OC Edition 2020
The Cliftonian
Together, we are Clifton
Forthcoming Events 2021/22
The next two years, pandemic permitting, will see two anniversaries commemorating milestones in the College’s history. In 2021, we shall be recognising the 80th anniversary of the College’s move to Bude which will evoke many memories for that dwindling band of OCs who had to up sticks and move West away from Bristol air raids. 2022 will see the 100th anniversary of the official opening of Mem Arch. In both cases let us hope that these are marked in some way.
Contents Editorial
Sport
Page 1 .....................................
Page 21—22 .......................
Secretary’s Letter Page 2—3 ..............................
Events Page 23—24 ......................
Business
Clifton Against Covid
Page 4—5
Page 25
..............................
Clifton and the Blitz Page 6—8 ..............................
Musical Portraits Page 9—14 .............................
JB Chapman Page 15 ....................................
From Belfry to Basement Page 16—17 ..........................
Three Men in a Boat Page 18—20 ........................
Percival Library: 150 Anniversary Page 49—50 ......................
The Guthrie Memorial Chapel Page 51 .................................
.................................
Book Reviews
Last Things Page 52 ................................
Page 26—34 .......................
AGM
James Partridge A Tribute
Page 53 ................................
Page 27—28 .......................
Accounts
Obituaries 35—45 ....................................
OC Lodge Page 46 .................................
Letters Page 47—48 ......................
Page 54—55 .....................
Tiers of Donors Page 56 ................................
OC Branches and Clubs Page 57 ................................
Editorial is doubly grateful, therefore, to those OCs who have sent in contributions because there are some thin sections – OC Sport being an obvious one – and hopes that the readership still enjoys this year’s offering.
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. This can certainly be applied to the current year where we have all witnessed some pretty dire events along with some pretty inspiring ones; humanity in a nutshell perhaps. COVID19 has affected everyone to a greater and lesser degree. In 1919, the Spanish ‘flu pandemic (more accurately it ought to be known as the American ‘flu pandemic, which really is ironic given the stance taken by the present POTUS) killed millions and yet left Clifton relatively unaffected. The Cliftonian of the time attributed this to the regular spraying of disinfectant round the School although, in hindsight, it is doubtful whether this really had any real effect. A hundred years later and the contrast couldn’t be greater. The effect on the School has been enormous and one suspects that, in common with much else in the UK, it will be some time before Clifton gets back to some sort of normality following the lockdown and its consequences. On the most parochial of levels, this edition has been affected by the lockdown in the sense that the Editor has had to try and produce this from home with limited technology; he
The financial consequences of all of this, allied to the hostile attitude of all political parties towards the independent schools sector, does not bode well for the future and the College is going to face some stiff challenges over the next year or so. All the more welcome, then, was the offer of £500k from an anonymous OC to be matched by other donations to support Clifton in these difficult times. This gift leads one on to the Pythonesque question, “Well, what has the OC Society ever done for us?” The answer, of course, is “Quite a lot, actually.” Since its foundation, the OC Society has poured considerable sums into supporting College projects, scholarships and bursaries for OC parents. In addition, the purchase of BB was an OC initiative, as was the financial support given to the school during the 1990s to help it extricate itself from an unsatisfactory relationship with Clerical Medical over the shared use of BB, as well as the considerable help it gave to support the College’s drive to gets its finances back into shape.
give the school huge support and it has been a privilege to work over the past thirteen years or so with Tom Gover, Simon Reece, Jo Greenbury, Jeremy Pickles, Lucy Nash and Laura Griffiths, and I shall miss being a small part of this team. This sounds like a farewell, and it is. For a variety of reasons this really will be my last magazine, bringing a connection with Clifton that has lasted over a quarter of a century. It is time for someone else to pick up the torch (very Newbolt) and take the magazine in a new direction. Clifton is a unique place and, in spite of the challenges it faces, will, I am sure, continue to flourish especially if it stays true to its founding principles of giving a liberal education to all underpinned by a strong sense of duty and what is good; never has this been needed more than today; Spiritus intus alit indeed. It goes without saying that I wish it, and the OC Society the best of fortune for the future. Bob Acheson
Yet it seems to me that this is not always appreciated. Today’s OC employees, working in an unsatisfactory and cramped office and operating on a shoestring in terms of staffing when compared to the alumni associations of comparable Rugby Group schools, continue to create enormous goodwill and continue to
OC Magazine 2020 1
Secretary’s Letter
Brexit and Coronavirus The 2019—2020 academic year has been dominated by two stories, allowing little room for any other news to emerge into the light of day. The Brexit shenanigans seemed pervasive at the time, though subsequent events have put that assessment into perspective. The effect of Covid 19 on individual lives and the myriad communities and organizations within society has been unprecedented, at least in my lifetime [born 1963]. It’s hard to see beyond the overwhelming impact the virus has had on us all and the various networks in which we are embedded. Tragedy, sadness, irritations, frustrations, adaptations, new priorities and ambitions and anxieties: all these and many more have impacted our lives in a very intense way, which make even the Brexit divide seem rather mundane. The consequences for the OC Society seem equally trivial in many respects. It’s been ‘a funny old year’, of course, ‘a game of two halves’, but there are still many OC matters which are noteworthy and clearly merit a permanent record in this Magazine. Furthermore, even as we try to imagine how the ‘new normal’ will be framed,
2 OC Magazine 2020
we must not cancel the past. The Society and its members have, in fact, had an extremely busy 12 months, although the context in which we have all been living, at least since March, was unimaginable when the 2019 Magazine landed on your doormats last October.
Looking back Data is not a very useful resource when looking back at the way in which this year has unfolded. It is far more instructive to recall a sequence of events and news items that demonstrate the continuing vibrancy and relevance of the Society. The annual cycle had been progressing with admirable smoothness and featured some splendid occasions, as reported elsewhere. Who would have guessed that an extremely convivial Oxford Dinner at Vincent’s Club in February would be the last ‘live’ OC event of the year? As the old Yiddish saying goes, ‘When man makes plans, God laughs’. Nonetheless, methodical progress has been maintained on the fundraising side of the Society’s operations. Last summer’s very successful telephone campaign was followed by a low key attempt to raise a few quid via the sale
of an attractive print of the College, the original copper plate having come into our possession through a random sequence of events. We still have plenty in stock, so don’t be shy about contacting the office if you are interested in purchasing a copy! Proceeds from such sales obviously trickle into the Endowment Fund, which began the calendar year with a value of almost £5 million, lost 10% in March/April, and has recovered considerably since then, to almost £4.8m on June 30th. Smith and Williamson, the fund managers, must take most of the credit for this, though the Finance Committee has also played its part in scrutinizing their approach. In addition, we have agreed an ‘Ethical Investment Policy’ with S&W, meaning that the bounce back has not been fuelled by guns, tobacco and the like! We have also managed to sustain our traditional levels of fee support, in terms of scholarships and bursaries. Additionally, we have managed to mount a superb Honours’ Board on the way up to the Percival Library, listing the recipients of the various named scholarships over the last 20 years or so. While lockdown has curtailed so many activities, it could not prevent Jeremy Pickles from orchestrating a very well supported campaign among OCs to finance the manufacture of PPE by volunteers on the school campus. This spontaneous outbreak of charitable work reflected well on the wider College community, and was welcomed with open arms by the local recipients of our manufacturing endeavours. I am extremely grateful to Jeremy for all the work he does with OCs, amongst whom he is quite rightly very popular, especially as he is so often the deliverer of fizz! He has now entered the final year of his stint as the school’s Director of Development, and he will implement an extended handover to his successor, John Rolfe, who began work in June. John arrives with 30 years of fundraising experience in the university and school sectors, most recently a long and successful stint at Shrewsbury School, and I am sure he will build many fruitful relationships with a wide
range of OCs. I should conclude these remarks about charity matters by placing on record the decision of the Executive Committee to make £100,000 of the Society’s reserves [i.e. not funds from the CCEF] available to the school in 2020—2021, to help support pupils in Years 11 and 13 to complete the relevant stage of their education at Clifton, in cases of need caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It was unanimously agreed that this was a worthy initiative, very much in keeping with OCS values, and the offer was warmly welcomed by the Head Master. We have tried to embrace one or two opportunities presented by the shift of so many interactions to the online environment. The May Reunion, the live version of which was postponed to 2021, moved into the virtual world, and was much enjoyed by those who engaged with what Lucy managed to organize; and the June Careers Fair for Sixth Formers went ahead on Zoom. This event relies on the generosity of many OCs, the administrative skills of Emma Kenyon [Head of Careers] and the willingness of pupils to participate. In the unusual circumstances prevailing at the time, it was a great success, much appreciated by those Cliftonians who entered into the spirit of the occasion. During the heady days of lockdown, we also conducted a Data Capture exercise, to which 42% of you replied. This was a pleasingly high rate of response, and we have gathered some extremely useful information for the future.
arrangements for delivering the kind of programme that the membership should rightly expect. It is reasonable to anticipate that there will be a dose of ‘the virtual’ about what we offer, though I assume that this will be in cases where ‘the real’ is plainly out of the question. It would be nice to think that some live events will happen before the end of 2020, and that in the first half of 2021 we can increase their frequency. It would be similarly gratifying to get some sporting activity back in the calendar in the New Year. 2021 sees two significant anniversaries, both of which will hopefully be marked in a suitable manner. It is the 100th birthday of the CCEF, which has done so much for the school and Cliftonians by its prudent distribution of donated funds; and February 11th is the 80th anniversary of the school opening in Bude, following the bombing of Bristol in 1940_ definitely a cause for celebration and reminiscence. A less welcome milestone will arrive in the autumn, when this Magazine will be published without Bob Acheson as Editor. Bob has done a long, distinguished stretch as Editor, and his Magazines and supplements have been very much appreciated and enjoyed, admired even! He will be an extremely
tough act to follow, and at the time of writing it is still unclear how we will organize things following his departure. The Executive will be under pressure to find the right solution before Christmas, but we thank Bob for his wonderful contribution and hope his handicap benefits from his retirement! The final point of note is that we will attempt to revivify the ‘Careers Hub’ on the website, aided by the data capture responses. This is an essential aspect of the work of the Society, and it has been all too easy to allow it to languish in the shadows - it needs to be on the ‘front burner’!
….and finally It feels like I haven’t seen my colleagues in the office for many months, except on Zoom, but it is obviously the case that, as well as those already mentioned, we could not function without the invaluable input of Vicky Halliwell [website], Charles Knighton [archives], Sandie Rich [bookkeeping], Laura Griffiths [currently on maternity leave] and Jo Sira [CCDT admin]; and, most indispensable of all, Lucy Nash. I am indebted to them all. Jo Greenbury
Finally, and again for the record, it was a pleasure to see Stephen Zimmerman [PH 1967] installed as President of Council at the turn of the year. I don’t suppose the question of how the school would respond in the event of a global pandemic came up in the discussions leading to his appointment!
On the horizon Needless to say, I hesitate to make too many predictions about how the Society will function in 2020—2021. However, we do need to make The College in 1886, a snip at just £50! Please contact the office for further information.
OC Magazine 2020 3
Business Section So, what does it take to change your mind?
Campaigners have been lobbying for many years about the threat of climate change and the need to adapt our lifestyles. It would be impossible to argue that we have done enough. News began to surface in November 2019 about a previously unknown and highly contagious strand of an existing virus and look what’s happened… There are a great number of words and terms that have become common language in our households such as; unprecedented (one of the more annoying), herd immunity, lock down, track & trace, the R-rate, social distancing, self-quarantine and shielding to name but a few. At a macro level it doesn’t look good. At the time of writing, official figures showed Britain’s economy shrank by a record 20.4% in April 2020 – putting the country on course for the worst recession in more than three centuries. According to the World Bank, the global economy is expected to shrink by about 5.2%, making it one of the four most severe downturns in 150 years. At a micro level, when this article appears, we will be a matter of weeks
4 OC Magazine 2020
away from the end of the furlough scheme in the UK and companies will be assessing the physical and financial ability to “re-employ” their staff and have them return to work. Redundancies and unemployment are expected to rise.
Evidence of true courage in an individual or team is seen when they drive and create the enthusiasm to achieve, whilst drawing on aspects of their own expertise whilst acknowledging their limitations and seeking input from others.
What is really happening in the minds of the work force of today and what is changing?
2.
The much publicised risk to life (either your own or of a loved one) and the threats of widespread redundancy against the backdrop of either working from home or living in furlough have forced us to re-assess and evaluate ourselves and those around us. Within the privacy of their own homes, I have spent the past few months engaging in open and honest conversations with senior business executives about their roles within business and the wider society. It has become evident to me that a shift is taking place.
Leadership There are four aspects of leadership in the context of business that are worthy of note: 1.
Courage – an awareness of our own limitations and the courage to lead in environments in which we are unfamiliar.
For many at the top, they’ve got there because they were good at what they did before. Now they are challenged by something entirely different.
Collaboration – an increased awareness, need and desire to engage with others to fulfil tasks. The awareness arises from a sense of independence and isolation; the need because of specific knowledge or skill sets that exist elsewhere in the company; the desire because of our intrinsic need for human interaction. What is also notable is the reduction of political posturing interpersonal friction that was more evident in a busy, physical and hierarchical structure.
Which brings me to the next point. 3.
Empowerment - The hierarchical pyramid that exists within many companies has flattened and broadened and complexity thereby simplified. CEOs are conducting more virtual “town halls” and staff
4.
Debate - In the absence of having all the answers, senior leadership teams are asking for a input and ideas, opening up specific issues for debate and amongst us the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions on a video call is less daunting
Using the “Chat” facility or electronically raising your hand has given a voice to the otherwise silent majority.
Operating models The wholesale move to remote working has forced large swathes of the working population to quickly learn and master the art and science of video conferencing as a short- term fix to social distancing in the workplace. But as with roads, rail and airports once the infrastructure is built, it is no surprise that we will come to be habitual users of it. The term “working from home” has evolved to “remote working” and by the subtle removal of the key word “home” it is evident that the employee
emphasis is now much more on the result. This is seen most notably in the end of month tables, charts and spreadsheets and it is a difficult place in which to hide.
Purpose It appears that as markets come and go, share prices rise and fall and bonuses grow and shrink, our need for a sense of purpose in what we do moves rapidly in and out of focus.
It is thought and hoped by some, that many of the government interventions that will increasingly come into force to support businesses will have strings attached; some of them relating to sustainability. So, in answer to the question “What does it take to change your mind?” I fear the answer lies in our deep-rooted instinct to focus on the short-term fear of poor health and loss of wealth. However, in modern society and the widespread access to cloud-based technology we can
Climate change and the campaigners referred to previously were beginning to have a material impact on our sense of purpose with many companies looking to become carbon neutral, BCorp qualified and long term sustainable. At the moment, there appears to be is becoming increasingly empowered to decide their place of work irrespective of their contractual obligations or the long term effectiveness of doing so. Whatever government guidelines say, working from a location other than the physical office will become a very important aspect of the dynamics of the workplace and how we engage with each other and monitor our respective performance.
Performance Performance is more critical than ever before; not just to protect or improve the results of your company. Where once comfort was gained by being seen to do your job and looking busy, and likewise seeing others do theirs, the
parallel mindsets prevailing at two levels and time frames: the personal & the corporate level and the during and after the widespread impacts of COVID 19 (the former expected to run through to 2022—3 and the latter thereafter). At the moment, there is a very shortterm focus on the survival of many companies across the sectors coupled with in many instances, a long-term review of the purpose of that particular company. At the same time, individuals are concerned with their short-term employment security whilst also considering their own sense of selfworth and purpose and those of their employer. These two dimensions are not necessarily good bedfellows and significant changes are likely.
Walter B Cannon
apply BOTH aspects of American neurologist and physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon’s ‘Flight or Fight’ theory and seek the security and protection of our own home whilst we work to rebuild our livelihoods for the future. James Isaacs
OC Magazine 2020 5
“Come, German Bombs”
Clifton and The Bristol Blitz of 1940
Russell Barratt (WiH 1938-1943) recently wrote to the OC Office to remind us all that this year sees the 80th anniversary of the air raid on Bristol which “caused serious damage to school property and gave those of us in Wiseman’s air raid shelter a particularly narrow squeak.” He is right, of course, that this should be marked although much of what follows is based on Derek Winterbottom’s excellent accounts in Clifton after Percival and Dynasty. For those who have not read these, however, the following may be of some passing interest.
because it not only boasted an important harbour, easily tracked by aircraft simply by flying up the Avon from Avonmouth, but also because Filton was home to the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The company had pioneered construction during
The Bristol F2
the First World War of the Bristol F2 and the monoplane scouting aircraft. This contribution towards a war effort was to carry on into the Second World War with the construction of the Bristol Beaufighter, a multi-role aircraft that was used extensively by the RAF and
In contrast to the panic aroused in the First World War over the possibility of Zeppelin raids, which, in hindsight, were never likely to occur since Bristol was beyond the range of such machines, it was accepted that Bristol would always be a target for German bombing
For Clifton, the early months of the war seemed a distant affair, the reaction of one Polack’s pupil at that time being, perhaps, typical: We have been strangely unaffected by the war. Not that we ignore it, but whereas other schools have been uprooted and transplanted in great discomfort onto other schools or into vast country houses…all we have seen of that sort of thing was one solitary barrage balloon which invaded the Close for about a week. Black-outs were imposed which, if inconvenient, at least led to a revival of activities such as chess and bridge. All changed radically with the fall of France in May 1940 which gave the Luftwaffe bases from which air attacks could easily be launched on England. Derek Winterbottom wrote
The Bristol Beaufighter
6 OC Magazine 2020
the USAAF as a night-fighter, a ground attack aircraft and a torpedo bomber.
Hallward was acutely aware of the risk to boys because existing airraid shelters consisted only of the basements in boarding houses and these were clearly inadequate. Early in June Hallward and Imlay drove around seaside resorts in North Cornwall and Devon looking for suitable accommodation should evacuation become necessary, but the Board of Education advised against a move at this stage. Clifton’s Head Master was, indeed, prescient since the first bombs fell on Bristol on 24 June within two miles of the school resulting in Hallward sending the school home early, much to the chagrin of the Chairman of Governors whose personal response from his home in London to bombing was to stand outside and shake his stick at the offending aircraft. When the school reassembled in September 1940 the Battle of Britain had been raging for some months and Hitler was forced to change tactics and switch the German air effort towards heavy bombing raids on industrial targets and on civilians. On 24 November the Bristol “Blitz” began and it lasted until April 1941, during which there were six major raids and seventy-seven in all. A total of nearly a thousand high-explosive bombs were dropped along with many more incendiaries. There were over three thousand casualties, nearly half of which were fatal, and some two hundred thousand buildings destroyed or damaged. As the Lord Mayor later recalled The City of Churches had in one night become the city of ruins. During the summer, Clifton had spent some £5000 on external brick-built air-raid shelters which, although they would not have survived a direct hit, in the end were to prove vital as far as the safety of pupils was concerned. For several weeks the boys slept in these shelters with mixed feelings in that if an Air-Raid warning went on for over forty minutes, the boys were allowed to get up an hour later the
following morning thereby missing the first two lessons of the day. The reality of the dangers of air-raids finally came home to Clifton on 2 December, as a contributor to Polack’s House Magazine recorded:
What had happened was that a large bomb had landed on New Field and had missed the Polack’s shelter by some twenty yards. A smaller bomb had nearly hit Wiseman’s itself, whilst another had landed in The Avenue opposite Matthew’s house, leaving a gap which was still visible next to Wethered
We had retired to the shelters having received the usual signs of a “blitz” in Bristol, and were merrily passing the time; some were talking, others were playing bridge (allowed only in the shelter), some were even preparing for Certificate “A” which was to have been held the following day, when suddenly the lights went out and simultaneously there was the impression of a loud report – no-one has yet been found who can swear he heard an actual bang – the outside door of the shelter blew in, one of the inside doors split open and narrowly missed the head of one member of the House, the roof seemed to curve inwards and then spring back again like an elastic band which has been stretched and released and there was a strong acrid smell.
OC Magazine 2020 7
House until the College sold it for housing in the 1990s. Incendiaries had also fallen on the Pre Hall and the Masters’ Common Room but these were quickly dealt with. It is little wonder that Russell Barratt remembers the evening so vividly since the Wiseman’s shelter was even closer to the explosion. Guy Hatch, another Wiseman’s boy, later left a memoir of the raid, Clifton in
1940, which is lodged in the College Archives. He recalled that All of a sudden one of the House Vths re-appeared round the blast wall close to my end of the shelter. He had evidently heard the sound of a Thing to Come. His headlong arrival was instantly followed by a yellow flash and a quantity of grey smoke, which smelt very
operational, accompanied by a loud explosion which I can only describe as containing a kind of tinny element of noise within it. This dramatic and somewhat unwelcome development by a momentary silence, broken by the housemaster’s reassuring Scottish voice bellowing – he seldom spoke quietly anyway – “We’re all here, we’re all here.” As indeed we were. Reading back through the eyewitness accounts, and looking at the damage caused by these raids (Wiseman’s and Polack’s became uninhabitable), it is extraordinary that there were no casualties or deaths and both Hallward and Imlay must be given credit for this. However, for Hallward this was the final straw and, despite continued opposition from the then Chairman of Council, he decreed that boarders should go home and that, for the time being, Clifton should operate as a day school until Council members could agree on whether to evacuate or not. This they duly did on 7 December and thus, thanks to the efforts of Sir Robert Waley-Cohen who even threatened to involve Churchill in the affair, the school moved to Bude in January 1941. But that, as they say, is another story. RJA
8 OC Magazine 2020
Musical Portraits Willcocks and Monty
Portrait of David Willcocks
This memoir is about musicians I have met and worked with, and their influence on my musical life. It was written during the coronavirus lockdown; I was glad to remember these fine musicians at this anxious time. My first portrait is David Willcocks. He taught me the piano when I was a boy at King's Choir School in Cambridge in 1946/7. He had recently been demobbed after a brilliant military career as an Intelligence Officer in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. David taught me basic classics by Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, and he also
taught me how to practise _ I still use his scales and arpeggio exercises today. He was kind but strict: rhythm had to be correct, notes had to be right, good fingering had to be written in the score. He prepared me (successfully) for the Clifton music scholarship exam. He also encouraged my early oboe playing efforts. He gave me a secure foundation on which to build later. One day he brought a letter to the lesson. 'This is from the army', he said. 'They are offering me a permanent commission. They say I'll be a general soon. What do you think I should do?'
'It would be great to be a general. Say yes', I replied. David smiled but did not take my advice. I kept in touch with David while at Clifton, visiting him in Salisbury, when he was organist and Director of Music there. Our meetings were fun; he had a waspish sense of humour. My next musical encounter with him came when I was a Cambridge undergraduate and he was at Worcester. He invited me to play the oboe in a Three Choirs performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion. (The other oboe was Leon Goossens. It felt like playing cricket with
Bradman). I'll never forget the rehearsal. Every minute was planned. Every difficult entry, every change of tempo, every solo was thoroughly rehearsed. Intonation in the chorus was checked: major thirds and leading notes had to be bright: the choir's pitch never sagged, as it so often does with amateur choirs. David's disciplined military skills helped him to achieve musical aims, but he also encouraged the orchestra to play with passion. Tempos were spacious, phrasing was expressive (especially Goossens' oboe solos). The result of all this was a superlative performance, full of life. I had witnessed a master choir trainer and conductor at work. One of my most treasured CDs is a recording of Byrd's three masses, sung by King's Choir and conducted by David Willcocks. He loved this sublime music. The performance is wonderful, particularly the four part Agnus Dei. The CD is a happy reminder of a great musician, soldier and teacher. Readers wishing to know more about this extraordinary man may like to read A Life in Music. Conversations with Sir David Willcocks and Friends (OUP). The book also has an excellent chapter about Douglas Fox, David's teacher at Clifton _ and mine.
Leon Goossens
OC Magazine 2020 9 Kings Choir School
Douglas Fox
Douglas Fox, one-armed Director of Music at Clifton, taught me the piano from 1947 to 1952. He was the most important musical influence of my life, a very great teacher and musician. A key aspect of his teaching was choosing first- rate repertoire to study that fitted the growing technical ability and the developing maturity of his pupils. From the age of 13 to 18 I started on Brahms' Variations on a theme by Schumann and Mendelssohn's Serious Variations, then Beethoven's First Piano Sonata and Bach Preludes and Fugues, then a Brahms Ballade, then Schubert's B flat sonata and Preludes by Chopin and Debussy culminating in Beethoven's op 109 and 110 sonatas. He introduced me to the classical tradition of Western music. Like David Willcocks, Fox was a strict and disciplined teacher. You had to practise and you had to get it right. He was also inspiring. He wanted you to understand the spiritual power of late Beethoven and the emotional depth of Schubert. He would try to demonstrate what he meant with his left hand. Those lessons are still vivid in my memory seventy years later. Our paths crossed again five years later, in 1957. Fox had retired from Clifton and was now the Cambridge University Organist at Great St Mary's. I was a music student at King's. I was frustrated by the oldfashioned Music Faculty
syllabus. I wanted to study Janacek, Schonberg and Webern. He loved the lyricism and imagination of Janacek's Overgrown Path, he enjoyed the percussive rhythms of the Bartok piano sonata, he even warmed to the Webern op 29 Variations, suggesting improved phrasing to bring this music to life. I was immensely grateful to Fox. He respected my musical adventures and gave me renewed self-confidence. He also revealed a side to his musical tastes little in evidence at Clifton - a serious interest in and enthusiasm for new music, and perform the
Bradfield School Auditorium
music of our own time. Fox came to the Music School and listened to me playing Bartok, Stravinsky, Douglas Fox loved Greek plays, a little-known side of his life. He would drive to Bradfield School, where he had taught before coming to Clifton, in order to enjoy the Greek plays that they performed there. I joined him twice; I had little idea at the time of the significance of these plays. It was only many years later, trying to understand Schubert's songs based on the Orestes trilogy of Aeschylus, that I came to appreciate the vital place these dramas have in the human story: how society started to deal with violence and cycles of revenge, atonement and the role of public trials and voting in creating systems of justice. Antigone and Oedipus Rex deal with equally fundamental issues. I think it
is the way these great dramas confront fundamental human issues that so appealed to Dr Fox, along with their poetry and drama. The culture of Ancient Greece and the music of Bach and Beethoven were the core of Douglas Fox's spiritual life. There was one topic where I disagreed with Fox: the music of Mozart. Fox used to describe his music as “tinkly”. I have always loved Mozart's music: the exuberance of the piano concertos, the grandeur of the late symphonies, the wonderful tunes, the flawless craftsmanship, the wit and drama of the operas, the emotional power, the infinite sadness of works like the G minor string quintet. How could Fox not love this galaxy of treasures? Mozart used music to accompany people hiding behind chairs, jumping out of windows, girls dressing as boys dressing as girls, wicked aristocrats seducing pretty young girls, birdcatchers and magic flutes. All this does not fit easily with Aeschylus, Sophocles, Bach and Beethoven. I think this is why Fox did not rate Mozart's music as highly as Bach's. It may also throw light on Fox's spiritual universe. Learning to play the oboe was a key part of my musical development at Clifton. Captain Palmer was a fine
teacher. He taught me the fundamentals: scales and arpeggios to develop technique (as with the piano)_ breathing exercised for breath control, good tone and accurate intonation _ managing vibrato _ how to listen. He also gave me experience in ensemble playing in the military band. All this gave my oboe playing a firm foundation. In 1950 I joined the National Youth Orchestra. The senior wood wind coach was Frederick Thurston, the leading clarinet player of the day. He treated us like army recruits, and we loved it. Correct rhythm: dum dum duddeledoo - dum dum buddeledoo... Correct intonation: he would build up chords, starting with the bassoons and going up to the piccolo. Every player had to adjust his or her intonation until the chord was perfect. Then the same drill with a new chord, and so on. Then he would check dynamics: how to play really quietly in a group, then how to play really loud but still with a beautiful sound. Finally, how to play a solo expressively and with confidence: he would demonstrate with his own exquisite tone and phrasing. If Captain Palmer laid secure foundations: Frederick Thurston gave us polish and experience.
Great St Mary’s
10 OC Magazine 2020
I met Vaughan Williams in 1951. David Willcocks was running the Three Choirs Festival at Worcester. He needed someone to serve the drinks at a postconcert party with Vaughan Williams, who was conducting his Wasps overture at the concert. I got the job. (I was there with Douglas Fox, who played Ravel's concerto for the left hand.) At the party, Vaughan Williams was sitting on a large sofa, with pretty girls perched on the sides round him. I gave
Frederick Thurston
him a glass of red wine, which he enjoyed. He had a big smile: he radiated good will. He had warm words of praise for Dr Fox and his magnificent playing of the Ravel concerto. He thanked David for his fine conducting, his efficient organisation _ and the splendid party. He thanked me for the wine. After the thanks and praise, the conversation turned to the music he was writing at the time: the
conversion of music he had written for the Scott of the Antarctic film into his seventh symphony. He viewed the Scott story as a universal spiritual journey, a new Pilgrim's Progress. This vision shines through in the symphony, one of his most powerful and original, with its elemental grandeur, vivid playful whales and penguins, the colossal climax of motionless torrents and silent cataracts in the ice, and the quiet desolation of the finale. This is music on the grandest scale, with a confidence and strength rarely heard in music of our time. He also wrote much gentler music, such as the beautiful Six Studies in English Folk Song for cello and piano, which I love to pay with cellist friends. When I listen to and play VW's music today, which is often, I remember that great and kind man at the party, who reconnected English music to its roots in folk music and Tudor polyphony, and wrote some of the greatest and bestloved music of our time. It was an enormous privilege to meet him. In early 1955 I met two composers whose music later became an important part of my life: Sir Arthur Bliss and Edmund Rubbra. I had recently started at Cambridge after completing Military Service. At that time my father was planning a series of concerts devoted to music by living English composers; he invited the composers to tea in our house to discuss details. I was on the Christmas vacation from Cambridge. When Sir
Arthur Bliss arrived, I saw a tall man with a ramrod straight back, a confident smile, and an air of command. He looked like what he had been in the First World War, an officer in the Grenadier Guards. He was very genial. It was easy to see this alpha male figure writing the brilliant ballet scores: Checkmate and Miracle in the Gorbals — and the equally
especially when playing the very beautiful and imaginative piano part of the American Poems song cycle, which I have performed a lot, invariably to an appreciative audience. Bliss was a fine composer: it is a pity his music is not played more often today. Edmund Rubbra was quite different. A Catholic convert, he sat quietly in an armchair, a rosary in his hands.
Sir Aurthur Bliss
brilliant Colour Symphony. But Bliss also wrote quite different kinds of music: the elegiac Pastorale for clarinet, a playful folk-inspired piano quartet, the thoughtful gentle song cycle: Seven American Poems. These are not the work of a Guards Officer, they are the work of a poet. I ponder this mystery to this day. How could one man write such different kinds of music? Perhaps the ramrod back was a kind of armour, a protective front covering a much gentler person underneath? Who knows? I think about this mystery
He talked softly. But his music is not 'soft'. It is strong and intense, often built on magisterial counterpoint, with deep 'meditation' passages. I have performed his cello sonata and piano trio quite frequently in recent years. Everyone— players and audiences — feels that these are major, powerful works, 'real music'. Rubbra's music should be heard more often today. I met Benjamin Britten in Cambridge in 1956. Britten and Pears had sent most of the day at King's with EM Forster, working on revisions to Billy Budd. A cellist friend from our time in the National Youth Orchestra, Humphrey Maud, knew Britten well. He invited me to have tea with Britten and Pears after they had completed their work with Forster. I remember a well-dressed and courteous man with a beautiful speaking voice.
Vaughan Williams
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Edmund Rubra
The conversation started with the music we were working on. Humphrey was rehearsing the Schubert C major twocello quintet - full marks. I was working on Janacek's Diary of a Man who Vanished. Britten was curious and interested, but did not know this amazing song cycle. I was also practising Britten's Metamorphosen for solo oboe. Britten was eloquent about the need to play it on a boat, so that the sound was reflected off water. He also spoke about the construction of the music, using themes that suited the oboe and could be extended through sequences of striking harmonies (a fascinating insight into his methods of composition). But the main topic of conversation was Britten's youthful experience writing music for the Post Office. He set Auden's Night Mail poem to music when he was about the same age as Humphrey and me at that time. He wondered whether we would do something similar. (No, alas). Today, when I play Britten's Six Holderlin Fragments, or Winter Words, or his brilliant Purcell 'realisations', or arias from Billy Budd, I remember that
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courteous and charming man who was also a meticulous craftsman and a genius. The Holderlin songs, especially, tell me of Britten's craftsman's skill as a composer: the expressive use of canon and
ground bass, the imaginative harmonic sequences — musical technique at the service of expressive musical ends. When I play Schubert songs, I try to emulate Britten's superlative, deeply
Benjamin Britten
musical accompanying. His music, his dedication, his personality and his craftsman's skills inspire me to this day.
staying with me for a few days. He enjoyed playing with my baby children: he spent the evenings copying Persian poetry into a little book, practising Farsi script. He then went on a bus trip round Iran, enjoying the glorious Islamic architecture of Shiraz, Yazd and Isfahan, and spending the evenings copying more Hafez and Rumi poems into his little book. After a month of this, Colin returned to England, divorced his wife, and married his au pair girl. They lived happily ever after.
For much of my time at Cambridge, I was Secretary of the University Chamber Music Society. One of my duties was to look after the chamber music coach who came up from London to work with us: Colin Davis. He was then a free-lance clarinetist and conductor of the Chelsea Opera Group, married to the well-known singer, April Cantelo. A group of us was struggling with Janacek's Wind Sextet Mladi (Youth). Nobody knew anything about Janacek's music then, but Colin quickly got the measure of Mladi: its passionate lyricism, how the music evokes Janacek's childhood with wit and tenderness, its Moravian idiom. He made us listen to each other, he found an ideal tempo for each movement, he wanted a wide dynamic range (really soft playing as well as brilliant loud playing). We worked on the difficult bits (there are many). The music gradually entered our bloodstream; we ended up giving convincing performances. The same thing happened with Mozart's piano and wind quintet. Colin had a special affinity with Mozart's music: his coaching helped to bring this masterpiece to wonderful life. Colin Davis was a great coach. But he was helped by some outstanding student wind players. Our bassoonist was Stanley Sadie, later a leading scholar and editor of the Grove Dictionary of Music. We had two excellent horn players. One was Guy Wolfenden, later Music Director and Composer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The other was Robin Guthrie, when on holiday from Clifton, where he was Head Boy at the
Colin Davis
time (his father was Senior Tutor at Peterhouse, Professor of Ancient Greek Philosophy, and author of 'The Greeks and their Gods'). We were a strong team. Today, whenever I play chamber music, I try to answer the questions Colin used to ask: 'what is this music about? Is it happy or sad, fast or slow? Who has the tune? Where is the music going? Listen to each other...' The results are much improved performances and much happier players. Colin and his coaching continue to help bring chamber music to life.
Eight years later our paths crossed again. I was with the British Council in Tehran, married with two baby daughters. Colin came to stay. He was going through a difficult and unhappy time. Although his professional conducting career was flourishing, his domestic life was in disarray. He had fallen in love with his Persian au pair girl and wanted to marry her, divorcing his singer wife. His friends were dismayed. He was much criticised in the musical profession. He was unhappy. He decided to take a month off work and get away from it all. He came out to Iran,
Dartington's Summer Music Festival became an important part of my life. I enjoyed a lot of great music and I met many fine musicians there, both amateur and professional. One stands out: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. When I first went to Dartington, in about 1970, Max (as everyone called him) ran the composition course, and also organised musical activities and games for children (which my children loved). Soon afterwards, Max became the Artistic Director. Under his direction, Dartington gained an international reputation for enterprising and exciting new music — and for the unconventional. He wrote a one-act opera based on the
Dartington’s Summer Music Festival
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Ben lives in Wales: I live in London. It is not always easy to get together to rehearse and perform. But we do. We perform songs at The Oxford and Cambridge Music Club in London, at a Song Repertoire Group in London - and in Wales.
Maxwell Davis
legend of the juggler of Notre Dame: how a statue of the Virgin comes to life to honour special goodness: how the grandees of the cathedral offer her exquisite illuminated manuscripts and she is unmoved: how a humble juggler, wanting to express his devotion to the Virgin, juggles in front of her; how she descends from her plinth and sings for him. Max celebrates this story by having the Virgin play tender and loving music on the violin _ to a real juggler. His invited a circus juggler with the stage name Rhubarb to take the part. Max made Rhubarb a major star, warmly welcomed in the highart, privileged world of Dartington. It was infinitely moving. Max had taken the message of the story and given it a modern relevance. Later he did something similar for the bagpipe. Barbarous bagpipes do not fit comfortably into the genteel world of Dartington. Max wrote an orchestral piece with a triumphant bagpipe finale. He invited the pipe major of a
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Highland regiment to play the music in full Highland dress. It was a magnificent spectacle. The pipe major was another unconventional Dartington star. Maxwell Davies made new music exciting. He inspired me to play more music of our time.
Janacek: The Diary of a Man who Vanished Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death Shostakovich: Sonnets of Michelangelo (selection) Quilter: To Julia Faure: La Bonne Chanson
I met Ben Ridler, a gifted amateur singer, at a music summer school about 15 years ago. Since then we have worked on and performed a wide range of songs. He has become a key part of my musical life. Ben is an Old Cliftonian, Head Boy in his time. He also studied at King's College Cambridge, so we have quite a lot in common. Ben has a fine tenor voice: he also has a wide knowledge of poetry (much more than I and he is a gifted linguist. It is a pleasure and a privilege to work with him. Here are some of the songs and song cycles we have worked on together:
Faure: a selection of his later songs, including Le Parfum Imperissable, Le Ramier, Dans le Foret de Septembre, Le plus doux Chemin, Les Berceaux, Soir Schubert: Die Mutter Erde, Abschied von einem Freunde, and many others Wolf: Phanomen, Anakreons Grab, and many others Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel Britten: Sechs HรถlderlinFragmente, Winter Words Welsh songs
I work with many fine amateur musicians, but Ben is special. Long may we continue to make great music together. Mark Lowe
JB Chapman My Story
My parents lived in Yokohama, Japan, from 1920 until 1941. My father went there as a Banker and became close to the Government and the British Embassy. I was born at Negishi, Yokohama, on 7 September 1931. The most I remember was a very strict International School Head Master being very keen on the coil wire cane! I had some good times too with great friends, Americans and Canadians. We were probably a somewhat boisterous crowd… 1940 was a very difficult year and my father realised that fuel shortages (buses and trucks were being run on dirty Kerosene trailers) were being blamed on America, so my father got us out to Vancouver in Canada. He stayed on in Japan until almost the last ship and was very lucky; he was awarded the CBE for the information he passed on to the British Embassy! We stayed in an apartment in Victoria, British Columbia, and I went to a local private school for a year until my father got a job as Treasurer for Alcan, the Aluminium Company of Canada. We then lived in Montreal and I went to another local school. However, my father’s job was transferred to New York and Boston, so another school for me was chosen, which was Ridley College in Ontario. I stayed there until the end of the war and then my parents decided to send me to England with my sister. After a rather hasty time at “cramming” school for me to learn Latin, I managed just to get into Clifton in 1946. I left in 1950 and went to stay with a Spanish family in Madrid; the idea was to finish my Spanish lesson but I was also persuaded to teach English to Spanish
students at a local similar Berlitz Institute! I spent most of 1951 in Madrid and visited several towns in the holidays. 1952 was a good year for me when I was 21 and stayed with my parents in New York and Boston. I did most of the driving and we motored across to see friends in Wisconsin and returned to Boston via Canada, a good 3000 miles! When I returned to England it was time to do my National Service. 1953 saw me starting my service in the Irish Guards and passing the officers’ exam to join the Royal Inniskillen Fusiliers. My regiment was sent to Kenya during the Mau Mau time. I remember being sent up in a Kenya police “Piper” small aircraft to drop supplies to a colleague’s platoon during a 10-day “ambush” trial on Mount Kenya; a hit and miss business without parachutes, but the pilot usually made it seem easy over the smoke indicators. Not of my best feelings! In 1955 I applied for a job in Paris with an American company specialising in financing car purchases for US personnel in Europe. I got the job which involved recovering and returning cars which had not been paid for ie., repossessed. One weekend the office staff decided it would be a good idea to see the Le Mans 24 Heures race and I went along with them. However, it was not a good idea as I got caught up in the terrible crash when the Mercedes blew up in the crash with another race car right in front of me! I woke up in the hospital following my operation to remove my spleen and also suffered a fractured pelvis. My mother flew from Boston to the hospital with the Boston Globe newspaper showing details of my injuries and the horrific death of 77 people
1955 Boston Globe article about Les Mans Racetrack crash disaster.
with a further 76 injured. I even made the news in two more newspapers, the Guardian and the West Sussex Gazette! An amusing headline in the Boston paper claimed that “my wife” was flying over to be by my bedside; it was in fact my mother, presumably to add drama to the story! I managed to keep the finance job this time in the UK, visiting US airfields, and even offered to go to Spain for them but, by this time, American Forces began to leave Europe. I saw that Australia was offering £10 “Pommies” an opportunity to settle there so I decided to go there and ended up in Melbourne. There was an American Tyre Company, BF Goodrich, so I started with them and learned how to inspect the new “tubeless” tyres. I stayed with them for six months and offered to test their new tyres to Perth, across the “Nullabor” road which then was still a very long, dusty road full of potholes. The offer was accepted and I made it with only some minor episodes. John Chapman (Editor’s note: Always good to hear reminiscences of some of our older OCs. John will be 90 next year and clearly had an interesting time in the past, having lived in Japan, Canada, England, Spain, France, Kenya and Australia)
Our Chauffer and Lea Francis ‘tourer’ outside our house in Japan International School
Irish Guards, Inniskilling Fusiliers in Kenya.
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From Belfry to the Basement
Nineteen years of life at Clifton College
IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY… or it would have been on 1 September 2020! I started at Clifton College in September 2000 after a very long career in the print trade (and a very brief one selling wines and spirits for John Lewis). The role of Chapel Verger at that time came under the umbrella of the domestic services and I was told on starting that the job was To just keep the Chapel clean and tidy. There is no need to get involved with the Staff and pupils. At that time the Head Master, Dr Spurr, and his staff had just relocated from 32 College Road into the two end rooms in the cloisters and the task of cleaning these offices fell to me — my first introduction to the Clifton practice of added value. However this did work to my advantage as there was always an early morning cup of coffee available. In fact, the stipulation of early coffee for the Verger is now written into the job description for the Head’s PA. Dr Spurr had his own ideas of how Chapel should look which, as fortune would have it, coincided with mine. However I did manage to talk him out of replacing the crucifix on the altar with one 5 feet tall. His reasoning was that it looked very small from his seat and my suggestion that he either moved closer to the altar or go to Specsavers (this was in the days before I learned to curb my sarcasm) was met with a raised eyebrow and, eventually, a slight smile. It was when I pointed out the cost of replacement and the fact that the crucifix in place was a gift from an OC that the matter was quietly dropped. Peter Dill, who was Chaplain at the time, was a gentleman in every sense of the
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word and was nearing the end of his time at Clifton. After outlining what he expected from me he was quite happy to leave me to my own devices. The Chapel at that time was, to be honest, in quite a shabby state and it took me a while to bring it up to an acceptable standard. I was surprised to find items covered in dust that had not been moved for a while, but after waking them up with a cup of tea and gently guiding them back to the SCR, they were able to start teaching again. During my first year as Verger I was flattered to be asked to read a Bible passage during the Pre Commem service. Now if you ever attended or took part in a Pre service you would know that Dr Bob always preferred to use the King James Version of the Bible. My suggestion of perhaps using the reading from the Message translation of the Bible was met with Bob looking at me over the top of his glasses and very slowly shaking his head. Message received! Peter left in late 2000 (was it something I said?) and for a few months we were without a Chaplain. Morning Chapel was led by members of the SMT with varying degrees of success, and varying levels of attentiveness from pupils (and Staff I might add), until early in 2001 when the School saw the appointment of Kim Taplin. Kim was young (well, youngish) and had come, via the Chaplain’s post at Rendcombe, from a background of being a parish priest. With similar views of faith and worship (and a shared background in industry and trade unionism) we not only became close colleagues but good friends as well. It was Kim who coined the following phrase, when attempting to change the format of a service: The first year a change is made you will meet opposition Do it again next year and we’ve always done it this way And by the third year it will have become a much-treasured Clifton tradition
Kim introduced evening Compline and morning communion and also carried on with one of the best Clifton traditions, sadly now put to rest by the Health & Safety police, of Ascension Day communion on the top of the Wilson Tower. To stand at the top of the tower and look out over the grounds lit by the early morning sun will be one of my fond memories of Clifton, although the lungbursting climb to the top is one to forget. Of course, talk of Kim cannot omit the unforgettable Mrs T, the wonderful Chryssa. Kim and Chryssa worked as a close-knit team on the pastoral front across all three schools and were held in great affection by all and sundry. A complaint (or just an observation; I’m not really complaining) is the sound system. Due to the unique set-up, there is no method of adjusting the sound levels on each individual microphone. Whilst coaching pupils prior to Chapel weeks I always tried to encourage them to speak at twice the volume and half the speed. Some heeded my advice and delivered their contribution perfectly, some listened to me and then ignored the advice, and some listened, delivered a perfect rehearsal, and then forgot it all when confronted by a full Chapel. Tim Greene on leaving Chapel one morning commented that he had trouble hearing what was said from his seat at the rear of the Chapel. Curbing my tongue and not suggesting a seat move or a hearing aid I promised to adjust the system for the next day. On leaving the Chapel on the next day big thumbs up from Tim and a “well done on fixing that.” The first day’s speaker was a slight, timorous, softly-spoken 3rd Former who could not be coaxed to speak louder. The second day it was a much more selfassured 6th Former who listened to my advice and spoke louder. Needless to say the sound system controls were not adjusted in any way. Having worked under three Heads of College and three Chaplains, I can honestly say that Meatloaf had it right.
Other things that stood out: (a) The Upper Sixth female pupil who, on a dare, walked from Mem Arch to the JCR and back again wearing just shoes and a raincoat. You know who you are! (b) The couple who, having discovered that there was no CCTV camera coverage in the top corner of the Library, decided to take their relationship to another level (c) Due to storm damage two of the windows of the Chapel Lantern had broken and the Chapel was closed in order for them to be repaired. The centre of the Chapel was solid with scaffolding from floor to ceiling and I could not resist the opportunity to climb into the roof. Going up was ok…coming down an almost vertical ladder was less so! (d) Convincing Peter Middleton, when he noticed a plume of smoke coming from the boiler chimney, that there was an open fire in the Head’s office and my first job every morning was to get the fire going
(e) Finally, on my last day I decided to leave the Upper School Staff a lasting memory. So bearing in mind that this was the time of the toilet roll famine, I stuck laminated notes on the inside of each door stating that due to ongoing shortages the College would be providing alternative supplies. On the inside of each door was a pack of newspaper cut up into 9 inch squares on a loop (obviously the Times). A number of Staff thought it was a genuine cost-cutting measure. Possibly one of the funniest moments in my view was, when discovering a height gauge outside the SCR, I convinced Staff that Peter Middleton would be allocating classrooms appropriate to the height of Staff members as some door entrances are smaller than others. Picture a long queue of Staff waiting patiently outside the SCR… Remember the phrase “added value”? During the holidays I was expected to help with portering staff with jobs around the College and these are just a few stand-out moments:
(a) Picking up an old piano which was being scrapped and driving through Clifton village with it on a flatbed truck with one of us playing very badly (b) Clearing furniture from the top floor of North Town. Too many stairs so the wardrobes went out of the window to be instantly flatpacked on the drive (c) Storing a perfectly good carpet for future use around the College to fins two months later that when unrolled a five metre square piece had been cut out of the middle (d) Spending all day clearing rubbish from the Close after the first Prom on the Close. Not a pleasant one – six tons in total All in all I have had a great almost 20 years at the School and will miss you all and I have to admit IT TOOK A GLOBAL PANDEMIC TO GET ME TO LEAVE! Alan Crocker
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Three (Well Four Actually) Men In A Boat By any stretch of the imagination, this was an extraordinary feat. Three Old Cliftonians, Max Breet [ET 2007], Ollie Palmer [ST 2006] and Tom Foley [ST 2006], along with a chum of theirs who went to St Paul’s, took on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge and rowed across the Atlantic in 32 days, ending up as overall race winners. This adventure was two years in the making and therein, perhaps, lay its success. This group of close friends, partly inspired by Ollie Palmer who worked for a company associated with Talisker, chatted about this from time to time and, looking for something other than sitting in front of a computer screen, eventually decided to give it a go. They were in many ways wellequipped for this in that Tom had spent eight years in the Royal Navy, two of the others had army experience via the Marines and the Paras, and Ollie, as anyone who knows him will attest, had the humour and the personality to balance the seriousness of the enterprise. It may not seem obvious, but Christmas /
New Year was the ideal time for the race. The Trade Winds, which for centuries have helped mariners sailing West, were very much in their favour. However, the trip required an enormous amount of planning. Having established the initial cost of this undertaking _ something in the order of
£130,000 _ the team set about raising the money needed to build the boat. The rowers set about getting sponsors by pooling contacts, getting parents and friends to use their networks (an excellent example of precisely what Jeremy Isaacs wrote about in the Business Section of last year’s Magazine), talking at corporate events, taking prospective clients to see exactly what was involved, and so on. The boat itself was, of course, a specialised construction and the main suppliers of such craft, which have to be built to order, is the firm of Rannock in Essex. Of the thirty-six teams taking part in this race, thirty of them were using boats built by Rannock. The total coat of the boat was £90,000 and the smallest of details were incorporated. For example, the team realised that the lighter the boat the better so marginal gains, such as not painting the interior of the craft which saved a kilogram, would make every difference. Talking to Tom Foley about this recently, it is clear that they all had some fingers-crossed moments as far as fund-raising was concerned since without sponsors they would have had to pay for the boat themselves!
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Preparing as a team presented different challenges over this two-year period. Alcohol was consigned to history and a careful training programme was embraced involving rowing machines, time in the gym, yoga, and pilates. For the final six months, ten hours a week was devoted to this and to putting weight on via strength work. In addition, ten long weekends were spent in Poole to accustom themselves to some of the challenges of rowing at sea with rough water. In retrospect, the success of this whole endeavour was, without doubt, partly down to this meticulous sort of preparation prior to the actual event. Key to their success, too, as anyone who reads accounts of such exploits, was solid team-building. Wisely, the team realised that “being good mates” was not going to be enough. As a result, frank discussions regularly took place over this period where individual fears, strengths,
weaknesses, character traits and flaws, responses to pressure and so on were all examined since they knew that there were going to be moments of tension and argument and that their ability to function effectively as a team depended on handling these moments with patience and empathy. To that end, they also used a psychologist to help them to be aware of each others “trigger” points and develop that most priceless of human qualities, empathy. Having clearly defined roles was also an important factor in the context of teamwork, since they all realised that once they were in the middle of the Atlantic, they could only rely on themselves. Tom’s naval experience made him an obvious choice for navigation and weather reports whilst others took on the no less valuable tasks of daily repairs and maintenance, and washing of clothes and underwear.
There were, obviously, many highs and equally many lows. For all of them, one of the best moments was actually leaving La Gomera in the Canaries on 12 December since it had been a long build-up. It was thus something of a relief tinged with excitement to be actually starting. Other highlights were obvious wildlife experiences — dolphins, turtles, sea birds, and whales, one of which came very close to their boat — and the heavens at night with a canopy of stars and regular sightings of shooting stars. As Tom and Ollie later both observed, rowing under such a canopy was both “awesome” and humbling and made them realise just how small and insignificant they were. Lows were, not surprisingly, sea-sickness, constantly getting soaked so that nappyrash from salt-water dowsing became an unlooked for malaise, capsizing, especially towards the end of the race when ironically they faced some of the worst weather of the whole journey, and lack of sleep. Capsizing, of course, was not a great experience and although the boat was designed not to sink, it was frightening to lose total control in mountainous seas. In addition vital equipment was lost as a result, on one occasion losing their “poo bucket”; how they dealt with the consequences of this is best left to the reader’s imagination. Organising the rowing was, in itself, an almost military operation but it had to be if they were to achieve their ambition. For the first few days, three of them rowed at a time, then switching to two hours on and forty minutes off by rotation. Sleeping under such a regime was not easy. Food came in the form of dehydrated packs eaten cold and supplemented by ration packs of nuts, chocolate and the like.
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The target was to consume six thousand calories a day; even so they all lost round about fourteen kilograms during the course of the row. The cliché, of course, is the assumption that this was a “life-changing” experience, and so it may prove to be. They see it differently, preferring to call it “lifeenriching”. They all learnt a lot about each other and about themselves in relation to the world around them since there was a lot of time to think during the mechanical process of pulling oars.Their feeling on reaching Antigua, dry land and families
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and friends who had flown out to greet them, require little description. Typically, what they seem to be most proud about is the amount of money they have raised for their nominated charity. The target they set was £250,000 and they are closing in on this. The charity could not have been better chosen. It is called WEST LONDON ZONE and it raises money to fund support networks for disadvantaged children in schools in disadvantaged areas. As they agree, having had a comfortable education and upbringing themselves, nothing is more appropriate that supporting this sort of charity and it is
precisely the type of charity that Clifton and Old Cliftonians should be supporting. Anyone wishing to add the sum raised by the “Fantastic Four” can access details via the West London Zone website. There are lessons for us all in considering what this team has achieved, and they key one is that if you plan properly and carefully, and approach your friends and yourself with honesty and humility, then anything can be achieved. These young men can be very proud of what they have done and we should be proud of them too. Next adventure? Watch this space.
Sport OC Hockey The Ryan Bresnahan Hockey match was played at BB on February 14th 2020. I’m pleased to report that the OCs had the school XI dangling on a string, allowing them to establish a 2-goal lead before storming through to win the game 5-3. Many thanks to all of you who have continued to support this very fitting “memorial match” for so many years.
Rackets Fellowship To keep the game alive after the boys who play leave their school, a fellowship scheme was initiated whereby 18 year old players are able to go to either Queen’s Club (one of the most prestigious tennis clubs in the world) or a North American club to work as the assistant rackets pro.
Tom Panto and Toby Weale
I was at Clifton College from 2010 to 2019. In my time at Clifton, I was interested in all sorts. I did a lot of acting, played cricket and hockey in the 1st XI and, most notably, played in Mr Sibley’s 4th XV. However, Rackets was one of the most important parts in my Clifton college life. Since leaving Clifton I have worked in London, travelled around England, been to Montreal and Chicago all down to rackets. For those of you who don’t know, Rackets is one of the oldest racket sport games in the world and the fastest. It is not a well known sport with only 16 courts in the UK (all in public schools) and five in North America.
I was very lucky to be able to call Queen’s my home from August 2019-January 2020. The fellowship scheme for me was an amazing opportunity to work in a real job straight out of Clifton before university. It was a preview of life in a working environment. I was also able to play rackets and real tennis every day, with members and professionals, which took my game up hugely from school boy level. The varying social events also made it very accessible to establish important London links and meet a wide range of people. The four-month job taught me to work well in the team of six in the pro shop office and efficiently. Day to day jobs included playing with members, giving lessons, stringing and repairing rackets rackets, re-taping rackets balls and answering phone calls and emails from members re court booking and games. I was also able to watch top class tournaments like the British Open Real Tennis and World Singles Rackets Championship. Since my fellowship I have
been to the club in Montreal to play in the Canadian Amateur tournament and the club in Chicago for the US open. Both were amazing long weekends filled with great rackets and new friendships. I’ll definitely be back there in 2021! I would strongly recommend all Year 8/9s to take up the game of Rackets as it is very social and a true test of athleticism and sportsmanship. It also aids other sports like hockey and cricket in terms of hand to eye coordination and basic movements. The game also opens many doors like the fellowship program which is essential to the survival of the game and truly helpful for a schoolboy’s maturity. The women’s game is also taking off. Recently, the first Ladies World Doubles Championship was held at Wellington College. This is a huge advancement in the game and means more girls will be incentivised to take it up. Rackets fellowships are also available to girls! So, if you are reading this and know a boy or girl at Clifton or coming to Clifton or indeed any other public school, send them to the Rackets court and give them this great opportunity which is potentially life changing! Tom Panto
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Rackets happens to have been the last sport I took up at Clifton, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to play this exceptionally unique game. It has given me some incredible experiences whether that was playing at the Queen’s Club in London or more recently embarking on a ‘Fellowship’ to the Montreal Racket Club. My time there was from September to January of last year, which was very lucky. This period allowed me to participate in visits to other North American Clubs. My stint allowed me to travel to the New York Racquet and Tennis Club for the Silver Rackets Weekend as well as the chance to watch the crowning of the new world champion at Detroit Racquets Club. Tom Billings was the eventual winner and took the coveted position, which had been
held by James Stout for the previous 12 years. The Montreal court is one of the busiest in North America and so day-to-day life at the club consisted primarily of playing with members, marking games and stringing rackets. They are truly great bunch of people over there, and so that combined with playing lots of Rackets was a great mix and allowed me to enjoy every day whilst I was over there. The club also hosted a number of events, which brings the whole membership together for an intimate affair. These events consisted of the dining of some of Canada’s finest cuisine (Moose) and the members giving me a baptism of fire into Canadian drinking!
Gatherings like these really allowed me to feel involved at the club and grow relationships in the Rackets community. At the weekends, members invited me on outings that led to some incredible experiences that I will forever be grateful for. Those sorts of occasions would never have come about had I not played Rackets. My time there concluded with the Canadian Amateur tournament, in which my partner from school Tom Panto and I fittingly competed in together having just finished our fellowships. Thanks must go to Reggie Williams for encouraging me to play the game at Clifton and in his words ‘top drawer!’ Toby Weale
Celtic Cup Maggie Gibbs (sister of Simon and the late Alistair Hughes, both of Dakyn’s) met up with Miles Buckinghamshire at the Real Tennis Celtic Cup (Maggie representing Ireland and Miles, Scotland) played at Radley on 7 March 2020.It was a pleasant surprise for both Maggie and Miles, who had never met, but had a connection through the actions of Maggie’s brother, Simon. Simon, based in New Zealand, having read Lucy Nash’s call for a partner for Miles in the Alumni Real Tennis Competition, the Cattermull Cup, suggested to Maggie that she should partner Miles, playing for Clifton in memory of her brother, Alistair, who sadly died in 2015. Alas, the organisers of the competition could not permit such a partnership as Maggie needed to have
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attended Clifton as a pupil and was not eligible to play despite her strong connections to the College through her brothers. On the Celtic Cup day, Maggie gave Miles a good lesson in how to play singles winning their contest convincingly. Miles had some consolation in winning his two doubles matches against Maggie, aided by his energetic partners. Scotland ran out eventual winners of the Celtic Cup for the first time in four years. Miles and Maggie hope they will meet up in the 2021 competition (if not before) with the Covid-19 lockdown ended (hopefully) and with play being allowed on the courts soon. Miles Buckinghamshire & Maggie Hughes
Events,
Governors Cup
Virtual Events and Non-Events It has been a topsy-turvy year for OC events, not surprisingly! What follows is a more or less chronological account of how things unfolded:
Live Events
towards bursary support, and the generosity of the guests will ensure there are some new names to add to the Benefactors’ boards outside the Head Master’s office.
Governors’ Cup Lunch – 5 October 2019 We welcomed 30 OCs to The Close for an informal lunch before the annual match against Marlborough for the coveted Governors’ Cup. We are delighted to report that Clifton reclaimed the cup in dazzling style. The event was such a success we plan on doing another lunch before a home 1st XV Fixture in 2020.
Ontario Drinks – 29 October 2019
Lagos Drinks – 13 October 2019 Housemasters Jonathan Hughes [School House] and Dan Janke [Wiseman's] visited Lagos in October and met with current and former parents as well as OCs. There is great affection for the school in Nigeria, and hopefully another visitation from the OCS will materialize in the not too distant future.
Percival Dinner – 5 October 2019 An audience of OCs and parents (some from across the globe) enjoyed an evening of fundraising and pupil entertainment at this biennial event, held for the first time in Clifton. At the time of writing, we have raised upwards of £100,000, all of which will go
It is a pleasure to report that the Ontario branch continues to meet with reassuring regularity. A little piece of Clifton flourishes in Toronto.
Cardiff Dinner – 18 October 2019 Another well attended gathering of South Wales OCs took place at the County Club in Westgate Street, and got the annual cycle of dinners off to a great start. Almost 40 turned out in their finery for the traditionally excellent proceedings, orchestrated by Nick Jones [BH 1989]. It remains a reassuringly enjoyable evening!
PHET – 12 November 2019 Collecting about 100 Old Polackians together in one room might be asking for trouble, but the PHET drinks at the Houses of Parliament [courtesy of Howard
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Oxford Dinner
Leigh 1976] were an enormous success. A huge age range of old boys and girls came to show their support for the continuing role that Jewish pupils play in Clifton life – there are currently 33 in the Upper School and 4 in the Pre. It was also an opportunity to introduce Clifton’s new Rabbi, Anna Gerard, to the wider community, and, of course, to catch up with old friends. It was not easy to leave and get on the bus back to Bristol!
OC AGM — 15 November 2019 There was no earth-shattering news at the AGM, unless you count the departure from the Committee [after countless years of service] of Vanessa Walsh [nee Bird] [WoH 1991], Mike Pyper [NT 1975] and Charlie Graveney [WT 2004]. We thank them for their support and involvement, and welcome their successors on board, namely Seb Hoyle [DH 1991], Tamsin Robertson [nee Jervis] [OH 1994] and Brioney Denner [nee Thomas] [WT 1994].
Informal Exeter Dinner — 26 November 2019 The Head Master was back on familiar turf in Devon, and a good turnout from current undergraduates was supplemented by a sprinkling of more “seasoned campaigners” from the Devon & Cornwall branch. We seem to have found a venue that more or less works for the various constituents, and we’ll be back down the M5 before too long!
Advent Carols – 1 December 2019 Some would argue that this is the “best” service in the Chapel calendar, and there was a large OC attendance, both in the Crypt for drinks and in the pews for
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singing. A great way to mark the beginning of the Christmas season.
Informal Bristol lunch — 7 February 2020 “Why are we doing this?” was the question as 20+ OCs, with an age range in excess of 50 years, sat down for an informal Friday lunch in the Pavilion. “Because we’re a club, and clubs do this kind of thing!” was the reply. It was a lovely, social occasion, with a great view thrown in for good measure.
The May 9th Reunion (1976—1986 cohort) went online and featured a marvellous photo board compiled by the archivist, and an opportunity to sing the School Song. Photographic evidence suggests that quite a few OCs also had a drink or two to mark the occasion! The live version has been postponed until 2021.
Oxford Dinner — 25 February 2020 This took place at Vincent’s Club for the second year in a row, and was a great success. Just over 30 OCs were in attendance, with particularly strong showings from Oxford Brookes’ undergraduates and the Phelps family! Proceedings were slightly more informal than usual (jacket and tie, not black tie), and the food and the company were both much enjoyed. The Head Master spoke with his customary elan, and one or two indulged in a postprandial Pink Panther, the club “speciality”!
In June, the annual Sixth Form Careers’ Fair went online. It was expertly arranged by Emma Kenyon [Head of Careers] and made possible by the large number of OCs who made themselves ‘virtually available’. Thank you to all those involved, it was another great success.
Network Breakfasts
The following did not happen because of Covid 19:
Jeremy Pickles’ monthly breakfasts in the Pavilion continued to great acclaim until lockdown arrived. I’m sure they will enjoy a strong resurgence when social distancing rules permit.
Virtual Events Did we ever envisage having to write these two words as a strap line? Nonetheless, two regular fixtures in the calendar survived in an altered, online format:
Sixth Form Careers’ Fair
Non-Events March — informal drinks in Cardiff and New York. April — informal drinks in London for the under 30s. May —the 1862 Club Lunch, Commem Lunch and events in Switzerland and Brussels. June — the Golf Day. July — the 2010 Leavers’ drinks and Cricket Week.
Clifton against
Covid 19
Clifton ‘locked down’ in late March and a few of us quickly turned our thoughts on how we could help in the growing crisis. The early sad loss of a very supportive Old Cliftonian brought home the extent of the crisis and discussions between the Development and Bursar's Offices led to the creation of a small task force of enthusiastic volunteers including the DT, Health and safety and support staff and the school’s 3D and laser printers were put into immediate use, creating protective visors-in response to the great concerns about the lack of PPE.
We soon realised we would need help from outside the College with the supply and provision of materials, so we wrote to the Old Cliftonians requesting access to materials, equipment or just cash to purchase what was needed. The response was terrific from all over the globe with offers of masks, printing of labels for distribution and over £10,000 was raised from individuals and Trusts. £10,000 quickly became £20,000 thanks to a very generous benefactor to the school. This gave us the ‘fuel we needed in the engine’ and working through Easter and lockdown we have produced to date over 3000 visors and distributed them to care homes, surgeries, pharmacies and shops together with the ‘Help the Homeless’ charity who have taken homeless people off the streets in Bristol and housed them in hotels and guest houses and
‘Fareshare’ the charity which redistributes surplus food to those who need it most including the provision of meals to vulnerable children throughout the summer as championed to great effect by the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford. The response from the local community has been overwhelming and we have been moved by the number of positive comments received from the OC and Clifton community. At the time of writing we continue in our efforts and will do so until the need is no more. Jeremy Pickles Consultant Director of Development
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Book Reviews FACE IT James Partridge ISBN 9781912892808 Quite simply, this is an extraordinary book. James Partridge, known to many OCs, has written a full, frank and honest account of how he came to terms with appalling injuries following a car crash which left him with permanent and serious facial disfigurement. Or, as he tellingly puts it, a “not perfect” face. The book is basically in three parts. In the first section, he gives a full and often brutally searing account of how the life of a good-looking, athletic and successful Clifton seventeen-year old, with a place at Oxford in the offing and a future of “glittering prizes” ahead of him, had his life completely turned upsidedown in a split second on a Welsh road. As he puts it A lot of that hinged on the confidence I had in my good-looking face…With a face like that I could not fail. Which is not at all how it turned out. What follows is a detailed description of the journey he undertook which led him from despair through anger to acceptance and, eventually, fulfilment with not a trace of self-pity or victimhood in evidence, itself an antidote to the behaviour of so many in today’s “me” society. It is stirring and humbling stuff. There are so many layers to this journey and the account goes way beyond just being relevant, and immensely helpful, to those who suffer disfigurement. For, above all, this is both a story of human courage and of the human condition and what is really
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important in terms of how we inter-react as human beings in a so-called civilised society. For example, the many small milestones on his way to recovery all share something in common, what Wordsworth called those “small, unremarked” acts of human kindness stemming not from pity but from love – Nurse “Potty” in hospital washing his hair and refusing to let him feel sorry for himself, a kiss from an old girlfriend at a party (attending that alone was an act of real bravery) and ready acceptance by his fellow students at his Oxford College – all remind the reader that it is how we treat each other that is the key to a life welllived. I can think of many of today’s institutions which would benefit from remembering this! Taking control of his situation – a central plank in this narrative _ required great courage but James shows how it can be achieved against all the odds. The second part of the book describes how he eventually set up the charity “Changing Faces” which, at the time, was a tremendous personal and financial gamble (how well he was supported by his wife and family during this period!), along with the writing of his seminal book of the same title which I had craved and which my surgeon had asked me to write – how to be a confident citizen with a distinctive face. Language is particularly important here, as the final section of this book emphasises. The subtitle of this work is “Facial Disfigurement and My Fight for Face Equality.” In this last section, James turns the spotlight on to contemporary
attitudes which he rightly argues need radical attention. Much of literature and the cinema equate facial disfigurement with evil or anti-social behaviour and has done for years. In addition the whole beauty industry, given centre stage by a soulless media, holds out the constant “Love Island” image that only physical perfection is worth having and that all of us can attain it if we have the will and the money. Total nonsense, of course, but deeply influential in determining how we judge others. It is this which lies behind his campaign to challenge this head on. Your reviewer was going to write a lengthy article about this book and its author. To do so would have not done either of them the justice they deserve and would have lessened its impact for it
demands to be read by anyone who has an interest in the human condition. It is so much more than just a handbook for those with physical disfigurement and deserves a much wider audience who will be just that little bit wiser for having read it. Tilting at windmills? Will James succeed in his campaign to transform how society deals with this issue? Given the journey he has been on, don’t bet against it. A remarkable book written by a remarkable man. Buy it and read it – you won’t be disappointed. (This review was written before James' death on 16 August. A tribute to him is printed on the following pages) RJA
James Partridge – A Tribute I first met James in September 1993 at the end of my first week as Head of the Pre when I discovered that it was expected that the Pre Head would preach at the first Sunday service of the term in Chapel. At that time, his three delightful children were all in the Pre as pupils. Hugh Monro had told me all about his appalling accident and I was thus prepared for the facial disfigurement. What I was not prepared for was the man. He buttonholed me after the service and discussed the sermon in a forthright manner – we agreed, happily, on much of the content – but what struck me immediately was his intelligence, positivity and kindness and that initial impression, its accuracy confirmed by several meetings and discussions thereafter, will stay with me for ever. Quite rightly, the Times carried his obituary following his untimely and sad death last August. In many ways, it said it all. At 18, the age when one’s sense of self feels fecund yet fragile, James Partridge had school friends for a weekend’s walking in north Wales. On the way though, their Land Rover overturned. The petrol tank under the driver’s seat exploded, enveloping Partridge in flames and leaving him with burns on 40 per cent of his body. It took five months in hospital to reconstruct his face and a further five years of complex surgery. For the first three months in hospital he refused to look in the mirror. He knew his appearance must be disturbing because nurses would turn away from it. “When I finally saw myself,” he recalled, “I was shocked to the core.” The thought of showing this new face to his friends, let alone walking down the street with it horrified him. He referred to his face as “it”.
happened upon a book by Erving Goffman entitled Stigma: Notes on the Management of a Spoiled Identity.” It resonated with so much of what I recognised about myself”, he later wrote, “except it offered no solutions. What it did give me, however, was a what-if moment. What if I could discover self-respect? Could I gain the respect of those around me which seemed denied to me because of my disfigurement? I had a sense that finding my self-respect might enable me to deflect others’ stigmatising of me.” He began to look people in the eye, to ‘not’ let his chin drop, and to sanction people staring at him without reacting to it. When faced with outright prejudice, he bore himself with cheerful defiance. During his interview to become a research assistant in health economics at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, a member of the panel said to him “I see you have had a lot of plastic surgery. Do you think you will be needing some more?” Partridge replied “Why? Do you think I need more?” Throughout his twenties he steadily rebuilt his confidence. Reading feminist literature such as The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing helped him to look askance at society’s obsession with appearances, while meeting his wife, Carrie Schofield, made him realise “that I was loveable, despite looking like this”. Having made a life as a dairy farmer and part-time teacher on Guernsey, he began to write about the emotional odyssey of his early adulthood, and published a book, Changing Faces, in 1990. Pleased with its warm reception, he decided to found a charity of the same name, to provide psychological support to people with facial
disfigurements and protest against discrimination. More than half a million people in Britain have a facial disfigurement. As leader of Changing Faces for 25 years, Partridge was a whirlwind of enthusiasm, speaking in schools and workplaces and charming people with his sanguine attitude. Even so he did not think that society was necessarily becoming more accepting of those with unusual appearances, worrying that, in an age of Instagram filters and photoshopped adverts, “there is almost a moral obligation to have work done, to get your face fixed”. While he was pleased to give help to victims of botched cosmetic surgery, he felt saddened that they had felt the need to go under the knife in the first place. Partridge was an alert monitor of the changing representation of facial disfigurement in popular culture, getting in touch with the team behind Downton Abbey to let them know why their portrayal of a First World War burn victim was insensitive. Such was the politeness of his critique that the cast offered their support for two fundraising evenings.
Throughout those five months, his mother, who believed everything happens for a reason, kept telling him that “the pain will not be in vain”. Partridge found the sentiment ridiculous. He could not see how anything positive could come of the senseless confiscation of his identity.
James Richard John Partridge was born in 1952 in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, the son of Joan and John, who became chairman of Imperial Tobacco and was knighted in 1971. James boarded at Clifton College, staying on an extra term to sit his entrance exams for Oxford. Without a stroke of luck he might not have survived the fire: in the car behind was a nurse, who wrapped him in her coat and drove him to hospital.
At Oxford, however, he began to discern a way out of his misery. Against his expectations he made some supportive friends, and one day, in a bookshop,
After five months in a burns unit of Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, southwest London, he studied politics, philosophy and economics at University
Website: ChangingFaces.org
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College, Oxford. During the holidays he would return to Roehampton for more surgery, which stimulated his interest in healthcare and spurred his decision to study a master’s in medical demography at the London School of Hygiene and Medicine. In 1977 he met his future wife Carrie through a mutual friend. All he could remember of their first encounter was that she was carrying a parrot in a box, but the second time they found themselves talking about one shared interest after another, from ecology to the Grateful Dead. They married in 1978 and had three children, Harriet, an architect, Charlotte, a teacher, and Simon, who works in finance. Befuddling their friends, they decided to move to Carrie’s native Guernsey to
City Boys at War Peter Ledger (WiH 1958-63)
open a dairy farm. When Partridge set up Changing Faces, the family moved back to Bristol, goats in tow. “I was groping in the dark,” he said of his struggle to accept his changed appearance. “It was a long, long struggle to get out to the other side. I didn’t really have any guidance.” Yet thanks to him, others did and still do. James Partridge, OBE, campaigner, was born on October 30, 1952. He died of cancer on August 16, 2020, aged 67. I was last in touch with him before his final illness about his latest book and the impact it had on me and, I suspect, many, many others. His responses were typically humble. James truly was a great man. In
an age in which the external is lauded above the internal, he pointed out the fallacy in this approach to life. In an age in which the media would have us believe that all is awful and that stress is allconsuming, James was a beacon, lighting up the path to the fact that we are all in the end responsible for our own outcomes and that life is, above all, to be cherished and enjoyed. Quite simply, the world was a better place for him being in it, and is the poorer for his leaving it. His family, whom he adored, must miss him dreadfully. Along with so many others, I do too for he was certainly one of the most influential and likeable of Old Cliftonians that I have had the privilege of knowing. RJA
level – the perspective of a gunner, his wife, their families and his comrades.
ISBN 978-1-911604-83-9 In 1938 Alfred Ledger, a young marine reinsurance broker, joined the 159th Lloyd’s Battery, largely recruited from the Lloyd’s insurance market. He was called up in August 1939 and sent to France in September. He had been married just five weeks. City Boys at War describes a campaign of just eleven months, from September 1939 to July 1940. The narrative is based on letters exchanged between Alfred (the author’s uncle) and his wife, Marjorie, regimental war diaries and other official records. The result is a compelling account of the reality of the lives of ordinary people caught up in the horrific events of war, events for which they were totally unprepared. City Boys at War stands out from more conventional histories and memoirs of the period as it describes little known events at the micro
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The chaos of war is dramatically brought to life by first-hand accounts of war diaries and letters (despite censorship). It is a bonus to read about life at home, families initially frustrated by the apparent futility of their absent menfolk during the socalled Phoney War but then overcome by fear and anxiety for their safety, with the realisation that the allied forces in northern France were being overwhelmed. Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, was merely a presage to the fall of France. With thousands of allied troops still stranded south of the Somme, a second evacuation (Operation Ariel) was organised to evacuate them from ports in Brittany and the Bay of Biscay. Ariel was just as successful in its objective as Dynamo, rescuing 190,000 troops. Dunkirk has become part of British folklore. Ariel has been forgotten.
Alfred’s regiment was split, one third evacuating via Operation Ariel, the remainder despatched south, close to Marseille, as part of Haddock Force, to defend French
military airfields being prepared as refuelling bases for RAF bombers en route to bomb Italy. In describing events, away from the Dunkirk beaches and overlooked by
military historians, City Boys at War adds greatly to our knowledge of the heroics as well as the disasters of 1940. The letters provide a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people facing the traumas of 1940. It was Alfred, the gunner, who faced the risks and boredom of war. Although constrained by censorship, his letters use a pre-arranged code indicating his position in order to reassure his wife that he is not in harm’s way. He phlegmatically accepts the grim side of war, never once complaining about the harsh conditions facing the volunteer soldiers.
But was Marjorie in a worse situation, at least emotionally? Her letters reveal the stoicism needed to survive the stress of separation, the anguish of not knowing what had happened to her husband. City Boys at War is an interesting story well told. The narrative switches between letters from Alfred and Marjorie, interspersed with the war in Europe, and the story of the guns and gunners drives the book on. The book shows that gunners like Alfred Ledger and the officers leading him were doing their best during extraordinary times. The extracts from the
The British Army in France 1940
letters of both Alfred and Marjorie to each other, helpfully set in the wider context of the European war, make City Boys at War an
enjoyable and instructive read, with good narrative pace. David Lermon
8 inch Howitzer Camouflaged Laquielle 20th October 1939
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Michael Green by his friends ed. Julia Cameron London 2019 ISBN 9781789741148 That Michael Green was an extraordinary man was very much suggested by his obituary in the magazine last year, and it there was any doubt about such a judgement this volume dispels it and reinforces the reputation of its subject. Contributors to this volume, which include amongst others a former Archbishop of Canterbury, clearly knew Michael well throughout the various phases of his life and the book is organised chronologically in the sense that it starts with recollections of his school years and then follows him through his career right up until his final days. Several themes run through this collection of essays in relation to its subject, right from his time at Clifton in Wiseman’s until the end of his life. One of these was undoubtedly a strength of character and a refusal to accept the conventional if no purpose was served in so doing. Something of a rebel at first at Clifton (making bombs in the House basement being a notable example), his Damascene moment came as a result of a chance meeting in the Cricket Pavilion which set him on his life’s course; he became a Praepostor and Head of House, and was a regular contributor to Sunday afternoon Christian meetings in Peter Brook’s study. Contemporaries of his (Bob Hyatt WiH 1942-1953 and Julian Charley OH 1943-1949)
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write of his passion for Jesus and his willingness to preach this and talk about this to all and sundry whatever the circumstances. If this, to a secular ear, sounds quaint it clearly was not because he was transparently genuine in what he felt and believed and in his desire to share this revelation with everyone for their, not his, benefit. Another theme, in a way connected to this, was his consistent approach to both biblical exegesis and ecclesiology. He was no mean academic yet he spent his life trying to bridge the gap between, on the one hand, an overly-scholarly approach to the Bible and, on the other hand, an over-charismatic and emotional approach bordering on the irrational. In many ways, this is not a simple book to review because it is so personal. However, it is worth reading on many levels. It is historical in terms of the development of beliefs and ministry since 1945. It also challenges the beliefs and views of the reader, forcing them to lift them up to the light to test their validity. Above all it is a story of a fascinating character whose, in many ways, childlike sense of the fun to be had in embracing God and His Son, challenges and refreshes. As Jesus himself said
Unless ye become a little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Michael Green’s place would thus seem pretty assured. RJA
William Stone of Peterhouse and Albany Sam Osmond (Umbria Press, 2018; paperback, 112 pp. with inset b&w photographs and line drawings; £9.99). ISBN-10: 1910074233 ISBN-13: 978-1910074237
William Stone came to Clifton in 1872 and for five terms he was one of Percival's boys in School House. He then proceeded to Peterhouse, having won Clifton's first science scholarship at Cambridge. He capped this with a first class in the newlyestablished Natural Sciences Tripos, specialising in Botany, and was offered a Fellowship. This he declined because he wanted to travel. So he did, notably to Egypt and the Sudan in 1881-2, just as the Royal Navy was about to bombard Alexandria, and the Mahdi's jihad was stirring in the east. Safely back in England, Stone distilled his experience in a pamphlet asking the highly topical question Shall we annex Egypt? His answer was that we should, and after the sand of the desert had been sodden red, we did. Stone might well have followed so many of his Clifton contemporaries into the service of the Empire. Instead he settled in London as a selfpropelled man-about-town.
He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean and other scientific societies and regularly attended their meetings, but did no further work in this or any other field. His dapper figure became familiar at theatrical first nights, and riding in Rotten Row. His main concern, and the one which makes him interesting, would be the prestigious range of apartments off Piccadilly known laconically as Albany. Stone bought his first chambers there in 1893, and began to collect more. He also became a Trustee of the property generally, instrumental in preserving it from the twin perils of decay and development. Stone eventually acquired celebrity as a raconteur, and a volume of his talk was published in 1951 as The Squire of Piccadilly. Much of this has been recycled by Mr Osmond, whose biography brings order to the amiable ramblings of the original. A few lapses pass through unfiltered, including the misapprehension that Percival had been Arnold's pupil at Rugby. Osmond could not discover much about Stone's finances. There was a tidy inheritance of £30,000 from his father, who had been Town Clerk of Bath, and some of the Albany sets were bought when the market was depressed. There is just a hint that rather more came from successful dealing in South African diamonds. Nor does Osmond pry into his subject's private affairs. Stone never married, and though as a young man he was friendly with Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, there is no evidence that he ran with that crowd in any larger way. Osmond completes the story by
explaining what became of all the property. By the time Stone died aged 101 in 1958, he held the freehold of nearly half Albany's seventy sets, a portfolio worth around £132 million today. And he left the lot to Peterhouse, transforming that college from one of the poorest into one of the richest in Cambridge. Unhappily the Master and Fellows spent a large slice of their bounty on erecting a tower block of repellent aspect. Had Clifton been more astute, it might have been able to blot its own landscape to similar effect. It was after all about this time that plans were made for demolishing School House and dumping a concrete substitute on the Lower Close.
made a handsome gift to his old school. He re-established contact in his early nineties, asking the OCS how many of his contemporaries were still alive. When he reached his centenary (perhaps not the first OC to do so, but the only one then living) the Head Master paid him a visit. In direct consequence of that, on his 101st birthday (14 January 1958) Stone promised £2,000 towards extension on the Science School. The Biology floor, opened at Commem that year, was duly named after him. Because the same building already housed the library commemorating another and unrelated Stone, there has predictably been some confusion. It is therefore good to be reminded of William Stone's place in the Cliftonian firmament.
In fact Stone had already
James Montague
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The British in Interwar Germany;
The Reluctant Occupiers David G Williamson, London, 2018 ISBN 9781472595812 As Lloyd George left Versailles in 1919 at the conclusion of the Peace Conference, which supposedly drew a line under the First World War, he remarked
We shall be doing this all over again in twenty-five years time at ten times the cost. This fascinating study by David Williamson (NT 1954— 1959] goes a long way to demonstrate how prescient the then British Prime Minister was. There are few studies of how nations reconstructed after major upheavals and this book is thus an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of this turbulent period in European history between the collapse of the German Empire and the rise of Hitler. A glance at the bibliography at the end of the book shows just how scholarly and deeply-researched this study is, yet, unlike many academic studies, it is also immensely readable especially in the way that it deals with the complex topic of resettlement of areas such as the Rhineland, Upper Silesia, the Ruhr, Schleswig, Danzig, Allenstein and Marianwerder, all of which presented the allied occupying forces with serious challenges. Clear and logical writing and analysis by the author takes the reader carefully through these issues.
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What emerges from this meticulous research is that the conflicting aims and ambitions of the British and French Governments in particular — the former wishing to turn its attention to the Middle East, create a strong German economy for the benefit of the whole of Europe and ensure that the German provided a strong barrier to the spread of Bolshevism, whilst the latter was determined to enforce the punitive sanctions of the Versailles Treaty to the letter — were bound, in the end, to ensure that the fledgling German democracy had little chance. In the face of popular resentment, the door was thus opened to right-wing nationalist parties in general and the National Socialists in particular. If none of the occupying powers come out of this well, at least David Williamson shows how the British occupying army and administrators attempted to be reasonable and diplomatic in their dealings with Germany and its people, especially in the face of chronic food shortages, only to be thwarted by the intransigence of the French government, particularly under Poincare, which was deeply-rooted in a desire to ensure that Germany would remain permanently weak. France’s attitude to occupying the Ruhr and the Rhineland typified this. As you would expect from such a writer, this is a balanced account and makes the point that the German government, especially under Streseman spent a good deal of its time trying to placate rising nationalism by trying to avoid the more draconian
articles of the Versailles settlement by playing the French and British off against each other and by being less than open when it came to the critical question of disarmament. This is a very good read, especially for those who have an interest in modern European history, and will be
of great value not least to pupils studying A Level History at Clifton and beyond. David Williamson draws on a huge range of sources, including eye-witness accounts, one of which featured Rodney Gee. Thoroughly recommended. RJA
Haig and Kitchener in TwentiethCentury Britain: Remembrance, Representation and Appropriation S. Heathorn ISBN 978-0-7546-6965-4 (Ashgate: Farnham and Burlington VT, 2003) Flyers for last year's School House reunion parodied the famous recruiting poster featuring Kitchener's pointing finger. Relocating this image in front of Haig's statue might have been been a whimsical twist, but one cannot be sure. Some Cliftonians seem to think it is Kitchener gazing over the Close, despite the inscription 'HAIG' in huge letters. Kitchener and Haig were admittedly folk of the same kidney, the topmost brass of the Great War, and they bore a superficial resemblance to each other. Their deaths occasioned similarly extensive displays of public grief. (They have also both been suspected of sexual deviance, in Kitchener's case with some plausibility, as his hobby was flower-arranging.) Nevertheless they do not often appear on the same bill. Professor Heathorn's book performs that service by studying the enshrinement of the two Field Marshals in physical memorials and in public consciousness. Kitchener held no field command at the time of his death, but sat in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for War. He was, however, still on active service when he was lost with HMS Hampshire in 1916. Indeed he was by some way the most senior casualty on either side, and even amidst
pervasive carnage, this one death made a huge impact. Because he was such a familiar figure (not least because of that poster), in death he became a representative martyr. His tomb in the crypt of St Paul's was conceived as a collective tribute to the British and Imperial dead. That role would find more lasting expression in Westminster Abbey and Whitehall, while Kitchener himself would also be memorialised on Horse Guards. Heathorn explains the genesis and execution of these monuments, and then examines the various conspiracy theories which offered deeper and darker explanations for Kitchener's death. Whether generated by genuine concern or as publicity stunts, these stories did not damage Kitchener's reputation: indeed they rely on the assumption that he was a national treasure, and had been inadequately protected. Although Kitchener was progressively at odds with his Cabinet colleagues, and would not have kept his place there much longer, his contribution to the Great War effort has always been acknowledged. It is his earlier achievements which have become contentious. Kitchener's reputation was cemented by revenging the death of Gordon and conquering the Sudan. In the 1950s the newly independent Sudanese determined to remove the sculptural reminders of colonial rule. Heathorn explains how Khartoum's statues of Gordon and Kitchener were duly deported to Britain. The story of Haig's monuments and reputation is quite different. He did not, of course, die in the Great War, but in 1928, and it is decidedly
inappropriate that his Clifton statue receives a wreath of poppies on Armistice Day. There were nevertheless many who shared Lady Haig's view that her man's fatal heart attack was the delayed effect of wartime strain. His wartime reputation was certainly still intact, reflected in the huge crowds at his funeral and the lively debate about his London memorial. Although Heathorn does not mention the Clifton statue, its genesis has some relation to that of the equestrian statue which took up position beside the Cenotaph. Among those shortlisted for the Whitehall memorial was William McMillan, who was to create the Clifton statue. For this, one early model included a horse; another resembled the
Kitchener statue on Horse Guards (1926), with the subject standing capless in service dress. The final version is undoubtedly improved by the sweep of the greatcoat. For Whitehall the commission was given to Alfred Hardiman, whose task was complicated by the multitude of criticisms to which his successive designs were subject. These ranged from Westminster City Council's worries about trafficflow to the fascist logic that all modern sculpture was degenerate because its chief British exponent (Epstein) was Jewish. The treatment of the horse excited a lively controversy of its own. Some people wanted a realistic portrayal, but the sculptor's preference for chivalric
OC Magazine 2020 33
stylisation prevailed. The particulars of Haig's uniform were keenly debated, and the military were aghast when the figure was unveiled bareheaded (acceptable for a soldier in standing pose, but inconceivable when mounted). The sculptor also had to contend with Lady Haig, to whom her husband's features were as sacred as his generalship. She was so affronted by Hardiman's final version that she would not attend the unveiling. Heathcorn had evidently not seen the second Lord Haig's
memoirs (2000), which explain in more detail what his mother found offensive. Lady Haig also retained objections to the Clifton statue, and it may well have been a diplomatic illness which obliged her to miss that unveiling as well.
Memories of Memorials
Switzerland (not to mention a North Sea Oil Rig!) whilst holidays abroad, in Greece for example, also gave him the opportunity to pursue his interest in this subject.
My Life in Monuments to the War Dead Michael Aidin, Sussex, 2017 ISBN 9781527212459 In the conclusion to this book, Michael Aidan (ST 1947—1951) writes
I originally set out to write a book solely about war memorials and for some time now, my ambition was, and still is, to produce a book on the world’s hundred best war memorials. Given this volume, it is to be hoped that he is able to fulfil this ambition because the memorials he does cover are not the usual ones with which most people are familiar and therein lies the fascination of his study. These memorials are of especial interest to the author because they reflect various stages of his life and career as a student and then an international tax adviser, the latter taking him to many countries including France, Canada, America, Sierra Leone, South Africa, India and
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Professor Heathorn's larger purpose is to examine the place of Kitchener and Haig in the collective 'reservoirs of public remembrance', a concept for which the French have the more pleasing expression lieux de mémoire. Heathorn is at variance with
Now, this may all sound a bit prosaic, but this volume is anything but that. Insights into the places he visited, interspersed with anecdotes and reflections on his life from schooldays at Clifton until the present day, are well made and the memorials he comes across as a result have an interesting and often poignant history in themselves. Examples of this range from the La Deliverance statue in Finchley, which the editor used to pass daily on his way to school, American Civil War memorials (deserving a study in their own right), cemeteries in Tehran and Isafahen, the Dying Lion of Lucerne (spectacular in its concept), memorials dedicated to the dead in the Russo-Finnish War, to the Chattri memorial in India. The author describes these eloquently to the extent that the reader almost feels as if he or she is there. His interest clearly stems from the fact that, in the final analysis, memorials are
the pioneers of this ideology, and proposes an alternative model. Some may find the issue sufficiently within their grasp as to need no codification; there is still plenty of solid matter in the book's more pragmatic sections. Although Heathorn disdains to arbitrate between Haig's critics and defenders, he proceeds to do just that, and in a fairminded way. He merely concedes that, as an academic, he inclines to credit those who back up their opinions with evidence. He is not, however, a military specialist, and may be
forgiven for using 'battleship' as a general term for a naval vessel. The repetition of 'ordinance' for 'ordnance' confirms that he is not really at home in the martial arts. Calling Lord Alfred Douglas 'Lord Douglas' also destroys his social credentials. The reader who is prepared to endure these lapses, along with further misprints and grammatical infelicities, will be rewarded with much valuable information and thoughtful comment.
reminders of courage and loss particularly after the Great War….an outpouring of emotion and regret at our losses in an art form outside the mainstream of artistic tastes of the period. Memorials
are sadly unsuccessful warnings of the horrors of war.
CSK
Part memoir, part travel book, part historical reflection, this volume repays reading. RJA
Obituaries James Arrowsmith-Brown
(OH 1934—1939)
Richard Pardy
(BH 1947—1954)
Donald Baker
(NT 1939—1943)
James Partridge
(SH 1960—1970)
Ian Barlow
(WiH 1948—1954)
Tim Pierce
(WaH 1974—1985)
Philip Barry
(WaH 1956—1964)
David Puddle
(DH 1966—1971)
Philip Brittain
(Former Master)
Robert Rankine
(SH 1945—1950)
Rodney Brown
(BH 1943—1948)
Bill Richardson
(DH 1940—1944)
Charles Clark
(SH 1972—1976)
J Sandy Ross
(ST 1936—1944)
Donald Chesser
(WaH 1948—1953)
John Savory
(ST 1957—1961)
John Cooper
(NT 1938— 1949)
Oliver Smith
(ST 2005—2012)
David Corcos
(PH 1943—1947)
Peter Lewis-Smith
(DH 1931—1941)
Edward Daniels
(OH 1971—1981)
James Snowden
(BH 1974—1983)
Stuart Hadley
(BH 1937—1941)
Jonathan Stewart
(PH 1963—1966)
Kenneth Helps
(ET 1953—1957)
William Terry
(DH 1947—1951)
Thomas Hunt
(OH 1931—1935)
Wayne Thomas
(OH 1956—1961)
David Jacobs
(NT 1938—1948)
Geoffrey Tilley
(DH 1947—1951)
Jonathan Jacobs
(PH 1965—1969)
Donald Tosh
(SH 1949—1953)
Lionel Kopelowitz
(PH 1940—1944)
James Turner
(WiH 1945—1949)
Richard Krawiec
(OH 1958—1968)
Johnny Veeder
(SH 1957—1966)
Antony Lane
(OH 1952—1955)
Chris Waller
(Former Master)
John Mercer
(WaH 1946—1952)
Richard Watson-Williams
(ST 1938—1949)
Robert Michaelson
(SH 1960—1965)
Brian Wilson
(Staff 1956—1971)
David Middleweek
(PH 1952—1956)
Christopher Wood
(ST 1938—1948)
Derek Miller
(PH 1939—1947)
Brendan Wright
(WaH 1955—1960)
Jetta Ober
(Former Matron PH)
OC Magazine 2020 35
Ian Barlow
(WiH 1948—1954)
Ian was born on the 4th June 1935 in Sherborne and died on New Year’s Eve 2019 in Keynsham, Bristol. After a private cremation the family held a Memorial Service for him on Friday, March 13th in the church of St Endellion in North Cornwall. Many family and friends were able to attend in spite of the impending travel restrictions and the superstitions associated with the date. Clifton was represented by, amongst others, his nephew Charles Manners (SH 1976—1). Tom Gover, (Housemaster SH) Ian’s long standing friend and golfing partner who spoke so eloquently, and our old friend and contemporary the Rev. Bob Hyatt (Pre —53) His Clifton roots were deep, he being the son of R.M.M.Barlow, (BH 1917—22) and grandson of H.G.Barlow, Clifton Master, appointed 1889, His mother, Margaret Carey was also the daughter of a distinguished schoolmaster. G.M.Carey, of Sherborne. From prep school at Highfield, near Liphook, Ian won a scholarship to Clifton arriving in September 1948. His level head was in evidence from his first day when the House Tutor assigned to meet him after the train journey from Scotland failed to turn up at Temple Meads and Ian made his own way to Wiseman’s. We were very much part of each others’ lives through school, university and nearly sixty years of family life after his younger sister, Cynthia, and I were married. Naturally I was forever grateful to him for introducing us!
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Our first encounter cannot have been the most auspicious for Ian. In September 1949 he was starting his second year in Wiseman’s to find himself sharing a study with two friends and a timid young new boy, myself, whom he was tasked to look after. This situation derived from the good intention of our eccentric and much loved housemaster The Rev Peter Brook. My three new senior companions were very tolerant. I kept a low profile. Ian was very much the golden boy of his generation, scholar, games player, musical and artistic and destined to lead. But potential disaster struck during that year when he contracted polio. Luckily, when he felt ill PWPB advised him to take to his bed rather than fight the symptoms on the games field with vigorous exercise. He was then forced to miss several months at school. He recovered well but effectively missed a year. He went on to enjoy a very distinguished school career with two seasons in the 1st XV and captaining an unbeaten side in 1953, with Hockey colours and a XXII in the rain filled Bristol spring and summer. Living then in Scotland he was also selected to represent and Captain a Scottish Schoolboys XV. He excelled academically and having cleared the board of the Classics Prizes he won a major scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In that final year he was our Head of School, a role which he filled with impressive authority and dignity. So much for the bare facts of his achievements at Clifton. Our five years together were of course very special and memorable with much laughter, shared successes and failures. Ian was always at the centre of groups of friends with wide ranging talents and interests. At heart he was perhaps as shy and diffident as the rest of us but his intelligence and character led the way. Our occasional adventures were hardly serious breaches of discipline but I do remember a Whole Holiday one summer term when we drove down to Salcombe in Devon for the day, hired a boat and spent a very peaceful few hours at sea in the sunshine with a bottle or sherry and biscuits and sandwiches. Our transport was the family car of one of our number who lived in Bristol, borrowed for the day with his parents permission! On another occasion on a wet Saturday afternoon we decided to go to a film somewhere deep into Bristol and
therefore out of bounds. We took the precaution of asking PWPB for permission and he thought it a reasonable idea. Unfortunately on Monday morning the Marshal with spies everywhere hauled us in to explain. We gathered later that our poor housemaster had to endure more censure than ourselves. Perhaps there are grains of truth in some of the immortal words of the chorus of our School Song! After Clifton we all went our separate ways most of us proceeding to National Service with Ian becoming commissioned in the Black Watch serving in Berlin. There he was one of those responsible for guarding the most famous prisoner in Spandau, Rudolf Hess, whom he was required to supervise but forbidden to address. Two years later academic life for us both resumed at Corpus, Cambridge. As a Classical Scholar Ian was given the best rooms in the Old Court, identified as 00, which he retained for all three years. It was very central and therefore a focal point for his circle of friends. This was not just because of geographical convenience; his tutor’s description of him as ‘very popular with his contemporaries, who respect his word and his judgement a great deal’ was totally accurate. As a talented Classicist with a First Class in Part I of the Tripos, Captain of the College XV, representing the LX Club, College Cricket XI he continued to follow the path started at school. He would tell the story himself that he was considered too small to qualify for the University side which was surprising for someone who was one of the tallest of his age group. But there is no doubt that he was extremely skilful in the dark arts of forward play having been tutored by two internationals at Clifton, Peter Brook and John Kendall Carpenter. The Rugby XV of such a small college enjoyed some success in those years and as well as reaching the semi-final of the inter college knockout Cup we had the great experience of a tour abroad, in Spain based in Barcelona. The grounds were so hard that by the end of our stay there were hardly enough players with intact knees and wrists to field a team. The Spanish were all so keen to to have the honour of playing against us that they had rows of substitutes ready to take part long before the modern practice started, and they supplied large volumes of sherry to be drunk from porrons as half time refreshment. There is a commemorative plaque on the outside wall of his room
which calls it the Christopher Marlowe Room and on one Poppy Day when Colleges were thrown open a label reading ‘PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE UNDERGRADUATE’ was attached to this. Ian also took his turn as President of the spuriously named Corpus Chess Club, a relic of Victorian Dining Activity, which sadly is now ‘outlawed’ because of riotous and irresponsible behaviour by our successors in the late 1980’s. I remember that we were rather civilised. Three undergraduate years during which life had been lived at a furious pace even in those far off days of the 1950’s had to end but it ended with something special. A group of four new graduates climbed into a Hillman Minx owned by one of the party and loaded to capacity with rucksacks and suitcases, set off for Europe. Our goal was Greece to visit ancient sites and the islands travelling down through what was then still Yugoslavia and a Communist country. We were away for nine weeks and Ian was throughout our wonderfully well informed guide and a congenial companion It was a sort of Grand Tour to complete our education. He had always seen himself as following his father’s footsteps into teaching and it was no surprise that he accepted a post to teach Classics at Rugby, which is of course the ‘parent’ school of Clifton. He joined a formidable team in his department and started as a House Tutor. He successfully coached house XV’s and XI’s and became an ambitious drama director with a production of Hamlet. And then at the school level he coached the 1st XV and subsequently took full charge of Rugby football. One of his achievements in this capacity was to organise the reenactment of the origins of the game at Rugby to celebrate the staging of the World Cup in England in 1991. The film of this event was shown on national TV and would certainly have warmed the heart of Ian’s former mentor John KendallCarpenter who had been a leading light in the setting up of the whole World Cup competition before his untimely death.
In July 1968 Ian married Susan Horan in Tewkesbury Abbey. A young family soon arrived. He went in the early 1970’s with Sue and the family for a year to Devon where he was to spend his time at Exeter University on a course devoted to the pastoral care of children’s upbringing. It was not long afterwards that he began a stint of varied Housemastering, first in Town House for Day pupils which had always been on the edges of school society. With his dramatic and musical interests as well as his sporting accomplishments he was able to inspire and integrate his charges in the wider life of the school. Moving to Kilbracken in 1981 he faced different challenges. It must was a large boarding house which had experienced two changes of housemaster in as many years and was in need of a person of Ian’s strength, wisdom and cool headed tactical savvy. (There is a fine story of a well planned citizens’s arrest performed by Ian and his Kilbracken boys on a nocturnal intruder!) He was hugely supported by Sue with her own imagination and experience. Kilbracken parents of the time are witnesses to the affection and respect the two of them inspired. His last years at Rugby were spent as Registrar, a post which required total knowledge of the school. This Ian was uniquely able to provide, having run two Houses, an academic department, several teams and as Chairman of the Games Committee, the sporting life of the school as a whole. In 1997 he moved with Sue to Trebetherick in Cornwall, a place of Barlow rest and recreation for 100 years. In 1999_2000 he answered a call to stand in as Headmaster of Arnold Lodge School in Leamington. Back in Cornwall he became well known in the local musical world. In the church life of St Endellion he took a major part; his readings are well remembered. No mean golfer, at one of his last rounds at St Enodoc he scored a
hole in one, recounting the story of which gave him much pleasure in his declining years. He and Sue were the kindest of hosts at their carefully designed and welcoming home at Sliggonfield. And the garden there, a deep coombe filled with lawns, borders, rockeries, woodland and fruit trees was Ian’s much loved and tended creation. His great friend and colleague at Rugby, Keith Maclennan, sadly a recent victim of Covid-19 and no longer with us wrote of Ian at length for the Rugby community. He was happy that I should share his words especially those telling of his career at Rugby. It was said of Ian that ‘the blackest sheep he saw as a misjudged grey, and the grey were all well on the way to becoming white’. Ian was no starry eyed schoolmaster — he had seen enough of human nature for that — but the words above capture his wish to see the best in his charges, especially the members of his two Houses. He was able to bring out the best in those in his care. One of his former pupils, after a distinguished career as a diplomat and as Master of a Cambridge College said how he remembered Ian with great affection and hoped that he thought ‘I had turned out all right’! Throughout his life and almost to the end he regularly completed the Times crossword early in the day and was invariably able to source an appropriate aphorism. When consulted recently by a great niece about studying Greek at University he replied “Not having read Homer is like never having seen the sea”. His last years were blighted by Alzheimer’s, which he bore with patience and characteristic good humour. In spite of increasing memory loss he was still able to enjoy talk of early days at Clifton. He is survived by Sue, three children and seven grandchildren. Peter Dawkins (WiH 1949—54).
OC Magazine 2020 37
Philip Brittain [Pre Staff 1983—1996] The profile of Art in the Pre was raised considerably during the 1980s with the arrival of Philip Brittain accepting the baton (Persuader?) as Head of Department from the inimitable Peter Clay. The fortunate timing coincided with the opening of the Hornby Arts Centre, launched by Roger Trafford and consolidating the hitherto disjointed pursuits of painting, woodwork, design and pottery into one splendid building. Philip’s determination and vision for coordinating this enterprise initiated the
Donald Chesser [WaH 1948—1953]
Commem Art Preview, building on its success as a major annual event in the School. But there was far more to the man beyond his passion for pottery. Enthusiasm for the great outdoors found him leading the Easter holiday Lakes Walking Wheeze, surmounting the Fells in all conditions thereby laying the foundations for his D of E expeditions which would follow in future schools. His affinity for the pastoral side of the School guided him towards Tait’s Town as Housemaster for a decade, juggling those young charges and the parental throng in his customary equable manner. Running both the House and the Art Department necessitated the arrival of a fellow artist
Donald Chesser died on 23 November 2019 aged 84. Donald’s life mirrored that of his identical twin brother, John, who died in 2012. Having left Clifton, Donald studied medicine at St Thomas’ Hospital, where he met his first wife, Akey. He and John then joined the GP Surgery in Carshalton, Surrey, which had been set up by their father and uncle. Their identical appearance confused patients for years.
and departmental successor, John Grice, whose glowing recollections of Philip — a kind, thoughtful, calm teacher, supportive colleague and good friend — echo the feelings of so many in the Clifton community. Departing in 1996 for the scholastic challenges of Scotland, “PAB-lo” would be much missed, just as he is now. He leaves behind his wife, Jenni, who taught with him at St Leonard’s and Bedales for many years, and his two dear daughters, Emily and Lottie, both OCs. John Hatton
He married Joan in 1982. On his retirement in 1995 they moved to Chipstead in Surrey where they lived happily, playing more golf, walking the dogs and holidaying in different parts of the world. Andrew Chesser
Donald lived in Sutton all of his working life, had three children and played a lot of golf, as did John. An active member of the RAC, Banstead Downs Golf Club and various medical golfing societies, Donald enjoyed numerous trips to the USA playing matches against American doctors.
Nigel Cross [ST 1967—1970] Nigel Cross was born in Cambridge to Barry Cross, who was to become President of Corpus Christi College, and Audrey (nee Crow). Following his career at Clifton, he went to Sussex University to read English. In 1974, after graduating, he worked in a bar on Exmoor and it was here that he met Victor Bonham Carter, author and farmer, who was also President of the Exmoor Society and Secretary of the Royal Literary Fund. Recognising Nigel’s literary talents, he invited him to become the RLF’s Archivist, and he held this position for the next ten years. As a result of his daily access to the RLF’s archive, he wrote The Common Writer: Life in 38 OC Magazine 2020
Nineteenth Century Grub Street, a volume examining the conditions of authorship and the development of publishing and journalism during the 19th Century whilst also providing a detailed account of the social, economic and cultural factors which determined success or failure in terms of literary reputation. In addition to this book, published in 1985, he was a regular contributor of book reviews for the Spectator and the New Statesman. In 1975, he embarked upon a Doctorate at UCL on literary history and it was here that he met his first wife, Caroline. They married in 1980 and had two daughters, Harriet and Madeline. During the late 1970s, he started to travel abroad and, amongst other projects, he was involved in the setting up of the Arid
Lands Research Agency in response to the severe drought in the Sahelian area of Sudan. In 1983 he became Director of the SOS Sahel organisation in London using his natural eloquence and charm to raise funds for this area and negotiating successful alliances with similar organisations in other countries thus paving the way for the creation of SOS Sahel International. In 1994 he moved to the Panos Institute which promoted media and communication in the developing world. As a result of his efforts he was appointed five years later to head up the International Institute for Environment and Development. The strain of this had an impact on his health and was one of the reasons for the collapse of his marriage in 2010.
After a short spell as professorial fellow at Soas University in London he joined the Dutch Development Agency in 2008 as its Director in South Sudan, a post which
presented serious challenges as the country came to terms with independence. There he met a Ugandan colleague, Josephine Namuss, whom he
Lionel Kopelowitz
his training at University College Hospital, London.
[PH 1940—1944]
Jacob Lionel Kopelowitz was born in Newcastle on 9 December 1926, the elder of two sons of Moses Kopelowitz, a physician from Lithuania, and Mabel (nee Garstein). He arrived at Clifton in 1940, but was to spend most of his school career in Bude, joining that extraordinarily talented group of pupils. In 1944 he gained a place at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read medicine, completing the practical part of
Robert Michaelson [SH 1960—1965]
In 1952, he did his National Service in the RAF and, following his qualification as a doctor, he took over his father’s practice in Newcastle. It was here that he developed an interest in issues concerning national regulations and the status of GPs and he joined the BMA, serving on its Council and chairing the General Practitioner Committee. In addition, in 1973 and 1976, he was President of the United Hebrew Congregation in Newcastle, a post which gave him a seat on the Board of Deputies. In 1980 he married and his involvement in the Jewish community, both locally and nationally, came to be a defining part of his life. From 1985 to 1991 he was President of the Board of Deputies and, an outspoken activist, he also became President of the National Council of Soviet Jewry. His contribution to both these organisations was immense and he is remembered with respect and affection by all those with whom he came into contact as part of his role. The former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, described him as “one of the finest and longest-serving Anglo-Jewish leaders of our time”, whilst, on hearing of his death, the current Board President observed that he was
Born in Port Talbot in Wales, Robert Michaelson was a well-known and respected figure in the horse- racing industry. After Clifton, he went to the University of Kent in Canterbury and thereafter developed his lifelong career in the investment business. A keen rugby player in his youth, he became involved with horses from the moment he left university. Along with the trainer, Andrew Balding, he enjoyed success with Border Arrow. He part-owned the horse with Wafic Said and together they set up Sagitta Asset Management. The company sponsored the 1000 Guineas and the 2000 Guineas from 1998 until 2002. Border Arrow finished third in both the 2000 Guineas and the Derby in 1998.
married in 2014, settling between Salisbury and her house in Kampala. Ill health continued to affect him and he died this year aged 66.
a forceful figure with strong views. His passionate commitment to the Jewish people was evident until his sad passing. Along with these considerable achievements, he was noted for both his political skill and for the depth of his knowledge of Jewish practice in the services of English orthodox congregations, the latter being recognised by Dayan Binstock in his introduction to the Koren edition of the Yom Kippur Mahzor. He was, above all, a great believer in tradition and defender of the AngloJewish virtues of formality and patriotism. As a result, he presided over the European Jewish Congress from 1988 until 1991, was on the Council of the United Synagogue and was Vice-President of the Council of Christians and Jews. In 2015 he was awarded the MBE for services to interfaith relations and was also recipient of the Officers’ Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany for his work fostering JewishGerman relations. A remarkable man of great passion and energy, he stayed in touch with Clifton on a regular basis and was a regular correspondent as far as the OC Society was concerned. He died in London aged 92 on 27 July 2019.
Moor Lane was another of his successful horses, winning the Great Yorkshire Chase. He was regarded with great affection by many in the racing industry, several describing him as a “fantastic owner” with a great passion for racing. His trainer for over thirty years described him as a man with a great sense of humour and a “very loyal human being.” An ardent Chelsea fan, he never married. He died last year aged 72.
OC Magazine 2020 39
David Middleweek [PH 1952—1956]
off the field. He played full back for the house when it miraculously beat the hot favourite Browns in the semi-final of the house annual rugby competition. The only minus to that was the housemaster, Phil Polack, increasing the training time by one hour every morning which didn't make a bit of difference to the final result. After his successful O-levels David was promoted to the upper sixth taking his Alevels in one year rather than two. He gained admission to Birmingham University at the age of 17 where he obtained a first class honours LLB and then on a scholarship to St Edmund Hall Oxford where he was granted his BCL.
David Middleweek entered Polacks House, Clifton, in the summer term of 1952 leaving at the end of the summer term 1956. Despite coming from Wolverhampton being the heartland of British industry, David had no trouble settling in to public school life. Though he had some anti establishment sympathies he seemed to sail through his scholastic challenges with little effort. He was however always ready to enjoy the better things in life when the opportunity arose. David was a keen sportsman both on and
Theodore Rabb [PH 1950—1954]
After Clifton, University and Law school David married a Manchester girl and came to Manchester ultimately starting his own criminal law practice defending the Leading Low Lives of the town – very successfully, he was clever, a good communicator and they loved him, no need for a burglar alarm in his house!! At the same time socially he became a firm favourite of all who got to know him with his easy charm and humour and for someone coming from another town with no contacts he quickly became a firm favourite.
and came to Clifton in 1950, entering Polack’s House. In 1954, he went up to Queen’s College, Oxford as a Scholar, reading Modern History before going to Princeton to complete his Doctorate.
A deeply scholarly man and a leading expert on Early Modern Europe, he wrote many books including The Thirty Years War: Problems of Motive, Extent & Effect, Enterprise & Empire, The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe, Renaissance Lives, Jacobean Gentleman: Sir Edwin Sandys, and The Last Days of the Renaissance.
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His new sport however was sitting at a table with a few cards in one hand and a whisky in the other. This ultimately morphed into Bridge where he was much in demand as a partner and played a very good game. He created a magical aura around him and he was a product of the best years of Clifton, Polacks and its Housemaster at the time Philip Polack, a real Mensch. He died on April 11 2020,from coronavirus with other complications aged 81 leaving a widow, Joan, his son James, in Perth, Western Australia, a daughter Fiona in Oxford and six grandchildren as well as two sisters and Laurence ( OC) his brother. All who knew him will miss him enormously he had become a unique character loved by all, a very remarkable man.
Austen Science & Jonathan Lever
Not that his sporting activities at Clifton
Over a forty-five year career he taught Renaissance History at Stanford, Harvard and Princeton where, for the last forty years, he was a Professor and member of the History Department.
Theodore Rabb was born on 5 March 1937
on the Rugby Field as the flying full-back followed him apart from a liking for a competitive game of tennis with his son James on his own court where his flat Tom Okker style service defeated most of the opponents.
He co-founded the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. He also served on the Boards of The Hebrew
University and Save Venice, and chaired the National Council for History Education and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. He took great pleasure in initiating and directing the Princeton University/Community College Partnership which enhanced the professional development of the Community College faculty. In 1993, his television series, Renaissance, was nominated for an Emmy. He was a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times and the Art Newspaper, amongst others. Above all he was a great champion of his many students whose careers he helped to shape, and was a loving inspiration to his family. He is survived by his wife, Tamar, his children Susannah, Jonathan and Jeremy, five grandchildren, and his sister Judith. He died on 7 January 2019.
Bill Richardson (DH 1940—1944)
was Founder and Director of Thos. Nelson Yacht Agency Ltd in 1960 having spent many years as a leading yachtsman, including crossing the Atlantic in the Lloyds of London yacht Lutine. He developed sales of the production of Bertram Motorboats, a company which grew out of the early offshore powerboat successes of Richard Bertram, who apart from being a champion sailor on powerboats was also a leading boatbuilder and broker, Sam Griffiths and Jim Wynn. As a result of his efforts, deliveries were made by expanding sales into the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Bill Richardson was born on 1 August 1926 and was one of the talented generation who attended Clifton College when it was evacuated to Bude, following in the footsteps of his uncle, James Bowman, who was an OC. Much of his subsequent career centred around the Boatbuilding Industry and he
John Savory [ST 1957—1961]
Under his direction, Thos. Nelson also expanded, with regular stands at the earls Court Boat Shows, as agents for Hatteras, Chris Craft, the P28 Swedish sailing yacht, and in having the Illingworth and Primrose designed GP Warrior motor sailer built under contract by Morgan Giles Boatbuilders of Teignmouth. Later he and Thos. Nelson were successful in gaining the agency for the Finnish-built Nautical Motor Sailor in the UK and Europe. Thos. Nelson was also successful as international yacht brokers, and he sold many pre-owned craft in many markets. independent thinking, escaped from his weekly boarding school and walked over the Clifton Bridge, ducking under the toll booth to avoid detection. He was six years old. He attended Clifton College in Bristol and the school’s proximity to the Mendip Hills enabled him to pursue his interest in caving through the school’s Caving Club, inspired by his Dad who was a caver and pioneer cave photographer. The existence of the “Savory Hole” is testament to this. His love of wildlife, particularly birds, stems from this time. The possibility of becoming a farmer raised its head and John did a year’s practical on a couple of farms, but driving tractors was not what he was looking for – he wanted animals, so he left to work in Bristol Zoo, aged 18.
Born in Abbot’s Leigh on 14 August 1943, to his parents Dorothy and Harry Savory, John was significantly younger than his elder half-brother and sister, Geoff and Philippa, but he became close to both nonetheless. Although he enjoyed school, he could be a bit naughty and, in an early display of
A few months later he found himself in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, working on a VSO research project. He lived with the Masai in the Crater, where he once had a close encounter with a leopard. The nine months he spent there were a highlight of his life and Africa forever held a special place in his heart.
He moved to Gibraltar and then to the south of France, acting as agents for Lloyds Marine Underwriters Board, and, using his wide experience of ordering, transporting and commissioning Bertram boats up to 38ft, he moved into the management on behalf of owners of the building, commissioning and use of larger motor yachts for owners in the UK and in the Mediterranean. He was the owners agent on construction projects for a number of mega-yachts including Sheergold and Tigre d’Or. He was also involved in a major refit of Nabila when she was renamed Trump Princess. In addition, he worked for members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family on their leisure yachts as well as on a project to build fast patrol boats for their coastal patrol fleet. He was very highly regarded throughout his long career by customers and shipbuilders for his knowledge of all aspects of boating and boat ownership, and many people whom he taught and mentored over the years have gone on to build successful careers in the boating industry. He died in September 2019, aged 93. University to study Zoology, making lifelong friends in the process. He left with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and went on to complete his PhD on The Feeding Ecology of the Red Grouse in 1973. He joined many outdoor clubs, including the Lairig Club, and was a founder member of the Aberdeen Exploration Society. After Aberdeen he began work at the Poultry and Research Centre and then at the Rorlin Institute. He became involved in many conservation projects, including one in Morocco, but the highlight of his volunteering career was his work in developing natural woodland on the Wildwood Project in Carrifan in the Moffat Hills. In 1976 he married Eileen and they had two children, Matthew and Fiona. In retirement he and his wife travelled extensively. Sadly he developed cancer in 2018 and he died on 8 January 2020. He leaves many monuments to his presence on this earth, from his voluntary work at Carrifan to his research projects during his life. [Taken from the Eulogy given at his funeral by Gill Cottman]
In 1963 he gained a place at Aberdeen OC Magazine 2020 41
Wayne Thomas [OH 1956—1961]
Wayne Thomas came to Oakleys House in September 1956 from Llandaff Cathedral School, following in the footsteps of 4 generations of his family and of his second cousin, the character actor Naunton Wayne (Naunton Wayne was known at Clifton as Henry Wayne Davies). He had a successful career at Clifton, becoming Head of House and then Head of School in the Michaelmas Term of 1961. He was a fine sportsman, winning his Hockey Colours and First XV Colours playing full back in the strong Centenary side led by Anson Allen. From Clifton, Wayne went up to Jesus College, Oxford,as an Exhibitioner to read Modern Languages (French and German). His degree course required him to spend a year in Paris at the Sorbonne. Wayne captained the Jesus rugby XV in his last year at Oxford. He is remembered by his fellow students for his determination and courteous approach in dealing with any issues within Jesus or on the rugby field including querying politely wayward decisions of the referee. These positive and attractive character traits, were developed, no doubt, from his early days at home in Cowbridge, his schooling in Cardiff, then Clifton and Jesus. They were to remain part of his core values throughout his life.
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On graduating from Oxford, Wayne decided to follow a legal career. He qualified as a solicitor with Denton Hall, having had the distinction of coming top in the Equity and Tort Examination. Whilst at Dentons, he had the interesting experience of advising some of their private clients ranging from Shirley MacLean, Diana Moran of ‘Green Goddess’ fame and Shirley Conran, known as ‘Superwoman’, to Stanley Kubrick, the famous film director. He resolved a lastminute legal issue for Kubrick, so that Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra could be used in the opening sequences of the film 2001-A Space Odyssey. As well as earning Kubrick’s gratitude, it resulted in Wayne being given a seat next him on the opening night in London in 1968. It made Wayne appreciate the value of studying for a modern languages degree that included German. From Denton Hall , Wayne moved to Bristol to work at Veale Benson (now Veale Wasbrough Vizards) where he remained for 30 years, becoming a Partner in the process . After leaving Veale Wasbrough, he joined Gregg Latcham as a consultant for the last stage of his legal career . Wayne specialised in conveyancing and acted in many Bristol transactions, from the Arup building to domestic sales and purchases . Amongst his clients were Bristol University and Clifton College. His work was characterised by attention to detail and nothing was too much trouble for this modest, kind and delightful man. Wayne married Rosemary in 1973 and they moved into a house in Duchess Road in Clifton. Then, after 7 years, they moved to their Pembroke Road house, whose garden backed onto the Close. This was to be the family home where their two children, Ben and Laura, were to grow up in the company of the family tortoise “Tolly “, who died in 2012 at the remarkable age of 135 having been born some 15 years or so after the foundation of the College. Both Ben and Laura later followed their father to Clifton. Wayne was appointed a Governor of the College
in 1989 and served as a member of Council between 1995 and 2000. For 20 years he was much involved with the St. John’s Ambulance, becoming in due course the Avon County President. In retirement, Wayne and Rosemary moved to Stoke–Sub– Hamdon, where he became a Governor and then Senior Warden (Chair of Governors) of King’s School Bruton. He valued this association but sadly had to step down as Senior Warden due to ill health. At Stoke–Sub– Hamdon both Wayne and Rosemary quickly became involved with the local community. Wayne joined the local Rotary club and both he and Rosemary became joint Presidents of Stoke–Sub– Hamdon Brass Band. At the Memorial Service to Wayne in the College Chapel, Christopher (Kit) Lewis, his life-long friend, said in his Tribute that Wayne was “an intelligent, funny, generous, faithful and loving man”. These sentiments were also echoed by his good friend from Clifton, Robin Vernède, who said of Wayne that he was “a man of immense integrity and as modest, decent and honest an individual as you could ever hope to meet”. This is how I also remember Wayne from our shared days in Oakleys, albeit with a competitive edge when it came to sports, particularly rugby in inter-house and inter-School matches ! Along with many others, I count myself fortunate to have known him. Wayne died at his home on the 30 November 2019, surrounded by his family. He had eventually succumbed to the cancer from which he had suffered with stoicism in his final years, cared for lovingly by Rosemary. Our sympathies go out to her and all the family at the passing of this much loved and loving husband, father and brother. Miles Buckinghamshire (OH 1958–1963), with thanks to Christopher (Kit) Lewis for sharing his Tribute at the Memorial Service for Wayne on 4 January 2020 in Clifton College Chapel, attended by his family and many of his friends.
Donald Tosh [SH 1949—1953]
Donald Tosh was born in Hastings on 16 March 1935, the middle of five children, to Scottish parents William and Gladys (nee Haig). His father had been in India but returned to England to set up a teaimporting business on the South coast. During the war, the family evacuated back
Johnny Veeder [SH 1957—1966]
Van Vechten Veeder was born in London in 1948 to Jon Vechten Veeder, who came from a prominent Dutch family which could trace their roots back to one of the Dutch families that had founded New Amsterdam in the 17th Century, and Helen Townley, a Scot who had studied chemistry at St Andrew’s University.
to Scotland and lived in St Andrews. In 1949 he arrived at Clifton and during his time at the school he threw himself wholeheartedly into the acting side of life, once appearing as Eliza Doolittle in those pre co-education times in My Fair Lady opposite John Gorrie’s Henry Higgins.
is E-Shaped starring Keith Michell. At the same time he worked as script editor on the BBC’s version of Sherlock Holmes with Peter Cushing in the title role and Nigel Stock as Watson, and he dramatized Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place.
After National Service in the Army in Egypt and Cyprus. Where he worked for the British Forces Broadcasting Service, he trained as an actor at LAMDA and made his debut in rep at Worthing.
In 1972, tiring of the precarious nature of his profession, he retired to Dorset where he ran a tobacconist’s shop for several years before finally retiring to Suffolk in 2000. There he volunteered for work as custodian of Sherborne Old Castle and, for English Heritage, of St Mawes Castle.
Curiously, however, he suffered from stage fright and he started to develop an interest in script-writing and editing, joining Granada TV’s strong department in 1959 as a script reader. In 1964 he joined the BBC and was story editor for Dr Who and was confronted by the ageing and difficult William Hartnell in the title role. As well as commissioning stories he also wrote scripts for some of the episodes in this series. On leaving Dr Who in 1966, he wrote the ITV children’s serial Mystery Hall and returned to the BBC to scripts Happiness
In 2013 he appeared as an extra in the 50th Anniversary episode of Dr Who which was something of a biopic of the Doctor which covered the early years of what had by now become a television classic. He married Daphne Coysh in 1965. She predeceased him in 2000. He died on 3 December 2019 and is survived by his stepson, two stepdaughters, two sisters and a brother.
Always known as Johnny after his father, he was initially educated in Paris since his father worked for an American oil company there. Aged seven, he was then sent to board at Clifton, largely because his uncle was the Head Master Nicholas Hammond.
use their opponents’ names, never to use inflammatory language and always to be straight and open with the tribunal and the other side. He had a talent for bridging differences, his unassuming and disarming personality being his trademark.
Already tall and athletic, he excelled on the rugby pitch, playing for All England Schoolboys. He went on to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied Modern Languages before switching to Law and gained a Blue. After graduation he would often turn out for the Harlequins Bs but his legal career quickly developed and put an end to his rugby.
His first marriage ended in divorce. In 1991 he married Marie Lombardi who worked for the bank Paribas Capital Markets. They enjoyed relaxing at their home in Massachusetts where he was happy to spend time piloting his yacht. Marie survives him along with their daughter, Anne, who is studying Zoology at Edinburgh University. He is also survived by a daughter and son from his first marriage. Tabitha works in Human Resources and Sebastian in sales.
He was called to the Bar in 1971 and he soon built up a successful practice specialising in employment and commercial law, taking silk in 1986. Under the guidance of the future Lord Steyn he increasingly focused in international disputes becoming in the process one of the most sought after arbitration specialists. As an advocate he insisted on the highest standards. He taught his juniors never to
According to one of his closest friends, he was a natural teacher and scholar, with a hunger for knowledge. He was Visiting Professor at King’s College, London, and was an external academic advisor at the City University of Hong Kong and Queen Mary & Westfield College in London. In addition he was the General Editor of Arbitration International.
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Toby Landau QC observed It is difficult to find words to commemorate Johnny Veeder. Difficult because he was such an extraordinary person in so many ways. Difficult because everyone with whom he had contact was
Chris Waller [Former Master]
Keeping a diary is such a wonderful “aide memoire” when trying to recall past events and thoughts and in the case of Chris and Clifton my ramblings on first meeting him on Sunday 3rd September 2002 make thought provoking reading. “Drinks for new staff at the Hallworth’s, met a new tutor for MH called Chris Waller, seemed a really nice guy, very mature, not sure how long he will be with us at Clifton and also not sure how he will cope with some of our more lively brethren''. Well I was right about him being a really nice guy, but the other observations prove just how wrong first impressions can be, I could not have been more wrong. The fact he gave the address at my leaving function in Moberlys thirteen years later deals with the former impression and, as for the latter, no tutor ever had more grip on a set of potentially difficult boys than Chris. Friday night with Chris on duty and staying over on my top
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deeply affected and has their own special recollections. And difficult because his hatred of vanity and his complete selflessness was such that he would have loathed any such tribute. Johnny is recognised worldwide as one of the most brilliant, visionary and respected
floor quickly became a favourite night for three reasons. Firstly, I could go out for an hour or two safe in the knowledge the House was in far more reliable hands than when I was in charge. Secondly my own children would get an hour of “pure gold” teaching in prep for any test they had coming up and, lastly, at the end of the night we would spend hours discussing all manner of things some educational but mostly sport or our mutual love of westerns; these are times I vividly recall as being priceless. In MH he was a truly outstanding tutor who spent hours all through the year supporting not just his group but anyone who needed help. MH boys would come to him in droves and he never let them down; he was always so generous with his time and advice. He was also so wonderfully reliable, never missing a duty night or a lesson or any school commitment for that matter. Snow and a three mile walk from the railway station would never put him off. However his contribution to Clifton went far beyond MH. His teaching of language was both inspirational and exceptional, once you survived the initial shock of the intensity and expectation you tended to become a disciple of the Doc. Teaching was his vocation, but language was the undoubted academic love of his life There were cricket teams that he ran with Reggie, where early morning practices in sometimes awful weather became the norm, even for less than eager day boys; he loved his cricket and it is so appropriate that we are celebrating his life here today. Then there were his spellbinding talks in Chapel that stirred even the most cynical Clifton pupil. He was undoubtedly the person who most staff as well as pupils would enjoy listening to in chapel. Basically he was a schoolmaster to his core.
counsel, arbitrators, scholars and teachers in the field of international dispute resolution and international law. He was, truly, a legend in his lifetime. He died on 8 March 2020 of complications following pneumonia.
Parents eager to see their child challenged but supported, quickly took to him and in an age where parents tend to have the upper hand in the whole school/ teacher relationship it was always most gratifying to see them address Dr Waller with reverence and awe. The last constituency in the life of a schoolmaster is your fellow teachers and it is perhaps here that Chris made his biggest contribution. Yes, he was a Modern Language teacher but his influence extended to everyone he came across from the most junior to the Head Master, he was the same with everyone. He was always interested in their story and the fact we have so many teachers were at his funeral from so many different departments tells his story. He was so supportive of young teachers who he saw as the future of education, something he cared deeply about. Whether it be a kind word on the street, a coffee in the SCR or via his beautifully written postcards he would be there for you as a colleague. Others will speak about his successes as a Head of department, Deputy Head, Headmaster, academic student and tutor plus Chris as the family man and lifelong friend, the breadth and number of people who came to his service are testimony to the impression he has made on so many during his life. The word great is grossly overused in our society, but in the case of Chris Waller as a School Master he is fully deserving of this accolade. He was also a fine human being and a true friend to so many of his. I certainly regard him as one of the biggest influences on my life and I know scores of teachers and pupils would say the same. Alan O’Sullivan
Brian Wilson [Former member of staff]
Brian Wilson, who died aged 93 on 14 January taught at Clifton from 1957 until 1971. He was educated at Calday Grammar School in the Wirral when his father became Bank Manager in West Kirby. He refused the offer of being sent to a private school and similarly would not sign the no alcohol pledge. He described himself as being a difficult child and was disruptive in all his classes except Physics. Scouting proved a life-saver and he learned about camping and cooking. He reflected later as a Headmaster that socalled difficult children often turned out to be the most interesting ones! In 1945 he enlisted in the Royal Signals at Catterick where he passed out as Senior Officer wearing the Sam Browne belt which his father had worn in the First World War. As a captain he became Senior Signals Officer on the Suez Canal. Soon he found himself driving into Jerusalem in a
heavily armed vehicle avoiding the gunfire between Jews and Palestinians! Brian went to Jesus College where he read Engineering having abandoned Physics. His first teaching post was at Caterham for a few years where he became a Housemaster. On arriving at Clifton he became House Tutor in Oakeley’s. His single-decker bus was often used to take Cliftonians abroad and he was famous for his 1936 Rolls Royce. He became a great asset to the Corps for his climbing and camping skills in the Cuillins. He persuaded Nick Hammond to allow him a year off at Milton Academy and felt he was lucky to be allowed back at Clifton! He became Housemaster of East Town and followed Harry Edwards into Watson’s. He did not really relish his time as Housemaster and felt that his life was changed when he met Margaret at the age of 40! Marriage took place in 1966 solemnized by Hugh Thomson-Glover with John Marsh at the organ. A few years earlier he had restored a dilapidated cottage Bryn Dern in the wilds of wales near Rhwiddlion which proved a muchloved escape for the Wilson family. The high point of Brian and Margaret’s career began at Chigwell when Brian was appointed Headmaster. The school was not in good order; there was too much beating even by prefects. Brian soon abolished corporal punishment. With Margaret’s help art and drama were encouraged. The Queen Mother opened the new Art School. With help from the Clifton librarian, David Reed, a new library was opened. The addition of a new Biology Department, facilities for Technical Studies and a Junior School meant that
the Wilsons let light into Chigwell. They found time to take their camper van to South America leaving Chris and Justin at school. Justin was not happy about boarding and tried to set fire to the school (or at least he was responsible for burning a waste-paper basket!) Chris, also fairly rebellious, was sent to Clifton when he was in the 6th Form and got on well with his godfather, Brian Mawer. Sadly Margaret’s MS deteriorated and by the time they retired to Clifton she was wheelchair bound. Nothing daunted, Brian managed to manipulate wheelchairs to distant parts of the world. He became Head of Post A Level Studies for Indonesia and Nepal. As he said, “Not many people in wheelchairs have visited India, Nepal, Cambodia and Turkey!” Brian’s contact in Nepal was Om who sent this message on hearing of Brian’s passing: “His simplicity of life-style and cool character (not worrying, not hurrying in the most difficult of situations) are some of the things I will remember him for most.” In recent years in his early nineties he found the energy to visit Vermont and to take the Trans Siberian Express to Vladivostock. Supported by his muchloved boys, Brian died peacefully in his sleep having lived life to the full. In his own words I have experienced setbacks and disappointments, but the most extraordinary thing is that most of the major setbacks turned out to be very much to my advantage. Of course, I did not realise that at the time. Tom Gover
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OC Lodge Like many groups and organisations the Old Cliftonian Lodge found itself unable to meet during lockdown and as such our Installation meeting was unfortunately cancelled. W.Bro Nigel Deacon [LS,WTP, STP, OH 1973-82] was unable to take the role of Worshipful Master for the year, that role remaining with W.Bro Timothy Neil Freeman [LS, TT, STP, ET 1972-83] until such time as the Lodge can safely meet again. The brethren have embraced the technology available however - Zoom conference calls have played a crucial part in enabling us to keep in touch and ensure we maintain friendships during this difficult period. We have even been able to maintain the Masonic tradition of the 9 o’clock toast to absent Brethren. W.Bro Timothy Freeman had a very busy year in the chair and we were delighted that he was able to take advantage of the many invitations received from our sister Public Schools Lodges during his year in office. Following the great success of the Public Schools Lodges Festival held at Clifton on 2nd June 2018 it was the turn of the Public Schools' Installed Masters Lodge, No. 9077 to hold the annual event. The festival was held at the Royal Masonic School for Girls at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire on behalf of the St Paul’s School Lodge, the Old Pauline Lodge No. 3969 on 25th May 2019. The theme for the festival was masonic music; with the day being particularly sunny, the grounds and buildings being interesting to walk around and the entertainment being enjoyable and informative the day was a success. The Royal Masonic School for Girls is one of the oldest girls’ schools in the country. Founded by Chevalier Ruspini in 1788, the School's original purpose was to educate the daughters of Freemasons who were unable to support their families through death, illness or disability. The Festival is a great opportunity for the various school Lodges to showcase their schools, their history and their membership to the wider Masonic community. It is also an opportunity for Wives, Partners and families to get involved and share in the experience. The Lodge unfortunately had some bad news with the passing of W.Bro. Dr. Stuart Drew PAGDC on the afternoon of Sunday 12th May 2019 aged 74. W.Bro. Stuart was appointed as our Visiting Grand Officer in
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December 2005 when we were part of the Rippon Group of Metropolitan Grand Lodge. He became our Visiting Officer in January 2007 and remained so until April 2011. He was elected an Honorary Member of the OC Lodge on 20th October 2011 and remained a very good friend of the Lodge. He and his wife were usually part of the Clifton contingent attending numerous PSLC Festivals; they were both involved in our PSLC Festival in 2018 when they were to be seen as a partnership working as members of the Reception Team. W.Bro. Stuart was a Past Master of the Old Malvernian Lodge No. 4363 and was also a member of the Phoenix Lodge No. 257. This year the Lodge tried a new schedule for our meetings, and we decided to meet in September rather than the traditional time of October to allow a little more time in-between. As our usual meeting room was unavailable we also moved venues to Mark Masons hall in St. James, London. The Lodge performed the second degree for Bro Jonathan Glassberg. The Lodge was assisted in the ceremony by an OC Richard Farmer who was a visitor for the evening. We hope he will become a member of the Lodge in the future, but regardless we are always happy to receive Masonic visitors. In November we made our annual visit to Clifton. As the Rose of Denmark pub had closed, our working lunch was held at the Westbury Park Tavern, doubling up as a business meeting to discuss the upcoming year. After an enjoyable meal we were then able to meet the Cliftonian Society Secretary Jo Greenbury, the Director of Development Jeremy Pickles and the Headmaster Dr Tim Greene when they joined us for the traditional Lodge preMeeting Afternoon Tea in the Newbolt Room. Following tea, the members moved to Freemasons Hall, Park Street, where the Lodge was once again joined by the Robert Thorne Lodge to witness the Lodge putting on a third degree demonstration. We were joined by a large number of Bristol masons keen to see our version of the ceremony which is very different from their own “Bristol Working” ceremony. The traditional Festive Board was as usual a happy occasion, concluded by the singing by all present of The Best School of All to the accompaniment of the original 1862 school bell. The main business of the January meeting
was to perform the third degree for Bro Jonathan Glassberg. He had been unable to attend the meeting in Bristol but was pleased to be able to complete his masonic journey. Having had a chance to practice the ceremony at our November meeting, the members gave a fine performance and the evening was enjoyed by all. Dining after the meeting is an important part of Freemasonry as historically meetings were often held in the upstairs room of a tavern. The Lodge has until fairly recently been dining at the Imperial Hotel but we decided to move venue to the Radisson Blu hotel in Mercer Street who have a private dining room and are well set up for Masonic dining. We hope to make this our preferred dining venue when things go back to normal. Charity is an integral part of Freemason and while individual members have been doing their part, during the lockdown the Freemasons’ COVID-19 Community Fund has been founded and will help to support a range of local and national charities and projects that are helping people through the current coronavirus pandemic. The Masonic Charitable Foundation will match donations made to the Fund up to a total of £1 million. Despite recent events the members of the Old Cliftonian Lodge are keen to resume normality and return to our usual meetings, while this may be difficult from a logistic point of view in the short term, the Lodge will overcome this enforced absence. The provisional dates of our meetings for the current year are; Thursday 17th September 2020 , Saturday 7th November 2020 (Freemasons’ Hall, Park Street, Bristol), Thursday 21st January 2021 and Thursday 22nd April 2021 (Installation Meeting), both of which will be held at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London. OC Masons are always most welcome as visitors – please contact the Secretary if you would like to attend. Membership of the Lodge is open to any male OC, any Master who has served on the teaching staff for at least five years, and the father of any present or past boy or girl pupil. If you are interested in Masonry and would like further information please contact: The Lodge Secretary, David Peters, 4 The Woodbine, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1JE Tel: 07709 630036; email: davidanpeters@aol.com.
Letters Dear Sir, As always I greatly enjoyed reading the latest Cliftonian and of the school’s great endeavours in so many areas with one notable absence. After the Editor, Dr Bob Acheson, kindly afforded me the space to make a call for action headed HOW CLIFTON CAN LEAD THE WAY IN INSPIRING STUDENTS TO REGENERATE OUR SOCIETY in the Cliftonian of 2015, I had high hopes that the school’s response would add a vital humanitarian dimension to your impressive list of achievements and encourage volunteering at the grassroots, to enhance Clifton’s heritage, transform the lives of its students and make a real difference where it really counts. Sadly that generous two-page spread has to the best of my knowledge produced no response from the school, teachers or pupils, over a critical time of deprivation for the most vulnerable members of our communities, when Public Schools face a possible existential threat and the need to demonstrate a reputation for reaching out to the underprivileged. After 54 years campaigning against loneliness and setting up a national task force now comprising 19000 Contact the Elderly volunteers, I am deeply disappointed that, at 83, I have yet to persuade my own school to take action having succeeded in doing so elsewhere and in persuading universities (including Durham, Liverpool Hope, Nottingham and Royal Holloway) to set up tea-party groups providing regular lifelines to isolated older people in their areas.
The school is missing out on huge benefits of such vital importance not least of which is helping to persuade philanthropists who prefer to support the deprived rather than those who made it to Public Schools, to reconsider and give more generously to centres of excellence like Clifton. To achieve this, however, requires Governors’, Trustees’, Staff and pupils’ engagement to demonstrate to such potential donors that the College is actively encouraging students to help the deprived at the grassroots in the wider community in keeping with Albert Schweitzer’s compelling advice Start to instil in your students awareness that they are on this earth to help and serve others. That is as important to pass on to them as knowledge. To put this in context, sadly five years after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the neglect of a million pensioners as “a source of national shame” in October 2013, the Government admitted that it was just the start of tackling this challenge to establish a clearer picture of the prevalence of lowliness following media reports of “a million pensioners left starving through loneliness (Times, Independent, Guardian 22/01/18). The good news, however, is that my proposal should now strike a more vibrant and topical chord with Clifton’s governors and trustees, following the Prime Minister May’s adoption of my proposal:
Dear Dr Acheson,
Sandy to Art College in London.
In a letter to the OC Edition 2019, Bernard Simpson wonders whether he is the only survivor of the first Bude reunion in 1991. I cannot recall the date but I was at one led by Patrick Jenkin about then. Survivors included, just, myself, Simon Ward (Dakyn’s and a new House created on returning from Bude), and Sandy Hett, again Dakyn’s. Simon lives in Hillsleigh Road, Notting Hill, W8 7LE. Sandy Hett is not well. He lives in High Street, Ardingly. Simon went to Lincoln College, Oxford,
As my handwriting suggests, at the age of 91 I had a stroke which has affected my ability to manipulate a pencil. Hence the illegibility. Evidently, I remember Bernard Simpson better that he remembers me; but if you are in touch with him, please pass on my best wishes. In the distant past, I chaired the Commission for Racial Equality. I am impressed by Clifton’s achievements in dealing with this issue. So far as girls are
“to rebalance the educational curriculum to ensure that teachers, schools and universities spend at least as much time teaching the young to care for their frail and elderly relatives as they devote to promoting respect for ethnic minorities and faith groups” (in letters to the PM of 280417, 26/1117 & 30/10/18) by including a compulsory relationship with the elderly in the new relationships education: “all primary and secondary schools will be encouraged to teach by 2019 and required to do so by September 2020” Paragraph 2 on page 50 Loneliness Strategy 15/10/18 I very much hope, therefore, that all concerned will now ensure that Clifton takes up the baton and, once the project is launched, will be pleased to offer an appropriate award for the best contribution to the school’s efforts to reach out to isolated older people at the grassroots, thus enhancing Clifton’s heritage and reputation for making a thousand flowers bloom and encouraging the brightest and best to make the most difference by becoming the Ambassadors of tomorrow where it really counts, in lighting up forgotten lives with a vital link of friendship and hope. With warmest wishes for your success Trevor Lyttleton MBE Trevor Lyttleton MBE MA LLM (Cantab) Hon DHL (Liverpool University) Patron: Solicitors for the Elderly Founder and Chair: Contact the Elderly 1965-2015 (Renamed Reengage2019)
concerned, boys at boarding schools tended to be predatory. The presence of girls at Clifton has, the photo suggests, confirmed that equal status, though I found the way Clifton girls wield their hockey sticks somewhat alarming! In the old days, a stick raised above the shoulder led to a whistle! Not these days evidently. Yours Peter Newsam (DH 1942—1947)
OC Magazine 2020 47
Dear Bob, I enjoyed Derek Winterbottom’s piece on 100 years of the Boat Club very much – please pass on my address to him.
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It is good that the Cliftonian has woken up to rowing – it never said much in my day, and certainly my writing on rowing has been ignored by the Magazine since my time at school. If you would like rowing tales of the 1950s, you only have to ask.
Chris Dodd (NT, ET 1950-1960) [Editor’s note: Chris is Historian and Vice President of the River and Rowing Museum so any reminiscences always gratefully received!]
The Percival Library: 150th Anniversary Whether Victorian or 21st Century, a school that prioritises the importance of a Library makes a clear statement about the placing of learning at the centre of the community. Percival understood that just as a Chapel was central to the spiritual education of the young, so a well-stocked
and well-run Library was central to stimulating the intellectual growth of Clifton pupils. This ethos was shared much later by both Hugh Monro and Stephen Spurr the result of which was a refurbishment of Percival’s original building in 2002. This year sees the 150th
anniversary of this important Clifton resource and reprinted below is the excellent summary of the Library’s history, written by another ex-Head Master, Stuart Andrews.
OC Magazine 2020 49
50 OC Magazine 2020
Image from the Illustrated London News 1867
John Hatton came across this edition of the Illustrated London News for October 26, 1867, and has sent it in as a matter of interest. The text reads as follows:
THE GUTHRIE MEMORIAL CHAPEL CLIFTON COLLEGE A CHAPEL, attached to Clifton College, near Bristol, has been erected by the late Mrs. Guthrie, as a memorial to her husband, the late Rev. John Guthrie, Vicar of Calne, Canon of Bristol, and Chaplain to the Marquis of Lansdowne; Canon Guthrie having been the first chairman of the council of the college. The architect was Mr. C.F.Hansom, of Bristol. Our illustration shows the building which is in the Early Decorated style. The east end terminates in a beautiful semi-decagonal apse. The west end with its rose window, moulded cornices, sculptured medallions, and graceful arcading, is exceedingly rich and tasteful. The south side is divided by bold projecting buttresses into six bays, each containing a two-light window. The tracery in the heads of these are varied and pleasing. On the north side at the west end is a tower, which gives an air of completeness to the whole.
representing our Lord, surrounded by Angels and the Twelve Apostles, is by Wailes of Newcastle, and was placed there in memory of Mrs. Guthrie by the president, vice-presidents, and council of the college. Dr Symonds, of Clifton, has given a window in the nave in memory of his friend, Canon Guthrie; and the twelve windows of the ante-chapel have been presented by friends of Mrs. Guthrie and other ladies. The Head Master has given the organ. A handsome stone pulpit has been presented by the masters, and the lighter furniture of the chapel is for the most part the gift of friends of the late Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie. The Clifton College has been established five years. Its growth has been singularly rapid, the number of pupils now exceeding 300. The system of education pursued is very similar to that of Marlborough and Cheltenham. The school buildings, which are in the Perpendicular style, are externally
very handsome, while internally they are lofty, spacious, and well arranged. They are situated at one end of the close, which comprises about fifteen acres of ground in the vicinity of Durdham Down. There are five boarding houses in connection with the school – those for elder boys being on the Rugby plan. A physical science school and a gymnasium are now provided. “A serious house on serious earth it is”; in an age where even Archbishops are challenging the value of church buildings and architecture, reading this is a timely reminder of how much of Clifton owes its existence to gifts and benefactions, generously given without a second thought, and how valuable the College Chapel is in the unfolding history of the place. As Larkin concluded in his reflections in Churchgoing such buildings “can never be obsolete” and long may that be the case.
Many friends of the late Canon and Mrs. Guthrie have contributed to making the interior beautiful. There are five stained glass windows in the chancel. The centre one, a memorial to Mrs Guthrie, placed there by her own family, is by Hardman and represents the Resurrection and the Ascension. The windows to the left and right of the centre, also by Hardman, are given by present and past pupils of the college. The other stained-glass windows in the chancel, which are by Bell of Bristol, have been placed there respectively by Mr. Gale Coles, in memory of his son, and by Mr. Pirie, the father of two former pupils. The very rich rose window at the west end,
OC Magazine 2020 51
Last Things Readers may recall that in last year’s magazine there was a feature concerning James Whitehead which the family members contributed as part of their developing quest, following the publication here of The Whitehead Letters, to honour both James and George Whitehead and their contribution during the First World War. The final chapter in this saga is printed here. The family were guests in Lauwe, where George was shot down, and were deeply touched by the reception they received. Last October, Christabel Russel Vick wrote This time last week we were in Lauwe, Belgium, at the unveiling of the memorial to George Whitehead and Reginald Griffiths. The lovely thing was that Reginald’s great niece, Erica, was there. Sue had managed to track her down through ancestry.com. The photo shows left to right Mike (Sue’s other son), Erica, self, Frances (our cousin) and Rosemary (our oldest sister). We thought it may be a couple of dozen people but were then informed that the top three classes of three schools would be in attendance – about 60 eleven year olds. There were also buglers to play the Last Post, national flags were raised and anthems played. I made a speech (see below) but in English, though our contact Bernard had it translated into Flemish and inserted it in the programme. The Mayor (of the district of Menin) also spoke. We then went back to De Club (I think the equivalent of the British Legion) and were
presented with a wine kit (corkscrew, anti-drip and stopper). Then we had a sit-down lunch for 40 people with a nice meal of tomato soup, turkey stew and chips. The Belgians are very proud of having invented the chip and just a tad annoyed they have become French fries. The memorial is next to the farm where George and Reginald were shot down. There were a couple of articles in local papers but as we don’t speak Flemish, I have no idea what they say apart from the fact that it is 101 years later. All in all a lovely tribute to two brave airmen. We are still collating photos and bits and pieces so do let me know if you would like more for the archives. We gave a copy of The Whitehead Letters to Bernard when we met last year. He is the mastermind behind the memorial. He even made it himself. So thank you Clifton for preserving Sir George’s book, for the synopsis of the letters and to Rebecca Clear for unearthing it. I suspect I will be writing up how it all happened as it makes a good story. The text of Christabel’s short address in Lauwe was as follows At school you learn about world history. At home you learn how this history affects your family. We are here today because our grandmothers were keen that we knew what happened before we were born.
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Our grandmother used to talk to us about her brother George. Erica’s grandmother used to talk to her about her brother Reggie. So we all grew up knowing that they had served in the First World War and had died for the cause. It was only last year when my sister and I came to Lauwe and we met Bernard. To discover that George and Reginald were remembered here too was very moving. There is indeed a poem by Laurence Binyon that has the line “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.” That is all we can do – remember them for their courage and their bravery. We wish to thank the town of Lauwe and Bernard in particular for doing this tribute to two men who at least died knowing that the town had been liberated as they were seen waving handkerchiefs to the people in the town. There is indeed a foreign field which is forever England...and Clifton. All this probably brings the Whitehead story to a gentle close although the brothers, and the family’s subsequent quest, would make a very good television piece.
AGM Minutes of the 122nd AGM of the Old Cliftonian Society and the Old Cliftonian Society Endowment Fund Trustees, held in the Newbolt Room on Friday 15th November 2019 Apologies: Mark Eldridge, Charlie Newington-Bridges. Attendance: OC Executive Committee, Seb Hoyle, Brioney Denner and Grantley Guy. 1. Confirmation and approval of the minutes of the 121st AGM 2018. These were approved and signed. 2. Confirmation and adoption of the 121st Annual Financial Report and Accounts 2018. MHC stated that these were published in the Magazine [OC Edition] 2019.He reported that the auditors wanted greater clarity going forward around the costs to the Society of the Magazine, but that otherwise everything was in order. There was no indication that spending in 2019 would be significantly different. The CCEF was currently valued at c.£4.7 m. These were adopted and signed. 3. The President’s remarks See point [4]. 4. The Chairman’s review of the year AC extended his best wishes to the President for a quick recovery from his fractured ankle. ME’s enforced absence explained the absence of any Presidential remarks! The Chairman expressed his thanks to Matt HowardCairns (MHC) for taking on the role of Treasurer with such distinction over the last few years. He thanked Mark Eldridge for his continuing and vigorous support of the OCS on Council, and JHG and LN for their efforts throughout the year. He thanked the Finance Committee for their work in holding S&W to account
and managing the CCEF. With MHC taking up a place on Council, the Chairman announced that the new Treasurer would be Myles Watkins; MHC would assist MW to ensure that the transition was smooth. The Chairman reiterated that transparent stewardship of the OCS/CCEF finances was a cornerstone of the Society’s ongoing success. He thanked Bob Acheson for editing the 2019 OC Magazine with such style. AC drew attention to the following points of note: a. Since the last AGM, there had been 27 OC events; 15 pupils had been supported by OC scholarships; and 12 pupils had been in receipt of OCS bursarial support. A particular highlight was that the OCS had managed to ensure that a Y11 pupil who would have been forced to leave the College because of a dire financial situation at home, was able to return for the Sixth Form following intervention by the Society. The pupil was a “good egg”, and was also playing representative rugby! The OCS had also given grants for sport [senior rugby and a triathlete], music [an organist] and the customary travel award. b. 2019 saw another successful Telethon in July, and thanks in this regard are also due to Jeremy Pickles and Laura Griffiths for their help with this initiative. 470 phone conversations led to 120 OCs becoming donors and giving £60k income to the CCEF. Coupled with the represented a very tangible “giving back” to the school. c. The Careers Fair in June had been another conspicuous success, and thanks was due to all those OCs who participated. This event perfectly demonstrates the value of the OCS to the school. d. The relationship between the School and the OCS requires constant reflection. The MoU that has been agreed by the Society’s Executive & members of the
College is the starting point for the relationship in the short and medium term, and settles the basic principles of the relationship between the OCS & CC. There is further work to be carried out around the precise mechanism by which the costs of the Society will bemet as the current subscription model is no longer sustainable, and ongoing discussions need to reach agreement on the future funding model. It remains a core objective of the Society that all Cliftonians should become members of the OCS and this MoU looks to provide a firm footing on which we can move forward, in order to support the goal of ensuring that both the College and the OCS are vibrant and healthy for many years to come. 5. Elections of officers The Chairman thanked those members of the Executive Committee who were retiring, namely Mike Pyper, Vanessa Walsh and Charlotte Graveney. They had all given sterling service to the OCS over many years. Myles Watkins was appointed to the post of Treasurer. Mark Eldridge was re-elected as President, having been proposed by AC and seconded by MHC. Kate Holland Smith was re-elected as Vice President, having been proposed by JI and seconded by MW. Matt Howard Cairns was elected as Vice President, having been proposed by JW and seconded by KHS. Seb Hoyle, Brioney Denner and Tamsin Robertson were elected as Members, having been proposed by MW, KHS and AC, and seconded by MHC, JW and Grantley Guy respectively. 6. Appointment of auditors MHC and MW were agreed that Bishop Fleming be re-appointed as auditors. Date of the next AGM: Friday 13th November 2020 The meeting closed at 16.45.
OC Magazine 2020 53
Accounts HONORARY TREASURER’S REPORT
THE OLD CLIFTONIAN SOCIETY
This report consists of two parts.
The Society receives life membership subscription income and voluntary contributions from past and present members of the school. These cover the costs of running the society, including subsidies for OC reunions, Branch dinners, the Cliftonian Magazine and the website, as well as various OC sporting activities. The Society’s funds can also be applied for the benefit of the school.
First there are the summary accounts of the Old Cliftonian Society. This is a members’ club and the accounts are not published elsewhere. The information contained within this section is only part of the Society’s full audited financial statements and as such the auditor’s full statements and associated notes are not listed within this magazine. If you would like a copy of the full financial statements, these are available to members on request from Jo Greenbury at the Cliftonian Society Office. The auditor’s report on the financial statements was unqualified.
Grants and exceptional expenditure can be met from capital, but it is the Executive’s intention that the Society should always keep an amount equal to at least one year’s expenditure on deposit. Current reserves comfortably exceed this level.
Second there are the summary accounts of the Clifton College Endowment Fund, a registered charity. The full accounts are available on the Charity Commission website. The Trustees are the members of the OC Executive Committee. The auditor’s report on the financial statements was unqualified.
OLD CLIFTONIAN SOCIETY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2019
OLD CLIFTONIAN SOCIETY Total funds 2019 £
Total funds 2018 £
9,532 68,067 102 1,130 18,189
9,046 83,896 35 258 21,391
97,020
114,626
Direct costs: Secretary including admin expenses The Cliftonian OC Sports Website/Potentiality Miscellaneous expenditure and entertainment Events expenditure Governance
23,992 20,000 4,971 6,427 9,384 38,494 1,200
22,212 36,699 50 15,704 7,549 47,334 900
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
104,468
INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM: Subscriptions - OCs Subscriptions - Current pupils Interest and dividends Sundry receipts including Galsworthy prints Events income TOTAL INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS
BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2019 Note
2019 £
£
£
2018 £
CURRENT ASSETS Debtors Cash at bank and in hand
2
4,740 234,588
257,264
239,328
257,264
(23,519)
(34,007)
CREDITORS 3 NET CURRENT ASSETS
215,809
223,257
NET ASSETS
215,809
223,257
SOCIETY FUNDS Total funds
215,809
223,257
TOTAL FUNDS
215,809
223,257
EXPENDITURE ON:
NET (EXPENDITURE) / INCOME BEFORE OTHER RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
130,448
(7,448) (7,448)
(15,822) (15,822)
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS: Total funds brought forward
223,257
239,079
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD
215,809
223,257
54 OC Magazine 2020
The financial statements were approved by the Trustees.
THE CLIFTON COLLEGE ENDOWMENT FUND The Charity Commission has authorised the trustees to use total return accounting, which allows us to use a wider range of investments with the expectation of generating greater overall returns from the fund. The Fund is no longer restricted to solely distributing investment income, but can also distribute some capital gains within strict guidelines. The income of the fund consists of income and gains from a portfolio of investments. Smith & Williamson have managed the fund during the course of the year and the Finance Committee reviews their performance each quarter.
Assistance can be provided towards school fees in cases of unforeseen financial need especially, but not exclusively, for those with an OC parent. OC parents of pupils in the school who run into financial difficulty should approach the School Bursar in the first instance to apply for support in paying fees. Distributions may also be used to provide particular items or support for specific projects, identified in discussion with the school. OC activities in the UK and around the world continue to be investedin and supported, which accounts for the continued increase in gifts & donations. Contributions, which may be directed to any of the restricted funds and in particular to the fund in memory of Charles Colquhoun, or to the general fund, are invited from all OCs. Gifts from UK taxpayers gain Gift Aid increasing the net value of the gift by 25%. Further details can be obtained from Jo Greenbury at the Old Cliftonian Society Office.
THE CLIFTON COLLEGE ENDOWMENT FUND STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2019 Total funds 2019 £
Total funds 2018 £
INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM: Donations and legacies Investments
195,584 119,542
62,811 110,047
TOTAL INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS
315,126
172,858
30,992
30,010
96,392 2,350 3,879
111,096 5,000 3,197
TOTAL EXPENDITURE
133,613
149,303
NET INCOME BEFORE INVESTMENT GAINS/(LOSSES)
181,513
23,555
Net gains/(losses) on investments
728,377
(392,983)
NET INCOME / (EXPENDITURE)
909,890
(369,428)
NET INCOME /(EXPENDITURE) AND MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
909,890
(369,428)
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
909,890
(369,428)
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS: Total funds brought forward
4,153,772
4,523,200
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD
5,063,662
4,153,772
EXPENDITURE ON: Investment management fees Charitable activities: Educational grants, bursaries and scholarships Projects Governance and other costs
OC Magazine 2020 55
Tiers of Donors The main focus for CCDT fundraising has been for scholarship and bursarial support and I am delighted to report that to date we have supported 39 pupils.
Sandy Hett (DH 1946)
The Close Benefactors
Sir Trevor Chinn (PH 1953)
(£1k - £10k)
OC Masonic Lodge
276
Granville Davis (NT 1939) =
Many thanks to all these donors who have supported us:
Piotr Holysz (SH 2003)
The Commemoration Benefactors
A. Frank Petrosky
(up to 1k)
Percival Benefactors
Davidson Charitable Trust
1513
The J & M Britton Charitable Trust
(£250k plus) The Old Cliftonian Society Joseph Cooper (NT 1931) = Jonathan Glassberg (PH 1983) Mildred Tomlinson = David Jones (BH 1955) = John James Bristol Foundation Polack's House Educational Trust Anonymous x 1
Guthrie Benefactors (£50k - £250k) Nicholas Porter (ET 1986) Jacqueline Pullinger = Mr D & Mrs H Stevens Trevor Howard (DH 1932) = Edgar Harborne (NT 1952) Roger Cooper (DH 1952) Alan Morgan (NT 1969) Isidore Grossman = Sir Hector Sants (BH 1973) Simon Brewer (ET 1981) HSWJ Trust Stephen Zimmerman (PH 1967) Anonymous x 3
Wilson Benefactors (£10k - £50k) Ian Lane (ST 1950) John Pocock Hugh Harper (WiH 1986) Christopher Trembath (ST 1980) Robin Bowie (WiH 1980) Marc Futter (OH 1939) = Friends of Clifton Graeme McEvoy (SH 1987) Tim Greene Ann Futter Lomeli Sir David Willcocks Music Trust Fund
56 OC Magazine 2020
Arbi Gayrabekov Halid Musayev The Harry Crook Charitable Trust Bob Frampton (WiH 1942) = Lin & Judith Wilson (NT 1954) David Forbes-Nixon (NT 1983) Andrew Thornhill (NT 1962) Milan Morjaria (SH 1985) Simon Makinson (WaH 1976) David Killick (OH 1956)
Some donors choose to remain anonymous and their wishes are respected. The list shows donations received since 1st January 2000. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. If your name has been inadvertently omitted please accept our apologies and deepest gratitude for your support. Please contact us and we will rectify this as soon as we can.
Arron Banks Tim Ross Michael Brooks (NT 1951) Sir Peter Job (DH 1959) David Jenkins (SH 1940) = Keasbey Memorial Foundation Sir Martin Franklin (PH 1983) Colin Hallward (ST 1953) Rick Saunders (DH 1981) Peter George (BH 1990) John Dayer (NT 1948) Neil Constable (WiH 1983) Peter Greenaway (NT 1950) Christopher Dale (BH 1988) Agnes Weighell = Thomas Elliott (OH 1982) Pat Howe (ST 1955) John Barron (DH 1952) = Matthew Kemp (PH 1985) Peter Bartrum (DH 1926) = Geoffrey Mowat (ST 1936) = Davy Pain (SH 1936) = David Peck (OH 1939) = Dorota Lyszkowska-Becher (OH 1998) Julian Tayler = Kadoorie Charitable Foundation Richard Farrimond (WaH 1965) Neal Foster (PH 1984) Anonymous x 4
= In Memoriam
OC Branches & Clubs If you are living in, moving to, or travelling around the Globe the following OCs have offered to be a point of contact in their regions: The OC Office are always happy to put you in touch with others who may not be listed below
United Kingdom Bristol Jezz Grainger 07785 345111 jezzsterboy@yahoo.co.uk Channel Islands Brett Allen 07911732195 Ossory.brett@gmail.com Isle of Man Derek Winterbottom 01624 670 732 derekw@manx.net London Direct all queries to Lucy Nash, OC Office 0117 315 7665 Lnash@cliftoncollege.com Northumberland & Co Durham David Penny 07855 430 811 davidspenny2003@yahoo.co.uk Yorkshire Christopher Gibbs 07886 202901 christopher.gibbs@cantab.net
Scotland Douglas Findlay-Shirras 07785-277387 douglas@kinellanlodge.co.uk
Wales Nick Jones 07968 042542 nick.jones500@gmail.com
Irish Republic And Northern Ireland Richard Holdsworth +353 860 222759 +353 1 8947916 richardholdsworth@hotmail.com richard.holdsworth@cricketirel and.ie
Australasia Australia - Queensland Roger Griffiths +61 7-32662794 +61 (0)42 880 1000 grifo@optusnet.com.au Australia – New South Wales Piers Hogarth-Scott +61 405 151 971 piers@hogarth-scott.com
Australia – Tasmania Peter Newsom +61 492 984 476 peternewsom6@gmail.com Australia – Western Australia John Melville-Jones +61 8-64882164 john.melvillejones@uwa.edu.au
New Zealand Clive Weston +64 9 531 5248 +64 21 905 565 cweston@nautilusestate.com
Europe Belgium Richard Lewis +322 767 8153 richard.lewis@telenet.be France Colin Yeandle +33 2 3328 1037 colalyeandle@orange.fr Gibraltar Bruno Callaghan +34 956 615 160 +350 200 43636 bruno@callaghaninsurance.com The Netherlands Charles Mander +31 652844090 charles.mander@live.com Poland Marcin Szala +48 693 964 717 marcin@szala.net
Russia and CIS Boris Yaryshevskiy +79851831313 yaryshevskiy@gmail.com
Switzerland Damian Budd +41 78 658 2469 damianbudd@hotmail.com
Central And Middle East Israel Simon Jaffa +972544986650 sjaffa@barlaw.co.il Qatar Chris Barnard Jones (BeeJay) +974 33697546 beej320@gmail.com
India Rajeev Chaurasia (Mumbai) +919821517777 rajeev.chaurasia@gmail.com
North America Canada – Atlantic Provinces David Baird +1 709 726 9093 drbaird@nl.rogers.com Canada – British Columbia Kenneth Fok +1 604 266 8578 zedbadee@shaw.ca Canada – Ontario/Quebec Richard Musson +1 416-557-2560 rjgmusson@gmail.com USA – New York Graeme McEvoy +1 908 723 1685 mcevoygraeme@gmail.com USA California / Northern Stephen Wares +1 650 690 0508 stephenwares@gmail.com USA California / Southern Izzie Pick Ashcroft +1 323 632 2812 izziepickash@gmail.com USA – South West States Alexander Watson +1 385 282 3200 Alexander.Watson@gs.com USA – Washington DC David Royle +1 202 966 7622 d.royle@mac.com
Africa East Africa Kiuri Mburathi +254 726 971961 kiurim@gmail.com and Vivian Lagat +254 723 547 648 vlagat@gmail.com South Africa Nigel Drury - Cape Town +27 79 165 8824 n.h.drury@gmail.com and David Williams - Johannesburg +27 72 597 3792 davidwilliams.rsa@gmail.com
South East Asia Hong Kong Vincent Law +852 9840 0096 vkmlaw@gmail.com Japan Masa Usui +81 90 12597800 usuim21@hotmail.com Singapore Colin Jarraw +65 9795 0025 cjarraw@gmail.com
South Korea Jane Lee +852 5372 6347 jane_lee16@hotmail.com jane.lee@alphasights.com Taiwan Simon Wong +886 953288522 no5354@hotmail.com Thailand/Hong Kong Simon Makinson +85297393691 Simon.Makinson@allenovery.com
Cliftonian Society Sports Clubs Cricket Club Jem Brooks – President 07966 264405 jbrooks@brookswm.co.uk Rupert Swetman - Captain 07773 786004 rwswetman@gmail.com Cross Country Alex Patton 07834043952 alexander_patton@hotmail.com Football Club Damien Kelland 07450243415 damien@viewrecruit.co.uk Hockey Club Josh Barnes 07766088056 jbarnes92.jb@googlemail.com Saskia Barnes 07532207157 saskia.barnes@yahoo.com Golf Society Martin Parish c/o OC Office 0117 315 7665 lnash@cliftoncollege.com Rackets/Real Tennis Club Reggie Williams 0117 315 7279 07779 248666 rwilliams3@cliftoncollege.com James Telling 07817 421 985 telling9@hotmail.com Shooting Club Daniel Odutola 07984018040 danielodutola@yahoo.co.uk Waterpolo Simon Macfarlane 07896860559 Simonmacf@hotmail.com
OC Magazine 2020 57
Chapel —Service of Honour Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer elit, sed THE OLD CLIFTONIAN SOCIETY –adipiscing 2020 diam nonummy nibh euismod
OFFICERS tincidunt ut laoreet dolore President – Mark Eldridge magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisiHolland enim adSmith minim veniam, quis Vice Presidents – Kate nostrud exerci tation Matt Howard-Cairns Chairman – Ali Coleullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo Secretary – Jo Greenbury consequat. Duis autem vel eum Treasurer – Myles Watkins
iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE consequat, vel illum dolore eu John Davies feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros Jez Walters et accumsan et iusto odio Locks Farmer dignissim qui blandit praesent James Isaacs luptatum zzril delenit augue duis Charlie Newington-Bridges dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Tamsin Robertson Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, Brioney Denner consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod Seb Hoyle tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut FINANCE COMMITTEE wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis Jo Greenbury nostrud exerci tation Ali Cole ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl Charlie Newington-Bridges ut aliquip ex ea commodo Myles Watkins consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan
Together, we are Clifton
Clifton College 32 College Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 3JH T. +44 (0) 117 315 7000 E. info@cliftoncollege.com cliftoncollege.com
1 OC Magazine 2020
et iusto odio dignissim qui consequat. Duis autem vel eum blandit praesent luptatum zzril iriure dolor in hendrerit in delenit augue duis dolore te vulputate velit esse molestie feugait nulla facilisi. Nam liber consequat, vel illum dolore eu tempor cum soluta nobis feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros eleifend option congue nihil et accumsan et iusto odio CLIFTON COLLEGE ENDOWMENT FUND imperdiet doming id quod dignissim qui blandit praesent (Registered Charity No. 1113320) mazim placerat facer possim luptatum zzril delenit augue duis assum. dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. TRUSTEES Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, of theconsectetuer Executive Committee adipiscing elit, sed Lorem ipsum dolorAll sit members amet, diam nonummy nibh euismod consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed Assets held by tincidunt ut laoreet dolore diam nonummy nibh euismod magna aliquam (Clifton College) Nominees Ltderat volutpat. tincidunt ut laoreetOC dolore magna aliquam eratDIRECTORS volutpat. Utof OC (Clifton College) Nominees Ltd wisi enim ad minimAli veniam, quis Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, Cole (Chairman) nostrud exerci tation quis nostrud exerci tation Jo Greenbury (Secretary) ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl (Treasurer) ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl Myles Watkins ut aliquip ex ea commodo ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum consequat. Duis autem vel eum Editor of the Cliftonian Magazine (OC Edition) iriure dolor in hendrerit in iriure dolor in hendrerit in Dr Bob Acheson vulputate velit esse molestie vulputate velit esse molestie consequat, vel illum dolore eu consequat, vel illum dolore eu The Old Cliftonian Societynulla facilisis at vero eros feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros feugiat 32 College Road et accumsan et iusto odio et accumsan et iusto odio Bristol BS8 3JH dignissim qui blandit praesent dignissim qui blandit praesent 0117 315 duis 7155/665luptatum zzril delenit augue duis luptatum zzril delenit augue dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. dolore te feugait nulla facilisi. Email: cliftoniansociety@cliftoncollege.com Lorem ipsum dolorWebsite: sit amet, www.oc-online.co.uk consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, diam nonummy nibh euismod consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed tincidunt ut laoreet dolore diam nonummy nibh euismod magna aliquam erat volutpat. tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis quis nostrud exerci tation nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo ut aliquip ex ea commodo