunn, Talei Rounds,

Rachel Lax

Who was there?

Even the fog and mist couldn’t keep away theinternational attendees, who included RachelLax who flew from in from Hamburg and JohnMoylan who came over from Dublin. Othersfrom abroad who, unfortunately, weren’t ableto make it included Sinan Ciddi who is happilysettled in Turkey and can be found at theFaculty of Arts and Social Sciences,Sabanci University. Zena Kamash, who wasthere on the night, is likewise in the

wonderful world of academia and is acollege lecturer in archaeology atMagdalen College, Oxford.

The most entertaining and amusingaccount of what they have been up tosince leaving school would be awarded toMagnus Hind. His recent cycling trip to

Romania to raise money for charity, had moretales of high jinks than a book shelf full of MalloryTowers.

Finally, many warm and happy congratulations toAmy Hjaltun-Hubbard and Nancy Gardener(Baker) on the healthy arrivals of Rudy and Harryrespectively.

There is chat of a fifteen year reunion as twentyyears seems an awfully long time to wait beforeseeing everyone again. Until then, DebbieO’Bryan has contact details for those whoattended if anyone wants to get back in touch.

Andrea Palacios

They came from far and wide and approached the double doors of theMansion with the timidity and nervousness of Fourth Formers on their first day. A few glasses of champagne soon rectified this and conversation flowed easily between thefamiliar faces.

Class of 96 Reunion

Lee Dokic, Alice Maddicott,

Rachael Botley, James Edmund

Guy Looker, Magnus Hind, SebGrinke and Richard Clayton

Alice Maddicott,Stephen Weadon

Andrew Hawort

h and

Zena Kamash

Kyla Brawley-S

eale and

James Edmund

Rachel Lax, And

rea Palacios

Nancy Gardener, Patrick

Quinlan and Livy Mckay

Brigid Kennedy, Kate Acton,Rachel Lax, Guy Looker and Patrick Quinlan


One of the old boys, Paolo Frattini, offered to hostthe dinner at his family restaurant in Soho. Afterhaving spent many years in his native Italylearning to cook and perfect his Italian accent,Paolo (now married with a child) returned toEngland to take over his father’s restaurant La

Capannina (24 RomillyStreet, London W1D5AH). Recently he hasset about renovating it.However, in goodPaolo style, his questfor perfection meantthat the opening night,which was scheduledfor the reunion dinner,was delayed. To hiscredit, a fantastic alternative was booked, anddespite not being up to Paolo’s high standards, itsuited the old pupils perfectly.

Sixteen former pupils attended, with the guests ofhonour being Gerald and Shelagh Davies. Aftermany toasts to absent friends (in particular, JohnKosecki, deceased), Gerald gave a state of thenation address, much to the approval of the entirerestaurant (irrespective of whether they hadheard of Prior). Recalling the halcyon days of1982-86, he thanked the then Roche House

hooligans for offering him a crash course inbehaviour management, which proved extremelychallenging for Gerald and furthered his“housemastery” apprenticeship. Several of thisteam were present to receive the accolade, inparticular: Jeremy Rozario, Mark Compson,Duncan O’Rourke, Paolo Frattini, Andrew Hadley,John Hardy and Marco Proietti.

In addition, he reminded everybody of the hugelysuccessful rugby tour of La Rochelle (Lucon)which he and Denis Clarke had organised (Won 2,drew 1, lost 0). According to Gerald, AndrewHadley single-handedly decimated the opposition(which was worryingly more mature than hadbeen expected). Furthermore, Gerald wasreminded by those present of the successfulextra-mural activities, that fortunately were notorganised by the staff. They will remainunwritten!

It was a hugely enjoyable night, and one that willhopefully be repeated at the 25-year point. Thankyou very much to Gerald and Shelagh forattending and to Paolo for providing an excellentlocation. It was great to meet so many old friendsand catch up on the tall stories. To anyone elsewho was in the same year as the “Class of 1986”,whose details are not held by the PPA, and wish tobe invited to the next reunion, please email DebbieO’Bryan at [email protected].

The Class of 1986 met for a reunion dinner inLondon on Saturday 9th September 2006 tocelebrate 20 years of ‘life after Prior’.

Jeremy Rozario

Mark Compson

Duncan O’Rourke

Paolo Frattini

Andrew Hadley

John Hardy

Marco Proietti

Peter O’Donoghue

Gavin Mullen

Harbi Ali-Ahmed

Jacob Schwartz

Paula Denton

Miles Woolgar

Chris Coelho

Iheshan Faasee

Edward Mason

Who was there?

ApologiesMichael Morgan

Andrew Clinick

Ian Fox

Fr John Cooke

Michael O’Kelly

Patrick Fung

Class of 86 Reunion

Left to right, Rear Row: Edward Mason, John Hardy (obscured by my big head!)Gavin Mullen, Andrew Hadley, Chris Coelho, Peter O’Donoghue, Mark Compson, HarbiAli-Ahmed, Paula Denton, Jeremy Rozario, Jacob Schwartz, Iheshan FaaseeFront Row: Duncan O’Rourke, Marco Proietti, Gerald ShelaghSitting on floor: Miles Woolgar, Paolo Frattini

From Left to right: Duncan O’Rourke, Shelagh, Gerald,Harbi Ali-Ahmed, Peter O’Donoghue, Marco ProiettiJacob Schwartz, Gavin Mullen, Paula Denton, EdwardMason (behind waiter’s arm), Jeremy Rozario, MarkCompson, Andrew Hadley, Chris Coelho (back of head)Iheshan Faasee

Gerald Davies entertains...

Class of 86 Reunion

You cannot afford to miss this event!Calling all members of the Class of ’97! Come and celebrate ten years of freedom on Saturday 20thOctober 2007 at the College. Chris Ash, who can be reached on [email protected], is spearheadingthe campaign to track down each and every one of you: Rosemary Adamson, Tony Atkins, Anna Bentall, Emma Birts, Tom Blathwayt, Sarah Botley, Joanna Brackley, Alexander Breeden, Paul Burke, James Collins,

Emma Cooper, Jane Crozier, Celia Daldry, Emily Dell, Tim Douglas, Karen Dufek, Katie Durand, Charlie Fergie, Hannah Fish, Lawrie Frere, Chris Goulding, Louise Green,

Lucy Guest, Holly Hammill, Chris Hancock, Matthew Harrison, Joanna Hill, James Holden-White, Amy Holgate, Catriona Holmes, Mark Hunt-Bryden, Verity Janovitz,

Michael Lam, Selby Larner, Zoe Lynch, Sarah Lynott, Benjamin (Ben) Manzi, Bernadette Mason, James McCulloch, Georgina Meacock, Marie-Claire Meridith,

James O'Brien, Joanna (Jo) O'Donnell, Rebecca Oldfield, Dominic Parsons, Ben Please, Louise Power, Jemma Roberts, Harry Speller, Victoria (Torie) Speyer,

Thomas (Tom) Sturges , Clementine Sweet, Ben Swift, Fiona Thompson, Yu Hong Tsang, Tom Vick, Andrew Waite, Ruth Wallace, Danielle (Danni) Walsh,

Christopher Wilson, Cristian Young, Marie-Letecia Young, Jeffrey Yuen.



Ten members of the Class of ’78 got together at the SofraRestaurant in Covent Garden on 15th December 2006 foran evening of nostalgia. Gabriel Makhlouf took the leadrole in booking the venue and networking with oldfriends to set up the event.The likely lads included: Gabriel (now without the trademark rectangular photochromic glasses!),Steve McCullagh, Paul Wrightman, Eddie Chan, Gary Winch, Martin Schimmer, Richard Morris, MikeSmith, Denis Lyons and Willie van Heesewijk. Christopher Liu, who hails from the Class of ’79, joinedthe group for dinner.

Eddie Chan & Paul Wrightman Gary Winch Denis Lyons Steve McCullagh Richard Morris

There are many excellent reasons for coming to thisyear’s PPA weekend: a convivial dinner on the Saturdayevening, followed on Sunday morning with PPA Mass,where the quality of the College choir will astonish you.A Sunday roast can be had in the Refectory and the feistyold boys’ rugby, featured on page 13, will keep you rootedto the touchline in the afternoon. The post-match tea andcakes could keep you at Prior even longer!

The dinner is always a fabulous, festive event. This year you will be able to

hear our Guest of Honour, Professor Tony Watts, speak. Awarded an OBE

in 1994 for services to education, he has had a fascinating working life and

is now a self-employed consultant based in Cambridge. Tony is a Founding

Fellow and Life President of the National Institute for Careers Education

and Counselling, NICEC, and a joint founder of CRAC (Careers Research

and Advisory Centre). He has lectured all

around the globe and will entertain and

inform us with his insights, as well as

giving us his take on the Prior Park that he

and his contemporaries knew! Tony was a

student at Prior Park College from 1953 to

1959, pictured above right in the 1957

cricket first XI. Old boys will also remember his younger brother Paul, who

studied here from 1955 to 1962.

So, please clear this weekend in your diary. Think about organising a table

of old friends and indulge in a little nostalgia. Contact Debbie in the PPA

office with any queries; we can help with finding overnight

accommodation in Bath. Dinner tickets will go on sale in September 2007,

but places may be reserved in advance by e-mailing [email protected]

1st XI CRICKET 1957

Standing: C. Blunden, D. Lumsden, S. de Wolf, G. Berni, A. Watts, E. Wintle, R. de Souza

Sitting: J. Bogie, R. Gibbons, I. Reid (Capt.), C. Blundell, M. Stevens

PPA WEEKENDSaturday 1st & Sunday 2nd December 2007


Our Annual Dinner was heldon Saturday 2nd December atthe College. The Guest ofHonour was Gerald Davies,former Housemaster of RocheHouse and currently Head ofIT at the College.

The evening began witha festive drinksreception in theMansion followed by amusical recital in theJohn Wood Chapel.Christopher Liu’s giftedten year old daughter,Sophia, played Rondo second movement from Sonatina in Eop. 12 No. 12 by Hook, Dream No.10 from Enfantines by Blochand Diversion No. 5 by Richard Rodney Bennett. The schoolchoir then sang a Christmas carol, “Newborn King”, writtenby a member of the Lower Sixth, Alberic Elsom, and “Ave

Verum Corpus” by Elgar. ChristopherLiu, PPA President, then presentedthe annual PPA music prize to itsdeserving winner, Daniel Hart of theUpper Sixth. Daniel is a baritone andhe sang “Quia fecit mihi magna” fromBach’s Magnificat. He thenaccompanied himself on the pianosinging “Hallelujah” from Shrek. Asusual, the music was of a very highstandard and was enjoyed by all.

We then retired to the elegant, candlelit Dining Hall,transformed from its utilitarian norm with flowers andprofessional lighting. It was good to welcome past pupils whohad not been back for a few years. Jacob Schwartz, AndrewHadley and IheshanFaasee, with his wifeDebbie, were able to joinmore frequent visitors likeSuzannah Angelo-Sparling, Justine and MarkGallen, Paul McMahon,Richard Spilsbury andGerard and PeterO’Donoghue. It was also awelcome sight to seerecent leavers like DiannaWalsh, Hannah Fuller,ShinWoo Kang, AlexGosling, Tim Birts andJames Osment enjoyingthemselves.

Following the excellent meal, Christopher explained that thisyear we were instigating a new tradition by asking bothHeads of School to address the gathering. Madeleine Pitttalked about the introduction of girls to Prior, and joked abouthow the older past pupils present at the Dinner would find lifeat the College so very different today. She ended with tonguein cheek by speculating whether the Catholic Church wouldever follow Prior’s example of co-education by one dayinvesting women priests! Tolly Humphreys gave a very movingspeech in which he talked of how supportive the whole Priorcommunity had been in recent years when he had suffered a

very serious illness.It was a pleasure tosee Tolly in goodhealth, delivering hisspeech with suchwit and aplomb.

Christopher Liu thenrecounted the progress which the PPA was making as anorganisation, particularly now that the Web Alumnus site wasfully operational. He introduced the Guest of Honour, GeraldDavies.

As a rugby-playing Welshman, Gerald started off byapologizing for not being THE Gerald Davies, the great WelshRugby legend. No doubt he had in mind how the supporters ofhis namesake, when he was playing for Cambridge Universityand Wales, would hold up banners warning his opponents to“hark the Gerald Davies wing”!

Gerald said he had always assumed thatteachers were only ever invited to beGuests of Honour after they had left theCollege. He added that he had looked twiceto see if his invitation was accompanied bya P45! He related how he ended up as ateacher when he found himself dissatisfiedstudying electronic engineering at

Southampton University. He had found his vocation and hadnever regretted his decision to change careers.

He recalled some of the events of his career and some of thecharacters that he had come across – including coachingrugby to Clive Woodward and Ian Duncan-Smith! His manyamusing stories, not least on D of E trips to Ireland, werehilarious and one could only ponder on how fortunate theteaching profession in general and Prior in particular hadbeen to have someone who so obviously enjoyed his work.Those present could readily see how engineering’s loss wasteaching’s gain and no colleague or pupil of Gerald’s woulddisagree. He touched, too, on some of the problems that heand Shelagh faced when he first came into St Paul’s as anAssistant Housemaster. But even here the humour brokethrough when he spoke of the antics the lads got up to. At theend of Gerald’s speech, Christopher Liu presented him with abook on Wales’ Grand Slam success of 2005.

The Toastmaster, Andy Owen,introduced the Headmaster whopraised Gerald for his professionalismand devotion to Prior. Dr Mercer alsoreported on the continued success ofPrior in so many fields, the academic,sporting, drama, music and so on. TheCollege continues to flourish and gofrom strength to strength with eachpassing year.

Tony O’Sullivan

PPA Dinner December 2006

Prior’s riveting ‘Sixth-form EnrichmentProgramme’ included an Indian schoolgovernor talking about opportunities to work athis school in Patna, Uttar Pradesh in NorthernIndia. It was an idea that really appealed to me:I wanted to travel somewhere that wouldprovoke me, possibly even scare me, and, witha budget as low as Dr Trott’s voice, I knew Indiawould be the perfect choice.

Unfortunately, through liasing with Dr Mhato,the school governor, it soon became apparentthat our dates collided and that Oliver Lawsonand I wouldn’t be able to help out at the schoolafter all. Oli turned his attention away from atrip to India but I found I couldn’t let go of theidea. I worked over the summer towards aplanned winter ski trip. However, comeSeptember that year, I made an executivedecision whilst having a drink with Jack Kelly, afriend from Downside. We were moaning aboutour new life in ‘The World of Work’’; we longedfor school and the sixth-form centre, instead ofa run down staff room. At that moment Iproposed that we go to India in one week’stime.

Seven days later, on Thursday 22nd September2005, after receiving our visas and passports amatter of hours prior, we stood at Heathrowairport being swamped by our respectivefather’s arms.

We landed in Delhi late at night and everysingle one of my senses was beingassaulted. The putrid stench and the moist,humid texture in the air were real signs that wewere a long way from home. We madeourselves known to our pre-booked driver andhe bullied his way through the plethora oftraffic emanating from the Airport. The rules ofdriving in India are simple, there are none!Indicators tend to be non-existent and broken

headlamps are not replaced. Beware randomrocks on the highway as well as ignorant cattlethat decide to sleep in the middle of the roads.Cows are sacred animals in India, so taxidrivers avoid them like a lower five boy withuniform issues avoids Mr Clarke.

As we arrived into the suburb, Paharganj, wenoticed vast numbers of men lying asleep onthe sides of the roads and on top of food carts.It really upset me; I was feeling a newemotion - it wasn’t fear and it wasn’tsympathy, although fear did soon enterthe equation. As the car slowed due to thesheer mass of human traffic, men began to tapon the windows and to try to open the doors.Our driver, Raghava, was amazed we had been

recommended this area because, as he put it,“It is very dangerous, there is lots of Muslim,Christian and Sikh tension here”. Raghavaescorted us into our hotel, where a swarm ofyoung boys tried to detach our bags from ourshoulders.

The next morning we made a fresh start on ouradventure with breakfast at a ‘café’ near ourhotel. Eight Chapatis (naan type pancakes) for10 rupees, equivalent to about 8p. We wentstraight to New Delhi train station and bookedour ticket to Panthankot, a town in the Punjab

province, just south of the Himalayas.Meanwhile, we had 24 hours to burn in theIndian capital. We jumped in a rickshaw andasked to be shown the sights. My affections forDelhi never really grew, through my own faultmainly; I always felt threatened and on edge. Itwas a relief to get on the train and up to theHimalayas.

We were impressed that our overnight trainwas so cheap (£8 return for a journey distanceequivalent to Edinburgh to Paris) but were soonto find out why. 20 or 30 carriages rolled into thestation (long trains!) before the final 5 or sowhich were sleeper. A mass brawl took placeto get on; there were people on top of eachother with cages of chickens on the beds!People were staring at us with amazementrather than animosity -this clearly wasn’t theway most westerners travelled. Inspired byMichael Palin, I stuck my head out of thewindow, taking in the passing landscape…from the flat plains of the Punjab region to thefoothills of the Himalayas – it was quiteincredible!

We arrived in Pathankok and located the busthat was going to Mcleod-ganj, home to theDalai Lama. It was a rickety old mountain buswith massive wheels, decorated in a green andyellow scheme that made it clear it was agovernment bus. The wording “Ultra-lowpollution fuel” painted on the side of the buswas clearly ironic, given the amount of fumesthis vehicle was emitting! As we waited, thebus soon filled up, until no more goats or peoplecould squeeze in. Setting off, it became clearthat the driver wasn’t smoking cigarettes, butinstead Charas, a Himalayan form of hash. Thejourney was a nail-biting 7 hour adventure.

We arrived in Mcleod-ganj to amazingsurroundings: Buddhist monks and theawe-inspiring peaks of the mountains.The next few days were spent relaxing at thetemples, walking the mountains and meetingpeople with fascinating stories of their travelsthrough the Himalayas. Everybody in the villagewas of Tibetan descent, even though we werestill very much in India. The Indian governmenthad given Mcleod-ganj to the Tibetan refugeesafter they were exiled from their own countryby the Chinese.

We ended up staying for just over a week,before seeing more of the Himalayas:Rajasthan, Mumbai and Goa. In total, I spent 5weeks in the country, and then went to SriLanka and Thailand. I can honestly say thatIndia was the most interesting of the three. Iwould like to thank the PPA for their financialcontribution towards what turned out to betruly the best 5 weeks of my life.


Gap Year ReportsThe PPA believes strongly in the value of gap year experiences. Each year we run a competition involvingwritten applications and interviews for PPC sixth formers. Here are the very interesting reports from threeof the students we sponsored in 2005.

A Snapshot of My TravelsThrough India by Dan Dando

As much as I had enjoyed my time at Prior Park, I was eager toembrace a year out, before going on to University.

Without knowing it, I had landed myself at thestart of a 10 week expedition with RaleighInternational, a charity organisation which runsgap year projects in the UK and overseas for17-24 year olds looking to be challengedphysically and mentally in an overall process of“personal development”. I had known that Iwanted to travel to Australia for part of my gapyear, and while that would be great for mypreferred kind of personal development (alsoknown as “A Perfect Tan”), it wasn’t to be themost worthwhile experience, so I decided toembark on a Raleigh Expedition first.

With areas of unexplored primaryrainforest, rocky mountains, desertislands and remote indigenouscommunities, Borneo promised to be afascinating expedition.

But all this was far from my mind as we spedaway from Kota Kinabalu and into the jungle tobegin a week’s initial training for all 90volunteers. Learning about everything from thecorrect way to slay an unsuspecting bambootree with a Perang (or machete to you and me)to the administration of adrenaline if one of ourpoor comrades went into anaphylactic shockfollowing a potentially fatal snake bite; anyonewho had dared to feel confident was quicklyreduced to a quivering wreck.

My first 3 weeks were to be spent in DanumValley, a conservation area of primaryrainforest in southern Sabah. Danum is acentre for scientific research with a specialfocus on the preservation of rainforest in anarea where illegal logging is rife. Our project

was to construct a 3km path to a waterfallwhich had been recently discovered, thusallowing the resident scientists easy access toa new area of study. The tiring work consistedof felling trees, pulling up roots and generalforest destruction; I promise the irony was notlost on us either. Danum Valley is widelyrespected for its huge diversity of wildlife, fromthe friendly orang-utans and horn-bills (a hugeprehistoric looking bird) to the not so friendly,sand flies, bearded pigs, scorpions, snakes andour personal favourites the tiger leecheswhich took up residency in all kinds ofunsavoury places around our warmsweaty bodies.

Following a rather treacherous two day journeyout of Danum, we were allowed a couple ofdays rest and recoup in a seemingly luxurioushotel (European toilets and everything!). Mynext project was to be living in a ruralcommunity and building a new kindergarten,whilst immersing ourselves in village life ofKampung Saguan in central Sabah. The firstproject team had completed the construction of20 foundation posts, and it was our mission tocomplete the floor, stairs, walls and roof struts.This task became all the more daunting onarrival in the village when we discovered thatwe had no building materials and even lesselectricity. On the second night however, weheard the rumble of a truck a few hundredyards down the road. Our materials had arrived,though their progress was slightly hampered bya 30ft crater in the only road into the village –and so a two day operation to lift 10 tonnes ofbuilding materials began. Though almostcontinuously on the building site, we alsomanaged to find time to teach English in theprimary school, attend a funeral and churchservices, parties, washing in the muddy stream,cooking, volleyball, football and even rubbertapping on the plantations surrounding thevillage. We were even lucky enough to spendtime staying in the locals’ houses, which was awelcome change from our nightly kip on theconcrete floor of the village community hall.

My last phase on expedition was the mostchallenging but without a doubt the most

memorable. We started off spending a week onan uninhabited (apart from us) desert islandattaining our PADI scuba diving qualificationwhich was simply incredible, an absolutedream world. After being sadly dragged away,we spent five days on a static site in the junglewith the job of maintaining a trail up the slopeaway from a huge waterfall to make the areamore accessible to tourists. From here, weembarked on a 7 day trek through themountains of the Crocker Range National Park,which although being painful, long, tiring, wet,uncomfortable, sore, depressing (should I goon?) was a laugh a minute and the highlight ofmy expedition. Our last mountain to climb(literally and metaphorically) was MountKinabalu, the highest peak in South-East Asia.The climb was completed in 24 hours, with thesummit climb beginning at 2 o’clock in themorning in order that we might reach it atsunrise, a truly magnificent sight and a perfectconclusion to the trip.

So all that’s left are the vivid memories, and theburning question, “Do I feel personallydeveloped?” Well, I’m not entirely sure, but Ican honestly say that my RaleighInternational expedition was the best 10weeks of my life and a truly unforgettableexperience.


At the age of 10 (for reasonsunfathomable even to me) I vowedthat I would never go to Asia. Arather bizarre promise to make Iagree, but something worried meabout that peculiar place on thewrong side of a 13 hour flight.However, 8 years later that wasexactly where I found myself, sittingin a pool of my own nervous sweaton a bus in the car park of KotaKinabalu airport, the state capital ofSabah, a Malaysian state in thenorth-eastern corner of Borneo.

Raleigh Expedition in Asiaby Sarah Ross

I had never been as nervous in my life as whenthe group of British volunteers gathered atHeathrow.

Our first challenge was a week of classes, heldat a campsite on Lake Naivasha, dealing withteaching techniques and Kenyan culture. Wewere taught a few words of Kiswahili, warnednot to beckon with the palm upwards, andgiven advice on how to dress—long skirts only,in a school environment. The country wasexhilaratingly beautiful, though we arrived inthe dry season: full of blue skies, clear lakesand unspoilt mountains.

Travelling from Naivasha to our schools,around Nandi Hills in the Rift Valley, weexperienced the essential character ofKenya. In every town we passed through,women with meticulously stacked piles ofpotatoes and tomatoes leapt to their feet andrushed to our windows, waving their produceand shouting ‘mzungu, mzungu!’ Childrenwaved excitedly at the bus as it went past. Onevery roadside was a small bicycle repairenterprise, a herbal remedy seller, and a Coca-Cola stand; and intricately paintedadvertisements decorated every spare wall:Safaricom, Elastoplast, and Celtel.

My partner Catherine and I were taken to ourschool, Kipsigak High School, in a broken downand rusty school van. The driver, who initiallyfrightened us with his intense smile, laterbecame a good friend, whose enthusiasm wecame to like. We were shown to our smallhouse on the Kipsigak grounds. It had one bed,a tap, a gas stove, and a long drop toiletoutside.

My first lesson at Kipsigak was terrifying. Theclass, Two West, was enormous, with aboutforty eight students, and the material I wasteaching them I had only looked at briefly in thestaffroom beforehand.

The lessons became easier as I began to feelmore comfortable in class, and learnt a few ofthe students’ names. At first I had realproblems with the names, because of how

many the children seemed to have: on top of an‘English’ name, they had a tribal name (mostlyKalenjin tribe, in the Nandi Hills area) andanother name based on the tribal name of theirfather. The order in which they wrote thenames on their textbooks was very variable,and I worried about revealing my ignorance.The other problem I had was even moreembarrassing: I often had to looksurreptitiously under the desk to see if astudent wore a skirt or not, as the schoolinsisted on regulation shaved haircuts for bothboys and girls. I regularly taught Two WestEnglish and History, and attempted to teachrounders to the younger ones once a week.

At the weekends, wetravelled around thearea, visiting otherEnglish volunteers attheir schools, andseeing localattractions. We wentto Kakamega Forestone weekend, as wellas Kisumu, Eldoret,

and other local towns. When the term ended,we set off around the big attractions, beginningwith a visit to Jinja in Uganda for white-waterrafting on the Nile. A small group of us visitedLamu, an island that is as near to Paradise asI’ve ever experienced, and were entertainedfabulously by the locals, including the rotundAli Hippy and his vast musical family, who canbe read about in most guidebooks. We alsospent a lot of our time avoiding the call‘Hey pretty lady! You want some companytonight….?’ that accompanied us as weexplored the areas less frequented by tourists.We finished with a week’s safari in the NakuruNational Park and the Masai Mara.

When the majority of the volunteers hadreturned home, I went back, this time alone, toKipsigak. Instead of staying in the little houseagain, this time I moved in with one of theteachers, Mrs Oidi, and her family.

My second experience was very different tothe first. Because I was now without thecompany of other English people, I began totruly experience Kenya. I chopped wood, madechapattis and became an expert in catchingmatatus, the Nissan vans that serve as hugelycramped public transport. I began to loveroasted maize, which, as the season changedand it began to rain heavily every day, wasextremely tender and delicious.

The biggest part of my life in the secondterm was the Music Festival, a country-wide competition that began withregional heats, and of which I became anintegral part when the Pastor, the only otherstaff member who could read music, failed toturn up. I had to teach five-part madrigals to agroup of enthusiastic students whose musicalexperience had never encountered anythinglike that before. We did well in the districtround, but were defeated at the regionals bythe bigger private schools, where music wasactually taught as part of the syllabus.

Living with Mrs Oidi, I got the chance to seemore of Kenya as she took me with herwhenever she visited family members. I learnt alot more about the tribal history and culture ofKenya, which is never far below the surface,and still crops up shamefully in their nationalpolitics. When it was nearly time for me toleave Kipsigak, at the end of July, I discoveredthat one of my Two West students, Caroline,was having trouble with paying her school fees(around £100 a year). Worried about whatwould happen to Caroline should she not getthe fees paid (almost definitely marriage beforeshe reached 15), I was able to help her out. Itwas only one girl, but hopefully it will make adifference, and in her letters she assures meshe is working hard.

One of the last things I did before leaving wasto paint a giant map of the world on the schoolwall, so they could all see where I came from.My friend Lydia Oidi writes regularly, and sodoes Caroline, sending me news of TwoWest—who have now become Three West. Ihope to go back there soon, perhaps lead themusic club to victory, and recapture theincredible enjoyment Kipsigak gave me.

Excitement and trepidationin Kenya by Alice Usher


On 9th January 2006, I set off for Kenya full of excitement and trepidation.Through the Africa Venture Scheme, I was heading for 4 months of teaching ina rural secondary school. Living in a small house with one other English girl, Iwas to experience a completely different culture for the first time.

www.paragonschool.co.uk, the new website,featuring the fresh Paragon crest is up andrunning. Student numbers are on theincrease and record numbers of visits byprospective parents have been recorded.Imaginative redecoration, new desks andcarpets, six new computers, a new projector,digital camera and photo printer haveimproved the children’s environment already.

Looking to forge links with the widercommunity, Mr Mills has invited outsidespeakers including a fireman, an Olympicathlete, a puppeteer, a policeman and apriest, to lead school assemblies. Parentsare involved too, and a mums’ hockey anddads’ football team lead the way.

Music is flourishing with the new JuniorOrchestra, and all standards of musicalachievement are recognised andencouraged. The Mid-Somerset Festival sawmany successes for Paragon musicians –Paragon Strings won first prize in the U13Chamber Ensemble class, the Brass Group

took second prize, the ‘Minims’ won theTransitional Recorder Ensemble and theParagon Senior Orchestra came away withsecond prize in the very tough U15 JuniorOrchestra class.

Sporting highlightsinclude the girls’ Under11 hockey team whowon the South West ofEngland hockeytournament held atMillfield and will go onto compete at theNational Finals inNottingham. Boys’football is taking offand the U11s boys’team won theirtournament at Millfield.The boys’ U11 rugbydid well to reach theMillfield sevens semis.

On the academic front,

all the Year 6 children have done very well intheir secondary school entrance exams. Ofthe 23 candidates who sat the Prior exam, animpressive 8 were awarded scholarships.


We are delighted to have received the following news of recent graduations:Magdalen College, OxfordRichard Olney graduated with first class honours in Music.

Somerville College, OxfordCongratulations to Maya Corry who graduated with first class honoursin History.

Imperial College, LondonA superb achievement from Sebastian Turner who was awarded thetop first in his year in Geology and Geophysics. He has also beenselected for a Research Scholarship, of which only a very few awardsare made each year.

University of LeedsPenny Law achieved first class honours in History.

Newcastle UniversityCongratulations to Robert Little on gaining his BA Hons in BusinessManagement.

University College, LondonWell done to all our students who studied at UCL:● Thomas Eastgate achieved an upper second class honours

degree in Environmental Geoscience● Sarah Jenkins graduated with an upper second in Human

Sciences● Victoria Pettemerides gained her MBBS medical degree● Holly Root-Gutteridge graduated with an upper second in Biology● Lea Stankovic achieved upper second class honours in History

Hatfield College, Durham UniversityCongratulations to Kirsten Anderson who graduated with uppersecond class honours in English Literature.

Gonville & Caius College, CambridgeMajello Munro gained first class honours in History of Art.

GRADUATION NEWS

Report from The Paragon School

The Paragon School stands poised at the beginning of an exciting new phase asthe Headmaster, Mr Titus Mills channels his energy into its development.Building on all that the school achieves so well, Mr Mills has invited feedbackfrom staff, students and parents, many of whom highlighted the distinctiveatmosphere of a friendly, happy school full of courteous and cheerful children.


Obituaries

James Pardoe1918 - 2005

Dr James LesliePardoe died at hishome in Portishead,Somerset on 23rdJuly 2005.

James came to PriorPark at the age ofeleven from

Shanghai where he was born, his fatherhaving been a civil engineer working inChina. He was joined at Prior by his youngerbrothers Leonard and John; James also has

a sister, Jane. He was capped for the rugbyteam and was also head boy at Prior.

After leaving Prior, he studied medicine atBristol University where he met and marriedMargaret Savile, also a medical graduate. Onleaving Bristol he was posted with the RoyalArmy Medical Corps to India where he spenta large part of the war. On returning fromIndia, James and Margaret started a medicalpractice in Portishead where one of James’former partners, Paul Conway, described himas ‘a truly lovely man and a great friend’.James and Margaret went on to have sevenchildren, two of whom, Timothy and Anthonyalso studied at Prior.

Recent happy memories include thecelebration of James 85th birthday in 2003when the family rented a 70 bedroom self-catering house on Dartmoor for the party.This was a great success with about 60attending & more than 40 relatives stayingovernight.

Sadly James was widowed in 1987 but wasfortunate subsequently to marry PatriciaLeahy whose brothers were at Prior and willbe remembered by many old boys.

James is survived by his widow Patricia &his children Timothy, Michael, John,Catherine, Anthony, Josephine and Anne.

Michael Hilton1946 - 2006

Friends of Michael Hilton will be shockedand saddened to hear of his sudden deathfrom a heart attack on Sunday 13th of August2006, aged 60.

Michael was a pupil at Prior Park from 1958to 1964 with his brothers Stephen and Peter.He had a varied career after leaving PriorPark, initially graduating from Sandhurst andserving with the Light Infantry division basedin Shrewsbury. After leaving the army he

became Marketing Manager for the BritishLibrary followed by a similar position withMotorola in Belgium. The majority of hisworking life was spent in the Gulf Stateswhere he ran his own company specialisingin Marketing and Training for the majorbanks in the area.

He was resident in Oman where he died andit was his wish to be buried in the Catholiccemetery in Muscat. The funeral was heldthere on Friday the 18th of August 2006. Amemorial service was also held on Thursday24th August at the Church of Our Lady in

Fleet, Hampshirewhere familymembers were verypleased to seeChristopher Lennon,Michael’s closefriend from PriorPark days.

We offer our condolences to Michael’sfamily, particularly to his mother, Monica,children Simon and Miranda andgrandchildren, Sam and Max.

Anthony More O’Ferrall1911 - 2006

Tony was born in Gateshead on 9 June 1911and spent most of his childhood in Bristol. Hehad three younger brothers, Louis, Denis andDominic and an older sister, Julia. He waseducated at Prior Park and former pupils willremember Tony from sporting photographs ashe wore an impressive moustache. His rugbysuccesses, apart from Prior Park 1st XV,included Irish Schoolboys and then LondonIrish. Tony was involved in variousbusinesses up to the start of the War whenhe joined the Royal Irish Rifles. In 1943 hemoved to the Admiralty in Bristol where heremained until the end of the War.

He was married in Bristol in December 1935

to Audrey, aphysiotherapist. Theymade their home inOxted, where theyreturned after the War.Apparently they first metwhen Audrey was invitedto tea by sister Julia.Tony answered the door

and as there were hockey sticks lyingaround, they proceeded to bully off in thehallway, to Julia’s astonishment! Their firstson, Rory, was born in 1937 and was followedby twin girls, Clare and Elizabeth, and then bySheila, Roderick, Lewis and Felicity. At thedate of his death Tony had 23 grandchildren,18 great grandchildren and 4 more on theway. Tony had various senior sales jobs and

Audrey practised as a physiotherapist until1980, when they moved to Drayton StLawrence in Oxfordshire. Sadly Audrey diedin 1998 and Tony moved to a home called TheMeadows. Here he was regularly visited byLeonard de Freitas, another old boy of Prior.

Tony was a very fit man and he continued towalk to keep fit. Indeed he believed that oneof the secrets of his longevity was taking adaily cold shower. A habit likely to have beenformed at Prior Park in the 1920’s!

The eulogies at his funeral underlined thelove which his large family had for him. Hehad a great interest in the world and inhistory, politics and current affairs. He wasgifted at languages and loved literature andpoetry.

Lewis More O’Ferrall1915 – 2006

We received the very sad news that Tony’syounger brother, Lewis, who was also astudent at Prior Park, died on the date of hisbrother’s funeral, 30th January 2006. Oursympathies go to the whole family.

Lewis met his wife Josephine, a talentedmusician and singer, known to all as ‘Joe’,when they were both working at theAdmiralty in Bath. They were married in 1944and lived in Malvern. Lewis worked in thepaint industry before they moved to Walesand ran their own business together selling

speciality teas, coffees and chocolate. Thecouple had no children. They retired toBournemouth in the early 1970’s where Joedied in 2002. Lewis then moved to a carehome in Oxfordshire to be near to both hisnephew, Roderick and his brother, Tony.


Sidney Sheffield 1914 – 2006

It is with great sadness that we must reportthe death on September 11th 2006 of formerPrior student, Sidney Sheffield, who was 92years old. He is survived by his wife anddaughter and two granddaughters, Deborahand Miranda.

Sidney grew up in Lancashire and came toboard at Prior Park at the age of 11. He wenton to study at Bath University before movingon to train at Guys Hospital in London wherehe qualified as a dentist. Sidney then took hisfirst job working at the Bristol dental hospitaland it was there that he met his future wife,Betty, in 1939. Introduced as ‘Peter’, whichwas his nickname on the wards (from ‘PeterThe Great’ because of his stature) Betty did

not discover that his real name was Sidneyfor quite some time! Henceforth he wasknown to all as ‘Peter’.

Peter and Betty were married in 1941 andshortly afterwards he travelled to Kenya aspart of his service in the Royal Army DentalCorps. Their daughter Gillian was born in1943, and when Peter was finally demobbedin 1946, the young family moved to NewMilton. It was here that Peter set up hisStation Road Dental Practice in 1948. Peter’syounger brother, Harold, joined him there onqualifying in dentistry three years later. Rightup until his retirement at the age of 70, Petercontinued to run the dental practice.

Peter was a keen photographer and aquadiver and he and Betty shared a passion fortravel which took them all over Europe. Peter

derived much pleasure from receiving theGossip Bowl magazine, and following lastyear’s edition, received at the beginning ofhis illness, he was thrilled to make contactagain with Simon Howell (PPC 63-70).Simon’s father qualified in dentistry at thesame time that ‘Uncle Peter’ was working atBristol dental hospital.

Noel Horrobin1945 – 2006

A student at Prior Parkfrom 1959 to 1965, wherehe was a member of theCollege first rugby XV,Noel’s professional lifewas spent teaching. Hewas passionate aboutrugby and was aninspirational coach to

his students at Chislehurst & SidcupGrammar School, where he had worked for

thirty years. Noel became Director of Sportthree years ago and was instrumental in theschool’s attainment of sports college status.Outside of school, he also coached the KentU16 and U18 rugby teams and was anEngland U16 selector.

Tragically, Noel was diagnosed with a braintumour in May 2006. Steve Hill (once Noel’s1st XV captain and now Director of Rugby atOxford University) rallied friends from theworld of rugby, organising a fund-raisingdinner to help with alternative treatments fortheir very popular coach and colleague.

Sadly Noel passed away on 23rd November2006.

Highly respected on and off the rugby pitch,Noel will be missed by many. One of hisstudents, and a member of his rugby squad,wrote of his mentor, “This man was anabsolute legend”.

Our deepest sympathy goes to his family andto his wife Lynne and daughters Elizabeth andEmily. In February, Lynne accepted on Noel’sbehalf, Bexley’s highest civic recognitionaward, The Outstanding Achievement Award.

Major Anthony Tregoning1938 – 2006

We were very sorry to hear the news ofMajor Anthony Tregoning’s death last year.

Anthony was a studentat Prior Park from 1949to 1956. He was anoutstanding rugbyplayer and enjoyed

unprecedented success in the school firstteam, playing scrum half to Ian Reid over aperiod of three seasons.

Christopher Bailey1956 – 2006

Chris joined PriorPark PreparatorySchool atCricklade in 1966,moving to PriorPark College inSeptember 1969.He enjoyed histime at school andwas extremelyproud to be

awarded a rugby cap after playing in the 1stXV. His three brothers, Michael, David andNicholas, also attended the school. He leftthe College in 1975 and despite plans to takeup a place at Sheffield University, he chose

to spend some time in Rheindahlen with hisparents and instead joined the Army in 1976.

He was commissioned into the RoyalEngineers in 1977. He went on to serve inEngland and Germany and was deployed onvarious operational tours to NorthernIreland, the Falklands and Bosnia. Heobtained a Bachelor’s degree in CivilEngineering in 1982 and a Masters degree inthe Design of Information Systems in 1997,studying for both at the Royal MilitaryCollege of Science, Shrivenham. In 2001 hewas promoted to Lieutenant Colonel andmoved to Blandford Forum where he enjoyedworking on Information Architectures for theArmed Forces.

Chris met his wife, Sue, whilst stationed inGermany in 1978. They married in 1980 and

had two children, Andrew and Katherine,who both attended Prior Park. Chris enjoyeda long and happy association with theschool.

Chris had a passion for keeping fit andenjoyed photography, cookery and buildingand flying kites. He also played an activerole in the Roman Catholic Parish communityin Blandford Forum.

Chris was diagnosed with a brain tumour inMay 2005 and fought his illness with courageand dignity. He always remained positiveand had a strong faith which sustained himand those around him. He managed tocontinue working until May 2006 and finallypassed away on 18th August 2006. He issadly missed by all his family and friends.

C McGibney

Joanna Brackley

Nicola Greave

Matthew Foley

Ruth Mandeville

Caroline Paskell

Nick Dobbie

Mariya Mizuno

Patrick Gruppo

P Brook

James Brackley

John Cutherbertson

Richard Casey

Hannah Bausch-Brook

Beatrice Hammill

Holly Hammill

James Stokes

Sharon Chamberlain

Tristram Tucker

Claire Monk

Jordaine Ward

Ali Flook

Simon Marton

Antonia Donnelly

Simon Ardron

Ross Sales

Nick Flanagan

Patrick Herlinger

Benedict Grove

Tony Ryan

Sarah Waters

Phoebe Hammill

Jemma Roberts

Richard Upton

Kate Upton

Dominic Campbell

Lea Stankovic

Rachel Lax

Cathy Boyce

William Wareing

Julian Bass

Lindsay Dawson

N Pepin

John Beales

Fran Parsons

Phillip Handley

Christopher Sampson

H Fahm

Philip Gartland

Gary Sweeting

Nancy Baker

James Hathaway

Victoria Pettemerides

Simon Tam

Joseph Crosby

Barnaby Butterfield

Joseph Fialka

Michael May

Any PPA members who have not yet registered onour internet linked database, Web Alumnus, pleasedo so now! It is very easy and takes only a fewminutes.

Three easy steps take you there:

1. Arrive at the Web Alumnus welcome page via either:

a) www.priorpark.co.uk/ppa or

b) the school website:

www.priorparkschools.co.uk, to Prior Park Collegeand then via the former pupils tab to the PPA page,and then the text or shield link to ‘the PPA onlinedatabase’.

2. Click on ‘New, never registered before?’

3. Complete the security questionnaire to ensurethat only former Prior Park pupils have access tothe secure site, include your e-mail address, clickon submit and if you are happy with the form clickon confirm.

You will receive an automatic acknowledgement e-mail, followed by a second e-mail giving you theusername and password you will need to enter thesite from the Web Alumnus welcome page. At thisstage you can alter the username and password towhatever suits you.

Any queries, please e-mail Debbie [email protected]

Have you registered yet on our PPAinternet linked database, Web Alumnus?


If you have changed your e-mail address, or have not yet registered on our WebAlumnus site, PLEASE inform the PPA of your new details as soon as possible.Alternatively, you may amend your own information on the web.

Apart from the Gossip Bowl, we plan to phase out paper mailings whereverpossible, due to the prohibitive cost, and to contact members by e-mail for PPAnews and events.

Where are you now?Over the course of the year we have received mailings back from the people listed below.

If anyone has a current up to date address whether postal or e-mail, please let Debbie know.

A Parting GiftPlease support thefuture of Prior Park

College with a legacyand help to educate the

next generation.

If you would like information onhow to remember Prior Park in

your will, please contact theDeputy Bursar on:

01225 835353 ext 273 oremail: [email protected]

Do you recognise any of theseintrepid D of E award hopefuls?If anybody can put names to faces in this photograph, please would theycontact the PPA office.

YOU COULD BE MISSING OUT ON PPA NEWS!IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING COMMUNICATIONS:

The Damian Timms’ tennis prizeA tennis prize has been funded by friends in memory of Damian Timms (PPC 63-70). The prize will be awarded each year to the most improved male and mostimproved female tennis player in the sixth form.

Gossip bowl magazine edited by:Debbie O’Bryan

Date post:	03-Jul-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	phungthu
View:	229 times
Download:	0 times

President’s Letter Contents - WCBS Bow… · I suppose I have the excuse of ... President’s...

Documents