Ria Manvatkar
GEOFFREY PIDGEON
AN INTERVIEW WITH 30
Last May, I had the pleasure of interviewing Geoffrey Pidgeon, an Old Cat who was a student at Caterham from 1936 to 1940 and went on to work for MI6 during WW2. We could not know at the time that this would be Geoffrey’s last interview for the magazine as he very sadly passed away in August. This makes the interview extremely valuable and poignant for the whole ‘Cat Among the Pigeons’ team, as well as the wider school community. Geoffrey’s legacy at Caterham is indelible in the form of the Geoffrey Pidgeon Prize for Literature and this magazine, which takes both its title and its inspiration from him. In our interview we discussed the subject of creativity and its relevance to young people today. He also reflected on his career, in particular his role in MI6, and later the experience of working in his family’s business. Finally, he fondly expressed what he was most proud of in his life – or what is wrong with the word proud! This was a wonderful experience and I feel incredibly grateful that I was able to meet Geoffrey, a man who lived an extraordinary life.
