CHA and Christ’s Hospital-related News Archive

Old Blues Email News 2 February 2002

1. Benevolent Society of Blues

The Annual General Meeting of the BSB is being held at 6pm on Monday, 11th February 2002 at the National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE. The AGM will be followed by a supper.

The latest BSB Newsletter has also been published. This shows the Charitable Outgoings increasing by 16% in the last year.

If you would like more information about either of the above (or to apply for assistance or membership), please contact Mrs Jane Hitchcock by email or telephone 01403 248868.

2. Information Technology at Christ's Hospital

A plan to utilise the expertise and enthusiasm of Old Blues to help accelerate the broader integration of ICT into CH has been drafted following the workshop held on Saturday, 1st December 2001. If you would like to contribute to this, please email me in the first instance.

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3. Doing business with Old Blues

The new section of www.oldblues.com [now located in the Old Blues section of the CHA website] devoted to encouraging Old Blues to do business with Old Blues has got off to a flying start. It now includes:

If you would like to add any businesses to the directory, please send the entry to me as you would like it to be seen.

In particular, the Holiday Accommodation section has entries covering: two in Scotland; one in Suffolk; one in Devon; and one in Alberta, Canada.

A recent entry is:

John Cugley (Pe A 1964-1973) welcomes Old Blues to Sithe Mor House, Loch Awe. Accommodation in West Highlands, Scotland located only one and three quarter hours from Glasgow Airport.

John and his wife Patsy make visitors welcome as houseguests being entertained en famille. Sithe Mor House is a Scots Baronial house on the shores of Loch Awe with its own bay beach and jetty. The bedrooms overlooking the grounds and the loch have domed ceilings and amazing frieze plasterwork.

Sithe Mor offers two double rooms or a double and two singles which overlook the grounds and the loch. Furnished with fine art, antiques, Sithe Mor has a one of the most extensive collections of Boat Race and other Rowing memorabilia. John has over 50 prints of CH at Newgate Street too! There is a 15% reduction for all Old Blues!

Contact John by telephone: 01866 833234

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4. Caledonian Old Blues

The Caledonian Old Blues has the following dates in the diary:

Saturday 11th May 2002 Summer Outing

Saturday 26th October 2002 Founder's Day Lunch

Full details may be obtained from Joy Holmes on 0131 445 2092 or at joy.holmes@lineone.net.

5. Herts and Beds Old Blues

Herts. and Beds. Old Blues are arranging to join a church service at All Saints Church, Hertford on 22nd. September (as near to St. Matthews Day as possible).The service is likely to be a family communion or a Harvest festival . The vicar will acknowledge the importance to us of the long local association and centennial year during the service.

Anyone interested in coming to the service, planned to start at 10 am should contact either Neville Osmond on 01582 762029 or at 37, Aplins Close, Harpenden, AL5 2PZ or David Viollet on 01582 712097, or at davidviollet@aol.com. Those who have already responded as a result of HBOB newsletter are already noted.

6. Thornton B and Ward 9 Association Annual Dinner

The Thornton B and Ward 9 Association Annual Dinner is being held this year in the 'Red Room' at Waterstone's book store on Piccadilly on 22 March 2002 from 7.30pm. Further details can be obtained from John Gower at Jgower@capital-shipbrokers.co.uk.

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7. The Future of the CH Club

In the Editorial of the Old Blues section in the last Blue, it refers to the Working Party established by the CH Club President, Geoff Shelley, to look into the meaning of the CH Club for Old Blues today. On Saturday 9 February, a workshop is being held (facilitated by Mike Pitcher (Th B, Th A 1955-63) at Christ's Hospital with attendance drawn from a wide selection of Old Blues. Amongst the questions being considered will be: What is the CH Club for? Does it fulfil its objects efficiently and in the best interests of its members? Has its role as a financial supporter to the Foundation been taken over by the Partnership Office? To what extent does The Blue meet the need to inform the Old Blue community?

Geoff would love to know of your views on these and any other CH Club related matters; he can be reached at geoffreyshelley@btinternet.com.

8. Maine B House Reunion

On 30th November 2001, the Maine B House Reunion organised by Richard McGregor was held. Guest of honour was Morton Peto (Housemaster 1949-65) who was celebrating his eightieth birthday that day! Later, 98 people sat down to dinner.

For a full report and photos, see [the Maine B Reunion 2001 review].

9. Dates for 2002

I would again like to make the Old Blues Diary on www.oldblues.com [now the Events Calendar] as comprehensive as possible. Could meeting organisers please let me have their dates for 2002 if they are not already posted there.

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10. Friends Of Christ's Hospital

Various groups have been investigating tax efficient giving to Christ's Hospital for those based outside the UK. Below is news of the successful initiative taken in the US. Mark Curtis (CH Partnership Director) has been investigating possibilities in Canada and Australia but reports that those countries are a lot more rigid in their tax laws. It is worth adding that the Victorian Society of Blues and the New South Wales Old Blues continue to raise money for CH in the form of Donation Governorships and are in the process of looking at the possibility of a joint Australia Centenary Presentation.

From Lance Reynolds (PrepA/MidB 49-58):

Friends of Christ's Hospital is a non profit organisation incorporated in the state of California. John Doyle (PrepB/MidA 40-48), Michael Allen and Lance Reynolds are Directors. John is Chairman, Lance is Secretary and Treasurer. This will be a more efficient and effective vehicle for United States donors than BUSF with our overhead limited to attorney and accounting fees that we estimate to be $2,500 a year. John generously covered the cost of incorporation and associated attorney fees.

The United States Internal Revenue Service, on December 11, qualified Friends of Christ's Hospital, under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, as a tax-exempt public charity or private foundation to which tax-deductible contributions may be made.

Although we did not get our first mailing in the post until December 15 we received 7 donations totalling $4900 before year end. We currently have 107 names on our snail mail list and e-mails for about 60 of those. We think there are probably more of both and would dearly love to get this information current.

John and I live relatively close to each other in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of February 1 my address will be 470F Cola Ballena, Alameda, CA 94501, and my most reliable e-mail lancereyno@aol.com. I am beginning to be the contact person for Old Blue activities west of the Mississippi.

We are currently set up for the following Ways of Giving:

A Cash Gift Made by Check

Checks should be made payable to Friends of Christ's Hospital and sent to: John L. Doyle, Chairman, Friends of Christ's Hospital, 177 Ramoso Road, Portola Valley, CA 94028.

A Wire Transfer
Domestic Wires (Within the United States) to:
US BANK MINNEAPOLIS
601 2nd Ave So.
Minneapolis, MN 55402
ABA#: 091000022
Account Of Piper Jaffray
A/C#: 173103114547
For Further Credit to 34833615 Friends of Christ's Hospital

A Corporate Matching Gift
Friends of Christ's Hospital can accept all tax-deductible contributions from corporate matching gift programs.

A Gift of Securities
A gift of appreciated securities or property may offer significant tax advantages. Instruct your broker to transfer the stock using these DTC Delivery Instructions:
Piper's DTC Clearing Number - 311
Reference 565-255656-1-010 Friends of Christ's Hospital

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11. Susan Mitchell

Susan Mitchell was appointed a Trustee and Chairman of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation on 22 January. Susan would like to emphasise that CH will remain her priority until the end of her six year term as Treasurer on 31st August 2002.

Susan says:

"This will delay my retirement and better cultivation of my garden for a year or two but will fill the inevitable void when I conclude my term as Treasurer of CH on 31 August, and I shall greatly enjoy the new challenge. The PHF is due to become considerably larger as a result of a very substantial bequest from Lord Hamlyn's estate.

The vacancy arises as a result of the death of Lord Hamlyn last autumn, with whom I had worked for over thirty years in various enterprises, latterly as an adviser to the PHF. I relinquished that role on my appointment as a Trustee last week. I think the current Trustees take the view that the devil they know...!"

Our best wishes and congratulations go to Susan as she takes up this new challenge.

12. Keith Vaughan CBE (Pe A 1921-29)

Reported by Rex Sweeny:

The loan exhibition at the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair (26 February to 3 March) will be a major retrospective of one of CH's best known artists, Keith Vaughan (Pe A 1921-29), including a hundred oils, gouaches and drawings. Brian Sewell has written: An important painter... This, the first serious survey of his work since his suicide in 1977, will re-establish the reputation of a painter undeservedly neglected in the welter of conceptual, installation and video art that is the current fad. More information at www.keith-vaughan.co.uk.

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13. Oldblues.com Usage

The oldblues.com website is being well used with the following statistics being recorded in the period 07/11/2001 and 07/01/2002 (a twelve week period), excluding the OBRFC website:

number of unique visitors - 1,327
visitors who visited once - 936, visitors who visited more than once - 391, 65 visitors visited more than 10 times!
total number of visits - 3,944
average visits per day - 63
average visit length - 6 minutes, 57 seconds.

Most popular pages with the number of visits are:

Old Blues Photos - 400 [now the Old Blues Gallery]
Where are they now? - 330 [now contained within the Blue Yellow Pages' Where are they now? search]
Old Blues on the web - 324 [information now found within the Blue Yellow Pages]

My thanks to Andrew Whitehouse who extracted and put together these figures for me!

14. Winifred Woolcott

Tony Rogers is doing some history research about his mother, Winifred Woolcott, who was at Hertford from sometime about 1910 to 1920. She had a friend Marjory Killick, among others, at the school. If anyone can help with information or background, please email him at TonyRogers@foxgloves.freeserve.co.uk.

15. Hertford in 1910-20

Tony Rogers, whose mother, Winifred Woolcott, went to CH from 1913 to 1920 (see item above), has been kind enough to provide some photos of Hertford at that time. These can be found [in the Old Blues Gallery]. Our thanks go to Tony.

16. OBRFC - Rugby Club Dinner

The guest speaker at the OBRFC Annual Dinner on 26 April 2002 is ex England International and British Lion, Martin Bayfield. Please put the date in your diary.

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17. Old Blues Web Links Updated

The following people have been added to Old Blue Web Links [now Blue Yellow Pages]:

HRH PRINCE RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER (President 1974- )
Vikki ASKEW (Hatton, Horsham Staff 1984-?2000), deputy head, James Allen's Girls' School (photo only)
Mark DICKINSON (La A 1967-72), diplomat
C S 'Paddie' DRAKE (Col A, Ba B, Mid B 1939-47), army officer, personnel & training manager, art historian (his book The Romanesque Fonts of Northern Europe and Scandinavia)
Kathleen DUNCAN (Dale, 3's 1956-65, Head Girl, Governor & Almoner), director general, Lloyds TSB Foundation for England & Wales (photo only)
John FRANKLIN (La A 1944-51), architect, town planner, student of religious experience
Raanan GILLON (Mid B 1952-59), medical ethicist
R J H GRIFFITHS (Col B 1946-54), naval gunnery officer, then systems analyst (his researches into the Mortlock family)
Mike GUNTON (Col A 1939-47), army officer
John HANCORN (Music Staff), singer
Elias (Lyle) ISAACS (CH 1923-29), chemist
Niall McELROY (CH 1992-97), Computer Studies Engineering student, Bristol University
Simon PALGRAVE (La B, Ma A, Grecians East 1993-2001), seeking a university place to read Archaeology
Tony PACKWOOD (La A 1949-56), deputy headmaster. B&B proprietor, Dunbar
Tony POULTER (Pe A 1969-75), global head of project finance & privatisation, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Matt SHARPLES (Pe A 1995-97?), occupation unknown, living in Toulouse
Edward Pote WILLIAMS (CH circa 1850), priest
Tim WOOLFORD (Horsham Staff 1977-78), television music and drama producer

Extra (or better) links have been provided for:

Trevor MOORE (Mid B 1968-74), lawyer. Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Will TERRISS (Lewin, CH 1854-56), actor
Keith VAUGHAN (Pe A 1921-29), artist and diarist

Another pseudonymous diarist has been added.

A number of links have been provided to Grecians 2001, the online yearbook for last year's leavers.

The "CH related topics" section now includes a speech by Lord Ezra in 1999, discussing the proposed sale of CH land.