Old Blue News December 2002
Media coverage of the Guildhall luncheon in June celebrating the Queen’s Golden Jubilee noted the presence at the top table of Sandra Bamfo (Ba B, Gr W 95–02, Senior Grecian), seated next to the Prime Minister and opposite the Archbishop of Canterbury.
A BBC2 series this autumn asked the public to nominate the hundred greatest Britons of all time. Sir Barnes Wallis (7’s, Pe A 1900–04, Treasurer 57–70) was number 94. His best-known achievement was examined in Dambusters Revisited (Five, 29 October) which contained previously unseen film of his experiments developing the bouncing bomb.
In the ITV1 series Mister Right, fifteen women vied for the affections of Major Lance Gerrard-Wright. Sharing the spotlight was his father, Major–General Dick Gerrard–Wright (Ba A 42–47).
Elizabeth Llewellyn-Smith (3’s 46–53) appeared in the Channel 4 series College Girls which focussed on St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where until recently she was Principal.
A Place in France (Channel 4, July–August) involved Nigel Farrell (Mid A 62–70) and his friend Nippi Singh house-hunting in the Ardèche. Caitlin Moran in The Times (19 July) declared them “one of the best bickering hetero-male couples since Matthau and Lemmon.”
October brought a new series of Big Cat Diary on BBC2, with Jonathan Scott (Col A 59–68) reporting from Kenya’s Masai Mara.
On 2 June Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia was on ITV1, dramatised by Clive Exton (C J M Brooks, Mid B 40–45).
Property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten, in Belmarsh prison awaiting sentence for manslaughter, won a legal ruling against the governor in September: Mr Justice Jackson (R M Jackson, Mid B 58–66, Governor) ruled that EU law gave van Hoogstraten the right to request the services of an Italian lawyer whom the governor had banned from the prison.
In July a farmer’s widow was set to become a multi-millionaire after the House of Lords granted her squatter’s rights over some prime development land in Berkshire. Martin Dray (LHB, LHA 81–88) was one of the barristers on her side.
John Edmonds (Mid A 54–62) is to stand down as general secretary of the GMB, thus triggering a leadership election for the country’s fourth largest trade union.
The head of the King’s School, Ely, Richard Youdale (Horsham Staff 82–88), made the news in July by announcing a boycott of the “misleading and inaccurate” A-level and GCSE league tables.
Shares in Michael Page, the recruitment consultant headed by Terry Benson (Th A 62–67), jumped by nine per cent on 19 August as investors approved plans to buy back up to £ million of shares. Benson said the group was well placed to thrive when market conditions improved.
David Norgrove (Th B 57–67, Senior Grecian), director for clothing and international operations at Marks & Spencer, was in the news again in October when M&S parted company with the woman who enlisted David Beckham to design them a range of boyswear.
At the Church of England General Synod in July, the Rev Veronica Hydon (1’s 63–70), a former insurance broker at Lloyd’s who is now a vicar in the Chelmsford diocese, called for the ordination of women bishops, while Dr Geoffrey Rowell (Almoner 78–90), Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, counselled caution: “This could be a Church-dividing issue.”
The Times on 17 June talked to Isabella Lauder-Frost (LHB, Grecians East 95–02), one of four CH girls who were “doing the season” as debutantes. She emphasised the season’s charity element and the need to take a break for A levels (they didn’t go to Ascot). “I wanted to meet more people my age and just get a foot in the door… We are not really sure what we should be doing.”
Lt–Col John Dymoke (Col B 37–43) was pictured and briefly mentioned in the Daily Mail on 31 May in connection with his role as Lord of the Manor of Scrivelsby and hereditary Queen’s Champion.
Guardian Society (31 July) had an article on the uncertain fate of the Brockwell Park Lido. In 1994 Lambeth Council off-loaded the well-loved facility, since when it has been run by two former council sports staff, one of them Paddy Castledine (Mid B 76–83). They’ve introduced yoga, meditation, alternative therapy and music and arts projects, but poor summers and a shrinking subsidy may have undone them.
Can geese (unlike birds that migrate by instinct) learn migration routes simply by picking up visual or other cues as they drift above the countryside? To find out, Professor Emeritus William J L Sladen (Pe A 30–37) sent ten young Canada Geese across Virginia last year in cages beneath a helium balloon. Released after eight hours, they flew to a sanctuary pond, seventy miles from home. Ten “control” geese of similar age were taken by truck to a comparable location. It was hoped that in spring the Balloon Geese would return home while the Truck Geese stayed where they were. Sladen is Director of Environmental Studies at Airlie, Virginia.
Russell Vallance (Mid B 58–66) was head of the Wishbone Trust before becoming a director at the English National Opera. He then did an MSc at Imperial College and is now Head of Development for Firepower, the Royal Artillery Museum, in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. He frequently supplies answers in The Times’s “Questions Answered” column.
The deputy head of James Allen’s Girls’ School, Vikki Askew (Hatton, Horsham Staff 84–99), is one of the experts who reply to readers’ educational queries in a weekly Times feature called ‘ed.forum’.
Dr Simon Thornton-Wood (Pe B 79–85, Governor), head of science, advice and libraries at the Royal Horticultural Society, contributed an article to the Times law section (27 August) on the Convention on Biological Diversity, whereby “plants, animals and other living things are now the property of their countries of origin.”
“It makes your blood boil. I could give him a good thumping,” commented James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan after York Membery (La A B 73–80), in the new edition of his biography of Brosnan, indicated that the star had once had doubts about his sexual orientation.
Silent Engine, a new play by Julian Garner (Th A 67–75) about a marriage devastated by the loss of a baby, was staged on the Edinburgh Fringe, transferring to a London venue in September. Guy Masterson (Mastroianni, PA 72–79) mounted no fewer than ten Fringe shows and gave an “electric” performance (The Scotsman) in David Mamet’s Oleanna, though his productions were plagued by problems. “He must now be qualified to tackle Macbeth,” joked The Times.
Howard Davies (Ma A 56–63) won more praise with his production of David Hare’s The Breath of Life with Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.
“A marvellous romp… one of the year’s jolliest shows” was The Times’s verdict on Ibali loo Tsotsi, an all South African version of The Beggar’s Opera with Charles Hazlewood (La B, Ma A 78–85) as musical director. In Vivaldi Unmasked (BBC1, 17 July) he travelled to Venice to learn about the composer’s life and the writing of The Four Seasons; The Times called it “this glorious programme”.
Last question on Radio 4’s Any Questions? on 13 July came from Dr Martin Megarry (Pe A 57–66): if the members of the panel were to die now, where did they think they would be in two weeks’ time? This unusual query elicited some interesting replies, not least from Megarry himself.
Delivering the 2002 Gaitskell Lecture, Sir John Daniel (Mid A 52–61, Governor) opened with the story of Michael Cherniavsky (Horsham Staff 48–66) sending Gaitskell a telegram before the main Commons debate on the 1956 Suez crisis: “Pull no punches tomorrow, Hugh, Eden must go!” He also mentioned his friendship with Martin Roberts (Mid A 50s), a respected headmaster and author of history textbooks.
David Pullinger (Mid B 63–69) is head of National Statistics Online.
Until retiring circa 1999, Craig Octon (Ba A 50–58) was Secretary and Director (Administration & Resources) at the Patent Office. At the same time he resigned as Chairman of the Project Board of MIPEX II.
One of the judges for the Charity Awards 2002 is Kathleen Duncan (Dale, 3’s 56–65, Head Girl, Governor & Almoner).
Col Francis “Buster” Howes (Col A 71–?78) is now with 42 Commando, Royal Marines, while Brigadier Roger Lane (Mid B 66–72) has been appointed Assistant Commandant (Maritime) of the Joint Services Command & Staff College.
Matthew Adams (La B, Mid B, Gr W 95–02) has been accepted by the RAF as a Weapons Systems Officer, starting in February.
Piers Restell (Mid B 92–98) has qualified as a barrister – apparently the first OB to do so since Kwame Inyundo (Ma B, Ma A 84–91) – and was called to the Bar by Middle Temple in July. He has a degree in both English and European law from the University of the West of England and intends to practice in Europe. (Sending this news, Piers’s father, also a barrister, mentions the vast cost of the postgraduate Bar Vocational Course, for which student loans are not available. He advises OBs aspiring to the Bar to consider Northumbria University’s new-style four-year law degree, which includes full professional qualification but is more manageable financially.)
Clare Tattersall (8’s 63–71) started out as a London solicitor but since 1987 has been in the legal recruitment field. After working for Spicer & Oppenheim and Nabarro Nathanson, and then operating a consultancy of her own, she’s now one of the team at JCL, working with managing director John Cullen (Pe A 71–78).
Christopher “Des” Lockyer (Mid B 68–75) has returned from South America and is teaching at Gravesend Grammar School for Boys.
Previously a deputy headmaster, Adrian Gray (Mid B 68–75) is now an Ofsted inspector.
After lecturing at various places in London, Dr Dominic Rowland (La A 79–86) joined the Civil Service and now lives in Wood Green and works for DEFRA. In 1997 he married Anna, whom he met at University College London while doing his doctorate.
Matt Holliday (Mid A 91–98) is living and working in London as assistant hire manager of White Light (Electrics) Ltd, the leading supplier of lighting equipment to theatres and live entertainment venues. He led the stage crew at CH and then did a degree in technical theatre at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating early to join White Light. “If any Old Blues require any lighting equipment/design for parties, events etc I would love to hear from them and attempt to give them a competitive price.”
Elisabeth Avenell and Natalie Rosier (both Col B, Gr W 94–01) have been travelling in many countries in Asia, from India to Mongolia. Later they were welcomed at the international airport in Cairns, North Queensland, by Arthur H C Williams (Col B 34–41), their email correspondent since 1999.
The Rev Michael Burns (Mid B 66–72) is currently priest-in-charge of South Mymms, Potters Bar, and Honorary Chaplain of the Potters Bar Squadron of the Air Training Corps.
Louis Mullinger (Col A 58–67) is now an investment representative with Edward Jones in North Carolina, USA.
Duncan Barraclough (Ma A/B 85–92) has left Equity School Travel and moved to Cheshire.
At the Royal College of Music Andrew Saunders (La A 98–00) is in the third year of a BMus (Hons) course, studying piano.
Scott O’Ryan–Roeder (Th B 60s) has been living in Australia with his wife and family for the past fifteen years.
An interview (Times, 26 October) with the actor Edward Fox, touring in The Winslow Boy, offered proof that his digs in Brighton were up–market: a fellow guest was Dennis Silk (Ma A 42–50, President CH Club 90–95), ex–President of the MCC.
Sir Michael Tims (Ma A B 42–47) spoke at the annual installation and ladies’ dinner of the Parish Clerks’ Company at Barber–Surgeons’ Hall in July.
To mark the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of Augustus Welby Pugin (Non-Foundationer 1820s), The Times’s Marcus Binney (17 September) went to Ramsgate, where Pugin’s house, church and adjoining monastery keep his memory alive. He is “recognised as one of the towering geniuses of 19th century art and architecture and the pivotal figure in the Gothic revival the world over.” There is now an active Pugin Society, with website at www.pugin.com, and an ambitious proposal to build (at last) the spire which Pugin intended to stand on the church tower.
Edmund Blunden (Col A 09–15 Senior Grecian) is one of twelve poets whose Great War experiences are the subject of Anthem for Doomed Youth, an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum until 27 April.
On 24 June the “Daily Life” column in The Times was an extract from the “considered and entertaining” journals of the artist Keith Vaughan (Pe A 21–29). On 27 August it was a letter from Lamb (CH 1782–89) to Coleridge (CH 1782–91, Senior Grecian) praising the author George Dyer (CH 1762–74). Same page, same day: an extract from a 1928 article by Captain (Later Sir) Duncan McCallum MC (Newgate St & Th A 1899–1904) describing his thirteen-month car journey from Peking (where he had commanded the Army’s Legation Guard) home to Chelsea.
September 16th was, The Times noted, the 217th birthday of Thomas Barnes (CH 1796–1804), who became editor in 1817 “and went on to transform British journalism. He removed the paper from a position of obedience to political parties and the state, and was determined that it should be an opinion-forming leader of people and government. He succeeded in this by not accepting the practice, then common, of being paid by the Government not to print offensive reports.” By his death in 1841, the paper’s circulation had quadrupled.
A writer in The Times on 20 June recalled asking Alec Muir (La A B 19–28), Chief Constable of County Durham, how he had estimated the numbers attending the Durham Miners’ Gala. “Quite easy, I counted the legs and divided by two.”
The Times Diary (date?) told a story from ten years back. When Sir John Whitehead (Col A 43–50) was British Ambassador to Japan, Lord Lang of Monkton was visiting his official residence when Tokyo was struck by an earthquake. “He was still in a state of nervous fretfulness when Lady Whitehead strode into the room. “These earthquakes are such a bore,” she said. “One has to go round the house afterwards, straightening all the pictures.” ”
A letter in the Daily Telegraph (9 August) from Lt–Col R M A Wade (Ma A 38–45) concerned a court martial training exercise in which a reply of “bullocks” to a Commanding Officer referred to a warning of animals ahead on the road. The word had been misinterpreted by the CO. The defendant proved his case to the satisfaction of the Court!
Letters to The Times:
19 June: Anthea Case (née Stones, 4’s 56–62), Director of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, enthused about the largest grant it has ever made: £17.4 million to save Tyntesfield, the Victorian country house near Bristol.
11 July: Lt–Col K R Bryan (La A 52–61) ticked off Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone, who had blamed his late arrival for the British Grand Prix on inadequate sign-posting at Silverstone – which had not impeded the other sixty thousand spectators.
16 July: Dr Gordon Van Praagh (Horsham Staff 33–63) lamented that in British schools “true education has been replaced by instruction”. He called for league tables to be abolished, alternatives to GCSE, and exam questions that test understanding, not merely knowledge.
26 August: A letter about the history of public conveniences in London mentioned a baby found in a Fleet Street jakes in 1562 who was taken in by CH, as was a baby girl discovered in one at Queenhithe; the latter was given the name Joan Queenhithe.
28 September: Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (Viscount Corvedale, Horsham Staff 70–74) deplored the misrepresentation of his grandfather, the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, in the award-winning TV drama The Gathering Storm.
9 October: Robert Stone (Mid A 59–67) remarked on the Tory party’s habit of replacing a bad leader with a worse one.
14 October: Professor Alan Ryan (La A 51–59, Almoner), who taught for nine years at Princeton University, derided the value of the American SAT as a device for increasing social mobility.
The Rev Jonathan Brown (Pe B 71–78) had a letter in the Church Times of 5 July regarding the next Secretary General of the General Synod.
David McKie (Col A 45–53), in his Guardian obituary (24 October 2001) of the political journalist Leslie Stone (Th B 45–52), wrote: “Perhaps what had held him back most of all was his resolute non-conformity. At school, he was seen as a rebel. There were awesome confrontations in religious education classes with the chaplain, who, on more than one occasion, concluded the argument by asserting that some things in God’s dispensation went too deep for merely rational explanation.”
The Times obituary of industrial correspondent Bill Parkinson (21 August) mentioned his pre-war days on the Yorkshire Post “which was then under its redoubtable Editor-in-Chief W Linton Andrews (6’s, Pe B 1898–1902).”
According to the Independent obituary of actor Dermot Walsh (4 July), in the 1947 film The Mark of Cain he was originally cast as the brother of the star, Eric Portman; but Portman “wanted someone less young and handsome as his brother, so had Walsh switch roles with Patrick Holt (Parsons, MA 20–28)” who fitted the bill.
A Telegraph obituary (25 October) of wartime fighter ace Donald “Dimsie” Stones noted that his son Oliver Stones (Col A 72–78) served with the Army in the Falklands.
CONGRATULATIONS
Reginald Abbott (Th B 12–18) celebrated his one hundredth birthday on 2 June.
Professor Sidney Allen (Pe B 29–37, ex-Almoner) married Diana Stroud-Roberts on 25 July in Cambridge.
The Very Rev John Arnold (Ba A 43–52) was appointed OBE in the Birthday Honours, for services to the European ecumenical movement.
Sir Colin Davis (Th B 38–44) has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of London University by the Royal Academy of Music. His 75th birthday in September was marked by a gala concert at the Barbican.
Ruth Deech (née Fraenkel, 7’s 53–61) was made a Dame in the Birthday Honours, for services to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Richard Hopgood (Ba A B, Mid A 63–70), previously Acting Secretary General and Director of Policy for the Church of England Archbishops’ Council, has been appointed Director of The Henry Smith Charity.
Sir Richard Nichols (Pe B 47–55, Almoner) has been appointed Chancellor of the University of Ulster.
Kate Nöel-Paton (Col A 85–89) is engaged to be married to James Shanahan, and brother Sam (Pe A 84–91) is engaged to be married to Dr Alison Mostyn. (Sam and Kate are the offspring of Duncan Noöl-Paton (Horsham Staff 72–99) and Kezia Noöl-Paton, for some years the CH doctor.)
Patrick O’Ryan-Roeder (Th B 60–67), a field editor with ITN, was appointed MBE in the Birthday Honours, for services to television broadcasting. He has been with ITN for 33 years and in some hair-raising situations in such places as Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan.