Old Blue News July 2003
Lt-Col Buster Howes (Col A 71–?78) has been in Iraq as commanding officer of 42 Commando, Royal Marines, who stormed on to the Al Faw peninsula in the biggest helicopter attack since the Vietnam War, helped secure the oil infrastructure in southern Iraq and control the deepwater port of Umm Qasr, and saw fierce fighting in and near Basra, where they later took part in peackeeping. Returning to England in May he paid tribute to his “amazing” troops: “They were courageous, compassionate, flexible and never lost their sense of humour.” His reunion with wife Josephine and their twin daughters drew some attention in the press.
The war brought much sadder media exposure to the Rev David Miller (La A 63–72), who as Rector of Helston in Cornwall said prayers for the dead after seven air crew based at nearby RNAS Culdrose died in a helicopter accident. He told reporters: “It has been said that there is scarcely a family in Helston without connections in the armed forces.”
When SARS hit Toronto, Phyllis Chuang (8’s 66–73), an X-ray technologist in a hospital there, was involved in treating patients. She endured a week’s “home quarantine” after being exposed to “bad bugs” in the coronary care unit, and described for the BBC News website the difficulties both in the health service – “I have never encountered the same kind of conditions and stress that have appeared since mid-March of this year” – and at home, where her quarantine meant “it was segregation time for chopsticks, bowls, cooking pots, toilets for my Ma (who is struck with two more popular kind of conditions – stroke and heart disease) and me.”
The Times Magazine’s main feature on 24 May concerned the artistic duo Olly and Suzi, ‘Olly’ being Olly Williams (LHA, Th A 79–86). For fifteen years they have roamed the world from the North Pole to the Amazonian jungle, collaborating on rapid portraits of bears, lions, wolves, crocodiles, tarantulas, sharks, orang-utans, etc., some of whom were invited to inspect (as in maul, or urinate on) the finished product; the pair also paint landscapes that are “big and bold and spare; they cry freedom”. A large part of their aim is to document habitats, animals and tribes which may soon vanish. Next year they propose to work in Antarctica.
Coming up at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh is a major exhibition of the work of Ashley Havinden (Ma A B 14–19). Advertising and the Artist: Ashley Havinden’s Designs and Collections will run from 15 October to 18 January. Havinden, whose professional name was “Ashley”, was one of the UK’s most successful twentieth-century advertising artists and designers, and as a painter was part of the international group of artists that included Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. His superb private collection contained works by Hepworth, Alexander Calder and John Piper, which will be shown alongside his own.
Veteran union leader John Edmonds (Mid B 54–62) retired in June after seventeen years at the helm of the GMB general union. In his final speech as leader he accused the Labour government of siding with bosses over workers. Ministers should remember that “it was the unions who kept the party afloat when all those millionaire friends that the government has recently discovered would not have donated a used bus ticket to Labour Party funds.” Edmonds has built the GMB union by mergers at a time when union membership has been generally in decline.
At the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Anthea Case (néeStones, 4’s 56–62) has stepped down after serving as Director since 1995.
Jon Maxim (Col B 76–82) has been in advertising since 1986 and in Australia since 1989. Married with one child, he is currently a freelance (and award-winning) creative director, copywriter and marketing consultant in Sydney, where one of his clients is Sydney Opera House – appropriately since his brother Piers Maxim (Pe A 81–87) is Chorus Master of Scottish Opera. Compositions by Piers and Thomas Ravenscroft (Music Master 1618–22) can be found on the CD An Advent Procession by the Choir of Southwark Cathedral (Herald HAVP247).
Benjamin Chewter (Th B, Ma A, Mid B, Gr E 95–02) is Organ Scholar of Canterbury Cathedral.
Classical Music magazine (15 March) looked forward to the CH concert at the Barbican with a friendly account of the programme, the school and its musical traditions. Most of the names were familiar to OB-watchers (pianist Andrew Saunders (La A 98–00) being perhaps an exception) but this testimony from conductor Charles Hazlewood (La A B, MA 78–85) deserves to be quoted: “It’s an amazing school and was very much the making of me… I had some fantastic experiences. I was accepted as a chorister at the school as an 11-year-old high-energy boy who was out to cause trouble. Christ’s Hospital got me back into line and gave me a focus. It is a 24-hour adventure playground … and there is a breadth and strength about it that you wouldn’t normally find. Although not officially a specialist music school, it has a well-nourished and well-organised music department in which students work to a high level.”
The ninetieth birthday of the musicologist, composer and author Percy M Young (La A 24–30) was marked last May by a concert of music by Elgar and Stanford at Birmingham University’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Hertfordshire University (shortly to move to a new £120 million campus) began life in 1952 as Hatfield Technical College. On 17 April The Times talked to Dr Peter Kingsford (La A 20–25), its original registrar and head of social studies. He recalled the chalk–and–talk lectures, the stark facilities and the students in suits (there were only fifty women), but also the excitement: ‘I remember being incredibly ambitious for the place … there was talk about it becoming a university even then.’
Hubris, a fifteen minute film by Natasha Tilley (CH late 80s), was shortlisted for an award at last year’s Portobello Film Festival and was also shown at the 2002 Festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester.
In addition to running Flashbacks Film Memorabilia, Richard Dacre (Pe A, BA, MdA 61–67) distributes films (notably Mike Leigh’s Bleak Moments) under the banner Respectable Films, and writes and lectures extensively on the cinema. He contributed a study of British comedy films to the British Film Institute’s The British Cinema Book, now in its second edition.
Co–proprietor of Juretic Media Ltd, “a small but perfectly formed web and multimedia agency offering many differing online and offline interactive solutions for small to medium sized businesses,” is Ashley Whiting (Ma A/B 81–87). Clients include Meridian TV, Dulux and IPC Publications.
A new venture from Davis Mukasa (Th A, Ma A 88–95), the Fastbreak Club is a London-based members’ entertainment and travel company, launched last year. Its aim is “to provide a personal bespoke service to the best in entertainment and short break travel, at a moment’s notice [and] to the highest standards.”
Dominic Carolan (Pe A 81–87) runs an event management company called Skyline, organising everything from hospitality at Wimbledon and Ascot to large-scale conferences, product launches and parties, plus participation events such as knockouts and dragon boat races. Its specialist charity division helps over 950 UK charities to raise over £2 million per year, and for groups and individuals Skyline can (he assures us) fix up anything from a single gift voucher for a flying lesson to a giant wedding reception.
The ITV1 series Mister Right, featuring sought-after bachelor Lance Gerrard-Wright, had an elegant result: he became engaged to its presenter, Ulrika Jonsson. His father Major–General Dick Gerrard–Wright (Ba A 42–47) has assured the press that Lance and Ulrika have a great understanding and that his son loves kids and is great with hers.
Lt–Col Paul Middlemiss (Th B 62–68) is the British Liaison Officer at the German School of Infantry at Hammelburg, Bavaria.
While the legality of the coalition action in Iraq was being fiercely disputed in March, J A L Hamilton (thought to be Col B 31–38) wrote to The Times decrying the notion that a sovereign state requires legal authority to make war.
Three church appointments announced in The Times on the same day: the Rt Rev David Evans (La A 50–57) to be an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the diocese of Coventry, and Associate Minister (house-for-duty) in the Stourdene Group of parishes in that diocese; the Rev John Springbett (La A B 56–65) to be Vicar of St Paul’s, Woodford Bridge, in the diocese of Chelmsford; and Ian Gaweda, formerly chief accountant of the Lichfield Diocesan Board of Finance, to be CH’s Financial Director.
An extra appointment for the Rev Caroline Hewlett (née Hewitt, 4’s, Ba A 80–87): while continuing as curate of St George’s, Leeds, she is now Chaplain to the Leeds Combined Court Centre.
Dr Ansar Mohamed Haroun (Mid A 59–66) is the Supervising Psychiatrist for the San Diego Superior Court, and a Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Law at UCSD and USD Medical and Law Schools.
Barristers Andrew Cosedge (Pe B 60–66) and Martin Dray (LHB/A 81–88) turned up in the Times law reports within three days of each other in March, appearing in the Chancery Division in disputes over ownership of a Warwickshire farm and access to the Silverstone Racing Car Circuit.
Property lawyer Keith Walker (Pe A 64–70) runs his own practice (Walker & Co) in Chard, Somerset.
When the Sunday Times restaurant critic A A Gill visited the Savoy Grill (25 May) his guests were Michael Winner, Terry “smudger” O’Neill and Jeremy King (Pe A 64–72), co-refounder of The Ivy (recently voted the 31st best restaurant in the world in a global survey of chefs and critics) and former member of the OBRFC second row. Sadly we were told nothing more about him except that he had calves’ sweetbreads with onion marmalade and shared a chateaubriand with Winner.
Last year the International Herald Tribune ran a monthly series of debates on sustainable development. In August one participant was Sebastian Scotney (Col B 66–73), described as a former top rated Belgian analyst who acts as a consultant to large companies; he queried some of the claims made for “socially responsible” investment funds. The full series is now available as a special report from the European Business Forum.
Steve Webb (Col A 60–69) runs a group of Interim Programme Directors. His own background is in managing large scale business or technology change (including outsourcing) in the financial services sector. Steve is also a Director of OpRisk Ltd which helps clients manage operational risk in the financial markets, particularly in response to the Basle II Accord. (And he still finds time to preside over the BSB and this website.)
An interview (Times, 25 April) with Alastair Ross Goobey, ‘the Godfather of corporate governance’, noted that his father George Ross Goobey (Pe B 22–28, Governor & Almoner) created ‘the cult of the equity’ in the Fifties and is now blamed for the falling value of the assets of UK pension funds, which typically hold 70 per cent in equities. ‘But Ross Goobey believes that his father’s mantra that equities will outperform bonds in the long term is reason enough for open pension schemes to continue to pledge their faith to shares.’
Sports psychologist, former cricketer and a squash professional for twenty years, Jaz Karim (Mid A 73–74; later a CH sports coach) runs the Karim Squash Professional Coaching Network and selects the “Jaz Sport” range of goods (racquets, sports wear, nutritional supplements, etc.) for Cool Connections. This year he has been involved in coaching the Ugandan national hockey team; he finished his schooling at CH after being expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin.
Richard Asghar-Sandys (Th A 70–75) is Director of Coach Companions, based in SW20 and offering coach hire, consultancy and transport management services. Recent tasks have included supplying 27 coaches for the visit of President Bush, acting as marshals for the Vodaphone Annual Dinner/Dance (Managing 130 coaches at once), shuttling guests to their chauffeur cars from the Brit Awards and transferring guests from the BAFTA Film Awards Ceremony to the Awards Dinner.
3 April 1764, The Times remarked on the same day this year, saw the birth of one of the great early surgeons of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, John Abernethy (Surgeon to CH c. 1813), whose lectures on anatomy – once attended by Shelley – were so popular that they led to the foundation of the St Bartholomew’s medical school. Notable for his brusque attitude, “he was said to have wooed his future wife, daughter of a widow in his care, with the honeyed address: “I have witnessed your devotion and kindness to your mother. I am in need of a wife, and I think you are the very person that would suit me. My time is essentially occupied, and I have therefore no leisure for courting … Reflect upon this matter until Monday”.”
Oxford Today magazine recently described the vast Beazley Archive of Classical Archaeology and Art, which began as the personal research material of Sir John Beazley (11’s, CA 1898–1903) who held a chair in the subject from 1925–56.
A writer in The Times on 9 April disputed the familiar claim that it was Lt-Cdr Bradwell Turner (Ma A B 17–20) who gave the shout of “The Navy’s here” during the boarding of the Altmark in 1940, crediting instead Able Seaman James Harper, who was awarded the DSM for his actions that day. Is anyone in a position to decide this question?
In the Daily Mail recently the query arose: when did the first opinion poll take place? The chairman of Mori Polls wrote in to say that the first in this country was in 1937 when the British Institute of Public Opinion (BIPO) was founded by Dr Henry Durant (Th B 14–19).
The Times obituary of society photographer Desmond O’Neill noted “a seminal moment in his career”: a chance meeting in 1950 with his old army colleague Philip Youngman Carter (Ma A B 16–21). Carter was then editor of the Tatler and his invitation to O’Neill to supply photos began an association which lasted for decades.
Architect Nick Thompson (Pe B 45–52) wrote a postscript (3 April) to the Times obituary of the designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch, recalling the guidance she gave him when he designed his first theatre, the Crucible in Sheffield.
Christian Ashby (Mid B 93–00), presently at Cambridge University, has been technical director of numerous student productions, mainly at the ADC Theatre.
At King’s College, London, John Kirk (Mid A 85–92) is doing an MSc in Advanced Computing.
Currently at St Andrew’s University in her second year of a four year MA course, Ruth Copelin (Col A, Gr W 93–01) was presented to CH by the Worshipful Company of Skinners and is keeping up her association with them: the Company has now offered her a seven year Apprenticeship prior to applying for full membership. A Master has been chosen for her who is himself an OB: Simon Shepard (dates?). Her short ceremony of indentures was due to take place on 26 June.
Margaret Clayton (5’s, 8’s 52–59) is Chairman of the Farriers’ Registration Council and on 27 February spoke at a presentation ceremony held at St Bartholomew’s Hospital by the Council and the Farriers’ Company.
At the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, Captain Peter Buggé (Ma A B 51–58) has been installed as a Warden.
Princess Alice, Dowager Duchess of Gloucester (mother of our President, widow of his predecessor) performed a rare official engagement in May when she held an audience for officials from the Somme Association (she is its president). The chairman found her, at the age of 101, “bright, alert and interested in what we are doing.”
Founder and Chairman of the Royal Anniversary Trust, Robin Gill (Ba A 37–44) hosted a Guildhall banquet in February for the winners of its Prizes for Higher and Further Education 2002. This was to have been the final year of the award scheme, established in 1992, but plans have changed and the Trust is seeking fresh capital. Gill and Sir Garry Johnson (Mid A 48–54) were among those attending a thanksgiving service for Lord Younger of Leckie at Winchester Cathedral in May; the Dean of Winchester (former CH parent) officiated.
According to the Telegraph, CH was represented – but by whom is unfortunately not known – at a memorial service for Capt Bill Jenkins (Horsham Staff 49–55/6) at the Royal Memorial Chapel at Sandhurst in January.
BBC journalist James Coomarasamy (Mid A 78–85) has now returned from Paris and is an in-house reporter for BBC World.
Bryan Hooper (Pe A 52–60) is working in New York as a consultant in communication skills with McAlinden Associates. Email him at jbryanh@optonline.net (home) or bryan@mcalinden.com (work).
Peter Hiett (Col A 70–76) and his wife Emily report the arrival of Idris Theodore Llywelyn, “date of birth 30/3/03 (a palindronic baby), a brother for Oscar (who’s now 5), half-brother to Hannah, Helen and Joss (13, 12, 11) and a boyfriend for Cher.”
Quantity surveyor turned headhunter Baz Sheehan (Ba A 78–86) is reported to have invested in a greyhound named “Barefoot Sport”: “he owns the dog’s back legs and part of its tail.“
Nick Foulkes (Th B 76–83) has been writing in The Times about Hollywood’s post-Oscar parties and the revival of medallion-wearing. He ruffled some feathers by asserting in The Sunday Times that men over thirty should be banned from dance floors.
In a Times letter on 1 May, Royston Deitch (Ma A/B 74–81) reported a graffito seen on the Dalston/Shoreditch border: “War is so last century.”
On the Times letters page on 8 May Tim Woolford (Horsham Staff 77–78) seized on a remark by the Minister for Sport, “Wembley is, of course, synonymous with tennis”: “Little wonder, then, that the planning for the new stadium has been rather lacking in direction.“
Finally, to prevent yet another CH urban myth from developing: when the fiftieth anniversary of the conquest of Mount Everest was being marked recently it was suggested that the youngest member of the victorious team, George Band, might be an Old Blue. Not so, say the Archives; and E G U (Bill) Band (Ma A 36–44) confirms that George Band, the mountaineer, went to Eltham College. “I have had several years of correspondence with him and, to date, we cannot discover any relationship between us although we have taken both lines of “Bands” back to the 17th century. The only Bands that have gone to CH are myself and my brother (A H Band, Ma A 41–50) as listed in Who’s Blue.” Oh well…
CONGRATULATIONS
Tim Collard (Col B 72–78) has been appointed HM Consul–General in Hamburg. He will take up the post next year.
Dame Ruth Deech (née Fraenkel, 7’s 53–61) has been appointed a Governor of the BBC.
Brigadier Roger Lane (Mid B 66–72) has been appointed CBE for service in Afghanistan.