Middleton B House Reunion November 3 and 4, 2000
Middleton B House Photo 2000
Back: Bill Schaeffer, Iain Adams, Tony Fyson, Robert Fyson
Middle 1: Ian Barnard, Tony Stewart, David Davies, Richard Dixon, Ian Allan, Geoffrey Shelley, Roy Adams, Peter Newey, Roy Dixon, Martin Rendall
Middle 2: Alan Everest, Bill Fawcett, Robin Miller, David Jones, Tony Max, David Parks-Smith, Roger Moseley, Tony Kemp, Richard Prior, Michael Griffiths, Martyn Berry
Front: John Earl, James Dixon, Christopher Zeeman, Rodney Lord, Richard Vernon, Lance Reynolds, Michael Bamford, Chris Baker, Chris Bennett, Brian Randall, David Howard, Raanan Gillon, Royston Brunst
Middleton B and Ladies
There were thirty-eight of us, out of a possible two hundred and forty from the 1930s to 1960s in the dayroom. We came from Australia and Canada, California, New Jersey and Texas. We included bankers and businessmen, two pairs of brothers, captains of industry and the Merchant Marine, seamen and pilots, chemists and engineers, a farmer and a physician, a solicitor and a surgeon, a medical ethicist and a tobacco industry defense witness (who had some great conversation at dinner), a missionary, and many educators.
Richard Vernon (30-37) and Peter Newey (31-38) were the most senior, Rodney Lord (56-64) and Tony Stewart (57-64), were the youngest. Our hair though mostly grey and often white was mostly present, an observation that generated discussion. We supposed it due to Housey food and water, but Peter Kuo, a most articulate Grecian who joined us at dinner said that it was specifically a Middleton B phenomenon. Ancient Old Blues from other houses, he said, were much more bald. Peter is an ardent rugby player. We included many former 1st XV players, and, I think, an unbroken string of house captains from at least 1950 to 1958 in our gathering. My first, Royston Brunst (43-51) was there, for my second meeting with him in as many months after 49 years!
Michael Bamford, (45-54), "Charlie B" to many, was our outstanding organizer both leading to the event, and during it. He received cheerful and efficient support, as we all did throughout the day, from Mark Curtis and his team at the partnership office, Anne Sartain, Janet Peckham, and Wendy Dicker. We only embarrassed them on our march to the dining room as we performed, of course impeccably, some unexpected manoeuvres. Our parade ground performance was surpassed I thought, only by the girls' houses. They swung their arms higher and straighter than the boys. The band, if possible, is better than ever, and we Americans hope that their dream of performing in the 2002 Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena (the premier New Year's Day event) comes to pass.
Food is immeasurably improved. There are two sittings at ten person tables. Self-serve lunches include several choices from hot and cold buffets. I have not had better in company cafeterias. Charlie B drove us out into the cold, but thankfully dry and sunny quadrangle for our group photo, with our matron Miss Edwards, now in her nineties, in the centre.
Headmaster Peter Southern, and Clerk Michael Simpkin, then gave brief presentations and fielded our many questions in the Court Room, a room new to most of us, but always there at the Lamb end of the dining hall. The Endowment now only supports 830 boys and girls (480/350) compared to about 1150 at mid-century. Cost is about 13,000 pounds per year per pupil. Only 17% of income comes from means-tested parental fees, 40% of parents pay nothing. Capital from the Endowment cannot be used for either modernization or new building, such as badly needed classrooms and a Design and Technology Center, hence the continued need to raise funds. While sale of land for housing under the Horsham development plan might one day raise a substantial sum, the school has no influence on the timing or the outcome.
The new Grecians' residences are almost ready at each end of the quarter mile but were not yet open for our inspection. The Headmaster assured us that Grecians will still play an active role in the life of their houses, but will benefit from a "halfway house" before going into the world. Most children now stay on to become Grecians and go to University. The places of the thirty or forty who do leave early are eagerly sought for sixth form entry. These children add to the richness of the school and one in recent years became Senior Grecian.
The attached housemaster's family housing, and two resident matrons, add to the more civilized atmosphere in the life of the house. A matron is always on call. Although it is impossible to claim that bullying has been totally eradicated, great efforts are made to prevent it. Each pupil carries a calendar with a code of conduct written on it that makes it clear that this unacceptable behaviour is not tolerated.
We discussed academic standards and performance both at Housey and nationally. The Headmaster thought A Levels were not as tough as they were. Martyn Berry, (48-57), said that he had 30 years experience on the A Level Chemistry Board and could assure us that standards had not been lowered in Chemistry. We chemists, and there were lot of us from the Middleton B/Gordon van Praagh generator in the fifties who went on to Oxbridge, cheered. Others questioned the school's league table performance. The Headmaster is in favor of league tables and enhanced academic excellence, but reminded us that selection criteria for entering children were not based on expected academic superiority.
We could have continued questioning but boys were waiting to guide us on our house tours. Mid. B, like all the other houses, has changed internally beyond recognition. There is carpet in the day room and a television. There are couches around the walls. Gone are the ground floor changing rooms and troughs, replaced by senior and junior kitchens with toasters and microwaves, a senior sitting room also with television, and a computer room with e-mail, but not internet, access. Modern lavatories replace the old and cold bogs. Gone too are the twenty-six bed dormitories. Boys now sleep, change, and study in three or four-bed rooms. Only the lav ends remain, described by the Headmaster as dreadful, but nonetheless to my eye significantly upgraded sometime during the last fifty years. Although bitterly cold outside it is warm indoors.
It is not warm in Chapel though. Indeed the Reverend Munna Mitra's first words were a comment on the temperature and those close to him thought we saw his breath condensing as he led us in The General Confession. Senior pupils in the Schola Cantorum led us in the music that opened with the Foundation Hymn and closed with Now Thank We All Our God. Unfamiliar settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis lay in between but presented no problems to past choristers like David Howard (46-54). Indeed our side of the chapel sang lustily and yielded only to the exquisite sopranos of the girls in the choir. Chris Bennett (44-52) read "Let us now praise famous men" from Ecclesiasticus. Michael Griffiths (38-46) read from Philippians "Whatsoever things are true".
A warm fire, wine, Treasurer Susan Mitchell, (Ward 1 & 7, 47-56), and her husband John, greeted us in the Counting House. Few of us are aware of the key role the Treasurer, our CEO, plays in the Foundation. I was not until I had the privilege of accompanying her for four days on her tour of the USA this year. During our Q&A with the Headmaster and Clerk the question was raised as to whether it would be useful to introduce Grecians to the non-academic side of the Foundation since many Old Blues were ignorant of it. The Headmaster said he did not want to introduce any hint of financial pressure to young people who were about to face considerable financial pressures for a number of years to come. That is understandable and commendable. Nevertheless there may be a way forward to get Old Blues better informed. Your thoughts to Mark Curtis please.
Dinner was superb and enlivened by senior Middleton B boys at our tables. I was surprised to see them served wine, it is illegal in the USA until twenty-one, but they were more abstemious than I. Our post dinner entertainment was brief but included reading, by Michael Bamford, of a long poem by David Close (47-55) (without exeat in Lanzarote) on the smells of Middleton B. The Partnership Office will circulate it. We also sang The Votum with Tony Kemp (46-55) on piano, and drank toasts to the Queen and Housey.
Saturday morning was sunny and after coffee in the Counting House Anne took us on a tour of the Sports Centre. This externally managed facility compares well, if not better, with up-scale US athletic clubs. Membership is open to the public but the school has first claim. While this leads to some tensions it works, and returned 130,000 pounds to the school last year, enough money to support about ten pupils.
For most, the tour continued on to back stage at the theatre and lunch at The Bax Castle. David Parks-Smith (48-58) and I left for lunch with Gordon van Praagh, the chemistry teacher of many with his system of Chemistry by Discovery. Gordon is still vigorous at ninety-one. He had made bread the night before and fixed us smoked salmon, paté, and cheese and chutney sandwiches. He has written a new book to interest the layman in chemistry, "Adventures of a Chemist: Encounters with Stuff", which is in the pre-publication stage. He gave us copies of an earlier book, "Seeing it Through: Travels of a Science Teacher", which we will treasure. Gordon received the equivalent of a knighthood from the Malaysian Government for his many services to science education there. He will leave for Malaysia and Australia for a few months in the sun at Christmas, but I am sure you will find him back at Crawley next summer writing and entertaining old pupils.
For a number of us at this reunion this was our first return to the school in many years. We came with trepidation that we could not explain, and were not sure our coming was a good idea. Were we frightened of childish transgressions, cruel nicknames, bullies and the bullied coming back to haunt us? I was in part. They didn't, although Robert Fyson (51-58) good humouredly pulled my leg for a bit. Were we concerned that others might be more successful than ourselves, particularly those that had been lower on the food chain? I don't know. I do know there was no way of telling. I never detected snobbery while at Housey or from any Old Blue since. I do know that I had a wonderful twenty-four hours, enjoyed myself immensely, regretted the lost years, and will go back. To those lucky Peele A, Thornton A, Barnes B and Maine B Blues with reunions scheduled for 2001, I urge you to "Go for It".