The major player in this year’s gathering was the Forth Road Bridge which goes in for single track working at weekends. Half-hour queues at the South and North ends affected not only the drivers from Edinburgh and England but also the bus schedules. The Edinburgh undergraduates, Mary Clare (2004), Laura Reading (2007) and Tom Skinner (2005), were commendably prompt at Pollock Halls in meeting their Cumbrian Land Rover taxi, but the St Andrews Three, Tristan Franklinos (2007), Akua Twum-Barimah (2005) and Liz Isaacs-Sodeye (2005), just missed their train connection at Dundee and had to wait an extra hour. Since Akua was down to read Grace before Meat this meant a short delay to proceedings. Worst affected was Diana Gould (1951 and last Chair of the CH Club) whose bus arrival and departure seriously shortened her welcome visit to us.

We had a very well-balanced lunch justifying our faith in the Queen’s Hotel, Perth and Grace after Meat was beautifully intoned by Tristan. Our chairman, Major Graham Anderson, proposed the Toasts to our Royal Founder and to The Queen. Our guest speaker was Mary Ireland, Deputy Head of Christ’s Hospital, known to a wider audience as the feisty, Scottish Lady of Rock School. Mary gave a typically crisp and clear account of the changes at Horsham under the direction of Peter Southern, concentrating on a new trio of Three Rs. The degree of change perceived by her hearers was in direct ratio to the number of decades they had been Old Blues! The main point was that the changes to greater comfort in the houses and greater access to the ear of members of staff had resulted in a four-fold increase in the numbers of applications to the school. Mary was still not satisfied with the 600 plus applicants we now receive each year – “considering what the school has to offer, it should be 6000 applicants”. As a final treat she added a fourth R – Rock School – with some delightful insights into how to keep middle aged Rock Stars and TV crews in line with the purposes and policies of CH. Most significantly she praised the ability of Housey children to have the same influence. Even on the small screen, it was evident that the pupils had the greater say and the last word. This last point was then proved by Mary Clare’s response to the Housey Toast with her perceptive cameos of Mary Ireland as Deputy Head.

It was the largest gathering for a few years led by the Hertford stalwarts, Joy Holmes (1950 & Staff 1959-66), Elisabeth Mobbs (1946), Mary Maniez (1955), Kathleen Hamilton (1938) balanced by the Horsham regulars (Graham and June Anderson (1950), Stanley Amey (1955), Noel and Catriona de Jongh (1949) and retired staff (Ian Atkinson 1970-85, John Shippen 1966-2004, and Ian Torkington 1972-2007). It was a special delight to welcome Dr Philip Coad (1975) and his wife Kathryn after an absence of some years. In particular they added yet more professional voices to our annual performance of Votum/Carmen. I challenge any other OB section to equal our performance led as ever by Noel de Jongh: entries on CD please addressed to the Director of Music, Edinburgh Academy (a post currently held by Philip and previously by Noel). Not a voice was out of tune and, if there was a special sonority this year, it could be because of the preponderance of Tenors and Trombone players amongst the male members.

John Shippen (Secretary)

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