THE DOVE 2002
Joe
Adams (left 1996) has written to
up-date me since he left. He graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1999
with a BSc(Hons) in Agriculture, after which he travelled to the Far East and
Australia. At present he is working for a firm called Agrisearch UK as an
Assistant Agronomist. He still enjoys his rugby and plays for Derby Rugby Club.
Mike
Adams (left 1960) is still farming
with his wife, Linda. While their has not itself been hit by Foot and Mouth,
nevertheless they feel the continual marginalization of farming and the
countryside. They no longer have a dairy herd but farm mainly cereals and sheep,
with Christmas geese this year. They have successfully moved into the holiday
cottage and Bed and Breakfast area. Their farm is between Ashbourne and Derby.
If you want all the information for an excellent stay then visit www.parkviewfarm.co.uk
or you will find their address at the back of the Year Book. Their sons, Joe and
Robert, were also at Abbotsholme.
Robert
Adams (left 2000) is now in his second
year of a five year Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of
Newcastle.
Johnny
and Susanna(née Julisburger) Allen (left
1970 and 1974 respectively) John has written to say they are both fine.
Daughter, Kirsty, is reading Medicine at Nottingham and James is still working
for the best possible A levels. He needs three 'A's to get into Cambridge.
Susanna continues to work on legal costings. They are in touch with Porta
Euarchukiati and saw Justin Skrebowski at the end of 2001.
Richard
Allison (left 1995) married Amy
Rothera last Autumn at Epperstone in Nottinghamshire. Naturally, there were lots
of Abbotsholme faces there. They are not big travellers, Richard says, but in
2000 did enjoy a wonderful holiday touring the countries of Southern Africa,
staying in hostels and camping - very Abbotsholme! After he had graduated he
worked for Scottish and Newcastle Breweries as a trouble shooter in the Bristol
and Avon area while Amy finished her degree course. Now he is working for an
East Midlands recruitment agency which specialises in the contract and permanent
sector of the construction market. His sporting activities are somewhat
curtailed by a troublesome knee.
Karen
Andrew (left 1994) is teaching
Geography and Games at Haileybury School. She loves it and wonders now why she
spent three years just doing classroom teaching in Birmingham. She plays rugby
with Saracens Ladies and they are one of the top clubs in the London area.
Training, she says, takes up much of her spare time.
Almiran
Anuar (left 1999) wrote very briefly
to say that he would be finishing at the University of Buckingham in June 2001
and would probably then return to Malaysia.
Fayyaz
Anwar (left 1995) went to Millfield
School after he left Abbotsholme. He took 'A' Levels there and went to America
to take his degree. He read for a degree in Management Information Systems at
the University of North Carolina. He was due to get his degree in December 2001
but was undecided whether to return to Pakistan or to stay and work in the
States when he last wrote to me.
Ruth
Appleby (friend of Abbotsholme) Many
will remember how kind 'The Appleby's' were to them at Monks Clownholme. Ted, of
course died some years back and Ruth had moved into a small bungalow on the
drive up to the farm about 12 years ago. Sadly she passed away during 2001. I
suspect a small book could be written about Abbotsholmians' visits to the warmth
of their family over the years.
Anastasia
'Stacey' Bamford (left 1977) recently
got in touch from the States. Her younger brother, Philip, was at Abbotsholme
and I wrote his news two years ago. He was in England last Summer and had a
great trip. Anastasia lives in the State of Minnesota and has two children.
Jesse, who is 18, is reading for a degree in Graphic Design while Melissa, 13,
excels at Botany and plays the clarinet. Anastasia recently published a book of
poetry and illustrations entitled "Dogwood Girl" which is available on
her website www.dogwoodgirl.com . Until last Summer she worked at the
Natural Resources Research Institute as a lab technician. Since her lay off she
been writing and doing promotional photography and design from home.
Ross
Barlow (left 1993) wrote a year ago to
say that he was back working in the Bahamas. He has a day job and a night job
trying to make financial ends meet so that he can do all he wants to do, afford
the rent on a place of his own and run a vehicle.
Andrew
Barton (left 1978) tells me that he is
married to Rachel and they have two children, Holly and Emily. He works in the
aerospace business and they have just bought a house in Denstone village.
Getting nearer and nearer to base !
David
Barton (left 1976) is living in Brazil
after moving there from Venezuela. He was married to Catalina, a Colombian, in
May 1999 and they have two children, Felipe and Juliana. David works as a
Manager in the oil industry providing geological and data processing services to
the major oil companies. Brazil has large supplies of oil and gas in deepwater
locations offshore which he hopes will provide him with several more years of
work. He says that life is very busy but they have tried to visit various parts
of the country and recently had a trip up the Atlantic coast to Salvador.
Neil
Barton (left 1976) was Best Man at
Charlie Howell's wedding. He is married to Pim and lives and works in London.
Hamish
Battye (left 1977) has moved north to
Scotland. He works in Stirling. He is married to Susan and has two children,
James and Sophie. Sheffield Wednesday is still the name of the game, even up
there!
Bill
Bell (left 1986) after a very brief
career in engineering Bill trained as a Dental Technician. He studied five years
for his diploma and then started his own Laboratory. It has grown steadily in
all ways. He is married to Dawn and they have a adorable daughter, Megan, who is
nearly three. After school he did run for a short while with Wigan Athletic
Club. Now his passion is an old car which he spent years restoring even though
the last bits were done professionally. He has fond memories of Abbotsholme and
of spending time with some remarkable people.
Debbie
Bell (left 1988) During 2001 Debbie
and her husband, Mark, moved to Minneapolis with his work. I think she enjoys
the experience but latest communications suggest another move to New York,
Boston, Amsterdam or back to London. So watch this space. She did, however, get
back to England for Christmas and loved meeting up again with Marianne Zoega and
Clare Mellor.
John
Rupert Beresford (left 1973) corrects
me slightly from last year.The real facts are that he runs Fareways Taxi Company
in Congleton which specialises in being able to cater for the disabled as well
as the able bodied. He and his wife, Dawn, have three children Clare,16,
Nicola,14, Mark,12 and a large dog called Bruno.
Toby
Betteridge (left 1996) has been very
busy since leaving school. He went to Bristol University and was awarded a First
Class Honours degree in Chemistry. As part of his degree he worked for Knoll
Pharmaceuticals in Nottingham on anti-obesity drugs and got one of his
concoctions as far as biological trials. After University he took a year out
travelling in India and also spent some time doing social work in Ashbourne. He
is now back at University studying medicine. He has been very active on the
sports front coaching rugby in Ashbourne and playing soccer and cricket. He has
enjoyed all forms of sport at University. He is still in touch with numerous
OA's.
Debbie
Conroy (n¾e
Bloor) (left 1988) has written in with
family news. She has been married since 1995 and has a two year old daughter.
She was born on December 31st 1999 (she just missed collecting a
million pounds by 9 hours!). Debbie spent several years as a Press Officer for
Thompson Holidays. She found that the holidays, holiday horror stories,
escorting film crews abroad etc. was just too much and retired to play tennis,
shop, lunch and look after the family! They moved out of London 3 years ago and
love being in the country again. OA friends are welcome to drop in.
Helen
Thompson (n¾e
Bloor) (left 1985) living in Australia
now has a baby boy.
Nick
Bloor (left 1995) came back from a
year in Australia where he learnt to fly. Last heard of pursuing a career in the
Army.
Nina
BØhm
(left 1995) faxed me with her news.
She is studying medicine at the University of Dusseldorf. It is a six year
course and she still has two years to go. In 2001 she had a five week internship
at the University Hospital in Miami, Florida. She says she really had a good
time in Florida. Her parents now live in Spain.
Stefanie
BØhm
(left 1992) is living in Munich and is
also studying medicine but at the University of Munich. Her last exams were in
December 2001. I haven't heard the results yet. Fingers crossed.
Emma
Boorer (left 1985) moved to Hertford
with her boyfriend a couple of years ago. Two years and
lots of hard work has almost got the house how they want it. She is still
working in a North London Medical School and commutes each day.
Paul
Boretski (left 1975) is living in
Toronto, Canada. After Abbotsholme he graduated from High School and took two
years off to work in Western Canada on Oil Rigs but, thanks to Ian Small and
David Dean, was bitten by the acting bug and auditioned for the National Theatre
School of Canada. After a three year course he entered the profession. He has
since worked in many theatres around the country, most notably two seasons with
the Stratford Festival in
Stratford, Ontario, and The Citadel Theatre in Edmonton playing Oedipus in
Oedipus Rex and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. He has also directed in the
Theatre, on Television and in Films. There have been plenty of starring and
guest roles on television and in film. In 1991 he took a year off to travel in
Central America where he met his wife, Kim. He has a busy family life with two
step-children, Craig and Shannon, and an eight year old daughter, Emilyn. He
looks back very positively to his years at Abbotsholme.
David
and Anne Bothwell (ex-staff) David and
Anne celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in April 2001 with a
party just outside Southampton. It was a lovely occasion. Obviously their two
sons and daughter were there but others with an Abbotsholme connection were
Robin Hodgkin, Richard Taylor, Philip and Elspeth Knight, Stan and Eileen
Miller, Elizabeth and me. Re-unions are always the same, it is wonderful how the
years just roll back. On the way South we collected Robin from Oxford and had
coffee with him and Elizabeth before resuming the journey. It was a treat to
find them well and with that special warmth of hospitality.
Andrew
Bowser (left 1993) lives in London and
works for Norwich Union as a corporate buyer, purchasing in large quantities to
save money, for example Autoglass windscreens or microchips for Xerox machines.
Anything that insurance companies have to replace in large numbers.
James
Bowser (left 1993) is running the
family strawberry business in Lincolnshire and working hard in the winter doing
up properties. Andrew tells me that both he and his brother have long term girl
friends but there are no wedding bells yet! (October 2001.)
Tim
Brindley (left 1967) elaborates a
little on last years entry. He is back at De Montfort University in Leicester
having spent some 7 years on the Milton Keynes Campus. The latter is being
closed down over a period of time. He is a Principal Lecturer in the School of
Architecture, where he teaches Urban Design. He is also responsible for
postgraduate studies. The School of Architecture is part of a highly successful
Faculty of Art and Design. He has lectured there for just over 20 years. His
wife, Lynne, is Chief Executive of the British Library, where she has embarked
on major reorganisation and development of digital services. (Ed. Reading
between the lines I fancy she is doing a rather good job at dragging the BL into
the 21st Century. Did anyone see the article in the Financial Times
Magazine Section on Saturday 2nd February 2002?)
Charles
Brown (left 1949) I think he quite
enjoyed seeing his old school report. He reports on its contents follows. It did
remind him of a trip to Trent Bridge. Mike Bullivant, who was running the
cricket, took a car load to watch the Test Match. Charles says all he remembers
was that Bradman was playing. One of his classmates was Peter Walker, whose
father had played professionally for Nottinghamshire in the 1930's. Father's
matches against the school were quite a headache for the pupils! He spoke highly
of Mike Bullivant as a most enthusiastic teacher.
From his report he is surprised at the
long periods of absence from school often due to mumps, chicken pox, measles and
scarlet fever. Most winters the top floor of the main buildings became an
extension to the San. Winters were certainly colder than now and most winters he
remembers tobogganing for weeks on end, if there was less snow then they skated
on 'skating pond field'. (Ed. The field on the left at the bottom of football
lane was purposely flooded for the activity) As the thaw set in the games field
was always flooded as was the road to Rocester. He recalls a Scout Troop trip to
Switzerland in 1949 and wonders whether there is still any contact with
Steckborn School near Konstanz. He remembers a strange assortment of masters. In
general the younger ones were either physically unfit or were conscientious
objectors. He had a rather odd cricket coach of grand appearance and poor
performance, and a PE teacher taken from an internment camp who was unable to
speak much English, and also a music teacher from Bavaria who was a real
character but had no idea how to keep control. Roy Wake, in his view, was one of
the outstanding teachers during his time at Abbotsholme. He gave his pupils
enormous confidence and his results were magnificent. He taught me to write,
says Charles, and although of scientific bent gave him a love of history that is
still with him. Roy told his pupils to read Trevelyan's 'English Social
History', Russell's 'History of Western Philosophy' and Gibbon's 'Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire'. He has read all three, the third only recently, and
believe they are just as valid today. The outstanding people were, of course,
the Sharps and stories of them abound and it is obvious that they, and Colin in
particular, had an immense effect on peoples lives, not least Charles's. The
only other member of staff singled out for praise is F.E. Petrie.
Allison
Buckley (left 1992) was in Germany for
three months last year and as well as riding with success also learnt quite a
lot of German. She had had an offer of a job at the Royal Stables in Abu Dhabi
so she moved from Dubai. She has a cute little house at Asha'ab with a bedroom,
bathroom, kitchen and lounge. She has a small garden too and she is hoping to be
a vegetable gardener. It looks over the endurance yard and the horses. Asha'ad
is about 30 minutes drive from Abu Dhabi City and is where the yearlings come to
grow up for a couple of years from the main breeding stable in Abu Dhabi. Both
the stables belong to the President of the U.A.E. Abu Dhabi, she says, is very
different from Dubai. It is more conservative in attitude, just as green, but
the driving is much worse, especially by the taxi drivers! They have good horses
in the stables and she is hoping to do well in the races. (Ed. Last result in,
11th in a 120 Km ride.)
Peter
Burrows (left 1964)
is now a Special Projects Director for a firm of exhibition builders. He
is married to Val and hey have one daughter, Alison.
Justin
Butah (left 1990) went on to Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy after school before joining the Royal Artillery. He has
been appointed to the Life Guards, the first black officer in the regiment in
its 341 year history. He rode his horse, York, next to the Queen's carriage as
an escort commander in last year's Trooping of the Colour birthday parade.
Captain Butah's appointment was made much of in the national press.
Darrell
Buttery (ex-staff)
retired from teaching in July 2001, at least that was the plan. In fact
he tells me he is now teaching pretty much full time in his retirement at
Pocklington School, North Yorkshire. He is also very much involved in the life
of the City of York as Chairman of the York Civic Trust and Governor of the City
Merchant Adventurer Scheme.
Nick
Carlisle (left 1976) has retired as a
jockey and is now a Jockey Club Course Inspector.
Nick
Cassidy (left 1972) has been living in
Sandiacre, between derby and Nottingham, for 25 years. He is married to Averil
and is already a doting grandfather. He did Management Training for the Hotel
Industry after school but has been in IT in a variety of sales and technical
roles for the last 20 years. When he's not working he cooks curries and makes
music. Try www.mp3.com/nickcassidy
to listen in. It is good stuff. He is also starting a scuba diving course which
was given to him by his wife as a Christmas present. He suspects ulterior
motives linked with holidays to the Maildives! Nick was one of many who returned
to Abbotsholme for David Snell's Memorial Service. His reaction? He realised
what a privilege it is to have been to such a unique place
Martha
Chapman (left 1972) wrote to me last
May. The Year Book brought back so many memories. She says she can remember
Sarah and Emma Vodden with the greatest accuracy but really has no idea who that
chap is who has been working in her office for the last five years ! It's great,
she says, to see that Abbotsholme is still depositing on the world's doorstep
such people of initiative, imagination and character as she reads about in the
Year Book. She is still doing PR in the Travel Business, dragging groups of
journalists around the world. In the Autumn of 2001 she
married Jean Lupien, who is an airline executive. In Toronto, for Jean
read John. She says some peoples eyes go up when she remarks how in love she is
with Jean! After the wedding they had a honeymoon in the Greek Islands. She is
still in touch with Barbie Shanks and Justin Skrebowski. Actually Barbie sent me
a great photo of Jean and Martha at their wedding - they looked stunning and so
happy.
Melanie
Cheadle (left 1997) phoned for a chat
and some contact addresses. She has just started a 3 year course in Psychology at The
University of Keele.
Naomi
Reifenberg (n¾e
Chettle) (left 1984) was at Ian
Thompson's Memorial Service last Summer. It was lovely to see her again, the
last time being at David Snell's Memorial Service in 1997. She is working in
Accident and Emergency in Bristol with a view to finishing her training as a GP.
Lisa
Cheney (ex-staff) tells me that she is
still playing hockey and last season 2000-2001 was the top goal scorer in her
Club and League.
Ian Clay (left 1971) has a company which imports and distributes specialist beers mainly from Belgium, Germany and The States. This was not a skill he learnt at school. He keeps in touch with Ed Parker and Adrian Fidler and he works with Andrew Armstrong who is a director of the company. His father, Peter, who was at Abbotsholme in the 1930's is still in excellent health; rumour has it that he puts it down to the cold showers as a kid. Ian has two teenage children and while he is keen on cricket, his son James is a rather better player than ever Dad was.
Clare
Marshall (n¾e
Cooke) (ex-staff) has been working for
Norfolk County Council Social Services Department as a Contracts Officer for the
last 18 months. She draws up agreements for the voluntary and private sector and
then monitors the service provided. She loves it and works at County Hall in
Norwich. She also chairs the Norfolk branch of Unison which she enjoys. Husband,
Tony's, business is going well and he enjoys local amateur dramatics. I don't
think they have dragged Clare onto the boards yet! She has written very movingly
about Susannah Carr.
James
Cooper (left 1971) wrote to me just
before Christmas to say that he flew 900 Km the previous day in his glider. He
was hoping to be the first person from Western Australia to reach the 1000Km
landmark. A close friend of his just beat him to it. Still, the 900Km was a
personal best.
Abigail
Stapleton (n¾e
Cope) (left 1995) wrote to me last
April when I tracked her down. She has ceased to work at Queenswood Residential
School in Hatfield and now works for the Exeter Investment Group administering
PEP's and ISA's. She married Martin in July 2000. He had read Physics at
Magdalen College, Oxford, so they had known each other for four years before
finally doing the deed. They live in a bungalow on the outskirts of Exeter with
two cats, Pip and Raffles. Abby is singing and playing in a band, currently
recording their first amateur CD - she is also half way through her first novel.
Marie-Anne Kimpton and Jessica Clausen (both now engaged) were bridesmaids at
her wedding. Also present were Nick Wilkinson, Kevin Styles, Alison Barber and
Sarah Crowther.
Colville
Coulthard (left 1952) wrote to me back
in June of last year after a very enjoyable re-union organised by David
Millward. He had greatly appreciated meeting John Ackerley again. The reason for
his writing though was to ask whether the school would like a whole set of
archival material from his late father who had been a pupil at Abbotsholme
during Dr. Reddie's declining years and also served as a Governor and Council
member for many years. Colville very kindly dropped the boxes off at school on a
journey South. I have not had time yet to go through them in very great detail
but they offer a unique insight into Abbotsholme during the Doveleys episode and
in his personal diaries while he was a Prefect, perhaps Head Boy, in 1923. His
stories relating to Cecil Reddie are extraordinarily revealing and most
perceptive for a teenager. Also in the package was a magnificent white cricket
blazer and trousers from the 1920's. This gift is undoubtedly one of the most
significant additions there has ever been to the school archives. ( Ed. I have
happy hours of reading ahead of me.)
Tom
Crookes (left 1995) Tom graduated from
de Montfort University last Summer having studied three dimensional design and
now lives in London again. He is currently working as a freelance designer and
is trying to set up his own company supplying design shops with his own range of
design-led ceramic tableware.
Julia
Cumberland (left 1985) it was super to
see Julia back at the OA Dinner last Summer with Alex MacNab. She assures me
that she and Alex have maintained the same
relationship since they left Abbotsholme many years ago. Julia has three
daughters, Chloe (7), Emily (5) and Poppy, nearly 3. She is working for Virgin
Mobile after many years in the communications industry. She reports that her
brothers are doing well. Tom works for St. Bartholomew's Hospital and Peter has
rocketed in the IT industry and is 'filthy rich'!
Ben
Davies (left 1994) got married to Els,
a Belgian girl, on the 14th July 2001. Congratulations.
Sophie
Dawson (left 1990) I contacted Sophie
for her news and she replied with lots. She went on to University and graduated
with an honours degree. She went travelling in Central America and learned to
dive. Then back and worked as a cartographer in Oxford and North Wales for 4
years. Next came backpacking in Australia and Tanzania and bumped into Jenny
Mallela. In Tanzania she worked voluntarily on a project surveying coral reefs.
Back from Africa she became a Scuba Diving Instructor, which she does
occasionally at the weekends. Her main job now is as an Account Manager for a
Design Agency called Emperor Design based in London. She lives in Richmond and
enjoys London life. She makes sure her holidays are action packed and in unusual
locations.
Michael
Deane (left 1995) spent part of last
Summer as cricket coach at Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire.
James
de Ville (left 1994) tells me that in
2000 he got a 2.1 degree in Product Design. He doesn't say which University but
he did win the Trevor Baylis award for innovation in design. He works for a
company in Surrey inventing, designing and producing prototype toys. He is
involved in what he generally terms extreme sports and in 2002 is planning a
trip to Australia to meet up with his girlfriend. He leaves on the 17th
January and might be away for as long as 12 months.
Jeremy
Dodd (left 1944) writes from Greece
after a career in the United Kingdom as an Urban Designer and Consultant
Landscape Planner. His wife, Catherine, has opened an art studio and Jeremy
plans to learn the language. His memories of school ….? He was always
attracted by the diversity of buildings, the medieval kitchens and stables,
1930's wooden buildings, Victorian sharp edged red brick Chapel piers and the
basement plant room. Animal husbandry and the reality of life on the land, the
creativity of woodwork, the marvellous countryside and building a den in the
Dingle. His reading at school led him to work in Japan as an architect
influenced for ever with a concern for indoor/outdoor space. Trees are a key to
civilised urban structure. Modern Athens, he concludes is a fascinating
place……cultural continuity is exciting.
Riki
Douglas (left 1999) is at Leeds
Metropolitan University reading for a degree in Garden Design. He is not, I
believe, playing much sport there at the moment.
Carney
Edwards (left 1991) has changed his
name to Carney Turner for all postal correspondence. His e-mail address is
'totalcarnage' so I don't think he has changed very much. It was great to hear
from him via Friends Reunited. He had lots of news. Here goes with a précis. At
school he remembers that Paul Fox let him borrow the school video camera for a
weekend and he made two short animated films, one of which was shown in Chapel
on three big TV screens. That was when he found something he liked. He went on
to Ravenbourne College and did a BTEC HND in Television and Broadcasting
Programme Operations. He worked in a video shop to supplement his student loan.
In 1994 he got a job with MTV in transmission. After a year he really felt he
wanted to make the programmes rather than transmit them. He got a job with a
firm called Orbit in Rome as a production Assistant. He had a great time there
and saved money but was sacked. A period in London led on to Director for
Children's ITV in Birmingham. Freelance work followed with all the major
companies as well as producing a film about a group of musicians which took him
all around the world. That was followed by work at Anglia TV for Rapture as a
development producer. On again, or back, to MTV, making a snowboarding show,
taking him all over the place, including Finland and Russia. He also learnt to
snowboard. A tour with RZA and then Summer 2001 he was employed by Tiger Aspect
making what he calls a 'rubbish' programme. The long and short of that was
another move and I am sure he is on to something else by now. He has had an
amazingly full ten years (my précis pen has been pretty active already) and
would be very happy to talk to a group at school about his work. He is looking
to buy a small cottage in Derbyshire so we may yet see him around school in the
future. I hope so.
Alan
Elkes (left 1943) wrote after
receiving the last Year Book to say how sorry he was to see the obituaries of
quite a few of his contemporaries. His boys are well, three of them attended
Abbotsholme. He has eight grandchildren and it is they who have got him going on
a computer. So when I say that Alan wrote to me, what I really mean is that he
e-mailed me! When he goes wrong
they say, "You must listen more carefully this time grandad." It
reminds him of the standard phrases in his school reports nearly 60 years ago.
Philip
Elliott (left 2000) is freelancing in
various jobs and luckily has been free to step into David Randall's shoes on the
farm while David has had his hip operation and recovers. Brian Edward tells me
that Philip does a super job and is flexible enough with his other work to be
able to do what is needed at Abbotsholme.
Georgina
Sonneville (n¾e
Embleton) (left 1986) now lives in
Holland and is a full time Mum to a lovely little one year-old daughter. She
left school in 1986 and went to Reading University to read philosophy which she
enjoyed but it did not get her a decent job. So she retrained as a PA and joined
a company which specialised in environmental engineering and consultancy. Then
she was offered the chance to work in Jamaica and ran a polo club just outside
Kingston in a very beautiful valley. She returned to London and fell into a job
at an investment bank and worked very happily there for five years. She met her
husband through work and married him two years later. They moved to Holland a
week before their wedding and now live in a beautiful fourteenth century village
30 minutes East of Amsterdam. She has learnt the language and is slowly
assimilating Dutch life. She would love to hear from classmates and pals from
school.
Bernard
Fazakerley (left 1974) e-mailed me
from Australia admitting that 27 years was a little too long between contacts.
He says he has many happy memories of Abbotsholme and often reflects on
them----such as being convinced as an 11 year old that there was a ghost on the
spiral staircase at the rear of Abbotsholme House, or watching the first girls
arriving from St. Vincent's and thinking that life would never be the same
again. He says he learnt a great deal over his six years. He might not have been
the brightest star ever to leave the school but it taught him a good work ethic
which has helped him over the years. It also helped him to get on with people
and got him fit - though he still admits to smoking - the punishment runs he was
given at school had no effect. After school he worked for a textile company in
Tean, near school, for 15 years and then moved to Kirkham in Lancashire still in
Sales Management looking after the United Kingdom and Europe offering
identifications systems to the laundry industry. 10 years ago he moved to
Melbourne and now runs a small company servicing Industrial Laundries with
textile related products. He is planning to expand, possibly to Asia. He returns
to the United Kingdom every few years and meets up with Paul Nixon.
Liz
Fennell (left 1985) Has written to say
how much fun Paula Sheppy's re-union was and how easy it felt just to slip back
to the old days. She recalls having a lot of laughs about their 'not very
academic' schooldays. But in 1994 Liz returned to education and spent 6 years
taking an Open University degree in Psychology. She started lecturing last
September even though she was only part way through her P.G.C.E. She lectures
four days a week to mature students who are very motivated which makes for very
challenging discussions and debates. She hopes to start studying for her masters
when she has her Teaching Certificate. On top of all this she has taken over the
running of the holidays cottages at home from her parents, they are between
Portreath and Redruth in Cornwall and also recently taken on another four
bedroomed holiday property overlooking St. Michael's Mount. This latter has
quite marvellous views and you can see it at www.cornwall-online.co.uk/captainshouse/welcome
. Her telephone number is at the rear of this booklet if you want to book a
holiday cottage. Liz's daughter, Katy, is thirteen and loves the surfing in
Cornwall, just like her mother!
Sally
Adams (n¾e
Finch) (left 1988) is fine and works
part-time at a local hospital. She has two children, Luke and Alice, who are 5
and 3 respectively.
Tessa
Spanhaak (n¾e
Finch) (left 1985) says that she and
Harm are in their third year in Brussels, the longest they have ever stayed in
one house. They bought the house that they were renting and feel they have
finally put down some roots. Husband, Harm, has started up his own business in
the travel industry - an agency for business and incentive travel. She is
looking for work but is finding it hard getting something that fits with their
son's school day and school holidays. Tessa has attended Dutch classes and has
passed her third year exams with 80% - great stuff ! Of the boys, Ben, aged 9
and Tom,7, Ben appears to have inherited the Finch games genes and is a keen
hockey player with matches every week. Tessa has started playing tennis again
after a 12 year lay-off. She is in touch with Claudia Harrington, whose third
son she is a godmother to, and Fiona Kernick.
Alex
Forbes (left 1974) It has been super
to hear from Alex again after so long. To my surprise he lives out in Australia
in a suburb of Sydney and, indeed, has been in Sydney for the last twenty years.
He is married to Susan, a New Zealander, and they have a three year old
daughter, Madeleine. Alex works for Ericsson in one of their electrical
engineering R & D departments doing design and production engineering, at
present working on ATM equipment. Away from work he loves skiing and is good at
the speed bit, not so hot at style and grace! He's played competition squash for
a number of years and is also a keen scuba diver. He's an inveterate traveller
and also derives a great deal of enjoyment from cooking. (No attributable deaths
yet!) Top of his list is just being a father and there are many who would echo
that sentiment. Now he is back in touch he is busy trying to make contact with
old friends.
Hugh
Forestier-Walker (left 1971) has now
moved to Abergavenny and is still producing the most wonderful smoked foods
which he markets very successfully on-line. I wonder whether he realises that
one of his competitors is Steve Prescott (Welsh Smoked Foods) who left
Abbotsholme just two years after Hugh. To be fair to both try www.minola-smokery.com
.
Naomi
Gilbert (left 1995) writes to tell me
that she is well and has just bought her first house in West Sussex. She loves
her work as office manager and bailiff co-ordinator for an auction company in
South West London.
Simon
Gilbert (left 1995) has completed his
Biology degree at Leicester and is doing a teacher training course in
Nottingham. He is planning to marry in August just before he starts teaching.
Kyla
Bennett (née Gill) (left 1994) got
married at Abbotsholme in July 2001. The reception was held there and was, I am
told a pretty wild affair. Lots of OA's were present and the school did the
function magnificently. Not long afterwards she and Martin left for Malaysia
where he had a job lined up. Kyla had a job organised but it fell through when
she got out there. She got another one teaching Primary kids at an ex-pat
school. She finishes at 2.30 pm and is straight down to the pool. They live in
the middle of nowhere in a village called Lumut, opposite Pangkor Island, voted
the second most beautiful beach
destination by 'Wish You Were Here'. They return to the UK in September and so
she is looking out for jobs and
will be back for two weeks at Easter for interviews. It is, she says, really
strange living in the middle of nowhere, it is two hours drive to the nearest
supermarket! They are trying to do as much visiting as they can while in
Malaysia and are having a lovely time. Married life, says Kyla, is excellent and
she recommends it to everyone. When she wrote they were just coming up to their
sixth month anniversary.
Reg
Glover (ex-staff) I have seen quite a
bit of Reg and his wife, Brenda, this year They both help out at an Old Peoples
Home helping to keep them happy. I am sure Reg is great with his rich fund of
stories about musical exploits and, of course, World War II. Numerous OA's still
play the instrument Reg introduced them to and some write to ask after him. I
can assure all his past pupils that he is fine and looks not a day older.
Graham
Godsmark (ex-staff) I am glad to
report that Graham is still well and playing golf regularly.
Roger
Goldsmith (left 1951) worked and lived
overseas for 17 years as a geologist in the oil and gas business, which included
the desert of Libya and Algeria and the tropical rain forest in the foothills of
the Bolivian Andes…… four years with a US company and twelve and a half with
Shell. Then he had another 17 years based in North Wales with Robertson
Research. Desperately, and unsuccessfully in all three cases, he tried to avoid
management. From 1973 this meant managing and directing projects and potential
projects in the North Sea and all sorts of countries in all five continents, and
also disagreeably to close down offices and fire staff. This all led to a
certain ability to converse in several languages, none of which is Welsh, where
he has resided with his Dutch wife and sons born in Trinidad and Nigeria. It
also led to asking difficult questions about what is going on in the world,
about why so many people live in the most abject poverty. This, in turn, led to
obtaining a degree in Theology (Part-time over seven years) at Manchester
University, interspersed with part-time work in Indonesia. The upshot of all
this, and the profound thoughts of Dostoevsky, is what his wife believes led him
to be a full-time volunteer worker with Amnesty International. This organisation
really does stop the torture and gets people out of prison by the simple act of
ordinary people writing ordinary letters. Ah yes! Then there is the violin and
the viola, amongst many other things he thanks Abbotsholme for.
Selwyn
Goldsmith (left 1950) It was a great
pleasure to meet Selwyn and his wife at Abbotsholme last May and though he is
not very mobile to show him around some of Abbotsholme. The Architect and Access
guru presented a copy of his latest book to the school.
Tony
Gomme (left 1939) gave some wine to be
auctioned on behalf of the Parents Association. He also sent the Club another
set of good photographs of the Club Dinner last June.
Tom
Gooch (left 1999) writes in to say
that he and Simon Crick are working, in Malaysia, for a toxic waste disposal
company, as part of their industrial training from University. They find their
boss is OA Aldillan Anuar, who is director of operations for the company!
Emma
Goude (left 1988) returned from
travels to New Zealand 12 months ago. A romantic encounter with an Australian
has left her wanting to go there now, but the bank balance directs otherwise.
She is busy making more documentaries. She hopes to go to China sometime in the
near future. What next?
Ed
Green (left 1994) has been living in
Buckingham for about three years now. He is Senior Designer for a company called
Crystal Visions Design Consultants near Oxford. They specialise in 3D exhibition
structures and Interiors which he finds very creative. He has been playing for
Buckingham Rugby Club First Team but dislocated his shoulder soon after the
start of this last season and fears that an operation may be necessary. He is
still in touch with quite a few OA's.
Philip
Grout (left 1949) has not been in
touch with me but one of his form-mates, Tony Curwen, has sent some details in.
Philip has been involved in acting and directing since he left school. He
directed his first production, The Affair, at Guilford Rep in 1962 and his first
London production was in 1966 and he has been involved in theatre productions
ever since. I am told he was completely stage struck at school and in the middle
school he wrote, directed and acted in his own little dramas. 'Grout's Play'
became quite a feature of the school year. Later on he took the lead in school
productions of 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Twelfth Night' and then 'King Lear' in
his final year.
Anthony
Grutchfield (left 1960) got in touch
after receiving the Year Book last Spring. He tells me that he has been living
near Paris now for the last 40 years with brief periods in Moscow and Budapest,
each for 18 months. I should know, but am not quite sure what his job was during
those 40 years. Anyway he took early retirement two years ago and he has been
helping his wife with her business in which they act as facilitators for small
firms. He and Edmonde have two girls, Chloe, aged 15 and Lucie, aged 13. You can
see their business at www.camortex.com.
Do visit ! He is in touch with one of his old teachers, Tom Grundy, who he
remembers as incredibly charismatic and who managed to get both Anthony and his
brother, James, interested in German and Germany. He wonders whether the Ted
Koppel of CNN fame in America is the same Ted Koppel that he remembers at
Abbotsholme. The answer is 'Yes'.
Zeeshan
Habib (left 1995) has now finished his
project for his MBA at Manchester. Then, I think, it will be back to Pakistan.
Kristina
Hafseth (left 1993) She sent a brief
e-mail to tell me of her move last Summer. She had very much enjoyed teaching in
Saudi. She was going to teach the Reception Class at the British School in
Quito, Ecuador. Now I have heard that she is having a wonderful time. Ecuador,
she says, is a fascinating and incredibly varied country with snow capped active
volcanoes, beaches, rain forests and, of course, the Galapagos Islands. She has
her work cut out teaching the Juniors at the school the British National
Curriculum and English at the same time. Last October she managed a week in the
Amazonian Rain Forest and spent New Year with her boyfriend on the Galapagos
Islands. She has a wonderfully full life.
Stella
Krain (née Hall) Congratulations to
Stella on the birth of a son, Samuel, on January 4th 2001, a brother
for Rebekah. She and husband, Roland, have moved to Germany.
Leo
Hamburger (left 1981) is a regular
attender at the Arts Society concerts at School. He retrained as a Nurse in
1993-96 having been teaching and travelling extensively since leaving the
University of Keele in the mid-1980's. He is currently an Acting Charge Nurse on
an Intensive Care Unit and living in Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire. He
says he has no wife, children or other accoutrements to report!
Eppie
Wells (n¾e
Hamilton) (left 1983) gained her
degree in History and Sociology from Brighton University in 1987. Soon after she
started work with Legal & General in their Marketing department. She stayed
there until 1995 when she had become Product Development Manager. She met her
husband, Trevor, in 1988 and got married in June 1989 at Walton Church with the
reception at Walton Hall, where St. Vincent's School used to be. They have two
lovely children, Anna who is 6 and Jack, who is 3. She is full time at home at
the moment but is studying for a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing. They live
in Tunbridge Wells and her husband commutes to London each day, he is with a
firm of stockbrokers. They love the area and are very happy. Eppie has sent me a
little news of her two sisters.
Sophie
Hamilton (left 1982) lives in London
and works for Yorkshire Television from their London Office.
Suzanna
Freeman (n¾e
Hamilton) (left 1974) lives in
Wimbledon and is a teacher, They have two children, Gabriella who is eight and
Freddie, who is four.
Nikki
Gower (n¾e
Hammond) (left 1977) Congratulations
to Nikki and her husband on their birth of their second child, a son, Luca, in
the spring of 2001. It was good to see Nikki this Summer albeit at the very sad
occasion of the memorial service for Susannah Carr.
Adrian
Hancock (left 1978) has been 'found'
after a long time. He and brother Andrew are both well and have been running the
family business since 1986. They each have two boys. He says it is hard to
believe that it is 23 years since they left Abbotsholme and on May 22nd
2002 they will both be 40 ! How time flies.
Knut
Hansen (left 1976) tells me he went
back to school for two years in Norway before spending two years in the
Norwegian Navy. Then he became a bricklayer and at the same time went to
Business School in the evenings. This was followed by University where he read
Philosophy. Since then he has been working on Commercial Real Estate
Development. He lives some 20 miles outside Oslo but works in Oslo where he is
Managing Director of a company which employs 20 people, construction engineers,
marketing specialists, designers and so on. He has just taken a sixth month
spell away from his work to re-charge the batteries for himself and his family.
He is married with two children, one of whom has got his red hair! He sends best
wishes to all who remember him and has lots of good memories of his time at
Abbotsholme. After making contact with me he was hoping to re-establish contact
with Mich King.
Harriet
Marsh (n¾e
Harland) (left 1986) As you can see
Harriet is now married, congratulations. Watch out for the rest of the news next
year !
Vikki
Barr (n¾e
Harmston) (left 1993) She and her
husband moved into a new townhouse in Boynton Beach, Florida a year ago. She has
started a new job working for the PGA (Professional Golf Association) of
America. She is in their special events department, working on all the
conferences and golf events. She loves it.
John
Harrison (left 1975) It was very good
to see John at the Dinner in June 2001. He was in excellent form. He tells me
that he doesn't play sport any more but does try to swim once a week and is an
avid salsa dancer. He is a self-employed electrician and is subcontracted to an
electrical firm in Worthing. He tends to do a lot of testing and inspection work
for Worthing Homes, Worthing Borough Council and also private dwellings. He does
some private work as well. For the last ten years he has visited the United
States in the Summer doing maintenance work at 'Camp Shohola' in Pennsylvania.
This last year he also spent a month visiting friends in Mexico.
Gideon
Haughton (left 1980) is working in the
oil industry in Brunei after leaving the United Kingdom about two years ago. In
2001 he had a six month spell in Perth, Western Australia and hopes perhaps to
emigrate there when the job in Brunei ends. At present he is seconded to Shell
as an inspection engineer. His wife, Aisah, is Bruneian and they have two kids,
Adam, 4, and Emma , 6. They love it in Brunei and go to the local Shell school.
Jeremy
Haughton (left 1975) is according to
Gideon doing well as Manager of the Liverpool Marina. He is married with two
children and couldn't be happier.
Giles
and Mary Heron (left 1946) Giles has
just co-written and published a biography of his father, Tom, entitled 'Rebel
and Sage: A Biography of Tom Heron 1890 - 1983'. It is published by Carnegie and
is well worth a read. Giles and Mary continue happily in Glaisdale though I
fancy they could speak volumes about the handling of 'Foot and Mouth'. What a
year! No visitors; no sports; no village fund-raising social events; no open day
for their garden. They even had to keep a kitten ordered for a home in Scotland
until the Autumn, by which time she had kittens of her own!
Will
Hoon (left 1978) has written me a long
letter with his news. It was good hearing from him after so long.
After a spell getting the rock music bit out of his system he graduated
from the Royal College of Art and spent three and a half years teaching design
history at a number of universities and colleges. He was on the point of
deciding to accept a scholarship to do a PhD but felt he needed to get out of
education. He spent a year searching for direction and then found himself
directing design projects for a company called Tidal Creative in London. He met
his partner Jo, in 1996 and on the birth of their first child upped sticks and
moved back to Derbyshire from Suffolk. The design/directorial career seemed to
fall away and he is now working with Empics, a sports photo agency dealing with
their online/web commitments. He is very happy with the way his life has panned
out so far. He and Jo have two children, Ed, aged 3 and Betty who is about 6
months old.
Ben
Houfton (left 1960) has written
requesting his report. He enjoyed reading it but says that it sounds as though
his mother despaired of him with his work. He has unfortunately had a car
accident which might entail early retirement. He has been in touch recently with
Richard Kennett.
Tom
Howard (left 1989) is engaged to Lucy
and has moved to Nottingham to work for Games Workshop. The wedding is this
coming Summer and Stephen York is rumoured to be set as Best Man.
Charles
Howell (left 1976) is to be
congratulated on his marriage to Beverleigh and the birth of their daughter,
Fenella. Their wedding in Devon was attended by Marcus and Doris Munro and Neil
Barton was Best Man. Charles is running an 'up-market' Estate Agency in
Birmingham which covers properties in the whole of the Midlands.
Nicky
Fairburn (n¾e
Howorth) (left 1976) did nursing
training after school and worked in and around London. Then she married and
moved to Gloucestershire. She and her husband now have two teenage daughters.
Adam
Jackson (left 1978) is married and has
three children. He is Head of ICT at a large Manchester Education Authority
Junior School.
Kate
Powell (née Jeffery) (left 1974)
writes to say that she has just started another computer course called GO-ECDL
which she can do most from home to start with. Husband, Peter, is well and very
busy. They had a wonderful holiday on the Rhine, last Summer, celebrating their
25th Wedding Anniversary.
David
Jenkinson (left 1964) I had not heard
from David for many, many years so it was good to receive some news from him. He
is still farming near Cirencester in Gloucestershire with his wife, Jane. They
have three children. He saw Gerald Neesham last year for the first time since
his 21st party. He is also now trying to make contact with Iain
Foyers. His brother Peter is in the building trade and lives in the same
village.
Stephen
Johnson (left 1989) Stephen finished
his job with London Electric about a year ago and decided he needed 'time out'.
He went first to Thailand where he met with Jeeb and Pong. Jeeb is already
married and Pong was due to get married on the 17th December 2001.
Then he went on to Australia where he'd planned to spend almost two months. He
took in the Lions Rugby Tests first which he enjoyed greatly though he had to
queue 9 hours for tickets for the second test. He got in some snorkelling on the
Great Barrier Reef before returning to work on a three month basis for a company
based near Gatwick. If all went well he planned to stick with them. He is living
in a house which is rented by Tom Howard.
Kathryn
Jones (left 1997) has written now that
she has graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London. She obtained a 2.1 BA in Chinese and Economics and thoroughly enjoyed
the four year course which involved a 10 month spell in Bejing and travelling to
the far flung reaches of China on 48 hours train journeys. She was fortunate to
gain a scholarship from the Taiwanese government to spend last Summer studying
there and learning to paint Chinese calligraphy. This year she is doing an MA in
applied Translation Studies (Chinese-English) at Leeds University. She was
inspired to do this after enjoying voluntary translation work in London with
Amnesty International.
Lorna
Turner (n¾e
Jones) (left 1988) is married and she
and husband, Joe, have moved down to Plymouth. At the moment Lorna is a proud
housewife and mother as she looks after their year old son, Benjamin. She was
visited by Debbie Bell last April who, she says, brought most of the John Lewis
toy department with her!
Stephanie
Jones (left 1994) is happily married
and living in Burton on Trent where she keeps up her French, German and Spanish
by using them at work almost every day.
Jenny
Katzoff (left 1988) has moved into a
New York apartment with her boyfriend, Phil and two kittens, Eddie and Lucy.
Phil, she tells me, bakes a mean lasagne. Last November they had a lovely weeks
holiday up at Key West. Jenny has been appointed President of the New York State
National Women's Political Caucus.
Andrew
Keir (left 1990) is pleased to have
completed his second year at University. He suffers from CFS and has decided to
go part time for his final year to help ease the pressure. He is aiming for a
2.1 in the hope of going on to take a Masters later. He still watches plenty of
cricket.
Michael
Kent (left 1980) is now a partner with
a City Law firm called Linklaters, specialising in financial services
regulation. He is married with four sons aged 13 down to 6 and living in
Bedford. He is still playing the piano for fun and occasionally seriously at low
key events. He'd much like to hear from his contemporaries.
Chris
Kernick (left 1983) has many happy
memories of life at school, and remembers how well they were kept on the
'straight and narrow' by Tony Price in Clownholme. He drifted a bit after school
but then trained in gemmology and spends time all over the place, but mainly in
Africa, buying rough stones for cutting. The results are staggering. He has been
twice married and has a 13 year old daughter, Holly
Russell
King (left 1992) left Abbotsholme and
returned to his roots in Warwickshire. There he found his forte selling land,
property (and soul) as an Estate Agent. After seven years he decided to leap
into IT. He moved to Bristol over three years ago with his girlfriend, Maria,
and he now works for a leading software house selling and installing software
for Estate and Letting Agents all over the country. This will soon spread to
Australia. He is still in regular touch with Neil Cox, Charlie Pryor and Charles
Patrick.
Adam
Kirtley (left 1979) has,
unfortunately, split with his wife but has found a wonderful new partner,
Siobhan. She gave birth to their son, Christopher George at the start of October
2001. Siobhan worked in the BBC before becoming a Mum and Adam is still working
for Radio 4 on the Economics side of reporting and also for BBC Radio Solent.
Elizabeth and I had a lovely meeting with all three of them over breakfast at
Riversholme Hotel in the Autumn of 2001 when Adam was in the area lecturing in
media training at Nottingham University.
Gareth
Knobbs (left 1996) is now working for
GlaxoSmithKline in London after graduating from the University of the West of
England with a 2.2(hons) degree in Biomedical Sciences.
Jayne
Knobbs (left 1998) writes that she
graduated from University last July with a 2.1 degree in Psychology. She reckons
that it was a bit of a nightmare facing the real world but after a few months to
chill out she got a job. She had thought of going back to University, but the
bank balance thought otherwise! She is an IT broker working for Beatmark Limited
in Manchester and loving every minute of it. The work is not directly linked to
her degree work but she's happy the way things are.
Felix
Krause (left 1997) has been studying
in Oviedo, Spain, to complete his course in International Business Studies at
the University of Maastricht in Holland. He says he is greatly enjoying
University life. He is just about fluent in Spanish now.
Alison
Kent (n¾e
Law) (left 1977) tells me that her
Abbotsholme high this year was meeting up for a meal with Ian Small in
California when he was on sabbatical and the low, and how low, was the news of
Susannah Carr's death. Ali wrote a special piece of poetry for the memorial
service, which I printed elsewhere, and also got up early in California to light
a candle and pray on the day of the service.
Charlotte
Layton (left 1997) graduated from the
University of Derby in 2000 and then took a gap year working as a learning
support co-ordinator at a special needs school. This year she has taken a
P.G.C.E. at Birmingham and will be looking for a post to start her teacher
career this coming September.
Nick
Lees (left 1956) wrote to me in April
to say that retired on December 31st 2000 as Director of racing at
Newmarket after 27 years. That was after an earlier career as an Officer in the
17th/21st Lancers. He is still much involved in horse racing being
Managing Director and Clerk of the Course at Leicester and Chairman of Stratford
on Avon Racecourse Co. Ltd. He still comes into contact with John and tony Rose
and Nick Carlisle. He was saddened to read last year of the death of David
Cowan. They shared a study and played in the school's New Orleans Jazz Band. He
recalled an incident when they went to a dance at St. Elphin's School, Darley
Dale. David was sitting on a window ledge chatting up one of the girls and
decided to jump out of the window onto a balcony. Unfortunately, the balcony
wasn't there and David fell 15 feet, breaking his leg, bringing a swift end to
that evening's romance!
Nigel
Lees (left 1957) is in the antiques
business and attends Fairs all over the United Kingdom and Europe.
Hilary
Lewis (left 1982) is now a qualified
Osteopath. She is presently working for Reuters. She and her partner are
expecting their first child early in 2002.
Brett
Little (left 1977) e-mailed me to say
that he is currently living in Boston, Massachusetts and is married to Cory.
They have two boys, Andew (8) and Christian (5). He went to University in
France, then business and law school in the USA. He worked in investment banking
for 10 years before becoming a federal prosecutor. He moved to London four years
ago to work for Clifford Chance and returned to the States last year to join his
current firm where he practices international corporate and securities law.
Steve
Lovisetto (left 1985) had a serious
illness when he was in his second term studying Chemistry at the University of
Leeds (this is back in the late 1980's). It was a pretty difficult time but the
treatment was successful. After University he started work as a graduate trainee
with RTZ (of mining infamy) but he says he never did anything as glamorous as
exploiting the developing world. He spent 2 - 3 years importing Hungarian
banqueting chairs and selling road cones and toilet rolls to building sites. At
this point he decided he wanted to do something else. If he was going to study
again he thought he might like to try getting into medical school. He got a job
in Accident and Emergency at Leeds General Infirmary and worked as a skivvy to
the nursing staff for a year while he applied to any medical school that would
have him! Luckily he got into Sheffield. With the help of his wife and his
parents he had five years at Sheffield. His first job was in Harrogate, then a
brief spell in Bradford before returning to Harrogate to train as a GP, which
should be completed in August 2002. His wife, Christa, works on the production
side of Yorkshire Televison and apart from being a great support for him
throughout all his retraining has also borne them a lovely daughter, Lucy, who
is two years old. He is still in touch with Jon Stephens, Francesco Ruspoli, Liz
Fennel, Mark Bailey and a few others.
Edward
Lowe (left 1990) left Seale Hayne in
July 2000 with a degree and has been working on a variety of farms, most
recently lambing in the Welsh Hills.
Norma
Blakeman (née Lowe) (left 1986) is
mow married and has two children, Joe, aged 4 and Molly who is just one. Norma
trained as a teacher and though acting as a full time Mum at the moment, has
been in Primary Schools at Key Stage 2. When the children are a little older she
plans to return to teaching.
Anabel
Ludlam (left 1990) is married and
living in San Francisco with husband Arnie, whom she met in London, and son
Jack.
James
Ludlam (left 1988) After leaving
Abbotsholme in 1988 he tells me that he went to the University of York to read
Politics and Economics. Following graduation in 1991 he worked as an emerging
currency market trader for several different investment banks in Singapore, New
York and London. He recently bought a small hotel in Provence and plans to move
there in 2002 to help run the hotel and indulge in various creative pursuits
which he has not had time for in the last 10 years. He says he came close to
getting married three years ago but is still single. The hotel website, by the
way - www.chateaudelabaude.com
.
Manfred
Lund (ex-staff)
tells me that he really enjoys his retirement though he can't get away
from teaching completely. He is running an evening class in Derby to keep his
hand in.
Magnus
MacDonald (left 1968) remarried in the
summer of 2001. Chris Newall was there and described it as a delightfully rustic
affair.
Martin
Makgatlhe (left 1984) It was a great
pleasure to receive an e-mail from Martin telling me that wife, Onkutule, and he
had been blessed with a baby girl on the 28th May 2001. They have
named her Sefalana Tiego and she is absolutely adorable.
Ben
Mardall (left 1984)
I met Ben at Ian Thompson's memorial service down in Somerset. He is
living in Alford, West of Aberdeen. He has a full-time job managing Archaeolink
Prehistory Park ( www.archaeolink.co.uk
). This is a Visitor Attraction interpreting 6000 years of prehistory from the
Stone Age to the Romans. He has been there since April 2000, before which he had
been managing the Scottish Deer Centre, another visitor attraction. He is still
heavily involved in the 'deer world'. He is on the Executive of the Deer
Management Groups and a Director of the Deer Management Qualifications, the
national body for training in deer stalking and management. He is also a
Committee Member of the British Deer Society ( www.bds,org.uk
). He also does some advising on tourism so he is kept busy and out of trouble.
Barry
March (ex-staff) Barry moved from
Abbotsholme back to Derbyshire County Cricket Club to become Head Groundsman
again in 1996. He has now retired from Derby, watches lots of sport and is a
devoted grandad.
Louise
Marshall (left 1996) Congratulations
to Louise on the birth of her daughter, Nancy, in Derby on January 24th
2001. I had asked to be kept informed and her mother's note to me said,
"Baby beautiful, Mother knackered, Dad emotional, Granny delirious!"
Gae
Barnes (n¾e
Matthews) (left 1975) is now married
to Anil, an architect, and they have two children, Charlotte, aged 15 and
Ptolemy, aged 13. They live near Ely in Cambridgeshire and she works for
Cambridge University at the Faculty of Oriental Studies. She still enjoys
playing tennis and belongs to Ely Tennis Club. She is trying to improve her
drawing so that she might one day be able to paint a picture that she would be
happy to hang on their wall!
Robin
Matthews (left 1978) is an
internationally known photographer whose work has appeared in numerous
publications including, House and Garden, Vogue, Country Living and the Sunday
Times Magazine. His studios are in London. He trained with Lord Snowdon before
establishing himself in his own right. Much of his best work is shown on his
web-site, www.robinmatthews.cwc.net . I noticed a particularly well
known picture study of Pavarotti.
Fiona
Weber (née McArthur) (left 1984) has
written with news for the first time in ages. I tracked her down thanks to
Sophie Verhagen. When she left school she went to Norwich School of Art and did
a Foundation Course but realised that she didn't want to be an artist so the
following year she went to St. Andrew's University and graduated in 1989 with a
2.1 in Art History. She did a one Year PGCE and then taught in an Infants School
in Stockport. There she met her husband to be, Henning Weber. When he had
finished his degree he went back to Germany but in 1992 Fiona followed him and
taught at the British Forces School in Herford. Then she landed a much sought
after teaching job in Wiesbaden and they got married in August 1996. Their first
son, Tilman, was born in 1997 and daughter, Philippa, was born in 1999. For a
while Fiona stopped work to look after the children. Now they have bought a
house in Mainz and she is going back to work part-time at the International
School in Wiesbaden. She is now fluent in German. Henning says it bubbles out
without any regard for endings! She feels now that Germany is home and the
children are very happy. Just occasionally she has a little bout of
home-sickness for Britain. One day, she says, she might get around to bringing
her family to see where she spent a very happy four years of her life.
Jim
McCulloch (left 1988) lives in Kent
and is still working in the Police Force. He has been married for 4 years and
they have a 2 year old daughter. He has not heard from anyone from Abbotsholme
for over ten years. (Ed. Perhaps we're just not getting caught!)
Mark
McKergow (left 1975) is still in
Cheltenham with Jenny, and still running his modest Management Consultancy
Business. He has just had his first book published. It is a management book
called 'The Solutions Focus: The SIMPLE Way to Positive Change.' . It is
published by Nicholas Brealey Publications. It is the first book on a growing
area of interest in organisational consulting and there was an international
conference in Bristol to launch it. There is even a website to support the book
and the ideas in it. ( www.thesolutionsfocus.com
). Mark does a lot of travelling to conferences in the USA and Europe. He is
back playing the clarinet again. He says there appears to be a shortage of good
jazz clarinettists in Gloucestershire and he seems to be in demand to fill the
gap. He is also a cricket buff and always gets to the Cheltenham Cricket
Festival and a day at the Lord's Test. (Ed. We are going to have a day at
Bristol together this coming Summer)
Ruth
Slack (n¾e
McKergow) (left 1978) Ruth married
Tony in 1997. She is a freelance development chef inventing recipes for
supermarket and restaurant chains, as well as working on internet based food
ideas. Tony is Technical Director for 4car.co.uk , Channel 4's motoring website.
They have moved to Chepstow and share their home with two cats, Fred and Holly.
Graham
McKerrow (left 1977) wrote in to say
how much the recent Foot and Mouth epidemic reminded him of the problems the
school faced in 1967. He recalls all the disinfectant and carrying trunks down
the drive to the waiting bus at the end of term. Major and much cherished events
were cancelled to save having parents coming onto the estate.
Robin
Morley (left 1971) is still running
his arts and events companies, ZAP and UZ Events in Brighton and Scotland and
they are going from strength to strength. Of course the Millennium brought in an
enormous amount of work. They tendered for the doomed London Celebrations but
were pipped to the post by Bob Geldof. Anyway Ken Livingstone cancelled it all
in the end. He took his family, Jane and the two children, for a four week
holiday in New Zealand recently. He describes the country as amazingly
beautiful. For 2001 ZAP are producing the annual large scale festival event in
the streets of Brighton. They continue with their street art throughout the UK
in conjunction with European partners from Rouen, Amien and Lille. They are also
organising the main event for Japan 2001, a festival of Japanese culture
throughout Britain. The biggest single event was a 'Matsuri' in
Hyde Park which, it was hoped, would attract 250,000 people. He is looking
forward to the Commonwealth Games and the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Sara
Brown (née Mouseley) (left 1991)
tells me she is married and works freelance from home at her landscaping
planning work. She keeps in touch with Bianca Shevlin and bumped into Trevor
Barnfield a year ago when he had just moved down to Reading.
Jeremy
Neville-Eliot (left 1965) tells me
that, unfortunately, he was divorced in the mid 1980's but that he met his
second wife, Kath, in 1992 and they were married in 2000. Sailing is still very
much in his blood. His early days were spent sailing National 12's, then he
graduated to Flying 15's. More recently he has bought a sailing cruiser which he
keeps moored in South West Scotland, two hours drive from home, so that weekends
and holidays are spent cruising the Irish Sea and the West Coast of Scotland. He
continues to run the family footwear business though these days is concentrating
on operating Clarks franchises. They are, in fact, the largest operator of
Clarks Shoes franchises in the United Kingdom. His son. Matthew, works in the
family business while his daughter, Amy, is a marketing manager based in
Bristol.
Chris
Newall (left 1969) tells me that he
did a series of 'lecture-walks' in Venice in November 2000 entitled 'Venice
through the eyes of John Ruskin'. Talking about 19th century model
communities, commitment to nature and appreciation of craft and artistic skills,
etc., one of his audience piped up with the remark, "It sounds just like
the school I was at in the 1930's…." Of course, it was Abbotsholme.
Unfortunately Chris has forgotten his name, though thinks he was a retired
engineer. So, if you were in Venice in November 2000 and are reading this, own
up! Chris has persuaded The Tate Gallery to allow him to organise an exhibition
in 2004 on the theme 'The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape'. It will show the meticulous
representations of the physical world that artists and photographers made in the
1850's and 60's
Bruce
Nicholson (left 1985) is living back
in Derby with his partner. They had a son, Liam Ross last Summer.
Ross
Nicholson (left 1989)
is sharing the rent of a place in Nottingham with Stephen York. Ross
works and lives Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in London and then moves to
Nottingham for Thursday and Friday. Sounds like a real dream life!
Sarah
Thelluson (née Nicholson) (left 1988)
gave birth to her firstborn in the Summer of 2001, a boy named Oliver James. All
is going very well.
Daniel
Nix (left 1997) is living in San Diego
with an American, Jennifer Mosley, to whom he is engaged. They plan to get
married on August 11th at Culzean Castle in Scotland. He graduated at
Birmingham University in Visual Communication/Graphic Design in 2001. He is
still playing basketball but not as much as he would like. After the wedding
they are returning to the States to work in Boston. Ultimately they plan to
return to work in the United Kingdom.
William
Nix (left 1995) very kindly offered to
lead some walks in the mountains as his contribution towards the Parents
Association 'Promises Auction'.
Annie
Halket (n¾e
Norman) (left 1979) has had a very
exciting few years. She and husband, Tim, are joint managing Directors of a
business recruitment agency which they founded in Cambridge called IGC. It had
expanded enormously and they now employ 24 people. The Company has reached the
finals of the East of England Business Awards and she has been nominated for the
Cambridge Evening News as Business Woman of the Year. You want to know more? Go
to www.igc.co.uk They also have two super youngsters, Hannah and Hamish, (very
youngsters!) with a couple of brace of Abbotsholme Godparents, Ruth Wilkes, John
Scarborough, Angela Kay and her brother Andrew. When Annie last wrote to me she
was just about to be interviewed for BBC TV Look East about the state of the
recruitment market in Cambridge.
Martin
Oakes (left 1977) writes to tell me
that he has been married for 10 years to Avril and that they have a daughter,
Victoria, who is 9. He is still farming just outside Rocester, but bemoans the
state of the industry. His daughter is currently being taught by Mavis Lund at
Denstone Village School. His mother, Rose-Marie, who worked for many years for
the OA's, has retired to a bungalow in Alton.
Veronica
Oakeshott (left 1998) appeared in the
national press about a year ago. The Observer carried a story concerning
Nepalese refugees. She had learnt some Nepalese during her gap year and
according to the newspaper answered an advert to help as a translator for an
influx of refugees. She was made to work under great pressure and felt that the
work was beyond her. She rang the agency and explained her difficulties and said
she did not want to return to the work for a second day. They again put great
pressure on her saying the refugees were relying on her. But she refused to go
back. Veronica, a student at Newcastle University, explained that she had had no
training or trial situations before being asked to speak on behalf of people who
were pleading for their livelihood.
Alan
and Chris Oatway (ex-staff) report
that they are well and very busy. Alan, of course, is a Headmaster. Much of his
time is spent planning for a forthcoming School inspection. This year he again
took a school skiing party and for the first time in 20 years was struck with a
series of injuries to pupils. It was to have been his last school skiing trip -
now it certainly will be. Both their children, Carolyn and Rob, are now grown up
and doing very well.
Tsuyoshi
Ogura (left 1969) still remembers
great skiing days in Saas Fee well over thirty years ago. Sad to report, his
brother, Takeshi, who was also in White House, died nearly three years ago. At
around that time Tsuyoshi has been in the field of international educational
advice. His brother had been running the family manufacturing company, Sankyo
Bolt Manufacturing Co. But Tsuyoshi took it over and he has offices in Yokohama
and Tokyo and a factory in Kawasaki. He is still in touch with Chris Newall,
Alan Rhodes, Nick Hopkinson and John Naish. Indeed the last time I saw Tsuyoshi
was in September 1988 at the Symposium on the 'Inheritance of Cecil Reddie'
which John Naish hosted aboard HMS Wellington on the Thames in London. Tsuyoshi
has been married to Yoshiko for 20 years and they have an 18 year old son,
Tokuyuki, who is about to go to college in the United States and a daughter,
Satoko, who is 15.
Rotimi
Onajobi (left 1987) tells me he has
moved on from his previous job. He now works for the United States Government as
a Database Administrator. Job turnover is amazing in his sphere of IT. There is
no job loyalty and a year is a long time in any post. When he wrote from Texas
they were just going through their cold spell with temperatures down to 70º F.
He sends me many stories, often with great meaning, some just very funny.
David
O'Neill (left 1967) has been in touch
for the first time for many years. He is married and has two children aged 19
and 21. He has taken early retirement after a career during which he became a
mathematics teacher and then a headmaster for twenty years. He now lives in
Shropshire. Of his schooldays he says, "Quite how I survived without being
thrown out says a great deal for the tolerance and foresight of the staff. I
must have given my parents the horrors!"
Graham
Overell (left 1973) is now living in
Seamore, about an hour North of Melbourne, Australia. He was visited recently by
James Cooper who reports that Graham has an excellent wife, Jo, one child (no
name given) and a dog called Rusty. Graham is not in the Army but works at an
Army Base in charge of the cooking.
Anthony
Parker (left 1962) writes in to say
that he retired from IBM in 1992 and since then has had a portfolio of part-time
jobs ranging from personal computer consultancy to managing a Relate centre.
Relate used to be the Marriage Guidance service but is now into adult
relationship counselling. Currently he is involved in running a small commercial
property company. He has just moved and says many of the tools and skills
acquired in the workshop at Abbotsholme are being pressed into service. He
recently had lunch with Anthony Joseph having seen him on television the
previous year.
Jonathan
Parry (left 1978)
phoned from America to say that he had moved to Connecticut and was
married to Ann Bogue on Saturday 27th October 2001.
Rachel
Payne (left 1992) is still working for
Astrazeneca and is, according to her sister, jetting off all over the place to
meetings and conferences. She has now bought a house in Berkhamptead.
Sarah
Cieslik (née Payne) (left 1994)
Congratulations to Sarah who married Tim last August. They honeymooned in
Jamaica. Both Charles and Julian Patrick were ushers and Rachel was a
bridesmaid. They had spent all their spare time in the previous months doing up
a cottage ready to move into. I don't know whether they are still there but the
wedding photos were at www.timcieslik.net
.
Sally
Pearson (left 1978) is a peripatetic
piano teacher at Abbotsholme two days a week, indeed she teaches most days and
she loves it. Nevertheless life revolves around bringing up her three children,
Maddie, who is 10, Duncan, 8, and Gina, just 6. She regularly sees Ruth McKergow
and is in touch with Gina, Suzi and Caroline Ditchfield. She would love further
contact from people she knew at school.
Roy
Perkins (ex-staff) retires as Head of
Mathematics from Reading School this Summer. He has consistently run a
department which has had some of the best external examinations results in the
country. He has no plans yet apart from a trip to Australia where his brother
lives.
Guido
Perrini (left 1985) e-mails me to tell
me that he is currently based in Verbier, the Swiss ski resort, but he seems to
spend less and less time there as he gets sent all over the place filming,
mainly for action sports like ski-ing, snowboarding and surfing. Much of it is
for videos and some for television. He says he gets sent to some pretty amazing
places and in the last few months has been to Svalbard (Spitzbergen), Chile,
Iceland, Northern Norway, heli ski-ing in Canada and also the Maldives. He says
it is a tough life but someone has to do it! His mother still lives in Rome.
Jaimie
Perry (left 1990) is back in the UK at
the moment, living in Woking and working for British and American Tobbaco. Last
Autumn he had a great weekend meeting up with David Grainger, Tim Smithson and
Simon Bloomfield.
Robin
Perry (left 1990) has many amazing
memories of Abbotsholme even though he left in the 3rd Form. He
emigrated with his parents to Australia and lived for a year in Darwin which he
describes as a MAJOR culture shock. Then they moved to Perth where he has been
ever since. It's a great city with a wonderful climate, wonderful beaches and an
outdoor lifestyle along with 1.25 million people. He started studying Law at the
University of Western Australia in 1995 and also did a BA in Asian Studies and
finally graduated in 2000. He started working for a Law Firm over a year ago and
is well and truly in the 'rat race' now. He is still a mad keen rugby player and
has not missed a season since he first started at school in 1988. He played for
Western Australia Under 16 representative side but was a bit lazy at that level.
He'd love to come back to just wander around the Abbotsholme grounds and see how
some of his childhood haunts have changed. He also looks forward to making
contact with some of his year, Robin Sibley, Helen Bostock, Richard Allison, et
al.
Sarah
Perry (left 1988) has written to me
with a proper write up since I only mentioned her in passing two years ago.
After Abbotsholme she did an HND in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management
and spent three years in Cheltenham working as a manager in a restaurant waiting
for her Australian Visa to come through. Then she flew to Perth to join her
parents. Whilst in Perth she read Computer Studies at the University and moved
to Sidney when she got her degree. She got a job as a programmer for an
Australian Insurance Company but after 3 years decided she needed to widen her
horizons and became a Support Analyst for IBM. That was followed by a similar
role for Chase Manhattan Bank and she is presently with UBS Warburg (A Swiss
Bank). She is still single with no children though she did have a serious
relationship which lasted six years. She hopes to visit Abbotsholme one day.
Will
Pickering (left 1982) worked for some
time as a photographer for a national news agency and then went on to work for
several different newspapers in the East Midlands. He is married and has one
daughter.
Vanessa
Plant (left 1992) is a newly joined
member of the Club. She swears that I caught her smoking with Charlotte Prow and
Annie Veale behind the Sports Hall. I must say I don't remember things like that
but if she says so…….! When she left Abbotsholme she returned to Panama
where her father was living. When her father transferred to Brazil she went to
school in Connecticut and completed her last two years of High School with
Honours. That was in 1996 and she then moved to Boston and attended the
University of Massachusetts and read Latin American Studies. Now she's a Real
Estate agent. (looking to make a sale in Spanish!) She has bought a 'condo' in
Cambridge, Mass. with her boyfriend and is looking forward to making contact
with lots of her old school friends.
Philip
Poole (left 1976) came back to the OA
Dinner last June with his wife, Chris. For some years he worked for a company
called Eclipse. They were taken over by Impact and he is full time Safety
Manager with Impact Development Training Group based in Cumbria, but which has
offices all over the world. He was at one time an Alpine Guide and used to spend
quite a few months a year in the Alps. His present job still leaves him just a
little time to do some guiding so he spends about a month a year in the Alps
running ski tours and also gets involved in the British Guides training scheme
and runs Mountain Leader and Rock Climbing Award Courses. He has been back to
Saas Fee on a few occasions with the ski tours recently and some ten years ago
met one of our old Saas Fee ski instructors on the summit of the Allalinhorn.
(Ed. That's the only 4000m peak I ever climbed in the Alps, and I was with
Martin Best, John Coates and Anthony Kennett in 1962!)
Sheba
Tunnell (n¾e
Posnansky) (left 1978) has written to
tell me that life is good. In 200 she and Jonathan finally got married. They've
been together for eight years and have a house, a dog and two kids! It was a
wonderful occasion, 2 of her aunts from Uganda, 12 cousins from the UK and 20 of
Jonathan's family from Philadelphia helped to make the day special. They all
wore traditional African attire and included the kids in the ceremony which was
held in 'their back yard'. The 'kids', Malcolm and Maya are growing fast and are
a tremendous source of joy and amusement to them. Her sister, Tessa, is very
busy. She works in the media business. At the time of writing there was an
impending film writers strike so she has worked on three movies back to back.
They want as many movies 'in the can' as possible so they can ride out the
strike.
John
Powell (left 1942) John has sent me a
fascinating account of his exchange visit to L'Ecole des Roches, in France, with
Arthur Jones, who also left in 1942, in the Summer of 1940. The school had an
exchange system with this school and some of the Hermann Leitz schools in
Germany. John vividly describes their excitement at the outset and the alarms of
being urgently returned from occupied France. I have put a copy in the school
archives but if anyone would like to read a copy his account I would be happy to
send one to them.
John
Precey (left 1964) tells me about his
new job which is going well and that he is working with a great bunch of people.
He is Quality Manager with a firm called JPA Ltd. His first client has been Fuel
Subsea. This is a firm that provides solutions to underwater connections between
oil wells and production facilities. He likens it to putting an adapter in an
electric wall socket, only doing it for oil or gas. His wife, Gill, works for
the local council in Cambridge.
Matthew
Precey (left 1984) is now Assistant
Editor with Channel Four News on TV and was married last August to Clare who
works on BBC Radio One as a newscaster and compere.
Janet
Ashenden (n¾e
Prescott) (left 1977) very kindly made
four superb decorated cakes, one from her parents, for the APA Promises Auction
in November 2001. Actually, of course, she made them after the event so that the
winners could have a say in their design. All that, teaching, three children and
at the same time she and her husband Nigel, have bought a new house and moved in
just before Christmas.
Stephen
Prescott (left 1973) has been winning
medals galore for his successes in preparing and marketing on-line smoked foods
and wines from his farm near Carmarthen in West Wales. Go on, spoil yourself and
go online at www.welshsmokedfoods.co.uk
and book a banquet.
Alex
Price (left 1993) is now a fully
fledged ambulance driver and also works at the reception of a local fitness
centre. He is also a fully trained firefighter and has logged experience at
various levels. He met and got engaged to Katherine Carlisle while on a medical
course and they got married back in December of 2001. I have not heard yet
whether they did. Alex's long term plans are still to gain a licence as a
paramedic, but there is lots of study to do first.
Charles
Price (left 1999)
is working for a company called Five Lamps in Derby. Currently he is
working on a large, database-driven, website for a Derby based company. It
involves staring at reams and reams of computer code and attempting to iron out
bugs. He describes it as the sort of job that sends everybody to sleep, except
really odd folk like himself.
Charlotte
Price (left 1993) writes to me to say
how much she enjoys getting the Year Book, having a good read and letting her
mind wander back. She is still in beautiful Albuquerque. Last year she 'retired'
from her career as a representative for Victoria's Secret, took a small time off
to travel and recharge and then launched a career as an Executive Recruiter in
the Engineering, IT and Accounting fields for national firms. It is a tremendous
opportunity and she especially enjoys meeting the candidates, finding their
perfect fit, then relocating them and their families. Apart from work she enjoys
lots of social activities and fundraising events. She is constantly in need of
sponsors and recruits to do walk and runs for charities so watch out! She loves
Las Vegas and likes the odd bet (or two!). She's been a bridesmaid a few times
but that's as far as it has got. There are no wedding bells for her yet -
domesticity is on hold until the right man comes along. She is still in touch
with Gemma Boniface, Katie Fox and Tom Crookes.
Tony
and Joan Price (ex-staff) We had a
lovely lunch with Tony and Joan last Autumn at their home in North Wales. We had
a grand two or three hours natter. They are both well but Tony's hearing is very
poor. He makes the same incisive comments and has the same warm and ready sense
of humour. Joan is a Governor of the local village school. They do lots of
walking around Abergynolwyn. I know they'd always be happy to hear from OA's -
let me know if you want their e-mail address.
Suzanne
Perry (née Quint) (left 1976) has
been incredibly busy this year. Her husband, Mark, has travelled abroad for his
work a lot and her job has been fulltime. Their two girls are growing fast. The
elder, Nicole, is almost 17 and has bought her own car (always a moment of mixed
emotions for parents). The younger, Kristine, is mad keen on sport and summer
camps. (Ed. Suzanne's parents very kindly offered hospitality to a younger
Sederman on honeymoon in America just after September 11th. They
found that on the other side of the 'pond' and in the vast expanse of America,
they were only 17 miles apart. Their spare bedroom was made up 'just in case'.)
Mark
Rake (left 1956) I found Mark on the
internet after he had been 'lost' for many years. He tells me that he did a gap
year after leaving school and then went to Guy's Hospital as a medical student.
He qualified in 1963 and became a Consultant 10 years later at the Kent and
Canterbury Hospital with a particular interest in gastroenterology. Earlier he
had trained at King's College Hospital and was in the team that did the first
liver transplant. He also spent time in Biafra during 1970 with 'Save the
Children'. He has now retired from clinical practice but has taken on a role at
the University of Kent as Dean of the Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences
which he helped to establish in 1994. He lives in Kent with his partner, Hilary.
He has a home in France and he hopes to spend more time there when he finally
retires later this year. He is keen to hear from old school friends, especially
David Vacher, David Rubra, Peter Morpurgo and Tony Maybrey.
David
Randall (staff) and his wife Ena are
now both Associate Members of the Club. David has struggled for the last couple
of years with great pain in the hip - not easy with his job on the farm. Towards
the end of 2001 he had a hip replacement operation and is now well on his way to
full recovery and is pain free at last. Good news.
Ian
Reekie (left 1953) has retired after
30 years at what was Newcastle Polytechnic, now Northumbria University in the
Department of Business Studies. He has thoroughly enjoyed his time there. The
department has grown enormously during his time there. When he started there
were about 30 students graduating in Business Studies per annum. In his final
year the department graduated 1000 UK students and 700 Overseas students. He
also records that daffodils were planted on football lane by pupils during March
1950. The school bought One and a half Hundredweight (168 pounds) for 37.5 pence
(present money). He also notes that his total bill from the school for the
Winter term of 1950 was less than £98 including extras !
Alex
Rhys Hurn (left 1993) It is a great
pleasure to spread the news of Alex's wedding. He got married to Pam on the 27th
October 2001 in the garden of their home at Karen, Nairobi. Pam, who originates
from Canada, has been working as a biologist in Kenya for the last 10 years
Robert
Riddington (left 1959) still lives in
Leicester. For the past 36 years he has run his own small business making wooden
moulds for the pre-cast concrete industry. He married back in 1963 and both his
children are now grown up and married. He is still in touch with Joe Zekan and
James Brown. He has revisited Abbotsholme once in 1986 with Joe and was
impressed with the new developments, particularly the science labs and was
relieved to see the school had its own swimming pool. He remembers having to
swim in the Dove for exercise on some pretty cold afternoons.
Caroline
Roberts (left 1988) came to the Dinner
last Summer with her brother and his wife. She trained at Nottingham University
to be an Environmental Health Officer. When she left University she worked very
happily as an EHO in Local Government for nearly five years. Then she saw a job
with Zurich Insurance advertised and was a little surprised when she got the job
as she knew nothing about insurance, other than her Commerce project ! So that's
where she is now as a Management Risk Consultant. She had a fabulous holiday
tracking around Europe in the Summer of 2001.
Mark
Roberts (left 1988) came to the Dinner
with his wife, Alison. They spent a month visiting Australia in the Autumn. Mark
still works for the organisation of the Conservative Party in the North West.
Simon
Robinson (left 1985) did go and work
for IBM in America for a couple of years some time ago and finished this with a
six month drive across the States and central America. Now he lives in London
and part-owns and runs a computer software company in Soho, doing special
effects for film and television. He keeps in touch with Steve Lowe and they have
both been keen sea-kayakers since leaving Abbotsholme. Last Summer they had a
five week expedition around Svalbard (Spitzbergen) in the Arctic. It went very
well.
Amy
Allison (née Rothera) (left 1996)
married Richard in the Autumn of 2001. She graduated with a good degree and
L.P.C. qualification from the University of the West of England at Bristol. She
is now working as a trainee solicitor in the family firm in Nottingham. She and
Richard had an excellent skiing holiday at Meribel this January. ( Ed. See notes
on Richard as well)
Francesco
Ruspoli (left 1985) Francesco has
moved to Paris after working for six years in banking as a registered principal
in Italy. His marriage unfortunately broke up and he has set up the French
Office for a US company called Georgeson Shareholder, which is rapidly expanding
in Europe. He will be looking after their French Market. Their London Office
opened three years ago and now employs some 300 people. He enjoys Paris greatly
and as it is nearer to the UK than Rome he hopes to attend some OA re-unions.
You'll find the scope of his work at www.georgesonshareholder.com
.
Melanie
Ryder (left 1982) writes to say that
she is now living in London. She lived and worked in New York for 7 years and
returned to London 2 years ago. She married a New Yorker, Richard, and they have
a five year old daughter, Reid. Since leaving school she has worked in the film
industry in post production editing. Most of her recent jobs have been on the
sound side, music, sound effects, etc. Since coming back from New York she has
taken on less work so she can enjoy herself more. She is still in touch with
Sophie Hamilton and Kirsten Beaver, both of whom live near her. She says she has
very fond memories of her schooldays.
Stephen
Samuel (left 1969) who organises the
'Golden Oldies' events so well for those who left at about the same time as him
has very kindly agreed to take over as Auditor of Accounts for the Abbotsholmian
Club from Guy Duncombe. Stephen wrote to me at Christmas to say that he was
having two separate weeks of skiing this year, one week in France and one week
in Italy. I hope all was well - he hadn't skied for 26 years. The 2001 Golden
Oldies had some great golf in June and then most of them stayed on for the OA
Dinner. (Ed. We have looked at the possibility of an OA golf competition. Anyone
interested should contact me and we'll see what can be done.)
Chris
Sanville (left 1940) enjoyed reading
the last Year Book but was sorry to see obituaries of some of his school
friends. He read of the Ponsfords with interest. The last time he and Ian met
was in line for food at a personnel depot in New Brunswick, Canada in April
1942. Ian was in the R.A.F. and Chris was in the Navy, both on the way to carry
out their flying training.
John
Scarborough (left 1980) very kindly
donated a couple of ticket for 'Les Miserables' for the APA Promises Auction in
the Autumn of 2001. He and Moira were blessed with a daughter, Molly, on the 8th
September. He is delighted to say that Annie Norman has agreed to be one of the
godparents
Robert
Schedler (left 1961) sent me a change
of address during the year which showed a move from Switzerland to France. I
noted the change and wrote back to ask him why. His response…..why not ? Well
actually they have bought a property in a very civilised area about 60 Km North
West of Avignon. This May they are starting to offer Bed and Breakfast in the
main house which has a swimming pool etc. You'll find it at www.geocities.com/schedler44
and he offers 10% off for OA's. It is a quite wonderful holiday area.
Peter
Scheuer (left 1947) has retired from
the Chair of Histopathology at the Royal Free Hospital in London having
specialised in liver disease. He is still lecturing, writing and teaching as
well as learning Italian and playing the cello in his spare time. He has two
children and 2 grandchildren. He tells me that Chris, who was in Riversholme,
works for Amnesty International in London.
Debbie
Scragg (left 1993) is working for a
small TV production company. Recently she and her elder brother, Matthew, worked
together with Matt Rumsey on a project MR was promoting.
Matthew
Scragg (left 1987) is working as a
freelance video editor in London at the moment. He does a lot of work for
Nickelodeon, MTV, Disney and so on. He has worked mostly on trailers for their
shows but has done a lot of music related work in the last few years. He says it
keeps him busy and tends to mean working very weird hours in dark rooms with no
windows, but he enjoys it a great deal and it has afforded him the luxury of
buying a small flat in North London. He is in touch with a few
OA's including Michael Crabtree, Camilla Hall, Micky Kelly and Louise
Darby.
Paul
Scragg (left 1989) is working as an
Environmental Officer for the East Staffordshire District Council in Burton on
Trent. He has bought his own home. Last Autumn he went on holiday in Greece with
Ross Nicholson, to the same places they went in 1991. I am told it has not
changed at all.
Ann
Dalgleish (n¾e
Sederman) (left 1988) was married to
Andrew on September 1st in Rocester Church with the reception at
Abbotsholme afterwards. The school made it a wonderful occasion. Bridesmaid was
Esther Lee and also Stella Hall was there. Past and present staff included Reg
and Brenda Glover, Ian and Nora Foster, Nancy Follows, Philip and Elspeth
Knight. Tom Palmer's musicians played afterwards for country dancing.
Michelle
Hogan (née Seed) (left 1978) After
her degree in Accounting and Finance at the University of Brighton, she switched
to Philosophy at the University of Sussex. After her BA and MA she taught
Philosophy 'A' Level at a college in Lewes. She and her husband, Steve, have a
three year old son, James. They rather surprised Adrian Gobat by turning up at
an Open Morning last Summer at St. Aubyns Prep School in Rottingdean, where
Adrian is now Headmaster.
Nick
Seed (left 1980) works as a computer
consultant in London, spending his weekends in Oxfordshire. He is married to
Julie.
George
Shapland (left 1981) who was in the
Queen's Horse Artillery has recently been posted to a new job in Luton as the
Training Major for one of the Gunner TA regiments after spending the last two
years on the Staff of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. He and his wife
have bought a house in Camberley and he commutes to Luton daily by motorbike.
They have two daughters aged 6 and 5 and when not busy being with them escapes
to go hang gliding.
Barbie
Shanks (left 1972) is now on-line and
has sent me some lovely photos. Her previous dog, Boshka, died nearly two years
ago and she now has an adorable black labrador called 'Rags'. The photos of
Barbie and her daughter, Sophie, are absolutely delightful. Sophie has the most
lovely smile, I think it was Martha Chapman who described her as a little angel.
The weather in Bermuda obviously suits them. Barbie works from home producing
advertising matter for a chain of restaurants on the island, and she works for a
large department store organising their advertising needs. She also produces a
12 page tourist brochure each year. In her spare time (!) she makes dolls and
tree ornaments out of banana leaves which she sells locally and to tourists. I
have pictures of them and they look fantastic. Sophie goes to pre-school for
about 6 hours a day which gives time for work.. I sent her a picture of the
front of Abbotsholme. The sight of the chapel windows immediately brought back
memories for her of Johnny Allen playing his sitar late into the night.
Harry
Sheppard (left 1997) has been in touch
to say that he is now working for a company called CVP Imaging Solutions in
Warwickshire. They make video editing systems and he acts as webmaster/technical
engineer/editor for the company. He still has a passion for odd cars and you can
see his latest monster if you visit www.ragerover.com/gallery
. He says he is enjoying life.
Paula
Sheppy (left 1985) has written some
excellent letters and sent super photos during the last year. She has changed
jobs during the middle of 2001 and that rather co-incided with a fantastic party
for her year group which she organised in Covent Garden on August 11th.
The party appeared on the internet and you could book yourself in or just leave
a best wishes comment. She arrived in the United Kingdom and stayed with Liz
Fennel at Debbie Lonsdale's flat in London. It was a real Wow! Everyone who has
written in had a great time. There was, of course, much talk of Abbotsholme.
Paula says that, although we outgrow our childhood, Abbotsholme was such a
significantly formative time for most of those present during those crucial
teenage years. At school some very close friendships were formed, and it felt
very comfortable to be with people with whom you had shared so much. Simon
Robinson described it thus. "It occurred to me during the evening that,
when we were all at school, we were all too young and together too long to have
any real shields from each other. I mean that in the sense that we all saw
through each other's facades and saw each other 'in the raw'. For better or
worse, it'll probably not happen again - everyone I meet nowadays tends to wear
some kind of veneer." There were about 25 people there and she had a good
talk with almost everyone. The sadness was about those who could not make it,
Bill Burningham, Sue Hockenhull, Helen and Julian Trott, Liz Kessler and Alison
Smith. Never mind - another time! She did manage to get back to school briefly
with John Cunliffe-Lister and it was good to see how little had really changed,
even the same curtains were hanging up in Orchard House. On her return to
Australia she visited New York City and did scuba diving in the Mexican
Caribbean. Oh yes, and a wonderful week on the Greek Island of Samos. But back
home she realises what a wonderful place Perth is. Her latest job is working at
a mine (not in one!) but the hours……6.00am - 6.00pm! She says she is OK but
very tired.
Bianca
Shevlin (left 1991) Bianca is still
working with RAM FM in Derby. She gave up the breakfast show after 2 years
because she says she is just not a 'morning person'. Now she does some news work
and presents shows as and when required. She lives in Derby with Dave Barnes,
who used to coach some tennis at Abbotsholme, and a cat called Twinkle. Did
anyone see her getting the Number One Spot on the Channel Four Game Show, called
Number One? Brother Saul is working still for Credit Suisse at Canary Wharf and
she is in touch with Sara Mousley, the Fielder girls and Gavin Morris.
James
Smith (left 1993) has taken over the
crop maintenance role on the family farm in Lincolnshire. After leaving school
he did a National Diploma at a local college and then went to Australia for 8
months. He came back and did an HND in Agriculture at Harper Adams. His days at
Harper Adams, he tells me, were wall to wall rugby, which peaked with a win over
Durham University in Rome. Old age is setting in with shoulder problems at the
moment but he hopes to be fit again for next season.
Robert
Smith (left 1991) is also busy on the
family farm and has taken charge of the haulage role from his father.
Alastair
Snell (left 1980) In a quick note last
April Alistair informed me that he was working part-time in Albania managing a
'soap opera' project there for the BBC. This was to be followed by some work
back in Romania but he really wants to get away from foreign work and settle
back home. He says he must be getting old! More next year.
Carl
Stephenson (left 1972) got in touch
with me last April to say that after the earthquakes in Seattle, where he lives,
his house was burgled, firebombed and flooded. There was $60,000 worth of damage
altogether. Dealing with the insurance company was worse than the actual
vandalism. Fortunately they didn't take anything of real value and now he gets
to go shopping for a new kitchen!
Ian
Stewart (left 1968) has moved out to
Cannes in Southern France. He recently celebrated his 50th birthday
with a party on a yacht in the harbour.
David
Straker (left 1966) wrote just before
Christmas. He really thinks Brazil is a great place and encourages more people
to give it a try. His son, Lorian, is thoroughly enjoying reading Biology at
University. David has been very busy all year and was looking forward to the
Christmas break. He reckons he would like to earn enough money to be able to
afford a farm in the country. He is learning to shrug off the English 'vice' of
wanting things to happen 'on time'. He is learning to appreciate a much more
relaxed style.
Andrew
Strudwick (left 1993) has been very
busy since leaving Abbotsholme. He started at Salford University and then
transferred to Loughborough to finish his honours degree in Manufacturing
Engineering and Management. He thoroughly enjoyed Loughborough as it was
extremely sporty. He managed to play for the University Rugby and Squash Teams.
He spent time whilst there teaching martial arts to students and in 1998 was
selected to represent England in the British Taekwando Championships in
Birmingham. When he wrote, last June, he was playing rugby for a Canadian side
in Toronto. Squash and martial arts are still very much part of his daily
exercise. After University he started working for a multi-national company
called FKI as a Manufacturing Products engineer. This gave him lots of
opportunity to travel around the world. Placements have included Canada, Czech
Republic (cheap beer), Australia (got there in time for the Olympics) and the
USA. He was hoping to move back to the UK with his Canadian girlfriend, Arlyssa,
in September 2001 and start working for his sister's jewellery company which is
based in Thailand. He has lots of plans for the future. He would love to hear
from old friends from school.
Anant
Suwanapal (left
1968) tell me that until October 2001 he was Deputy Director-General of the
Department of Mineral Resources in Thailand. Since then he has been appointed
Assistant Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry. He has been very busy
developing underground potash mines.
Panthot
Suwanapal (left 1998) is at Imperial
College, London reading for a degree in Electronic and Information Systems. He
is working to a high standard and hope to be able to go on to take a PhD after
his MSc.
Passant
Suwanapal (left 1998) graduated with a
degree in Chemical Engineering last year at Newcastle University, the same
University as his father graduated at 27 years earlier. He is presently doing a
Diploma course in Clean Technology in the Department of Chemical Engineering. He
hope to get onto the MSc course later this year.
John
Tangye (left 1971) I tracked John
through a third party who had mentioned contact in a letter to me. John replied
most fully. I must say that I really think he should take up writing. The
stories he tells are so vivid and numerous and ought perhaps to be told in the
'first person'. I have not got room to put everything in this time. He left
school with few 'O' levels and went to a crammer in North Wales. He came away
with results that could be of use, not that Abbotsholme didn't try its best on
input, the information just had difficulty registering in his mind. His dyslexia
was holding him up and it took until his late twenties to master the cognitive
processes to write 'betterer inglish'. What a shame, he says, there wasn't the
help around in those days that there is now. He knows, his son and step daughter
both suffer. After cramming he rode horses professionally in the Eventing world.
He had a good time but needed qualifications and went into a three year course
in Learning Disability Nursing within the NHS in a Special Hospital. He became
streetwise, learned a lot about the inside world from his patients, hardened
criminals, murderers, psychopaths and so on. He survived and passed his nursing
examinations after which he remained with the NHS working nights and during the
day running the family farm and forestry business whilst he planned his life (as
one does at that age.). Everything was shattered when his father died in 1976.
One of his father's wishes was for him to travel, so travel he did!
He drove from the UK out through Europe and on into the Communist,
Islamic, Buddhist regimes of the roguish world of sin, crime and reality! My
Gosh, he says. How easy Europe was even though he had thought the inner part of
Czechoslovakia, where the poverty showed itself in vast quantities, was rough on
first meeting these conditions. Of course that was nothing. He travelled on
through Central Europe, Hungary, Romania, into Russia, back through Bulgaria and
into Turkey, rounding the southern part of the Black Sea to Istanbul, and on to
the Middle East to meet up with a friend in Isfahan, Iran. He stayed there for a
while to recuperate but alas it was during the first days of the Shah being
deposed so he moved on, seeing many sights both wonderful and violent. Then on
into Afghanistan at the same time as the Russians moved in. Not good news. He
remembers driving along, rounding a corner where he saw a group of hairy locals
with six foot Afghan rifles pointing at his head. Abbotsholme, he confesses, did
not teach him what to do under these circumstances! He sat there SCARED and
PANICKING. Eventually he alighted from the
Toyota Landcruiser, with a packet of cigarettes, as he smoked in those
days. This appeared to be the right thing to do. They were a local bandit tribe
who were defending the road and telling him the Army was further down the road
and if he carried on he would be shot by them. He decided to remain with the
bandits. They looked after him very well, living, breathing the terrorist life
for a few weeks until the coast was clear and he could continue his journey. He
crossed into Pakistan and whilst in Lahore went to a public hanging. Quite an
experience! From Pakistan he crossed into India, a wonderfully diverse country.
He travelled greatly in India before leaving for Nepal and Tibet. On into China
and then back to India via Bhutan and then down into Bangladesh, Burma, Laos,
Vietnam to Thailand and into Singapore via Malaysia to meet up with Michael
Keong. Michael was back in the UK but his mother looked after John for a week.
He returned from the Far East through Asia, Iraq and North Africa and eventually
back to the UK.
He
started work again for the NHS and was then offered a wonderful job in Mumbai
and lived there for a while before returning to marry his first wife. He farmed
and worked in the United Kingdom setting up a holistic eclectic business but his
marriage broke up and he threw himself even more into his NHS work. He took time
off to visit a friend in the Philippines and this is where he met his second
wife, Nadel. She works within the entertainment business, filming and editing.
He helps and is also starting a business in beauty and therapy. At 47 he says he
feels 27 but does things slower and with wisdom. He now lives permanently in
Manila where his stories are full of enchantment yet with a very clear eye for
what is going on around him. More next year!
Ekapon
Tanthana (left 1986) is currently
living in America and reading for a Doctorate in a Dental Surgery degree in
Omaha. He has lived in the States for over twelve years. His first degree was in
Biology with Art as a co-major. Abbotsholme, he says, influenced him
tremendously. It was at school that he took up photography with Mike Ritson. In
fact, photography was the focus of his co-major and has been a great outlet
while going through dental school. He freelances as a photographer but due to
busy schedules limits himself to about four shoots a year. In November 2000 he
received a bronze medallion from AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts). All
goes well though he does plan eventually to return to Thailand.
Julian
Temperley (left 1963) must now be one
of the best dressed cider-makers in Britain. His daughter, Alice, is a London
Fashion Designer. The Sunday Telegraph carried a long article about her in
February. No only has she done the interior design of her home but she also
designs clothes, exclusively it appears, for the pretty well-off. If you want to
look a bit special try www.temperleylondon.com
.
Robert
Thompson (left 1950) has now retired
from the Boulogne-sur-Mer Bar. This does not prevent him from helping people
locally and he is still being asked to advise English speaking people about
legal problems that they have met in France. He and his wife, Sheila, who he
married 47 years ago continue to enjoy the lovely countryside around them. They
do not often visit England but he occasionally crosses the Channel in his
capacity as a Trustee of the Fair Trials Abroad Trust. This remains one of his
specialised interests, and its aim, under Founder and Director Stephen Jacobi,
an English Solicitor, is to provide assistance to those suffering any form of
injustice from the Criminal Courts in countries other than their own. Much of
his work prepared him for this particular interest. Their children are
scattered, one in Indonesia, three in England and one in France. The three
grandchildren live in France, albeit 250 miles away, but within reasonable
reach.
David
Threadgill (left 1980) rather drifted
after he left school until he met his wife to be, Melanie, on a blind date. He
settled and has been in IT since 1989 and is now an independent Project
Management Consultant. They have three children, two boys and a girl aged 11
down to 5; and an array of animals, including, of course, a horse called Gypsy.
Ebbe
Torp (left 1993) graduated from the
University of Kent last June with a BA in Business Administration. He is looking
for a placement in Investment Banking. I have not heard how successful he has
been yet.
Alastair
Torrance (left 1972) enjoyed a good
read of the Year Book when it finally arrived, surface mail. (Ed. About 8 weeks
to OZ - not too bad.) Their youngsters are growing fast. Alastair and his wife,
Alsion, were taking dancing lessons so that they would know their steps when
they are at daughter Katie's Debutante Ball in June 2001. Up-Country New South
Wales still has a lot of good old fashioned values.
John
Trewick (left 1974) has, of course,
been in New Zealand since 1986. He married Karen in 1990 and they have three
children Emma 10, Kate 8 and Ben 6. They live in a 'simple' house on a 15 acre
estate with a dog, a cat, a goat, a dozen sheep, five calves and 200 olive
trees. There are lots of other trees as well. Last year their trees produced
about 15 litres of tasty olive oil but they hope to increase that greatly over
the next few years. He is Clinical Director of the Regional Hospital Emergency
Department which, he says, is a bit of a challenge! They returned to the UK last
Autumn and met up with old friends including Simon Pearson.
James
Urry (left 1993) is working with the
BMW Group. He and his colleagues found the split with Rover very distressing. He
has been involved in setting up a new facility to make a new generation engine.
The new factory, he says, is costing £600 million. He spent 2 years mainly in
Austria, Germany and France signing and buying machines for the various
production lines. He still farms at home, indeed a calf was born at lunchtime on
the day he wrote to me. He is in touch with Gavin Morris.
Gillian
Vernon (left 1974) has found us again
and writes from Lincolnshire. She is well and has had great fun contacting some
of her old friends at school. She is married to an R.A.F Navigator and has three
children. He was away in the Falklands when she made contact.
David
Ward (left 1976) went back to
Swaziland for three years after leaving Abbotsholme and then in 1979 he joined
the Royal Air Force as an Aircraft Technician. He has been based all over
Britain and also in Hong Kong. At present he is a Sergeant based at Waddington
in Lincolnshire where he has been for over three years. His work takes him all
over the place and last year he had appraoching 200 days out of the country in
such diverse locations as Bahrain, Turkey, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Northern Italy and
Washington DC. He was hoping to get to Oman in the latter part of 2001. For
holidays he enjoys travelling! He has served for 22 years and has 4 years left.
He hopes to visit school before too long.
Gerard
Warren (left 1980) is another who has
not been in touch for years. He tells me that he didn't do quite as well as he
had hoped in his 'A' levels and did not therefore go on to study engineering,
but he got a grade A in Art so went to Art College in Derby and then Leeds.
Whilst at Leeds he played with several bands before moving to Sheffield to
pursue music more seriously. He started working at a music and arts centre in
Sheffield called The Leadmill. He never made it to rock stardom but is now a
part owner and a senior manager of The Leadmill, which has evolved into a
prominent live music venue and night club. Eight years ago he got an urge to
improve his education and now holds a Law degree and a Masters in Business
Administration. Somewhere along the way he got married to Clare and they have
two boys, James, aged 7 and William, aged 5. I think another is on the way!
While at The Leadmill he met up with 'The Long Pigs' and got to know Crispin
Hunt quite well. BUT he never realised that he also had been at Abbotsholme and
even more scary that both of them had been House Captains of Riversholme.
Robert
'Bob' Whitmarsh (left 1959) has been
in touch to tell me that he has just retired from a 34 year stint working for
the Natural Environment Research Council as a marine geophysicist, first at the
Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in Surrey and latterly at the recently
opened Southampton Oceanography Centre within the University of Southampton.
Over his long career he has sailed almost all the oceans of the world and has
travelled extensively. He is planning to join one last research cruise in 2003
and will continue his research part-time as an Honorary Visiting Professor. He
now lives in Winchester with his wife Maya, with whom he enjoys long-distance
and mountain walks. He also spends much of his spare time playing music with
local recorder groups. Their two sons are pursuing careers, one as a military
historian/museum curator and the other as an airline pilot.
Robert
Whyte (left 1971) met his wife, Sally
at University and they got married in 1977. Both their daughters are now at
University, Sophie, aged 20, reading Maths at Warwick and Polly, aged 18,
reading Biology and Psychology at Bristol. They live on the edge of the New
Forest in what Robert calls the soft underbelly of the South. After his
Electronics degree at Nottingham electronics and semi-conductors have been his
life. He had 8 years in the Automotive industry and then 8 working for Marconi
in the telecommunications industry. For the last 10 or so years he has worked
for Schlumberger, best known for their oil exploration, designing and building
test equipment. Their systems have tested every Intel Pentium ever built! From
1992 to 1995 they lived in California and found the Californian lifestyle and
the buzz of Silicon Valley difficult to leave behind, but wanted to for the sake
of their children's education. His life is currently split between California
and Europe about 50/50. He is presently Director of Engineering for their
Automatic Test Equipment. Managing people/teams/projects 5000m and 8 hours of
time zone away is interesting but today just about possible with a combination
of e-mail, teleconferences and video conferences. Still they have their escapes
and have a cottage in Snowdonia which they do not get to enough. Recent years
have seen him trekking in Nepal, high altitude walking in the Alps, walking in
the Yosemite Valley in California and, most recently, trekking in the Karakoram.
As a footnote he asks how many remember a certain Willy's Jeep in 1970 that 3 of
them at school bought off Mark Bamford and painted yellow. He still has the
vehicle, re-built, MOT-ed and on the road. Admittedly, he says, it has probably
on magaged 50 miles a year over the last 29 years but it is still a lot of fun,
though it has been returned to its official Olive Green!
Philip
Wilson (left 1988) tells me that he is
in the Army, in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and has been since 1994. He
married Wendy in 1995 and has had to give up playing Rugby because of an injury
to one of his arms. He has been posted abroad a good deal and as of January this
year was promoted to the rank of Major in the 1st Battalion, the Duke
of Wellington's Regiment. Well done Phil!
John
Yates (left 1955) Was at Doveleys 1948
to 1953 as John Potts. After school he had a brief period as a reporter with the
Ashbourne Telegraph and then drifted into the R.A.F. Five years later he went to
teacher training college in Chester and then joined the Birmingham Theatre
School for two years. After one professional engagement he married Rosemary and
went into teaching. When he had had six years as Head of English at a school in
Bedfordshire he returned to Marston Mongomery where he has been ever since. Many
will remember Marston fondly as the principal wet weather running destination!
He worked with great satisfaction throughout the 1970's and 80's at Foston Hall
Junior Detention Centre working with backward and criminal 14-16 year old boys,
mostly from Liverpool. Both he and Rosemary are now retired. He has spent much
time learning and performing large sections of the Bible. He also reads a lot,
writes, cycles and sings in a choir.
Chi-Kong
Yeung (left 1990)
wrote to me last June to say that he enjoyed his research work
greatly but found Dorset pretty boring. (Sorry, Dorseteers). Well, the move has
now come and he is back in Hong Kong. He is working as a research associate at
the Hong Kong Eye Hospital. It is one of the best clinics for the eye in
Asia. It is actually part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong but not
on the main campus. He had originally planned to go to the States and had job
offers there. But the events of September 11th and the fact that his
girlfriend lived in Hong Kong made him decide to go East rather than West. He is
actually researching the understanding and application of TCM (Traditional
Chinese Medicine) with emphasis on the eye. It all sounds very complicated to me
but he enjoys all the research challenges enormously.
Martin
York (left 1987) I am informed that
Martin was married in September 2001 in America. Younger brother, Stephen,
managed to get to the wedding despite the great difficulties in flight travel at
the time.