After what can at best be described as a disappointing summer weather-wise, Wednesday 8th October was a glorious day.  The sun shone from morning till night and helped to make the Middleton reunion a great success with Old Blues from many parts of the world.

Middleton was the last Avenue block to be renovated and the first to have the new houseparents accommodation designed by Steward Ian Evans.  The simultaneous reunions in Mid A and Mid B celebrated this renaissance of Middleton.  In the morning, those present were taken around the boarding house and the houseparents accommodation, witnessed the unveiling of plaques to commemorate the development by CH Treasurer Sir Garry Johnson, himself a Mid A Old Blue, and then took part in group photographs.

The assembled gathering then saw a magnificent Lunch Parade.  The Band, which only returned from the Menin Gate in Ypres a few hours earlier, marched past and saluted the Treasurer, the Head Master and the Clerk who were accompanied in front of Dining Hall by Keith Lugton and Michael Bamford as standard bearers for Mid A and Mid B respectively.  Various people at the reunion, including Jack Doyle and Chris Pearson, had accompanied the band to the Menin Gate, with great pride.

This, the largest reunion held at CH, consisted of 48 Old Blues from Mid A and 45 from Mid B, who had all entered the school by 1965.  Together with 45 supporters and guests, around 140 people sat down to lunch in Big School.  After explanations of how the Middleton houseparents accommodation had been funded and other aspects of the current Christ’s Hospital, the Treasurer, the Head Master and the Clerk answered questions from the audience.

Then Lance Reynolds, Mid B Old Blue and treasurer/secretary of the Friends of Christ’s Hospital in America, presented to CH a copy of Ackermann’s Public Schools, a vast book published in 1816 which contains wonderful pictures of the main public schools of that time (including Christ’s Hospital – described as a free-school) and a write-up of each.  This will form the centrepiece of a special display in the Library.

The visitors were then free to visit other parts of the school, including the Art School and the Doyle School of Design and Technology, funded by Jack Doyle, Mid A Old Blue who was visiting CH from his home in California.

Grateful thanks were expressed to all the CH staff who had made it possible to have such a successful reunion.

The party then had a short chapel service.  The lesson (Rejoice in the Lord always from Philippians chapter 4) was read by Susan Mitchell, who as Treasurer of CH in 1998 was closely involved in the successful Mid A appeal at that time.  The homily by Rev Muna Mitra in his last reunion service before leaving CH was most uplifting and reflected the volume of the singing by the congregation, accompanied on the organ by current Mid A pupil Adam Matthias.

After tea in Dining Hall and the Court Room, several people went to the Boar’s Head to celebrate a hugely enjoyable day.

More photographs from the Middleton Reunion are available in the Event Galleries section of the CHA site.

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