Old Blue News July 2002
Brigadier Roger Lane (Mid B 66–72) led 1700 Royal Marines into Afghanistan in April and commanded the subsequent operations to search for Al-Qaeda and Taleban forces and destroy weapons dumps. Profiling him in The Times on 21 May, Michael Evans (La A 56–63) suggested that his habit of ’straight–talking’ – admirable in an operational environment but not adapted to political and media sensitivities – was the reason he had attracted some criticism. A Marine since 1972, Lane served with 41 Commando in Malta and then in Cyprus helping to remove nationals following the Turkish invasion. Appointed second-in-command of 42 Commando when the Marines returned from the Falklands in 1982, he has twice been mentioned in despatches, spent seven winters on Arctic warfare training in Norway, took command of 42 Commando in 1996 and was appointed Commander of 3 Commando Brigade last year.
The Mysteries – a multi-racial, multi-language, South African version of the fourteenth–century Chester Miracle Plays – arrived in the West End in February to rapturous applause. Its co-creator and musical director Charles Hazlewood (La A B, MA 78–85) was described in the Times Magazine as “a gifted communicator and a pure showman” whose version of Carmen began with him strolling across the stage, kissing Carmen on the cheek and leaping into the orchestra pit before raising his baton.
Michael Page International, the white–collar recruitment group, had a tempestuous time after floating in April last year. In February chief executive Terry Benson (Th A 62–67) signalled a share buyback or special dividend to reward shareholders for supporting the company through its erratic stock market debut; shares rose significantly at once.
Habib Annous (Pe B 74–81) caused a stir in May by resigning from Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. He was the second key fund manager to quit the group within a fortnight.
The BBC2 programme Myths of the Titanic on 19 April featured an interview with Peter Padfield (Th A 41–49) defending the actions of the California’s captain, Captain Lord, during the disaster. He is the author of a book on the subject.
Steve Hilton (Ma AA 81–83, LA 83–86) was on Channel 4’s Powerhouse on 14 May, calling for a philosophical, campaigning approach to politics instead of facile pledge-making.
James Peto (La A 71–76) is curator of the Design Museum.
The Olympia exhibition of paintings by Keith Vaughan (Pe A 21–29) prompted John Russell Taylor to write (Times, 21 February): “Vaughan’s later work achieves a monumental simplicity and directness which is unique in 20th–century British art, and suggests that his reputation should be up there with that of such commanding figures as Bacon and Freud… surely it is more than time he was accepted at his true worth.”
Colin Somerville (La A 68–75) started out as a journalist and music presenter on Edinburgh’s Radio Forth. He stayed fifteen years, latterly as music controller, before joining the regional station Scot FM as programme director. Next stop was the Edinburgh Evening News where he was entertainment editor for three years, after which he ran his own radio production company. Currently he’s a music critic for the Scotland On Sunday newspaper, appears regularly as a pundit on BBC radio, writes album sleeve notes (e.g. the re-release in May of the work of Alex Harvey) and is setting up a webrelated project provisionally named BlokeInARoomProductions.
Richard Salter (Th B 65–72) is an award winning audio designer and professional musician. He was co-founder (and is now Technical Director) of Celtic Audio, which aims to produce “the most realistic-sounding and aesthetically acceptable speaker system in the world”.
In December John Dersley (La A B 60–67) retired after eighteen years with Cadcentre (now Aveva), latterly as Group Finance Director, Company Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive. Aveva are the world’s leading suppliers of computer systems for the design of process and power plants.
When there were suggestions of “cash for places” at Pembroke College, Oxford, the Telegraph’s Roger Highfield (Mid B 69–75), a Pembroke man himself, wrote (25 March) that he would never have got in if money had been required. “My origins were humdrum but I did get a place thanks to my education at a boarding school for impoverished boys; in my day, Christ’s Hospital… was one of those ‘elitist’ assisted-places schools that Labour so abhors.“
Howard Davies (Ma A 56–63) was nominated for this year’s Tony Award for Best Director for Private Lives. He didn’t win, but the show itself won the Tony for ‘Best Revival of a Play’. The Tonys are America’s top stage prizes.
When Britten’s Canticles were performed at Westminster Abbey by Streetwise Opera and Tête à Tête, countertenor Simon Baker (La A 83–90) “made great impact as the child in Abraham and Isaac” (Times, 23 May).
Adrian Bawtree (Pe A 79–86, Staff 00– ) accompanied the BBC Singers in the Choirworks series on Radio 3 in March and again on Easter Day.
Freelance journalist York Membery (La A B 73–80) interviewed actor Jason Flemyng (Mid A 78–83) for The Mirror’s A-List magazine in January (and has been popping up all over the national press). A new edition of his biography of Pierce Brosnan, published by Virgin, will appear in November to coincide with the twentieth James Bond movie.
The film Thunderpants, directed by Peter Hewitt (La A 73–?80), was released on 24 May. Despite its unpromising subject – a boy with chronic flatulence – it is, York Membery assures us, “actually quite a sweet movie.”
A new play at Glasgow’s Citizens’ Theatre in April, William Burroughs Caught in Possession of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Johny Brown, focused on creative artists’ use of opiates and had at its centre the famous poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (CH 1782–91, Senior Grecian).
On 20 March the Times enthused over the performance by the Nash Ensemble of two works by Constant Lambert (Col A 14–22), Mr Bear Squash-you-all-flat and “Lambert’s masterpiece”, the Concerto for piano and nine players.
Sir Geoffrey Otton (Pe A 39–45, Governor) is vice-president of the Camerata of London.
A partner in the law firm Denton Wilde Sapte since 1985, Andrew Watson (Th B 66–73) is now managing partner of their office in Oman, specialising in oil and gas and infrastructure projects.
After spending ten years in the Far East in the 80s and 90s, commercial lawyer Guy Hardaker (Th A 69–?75) is back in the UK with Holman, Fenwick and Willan. He tells us Mark Turvey (Th A 67–74) works in the City for SVB Holdings.
David Farnfield (Mid A 69–76) has been a recruitment consultant since 1988 and is a founder director of Code IT Recruitment Ltd.
At Assurity Europe, providers of business continuity and disaster recovery services, the Head of Sales is Bryan Hall (Ma A, Col A 63–72).
Guy Milner–Smith (Mid B 88–95) is administration manager of the Business Services Association.
The former head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Ruth Deech (née Fraenkel, 7’s 53–61), made a controversial speech in April arguing that doctors working in private clinics who deliberately create multiple pregnancies should bear some of the resulting costs that now fall on the NHS. The speech was trailed in a typically forthright interview with Joan Smith (Times, 13 April). In the Birthday Honours Ruth Deech was made a Dame.
After the mother of two persistent truants was jailed, educational consultant and author Michael Marland (Th A 44–53) told The Times (27 May) that imprisoning people was less effective than investigating the family’s problems, but that schools “do not have the staff, the money or the time to invest in good parental relations.”
‘The simple life? Give me the West End’ in the Times property section on 22 May was about the Rev John Robson (Horsham Chaplain 62–80) who at the age of 70 is selling his country cottage and staying in London. He considers Covent Garden his “village” and is chaplain to the Aldwych, Savoy and Vaudeville theatres.
The Rev Andrew Bullock (La A B 60–68) has been appointed priest–in–charge of Alfrick and Lulsley and Suckley and Leigh and Bransford in the diocese of Worcester.
Spotted in the Church Times:
8 February: the Rev Michael Hickley (Pe B 38–44) suggested alternatives to traditional Lent study and discussion groups, while Lt-Col John Ollerhead (Pe A 44–52) was pictured laughing hugely dressed as one of the Three Kings at a children’s event at Salisbury Cathedral’s education centre.
8 March: the Team Rector of St Peter and St Paul, Godalming, the Rev John Ashe (Th A 66–70), talked about his “Peace Services”, a series of ecumenical eucharists.
28 March: one writer referred to the song Friday Morning by Sydney Carter (Pe B 26/7–33) which looks at the Crucifixion through the eyes of one of the crucified thieves. As Carter has written: “some sing it in church, others call it blasphemous…”
Rosemary Squire (née Barrett, 3’s 52–57) and her husband Sam have been in the bed and breakfast business for many years. They used to run a country vacations business at their ranch in the foothills of the Rockies but sold up in 1997 and are now proprietors of the Hearts-ease B&B in Nanton, Alberta.
It was last winter (he thinks) that David Owen (Th A 42–48) contributed to Alberta’s Canmore Leader newspaper a witty piece entitled ‘Confessions of a Compulsive Letters-to-the-Editor Writer’. As someone who has submitted “more than five hundred letters and columns to a variety of publications over the past thirty plus years”, he frankly admitted that he is now addicted and appealed for a twelve-step programme to help him.
Wings for Greyhounds, the charity run by Maggie McCurry (CH 60–66), was written-up in the Arizona Republic on 21 March.
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.”
Mark Harding (Th A 73–80) is currently living and working in Lisbon and is editor of the website portugaltravelguide.com.
Ian Hughes (Pe B 66–72) has been involved in the design and sales of contract floorcoverings for the past eighteen years. He can be contacted at iph@btinternet.com.
Duncan Barraclough (Ma A/B 85–92) has now left Equity School Travel and moved to Cheshire.
G J Colton (La, B/A 89–96) has successfully completed Commissioning Course No 012 at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and been granted a commission in the Devon and Dorsets.
Sub Lieutenant D M Peskett (CH 90s) passed out of Britannia Royal Naval College in April.
A Times article (18 February) on the suffering of Allied PoWs after the fall of Singapore quoted medical officer F R Philps (Ba A 24–31, Governor) on the usefulness of dried coconut as bedding.
Quote Unquote on Radio 4 on 1 April told how Ernest Hemingway arrived at the title of his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms: by browsing through The Oxford Book of English Verse and finding it attached to a sonnet by George Peele (CH 1565–71).
A note in The Times (30 May) about the late Air Vice Marshal Sir Laurence Sinclair (Ma A 19–24) recalled his constant striving to procure better aircraft for his squadrons. He once played a darts match with the commander of the US–AAF in North Africa, on the basis that if he won he would receive an A.20 Boston – which he duly did.
A Times report (2 April) on the re-opening of the Gordon Highlanders Museum told how the second Afghan War of 1878–80 began: “The arrival of a Russian mission in Kabul in July 1878 led to Sir Louis Cavagnari (CH 1851–56) being sent there as acting British Ambassador to try to counter Russian influence and expansion southwards. He and his embassy staff were murdered six weeks later and four British columns were sent to restore order.”
Sir Henry Cole (CH 1817–23) was lengthily profiled in the Daily Mail’s ‘Weekend’ supplement (11 May) as “Britain’s long forgotten Victorian genius”.
A playful Times article (28 May) on politicians altering their names was written by Nick Foulkes (Th B 76–83).
On 21 April Channel 4 screened the 1960 movie Sword of Sherwood Forest, directed by Terence Fisher (Pe B 13–19).
Principal guest at the annual dinner of the 9th Parachute Battalion Club in February was Lt-Gen Sir Michael Gray (Ma A B 42–50).
Letters to The Times:
2 March: The ideas behind the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit were explained by the society’s Head of Science, Advice and Libraries, Simon Thornton-Wood (Pe B 79–85, Governor).
7 March: Piers Ashworth QC (Ma A, BA 43–50, Governor & Almoner) denied that British judges are corrupt, but acknowledged many miscarriages of justice: “every day juries acquit guilty defendants.”
23 March: Responding to the question, “How long have ships been thought of as “she”?”, Professor Andrew George (La A 65–72) said that ships were female in the Akkadian language of the Babylonians by (at the latest) 2300 BC. Biblical Hebrew was similar: “Noah’s Ark was, linguistically, a girl.”
9 May: The Labour politician Michael Stewart (La A 18–25) was quoted: “Britain is a crowned republic. And the USA is an elected monarchy.”
17 May: A correspondent denied that the current production of Coward’s play Long Island Sound was the first ever, pointing out that the real world premiere happened in 1989 with the late Martin Tickner (CH 52–58) as producer. Meanwhile David Farrington (La A B 56–63, Treasurer–Elect) weighed into a discussion arising from BBC TV’s nationwide intelligence test. Numerous teams had taken part, selected by (e.g.) their jobs. How, someone had asked, had the builders’ team been persuaded to turn up on time and stay? David Farrington’s answer: “Perhaps… because they believed that the blondes would make the tea and the publicans would know of a good place to go later.”
18 May: A letter cited the medical ethicist Professor Raanon Gillon (Mid B 52–59) who concluded in 1999 that the legal ban on involuntary and non-voluntary euthanasia in Holland was being widely ignored.
3 June: Mike Sant (Th B 50–58), General Secretary of the Independent Schools Bursars’ Association, dismissed the allegation that bursars are unprofessional and should be qualified accountants.
A Times obituary (date unknown) of child psychiatrist Israel Colvin said he was spurred on in his important early work by the pioneering researcher into children’s brain diseases, Kit Ounsted (Th A 30–39/40).
The Times and Telegraph noted that the estate of the late K J Whinney (Ba A 40–47) was £1,163,438 net. He left £5,000 to CH.
CONGRATULATIONS
Professor W Sidney Allen (Pe B 29–37) is engaged to be married to Ms Diana Stroud-Roberts.
Edmond Rose (Pe A 76–82) married Ceri McNicol on 27 April. Paul Cousins (La A B 74–80) was best man, Chris Tambling (Pe A 76–82) played the organ, and numerous OBs attended, including the groom’s sister Helen (3’s 74–81).