The Cholmeleian | Summer 2011 by Do Good Branding

The History and Politics Issue Summer 2011

2 Editorial

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Editors’ Notes

This issue celebrates the achievements of Cholmeleians as historians and politicians. Cover photo: Elizabeth I, who granted the School’s founding charter in 1565. (Detail from the charter). Adam Pettitt with members of Year 8 in the Garner Quad With our 450th anniversary due in 2015, and planning underway for this exciting event, it seemed a good moment to look back at Highgate’s history, and with two new OC MPs elected to sit in the House of Commons, joining two longer-serving members (as well as two OCs in the House of Lords), we decided on the theme of History and Politics for this issue, and we hope you enjoy it. We say goodbye to Viv Toulman in this issue, and thank her for the many qualities she has brought to her role as Secretary to the Foundation Office, and wish every happiness to her and husband Tony in her retirement. Cholmeleian life has been busier than ever, as we hope you realise from these pages, and you can find out more about forthcoming events for OCs by signing up to the new website, set up by our Development Officer, Charlie Goldblatt (SG c/2007). The deadline for the next issue, which will focus on the Media, will be Friday 9 September. As usual, your Notes and News to the indefatigable Michael Hammerson on michael@midsummer.demon.co.uk The Editors Simon Appleton, William Kimberley Student Editors Cicely Robinson-Nugent, Alex Beaghton The Cholmeleian Highgate School, North Road London N6 4AY email ocmag@highgateschool.org.uk telephone 020 8347 3549 website www.highgateschool.org.uk

The anniversary of the Coalition Government’s election, the new Secretary of State’s enthusiasm for history’s place in the curriculum and an eye on Highgate School’s 450th anniversary in 2015 – good reasons indeed to devote this edition of The Cholmeleian to history and politics. After the deals were done to form the new government, the Times Educational Supplement was on the phone to Highgate to ask what we did to encourage our pupils into politics. It turns out that Sir Roger’s school has sent as many, if not more, alumni to this parliament than any other school. I was at a loss to explain to the journalist, in search of a story about the unfair advantages of an independent-school education, that it was my predecessors as Head Master who could provide the clue (none of ‘my’ OCs has yet to win an election), but it was nonetheless a good question. Our mock election was fiercely contested and the issues of the day were debated seriously. Highgate pupils have got into hot water by absenting themselves to protest against cuts to university funding and the abolition of the EMA. The hard questions which economic austerity has posed are galvanising the political instincts of young people for the first time in a generation. No stranger to controversy, Michael Gove has ignited the debate over the National Curriculum by advocating a core curriculum which includes history. Likely to confuse Martin Luther with Martin Luther King and Lord Nelson with Nelson Mandela, so the argument goes, English pupils do not have the context to understand the world in which they live and whose government they choose. I am sympathetic to this argument, but as significant a problem is the unholy alliance between examination boards and textbook publishers who neatly tie the hands of teachers and lay down prescriptive and illogical syllabuses. Keen to draw inspiration from independent schools whose curriculum they admire, ministers are sending their advisers on fact-finding missions: Highgate welcomed the Director of Curriculum and Behaviour Policy for a whirlwind tour. I am not sure if he got the point about us: it’s our independence (rather than an EBacc) which allows us to do what we believe is right for our pupils – a Knowledge Curriculum which fills in the gaps and develops pupils’ understanding of chronology and causality – while allowing pupils to be examined in one or more humanity of their choice. We are just beginning to get our ideas together for 2015: part celebration, of course, but we are determined to be looking forward, using history to evaluate our achievements but conscious of the shifting political scene in which Highgate will continue to fulfil its mission and to play its part.

Adam Pettitt

Contents 3

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Regulars News

Page 33

Feature The Making of Modern Highgate

Foundation News

Music

Drama

Art

Proﬁle

School Sport

OC Sport

President’s Letter

Internships & Work Experience

Alex Tansey looks at the way the School has evolved, and the key decisions which transformed it into a modern day school

News Oscar Accolades for Tom Hooper The King’s Speech, directed by Tom Hooper, takes four Oscars Page 4

News Freddie stars in Toast Film star Freddie Highmore starred in the TV adaptation of Nigel Slater’s autobiography Page 5

News Kidnap Ordeal for Nick Roddy Nick Roddy survives being taken hostage by Nigerian militants Page 8

Friends of Highgate

Letters

Announcements

Cholmeleian Notes

Obituaries

Clubs & Societies

Past Masters

News Opening of the Rothenberg Recital Room

Features

Gala Concert celebrates the opening of the new RRR

How to Read a Church

The Making of Modern Highgate

The New Parliamentarians

Meeting Doctor David Nicolle

Page 22

Feature The New Parliamentarians Alex Beaghton meets our two new MPs Page 44

through the OCs

4 News

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Tom Hooper’s Oscar Accolades

speech (delivered with only a few long pauses) at the outbreak of war rallies the nation and creates a mood of national determination to fight Hitler. Tom Hooper attended Highgate until leaving for Westminster in the Sixth Form. His passion for the cinema began early, when he made his first film, Runaway Dog, at the age of thirteen using a clockwork 16mm Bolex camera his uncle had given him. At the age of fourteen, his film Bomber Jacket came runner-up in a BBC young film-makers’ competition. The short starred Tom’s brother as a boy who learns his grandfather died in the Second World War after discovering a bomber jacket and a photograph hidden in a cupboard. Do any Cholemeleians have memories of these? After Oxford, where he read English, Tom directed episodes of Byker Grove, Eastenders and Cold Feet, as well as the 2003 return of the Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren. Helen Mirren requested Tom as director when she starred as Elizabeth I in the historical drama Elizabeth (2005). In 2009, he made The Damned United, a fact-based film about the sports manager, Brian Clough.

His passion for the cinema began early, when he made his ﬁrst ﬁlm, ‘Runaway Dog’, at the age of thirteen using a clockwork 16mm Bolex camera his uncle had given him.

Tom Hooper collects his Oscar for Best Director – one of four awarded for the much-acclaimed film, The King’s Speech Tom Hooper’s (QG 1985–88) film The King’s Speech has been one of the most remarkable cinematic successes of recent times, garnering twelve Oscar nominations (beaten only by Titanic’s fourteen) and four Oscars (best picture, best screenplay, best actor and best director). The film’s success stems from its defiance of easy category – it’s a costume drama,

it’s about royalty (always popular) but more interestingly it’s a ﬁlm about disability – George VIth’s paralysing stammer – and a bromance about a mismatched pair – the Duke of York (and later George VI), played by Colin Firth and his Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush. It’s also very funny, and delivers a huge feelgood punch at the end, when George’s

Tom joins a distinguished group of Cholmeleians who have received Academy Awards. John Box (1934), the designer, who worked on ﬁlms such as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, won four awards for Best Art Direction. Andrew Ruhemann (HG 1976), the founder of Passion Pictures, won an award for Best Feature Length Documentary in 2000 for One Day in September, and has this year won another award for Best Short Film Animation for The Lost Thing. Passion Pictures has also achieved acclaim for its adverts for Compare the Market, featuring Aleksandr the meerkat and for its animations for Gorillaz, the fantasy band created by Damon Albarn. Paul Rotha (né Thompson) directed the documentaries The World Is Rich (1947) and Cradle of Genius (1961), both of which were nominated for an Academy Award. Adrian Lyne won a nomination for Best Director in 1988 for Fatal Attraction. Perhaps readers know of others?

News 5

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Freddie’s Toast

Martin Weale Joins the Nine Wise Men

Actor and academic Freddie Highmore starred in an entertaining television adaptation of Nigel Slater’s autobiography, Toast, this Christmas Freddie Highmore (EG c/2010) starred as the young Nigel Slater in the television adaptation of Slater’s autobiography, Toast, this Christmas. Freddie played the cookery writer in his later teenage years, as he battles his evil stepmother, Mrs Potter, for the affections of his father and discovers a passion for cookery. In a screenplay by Billy Elliot writer, Lee Hall, the film was described in The Independent as: ‘an almost Proustian autobiography, if you substitute Jammy Dodgers for madeleines, which tells the story, through the cookery and confection of the era, of his mother’s premature death and the takeover of the family home by the cleaner and soon-to-be-stepmother – the hostile Mrs Potter.’ Mrs Potter was played by Helena Bonham-Carter, the third time she has played Freddie’s mother (or stepmother) on screen – most notably in Tim Burton’s 2005 remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in which Freddie played the role of Charlie Bucket. Helena Bonham Carter is part of a tight web of associations for Freddie. She is the partner of Tim Burton, who is supposed to have cast Freddie as Charlie Bucket on the say-so of Johnny Depp, Freddie’s co-star in Finding Neverland. They have remained friends, and meet up whenever Depp is in the country. Freddie commented to The Cholmeleian: ‘It was great fun to be a part of it. Perhaps the nostalgic appeal of certain meals wasn’t something I identified with, but I enjoyed attempting to match Nigel in the kitchen in preparation for the role! Along with Helena, we had our own ‘cook-off’ one afternoon perfecting (or in my case attempting) lemon meringue pies. It was, of course, brilliant getting to work with Helena again, especially as we get along so well!’ Freddie’s background has been a useful preparation for his success – father Edward is an actor, and mother Sue an agent (among her clients is Daniel Radcliffe, a family friend). Freddie, who has just finished his first year at Cambridge, where he is studying Spanish and Arabic, is working on roles which emphasise his successful transition from child star to mature actor. Homework, shot earlier this year in New York, is a coming-of-age drama in which Freddie plays a high-school slacker alongside Emma Roberts (Julia’s niece). Master Harold and the Boys is a drama set in the Apartheid era, co-starring Ving Rhames. Unlike many child stars, Freddie has remained immune to the tantrums and implosive behaviour that go with early success. His groundedness is a tribute to intelligent parenting, and Freddie’s ability to keep up with his studies while filming. This has allowed him to juggle his on-screen success and keep up a successful career as an academic.

Martin Weale has been made a member of the influential group of economic gurus, the Monetary Policy Committee Dr Martin Weale CBE (MG 1968) was appointed to the Monetary Policy Committee in July 2010, and made a trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust in September. Dr Weale is a leading economist, who was made a CBE in 1999 for services to economics. The MPC is a group of politically independent economists who meet monthly to set the interest rate, ensuring that inflation targets are met. Nicknamed the ‘nine wise men’, the committee comprises the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King; his two deputies; the Bank’s Chief Economist and five others, four of whom are external appointees. ‘Membership of the MPC offers a wonderful opportunity to contribute to policy-making at a difficult time for the economy. The challenges we face are considerable, balancing the risks of sustained high inflation against the need to support the economy during the recovery phase’, Martin commented to The Cholmeleian. Dr Weale has held the post of director at the National Institute of Economics and Social Research, where he has written numerous reports for a wide range of bodies and governments. His latest paper for the European Commission argued that Britain’s long boom under Labour was based on unsustainable consumption. In addition to his role on the MPC, the prime minister appointed him as a trustee of the Kennedy Memorial Trust for a period of five years from 27 September 2010. The Kennedy Memorial Trust was established in 1966 to administer monies raised in the United Kingdom as a tribute to the late President Kennedy. Part of the fund is used to create and maintain the Kennedy Memorial site in Runnymede. The remaining capital is used to provide Kennedy Scholarships which enable British post graduate students to study at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

6 News

A Very Special Operator

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Jack’s Dramatic Ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro

Jack Pegram battled altitude sickness to reach the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity Sir Robert Clark with Lady Clark and long-time companion his childhood teddy bear, Falla Sir Robert Clark (WG 1936) is one of the surviving members of Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), the force created to ‘set Europe ablaze’ by acts of sabotage behind enemy lines. Twenty-nine former members of the SOE gathered under the Spitﬁre that has pride of place in the Imperial War Museum for a ceremony last November, followed by a Special Forces Club Dinner, addressed by the Princess Royal. Sir Robert’s story, previously untold, was reported in The Times. Consigned by the Navy to a desk-bound job because of his colour-blindness, he secured a job with the SOE and by 1943 he was ready to be parachuted into Italy behind enemy lines to train partisans and carry out acts of sabotage. ‘Blowing up railway engines’, he commented, ‘was really great fun.’ Tucked inside his battledress, and a permanent companion, was Falla, his childhood teddy-bear, who survives to this day. Another constant companion has been his wife Marjorie, a former SOE wireless operator, who used to send his messages back to Baker Street. They fell in love, and have been together ever since, recently celebrating their Diamond Wedding. They are the proud parents of three children and grandparents of eight grandchildren. Sir Robert’s career after the war was equally distinguished. He became a partner in Slaughter and May, the City solicitors, chairman of the merchant bank, Hill Samuel and ended up as nonexecutive director of Shell, Vodafone, Smith Kline Beecham and the Bank of England. He has lived happily for the last forty years in a house built by Edward Lutyens for Gertrude Jekyll, from which he wrote to The Cholmeleian, recalling his Highgate years. ‘I came to Highgate in 1936 at the same time as Geoffrey Bell. I thought he made an excellent headmaster with a light touch. I was evacuated to Westward Ho! and lived in the Golden Bay Hotel. I believe the School always aimed for real excellence and I approve of this. It was exempliﬁed by Cherry Chapman and his contribution to music.’ Sir Robert has certainly put the School’s principles into practice in his career, and a happy and satisfying one it sounds too.

Jack Pegram (KG c/2005; former Head of House) made a dramatic ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro last September to raise £2,300 for Childreach International. Last September, Jack, a recent graduate from the University of Nottingham, travelled through Kenya and Tanzania to Mt Kilimanjaro (5896 metres) where he began a climb that was to test all his reserves of courage and strength. The tropical heat of the early stages of the walk, where the walkers wore shorts and T-shirts, gave way to the freezing temperatures of the ﬁrst camp at 3,000m in cloud cover. On the third and fourth days, at altitudes of over 4,000m, the party began to suffer from altitude sickness. Jack woke in the night with vomiting, diarrhoea and nausea – the symptoms of altitude sickness. Although advised not to go on, Jack was determined to reach the summit, and joined the rest of the party at midnight for the ﬁnal ascent. He kept falling asleep on his walking poles or rocks, and had to keep going by repeating ‘one…two…three…four’ with every four steps, after which he had a break – during which he fell asleep. By this point, all the water in his bag had frozen, and he could not eat because of sickness. Running on empty, he reached the summit at 5896m at 10.30am, for a well-deserved photo.

…Jack was determined to reach the summit, and joined the rest of the party at midnight for the final ascent. At this point he was met by the lead guide, who checked him out and at once put his arms round his shoulders and those of another guide, and ran him from the summit until they reached 5,000m. From there, he was taken by four porters, who took it in turns to carry him down to the Barafu Huts Campsite, where he was greeted with loud applause. After a brief sleep, he began the descent to the final campsite, where he ate for the first time in 36 hours. He was emotionally back to normal, but physically drained. After the climb, he enjoyed a well-earned break, which included a two-day safari, and a week on a sandy beach, with plenty of sunlight and food. Jack wrote to thank the many sponsors who helped him raise the £2,300: ‘Attached is a photo of me at the top, with a flag which gives thank to you by having your name on it. That way, a little piece of you has made it to Mt Kilimanjaro.’ Jack, who gained a First in geography, is passionate about photography, travelling and charity work. ‘I am not sure what my future plans are, but any combination of these will make me happy.’

News 7

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

David Morgan Drives the Mongol Rally 2010 ‘It wasn’t Tipperary but it was still a long way…’

David Morgan braved danger and extreme temperatures on his epic journey to Ulanbataar to raise money for charity Last summer I (David Morgan NG c/2002) and two close friends set out to drive from Goodwood racetrack to Ulanbataar, the capital of Mongolia, a distance of 10,000 miles as part of the Mongol Rally 2010. The purpose of this trip was not only adventure but also to raise money for charity for an area of the world often overlooked, and we certainly achieved both of these objectives. The Rally consists of a drive to Mongolia with the addition of two simple rules: the car has to be less than ten years old and also less than 1.0 litre in engine size. This enabled us to import the car into Mongolia as part of our donation to our chosen charity. Our chariot of choice was a 2003 Suzuki Swift 993, 3-door (not much space for three adults). The charity we collected for was Children and Young Peoples’ Protection and Development (CYPPD), a charity based and set up in Mongolia. Many children in Mongolia start work from the age of ﬁve, many doing jobs unsuitable for a child and the focus of the charity is to provide education and support to these children by providing free schooling, healthcare and respite care. It took us the best part of six weeks to drive the 10,000 miles. We crossed central Europe,

stopping outside Prague to meet many of the 500 teams to form partnerships and friendships that would prove invaluable when in the deserts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Once we left Prague, we set the compass to the East and the three of us crammed into our tin car and with a bundle of car parts and tools (that we had no idea how to use) set off on a route we still hadn’t fully decided on.

water became more complicated and careful planning was required as well as good sign language as we headed East. However, what did improve was the scenery. Mongolia has such huge vistas, including mountains and deserts, that made driving for upwards of twelve hours a day truly enjoyable. The trip was arduous but driving down in to Ulanbataar after six weeks on the road was certainly a great feeling. Even if

Even if our car’s fuel tank was now an old water carrier located in the front passenger seat…we made it. The ‘planned’ route was to travel through the Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan then back to Kazakhstan, Russia and into Mongolia. This route was altered somewhat due to a petrol crisis in Uzbekistan and civil war in Kyrgyzstan. These proved to be the least of our problems. Although we were now on a ‘safer’ route through Kazakhstan and into Russia and Mongolia, we had to deal with a broken exhaust, a punctured fuel tank, and temperatures as high as 45°C and lower than freezing. Once we left Europe, ﬁnding food and clean

our car’s fuel tank was now an old water carrier located in the front passenger seat and driving was indeed a health hazard due to the petrol fumes, we made it. In total we raised over £5,000 for charity and we are indebted to our families and friends who provided much support and advice throughout our trip. If you want to ﬁnd out more about our trip and our exact route please visit our website www.nwfourbadgers. co.uk

David Morgan (NG c/2002)

8 News

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Nick Roddy Faces Nigerian Kidnap Ordeal Nick Roddy (KG 1979) was working as a diver laying oil pipelines off the Nigerian coast and rewriting the early chapters of his novel, A Woman of Africa, when he found himself kidnapped by Nigerian militants. ‘One minute I was editing a chapter, the next our boat was under ﬁre. Three hours later I found myself being marched through the jungle, a captive with an uncertain future.’ Nick was working off-shore for the oil industry in the Niger Delta when he found himself a target of MEND – The Movement for the Emancipation of the Higher Delta. He was held under armed guard for three weeks during which time he was subject to numerous mock executions. Nick was eventually released unharmed from his kidnapping experience, but found that it had given him a new insight into his main character. ‘One of the themes in my book is the impact of the international oil industry on a third world country. The crisis in the Niger Delta – the reason I was kidnapped – is ongoing.’

I am not sure whether I first heard someone shout ‘militants’ or the bullets began to crash into the containers around me. ‘It was a clear morning; there was a slight swell. Two hundred meters from the barge the mangrove brooded dark on the Nigerian coast. It was early. We had finished three months of laying pipe. I went down the deck to check that the dive-spread was sea-fastened ready for the transit to Port Harcourt. I am not sure whether I first heard someone shout ‘militants’ or the bullets began to crash into the containers around me. Previously, I had decided if we were attacked I would hide beneath the heli-deck. I started to run. I never made it that far. We were taking heavy fire on the stern and I was too exposed. I made it to my cabin and waited. When they came for me, as I knew they would, they were like a collection of horrors drawn from the collective consciousness of mankind, covered in war paint, their bodies daubed with symbols – crucifixes juxtaposed with the Star of David, clad in torn rags of white and red and carrying the ubiquitous AK47 and firing indiscriminately. I was herded barefoot across the deck to a waiting speed boat full of similarly attired militants pumping rounds into the side of the barge. Two members of my dive team were pushed overboard into the same boat. I was forced to the bottom of the hull and spirits were thrown in my eyes. The outboards powered us

Nick Roddy survived a kidnap ordeal to complete his novel A Woman of Africa into the mangroves.’ ‘We sped through the swamp, passing through militant villages, where shots were sprayed in the air by both our captors and inhabitants. We arrived at a clearing deep in the swamps – a few crude structures that barely constituted shacks, a rickety jetty and a swarm of semi-clad militants shouting the Ijaw war cry; ‘Sawanna?’ and the response ‘Wanna!’. ‘We were paraded through the militants, many of whom were drunk, high, or both, to a further clearing, where there was a single, ominous stake in the ground. There was a moment when we were left alone, the militants drew back, guns were brought to bear on us, bolts were drawn. We waited in silence for the shots to come. A few were loosed over our heads and then there was laughter and we were taken deeper into the bush.’ ‘Our captivity lasted three weeks; rain, mosquitoes, boredom, interspersed with random mock executions, and some of the most surreal

conversations I have ever had. Many of the militants seemed genuinely curious about us. They know of little beyond the bush except what they have seen on CNN. They are led by educated people who exploit their poverty much as the oil companies ﬁrst did; they are as much victims as we were, however we were released.’ ‘I later discovered the Nigerian Navy detailed to protect us, realizing they were hopelessly outgunned, had downed weapons, removed their uniforms and hidden amongst the local crew. For what they are paid I can hardly blame them. When captured by militants they are immediately executed.’ A Woman of Africa is published by Troubador at £12.99 – ISBN 978-1848765-658 www.nickroddy.co.uk

Nick Roddy (KG 1979)

News 9

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Professor William Richardson is Elected General Secretary of the HMC Baccalaureate, Professor Richardson feels that most leading independent schools will stick with A-Levels, especially as recent changes in the exam have addressed the concerns that caused some schools to walk away in the ﬁrst place. The government’s review of the curriculum will lead to a curb on pupils being allowed to resit exams. ‘A tricky one’, comments Richardson. ‘Parents like the idea of pupils being allowed to resit exams and improve on their results.’ The debate about whether universities should make their offers after pupils have taken their A-Levels has resurfaced, although the leading universities ‘don’t want the administrative burden that would entail in July and August , when they are at their busiest with research.’ Whatever changes are coming, he is conﬁdent that independent schools have the ability to adapt and thrive. Universities will become more dependent on independent schools for students who have studied ‘vulnerable’ subjects, such as maths, science, and languages, which are under pressure in state schools.

‘There are many pressing and complex questions currently facing UK education and leading independent schools are a signiﬁcant voice in these debates’

Professor William Richardson has been elected General Secretary of the HMC Professor William Richardson (FG 1969) has been elected General Secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference – the body which represents 243 leading independent schools. He was appointed unanimously, with effect from September 2011. Professor Richardson is currently Professor of Education at Exeter University, having held academic posts at Shefﬁeld and Warwick universities. It is the second time in his career that he has had big shoes to ﬁll – having succeeded the formidable Ted Wragg as Professor of Education at Exeter, he now faces the challenge of following

Geoff Lucas’ 11 year stint at the HMC. ‘I seem to take jobs where a standard has been set – and make sure I keep it up or improve on it a little’, he told The Independent’s education correspondent, Richard Garner (NG 1962). He will keep the HMC in the forefront of the education debate at a time of change and transition. ‘There are many pressing and complex questions currently facing UK education and leading independent schools are a signiﬁcant voice in these debates’, he commented. Some of these issues he outlined in his interview with Richard Garner. In spite of the recent moves away from A-Levels to the International

Professor Richardson regards his new appointment to the HMC, ‘one of the world’s oldest and most prominent independent school associations’, as ‘a great honour’. As an OC he will value the contribution of leading day schools such as Highgate to the Conference in the coming years. ‘After all’, he told The Cholmeleian, ‘Highgate was one of the schools involved in founding the organisation in 1869’. He is also looking forward to re-connecting with the school after four decades away. ‘In my time the formidable Alfred Doulton was Highgate’s member of the HMC. His was the modernising generation that charted the path which the leading independent schools have followed since with such success. It will be an exciting task to represent these vibrant and excellent schools to a new generation’. Professor Richardson is married to Ellen Renner, the children’s author, two of whose novels were in last year’s Times list of the best children’s books of 2010. They have a son, Kit, aged 14.

10 News

Barry Dennis Elected President of the CIWM

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

From the Stage to Sevastopol: hardly a logical career change

George Clode has made the difficult and unlikely transition from minor rock star to military historian! Cricket-loving Barry Dennis has a busy year ahead as Master of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators Barry Dennis (TL 1958) has been elected President of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management, and, in what promises to be one of the busiest years of his life, he also holds the post of Director General of the Environmental Services Association and is due to be elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators later this year. Waste, as Barry says, ‘is in the blood. If you cut me in half you’d see ‘waste’ written right through me’. He is well-known in the industry, making his mark in the 1970s, when he became known as the ‘skip superhero’, leading the campaign to stop illegal charges for skip permits. He helped write the Highways Act regarding how and where they could be sited, and ensuring safety through the adding of skip reflectors. Leaving Highgate in 1964, he joined the Deards group of companies, which ran a number of subsidiaries to its core logistics business, one of which included a waste management business. Barry’s involvement began by chance, through a colleague’s sickness, but he was soon involved with the Port of London Authority, clearing all the waste between Tower Bridge and Tilbury. Key contracts included Lords and the Oval Cricket grounds, a case of business meeting pleasure, as he played for the MCC at Lords as a young man and his presidential dinner was held in the famous Long Room. In his 46 years in the industry he has seen big changes. He remembers having a horse and cart employed on one MOD contract until 1973. Now, the industry is more concerned with recycling. ‘Now the waste companies form partnerships with the waste producers to deal with waste, and to ensure that we extract the value from the resource…it’s not a waste any more’ he says. Waste aside, sport is Barry’s other passion. As well as playing for the MCC, he played football for the FA English Schools Team, and spent two years as a youngster at Tottenham, training alongside the likes of Greaves and Gilzean, and he has played golf off a handicap of four. He was in the soccer, cricket and fives teams at Highgate and, after leaving Highgate, was the first OC to represent the OCs in the Arthur Dunn Soccer Team, the HalfordHewitt Golf Team and the Cricketer Cup Side. In 1968, he played in all three competitions in three months!

‘After the band I had been playing with for two years had gone as far as it was realistically going, and our dreams of fortune and fame had not been realised, we all knew it was time to face facts. It had been an incredible experience, and I have played some gigs that I will never forget, but as momentum was lost, it became obvious that the Highgate School Wikipedia page would never list The Illegitimate Sons of the King among the ranks of its famous musician OCs; other avenues would need to be explored. What, then, would have been an appropriate next step? Band management? I was never the most organised of people, and, to be honest, managing myself was proving to be a difficult enough job. Live music promotion? I had met enough stressed, drunk, middle-aged ‘promoters’ to put me off that particular pursuit. And so I began interning at a number of magazines for a couple of weeks at a time; an unnerving, moneyless process that had me working with some very strange people in some very strange places. Magazines like Men’s Fitness, where all the employees went for a 6-mile jog after their lunchtime grape, or online magazines where employers I never met had me writing about the future of the automobile. I just couldn’t find my place, and after having applications rejected by yachting magazines, architecture magazines, even spiritual healing magazines (they let me down telepathically), I’d had enough. Luckily, just as I was considering medical testing and/or selling a kidney, I was told by a friend of mine working at a history magazine, that he was leaving and that his position was soon to be vacant. I applied, was accepted, and after nearly a year of fascinating work, I am now the Assistant Editor of Military Times magazine. The publishing company deals with a number of different magazines, and when I first started, Military Times was still in its early, pre-launch stages. As a result, I have been able to watch it develop and have been given the freedom to decide its content. That, on the whole, has involved sticking to British history, with a focus on the Second World War, although we are by no means limited to that subject. What I have found most interesting, has been the challenge of finding new angles to well-known stories; putting an exciting twist on an already famous account. This has been stressful at times and the responsibility was certainly heavier than what I had been used to. The hour-and-a-half long commute was a bit of a shock, but the office is relaxed, and I have been lucky enough to interview and meet some truly remarkable people. Friends of mine couldn’t think of a less likely course for my professional life to take, and although I still write and play music for various bands, publishing is my passion. One day it could be Q, maybe even Mojo, but for the time being, give me the Decembrist Revolt over The Decemberists any day of the week.’

George Clode (FG 1999)

News 11

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Dorset Coast Gets New Watch Station

Tom Weinberg Goes into the Wild

Tom has escaped the life of an advertising executive for the Great Outdoors

Clive Edwards on watch. Clive has helped with the establishment of a new coastguard station on Devon’s Jurassic Coast Lyme Bay in Dorset just got safer, thanks to the efforts of its newly-appointed Coastwatch Station Manager, Clive Edwards (NG 1951). Clive led a successful project to found a National Coastwatch Institution station to cover the Lyme Bay area, which opened on 31 July 2010. Clive commented to The Cholmeleian: ‘I’m delighted to say that the new station, called NCI Lyme Bay, commenced operations on 31 July and to date we have a dozen trained watchkeepers keeping watch at weekends plus a further twenty-five undergoing training this winter with a view to the station being operational seven days a week from next summer.’ The station covers a section of the most popular eighty miles of coast between existing NCI stations at Portland Bill to the East and Exmouth to the West. Surveys have shown that in the last two years there have been fifteen serious incidents in the six miles of the Chesil Beach area alone. Since the area became known as the Jurassic Coast and was made a World Heritage site there has been a significant increase in the number of people using the beach and walking the coast. The NCI exists because they understand that trained watch-keepers can spot things like distress flares, an overturned boat or a walker stranded on the cliffs which computers and radar can’t. Land for the station has been provided by Mary-Lou Sturridge of the Burton Cliff Hotel. The musician Billy Bragg and retired Air Marshall Sir Christopher Colville, now the Chairman of Westland Helicopters, both volunteered to raise funds for the project. The National Coastwatch Institute is a charity and more about its work can be found on their website www.nci.org.uk. If you wish to become involved as a potential watchkeeper please contact William Knapman on 01308 897 808 or email william.knapman@ nci.org.uk. For more general information contact the NCI Lyme Bay Station Manager, Clive Edwards, on 01308 482 605 or email clive.edwards@nci.org.uk

‘When I was nine years old a teacher of mine, at Highgate Junior School, stopped being a teacher and became a solicitor. This was a great shock to me as up until this point I had a nebulous idea that following the end of childhood you were allocated or sought a role – a job – and that was it. You were defined. The idea that one could swap halfway, as it were, seemed both fantastic and even slightly illicit. Following the end of school (not the end of childhood by a long shot, believe me) I studied Archaeology and Classical History in Edinburgh, toyed with joining the army, ended up in advertising then decided to take that early lesson and jack in my job for something I preferred. Advertising had been great fun at times, although like many ‘creative’ media industries the predominant factors are egos and the great indoors. I was born in 1982 in Johannesburg before moving to the UK. I had always thought of myself as a bit South African, especially when the rugby was on, so thought I would escape from London’s Tupperware skies for the big blue of the African version. I also had a great desire to learn again – a strange notion when you’re still in school – but this time to make sure I learned about something I loved. So in June 2010 I upped sticks to the Limpopo region of South Africa to train as a professional game ranger and field guide. Much of this was academic in terms of biology, ethnology, botany and so on, but a great deal more was practical – studying the behaviour of animals, learning to drive 4x4 off road, advanced rifle handling, how to maintain natural environments and track animals through them. From arriving with little knowledge but what David Attenborough had told us on the BBC, six months later I could identify near enough a hundred birds by their song alone and walk into a lion pride on foot and unarmed (still very scared though). I currently work in a reserve called Selati. Here, rather than show tourists the bushveld I work for a research project. My day generally begins at 4:45am, off tracking lion or rhino until around 11am, then some quick lunch and various projects around the reserve before heading out again at 3:30pm; back for 9pm and then bed before early rising again. It is a tiring but fairly idyllic way to spend your days – no phones, computers, traffic, shops etc – on the other hand no TV…In a way my office is 30,000 hectares of bushveld, my clients are largely quadrupedal and only threaten my life once or twice a week (definitely an improvement on advertising clients). It’s the only way to work – and saying you’re a game ranger always gets a good reaction when someone asks what it is you do. And believe me when I tell you I can climb trees quicker now than twenty years ago. It may not be what I do with the rest of my life, but what I’ve learned, more than anything about wildlife, is that despite how it seems, it is always possible to change what you are for something that may be better.’

Tom Weinberg (EG 1999)

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Shock Tactics

Nigel Shock helped to build up a travel company that was sold for a billion pounds ‘This article appears as the result of an editorial mistake following the publication of a recent update in the magazine. The company I strove for nearly twenty years to help build was reported as being sold to the Cendant Corporation in America for $1.1million dollars. The mistake concerned just one letter. The ‘M’ should have been a ‘B’. The sale price was just over a billion US dollars. I was asked if I would like to write a piece about Gullivers, rather than have a correction published. So here we go. This will be my first essay for forty years written at the request of someone at Highgate. My last English master ‘Ringo’ Griffin, who dragged me to passes in O-Level English Literature and English Language, would be proud! I will try to get some of the punctuation right and not to split any infinitives. Whilst working at The White House Hotel at Regents Park, I got to know the MD and principal shareholder of Gullivers. Working ridiculous hours in hotels had to stop and I went to see David about a possible job at Gullivers. In 1988, when I started, the whole company had about a hundred and fifty staff and a few million pounds a year in turnover, over ninety five percent of which came from groups. Prior to my arrival we had a reputation for appalling service. A member of staff had been fired when one of his drawers was opened and it was found to be stuffed with telexes (no faxes or email then) requesting bookings. His manager, my predecessor, quickly followed him out. Hotels, my background, are very service-orientated and it didn’t take long to change how we did things. It was our proud boast that if we got a request in the morning, there would be a reply in the afternoon.

Starring Roles for Sulkin Over the years Gullivers built a network of offices around the world, with many in the Far East. By 2005 our turnover, for the whole company, was about £450 million for the individuals business, and £200 million for groups. My London department had about ninety staff simply dealing every day with the hotel requests for bookings into Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Scandinavia, being generated from our offices all over the world. When I left, we in London handled about 2,500 new bookings a day. Cendant paid a lot of money when they bought Gullivers in 2005. Our MD demanded an enormous price and, being the consummate salesman and buyer that he is, he got it. It was a negotiation that went to the wire. We all knew he wouldn’t blink first. They didn’t! Sadly, they didn’t understand the business and appointed to run it people with no experience of wholesale travel and, in one case, with no background at all of running any business. An MBA and a few years in mergers and acquisitions in the US are not, in my view, a suitable background for running a business with a head office in London, and two and half thousand staff around the world. The senior

The mistake concerned just one letter. The ‘M’ should have been a ‘B’. The sale price was just over a billion US dollars. management team, immediately after the purchase, was quickly told that ‘anyone can be performance reviewed out of the business’. We all knew what that meant. I accepted an offer and left in the summer of 2006. Of the seven of us on that team, only one still works there. In most cases my colleagues of twenty or so years had never worked anywhere else. It was sad to see what was done to a business we had all helped to build. The three original directors were still working at the end and, despite being very large it was run almost as a family business. We all knew each other well. There was no company politics, as there could have been, amongst us senior managers. That all changed when the Americans took over. It quickly became clear there was a greasy corporate pole that not only could be climbed, but that they expected us to climb. Most of my colleagues, myself included, had no interest in climbing it.’

Nigel Shock (HG 1964)

Gregg Sulkin has become a Disney Star, with his own website and fanclub! Gregg Sulkin has a starring role in Disney’s latest original TV movie, Avalon High which premiered last November. In the movie Gregg plays Will Wagner, a reincarnation of King Arthur. Ironically, Gregg had to acquire an American accent for the role, as well as learn how to play American football, something the life-long soccer lover had never done before. ‘I’d never even picked up this weird-shaped ball before,’ admits Sulkin, who is familiar to the Disney Channel’s series Wizards of Waverly Place viewers as Mason Greyback, werewolf love interest of teen wizard Alex, played by Selena Gomez. ‘My character is a quarterback, the brains behind the operation, so I had to look like exactly that – completely comfortable. Four weeks before shooting, they got me an American football coach, who was great.’ Despite his nerves his first time out on the field, complete with pads and helmet, Sulkin says that the coach, and his on-camera team mates including Christopher Tavarez, made the job fun. Gregg’s big screen success began in 2006 – when he was just fourteen – playing alongside Eddie Marsan, Catherine Tate and Helena Bonham-Carter in Sixty Six, a film about the 1966 World Cup. In the film, he plays Bernie Rubens, a Bar Mitzvah boy whose party plans are dashed by the 1966 World Cup final. In 2008, he played alongside Vinnie Jones and Christopher Lee in the thriller, Heavy. Gregg is now focusing on the small screen. He’s working on the fourth season of Wizards, where he is to playing a leading role, and enjoying his new-found status as Disney’s ‘It Boy’, with his own fan club and website.

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

DJ Yoda Hosts Time Out’s First Nite Sessions

Duncan Beiny as DJ Yoda ﬁres up the turntables

DJ Yoda – aka Duncan Beiny (MG 1990) – a DJ with a reputation for firing up the turntables and getting his audience dancing to club music across the decades – hosted the first of the ‘Nite Sessions’ in East Village organised by Time Out in May 2010. An interview with Duncan in the 6 May issue of Time Out dubbed him ‘the world’s nicest DJ’ as well as ‘the capital’s ultimate party starter’, whose aim is to give people fun: ‘Comedy’, he says, ‘is a really important part of music. I like it when you’re DJing and you can see people laughing. I’d rather it was like that than with people’s ‘screw faces’. Duncan’s early influences were pirate radio and Carnival, as well as his early clubbing experiences,

crucially the Blue Note for the Metalheadz and the Ninja Tune nights. Duncan’s current high reputation is based on his mashing up the different genres of hip hop, which he ‘grew up on’ but he is also inspired by dubstep, although ﬁnding some if it ‘too formulaic’. He likes the new bounce music from New Orleans, which is ‘partystyle hip hop. Weirdly, it’s a gay hip hop scene in New Orleans: there’s a guy called Sissy Knobby, who is pretty good. But it encapsulates everything I’m trying to do in music: taking stuff you know and putting a hip hop, clubby spin on it.’ Plans for the future include a second artist album, a new AV show for festivals and an avantgarde classical show with Dame Evelyn Glennie, the deaf percussionist.

Flowers, Clouds, Corsets and a Cactus

Anthony Green celebrates his Golden Wedding this summer, and has paintings on display in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition Anthony Green’s recent exhibition, Flowers, Clouds, Corsets and a Cactus, staged at the Richmond Gallery last October, accompanied by a book of the same title, reveal the links between the subjects in this intriguing title. Anthony Green RA (SG 1952) is one of the

three Royal Academicians connected with the School, and one of the country’s most important narrative painters. A pupil of Kyffin Williams, he returned to teach art at Highgate from 1961–67 before becoming a professional painter. Although his work now hangs in major galleries across the world, he generously donated a number of early works to the School, which hang in the Art Department. Anthony’s paintings tell the story of his life, in particular his happy marriage to his model and muse, Mary. The paintings in this exhibition, both retrospective and recent, all have a story to tell and begin with Woman in a Corset (1961–2). ‘I remember as a very young boy accompanying my grandmother to her corsetière in Fitzrovia. I sat on a little golden chair while nana was encased in shiny pale pink armour. These days they are old-fashioned and politically incorrect and I love them! Ladies have been liberated now and wear tights and I paint tights as well but they are nowhere as exciting as corsets!’ Flowers are also a great love, shown in an early composition of lupins and poppies (A Vase of Flowers, 1955) which hung in his mother’s house for nearly fifty years. Recent flower paintings evoke the beauty of the East Anglian countryside where Anthony lives. Clouds, too are a feature. Anthony writes: ‘If you’ve got a blue sky that’s fine but if a cloud suddenly turns up and cruises across the horizon it’s a wonderful thing to stop it just off centre as it goes past somebody’s head. They are like the punctuation marks as you compose a picture: semi-colons

and full stops.’ Cactuses form an erotic motif and feature in some of his most striking paintings – A Kiss in the Kitchen, the Cactus (2009) boasts a gloriously phallic and prickly affair that dominates the centre of the painting, while Anthony, on tiptoe, steals a kiss from Mary, who is wearing nothing above the waist but a very lacy black bra. The origins of this motif go back to adolescence. Anthony tells the story: ‘I painted my ﬁrst cactus as a schoolboy in France. The French doctor’s wife was gloriously promiscuous. I occasionally used to take tea with her on my own. My aunt pointed out that as my pocket money amounted to half a crown I was perfectly safe. Had I been a young man with a fortune I think it would have been different but all I got were réligieuses (little cakes). This painting (L’Heure du Thé) was all in my head.’ ‘L’Heure du Thé is a wonderfully erotic interior, with the doctor’s wife naked on a table, surrounded by tea things, while the doctor and my aunt stand sedately in the conservatory discussing a particularly prickly cactus.’ The painting is now on the reserve collection of the Tate Gallery. The collection features another distinctive aspect of Anthony’s art – his love of irregularlyshaped canvases, with distortions of perspective that allow the pictures to tell a story. This summer is Anthony’s Golden Wedding, and a new ink-jet print titled The Golden Wedding will be exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, in addition to ﬁve oil paintings.

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Michael Mansfield’s Desert Island Discs in philosophy, and he then decided to qualify as a barrister. He began work at the criminal bar, graduating to increasingly high-profile and often controversial cases involving miscarriages of justice and civil liberties. Asked by Kirsty Young whether he kept a sense of lawyerly detachment, he replied that he definitely didn’t: ‘The only way I wanted to do the job was to put myself in someone else’s shoes…get inside their shell’. He described himself as ‘educated by the cases I’ve taken.’ His assumption, for example, that the police told the truth was undermined when he represented the miners accused of riot at the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ – a bloody confrontation in the long-running miners’ dispute, in which he uncovered evidence of systematic lying and cover-up. In answer to the question about which case had most affected him, he replied that it was undoubtedly the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, where he represented the Lawrence family. Stephen Lawrence was savagely knifed

His choice of music was evocative: Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’, which recalled his friendship with Nick Mason, the Pink Floyd drummer

Michael Mansfield talked about his life and music on Desert Island Discs Michael Mansfield QC (MG 1954) was Kirsty Young’s guest on Desert Island Discs last October. The radical lawyer, now in his seventieth year, has lost none of his celebrated anger at injustice and relish for an unpopular cause. Mansfield famously defended IRA suspects the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six in the 1970s, and received death threats as a result. He recently appeared at the Saville Inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday,

representing three families who had suffered injury or bereavement as a result of the bloody clash between soldiers and protestors which left thirteen innocent people dead. After a peaceful upbringing in Finchley, and school at Highgate – where he recalled his fondness for the CCF – a career in the army, following his brother’s footsteps into the guards, might have beckoned. But he gained a place at Keele University, where he was awarded a First

by a group of five white thugs in a raciallymotivated killing, and the police failed to collect enough evidence to convict the killers. In spite of the tragedy of losing their young son, Doreen and Neville Lawrence kept on demanding justice, and Mansfield admired their courageousness. People like the Lawrences, he thinks, ‘can change things by not taking ‘no’ for an answer.’ His choice of music was evocative: Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which recalled his friendship with Nick Mason, the Pink Floyd drummer (and incidentally the father of two OCs, Nick and Cary); Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, which he heard at a concert with his first wife and a poem by Linton Kwesi Johnson about the maltreatment of a Jamaician immigrant. His second wife, Yvette Vanson, is a television producer and director, whom he met while appearing for the miners and she was making a film called The Battle of Orgreave. Somehow, he finds the time to juggle work and family life – working in Tooks Court, the chambers he established to encourage young lawyers with an interest in civil liberties. His biography, Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer was published in 2009, and is a fascinating insight into the legal process – and, of course, the erudite, witty and still radical Mr Mansfield.

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Robin Ellis Writes Delicious Dishes For Diabetics Actor Robin Ellis (QG 1955) will be familiar to many as Captain Ross Poldark in the longrunning BBC series Poldark from the 1970s, as well as from many other theatre, ﬁlm and television roles including most recently the BBC version of the Swedish detective series Wallander. He has a cookbook out this August which has been written for diabetics. Delicious Dishes for Diabetics is based on the healthiness of the Mediterranean diet, which, living in the South of France, Robin has had ample opportunity to sample. Robin commented to The Cholmeleian. ‘I have always liked to cook. Sunday evenings in the 50s, I’d take the pressure off my mother and cook my ‘special’ for the three of us – macaroni cheese topped off with grilled tomatoes. As a bachelor, instead of takeaways, I’d spend an hour or more preparing my supper and ten minutes eating it! And for the last twenty-odd years I have been the cook in the family; though Meredith is no slouch in the kitchen either – she’s

My taste had been for cooking in the Mediterranean style – mainly using olive oil, long before we moved to France and I was diagnosed been happy to let me get on with it. This daily routine has proved invaluable since being diagnosed with type two diabetes, twelve years ago. It has allowed me to control what I eat while at the same time encouraging me to cook meals that Meredith, a non-diabetic, can enjoy too. From this day-to-day experience came the idea of a cookbook of recipes suitable for type twoers and those they love. I have a large spiral notebook with an index, into which I’ve pasted found recipes for years – my mother had one too; and the kitchen shelves are weighed down with cookbooks, a collection kept up to date by family and friends. My taste had been for cooking in the Mediterranean style – mainly using olive oil, long before we moved to France and I was diagnosed; so many of these recipes, with some adapting, suited the way of eating that I wanted to adopt. Friends started to contact me knowing I was a type twoer and that I dealt with it through diet and exercise. Either they themselves had been warned by their doctor that they were pre-diabetic or they had a friend who had been recently diagnosed, and were asking for advice. I couldn’t claim to be an expert but I had my own experience and so far so good. My response to these approaches always included a few recipes

Actor Robin Ellis has a new, Mediterranean-themed cookbook for diabetics out this August as examples of the way of eating I followed. I soon realised how many of these I had. So I had the means and the motivation and then a miracle happen. Meredith sent the proposal to a friend in New York who sent it to a publishing friend in London, who in turn sent it to Constable Robinson – who were interested!’ Delicious Dishes for Diabetics publishes on 4 August, and contains some of the recipes which Robin has spent the last twelve years perfecting,

including: Chicken Breast with Lemon and Caper Sauce, North African Lamb with Apricots and Bulgar Wheat, Simple Sea Bass, Pot Roasted Pork with Dried Mushrooms and Juniper Berries and Spaghetti in Walnut Sauce, to name just a few. You can read about Robin on his blogsite: www.robin-ellis.net Delicious Dishes for Diabetics (Constable-Robinson) ISBN-10 0716022664

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Thwaites Conjecture Demonstrated

A Grave Discovery

Professor Thwaites with some of Highgate’s brightest mathematicians. (They still haven’t cracked his famous conjecture, though!)

Michael Hammerson in Highgate Cemetery, by the grave of American Civil War Veteran Thomas Barzetti

Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites, at 88 Highgate’s second oldest former governor, returned to Highgate last December to demonstrate his famous mathematical conjecture to Highgate’s Sixth Form mathematicians. Professor Thwaites is an eminent mathematician, who led the British team at the 1970 International Mathematical Olympiad hosted by Hungary. He was Professor of Theoretical Mechanics at Southampton University and Principal of Westﬁeld College from 1966–83, during which time he became a governor at Highgate (1966–76). As a governor, he sat alongside Bishop Graham Leonard, who died in January 2010. Graham Leonard was Bishop of London until his retirement in 1991, when he went over to Rome over his objections to the ordination of women – one of the ﬁrst prominent defections from the Anglican Church over this issue. In the 1960s, Professor Thwaites was involved in the School Mathematics Project pioneered by Highgate, but he is also well known for the conjecture which bears his name. The Thwaites Conjecture (which is also known as the 3n+1 Conjecture, the Syracuse Problem, the Collatz Conjecture and the Kakutani Conjecture) works like this: take any positive whole number. If it is even, divide it by 2. If it is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. Repeat this process over and over again. Eventually you will reach 1.

Michael Hammerson (WG 1956) has published a booklet on three burials in Highgate Cemetery connected with the American Civil War, including a Veteran of the war and a brother of John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (and a distant relation of Cherie Blair). The booklet launch was attended by the United States Assistant Defence Attaché and covered by ITV Regional News and on 26 October Michael featured on the Radio 4 Making History programme’s item on American Civil War Veterans’ graves in England, which he is researching. He has so far failed to find any Old Cholmeleians who fought in the war, but is sure there must be one! The grave of Thomas Barzetti was discovered by Michael in the Eastern Cemetery. It bears the crossed American and British flags, the insignia of the London Branch of the American Civil War Veterans Association, an association whose centenary was celebrated in 2010. Barzetti, who left England for America in 1861, enlisted in the 13th New York Light Artillery at the outbreak of war, changing his name to Shepherd to prevent his mother knowing he had enlisted. He was severely wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run. After the war he returned to England and died in February, 1914. Michael has been a professional archaeologist, with an expertise in Romano-British coinage, he is an active member of the Highgate Society, and the editor of a volume of letters written by Arthur Preston White, No Easy Lies. Preston White taught History at Highgate from 1919–51, where he was known by the boys as ‘Jumbo’. His letters were written from the front during some of the crucial battles of World War One, including Neuve Chapelle, the Somme and Third Ypres. They provide a unique insight into the nature of the fighting at that period, which ended for Preston White in 1918 when he received a piece of shrapnel in the leg. Although this troubled him for the rest of his life, it probably saved it, as it gave him a ticket back to ‘Blighty’. Michael is to publish this year the Civil War letters of a Captain of the Massachusetts Infantry, Charles Robinson Johnson, and his work on identifying the graves of Civil War Veterans continues. Michael would be pleased to hear from any OCs who know of any Civil War graves in this country.

Highgate’s Sixth Form mathematicians enjoyed a demonstration of how the conjecture works, although there were no ‘Eureka!’ moments… If anyone can prove that this is true, or ﬁnd a number for which this isn’t true, they will achieve fame in the world of mathematics and a prize of £1,000, offered by Professor Thwaites in the 1970s through The Times newspaper and so far unclaimed. Highgate’s Sixth Form mathematicians enjoyed a demonstration of how the conjecture works, although there were no ‘Eureka!’ moments, and no-one ended the day richer by £1,000. Afterwards Jacoby Thwaites (SG 1976), one of Professor Thwaites’ three sons to have attended Highgate, and now a computer programmer with Google, gave a fascinating demonstration of the development of computers. Using early models, Jakoby demonstrated how the abilities of computers have increased with the development of technology. Professor Thwaites’ other sons are: Dominic (SG 1972) and Quentin (SG 1969). Professor Thwaites lists amongst his hobbies ‘writing letters to The Times,’ and the last issue of The Cholmeleian reported another of the Professor’s achievements: getting two letters published in The Times in ten days.

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Hallelujah! Scratch Messiah Celebrates Dyne House Opening

The new Dyne House facilities got a rousing reception from OCs who came back to sing the Messiah in a day ‘On a rainy Saturday in January, over ﬁfty Cholmeleian singers and instrumentalists gathered to rehearse and perform Handel’s Messiah in a day. James Adam (MG 1955) tells the story. ‘In the year that the English-speaking world celebrates the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible it was a joy

a copy of the Prout Edition of the score still covered in brown paper! We were then ushered down to the auditorium and, having been suitably impressed by its considerable ‘wow factor’, we got down to work. Director of Music, Lionel Steuart Fothringham, took us through eleven choruses before lunch and it was immediately apparent

Whilst the Dining Hall building was much as it had been all those years ago, the lunch and the ambience were vastly superior. and a privilege to be able to join with 44 other Cholmeleians to sing Handel’s Messiah in the newly refurbished Dyne House auditorium. Handel’s settings of this exquisite English are so written in our minds that it is difﬁcult to read from those parts of Isaiah without wanting to sing them. As we gathered for coffee in the foyer, new friends were made and old acquaintances renewed. Nostalgia was rife! Chris Cansick (NG 1956) had the programme of the original 1957 performance with him. There was also a programme of the 1962 performance and

that this was no rag, tag and bobtail choir. Although there were almost as many basses as the rest of us, everyone knew the score and the balance was upheld valiantly by ﬁve sopranos, a dozen altos and eight tenors. Whilst the Dining Hall building was much as it had been all those years ago, the lunch and the ambience were vastly superior. Singing was a popular topic of conversation and it became apparent that most people there sang regularly in choirs elsewhere. By 2.30pm it was time to get back to work and the orchestra was introduced. Jonathan Murphy, working with three violins,

viola, cello, double bass, two trumpets and timpani, and with Lionel Steuart Fothringham on harpsichord, provided an excellent accompaniment which meant that the audience at the evening performance could hear every word whilst still being able to appreciate the beauty of Handel’s music. All the seven soloists were Cholmeleians and performed beautifully. Jon Pearce (WG 1957) and Alex Berman (WG c/2007) sang tenor solos, Oskar McCarthy (SG c/2007) and Leandros Taliotis (WG 1988) sang magniﬁcent bass solos and Fiona Matthews (FG c/2008) and Joanna Siddall (GH c/2010) sang soprano solos. After only ﬁve hours’ practice it is true to say that it was a performance worthy of the Cholmeleian tradition of singing which so many of us who were there owe to Edward Chapman. Had he been there, I feel sure he would have been proud of us. We must do this again!’

James Adam (MG 1955) Another choral event will be happening on Saturday, 21 January 2012. We will be delighted to welcome singers and musicians, and will announce the programme in due course.

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Howard Shelley Plays Mozart to Mark the Opening of the RRR: The Rothenberg Recital Room

Bob and Pippa Rothenberg at the opening of the Recital Room, named to mark the long and happy association of the family with Highgate Bob Rothenberg MBE (QG 1963) opened the new Recital Room named in his honour at a chamber concert on Thursday 18 November. Howard Shelley OBE (QG 1962), the pianist and conductor, and the London Chamber Players gave a memorable recital of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 12, a piece which displayed Howard Shelley’s mastery of the keyboard, as well as the excellent acoustic of the new venue. The Rothenberg family has a long and distinguished association with the School, recalled by Chairman of Governors, John Mills (SH 1963), in an opening address. Bob’s father, Helmut, sent his two sons to Highgate after failing the entrance test to UCS – which in those days involved giving the Headmaster ‘games money’ – a not insubstantial sum of cash required then and there to be paid to the Headmaster for an unspeciﬁed purpose. Arriving for an interview at Highgate with a wallet ﬁlled with cash, he was told by Head Master Alfred Doulton that that the money was ‘not needed’. And so began the family’s long association with the School. Bob and his brother David were succeeded by Bob’s son, Simon (WG 1997), and Bob’s nephew is currently at the School.

Helmut Rothenberg’s generosity funded the arts bursaries which bear his name which support pupils in their study of art, music and drama, allowing, for example, foreign travel to see galleries and museums, or to help with the purchase of musical instruments or coaching fees.

Helmut Rothenberg’s generosity funded the arts bursaries which support pupils in their study of art, music and drama… Bob has served on the governing body for over a decade, recently as Deputy-Chairman, and John Mills praised the special contribution his wisdom and dedication has brought to the task. The concert was a showcase for Highgate’s talented musicians, with string players Laurence Carden, Peter van Dongen, Sebastian Birch and Robert Gadsby playing Mozart’s Divertimento in B-ﬂat major, K.137 and Henry Zeffman giving a powerful performance of Schubert’s Piano Trio in

B-flat major, accompanied by Lulu Little on violin and Georgina Lloyd-Owen on violincello. After the interval, Highgate’s wind instrumentalists performed Gounod’s Petite Symphony pour instruments à vent. If Henry Zeffman’s playing of Schubert was an indicator of sparkling promise and talent, Howard Shelley’s playing of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 12 was an example of a great talent at the peak of maturity, and was an inspiration to Highgate’s young musicians. The piece was written by Mozart to show off his pianistic, as well as his compositional skills, and Howard Shelley’s playing had the audience spellbound by his mastery of the keyboard. The opening of the RRR completes the Dyne House Music project, which has also added rehearsal and practice rooms to the newlyrefurbished Auditorium. Since the rooms have been available for use in September, they have been used for a wide variety of purposes. There are daily rehearsals in the RRR and the Auditorium, some of which involve more than 60 pupils. Additionally, there are five practice rooms, which provide significant extra capacity for the work of pupils in the music department.

Feature 19

RICHARD TAYLOR HOW TO READÂ A

CHURCH Richard Taylor (KG 1979) achieved success with his book How to Read a Church, which was turned into a television series on BBC4.

20 Feature

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Richard Taylor’s interest in churches began in St Michael’s, Highgate where he fondly remembers the annual carol concert. ‘We stamped our feet in time with the organ to one of the carols – not officially sanctioned, but the masters enjoyed it’. As well as singing (and stamping) his way through the carols, Richard’s eye took in the East Window, ‘originally Victorian but bombed in the war and replaced in the late 1950s by that marvellous work by Evie Hone’. His curiosity was excited by the symbolism of the grapes, wheat, lambs and sheep depicted in the glass. This interest inspired the book he came to write, How to Read a Church, in which he explains to a generation no longer familiar with religious iconography the symbolism of the parish church – the stone and wood carving and the stained glass.The book’s success comes from Richard’s discovery of a gap in the market. He realised that most people have been in a church, but there wasn’t a guide book to explain what they saw around them. ‘I submitted a one page proposal to half a dozen publishers, and to my surprise, half of them wrote back. Random House, one of the largest publishers in this field offered me a contract. As I drank a glass of wine to celebrate, I was thinking ‘Oh My God. I’ve just committed myself to writing 60,000 words in four months. How will I do that?’. He found the deadline a useful discipline, and in the end ‘the book wrote itself. It was published in 2003, and became The Sunday Times bestseller of the year. Since then, it has been translated into several languages, including Dutch, Polish and Japanese. There is an American version, a coffee table version and a version designed to fit in the pocket of your jeans. The ‘How to Read’ idea has become a publishing phenomenon, and there are now books on how to read a country house, a village, a garden and Industrial Britain. The story of how Richard came to present the programme is one in which, Richard claims, ‘insane good luck’ played a major part. Anyone who has watched the series will realise that this is modesty: Richard is a natural TV presenter, able to make his erudition exciting and spontaneous. He was auditioned with several other presenters, offered the job, and after six weeks of filming, the series was complete, and broadcast last September. Its success comes from Richard’s ability to tell a story – how the parish church evolved over the centuries, and the drama and bloodshed that went alongside the worship and devotion. ‘The story of the parish church is the story of how we relate to God. It’s a dramatic narrative, from the Anglo Saxon to the present day.

The Chapel Window, depicting St Michael overcoming Satan. This window, and the East Window in St Michael’s Church, started Richard’s interest in religious iconography

A detail from How to Read a Church

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Normans built triumphal churches, to show their subjugation of the conquered Anglo-Saxons. In the Middle Ages, churches were built which were full of light and life, but also death, and the awareness of an afterlife. In the Reformation, much was destroyed, and the axe and chisel marks are still visible in wood and stone. In the eighteenth century, churches were elegant and beautiful. Modern churches are like cinemas or shopping complexes, with car parking and comfy chairs – rather like the multiplex I go to in Sheffield.’ Richard now lives in Sheffield, where he went to escape the claustrophobia of London, and he works in a profession which contrasts dramatically with his work as a writer and presenter. For the last ten years he has worked in the field of technology law in a large international firm, DL Piper. He deals with ‘the modern whizzy stuff’ – biotech, the internet, data – a contrast to the fonts, rood screens and green men of the parish church. He isn’t anxious to turn his hobby

He realised that most people have been in a church, but there wasn’t a guide book to explain what they saw around them. into his job, finding the life of the presenter ‘too precarious for one of my temperament’, but there is more presenting work in the offing, with filming in Jerusalem in the summer. He recalls the History Department at Highgate as exciting, and, as he went off with contemporary John Sheehan for coffee and an illicit cigarette in the lunch break, they talked and argued about History. ‘History was cool’, he remembers thinking. He is now godfather to John’s son, and the interest in History has remained, in spite of reading English at St Catherine’s, Oxford, where he was tutored by the redoubtable Michael Gearin-Tosh. He still reads poetry every day, and the New Oxford Book of English Verse is a treasured resource. As an historian, he has knowledge, and a flair for the drama of a narrative. I wonder if the hobby might develop further, and I’ll bet we’ll be seeing a lot more of Richard’s engaging and lucid presenting on our television screens.

Richard is a TV presenter who makes his erudition exciting and spontaneous

Feature 21

22 News

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Gala Concert Marks Reopening of Dyne House Auditorium

A Glass Act

Richard Kennedy unveils the plaque to mark the refurbishment of the auditorium

A Glass Act with their engraved glasses (l to r): Ben Pearlman, Claudia Light, Toby Harris and Sophie Jacoel

A gala concert to mark the reopening of Dyne House last December featured the world premiere of a piece by Director of Music, Lionel Stuart Fothringham. Bolts of Melody, performed by the Concert Choir and Symphonic Orchestra, is based on a poem by Emily Dickinson, I Would not Paint a Picture, which praises the superiority of music to the other arts. The musical energy and excitement of the evening proved that the poetess has a good point. The other pieces displayed the power and range of the Choir and Orchestra, and were well-chosen for their sense of drama and excitement, from Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain – a musical recreation of a black mass – to Mendelssohn’s Symphony Number 2 – a hymn of praise, inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The seventy-three young voices of the Choir, with older members drawn from the staff, raised the rafters with Mendelssohn’s setting of Psalms 96 and 150 – ‘O ye people, ascribe unto the Lord worship and power!’ In a celebration earlier in the evening attended by the Chairman of Governors, John Mills and Head Master, Adam Pettitt, Richard Kennedy, Head Master from 1989–2006, drew back the curtains on a commemoration plaque to mark the refurbishment of the auditorium. In a speech afterwards, Richard recalled his first visit to Dyne House in 1966 – as a young footballer from his school, Charterhouse. At the time, Dyne House was being constructed on the site of a Victorian building which then housed the Junior School. It was opened on Tuesday 30 May 1967 by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, one of the greatest violinists of the twentieth century – a choice that reflected the importance of music to life at Highgate. ‘Now’, Richard commented, ‘the School is much larger, every year group is coeducational and music needed and deserved this better provision. I congratulate in advance all the pupils who will perform here, and who knows, will go on to great things in the future. Every boy and girl will benefit from the opportunities provided by the Auditorium and Recital Room, whether in assemblies, meetings, hearing visiting speakers, house music and of course, in concerts and recitals.’ He praised the Capital Projects Team, Simon Martini, Stephen Freeth and Gwyn Jones, who had solved serious technical challenges to complete the project.

A Glass Act are a Year 12 Young Enterprise company – comprising Toby Harris, Ben Pearlman, Sophie Jacoel and Claudia Light – who have come up with the bright idea of selling glasses engraved with the School Crest. The Young Enterprise scheme was set up to encourage Highgate’s young entrepreneurs to devise, produce and market new products. A Glass Act have shown real entrepreneurial spirit in coming up with this idea and following it through, having researched and discarded other ideas. An early casualty was the idea of personalised football boots – ‘currently there is a highly-established market’, commented Toby Harris. They considered personalised stationary, but market research among their target market led them to believe that this wouldn’t sell well, so, keeping with the theme of personalisation, they settled on engraved glasses. ‘The light bulb shone brightly above all our heads and we knew this was to be the product’, said Toby. From idea to execution proved a long hard road. ‘Finding a glass supplier and engraver who would produce the glasses at a reasonable price was difficult’, said Toby. At last prototypes were produced – wine glasses, tankards and tumblers, all with the School’s crest proudly engraved on them, and they faced their next challenge – the Dragons’ Den of the Cholmeleian Society Committee. The glasses were well-received, but there was the stumbling block of pricing. The Committee couldn’t justify spending the Society’s money on a relatively expensive product. Nevertheless, the glasses are now in production, and if you’d like to show off your Highgate associations by raising a suitably-filled glass engraved with the School Crest, contact A Glass Act at: aglassact@hotmail.co.uk or write to them c/o the Foundation Office. Tumblers are £8 or £25 for 4, wine glasses £11 or £30 for 4 and tankards £12 or £40 for 4. This sort of enterprise – a useful way to learn about how an idea is made into a real, sellable, profit-making product is being encouraged by the School as part of a new Enabling Enterprise Project, to start next academic year – and Cholmeleians are invited to take part. The aim is to encourage Year 12 groups to generate ideas that will create fund-raising revenue, but with the addition of combining the entrepreneurial spirit with a social awareness. Seb Bishop, the CEO of RED, has been at the forefront of this capitalism with a conscience, where you can save the world and make a profit. Cholmeleians who have the relevant business experience and who would like to help, either by giving a seminar or lecture, or by sponsoring a group, are asked to get in touch with Karen Norris, who is overseeing the project. Karen teaches in the economics department and is the Housemaster of School House. Please contact her at karen.norris@highgateschool.org.uk

News 23

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Third Annual Sir Kyfﬁn Williams Lecture

Michael Poynter-Adams (left) and Dr Stanley Jones at the third Kyffin Williams Lecture The third Kyffin Williams Lecture, which took place on the evening of 7 February in the Mills Centre, highlighted the former Highgate art teacher’s connection with the Curwen Studio. According to Paul Joyner, Head of Archives and Art Acquisitions at the National Library of Wales (NLW) in Aberystwyth, ‘prints… represented (Kyffin’s) attempt to bridge the gap between expensive art and a public audience who wanted something by him but did not wish to invest large sums of money. The solution was to produce limited editions of his works, maybe between 150 to 250 prints per run, to have the artist sign each one, then offer them for sale at reasonable prices.’ After taking us on a charming tour of the history of the lithographic process, Dr Stanley Jones explained how he had been lured back to London from Paris in 1958 in order to help found the Curwen Studio ‘to create an environment in which artists had the freedom to work in printmaking’. The first print undertaken for Kyffin was Farmer at Pontllyfni in 1974, a sample of which held centre stage throughout proceedings. In 1989 the Studio moved from London to Chilford Hall in Cambridgeshire, and a few years later Michael Poynter-Adams arrived on the scene.

Michael had fallen under Kyffin’s spell at the Albany Gallery in Cardiff, run by the legendary Mary Yapp, so he could not believe his luck when Stanley offered to arrange a meeting. After the tenant of the cottage on the edge of the Menai Straits at Pwllfanogl on Anglesey enquired as to the reason for his visit, Michael replied with disarming honesty: ‘I have come to make you money!’ Through the influence and friendship of the Curwen a late flowering of artistic output resulted, with Kyffin actively involved in choosing and producing a great deal of the twenty eight prints that appeared in the last few years of his life. In the process Michael became more than an acquaintance and with lapel-grasping flair – the Williams moustache was continually being smoothed back – he recounted several anecdotes, some familiar, but others not so well known. In more reflective moments he described Kyffin’s thrill at having his front door painted yellow, and his anguish at not having being able to do justice to Lady Anglesey when invited to paint her portrait – because ‘she was too beautiful’. Altogether we were treated to a very personal and touching account of a friendship that was obviously much more than a profitable working relationship, complemented by a series

of unique photographs taken by Michael’s wife, Barbara. Afterwards the audience (of about fifty) was invited to inspect the dozen or so prints – some in various stages of preparation – and tools of the trade that Stanley had kindly brought along. Many stayed behind to hear about the effects that could be achieved by using plates made of different materials. A recently published autobiography (Stanley Jones and the Curwen Studio, A&C Black) and history of the Curwen (Art and Print: The Curwen Story, Tate Publishing) were on display as well. The current exhibition at Oriel Ynys Môn in Llangefni entitled Kyffin Williams: Patagonia runs until 4 September, and visitors are encouraged to advertise their links with Highgate. An interesting programme about Kyffin in a series entitled Rolf on Welsh Art was broadcast on BBC Wales in February – keep an eye open for it in the rest of the UK. Watch out too for news of an exhibition of pupil artwork in November – amongst items in his Bequest to the NLW are some 250 paintings, drawings and linocuts made by boys in the 1950s, which I am distilling for display.

David Smith – djs@highgate.demon.co.uk

24 News

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Lessons from Auschwitz

to think that it happened in my grandfather’s time. Having seen Auschwitz 1, and been given a comprehensive tour, we went to the larger and more notorious camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz-Birkenau had been built by the Nazis at the beginning of the war to accommodate the larger-than-anticipated number of Jews and other ‘unclean’ races being rounded up throughout Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau had been built primarily as an extermination camp.

Standing on the same ground where thousands had also stood, seconds before they fell lifeless to the ground, created a feeling of numbness.

The Holocaust Memorial Trust enabled two Highgate Sixth Formers to visit Auschwitz last October This Autumn, two Sixth Formers, Danny Tompkins and Rosalia Myttas-Perris went on a memorable journey to visit the Nazi Concentration Camp at Auschwitz. Danny Tompkins recalls the experience: ‘This October, Highgate had the opportunity to send two Sixth Formers to Poland to learn about the Holocaust and concentration camps. Our visit was part of the ‘Lessons From Auschwitz’ Project, organised by the Holocaust Education Trust. Now in its twelfth year, the importance of the programme has been recognised by the government, who pledged £1.5 million in 2005 to fund the project. Recently, Education Minister Michael Gove promised to continue support. ‘We must ensure that as those who remember the Holocaust fade from our lives, the memory of that unique evil event never fades from our minds,’ he told the House of Commons. After a day-long orientation seminar, where we were introduced to our group and group leader, we were prepared for our visit to the camp. We also discovered that the newlyappointed and ﬁrst UK envoy for post-Holocaust

issues is Sir Andrew Burns, an OC who was the former British Ambassador to Israel. Once we arrived at Krakow all 200 students from schools across the UK boarded coaches and went to our ﬁrst site: a Jewish cemetery in the town of Oświęcim, the town which became known as Auschwitz under the Nazis. This was a particularly moving experience as we were able to see the Jewish livelihoods and culture which had existed before the Nazi rise to power. Before the war, 58% of the population of Oświęcim was Jewish – now there are no Jews at all. We then went to Auschwitz 1, the ﬁrst camp to exist in the area, which is now partly a museum. Here we saw ceiling-high heaps of shoes, suitcases, and children’s clothing from the prisoners in the camp. We visited one of the few still-standing gas chambers and came face to face with the furnaces where thousands of corpses had been burned. Standing on the same ground where thousands had also stood, seconds before they fell lifeless to the ground, created a feeling of numbness. I’m not Jewish, and none of my family were affected, but it’s astonishing

This is not to say that there was no manual labour, but this labour had the goal of killing the prisoners. Auschwitz-Birkenau is currently an immense field with a large railway track running through the middle. In a perfect grid are the remains of the prisoners’ barracks. With the wood rotted away, one sees the brick chimneys and heaters of each building standing untouched among the rectangular shell of the foundations. To accompany the chimneys, there are the concrete pylons. Previously holding rows of jagged razor wire, they now stand desolate. Looking round, one has to ask the question: should we save what is a symbol of evil and cruelty, or allow time and nature to take its course? Having completed our tour of the camp, we finished with a meeting for all 200 students on our trip. At this meeting, as darkness fell, we listened to a Rabbi talk of the lessons which we, as people, and we, as a race, had to learn from the Holocaust. As part of our experience we are now organising events in Highgate, educating the students about the Holocaust, and the lessons we need to learn. As part of this we got a Holocaust survivor to talk to our current Sixth Form, and gave assemblies to the entire Senior School.’ In January, Danny and Rosalia represented Highgate at the Mayor of London’s Holocaust Memorial Event at City Hall, where they pledged their commitment to learning the lessons from the Holocaust and acknowledging all of our responsibility to fight prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.

Rosalia Myttas-Perris (Y13) and Danny Tompkins (Y12)

News 25

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Annual Lyttelton Competition

Winners of this year’s Lyttleton Competition (back row, l to r): Henry Zeffman and Jake Goodman, (front row, l to r): Bruce Allinson, Lily Kuenzer, Vicente Macia-Kjaer and Finn Strivens The annual Lyttelton Competition, held fittingly in National Poetry Week last October, was one of the highlights of the cultural calendar. With poems from Bronte and Belloc to Shelley and Shakespeare – not forgetting our Highgate poets John Betjeman, TS Eliot and Gerard Manley Hopkins – the young declaimers provided an evening of pure poetic pleasure. This was the first time the competition was held in the newly-refurbished Dyne House Auditorium, and the performances were generally enhanced, although some found the adjustment to the sensitive nature of the acoustics difficult. In both sections – Senior and Junior – of the competition there were bold and interesting choices – Yaseen Kader’s reading of Dennis O’Driscoll’s Tulipmania, with its surprise ending, and Leo Mylonadis’ haunting reading of his own poem, Sleep, were especially memorable. The other recitors gave a hugely-varied and electrically tense series of readings, with drama, humour and emotion in rapid alteration. It was good to watch Jake Goodman, a stalwart of the completion, finally and deservedly collecting a prize for his reading of Charles Bukowski’s funny and disturbing poem, Eaten by Butterflies. The other prize in this category went to Henry Zeffman, whose reading of Betjeman’s Slough

was ﬁlled with comic energy and satirical relish. Betjeman himself, who spent the Winter of 1917 being taught English by TS Eliot in the Junior School, then located behind Dyne House, would have been amused.

The adjudicators thanked the Seniors for the energy and involvement they brought to this year’s competition… Part of the evening’s drama and entertainment was provided by Gordon Catherwood’s witty and informative adjudication, in which he was ably assisted by Juliet Fehr. The adjudicators thanked the Seniors for the energy and involvement they brought to this year’s competition, and for making their category one of the most rewarding of the evening. In the Junior Section, prizes were awarded to Bruce Allinson, for his witty and perfectly-timed delivery of the Belloc classic, Jim, Who Ran Away From His Nurse, and Lily Kuenzer, for her moving delivery of Owen’s war poem, Dulce et

Decorum Est. In the Intermediate category, Vicente Macia-Kjaer’s powerful delivery of Elizabeth Jenning’s Song for a Birth or a Death, earned him a prize as did Finn Striven’s beautifully-modulated recitation of Alice Oswald’s Red Veined Doc – another interesting choice. Finn and Vicente’s performances showed how well-judged both poem and performance were in this category. In a new extension of the competition, members of staff competed in a ‘Staff Lyttelton Competition’, judged by pupils from the Sixth Form. Alex Saunders and Jenny McLoughlin were the winners, reading poems by Edna St Vincent Millay and Carol Ann Duffy respectively. Jenny McLoughlin commented: ‘Mr Catherwood described my performance as ‘ a study in barely-restrained emotion’. I call it abject fear. Either way, it was lovely to win, and especially with Prayer. My mother was the first female coxswain for the RNLI and as a child I was in awe of her ability to understand the fishing forecast on the radio. The final line, ‘Rockall, Malin, Dogger, Finisterre’ reminds me of her, and I love the idea that the music of words can be a form of prayer or contemplation; the sounds of Prayer have certainly always spoken to me.’

26 News

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Henry Zeffman Talks to the History Society on the Most Notorious OC of All Time at the Soviet Embassy, Yevgeny Ivanov, and the notorious slum landlord, Peter Rachman, among their clients. My presentation sought to exonerate Ward, partially at least. I argued that, though he took rent from Keeler and Rice-Davies, this did not mean he was actively encouraging them to accrue their rent payments by means of prostitution. Rather, he was a mere bystander to Keeler’s developing friendships with such highpowered individuals. Moreover, he turned these relationships not to his personal advantage, but to the nation’s: Ward’s connection, through Keeler, to Ivanov became known to MI5, who asked Ward to act as something of an informal conduit between the Soviet Embassy and the Foreign Ofﬁce during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962: Ivanov put the Soviet view to Ward, who in turn passed it on to his case ofﬁcer at MI5. I greatly enjoyed researching my talk, whose argument was founded partially on the plethora of evidence collated by Phillip Knightley and Caroline Kennedy for their seminal work on the

I greatly enjoyed researching my talk, whose argument was founded partially on the plethora of evidence collated by Phillip Knightley

Henry Zeffman with the poster for his History Society Talk on Stephen Ward, Highgate’s link with the Profumo Affair of the 1960s ‘In February this year I gave a presentation to the History Society on perhaps the most infamous of all Old Cholmeleians: Dr Stephen Ward. For the uninitiated, Ward was at the heart of that great ‘60s political scandal: the Profumo Affair, the ramiﬁcations of which were far-reaching, most notably precipitating the resignation of prime minister Harold Macmillan a few months later for reasons of ‘ill health’, which, given that Macmillan would live a further twenty-three years, seem with the luxury of

hindsight to be more than slightly dubious. Ward was the society osteopath – physician, conﬁdant, and often indeed friend, to such notable persons as Winston Churchill, John Betjeman and Frank Sinatra – who was accused and ultimately, while dying in hospital from an intentional drug overdose, convicted of living off the ‘immoral earnings’ of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, who between them counted the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, the Assistant Naval Attaché

affair, 1987’s An Affair of State: The Profumo Case and the Framing of Stephen Ward. However, my talk was hardly an exceptional event, for every Friday lunchtime dozens of Highgate students of all ages eager for extracurricular enrichment and keen to learn from their peers gather in Room 11 to hear a presentation. The remarkable diversity of interests among Highgate’s student body is reﬂected in the phenomenally broad range of subjects addressed. For example, Mr Edward Towne, a History teacher at Highgate, gave a presentation on Mary I, Danny Tompkins enlightened Highgate students on the Italian Futurist movement, Mr James Newton, also a History teacher, advanced his theory that defeat of the Axis was inevitable, and Ben Huston marked a refreshing change with his talk on the History of Jazz. Indeed, every speaker to the society, through their readiness to answer challenging audience questions, displayed meticulous and painstaking research. It is great testament to Highgate – both the School and the students – that so many are willing to forgo a lunch break, that most valued of privileges, for the sake of academic enrichment, and a tradition that I hope lives long into the future.’

Henry Zeffman (Y12)

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Chaplain’s Crêpes Suzettes Give a Boost to Charity Week! beating Joe Price and David Reed’s mushroom pasta. Miss Gardiner and Mr Knowland showed their mettle to an animated audience in Eastgate’s arm wrestling competition and students fought hard to be crowned the Fifa champion. Elsewhere in the school, Kristian Hay Jahans munched his way through fourteen of the thirteen hundred Krispy Kreme doughnuts that were sold, while on the netball field, the girls’ team showed their superiority over the boys in an 8-2 drubbing. Midgate’s smoothie sale and the Lodge’s cake sale were once again a huge success, and the first ever Southgate raffle far exceeded expectations with hundreds of tickets sold. The ‘ungoogleable quiz’ saw the intellectuals of Highgate’s community go head to head, culminating in the Heffernan family finishing close behind the winner, Mr Streuli.

Events included bake sales and the making of friendship bracelets, along with the teachers’ favourite: the sponsored silence.

Chaplain Paul Knight contributes his culinary talents to Charity Week Monday 7 February 2011 marked the beginning of Highgate School’s Charity Week, and the four days that followed were crammed with a multitude of fundraising events from Fifa tournaments to smoothie selling, involving staff and students of all ages. With over £8,000 collected, the largest ever amount raised during Highgate’s Charity

Week, three magniﬁcent causes will beneﬁt: Mary’s Meals, Breast Cancer UK and the North London Hospice. Thanks to numerous colourful posters and banners plastered across the school, attendance for the events was high. During the week, Mr Murphy and the Reverend Knight stole the show in Masterchef with their Crêpes Suzettes,

Along with house and school events, each of the Year 7 and 8 Forms were charged with the task of raising money for our partner school in Kirima, Uganda. Events included bake sales and the making of friendship bracelets, along with the teachers’ favourite: the sponsored silence. Guy Oberlander did exceedingly well at this, raising more than £200, as well as 7N who raised more than any other form with their proceeds totalling just over £700. Our international charity, Mary’s Meals, feeds over half a million impoverished children across the world and not only meets their need for nourishment, but also allows them to receive an invaluable education. Breast Cancer UK is Highgate’s national charity. They have started a campaign to increase awareness of breast cancer, a disease whose cases have risen by 80 per cent in the last thirty years and which affects one in nine women. Closer to home, our third charity, the North London Hospice, cares for the sick and vulnerable in Barnet, Enﬁeld and Haringey. Their centre offers care 24/7 to those in need, as well as their friends and family. The record-breaking week could not have happened without the hard work of many and the generosity of all. Highgate and our supported charities thank all the students, staff and parents for their efforts, and look forward to February 2012!

Simon Blackaby (Y12)

28 News

Explorers of the Universe

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Snakes Alive! It’s Science Week

John Zarnecki with his photograph by Max Alexander. A room in the physics department has been named after John 2009 was pronounced the International Year of Astronomy to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s ﬁrst observations of the night sky with an improved version of the newly-invented telescope. To mark this event, two Londonbased photographers staged exhibitions of images of British astronomers: Lucinda Douglas-Menzies hung classical black and white portraits at the Royal Society, while Max Alexander presented imaginative colour photos at the Royal Albert Hall. Pictures of OC space scientist John Zarnecki (MG 1962) featured in both portfolios, so prints were purchased for display in a laboratory in the Physics Department, which will be named the Zarnecki Room as a result.

James Walkden gave a talk on animal communication for this year’s Science Week

A small unveiling ceremony took place in November at which both John and Max said a few words. Having become good friends after their first encounter on opposite sides of a lens, they had agreed to do a double act for the Physics Society later the same evening. Max took centre stage, projecting his photos to stunning effect on the huge white wall at the back of the newly-refurbished Dyne House Auditorium. With a Certificate of Higher Education in Astronomy from University College London under his belt he was able to speak knowledgably about all of his subjects, but when he got to the shot of Prof Zarnecki in front of an oil refinery in Kent (mirroring the murky organic atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon), John took over. It was moving to be reminded of the tremendous success of the Huygens mission to Titan in January 2007 in which he had played such a crucial part. They were also able to announce breaking news of a successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 a few hours earlier, with photos beamed back by the Deep Impact spacecraft. Max’s photographs can be viewed online at: http://goo.gl/3n0Yd and future evening Physics Society meetings will be advertised on the school website.

Throughout the entirety of the week beginning 14 March, the whole science block was a hive of activity. Flocks of pupils studying science at all levels or having a general interest in the subject accumulated at the doors of the labs, pushing their way through the queues in order to obtain a chicken salad sandwich so that they could avoid the universally hated tuna baguette! With smiles on faces and enthusiastic appearances the many students that had gathered at the lunchtime sessions left amazed at the wonders of the scientific world. No, I am not talking about Dr Szydlo attempting to blow up an ever-larger balloon but instead one of the most exciting and interactive weeks in the School’s diary. For five days, external experts, internal speakers, live demonstrations and adapted lessons would make up another successful and fascinating Science Week. The week of learning, centred on Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics and Geography has been running at Highgate for seven years and is becoming one of the most anticipated events in the calendar. This year we were very pleased to welcome several external speakers from Imperial College London, The Royal Free Hospital, University of London, University of Oxford and St George’s Medical School. The week started with an interactive talk about my favourite animal, the snake, given by Highgate’s leading herpetologist, Mr Atkins. Other popular activities included a debate on the obesity tax in Economics Society, medical imaging in the Chemistry Society and an opportunity to measure real nerve impulses in Biology Society. In lessons, activities such as extracting DNA, identifying chemical compounds, testing fizzy drinks, discovering Darwin and my personal favourite, building origami dinosaurs took place. At lunch, internal speakers included: Mr Bennett, giving a fascinating lecture on the mathematics of medicine, our very own Dr Doolittle, James Walkden, in Year 13 talking about animal communication and an alliance between the chemistry and physics departments saw Mr Smith and Dr Szydlo entertaining Year 10 students with a talk about Marie Curie. Years 9–11 also took part in a house science competition in which their knowledge of all three sciences was tested through a series of challenging questions. Finally for the older students, the week saw talks given by surgeon Dr Caron Sandhu and a lecture by Professor Brian Austen on Alzheimer’s disease, as well as an interactive workshop on how to use the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) machine, enabling us to amplify DNA. Whether you were a scientist, linguist, artist or physicist it was clear that we did, all, ‘learn something amazing in science week’!

David Smith

Nicky Collins (Y12)

It was moving to be reminded of the tremendous success of the Huygens mission to Titan in January 2007…

News 29

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Serious Fun on Saturdays at Highgate School

The SHINE Project in action: all concerned found it a valuable experience Highgate has been sponsored by the SHINE (Support and Help in Education) Project to offer literacy classes to support children who are refugees or asylum seekers. The ‘Serious Fun on Saturdays’ initiative was developed in partnership with the Crest Academies, who provided four groups from Years 8 and 9. On ten Saturday mornings between November and February, the children, largely from Afghani and Somali backgrounds, and with low reading ages, had lessons in English given by a team of teachers led by Alex Saunders and Rebecca Church, with a break for sessions of fives and football. The children, for whom English was a second or even third language, made significant and measurable progress over the course of the project, and their confidence was given a dramatic boost. ‘It was immensely rewarding to work with these keen and enthusiastic pupils from the Crest Academies’, commented Alex Saunders. ‘And the willingness of the Highgate pupils to help with mentoring was impressive.’ Forty pupil mentors from Years 10 and 11 gave up their time to help with lessons, and to teach sports skills in the break between lessons. Y12 David Reed commented, ‘when

we started coaching Fives, the students kept asking when they could play football! But after a few Saturdays they began to really enjoy the game, started coming to grips with the strange rules, and we were able to step out of the court and let them have a full game. A couple of players excelled to such an extent we thought

SHINE is an amazing project: it highlights the incredible facilities we have at Highgate and shows how important it is to share them. Highgate should consider recruiting them for the Nationals! We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope that the students enjoyed it too. Shine is an amazing project: it highlights the incredible facilities we have at Highgate and shows how important it is to share them. We all look forward to taking part next year.’ Highgate’s outreach programme has also been given signiﬁcant help by the Ogden Trust

and a parent donation. The Ogden Trust was launched in 2000 to support the teaching of science in schools and universities. Between 1997 and 2010, over £16 million has been given in bursaries and scholarships. A new appointment to the Physics Department has been part-funded by the Trust, allowing Highgate’s physics teachers to devote a proportion of their teaching time to outreach and enrichment activities in Haringey. Dr Kevin Quinn read physics and astrophysics at the Queen’s University, Belfast where he also completed a doctorate on laser-plasma interaction physics. During his ‘INSPIRE’ PGCE, a pioneering teaching programme which enjoys close links with the Ogden Trust, he has been involved in outreach initiatives in several London state schools. Highgate also contributed to The Chrysalis Partnership last autumn, with subject-speciﬁc advice and help with university interviews for gifted and talented pupils across the Boroughs of Haringey and Camden. This summer, Highgate will be hosting summer schools for around 130 Year 10 and 12 pupils.

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Year Eight Chess Prodigy Gives Nigel Short a Run for His Money! Isaac Sanders (Y8) has played Nigel Short in a ‘simul’ (where a chess champion plays several opponents at the same time) which ended in a draw. Nigel Short is often regarded as the strongest English chess player of the 20th century who became a Grandmaster at age 19 and challenged for the World Chess Championship against Garry Kasparov at London 1993. Isaac’s match was reported in The Times for 22 February: ‘A couple of England’s brightest junior prospects achieved draws…Isaac Sanders of Highgate School was clearly better for much of his game and has kindly sent me some of his analysis.’

Isaac Sanders of Highgate School was clearly better for much of his game… This Easter, Isaac was off to Budapest to play in an eight day tournament. When did Isaac’s interest in the game start? ‘I was six years old, and on a family holiday on the Isle of Skye. We had chosen the wrong time of year, and it rained the whole time. Dad taught me the rules of chess, and by the time I went to Prep School (The Hall, Hampstead) I was able to beat the reigning champion after only a term’, commented Isaac. Chess prodigy Isaac Sanders

The Innkeeper’s Restless Night On Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 December 2010 the Pre-Prep children performed their nativity play, The Innkeeper’s Restless Night to their parents. This was our ﬁrst production outside the Pre-Prep building, in Dyne House. Each child had a special role: Nursery were the twinkling stars, Reception were the shepherds and the sheep, Year One took the main parts and Year Two were the angels. The children sang and danced beautifully. The audiences

The children sang and danced beautifully. were particularly impressed with the exuberant performances of Bumpy Journey and Wise Men. Each performance ended with a rousing rendition of Come and Join the Celebration. Everyone was impressed with how conﬁdently the Year One ‘actors’ performed. Well done to all the children for their wonderful performances! Many thanks to Mrs Russell and Mrs Hickey for such an enjoyable production! The Pre-Prep’s production of The Innkeeper’s Restless Night

Sarah Kennedy

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Foundation News: Thanks and Farewell to Viv Toulman

Viv says goodbye to the Third Tuesday Lunch Club at their monthly meeting, held every third Tuesday in the month at the Café Rouge in Highgate In May, we said goodbye to Viv Toulman who has worked in the Foundation Office since 2001. She is retiring to Canada with her husband Tony. Viv has been the first point of contact for Cholmeleians calling the Foundation Office, and her patient, friendly and unruffled manner have won her the loyalty and support of all. Her meticulous detail and flair for organisation have helped many of the (now frequent) OC functions to run smoothly. As a

Sussex, organised by Peter Burrowes; Wessex, organised by Tony Pawley and East Anglia, organised by Barrie Slatter. Thanks to their hard work, these have been well-attended and jolly occasions, and we look forward to more next year. There is good news for Northern OCs – feeling that the North is too large an area, two new correspondents have agreed to divide the area into the North West and the North East and organise events for 2011/12. Roderick Thomson

Her sociability and fondness for Cholmeleians placed her in great demand at OC functions, and she will be greatly missed. colleague, she has been a great source of wisdom, and her sharp (although generous) estimates of people’s character have made her invaluable in helping to run the Ofﬁce. Her sociability and fondness for Cholmeleians placed her in great demand at OC functions, and she will be greatly missed. We wish her and Tony a very happy and well-deserved retirement. I have been holding informal reunion lunches and dinners in the regions, and have enjoyed meeting you all. There have been events at Rochester, Birmingham, Chester, Farnham, Cirencester, St Albans and Leatherhead and I hope these can be repeated later in the year or next year. Our regional correspondents have been active, and there have been lunches for those in Edinburgh, kindly organised by David Arthur; East

will be running the North East, and Denis Blamey the North West. If you would like to suggest a time and venue for an event, please contact Roderick on: Roderick Thomson (HG 1950), 12 Grove Road, Menston, Ilkley, West Yorkshire LS29 6JD Tel: 01943 877753 Denis’ contact details are: Denis Blamey (TL 1950) 9 Pikes Hey Road, Caldy, Wirral CH48 1PA Tel: 0151 625 5523 Email: denis.blamey@tiscali. co.uk An event for those in the North West will be organised for 2011/12, and Roderick and Denis would like to hear from you if you are interested in the possibility of an additional reunion at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire. Please let Roderick know if this idea appeals.

After serving for many years as Northern Representative, Major-General Henry Woods is bowing out, with our admiration and thanks for all he has done. In January, we held a hugely successful ‘scratch’ performance of The Messiah. Many OC singers, soloists and musicians gave generously of their time to make this a success, and we all felt that it was such a good occasion that we must repeat it next year. Put Saturday 21 January into your diaries! Further aﬁeld, Robert Wilne, Director of Sir Roger Cholmeley’s Charity, and John Mills, our Chairman of Governors, visited Hong Kong and Singapore to meet with Cholmeleians and held an extremely enjoyable dinner there, and Robert and Adam Pettitt, our Head Master, visited New York in the Easter holidays, again enjoying a very pleasant occasion. Charlie Goldblatt, our Development Ofﬁcer, has been working hard on the new website, and he will describe the new opportunities for OCs it provides. As well as the website, Charlie is the brains behind the new e-newsletter you received this May, keeping Cholmeleians up to date with news and events.

Simon Appleton If you feel that you would like an event in your area, contact me at the School on oc@highgateschool.org.uk

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www.highgateoc.org.uk

Since joining the Foundation Ofﬁce team last August, I have been busy designing and building the new website for The Cholmeleian Society, www.highgateOC.org.uk, which was launched just before Christmas. The website has lots of exciting features and is a fantastic way for you to stay in touch with The Society and your friends. The website is very easy to use and I hope that you ﬁnd many of the features useful and enjoyable. As you can see from the screenshots, we have designed the website using the instantly recognisable school colours and embedding images from around School throughout the site. If you have not visited the site before, you simply have to create a personal account by registering, and in doing so, you will be given access to online booking for Cholmeleian Society events, Message Boards to stay in touch with your friends and discuss forthcoming parties, and the online Photographic Archive, where you can search through hundreds of digitised photos spanning over 150 years of Highgate’s history. You can also subscribe to the Cholmeleian Society Calendar and receive information about events and reunions to your e-calendar on your computer or smartphone. We also have a very active Facebook page and Linked-in group, so you can join us there as well.

The website thrives on news we receive from you, so if you have some good news that you would like to share please let us know. Registering is very quick, and in doing so you will have access to all of the exciting features, and more as the website develops. The website thrives on news we receive from you, so if you have some good news that you would like to share please let us know. Perhaps you have recently become engaged, or are expecting your ﬁrst child. We also like hearing about what is happening in your career, and what you are doing for charity. As well as writing an article for the website, we can post messages to Facebook and email your friends and contemporaries from school. Send all of your news and pictures to us at oc@highgateOC.org.uk. We recently sent out the ﬁrst issue of The Cholmeleian Society e-Newsletter, which will keep you up to date with recent news and forthcoming reunions in between your issues of The Cholmeleian. We would like to hear your views, so please let us know what you think by email. If you haven’t heard about the new website, or if you didn’t receive the e-Newsletter, then we don’t have the right email address for you! If you use email and you would like to start receiving information from The Society electronically, you can let us know easily by registering. This will also ensure that you don’t miss out on exciting news, and invitations to parties and reunions from The Society.

Charlie Goldblatt (SG c/2007) Development Ofﬁcer

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Above: Reviving Highgate’s traditions, author Alex Tansey (12 HG) (right), Will Yeldham (12 SH) (left) and Lucy Keithley (13 HG)

THE MAKING OFMODERN HIGHGATE ALEX TANSEY (Y12) LOOKS AT HOW HIGHGATE EVOLVED INTO THE SCHOOL IT IS TODAY.

Feature 33

Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School at Highgate was founded by Sir Roger Cholmeley in 1565 in a village just outside the then London boundary, with a royal charter signed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the First. The story of how an Elizabethan grammar school became a boys’ boarding and day school, and then a fully co-educational day school is an interesting one. The most significant changes in the School’s 446 year history – from boarding to day-schooling and from single-sex to co-education, took place in the last two decades, with earlier significant changes beginning in the 1950s. The atmosphere of Highgate, possibly as a consequence of its former rural location and the large role the Head Masters played in the local village as Vicar, remained sleepy and peaceful for three hundred years until the early Victorian period when the young Dr John Bradley Dyne (Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford and Head Master of Highgate from 1838 to 1874) became the Head Master. Considered one of the great Victorian Headmasters of England (although known to be a ruthless disciplinarian), Dr Dyne increased the number of pupils at the School from an inherited all time low of nineteen to one hundred-and-sixty by the time he retired. He purchased for the School some of its playing fields, and built two North London landmarks, Big School and the Chapel.

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A letter from Head Master AJF Doulton (pictured left in the ‘School and College’ magazine) dated June 1960, in which he tries to stem the tide of the swinging sixties, by listing fashions ‘out of place in a school’, including dufﬂe coats and winklepicker shoes.

There were two notable attempts by Head Masters to increase the number of boarders in the predominantly day School. In the late Victorian period, Head Master McDowell’s (Head Master from 1874 to 1893) efforts were cut short by his sudden death whilst watching a cricket game; his legacy is that he managed to build (in 1881) the main and largest boarding house, School House, which remained open until 1997. The second attempt was made by the School’s ﬁrst Scottish and non-clerical Headmaster, Dr Johnston. He set up several houses and increased the proportion of boarders to threequarters of the School population, including boarding g in the recently y established Junior School (1889).

The Great Depression, however, meant that fees for boarding were simply too high for parents, so some of the newly-formed boarding houses had to close. The transformation of Highgate into the present-day School began in the 1950s and 1960s. Located on Highgate Hill with the City of London within six miles, Highgate has always been susceptible to new trends from the City from which the country boarding schools are shielded. Alfred Doulton’s headmastership saw modern culture inﬁltrate School life, with the notable change being the Beatlesinﬂuenced haircuts. This long hair resulted in the abandonment b of the School Cap (the replacem ment for the straw boater) for all School pupils in n 1968, due to the ill-assortment of the cap with long hair, although the fact that caps had to be doffed to passing members of staff perhaps played a role as well! Older elements of the School’s clothing traditions were still prominent with the award of colour crest badges and cuff lines for jackets. These b evventually merged into what is now the Seenior School’s blue and red blazer. The Sch hool is currently reviving the old tradition of awarding a house, prefect and colour ties. Doulton’s era also saw many changes in th he School’s estate. He, along with the Goveernors of the day, bought the cottage in Wa ales, Cerrig Pryfaid. A new Dining Hall for bo oth boarders and day boys was built in 1958, rreplacing Rooms 13 and 14 in Central Hall. It opened, however, in unfortunate circumsstances; acoustics were poor and the

head caterer, after being sacked for inefﬁciency, committed suicide on the opening morning. It is believed that the man intended to kill Doulton, and then himself, in an arranged meeting; luckily Doulton cancelled the appointment at the last minute. The Hall was arranged in long rows of ﬁxed seating, so that houses could sit together. This tradition was ended in the 1990s with a full refurbishment of the Hall; however, last Christmas lunch, the School decided that each house should go down and lunch together in the Hall to celebrate the old tradition.

The transformation of Highgate into the presentday School began in the 1950s and 1960s Seven years later, in 1965, work began on the 400th anniversary celebrations with the construction of the music and arts centre, Dyne House, in place of the former residence of Headmaster Dr Dyne. Highgate’s sports options steadily increased. Sport has been long established, with the ﬁrst organised game taking place in 1847. Cricket and rugby were the main sports, although in 1878, after a series of terrible accidents in rugby games, the Head Master declared that rugby be banned and Association Football be played instead. Fives has always been a strong sport at Highgate. In the 1830s the 14th Century parish church (part shared by the School) was

‘Young England at Work and Play’ from ‘Throne and Country’ magazine, February 1912. The bristly whiskers and portly ﬁgure of Dr JAH Johnston can be seen bottom right

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The Sixties presented the authorities with some challenging behaviour! (Picture courtesy of David Law)

destroyed to make way for a playground; the ruins served as an excellent ancient site for an Eton Fives court. Indeed Highgate is one of three schools (the others being Eton and Shrewsbury) that host the yearly National Championships, and has been a dominant school in the field for much of the last century. Tennis was first introduced to the school in the 1950s, as a grass court on (what is now an Astroturf) square between the Mills Centre (School House) and Cholmeley House (Junior School). Squash was introduced with the construction of two new courts beside the Junior Field Fives courts and adjacent to the 1970-built indoor swimming pool. Unfortunately, like the Dining Hall, the circumstances of its opening were unfortunate: due to a miscalculation, the Chlorine levels in the pool were too high, which left the swimmers crying with pain afterwards. Although Highgate saw many great developments occur in the 1950s and 1960s, the School did, however, experience many problems. As Doulton noted, there was a great surge in the level of drug taking, often within the School’s premises. He wrote a confidential letter to parents highlighting the issue, which was subsequently leaked to newspapers. Pupils at Highgate developed a great sense of social duty, involving themselves with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958 after the test of the UK’s first H-bomb. Later in 1970, after announcement of the South African cricket tour of England, Highgate’s 1st XI boycotted the match between the School and the MCC (seen as an apartheid endorser). The past two decades have seen much change. Highgate’s boarding houses were closing at a rate of one per year from 1990, until in 1997 the last boarders left the School. The strong and healthily competitive house system is the great legacy of Highgate’s boarding history.

The Pre-Preparatory School was opened in 1993, occupying the former boarding house, Grindal House, on Senior Field. Both boys and girls were admitted in these years, up until aged seven, at which point the School became all-boy again. Girls were admitted to the Sixth Form and Year Three at the start of the 2004 school year, and were introduced incrementally from Year Seven and Year Nine. Now there are girls in every year group. Recently Years Three and Four have moved out of Field House and into Cholmeley. Years Seven and Eight have moved out of Cholmeley and up to the Senior School site, bringing the on-site numbers to over nine hundred pupils.

Functions and traditions at the School have evolved over time, and some indeed have been revived My year was the last to enter the Senior School for Year Nine and the 445th and last allboys’ year at Highgate. In addition to some structural changes in Highgate’s system, the School’s estate has seen great change in the past few years. A major regeneration project got underway in 2004 with the refurbishment of School House as the new Mills Centre for Art and Design Technology, which opened in late 2005. Immediately after, work commenced on adding a new storey to the Science Building. At the same time, the Tudor entrance to the Senior School, the Old Bell Tower, had some extensive repairs and the adjoining Victorian Lodge was modernised into a new entrance point. 2008 saw great activity around

the whole Foundation, with the installation of a new all-weather field and major external restoration of the ‘new’ Senior School buildings (Central Hall, The Link and the Science building, dating from 1898, 1913 and 1928 respectively) along with a modernisation of the classrooms (except Science). September 2010 saw the re-opening of the Dyne House Auditorium after extensive modernisation, along with new basement rooms for recitals and practices. Plans for restoration of the School’s oldest quadrangle, the Chapel Quad, have recently been approved and work is intended to start in summer 2012. The current listed Big School and Chapel were designed by Frederick Pepys Cockerell and were completed in 1865 and 1867 respectively. Originally Big School was used as a library and as a large teaching hall for around one hundred pupils. The work includes extensive restoration of the existing fabric of the two buildings: Big School’s stone dressings and the Chapel’s gold-leaf ceiling paintings will be carefully restored to their former glory. At the same time, Big School will be converted from a large and often empty hall to a vibrant Library and Learning Resources Centre, with a mezzanine floor for book stacks and an extensive computer suite below. Highgate School has witnessed much change in its 446 year history, and with an extensive estate, there is huge potential for further development. Functions and traditions at the School have evolved over time, and some indeed have been revived. Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School is developing to meet the needs of the modern era, while retaining the traditional charms of age-old customs and buildings, and the 450th anniversary celebrations in 2015 will mark another significant milestone in Highgate’s history.

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Music Report

Rehearsal for the St John’s Smith Square Concert Highgate’s dynamic musical year began with the fiercely contested House Singing Competition. Robin Sheffield’s (13EG) Eastgate won with a very impressive rendition of Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The solo part was charismatically performed by Robin himself, and was complemented by some of the singers using their voices to create drum sounds. Talia Caspi’s (13NG) Northgate singers came second with a lively version of the theme from Happy Days and Westgate, led by Mark Pugh (12WG), came joint third with their performance of Happy Togetherr alongside Kingsgate, led by Benjamin Gerrans (13KG), and their rendition of She’s Always a Woman. The next major events in the musical calendar were the individual music competitions. The winner was Baichuan Li (11SH) who performed Martin’s Ballade on flute. This consisted of a stunning cadenza, which proved Baichaun’s sheer musicality with the quick tempo – yet he was still able to portray contrasts and never faltered from the correct rhythms. Second was Anna Lowenstein (13FG) on violin performing the 3rd, 4th and 5th movements of Corelli’s Sonata in F Major.r This was technically perfect – she managed complete mastery of her instrument. Third was Lulu Little (13SH) on violin, performing Elgar’s Sonata in E Minor. Lulu was able to really engage the audience – a quality praised by the adjudicator, Mr Alex Caldon. There were Acts of Remembrance with both the whole School on the Parade Ground and on the Sunday in Chapel. The Voisin Brass Quartet played as the whole Senior School assembled on the parade ground and when they left. The

School Chorale sang John Tavener’s (HG 1957) very moving Funeral Ikos on both occasions. The School’s Battle of the Bands created a slightly different mood to other Highgate concerts! Proceeds from ticket sales went to the XLP charity, which aims to help young people to achieve their potential in life. The winners were Behind the Label, who played Stranger Away. Second place went to Neurotica and their performance of Crazy Train, Fade to Black. However, the audience were also treated to a

this year it was held in the acoustic magic of the Dyne House Auditorium. The Concert Band started with the very emotive Silverbrook and its very atmospheric passages drew the audience in for the whole concert. After this, the ﬁrst half of the programme had a noticeable – yet unplanned – jazzy theme with performances of Nice Work If You Can Get Itt from the Voisin Brass quartet, It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing from the Junior Choir and Cantaloupe Island d by the Saxophone Choir.

The School’s Battle of the Bands created a slightly different mood to other Highgate concerts! Proceeds from ticket sales went to the XLP charity, which aims to help young people to achieve their potential in life performance by the Binary Presets (7,6), a band consisting of Mr Bottomley, Mr Abramson and Mr Partridge from the Maths Department, who played Hit Me Baby One More Time. Soon after, the Chapel Choir and the Chorale started off the carol season with a visit to St Mark’s Church in Dalston, Hackney. Both choirs performed well, singing both popular carols, and some additional pieces – a highlight of which was certainly the Chorale’s rendition of Handel’s Messiah – For unto Us a Child is Born. The ﬁrst major concert after the Christmas holidays, and indeed the beginning of 2011, was the Prism concert. This was the second ‘Prism’ concert in Highgate’s history – the ﬁrst one had been a year previously in Big School; but

The Jazz Orchestra ﬁnished the ﬁrst half in style with Just Blues and The Chicken – the former was a jazzy take on the blues, and the latter was up-beat, energetic and featured the famous soul introduction before moving into funk. The second half moved itself back towards the classical genre with the indisputably beautiful Flower Duet from Lakmé, played with musical sophistication by the Saxophone Ensemble. The Brass Ensemble followed this with the early Baroque Canzon Pian’ e Forte, and their large trumpet section in the auditorium did the piece justice. The ever-intriguing and musically faultless A Cappella group was a temporary pause from the return to the classical genre, with a predictably brilliant and instantly likeable

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Music Report version of Mister Sandman arranged by Ms Price herself. The Symphonic Band were last on the bill – they had chosen to play Vinson’s Suite for Winds and Percussion, and the audience very much enjoyed the three short movements ending with a climax created by the irregular time signature in the third movement. Music also played a part on the Tuesday of Charity Week with the Charity Music Soirée. Both this and the Prism concert were in aid of The Irene and Henry Retford Fund. The concert consisted of two halves, yet only four groups. Three of them played in the first half – A Cappella started with another charming piece from their repertoire; I’m A Train. The Sutherland Dectet, another vocal group, did their own rendition of the immensely popular Lean On Me and managed to pull it off with significant flair. The Symphonic Band concluded the proceedings before the interval with The Carnival of Venice. This featured the remarkable Baichuan Li (11SH) as the soloist, who performed the immensely challenging solos both flawlessly and from memory. Indeed this was a hard act to follow, but

The Carnival of Venice featured the remarkable Baichuan Li (11SH) as the soloist, who performed the immensely challenging solos both flawlessly and from memory the billing of the Chamber Orchestra performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons after the interval was certainly an eye-opener. It was another emotive performance from the first bar and featured Benjamin Gerrans (13KG), Talia Caspi (13NG), Lulu Little (13SH), Oliver Zeffman (13TL), Holly Thomas (13WG) and Anna Lowenstein (13FG) as soloists. The musical stamina and professionalism was exceptional and made the Soirée one of the most memorable evenings of the year. On 23 February, the Chapel Choir was invited to sing in an evensong at Southwark Cathedral and gave a moving performance, which was highly praised. The A Cappella group also finished off their highly successful term with a trip to the regional round of the National Youth Music Festival. They performed Vigilate, by Byrd, And So It Goes, by Billy Joel, and I’m a Train by Hammond/Hazelwood to a typically high standard, and although they are still waiting the judges’ verdict, they enjoyed a great day out and were performing alongside some of London’s best choirs. In addition, both Patrick Dodd (11NG) and Charlotte Holtum (11KG) passed auditions to join Jessica Marais (12EG) at the National Youth

The Irene and Henry Retford Fund The Irene and Henry Retford Fund, which supports talented musicians at Highgate School who come from financially disadvantaged families, has been set up by Ronnie Austin, a former pupil of the school. Ronnie and his wife Sabine have launched the Fund in memory of the late Irene and Henry Retford, music publishers who lived for fifty years in Sheldon Avenue in Highgate. A number of pupils are already benefiting from the Fund’s support, and are very much enjoying the opportunity, and the challenge, of learning an instrument and participating in Highgate’s rich musical life. If you would like to donate to the Fund, or would like to discuss other ways of supporting music at Highgate, please contact Robert Wilne 020 8347 2102 or robert.wilne@highgateschool.org.uk

The Orchestra with Baichuan Li, winner of the individual competition (second row from the back, on the left, playing the ﬂute)

The Chapel Choir sing Evensong at Southwark Cathedral

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Music Report

Eastgate, winners of the House Singing Competition Training Choir. This nationwide choir represents a great achievement for those pupils, reﬂecting the fantastic choral tradition at Highgate, as well as the skill of those individuals.

The Lodge’s performance was so expressive that some of the performers actually jumped to emphasise a sudden change in tempo The House Instrumental Competition always brings out a Highgate musician’s greatest talents – not only with performance, but with direction and arrangement. The winning house this year, The Lodge, exempliﬁed all three – their arrangement of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1 showcased the immense talent The Lodge has to offer with a performance so expressive that some of the performers actually jumped to emphasise a sudden change in tempo. School House seemed almost to have a full orchestra, and performed a medley from Badelt’s Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack led by Lulu Little (13SH) to gain second place. The precision in this performance was apparent from the start when the whole group ensured they were perfectly in tune – something which the adjudicator Dr Savaskan, Deputy Director of Music at Westminster School, thought essential. Kingsgate played Gershwin’s They Can’t Take That Away From Me, led by Benjamin Gerrans (13KG) with an arrangement which was able to include a relatively wide range of instruments. The last week of the Lent term saw arguably Highgate’s ﬁnest musical performance of the year at St. John’s, Smith Square. The concert began with Beethoven’s Overture: The Creatures of Prometheus, played by the Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Mr Steuart

The Lodge, winners of the House Instrumental Competition. Oli Zeffman proudly holds aloft the trophy Fothringham. This was shortly followed by a stunning performance by the Barbirolli Quartet, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra, playing a very dynamic interpretation of Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro. The Symphonic Band ended the ﬁrst half with an incredibly special performance of Ravel’s famous Bolero – their last concert with Mr Stewart. Mr Stewart has become a ‘legend’ of the music department, immensely respected for his dedication to his groups and for the drive and determination he has provided in order to make every concert special. Bolero featured many members of the band performing the repeated two solos, including Mr Stewart on soprano saxophone. Every aspect of the piece was immensely impressive and the gradual crescendo throughout resulted in the piece ending gloriously – representing the end of

Mr Stewart’s era. However, another highlight of the evening was the Symphony Orchestra’s collaboration with the Concert Choir in the second half, with a grand ﬁnale of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 in B-ﬂat Major.r Performing nine of a possible ten movements, the orchestra and choir accompanied soloists Angela Henckel, Sarah Vivien and David Revels to play and sing the Lobesang – Mendelssohn’s response to Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Overall, it was a suitable and enjoyable end to another term of sophisticated, moving and fun music at Highgate.

Ben Huston (10MG), Conor Wilcox-Mahon (10NG), Peter Van Dongen (10MG)

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Much Ado About Nothing

Ben Weil (left) and Natasha Holmes as Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. The cast are taking the production to this year’s Edinburgh Festival In the sunny, easy-going town of Messina, Italy, a lone, sullen youth in a leather jacket stomps on an orange. This random act of violence by Don John signals the start of a malignant chain of events that convulses the world of Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare’s 1598 comedy, and is typical of the inventive staging of this production, devised by Kathryn Kramer, Andrew Plaistowe and a team of clever Sixth Formers. Seen as one of his most successful comedies, Much Ado anticipates Shakespeare’s later, darker problem plays through its mixing of the tragic pathos of Claudio and Hero’s seemingly doomed love with the low buffoonery of the Messina Town watch. Somewhere in between lies the celebrated banter between Beatrice and Benedick, the humour of their barbed witticisms concealing a deeper level of antipathy until their attitudes are suddenly and comically reversed. Don Pedro’s misanthropic intervention leads to Claudio and Hero’s misfortune, but also, ultimately, to Beatrice and Benedick’s reconciliation. These tribulations were conveyed with enormous energy and wit. Ben Weil’s Benedick was a narcissistic poseur, all too pleased with his own poise and intellect. Natasha Holmes’ Beatrice was more than a match for him in the early scenes and appeared charmingly confused when she, too, succumbed to love. Alex Tansey

as Claudio, honourable and foolish by turns, and India Crawford as Hero, faithful to the last, gained the audience’s sympathy through their suffering and their touching reconciliation. Tarik Basri put in a strikingly naturalistic performance as the genial father-ﬁgure of Don Pedro, while Freddie Pegram as Don John – somewhere between James Dean and a particularly disgruntled Teddy Boy – brought a wiry nihilism to one of Shakespeare’s most disturbing outsiders.

This was a production that highlighted the comedy of the play very successfully To a modern audience, the puns, misunderstandings and dirty jokes of Shakespearean comedy can make for a puzzling and rather unfunny evening. The many pupils who were packed into the audience might have been surprised, then, to ﬁnd themselves actually laughing, for this was a production that highlighted the comedy of the play very successfully. Yaseen Kader, Ben Caspi and Alex Moock presented a masterclass in comic timing, slapstick and verbal humour in their roles as the town watch. The gulling scenes were

also genuinely funny – quite a feat – with Weil and Holmes’ attempts to conceal themselves becoming ever more ludicrous. Lavinia Butt’s hilariously coarse comic slattern Margaret, meanwhile, mugged and minced her way across the stage, rolling her eyes and winking, even presenting one unsuspecting male in the audience with a tulip each night – astutely, one of them was this reviewer. The real success of the show was its attention to detail – the ﬂashing blue light on the police helmet of one of the watch; Yaseen Kader’s convoluted, hand-twisting salute that echoes Dogberry’s tongue-twisting; Henry Zeffman’s old-man mannerisms as Leonato; Inigo Ford’s accomplished and engaging guitar-playing; the projection of Cupid to suggest the speed of love and coloured lighting to highlight changes in tone. Rarely is such sheer enjoyment to be had from such an intellectually rigorous production; tribute not only to the efforts of the staff involved but also to the close involvement of pupils in the directorial process and the hard work put in by all of them over many weeks. The team is taking the production to this year’s Edinburgh Festival: more audiences might now also ﬁnd out that Shakespeare can be funny.

Rory Fisher

40 Art

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

KS3 Art Exhibition

An exhibit made of wire and sweets! Beth Belin praised the variety and imaginativeness of the KS3 Exhibition When my friends heard that I was going to be writing an article on the exhibition, I was towed around the gallery and instructed to appreciate art projects from a variety of different students. Mobiles, various forms of sculptures, photographs...the list goes on. The diversity of the artwork surprised and intrigued me. Each art teacher had their own interpretation of the theme for each year group and every class had produced something completely different. In addition to this, every pupil in every class in Years 7, 8 and 9 had a project displayed in the exhibition. Although there was certainly quantity, there was also an undisputable quality in the artwork. The Y7 projects reﬂected the idea of turning lines and shapes into 3D creations. I was very taken with the ﬁnished projects on show in the window of the exhibition. Again, this produced some stunning results and the installation constructed of suspended white balls was extremely impressive and was, in my opinion, one of the highlights of the exhibition. The way they were displayed added to their effectiveness as the

Beth’s favourite – an exhibit comprising suspended white spheres

window reﬂected and multiplied the designs. The Y8 artwork portrayed the year group’s theme of shelter (be it metaphorical or literal). The theme is open ended and allowed a lot of room for creativity. Some teachers and their classes produced artwork that appeared to be based on tents and other man-made structures whilst others explored the possibilities of modelling their projects on conkers and shells.

Students learned how to convert their art from representational to abstracted and then finally into abstract art The artwork produced by the Y9 students is a reflection of the study of architecture. Students learned how to convert their art from representational to abstracted and then finally into abstract art. The final projects ranged from

dynamic plastered sculptures which dominated the main exhibition room to a large and slightly eerie photograph of a delicate plaster city. One thing I noticed about the art displayed in the exhibition was the huge range of materials used to create engaging pieces of art. I noticed sculptures composed of traditional materials such as clay and plaster but I also found sculptures that were made of everything from fabric, beads and bits of string to found objects (most noticeably a mobile made of tennis balls and a small free-standing sculpture made entirely of wire and jelly sweets!). This made the exhibition very interesting and extremely varied. I went into the exhibition room not knowing at all what to expect and I was immediately impressed by the amount, variety and especially quality of the artwork on display. My friends pulled me through the rooms, promising that what they wanted to show me was superb, and actually, it really was!

Beth Belin (9WG)

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Andrew Pegram Screen Printing Lecture and Workshop

Screen printing in action. But, as Danny Tompkins found, this is a difﬁcult medium to master! ‘Some people think that I just sit and copy the photograph. It is precisely that I reinvent it in other terms that gives it another quality.’ – Vija Celmins, 1978

stencils ready to be used to make their own screen prints, (the stencil being the basic method of screen printing). We then had a formal introduction from Andrew, with a talk about his

Screen-printing has only fairly recently received serious critical attention, with pioneering artists in the 60s such as the renowned Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein Andrew Pegram’s (WG 1963) talk ended with this quotation, and this was exactly what everybody attending the introduction to screenprinting came out thinking. It was a wonderful introduction to a method which is rarely used in the art department. The session began with students creating

time in the art world. We were given a guided tour through the history of screen printing, which has only fairly recently received serious critical attention, with pioneering artists in the 60s such as the renowned Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg, and on our side of the Atlantic, Peter Blake and Patrick Caulﬁeld.

Andrew then gave us a brief look into his impressive selection of works, at the same time giving us an insight into his unique technique. Buildings and their various detailing (window, doors, etc) have been his subject area of choice throughout his career, with North and East London as his geographical focus. The session was brought to an end with the printing of everybody’s designs. The ﬁrst print was a resounding success, but, as the ink dried on the screen, the quality began to deteriorate, and by the fourth run, printing had become impossible! A perfect introduction to the ups and downs of, what was for many, a previously unexamined medium.

Danny Tompkins (12SH)

42 Proﬁle

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Proﬁle: The Very Musical Zeffmans

The Zeffman Family, from left: Oli, Henry and Miranda

The Cholmeleian talks to The Zeffman Family, Highgate’s Musical dynasty, about modesty, Mozart and practising like a madman The Zeffman family – Oli (Y13), Henry (Y12) and Miranda (Y10) are something of a musical dynasty at Highgate, like the Camden family in the 1950s. Between them, they are involved in every aspect of musical life and some interesting ventures outside School. They are very gifted musicians, who between them have clocked up six Grade Eights (the highest) Awards for Instruments, and one Diploma from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. More are on their way, as Miranda takes her diploma on the clarinet this summer and Henry takes his Grade Eight Organ Exam, a precursor to a possible Oxbridge Organ Scholarship application. The three siblings are modest about their achievements and ambitions, and at ﬁrst were rather reluctant to take part in an interview, as they feared ‘it would seem like showing off’. But they ended up enjoying it, and their humour and family banter (usually directed at Oli) shone through. Oli, whose main instrument is the violin, has conducted two very successful charity concerts in the United Reform Church in Pond Square. The ﬁrst, last February, raised

£1,000 for charity, and the second, this February, raised £1,200. The programme was astonishingly ambitious for an amateur orchestra and conductor and included Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Peter and the Wolf. The orchestra consists of friends, many of them made through playing in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra, a collection of talented musicians selected from across London who practise, tour and perform together. Two Highgate pupils are also members – Ben Gerrans (Y13) and Anna Lowenstein (Y13).

preferring to keep his music as an ‘enjoyable hobby’. Henry, whose main instrument is the piano, played superbly at the chamber concert to mark the opening of the Rothenberg Recital Room, although he considers his greatest musical achievements so far to be reaching the category ﬁnals of the Young Musician of the Year 2010 (on the piano) and playing the second viola part of Mendelssohn’s octet with the Barbirolli Quartet, Highgate’s quartet in residence. Henry also plays in a band, ‘Behind the Label’, which won the Battle of the Bands Competition

Oli has conducted two very successful charity concerts and ranks the most recent as his greatest musical achievement so far, although he is wary of announcing conducting as a possible career, preferring to keep his music as an ‘enjoyable hobby’ Oli ranks this as his greatest musical achievement so far, although he is wary of announcing conducting as a possible career,

earlier this year, just two weeks after they formed. The band, which comprises Y12s Alec Noar, Dominic Burstyn, Gabriel Owen and Max

Proﬁle 43

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011 Borodouline, have the unlikely distinction of playing, through a family connection, at an orthodontic convention. Henry also joins the Procorda Instrumental Summer School every summer at Leiston Abbey in Suffolk. Miranda, whose main instrument is the clarinet, thinks that performing at both the Albert Hall (as part of Camden Concert Band) and a solo at the Wigmore Hall (as part of Pro Corda) are her greatest achievements so far. All three play in just about every musical group available at the School: the Symphonic Orchestra, the Symphonic Band, the Chamber Orchestra (not Miranda), the A Capella and the Chorale (except Oli who ‘only sings in the shower’). Oli and Henry also play in a string quartet and piano trio respectively and Miranda plays in both the saxophone quartet and saxophone ensemble. They have built up good relations with the music department and have been able to call in a few favours by borrowing equipment for Oli’s conducting ventures. Playing music all through the Foundation has given them time to build a good rapport with their music teachers: as Henry puts it: ‘I’ve been playing chamber music with Mr Murphy for nine years now – I’ve really enjoyed working with him’, and the expansion of musical groups and activities since Lionel Steuart Fothringham took over as Director of Music has widened their opportunities.

Playing music all through the Foundation has given them time to build a good rapport with their music teachers, and the expansion of musical groups and activities has widened their opportunities. Their advice to those thinking of taking up music is characteristically thoughtful and practical: ‘Don’t be put off by the practice – the beginning is the hardest part’ (Miranda); ‘Once you get to a certain level you can enjoy it and not have to practise like a madman’ (Henry) and: ‘Don’t do music if you ever want to see the Dining Hall again’ (Oli). Their favourite composers and musicians indicate the development of a discriminating appreciation of pieces and players –Mozart’s Requiem (Oli), Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto (Henry) and The Swan from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, played by Jaqueline du Pré (Miranda), although Henry enjoyed Stevie Wonder and Muse at Glastonbury, and Oli confesses to liking ‘almost anything’. Where this family talent comes from is something we muse on: their father has never played an instrument and their mother used to play the piano. To get a real child prodigy, you have to go back a generation to their maternal grandfather’s ﬁrst cousin, Solomon Cutner CBE (1902-1988), whose musical genius was recognised at the

A ﬂyer for Oli’s second conducting venture, a huge success which raised a substantial sum for charity age of seven when, without formal tuition, he performed his own arrangement of the 1812 Overture on the family piano. He gave his ﬁrst concerts in 1912 at the age of ten, retired from public performance in his teens, and then

Who knows whether they will join the long tradition of musical talent emerging from the School – composers John Rutter and John Tavener, conductors Jan Latham-Koenig and Carl Pini, and players like Howard Shelley, Daniel

Their advice to those thinking of taking up music is characteristically thoughtful and practical: ‘Don’t be put off by the practice – the beginning is the hardest part’ (Miranda); ‘Once you get to a certain level you can enjoy it and not have to practise like a madman’ (Henry) resumed his career as an adult performer. He premiered the Piano Concerto by Arthur Bliss at the 1939 World Trade Fair. Known especially for his interpretation of Beethoven, he broadcast the entire cycle of 32 piano sonatas for the BBC. He was in the midst of recording these for EMI Records, when a stroke left his right arm paralysed and, although he lived another 32 years, he never played again.

Hope and the Camden brothers – but they love their music, and the School beneﬁts hugely from their talent.

Ben Huston, Peter Van Dongen, Conor Wilcox-Mahon and Simon Appleton

44 Feature

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

THE NEW PARLIAMENTARIANS STUDENT EDITOR ALEX BEAGHTON PROFILES HIGHGATE’S TWO NEW CHOLMELEIAN MPS

Feature 45 Highgate School has seen many of its students become politicians. Rupert Mitford and Jonathan Hill, who are currently sitting in the House of Lords, are Cholmeleians, as well as Sir Robert Atkins, an MEP at Brussels, and four MPs sitting in the House of Commons. There are even two Cholmeleians who have held the post of Home Secretary – Anthony Crosland and Charles Clarke – and though the latter has largely retired from frontline politics, he can occasionally be found alongside Andrew Neill and Michael Portillo for the current affairs chat show, This Week. While two Members of Parliament, David Burrowes and Bernard Jenkin, were featured in the Spring 2006 issue of The Cholmeleian, this issue will focus on another two, newly elected to the Commons last year: Robert Halfon and Jeremy Lefroy.

ROBERT IS A SELF-CONFESSED POLITICAL ROMANTIC AND ADMIRER OF WHAT HE CALLS THE ‘CRADLE OF DEMOCRACY’ Robert Halfon was elected to represent the constituency of Harlow after three attempts, losing by 97 votes in 2009, but taking his seat this time with a 5.9% swing. He finds that sitting on the green benches and watching history unfold invokes in him a ‘deep sense of awe’ – he is a self-confessed political romantic and admirer of what he calls the ‘Mother of Parliaments and Cradle of Democracy’. Less romantic, however, are his long hours and ‘the tyranny of emails’, of which he has to answer 200 a day. Like Bernard Jenkin, Robert is a member of the 1922 Committee, allowing him regular access to the Prime Minister, and giving him an insight into the disposition of his party. Robert has spent ten long years becoming an MP, and his ambition at the moment is simply ‘to learn and enjoy the job’. He is involved in a scheme to set up a Royal Society of Apprenticeships, protect people’s rights online with an internet Bill of Rights, and to create incentives which will see more special constables on the beat, aiding police and making the public feel safer. Robert’s interest in politics derived from Highgate, and he remembers David Tabraham-Palmer’s lessons vividly as a source of inspiration, as well as the History lessons of Dr David Williamson. He recalls spending a lot of time in cafes talking excitedly about politics with David Burrowes, who is now a fellow MP. Robert read politics at university, after which he became a junior researcher, and a Chief of Staff to Oliver Letwin. He believes that he won Harlow on his third attempt because ‘people were fed up with high taxes and not getting good public services in return’, and predicts that education will be a big factor in the next election. Robert sees the fact that people are not getting the education they need, and the poor literacy rates that this causes, as one of the main obstacles to be overcome by our generation. Jeremy Lefroy was also one of the 250 Members of Parliament to join the House of Commons last year, and he notes the significance of the diversity in the new intake: the youngest MP elected was in his mid-20s, while the oldest was a 65-year-old sheep farmer from Wales. Parliament has even seen the entrance of its first ever sitting grandmother, and though Jeremy hopes that the gender ratio will continue to level out, he is content that Parliament is no longer male-dominated – 144 out of the 648 current MPs are female. Jeremy, who attended Highgate in 1976, compares his experiences at school with those he has had in Parliament. The new MPs are apparently treated like ‘new boys and girls at school’, shown around and told what they ‘can and can’t do’, while the 40 hours a week they spend in Parliament give rise to a club-like atmosphere: the MPs dine together, talk together, and despite the seemingly tribal nature of Parliament, strong friendships are formed, even across parties. Jeremy also feels

that there is a strong sense of place in Parliament – ‘when you get up to speak, your constituency is displayed’ – and that there is a sense of pride involved with the feeling that it is purely you representing your area. Though the House of Commons was destroyed during the Blitz, Churchill felt that ‘the chamber must be built exactly as it was’, even though according to Jeremy it can only house 420 out of the 648 current Members of Parliament, who apparently are forced to ‘sit on the floor or the aisles’. Regardless, Jeremy feels that the European Parliament, though more smart and ordered, lacks the House of Commons’ ‘electric sense of atmosphere and place’. Moreover, in the House of Commons the Prime Minister often sits next to and talks to MPs, and can be stopped in a lobby for two or three minutes when an MP wants to raise a matter, whether national or constituency-related. It is not just the PM who mingles with the MPs, however, but ‘astronauts, and even Bill Gates’ – when MPs are in New York or Washington they are met with great respect by American politicians, who like Robert Halfon see the British Parliament as ‘the cradle of modern democracy’. Both politicians discovered their initial interest in politics at Highgate. Jeremy mentions that his first taste for the subject came from general studies lessons at the School, while a talk from Edna Healey about the evils of independent schools roused him to defend his father’s choice to send him to Highgate, awakening a passion for ‘making points’ and debating. Hopefully the insight into Parliament provided by both MPs will stimulate a similar ambition in current students at Highgate. Jeremy Lefroy, for example, has worked in a number of exotic locales including Tanzania, as well as founding and running a charity named Equity for Africa, which aims to combat poverty through the creation of jobs – reflecting on the fact that an MP is not only concerned with making a difference locally, but globally.

Robert Halfon with Essex apprentices at Harlow College

Alex Beaghton (right) with Jeremy Lefroy and the Huston brothers

46 School Sport

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Cross Country

Archie Patch leads the senior boys’ race at the Pat Bagnall Trophy

Rising star Marjolaine Briscoe works her way through the ﬁeld (at the Pat Bagnall Trophy)

a successful season over two terms, with plenty of individual and team achievements along the way. The first competition to come around was the Borough Championships in November and a number of new names from Year 7 made their mark. Marjolaine Briscoe and Terence Fawden both took the U13 girls and boys individual titles and the reliable quartet of Fawden, Bruce Allinson, James Rodgers and Nathan Calton clinched the U13 boys’ team title. Following some aesthetically pleasing yet somewhat perilous mornings of training on the snow and ice over the Christmas holidays, the senior boys and girls were ready do battle at the 37th Knole Run, hosted by Sevenoaks School. The girls’ team of Molly Patch, Sophia ParviziWayne, Alice Elwood and Natasha Homes went in to their race as title holders, but were no match for the hosts this year, nevertheless coming away with a hard-earned team silver. The boys’ team were boosted by the Patch and Ames-Blackaby twins, with Luke Ames-Blackaby finishing an outstanding 13th and Archie Patch 27th from a field of 290. Juniors Harry Kleiman, Sam Willis and Charles-Katz-Summercorn completed

the Highgate boys’ team, which achieved the School’s best-ever ﬁnishing position of 8th from 41 teams.

The U17 boys’ team ran out winners from a field of 21 teams in a thrilling battle with Harrow School. The next high point came at the Wellington Relays with two team gold and one team silver for Highgate’s U17 and U15 boys and girls. With a welcome dose of ‘headband power’ courtesy of Mr Derham’s extensive collection, the U17 boys’ team of Luke and Josh Ames-Blackaby, Josh O’Neill, Charles Katz-Summercorn and Harry Kleiman ran out winners from a field of 21 teams in a thrilling battle with Harrow School. Molly Patch also ran the fastest girls’ time of the day by 30 seconds and she capped a superb season by finishing 68th at the English Schools Championships in Nottingham – Highgate’s best ever female performance at this competition. The season was rounded off by the annual

Highgate’s Headband Heroes! Pat Bagnall Trophy on the Hampstead Heath Extension, as five visiting schools all competed in memory of the Cholmeleian and established distance athlete Pat Bagnall, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 1976. On a beautiful spring day in near-perfect running conditions, Highgate picked up several individual medals with Billie Esplen taking bronze, Archie Patch, Marjolaine Briscoe and Charles-KatzSummercorn all taking silver and Sam Willis winning gold in their respective age groups. The final score stood at 2-2 between Wellington College and Highgate in terms of team victories, although Wellington were awarded the trophy for the first time on the basis of having two individual winners. More than 60 students recorded a time for the 2.7 mile Bishops Avenue time trial this year and no fewer than 5 age group best times were set in the process. Sincere thanks are due to all of the staff who assisted at this weekly event, in particular to Cécile Pottier, Andrew Bottomley and to David Derham.

Gareth Creagh

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TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Fives The Fives Championships at Eton went very well for the School. In the Open we had two semi finalists – Cameron Most and Matthew Kovar who beat Shrewsbury 2 to reach the final against Shrewsbury 1 who beat James Curry and Alex Pavitt. The final went the way of the top seeds (Shrewsbury) but not without a terrific fight by Cameron and Matthew who had two set points to win the second game and had they done so then the match would have been interesting. James and Alex upset the form book to put the 4th seeds from St Olaves to the sword in the quarter finals in a dazzling display of attacking Fives. We had two pairs in the semi finals of the Under 16 but despite a heroic effort from both pairs we lost to St Olaves and Shrewsbury. Ben Kovar and Gabriel Mador went 2-1 up against St Olaves but could not sustain their high energy and lost 2-3. Charlie Noble and Joe Berriman (Under 15s) narrowly lost to Shrewsbury but had the breaks gone their way could easily have won. They will be back to put things right next year. Seven of the pairs who reached the last 16 will be back next year and we anticipate great things from this very talented year group.

Lara Foch, Eve Smith-Bingham, Aimee Paul and Eloise Most in the ﬁnal of the U15 Competition.

James and Alex upset the form book to put the 4th seeds from St Olave’s to the sword in the quarter finals in a dazzling display of attacking Fives. In the Under 15s Christy Blackaby and Julian James surpassed all expectations to reach the semi finals in brilliant style where they lost to the eventual winners, Eton, in a close match. We dominated the Under 14s with three pairs reaching the semi-finals – Richard Footman and Alex Robinson, Matthew Budgett, Ingimar Tomasson (Year 6!), Daniel Light and Ben Reed. Richard and Alex beat Daniel and Ben in straight sets but the latter pair had a fantastic match in the quarter finals beating the 3rd seeds from Berkhamsted 3-2. Matthew and Ingimar beat the Number 1 seeds from St Olaves 3-2 in a wonderful match coming back from 0-2 down to win in sensational style 3-2. They were exhausted afterwards and despite winning the first game against Richard and Alex in the final they ran out of steam a little and our first pair won the next three games comfortably to win 3-1. Our Under 13s excelled in both the Prep Schools and the Nationals (where our top 5 pairs were excluded). Eve Smith-Bingham and Ingimar Tomasson beat Ben Hopkins and Robert MacLennan in a thriller in the Prep Schools 2-1 and Joseph Gibber and Andre Tejuoso beat the top pair from Berkhamsted 3-0 very comfortably. Eve is the first girl to win the Prep Schools and

Matthew Kovar and Cameron Most in action against Shrewsbury in the ﬁnal of the Open Ingimar is the youngest. He is also the youngest boy to reach the ﬁnal of the Under 14s. Joseph and Andre are equally talented which was evident in the National Under 12s.

We boasted 6 pairs in the quarter finals of the Under 12s and the final was a superb match and drew the largest crowd of the day We boasted 6 pairs in the quarter finals of the Under 12s – an extremely talented age group – and the final between Eve and Ingimar and Joseph and Andre was a superb match and drew the largest crowd of the day as both pairs

slugged it out to gain supremacy. After being 1-2 down Eve and Ingimar finally triumphed 3-2 but it could have gone either way. Our girls are fantastic! Eve and Aimee Paul won both the Girls Under 15 and Ladies Open beating Eloise Most and Lara Foch in the final of the Under 15s and Amira Reimer and Scarlet Katz-Roberts in the Open. Eve, Aimee, Amira and Scarlet are all Under 12 but have proved that skill and natural ability can overcome size and strength. Eve has now won both these competitions two years running and now boasts 7 National and Prep Schools titles at the tender age of twelve. All our Fives players played with terrific style and determination and were a great credit to the School. I could not be more proud of them.

Anthony Brunner

48 School Sport

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Football

The 1st XI Football Team. They have developed their tactical skills this season, although success has sometimes eluded them This has been an enjoyable but tough ﬁrst season for ex Premiership footballer Mr Humphry the 1st team coach. The most frustrating thing has been that the team has not always gained the results that they have deserved. They have done everything that Mr Humphry has asked of them and he believes

Chris Egen was consistently tenacious as captain until Christmas, after which he was ably replaced by Dan Gerszt, a constant threat in the midﬁeld and committed motivator of the troops

Highgate players in action against Brentwood

that all players have developed their technical and tactical understanding. Special praise must go to Theo Uys and Luke Maseﬁeld who have consistently performed with commitment and leadership. The 2nd team have had a successful season, losing only once after Christmas and winning over half of their games in the Autumn Term. Team work and consistently being able to pick the same side have been the keys to success. It is tough to single out particular players but stalwarts included Hugh Larkin, Conor Kennedy, Alex Pavitt and Tom Manuel. The 3rd XI had a season of two halves! Outstanding performances from Nick Maguire, Will Perry Parks and Toby Harris in the early stages of

the season clearly caught the eye of the 2nd XI selectors and they were soon to be snapped up. Chris Egen was consistently tenacious as captain until Christmas, after which he was ably replaced by Dan Gerszt, a constant threat in the midﬁeld and committed motivator of the troops. New recruits from the 4th XI and the Under 16s also shone as the season progressed: Josh Harris proved himself a dangerous striker, while Rohan Shah steadied the ship at the back. Juan Kargar also impressed with his strong running and goal scoring ability from midﬁeld. Nick Tobias, Matteo Quacquarelli and Maxim Borodouline deserve mention for their consistent commitment to the squad throughout the season.

This season has been a largely positive one for the U15As, with one of the highlights including reaching the last 16 of the Independent Schools Cup. Opponents have often complimented the side on the attractive football they play and indeed building attacks from our own goalkeeper Christy Blackaby’s impressive throw outs has been a feature of Highgate’s playing style. Stand out players have included the unﬂappable Joe Berriman and Ollie Friend at the heart of the defence and Joe Perl, Dan Nikolopulos and Charlie Noble pulling the midﬁeld strings. Wing wizards Ben Berrick and Josh O’ Neill have tormented many a fullback and Constantine Hawa-Antoniou and Kane Rayner

School Sport 49

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Football

The U15 Football Team. Stand out players have included the unﬂappable Joe Berriman and Ollie Friend at the heart of the defence and Joe Perl, Dan Nikolopulos and Charlie Noble pulling the midﬁeld strings reaped the dividends up front. A special mention also goes to Tom Henderson who, thanks to his adaptability, has played seven different positions this season without a word of complaint.

In a season of two halves there was a great deal of promise shown in the U14A squad this year. In the Michaelmas term we saw our honours more or less even. In the National and

County cups we were eliminated by strong teams. Matt Budgett and Richard Footman were probably our most consistent players in this first part. Special mentions to Joe Light for being the top scorer – especially continuing to do so from central midfield during Lent; Michael Boyall for developing into one of our strongest defenders and Aaron Nutman for going on to represent ISFA. Whilst a rather mixed season in terms of results, the under 13s have been a very enthusiastic and reliable bunch of players who have scope to do very well in the future. Excellent team spirit has been epitomised by the many games where they have come from behind to gain a result in the final minutes; much credit must go to the captain and Charlton Academy player Gabriel Seemungal who has been an inspirational and dutiful captain. The Under 12 team have come on in leaps and bounds physically and technically, so I would have to say overall I am very happy with their season. Our cup run was exciting and the most pleasing reaching the quarter finals of the Middlesex Cup. It’s hard to pick out the players of the season as all of them were outstanding but Callum Barry and Anton Baleanu were top draw all the time.

Alistair Tapp

Girls’ Games The girls have been extremely busy this Spring term with fixtures in hockey, fives and senior netball matches. Across the age range of teams, the standard of hockey at Highgate has improved to the extent that our teams are battling out well-contested matches versus the likes of Forest, Bancrofts, King Alfred’s School as well as The Harrodian. The U12A team, coached by Miss Pride, have in particular, enjoyed great success both on the hockey pitch and netball court. They remain unbeaten this season in hockey, rounding up their season with a first place finish versus Harrodian in the final of the annual Highgate U12 hockey tournament. On the netball court, the U12s represented Highgate at the Middlesex Netball tournament. They went on to win their pool beating LEH, Francis Holland, Notting Hill and Ealing School as well as Bridge Academy. This set them up for a quarter round match up against St Helens and after regulation time the score was five all. During extra time however, the U12 girls narrowly lost 6–7. On the senior girls’ side, the process of development and re-structuring to the fixtures calendar in order to draw the girls into The victorious U12 Hockey Team

50 School Sport

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Girls’ Games cont’d

Rugby

The First Netball Team

Chris Egen leads the pack, watched by Josh Ames-Blackaby What Highgate School Rugby Club lacks in experience, it more than makes up for in enthusiasm and commitment. With pre-season training commencing early in the Michaelmas term, the team had to wait for four months for their ﬁrst glimpse of action. Training was physically intense, and memorable for a number of classic one on one encounters between brothers Prior and Prior, and Ames-

The matches were characterised by resolute defence, with Player of the Season Luke Masefield and Players’ Player Chris Egen leading by example throughout A team talk, with Mrs Lisa Sursok (centre) competitive matches in the Lent term is well underway. The senior girls have enjoyed a full netball fixture schedule this term and for the first time have also formed an enthusiastic seven-aside hockey team. As the girls continue to grow in numbers at the top end of the School, so will the strength of the teams, which will make for more closely-contested matches.

Drori – Year 7) 12–11, 6–12, 12–11. In the semi-ﬁnals Highgate 1 (Eve Smith-Bingham and Ingimar Tomasson – winners of the Prep Schools U13 Championship last week) beat JS’s pair 17 12–0, 12–1 and Highgate 2 (Joseph Gibber and Andre Tejuoso) beat Sunningdale 12–3, 12–1. Other notable performances from the championships came from Scarlet Katz Roberts

As the girls continue to grow in numbers at the top end of the School, so will the strength of the teams, which will make for more closely-contested matches Although pairings were mixed, the girls were well represented in the Highgate School Team. The best match in round 3 was between Pair 4 (Aimee Paul and Amira Reimer – Year 7) who beat pair 5 (Daniel Marshall and Jacob Chevalier-

(Year 7). It was also rewarding seeing ten other girls taking part and doing so well.

Blackaby versus Ames-Blackaby to name but a few. Under the able leadership of Tom Scoones, the team won a thrilling fixture in the final minute against Ibstock Place School, and rounded off the season in fine style with a thumping victory over St James. The matches were characterised by resolute defence, with Player of the Season Luke Masefield and Players’ Player Chris Egen leading by example throughout, while marauding runs forward from Alex Pavitt and Tom Scoones laid a strong platform from which to attack. A large number of players contributed to the success of the 2010-2011 season, with notable performances from Brooke Parkin, James Sperling, Louis Hatchwell, Joe Fitzpatrick and James Curry to name but a few. Next year we look to Laurence Turner and Ed Woolcock, captain and secretary elect, to inspire what will hopefully be yet another successful season of Highgate Rugby.

Lisa Sursok Johnny Wright

School Sport 51

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Swimming

The Swimming Team The swimming teams over the last two terms have achieved great success, beating schools such as Mill Hill and Brentwood and the American School in London to name but a few. The senior swimmers anchored by Captain Harry Ashman and comprising Joe Patch, Archie Patch and Henry Yau have remained dedicated to the swimming team since Junior School. Their contributions to the overall team victory in more than one gala has been key. As the junior girls’ progress through to the more senior years, the senior girls’ swimming team will hopefully be equally weighted but since this is a gradual process, it is pleasing to see that it is at least heading in the right direction.

Not only has Tamsin McKinnon represented Middlesex County for her age group and won gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events but she was also selected for the London Region Winter training camps In the Lower School, the Year 7 and 8 co-ed swimming team came third in the London School’s Independent League with swimmers George Kapanadze, Julia Wilkinson (Year 8) and Alex Kapanadze (Year 7) all winning their individual races. In the Middle School, Tamsin McKinnon (Year 10) has continued to excel throughout this year with her swimming. Not only has she represented Middlesex County for her age group and won gold in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke events but she was also selected for the London Region Winter training camps. She won bronze in the 100m breaststroke event whilst representing Middlesex at an international meet in Germany. Tamsin is currently nationally ranked 7th in her age group for the 100m breaststroke.

Lisa Sursok Star Swimmer Tamsin McKinnon dives off the board

52 OC Sport

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

OC Cricket

The OC Cricket-on-Ice team on the snowy, sunny slopes of St Moritz. Next year is the twenty-ﬁfth anniversary of the competition, so join them for this special celebration! Just under 90 players, partners/wives, teachers and pupils attended the end of season dinner in the School Dining Hall on 14 November 2010. The Head Master gave

to the idyllic mountain resort of St. Moritz in Switzerland where they participated in the annual Cricket-On-Ice competition. They beat former Swiss summer cricket champions

The intrepid OC explorers beat former Swiss summer cricket champions Winterthur CC by one wicket on the last ball of a thrilling encounter! a welcoming address and an update on the School’s activities. This was followed by a very impressive freshly-prepared meal, much enjoyed by all who attended. After dinner there were the annual awards (details of the awards winners are to be found on the Cholmeleian section of the School Website), presented by the captain of the Cricketer Cup team, Richard Moxon (SH 1983). Both the 1st XI and 2nd XI teams were again promoted, the 2nds for a record-breaking 5 consecutive seasons and the 1sts for their 2nd in 2 years. Both will be competing in the dizzy heights of division 5 of the Saracens Hertfordshire league next year. At the end of January 2011 the intrepid OC explorers once more made their way out

Winterthur CC by one wicket on the last ball of a thrilling encounter! We then followed that with an impressive victory against the Lyceum School only to lose the final match – and thereby come 2nd – against the formidable Arkadin CC (details of all matches again to be found on the School Website). Suffice it to say that there were impressive performances from débutants Ross McCaskill and Alex Schlagman, as well as from the ‘experienced(!)’ Robin Edmonds, the Khalique brothers (Sam and Mani) as well as David Ritterband, who took a remarkable 6 wickets in the Arkadin match –from his allotted 4 overs! The weather was magnificent and we have already been invited back for next year when there will be special celebrations to mark

the 25th anniversary of the tournament. We hope that as many OCs as can will be able to come along either to play (though we will need to limit the squad to 15 players), spectate or just enjoy the food and drink available from the marquee on the frozen lake! Ian Sanderson is again installed as 1st XI Captain for the 2011 season with Jamie Whybrow as his deputy and James Clowes will again be in charge of the 2s with Chris Millward as his 2nd in command. We have league matches every Saturday through to 3 September, and we hope to see OCs at Hendon Wood Lane during the course of the season. Full details of the ﬁxtures can be found on the league website www.hertsleague.co.uk The 1st round of the Cricketer Cup competition will be away to newcomers Eastbourne College on Sunday 12 June. Next Year’s Dinner has been set for Friday 7 October.

John Zani (Hon Sec)

OC Sport 53

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

OC Fencing

The School and OC Fencing teams with the Moldovanyi Cup

a thoroughly enjoyable and friendly event well attended by past and present fencers, with great support from several parents. OCs from the last four decades answered David Partridge’s call, and four matches were held. Highgate won one of the foil A events and our two sabreurs defeated the OCs, but they won the Epee as well as the foil B. Max Woollard (Y11 GH) put in a convincing individual performance in the foil A match and, in the Epee event, Ben Huston (Y10 MG) did himself credit despite having only once picked an epee before.

Keith Pullinger seized the occasion to polish and return the Moldovanyi Cup, named after Akos Moldovanyi, the legendary coach who taught fencing at Highgate for forty years. The ﬁxture ended in a draw although it should be noted that thanks to clever calculations and thorough studying of the poule sheets from Jack Phillips’ (Y13 QG, Captain of Fencing) we now know that Highgate won 22 of the matches whilst the OCs won 15. Keith Pullinger seized the occasion to polish and return the Moldovanyi Cup, named after Akos Moldovanyi, the legendary coach who taught fencing at Highgate for forty years.

Cécile Pottier

The Moldovanyi Cup The Moldovanyi Cup is named in honour of Akos Moldovanyi, who coached fencing at Highgate from 1957 until the mid-1990s. With his exacting standards and boundless energy and enthusiasm, he imparted to successive generations of Cholmeleians a love of his sport. Born in 1918 in eastern Hungary, he joined the army as an ofﬁcer, and saw action in the Second World War, sustaining a leg injury at the siege of Budapest. After the uprising of 1956, he ﬂed the Russians and took up residence in Britain, where he became a coach at Highgate as well as several other North London schools. A former pupil, Amin Zahir, represented Britain in the 1993 Olympics. Akos was Vice President of the Fencing Masters’ Association and organised their World Championships in London. In 2008 he celebrated his ninetieth birthday with a dinner at the Lansdowne Club in the company of OC Fencers, including Ken Pearman (SG 1959), Lawrence Kernan (WG 1957) and David Partridge (SH 1959).

54 President’s Letter

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

A Message from your President

Dear Cholmeleians, I hope that 2011 is treating you well. It has been a year since I took over the Presidency and I wanted to update you on the progress of your Society. This year, we launched our first member survey, and the response was overwhelming with almost 1,000 replies! I would personally like to thank every one of you who spent time answering the questions. I thought you would find it interesting to share in some of the aggregate information. Of those who replied, it was leavers from the 1950s–80s who formed the majority. We noticed that we had a large number of email bouncebacks from younger members: please make sure that we have your correct email address by registering on our website. An interesting fact is that 40% of you haven’t visited the School since you left and 60% would like a ‘Class of 19xx’ style reunion – so you know what we will be planning next and look forward to seeing you soon! In response to the survey, we will break tradition and hold the next annual dinner on a Thursday night – 22 September. Finally, I was very gratified that 97% of respondents found The Cholmeleian interesting (congratulations to the team). I guess the other 3% aren’t reading this, but if you are, please keep sending us information on what you are up to. We will only host a survey annually, but welcome

your feedback and ideas at any time. Away from the survey and the organisation of our flagship events, we continue to work hand-in-hand with the Foundation Office and the Sports Section continually to increase the range of events offered to Cholmeleians. I hope that you have found something of interest, whether on the sporting field, a musical evening, a meal with friends, or an interesting lecture or business event.

We continue to work handin-hand with the Foundation Ofﬁce and the Sports Section continually to increase the range of events offered to Cholmeleians A particular achievement over the past few years has been our ability to increase the relevance of the Society to all areas of its membership. You will see in the directory that we have representatives to ensure that the views of all demographics are catered for. If you feel that we are not doing what you want, please let

your particular representative know and he or she will make sure that this view is forwarded to your Committee and the School. Another recent development has been the creation of a joint venture with HSPA (Highgate School Parent’s Association) to improve the careers advice we can provide both to current and ex-pupils and we held our inaugural joint meeting on 25 May – an initiative that I hope as many of you as possible will support. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at future events. Yours sincerely,

Cholmelian Society Feature 55

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Internships and Work Experience through the OCs

Former Joint Head of School Alex Beever narrowly missed her university place, and decided to take a gap year. Here she describes how an OC contact helped her make best use of the time. Former Joint Head of School Alex Beever narrowly missed her university place, and decided to take a gap year. Here she describes how an OC contact helped her make best use of the time. ‘Last year over 30,000 students missed their grades for University. Unfortunately, I was one of them, having missed my first choice of university by two marks. I decided that I wanted to take a gap year and reject my second choice. Faced with an unplanned twelve months, I thought about backpacking around the World, however after much thought I decided that perhaps a CV-enhancing internship or two would be more beneficial. I knew it would be hard to find an internship in the City at such short notice, so I emailed David Newman, President of the Cholmeleian Society, whom I had met at the Annual Dinner and Business Section dinner the year before, asking for some advice about how to go about finding a suitable placement. David kindly offered me an internship working alongside him at Rogge Global Partners. Rogge Global Partners is one of the longestestablished bond managers in the industry,

based in Blackfriars. Despite the fact that I had never really envisaged myself working in the ﬁnance sector, I was surprised to ﬁnd how much I enjoyed the work. Over the past couple

It has been a very informative experience, helped by having a fellow OC working in the same building of months I have attended credit analysis meetings, and seen the bond manager industry from different departments, such as Compliance, Marketing and the Trading team. It has been a very informative experience, helped by having a fellow OC working in the same building, which made the process a lot more friendly and fun. I have not only learned about this sector of the ﬁnance industry, but also the life of a City worker, including tackling public transport when there is a tube strike or a couple of inches of snow!

Having this year out has given me the chance to really think about what I would like to do in the future. I have been able to bulk out my CV with work experience gained, as well as make contacts for the future. Making and keeping these contacts can help not only with work experience but also with career advice in later life. Having the OC Society, especially the Business Section of the Society, is a great source of career information and possible opportunities. Alex Lushnikov (EG c/2006) also interned with David Newman and from that was able to secure a placement with Crédit Agricole on their Graduate Scheme. When applying for university, it is always wise to keep your options open in case, like me, not everything pans out the way you hoped for. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone thinking about or planning a gap year to ﬁnd an internship as you can start to gain work experience early, adding to your CV and making contacts for future career paths.’

Alex Beever (EG c/2010)

56 Friends of Highgate

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Friends of Highgate School Society Registered Charity No: 1056624

The Friends in council – they supported twelve pupils whose parents were experiencing hard times this year Council Members at March 2011 Chairman JHE Arnold (1962) Treasurer PJ Britten (1952) Secretary MJ Short Head Master A Pettitt MJ Colville (NG 1962), JA Henderson (CH 1967), Mrs F Lindo, D Miller, Mrs P Rothenberg, BC Russell (1957) JMA Thompson (GH 1964), GL Yates-Mercer (NG 1945), JA Zani (WG 1966) Assistant Secretary BS Weston Assistant Treasurer MR Morelle The Friends of Highgate School was founded immediately after the Second World War with two aims in mind: ﬁrstly to support pupils whose parents, or sadly in many cases surviving parent, could otherwise not continue to afford the fees and secondly to maintain a book of Remembrance in the School Chapel. This year the Friends have spent nearly £78,000 supporting pupils so they can remain at Highgate. This would not have been possible without your generosity which really does make a difference to the pupils who need it. On their behalf, I thank you unreservedly. Over the last year, we have: ■ Supported 12 students with educational grants or loans ■ Generated 10% less income from donations

■

and investments Continued to support the wider School community by paying for items which are not a priority for the School Managed our ﬁnances so that our total assets increased from £1.63 million in 2009 to £1.76 million in 2010

In 2010 we supported 12 students with educational grants or loans. This is where almost all of your money goes, both to help students who otherwise would have had to leave Highgate and also to allow exceptional students whose parents could not otherwise afford to pay the full

in the summer after five years in the role and we owe him a big debt of gratitude for his work. Once again, students in their final years whom we are supporting have excellent predicted exam grades and have the opportunity to succeed in whichever field they choose, an opportunity which might have been denied without your help. Equally, those lower down the school continue to contribute to the fabric and DNA of Highgate, winning many prizes. As time passes, many recipients come to value more and more the support given to them when it was needed by the Friends. You should all be proud that by supporting the Friends you really are

Students in their final years whom we are supporting have excellent predicted exam grades and have the opportunity to succeed in whichever field they choose, an opportunity which might have been denied without your help fees to come to Highgate in the first place. We cannot overstate the importance of the support we are able to provide through your generosity. Mark Short and Ben Weston, both teachers at the School, have had a busy year dealing with the initial applications and assessments and deserve our thanks for their time and expertise – they are the face of the Friends to parents, potentially like you, with nowhere else to turn. Ben stood down

supporting the future. In 2010, we generated 10% less income than in 2009. Our policy is broadly to break even each year although we do try to build up funds in the good years to carry us through the bad. Our Treasurer, Paul Britten, works tirelessly and with great skill and dedication to manage our ﬁnances, together with our professional brokers JM Finn led by Dominik Drozd, leading the ﬁght

Friends of Highgate / Letters 57

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Friends of Highgate School Society cont’d to ensure every penny of your money is spent and invested as well as possible. We are not overly concerned by our lower income in 2010, which was mostly caused by lower dividends and exceptionally low interest rates. On the positive side, the value of our investments increased by some £145,000 as opposed to a drop in 2009 of £208,000 as the stock market slowly improved. In the end, the Friends are not here to make money but to support students in great need. No Council member receives any payment or expenses. Our heartfelt thanks go to Mike Morelle who has decided to stand down as Assistant Treasurer looking after our Gift Aid administration. Mike has given us his time and skills over the past 15 years and we are greatly in his debt. We wish him well for the future. The Friends continue to support the wider School community. Within the School, we have spent your money on a wide range of items to beneﬁt students as a whole – girls’ uniforms for fencing, presentation boards for chemistry, digital dimmer racks for drama and baroque instruments for music. We also contributed towards the School’s cost in updating the Register (the record of former Highgate students). We have also made travel grants to ten students – to seven boys and three girls, which roughly corresponds to their ratio in the Sixth Form. All applications must have a strong educational and/or humanitarian purpose. This year we have spent £5,000 supporting travel to

Financial Highlights for the year to 31 July 2010

2010 (£)

2009 (£)

95,875

105,416

Expenditure: Education Grants & Loans

77,9392

121,782

School Projects and travel scholarships

20,758

8,393

Expenses including audit fees

7,266

5,430 (105,963)

Deﬁcit on normal activities

(135,605)

(10,088)

Realised gains (2009-losses) on investments

(50,828)

Unrealised gains (2009-losses) on investments

(94,753)

(30,189) (101,458) (107,283)

(145,581)

(208,741)

Net movement of funds

(135,493)

(238,930)

Fund balances at beginning of year

1,629,895

1,868,825

Fund balances at end of year

1,765,388

1,629,895

Africa, Asia and South America, contributing some 25-30% of the cost in each case, with the student needing to raise the balance. We have managed our ﬁnances well so that our total assets are worth £1.8 million as against £1.6 million in 2009 although much of the change is, as last year, unrealised. Almost all of us will know of people who have suffered through the downturn to a greater or lesser degree. Now for the hard sell: thanks to your support, your money, this year there are 12 students who, whatever turbulence exists in their home lives through the death of a parent,

serious illness or ﬁnancial problems, will stay at Highgate this year. We all hope that the recovery continues and for the vast majority of parents and OCs life will continue as normal, but just in case, please help us to help others with a Gift Aid donation or remembering us in your will – details from the Secretary, Mark Short mark.short@ highgateschool.org.uk.

in 1967. Rimington was the Commanding Officer of the 6th from 1901 until after the end of the South African War and a spell in India. In 1912 he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment, and he remained as such until the 1922 amalgamation was firmly completed. The Colonelcy is an honorary appointment, usually held by a senior Officer and symbolises the direct link to the Sovereign as the fount of honours.

carry written orders. It was and is only worn with full dress. I congratulate Michael Hammerson on alerting us to a distinguished Soldier who served his country well, and set an example of intelligent leadership

John Arnold, Chairman

Letters General Rimington I was very interested in the article about General Michael Rimington (late 6th lnniskilling Dragoons), on which some comment seems appropriate. The ethos and traditions of the 6th are today carried on, after the 1922 and 1992 amalgamations, by the successor Regiment, The Royal Dragoon Guards, recently returned from an Afghanistan tour. Between 1922 and 1992 the 5th Royal

The Colonelcy is an honorary appointment, usually held by a senior Ofﬁcer and symbolises the direct link to the Sovereign as the fount of honours Inniskilling Dragoon Guards were in existence, and I had the privilege of being amongst their number from 1944 until I relinquished command

The item referred to as a belt is not a means of upholding trousers. It is the Regimental Crossbelt of an ofﬁcer, and the little pouch is to

Major General H G Woods CB, MBE, MC, DL, DLitt, MA (1938), Late 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards; President The Royal Dragoon Guards Association

58 Letters

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

A Remarkable Encounter

Edward Young (right) with Mike Morelle on a visit to Highgate School Whilst on a tandem touring holiday with my wife in Southern Ireland in August 1995, I chanced upon a second hand bookshop in the beautiful coastal village of Bantry. At that time, I was actively engaged in academic research, and was looking for materials which would shed evidence on the life of the secretive Dutch alchemist and inventor – Cornelis Drebbel

did catch my eye: it was a Penguin paperback entited: One of our Submarines, and its author was Edward Young who had been born in Trinidad in 1913 and who had attended Highgate School. ‘Maybe not Drebbel on this occasion’, I thought to myself, but a connection with Highgate School was certainly a good reason for purchasing this book.

One work caught my eye: a Penguin paperback entited: ‘One of our Submarines’, and its author was Edward Young who had been born in Trinidad in 1913 and who had attended Highgate School... (1656–1633), who had built the world’s ﬁrst submarine which had sailed down the Thames in 1620. I browsed through the substantial maritime collection of the bookshop, focusing my efforts on the submarine section. Although nothing signiﬁcant about Drebbel was present, one work

Having read the book (which had won numerous literary awards) – a profound story of a volunteer who had captained a submarine during WW2 – I decided to try to contact Edward Young. This was easily achieved through the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport (a most excellent institution), and thus I began my correspondence

with him. This culminated in Edward Young’s return to Highgate School in April 1996, after a break of almost 70 years. He was greeted with ‘full honours’ by Theodore Mallinson and the then Commander in Chief of the Highgate School CCF, Jonathan Gillespie (currently Head Master of Lancing College), and gave an excellent talk in our Undercroft, which was well attended. The most striking feature about Young, one of the unsung heroes of the War, was his great humility. Regrettably, Edward Young died two years later, but the re-established contact with him had given a small number of pupils and staff the unforgettable opportunity to meet one of the extraordinary ‘companions in education’, so many of whom continue to pass through Highgate School.

Dr Andrew Szydlo (staff 1975– )

Letters 59

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Echoes of Battle

A half-term report from the summer of 1946 with Ian Sörenson’s signature I wonder if I am the only one for whom the sight of Ian Sörensen’s signature on Gubbo’s Identity card took back sixty-ﬁve years or so? He always wrote, with a broad-nibbed Conway Stewart, in black ink. He was my housemaster and, for a year, my form master and I was thus in receipt of a good deal of black ink (example appended). On the evenings of exam days he would pin up the correct, neat, and so legible answers which we would read with various degrees of dismay.

been entered for an additional mathematics paper for which we were not prepared. It seemed as if Major Gough regarded this as a situation requiring an immediate counter attack. We were treated to a rousing pep talk followed by a carefully planned assault on the syllabus over the few remaining weeks, and again if I remember correctly, the outcome was entirely successful.

John Simonson (FG 1943)

Tony Knight (1949)

If I may add to the contributions following the feature article Echoes of Battle in the Summer 2010 Edition, I well remember Major Gough as a very inspirational Mathematics teacher. It must have been at the beginning of the summer term in 1949, if I remember correctly, with Higher School Certiﬁcate Examinations looming on the horizon, that we found ourselves faced with an unusual predicament. Somehow the class had

I add further detail about Highgate’s Dads Army y episode—after Dunkerque, the war effort hotted up and we soon had our own Home Guard( including the NCOs in the Echoes of Battle photo). Of course, it was highly improbable that the Germans, who were poised to invade across the Pas de Calais, would make a hazardous detour round Lands End to attack the North Devon coastline but the local Home Guard was involved in a major exercise whereby Army units would test the strength of the coastal

defences. The School’s job was to man the pillbox at the crossroads above the Buckleigh Hill at night. We were divided into two sections, the ﬁrst under Home Guard Sergeant Dr RD Reid and the relief section under Home Guard Corporal TG Mallinson. Mally’s section had rested ﬁrst until 2am and we were creeping back to relieve the other section in the pillbox. Suddenly the impish side of the then youthful TGM took over. He dashed into the bright moonlight crying out, ‘It’s all right Doctor Reid, it’s only me.’ The retort from the bunker, who had heard suspicious noises, was predictable if a shade unprofessional ‘You silly fool Mallinson, you might all have been shot’. It was all pure Dads Army!

Roylance Stillman (FH 1936)

60 Letters

Remembering Alan Izzard

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

School House in the Sixties

I should like to say a few words about Alan Izzard (MG 1950), whose notice of death appeared in The Cholmeleian Winter 2010 Issue. He was I think a year ahead of me. I remember that at one stage he was in the Rev Whitehead’s class who was then commonly known as ‘Holy Joe’. I think it was in 1957 that Howard Fabian organised for four of us to go to Zuoz in Switzerland to spend a week tutoring ﬁves. There is an international school at Zuoz where I think three ﬁves courts had been built. Originally, our foursome was to be Richard Juniper, Michael Wadsworth, Colin Drybrough and myself. But Colin was elected to play for the Public Schools Cricket Team at Lords at the same time that we were due to be arriving in Zuoz. So Colin had to drop out and Alan deputised. We later read in the Times that we bought somewhere in Switzerland that Colin had not only captained the team but that he had also scored a maiden century!

Our visit coincided with Swiss National Day when people take to the mountains to light bonfires and sing songs We had one week at that splendid school in the beautiful Engadine. Zuoz was also very lovely. We heard the sound of cattle bells in the morning as we enjoyed our splendid breakfasts with fresh jam and steaming hot chocolate. Our visit coincided with Swiss National Day when people take to the mountains and go above the tree lines to light bonfires and sing songs. This we did, enjoying the sight of bonfires on the mountains across the huge Engadine valley as the evening summer light fell. We had of course to do our bit and sang a few songs to the best of our ability. We holidayed for a second week in Switzerland but stayed in Giswil in another part of Switzerland. I remember taking some photographs and playing a hard fought draw at chess with the local schoolmaster. During that fortnight I got to know Alan much better and it was a friendship that I look back on with real pleasure. Later, sometime after we had left school, we met up a couple of times. Once was for lunch somewhere near where he was working in the City. On another occasion we enjoyed a round of golf at Wentworth. But that was a long time ago and our paths have not crossed since. I was very sorry to read of his death, not to have seen him more often but very glad that we did manage to enjoy that exceptional trip to Switzerland.

Derek Plummer (HG 1951)

School House Monitors 1968

Can you spot the to-be-famous faces? School House Prefects 1968 Thanks to David Law (SH 63) who sent these pictures in from Tasmania, from where he writes: ‘I thought these might be interesting as they contain Charles Clarke, and three current governors, John Mills, Bob Rothenberg and Paul Marshall. I still see Howard Shelley from time to time when he is playing concerts out here. I saw little of TGM, but he always remembered my name – quite a feat as the only contact I had with him at School was the occasional jab in the back on the way to lunch.’

I saw little of TGM, but he always remembered my name – quite a feat as the only contact I had with him at School was the occasional jab in the back on the way to lunch.

Letters 61

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

The Camdens and The Lodge Music Competition, 1950

Thanks to Clive Bingley (TL 1948), who submitted this photograph of The Lodge in 1949/1950, with housemaster Hubert Gibbon. The photograph includes the distinguished musician Kerry Camden (who died in 2010), Patrick Procktor, who became a Royal Academician, his brother, Dick, who became a headmaster and Colin Imray, who had a distinguished career in the diplomatic service. Clive includes this reminiscence of The Lodge’s 1950 winning entry to the house music competition: ‘Kerry’s distinguished father, Archie, decided in conjunction with Hubert Gibbon that The Lodge would enter a group, focused around Kerry, for the Ensemble Category. For this, Archie made a transcription of the main theme of Brahms’ St Anthony Chorale for a rather motley wind-band, and coached us. Our group must have been ﬁve or six recorder players (including me) plus Kerry playing the oboe and his younger brother Anthony perhaps also on the oboe. That would make eight players, but the rules did not say extra marks for extra players, but extra members of the group, and Archie had a big idea. Mid-stream, he switched Kerry from oboe to bassoon, an exchange which required the presence on the platform of a ‘porter’ – a big, strong boy called Roberts – to handle the

The Lodge – 1950. Back row (from left): Walbey, Pike, Rex, Cooper, Procktor P, Barnard, Hayward, Martin-Kaye, Osborne. Third row (from left): Hershman, Allan, Hawkins, Cunnington, Milne, Hassall, Morgan, Macphail, Davis. Seated (from left): Miller, Hill, Chaix, Clifford, Hubert Gibbon, Imray, Jones, Procktor R, Joseph. Front row (from left): Blamey, Noel, Roberts, Ballard, Mills, Bingley, Camden, Morgan. change of instruments. We therefore counted as nine members (to some audience mirth!) and, since we played the music tolerably, we won the category. I think Sir Stuart Wilson may have been judging.’

Clive Bingley (TL 1948)

Grindal in The Forties

Thanks to Glynne Hibbert (GH 1944) who attended the Rochester Reunion, where he passed on this photograph of Grindal in the forties. He remembers those in the picture as – FG Fenner, Goodison, Glynne Hibbert, CAR Symes and MD Leapman.

Grindal House in the forties: (from left) FG Fenner, Goodison, Glynne Hibbert, CAR Symes, MD Leapman

62 Announcements

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

Golden Weddings

Simon and Brenda celebrate their Golden Wedding this July George and Muriel celebrated their Golden Wedding this May

Simon Copland (CH 1950) marks fifty years married to and his wife Muriel celebrated fifty married years on 13 May 2011. They were married in St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Enfield and have lived at the same address in Enfield all of their married life. They have a son, David (FG 1976), a daughter, Helen, and one grandchild, Eleanor. They send a photo of themselves in Venice in 2010.

Brenda on 24 June 2011. The wedding took place at St Mary’s, High Halden, near Ashford Kent, and among the guests were Colonel and Mrs Arthur (“Alﬁe”) Field and OCs Alan Henshaw (EG 1950) and Richard Tait (WG 1950). They will be celebrating with family and friends with a garden party at their home in Leeds in July.

Deaths

Ellis (WG 1926) On 2 August 2010, John

Cooper (Mansﬁeld House 1928) On 13

Henry Ellis, aged 96. At Highgate he achieved 1st XI Colours for Football 1930–1, and was Captain, and for Cricket 1930–32 and in the Fives 1st VIII in 1932. He studied at the Royal Veterinary College, London and became a partner in veterinary practice in north Norfolk. He was son of Harry Ellis, a partner in the Highgate ﬁrm Prickett and Ellis (established 1767 and the oldest surviving estate agent in Britain) from 1885 to 1945. He leaves his sons Anthony (TL 1953) and David (TL 1957), eight grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren. He lived in Newmarket, Suffolk.

December 2010, Maurice Botham Cooper, aged 96. His nephew wrote “He had always been very proud of being an old boy of Highgate School and enjoyed reading The Cholmeleian right to the end.” He lived in Southwold, Suffolk.

Snell (SH/NG 1934) On 20 July 2010, George Douglas Snell, aged 90, at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester. He served in the Royal Tank Regiment in the Middle East in the Second World War and was wounded in action. He rose to the rank of Major. After the War he played

football for an OCs’ eleven until he injured a leg seriously. He worked for many years in the pharmaceutical industry for Wyeth and Squibb, where he became Managing Director and later Chairman. He moved to Dorset in 1994 and attended Wessex OC Lunches. He is survived by his son Richard (CH 1972), daughter Carolyn and brother Eric Saxon Snell (NG 1935).

Wetenhall (SG 1934) In November 2010, William James Wetenhall, aged 88. Two OCs attended the celebration for his life organised by his family: his nephew, Richard Whitton (WG

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Deaths Continued 1967), and an old friend, Victor Davis (SG 1939) who gave a talk about ﬁrst meeting him on the day that war broke out, on the coach to North Devon, where the School was being evacuated. Wetenhall, a Sixth former, and therefore impossibly remote to Victor, who was several years younger, struck up a conversation with the younger boy and made an impression on him due to his kindness and lack of ‘front’. The two literally walked into each other many years later, as young married men living a mile apart. The two families became and remained friends. He lived in Pinner, Middlesex.

Rendell (SH 1942) On 7 November 2010, Rex Alban Rendell, aged 83, at a nursing home in Hertfordshire. His career was as a Chartered Accountant.

Sherwin (1952) On 11 February 2011, Eric

Beazley (FG 1943) On 16 February 2011,

Young (HG 1957) On 3 October 2010, Robert David Young, aged 65, suddenly, in Gloucester, Virginia, USA. He spent most of his life in Spain and the United States in various aspects of the travel industry. He leaves a widow and 7-year-old twins. His close friend Peter Phillips (HG 1957) writes that he was a one-off at school and achieved A levels in Latin and Ancient Greek, and was an impressive swimmer and athlete. They both qualified as Chartered Accountants in the same firm, and Peter was best man at one (at least) of Robert’s five marriages. He will be remembered by many for his uncompromising approach to everything and as a larger-than-life individual and a truly loyal friend for nearly 60 years.

Brian Beazley, aged 70. Born 10 May 1930, he was a member of the OC Golf Society and lived in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Benson (EG 1943) On 20 November 2010, Peter George Benson, aged 81.

Lowden (1938) On 5 December 2010, Anthony Gibbon Lowden, aged 72.

Smith (EG 1944) On 27 February 2011, Professor Gerald Frederic Smith, aged 79, at his home in St. Neots.

Melville (NG 1941) On 3 February 2011, James Forbes Haining Melville, aged 83. Although his ﬁrst name was James, he was always known as Forbes. He grew up in Whetstone and, after leaving Highgate, was conscripted shortly before the end of the war, serving as part of the Allied occupying forces in Berlin. He remained in Paris, working his way up through the hotel trade, returning to England in the 1950s, when he became manager of The Gore, Kensington. He married Melody in 1960 and moved to Ealing, where they lived for 33 years. Sarah was born in 1962 and Catherine in 1963. Forbes made his life’s work the voluntary housing movement. He was a founder member of the Ealing Family Housing Association in 1965, and its chairman and then honorary president for many years, and was very proud to be awarded an MBE for this work in 1986. As his ‘day job’, Forbes was a fundraiser for the National Federation of Housing, and then General Manager of Servite Homes, a sheltered housing organization now known as Viridian. Finally he was chief ofﬁcer of St Saviour’s, a charity providing sheltered housing for older people in Southwark. Retiring to Gillingham, Dorset in 1992, Forbes remained active in the community, joining a variety of local groups, volunteering at the local museum and pursuing his long-neglected artistic talents. He was chair of Gillingham Scouts, fundraising with his usual vigour. In the last few years of his life, the onset of Parkinson’s disease forced him to gradually abandon these activities, but he took pleasure in life to the end, reading The Telegraph from cover to cover and enjoying his daily whisky and ginger.

Donald (FG 1950) On 26 March 2010, Angus Donald, aged 72. After Highgate and Exeter Schools, he studied electrical engineering at Aston C.A.T. (now University) and worked for GEC for six years. A strong vocational call then led him to study medicine at Keble College, Oxford, and his training was in the Radcliffe Inﬁrmary, at Vellore, India, and at the Royal London and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals. After a GP traineeship in Swindon and a period in practices in Durham and South Shields, he became a single practitioner in Dunstable, where he followed a virtual all-hours regime for 24 years. He set about recording detailed family histories and was among those GPs who pioneered the summarising of all medical records. He introduced regular routine medical checks for all patients as a means of preventative medicine. His specialist interests included coronary heart disease, diabetes, asthma, child health, palliative care and care of the elderly; he had the largest percentage of elderly patients in Bedfordshire and his team included a specialist nurse to care for them and make regular home visits. His patients regarded him as a doctor and friend, and the support of his wife Sylvia, with whom he shared a strong Christian faith, reinforced the professional and social aspects of his practice, of which she was the manager. He had many activities, including engineering, woodwork, gardening, hill walking, wind surﬁng, astronomy and music; was a dedicated and much-loved family man and was nearly always accompanied by his golden retriever. He was buried at Whimple, Devon, his wife’s family’s home. Family, friends and patients have donated three drugs trolleys to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in his memory.

Sherwin, Master-in-Charge of the Junior School, 1952-1977, aged 96. A full obituary will appear in the next issue.

Keele (CH 1958) In September, 2005, Richard Aimslie Keele, aged 59. After leaving school he studied geology at Manchester (BSc) and Leicester (MSc) Universities. He developed an interest in gold mining and for most of his career he prospected for gold in Australia, initially in Western Australia and subsequently in Tasmania. He also worked in Canada and Africa. During the late ’70s he returned to England to study for a PhD at Leeds University. He married Christine in Western Australia and they had three daughters. At school he had played clarinet and sung in the choir under Mr Chapman; he maintained his interest in music and in his later years sang in the Hobart Cathedral choir. On a visit to England for two family weddings in September 2005 he suffered an unexpected heart attack and died suddenly from a cardiac arrest. Gatward (FG 1967) On 5 November 2010, Douglas Kitchener Gatward, aged 57. A combination of Bipolar Disorder, and business interests suffering badly during the economic downturn, sadly resulted in his taking his own life. Any OC wishing to contact his family can reach his sister Pamela on 07710 753267.

Watson In February 2011, Mary Watson, aged 80. She was Matron in Grindal House from 1967 and then in charge of the Medical Centre until her retirement. She lived in Llanrug, near Caernarvon, and her funeral was in Bangor on 14 February.

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Notes

Terence Ranger (1942) is Emeritus Professor, St Antony’s College, Oxford. In September 2010 he published his ninth monograph on southern African history, Bulawayo Burning. The Social History of a South African City, 1893-1960 (James Currey, Oxford). It was launched at the University of Illinois; in Oxford; and in Harare and Bulawayo. In October 2010 he attended a workshop at the University of Illinois entitled ‘Making History: Terry Ranger and the Study of Africa’. In November 2010 he was declared ‘Distinguished Africanist’ by the United States African Studies Association meeting in San Francisco. He had previously been declared ‘Distinguished Africanist’ by the United Kingdom African Studies Association. He is President of the Britain Zimbabwe Society and Patron of Asylum Welcome and the Zimbabwe Association. He has appeared as the main expert witness in ﬁve ‘country judgement’ cases in the Asylum and Immigration Court. He was a pupil of Tommy Fox, who cannot be credited – or blamed – for Terence’s Africanist zeal. He can be credited, however, for his devotion to Oxford as the one positive thing he asserted to his pupils was its superiority to all other universities. He did not learn about Africa at Oxford, but became an Africanist by virtue of going to teach at the new University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1957. His ﬁrst book, Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-7, 7 was published in 1967; his most recent in 2010. He is now embarking on a memoir of his early years in Africa, designed both to illustrate the early search for ways of writing African history and to throw light on the emergence of African nationalism in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. Peter Burrowes ((FG 1945)) and Andrew Tucker (SH 1978) met by chance, having lunch with their wives, at adjoining tables in Bon Courage Wine Estate in the Breede River Valley, Robertson, South Africa, last November. Peter is wearing the red sweater in the photograph.

Peter Burrowes (left) and Andrew Tucker

A tobacco pouch in the OC Colours, formerly belonging to RW Copping (1920)

Anthony Copping (MG 1947) writes that, when he attended last April’s OC AGM and Lunch, he brought the striped OC colours blazer with wire badge which had belonged to his late father, R.W.Copping (1920). He had had it for some years and it was still perfectly wearable, and he had contacted the Immediate Past President Tony Friend, hoping through him to find a younger OC who might want to use it, and suggesting that that any new owner make a donation to The Friends. When showing it to Tony at lunch, the Head Master, sitting next to him, was immediately interested, tried it on with OC functions in mind, and it fitted perfectly – in fact he later departed for the School v OC Cricket match still wearing it! Anthony is also happy to record that The Friends benefited most generously. He also sends photographs of his father’s colourful tobacco pouch, in O.C. colours – surely a concept to stretch the credulity of younger OCs to breaking point? – and proposes to donate the pouch to the Archives Roger Van Noorden (1951), whose death and obituary were reported in The Cholmeleian in 2010, was remembered on November 20th, 2010 by Hertford College, Oxford, with a celebration of his life and work. Michael Wright (TL 1950), who was present, writes that there were over two hundred people present. Particular emphasis was put on his courtesy, as well as his mastery of economics, his love of tutoring, and the special help he offered to those finding things difficult. The College has set up a £2 million appeal to set up a Roger Van Noorden Fellowship in Economics, details of which can be accessed on www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/giving

Alan and John in the 1956-7 Under Football Team. John is front row, second left; Alan is next to him (third from left)

Alan Bedwell (left) and John Hedger at their 70th birthday celebrations last October

Alan Bedwell ((EG 1953) and John Hedger (SG 1954), who were together on the 1956–7 Under-16 Football team and continued playing for the OCs until only 11 years ago, celebrated their 70th birthdays at a Black Tie dinner in the Long Room at the Oval on 9th October, 2010. In addition to their families – incuding Alan Bedwell Jr. (QG 1992) who travelled from New York and shares a birthday with his father, they were joined by 90 relatives and friends, including 18 OCs and their wives, making

Cholmeleian Notes 65

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Notes Continued it a truly memorable Cholmeleian evening. The surprise guest speaker, organised by Sylvie Bedwell, was comedian Tom O’Connor.

Dr. Robert Elkeles (WG 1955) had a letter published in The Times on 19 October 2010, warning that the current rigid system of limiting junior doctors’ hours reduced their essential practical experience and risked producing inexperienced consultants insufficiently prepared to take difficult decisions on their own for the first time.

In New Zealand, they visited his old school friend David Cox (FG 1955) and his wife Jeanette in Auckland in February, when they were shown the sights of Auckland city and mulled over times at school, especially their shared experiences on the football ﬁeld. David set up an accountancy business in Auckland when he emigrated in the 1980s and looks after a small number of clients.

insolvency. He has survived prostate cancer and is enjoying his retirement. He sits as a magistrate at Highbury Corner, and is a member of the Magic Circle.

John Rutter (SG 1958) was the subject of an interview in The Telegraph magazine before Christmas 2010.

Dr. Andrew Bamji (SG 1962) hosted Dan Snow in October for his visit to the archives at Queen Mary’s Hospital Sidcup, to record an item on masks for facial disﬁgurement for The One Show. w Andrew, Curator of the Gillies Archives, was interviewed together with Sarah Crellin, who has researched the life of Derwent Wood, a sculptor who made numerous masks in the special workshop at the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth during World War 1. Some were also made at Sidcup, and the archives possess an original attributed to the workshop of Anna Coleman Ladd in Paris. In November the BBC2 Culture Show carried an item on Henry Tonks’ pastels of Sidcup patients; the archives possess numerous drawings by Tonks in the collection of casenotes.

Gerard Keele and David Cox

Gerard (Ged) Keele (CH 1955) studied medicine at Cambridge University and the Middlesex Hospital after leaving Highgate. He trained for general practice in Ipswich and then moved to Manchester University to do a three year research project to evaluate training methods for general practice. Whilst there he met Rosemary, who was working as a research officer in the same department. They married in 1975 and went to live in Dereham, Norfolk, where Ged joined a local practice. During the latter stages of his career he developed an interest in electronic patient records. Working with Rosemary, he developed a number of local, regional and, finally, national projects that were part of the NHS strategic approach to computerised records. He retired early from general practice and they both went to work at Weston-super Mare Hospital as part of a major South West Regional project to develop hospital electronic records in 2001. Ged formally retired in 2003 but continued part-time until 2005. Since then he has developed his interests in nature conservation, working with the Somerset Wildlife Trust. He is involved with botanical, bird and butterfly surveys and does practical conservation work on the Mendips. He has also rekindled his childhood passion for railways by cleaning steam engines on the West Somerset Railway. He and Rosemary went on a round-world trip in 2009-10.

The Very Rev. Philip Buckler (MG 1962) has been Dean of Lincoln since February

Peter Phillips (HG 1957) has recently published Life after Debt, a light-hearted collection of anecdotes from his career as an Insolvency Practitioner with Buchler Phillips, the ﬁrm of which he was Chairman until 1999 (Matador, ISBN 978-184876-526-9). He writes entertainingly about some of the biggest insolvency cases of the ’80s and ’90s, including such diverse clients as Gay News, Asil Nadir and the late Robert Maxwell. His account of ﬂying to Liechtenstein to inspect Robert Maxwell’s (empty) safe deposit boxes is memorable, as is his account of another colourful character, Lindi St Clair, a.k.a. “Miss Whiplash”. When Armitage Walker, the well-known London car showroom, collapsed in 1992, they had in their care a pink Range Rover owned by her; a spirited fax from the owner to the Receiver demanded the return of the car and contents, listed as follows: 100 hard-core sex magazines, 10 pairs of police handcuffs, 10 pairs of leg irons, 1,000 condoms, a leather strait-jacket and a body-bag! It was favourably reviewed in the Hampstead & Highgate Express in November 2010. In 2004, Peter received an OBE for his services to

2007. He is Chairman of the Chapter and on its behalf governs the life and work of the Cathedral. He is responsible for ensuring that worship is properly conducted, that good order and proper reverence are maintained in the Cathedral, and that the building and other properties belonging to the Cathedral are properly looked after. He was previously Canon Treasurer at St. Paul’s Cathedral and has spent many years in Cathedral ministry, parochial ministry and university chaplaincy.

Andrew Pegram (WG 1963) has had a career change from business, and become an artist – he was taught by Kyfﬁn Williams – holding an Exhibition at Map Music, 46 Grafton Road, London NW5 3DU during March and April. He has had two sons at the School, Jack and Freddie.

Graham Weale (MG 1966) moved in 2007 to live in Essen, Germany following his appointment as Chief Economist in one of the two large German energy companies – RWE AG, parent company of npower. He owes much to his two German teachers, Norris Butcher and John Dare, for giving him within barely 3 ‘O’ Level

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Notes Continued

years an adequate basis for now working daily in the language! He is glad to have restablished connections with the school, through being introduced by a retired teacher friend in Germany who introduced him a to a recently retired maths teacher from Highgate; the two knew each other through school exchange visits. Graham would be pleased to hear from any OCs living in Germany.

Bernard Adams (Common ( Room 1967-91 and Housemaster of Midgate 1972–86) is living in Budapest, where he has translated the 1933 short stories of Dezső Kosztolányi (1885–1936), The Adventures of Kornél Esti, into English. It will be published by New Directions in the USA. in March 2011. He began to translate Hungarian literature in 1991, and has since published some 25 books. In 2008 he was awarded a PEN Translation Award and second place in the UK John Dryden Translation Competition, and in 2009 an award from the Füst Milán translation foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Duncan Taylor (SH 1971) has worked in the UK Foreign Service for 27 years. He started as Desk Officer for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s West Africa Department in 1982, becoming Third and later Second Secretary of Chancery in Havana 1983–7, and Head of Japan Section in the FCO’s Far East Department 1987–9. From 1989-91 he served in the FCO’s Personnel Operations Department and in 1992 took over as Head of the British Embassy’s Commercial Section in Budapest. During 1996–7, as Director of Latin American Affairs, he was seconded to Rolls Royce, and from 1997-2000 was head of the FCO’s Consular Division. From 2000–5 he was Deputy Consul-General and Deputy Head of Post in New York and from 2005–10 was British High Commissioner for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, becoming Governor in January 2010. The posting covers Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. His official address is Government Administration Building, George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. He is married to Marie-Beatrice and has three daughters and two sons.

Christopher p Davies (EG 1972, Common Room 1985–1999 and Housemaster of the Lodge 1991– 1999) was Head of Abingdon Prep 1999–2010, and from January 2011 has been Head of

Chris and Jane Davies. Chris is now headmaster of Edgeborough School

Oskar played Don John in a Marlowe Society production of Much Ado

Edgeborough School, a 2–13 co-ed day and boarding school near Farnham preparing pupils for all major public schools. He offers “special deals” for sons and daughters of OCs in the area – namely, ‘outstanding education’ for all pupils.

Andrew Parkinson (NG 1982) is Chief Executive of U.K. Anti-Doping (UKAD), which works to combat the illegal use of performanceenhancing drugs in sport.

Kaya Burgess (EG c/2003), a Times correspondent, wrote a feature for their December 29, 2010 issue on exactly what it was like to drink-drive. “After eight pints of lager and three shots of Sambuca, I climbed behind the wheel and went skidding around like a lunatic.” He hastens to make clear that it was as part of a police-sponsored course on a private race-track.

Freddy Mandy (left) and Tim McNaughton with their BAFTA

Oskar McCarthy (SG c/2007) played

Freddy y Mandy y (QG ( 1993)) and Tim McNaughton (TL 1993) were

the role of Don John in a Marlowe Society production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in February, directed by National Theatre and RADA director Carl Heap.

David Kennedy (WG c/2006) has won the 2010 Dubstep Forum Award for bass music, in the Best Producer category, under his professional name Ramadanman. See the Award website www.clashmusic.com/news/dubstepforum-awards-round-up

awarded a BAFTA in 2010 for creating the best title sequence for a TV programme, sending a picture of them with their awards and a still from the ﬁlm they created. The programme was the BBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics, and the title sequence was an animation inspired by the native culture and traditions of Canada, the host nation. It followed the journey of an animated Inuit warrior who uses a number of the winter Olympic sports in order to defeat an evil spirit that has stolen a piece from an Inukshuk, a ﬁgure that was used by the native people of Canada as a navigational beacon. They came up with the idea while working at advertising agency RKCR/Y&R. They have since moved to

Cholmeleian Notes 67

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Notes Continued an agency called Mother and last year created campaigns for IKEA and Stella Artois, amongst others. See http://goo.gl/roVyN

deﬁnitions of insanity and the methods used to treat it. It was originally created by him at Drama Studio London and was nominated for Best Ensemble at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Stage Awards. Staged as a play within a play, the inmates re-enact Ragin’s descent into madness, and the style of performance emphasises the absurdist nature of Chekhov’s piece and Ragin’s fatalistic transformation from doctor to patient. More information can be obtained from the show’s website, www.wardno6.com

Thomas Hardy (EG c/2006), who writes

Alex (right of picture) in the poster for his most recent ﬁlm, Travellers

under the nom-de-plume of Tom Crowley, has written and directed a new comedy-drama, titled Shed, at the University of York Drama Barn. Produced by Meg Henry, with original music by Odinn Hilmarsson and technical designs by Giles Littlewood and Katie Lambert, it is the ﬁrst play in Dramasoc’s Spring 2011 Relaunch term and has been described as a showcase of some of York University’s ﬁnest acting, technical, artistic and composing talent. There is a York University Radio review of it on http://goo.gl/ZkhP4

Alex Edwards (SH 1988) had the ﬁrst

George Warshaw (HG c/2006)

London screening of his movie Travellers on January 13 at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square; he describes it as “Brit-ﬂick gore and action” – for a trailer, see www. moviestrailer.org/travellers-movie-trailer.html

has been awarded a BA Honours Degree in Geography, with a Class II Division I (Honours) Classiﬁcation, from Van Mildert College, University of Durham.

Joe received a Gibbes Award for achieving the highest marks at Oxford for his dissertation on Joseph Conrad

Shashank in the TV Studio – his expertise on the Middle East has been much in demand recently

Tobias Wilson (SH c/2006) has been awarded an MA (Second Class Div. One) in English Literature from the University of Glasgow.

Joe Zigmond (WG c/2006) has been awarded a First Class Degree in English Language and Literature at Oxford. He received a Gibbes Award for achieving the highest marks in the University for his dissertation on his chosen author, Joseph Conrad. He is now pursuing a Master’s Degree in Film Aesthetics for one year, after which he proposes to go into advertising or ﬁlm production.

Tom Meacher (WG c/2009) is captain of the Oxford Polo Team this season. Harry, looking suitably deranged, starred in Chekov’s Ward No 6, a play about insanity

Harry Lobek (HG c/2004) writes that his recent play, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Ward No. 6, was at the Camden People’s Theatre in February. An adaptation of a short story about a Doctor’s descent into madness, questioning

Shashank Joshi (QG c/2004) has been in much demand as a commentator on the Arab insurgencies. He is studying for a PhD in International Politics at Harvard; speciﬁcally, he is interested in Indian foreign policy and civil-military relations. He was the recipient of a Kennedy Scholarship for 2007-8, and before

that he was an undergraduate at Cambridge, where he studied economics and politics. He recently wrote an article called Notes on a Revolution for the Royal United Services Institute (a defence think-tank in London, where he is an Associate Fellow). This was picked up by the BBC for their 5 O’Clock News. Then, as he writes, it all went berserk, and he was interviewed by Channel 4, Sky News, BBC Radio 4, LBC, various international channels, etc. He was interviewed at length for the Radio 4 Analysis programme on the Middle East (http://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes/b00yyffd). He wrote four articles for the BBC News Website and one for the Independent, and keeps getting calls from journalists, being quoted in the FT, T New York Times, Der Spiegel, El Pais, Reuters, Associated Press and others. “A list of all these writings and media appearances”, he says, “is on my shamelessly self-promoting website, http:// shashankjoshi.wordpress.com”. All of this, he says, is quite funny, since he doesn’t really have that much Middle East knowledge, his expertise being in South Asia. However, it has been great fun, a nice distraction from PhD work, and an opportunity to get some media experience.

68 Feature

MEETING DOCTOR DAVID NICOLLE

TheCholmeleian Summer 2011

SIMON APPLETON CATCHES UP WITH THE BUSY HISTORIAN AND MIDDLE EAST EXPERT, DR DAVID NICOLLE I’m af I’m afte terr an iint nter ervi view ew w wit ith h hi hist stor oria ian n Dr D Dav avid id Nico Ni coll llee (H (HG G 19 1956 56)) – a an n ex expe pert rt in me medi diev eval al hist hi stor ory, y, w wit ith h a sp spec ecia iall in inte tere rest st iin n th the e Mi Midd ddle le East Ea st,, an and d an iint nter eres esti ting ng ssid idel elin ine e in a avi viat atio ion n hist hi stor ory. y. ‘‘To To b bee fr fran ank’ k’,, he rrep eplilies es,, ‘m ‘my y sc sche hedu dule le iiss extr ex trem emel ely y he hect ctic ic a att th thee mo mome ment nt. I am w wor orki king ng on a ccou oupl plee of n new ew b boo ooks ks,, as wel elll as cche heck ckin ing g thee ga th galllley ey p pro roof ofss fo f r th thre reee ot othe herr bo book okss du duee to b bee publ pu blis ishe hed d in tthi hiss co coun untr try, y, p plu luss an a arc rcha haeo eolo logi gica call r po re p rt d due u tto ue o be p pub ublilish shed ed iin n Sy Syri ria a – an and d go goin ing g offf to d of do o fu furt rthe herr ar arch chae aeol olog ogic ical al rres esea earc rch h in Dama Da ma asc scus us tthi hiss su summ mmer er.. Th T en I g got ot a an n em emai aill fr from om a TV V ccom ompa pany ny w whi hich ch iiss ma maki kiing n ap pro rogr gram amme m me forr th fo thee Di D sc scov o er ov ery y Ch Chan anne nell on ccas astl tles es.. Po Pote tent nttia ialllly y grea gr e t fu ea un, of co cour urse se,, bu ut it doe o s ma ake k llif iffe a bi bitt ‘fful ull.l.l’ Is I tthe here he re a any n ccha ny h nc ha ncee yo y u co oul uld d co come me up to Leic Le i esste ic ters rshi rs h re hi r ?’ ? L fe iiss ce Li c rt rtai ainl ai nly nl y ‘f ‘ful u l’l ffor ul or Dav avid id Nic icol o le ol le,, as I disc di scov sc ovver er w whe hen he n I ge g t to Woo oodh dhou dh o se Eav ou a es es,, an nd visi vi s t hiis ho si h me fful u l of boo ul ooks ks tha hatt hiis en enor ormo or mous mo u us ener en ergy er g and breead gy a th of in inte tere te rest re st h has as h hel elpe el ped pe d hi him m publ pu blis issh (h (hee do does esn’ es n’tt kn n’ know ow how o man any y bu butt hi hiss d ught da ug ghtter er,, wh who o keeep ps tr trac ack, k, tel k, e ls him he ha hass pu ubl blis ishe hed d ar arou ound ou n 1 nd 100 0 ).) Man 00 any y ar aree pu ubl blis ishe heed

Feature 69

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by Osp spre rey, y, a p pub ublilish shin ing g ho hous usee Da Davi vid d ha hass be been en clos cl osel ely y co conn nnec ecte ted d wiith ssin ince ce h hee st star arte ted d to wri rite te,, w ic wh ich h he des e cr crib ib bes e a ass ‘a won o de derf rful ul org rgan anis issat atio io on. n’ Davi Da v d ha vi hass co cont ntri nt ribu ri bute bu teed ma many ny y boo ooks ks to th hei eirr ‘M ‘Men en at Arm rms’ s’ sser erie iess an and d re refl flec ects ts u ung ngua uard rded ed dly o on n thee ph th phil ilossop phy h of th thes esee mi mililita tary ry h his isto ori riess. ‘TThe mililita mi tary ry his i tory ry iss ju just st tto o ge get th the pu p n ntter e s in n but u once on ce tthe hey’ y’ve ve bou ough ght th thee bo book oks, s, tthe hen n we eedu duca cate te thee bu th bugg gger errs! s!’’ I m ce I’ cert rtai ainl ai nly nl y be b in ng educ ed duc u at a ed e as he g gui uide ui dess me pro roud udly ud ly a alo lo ong the hug u e sh shel e f of h el his is p pub ubliish ub shed e ed book bo okks – ab abou outt th thee Ot Otto toma man n Ar Armi mies es iin n th thee ti t me of N Nap apol oleo eon, n, a abo bout ut tthe he Kni nigh ghts ts H Hos ospi pita tallller er a and nd thee Fr th Fren e ch A en Arm rmie iess of tthe he H Hun undr dred ed Y Yea ears rs’’ Wa War. r. (‘(‘Th Thee in inte tere rest stin ing g th thin ing’ g’,, sa says ys Dav avid id,, ‘i‘iss no nott Jo Joan an of Arcc bu Ar butt th thee bl blok okes es w wit ith h he her. r. S She he w was as ssur urro roun unde ded d by pro rofe fess ssio iona nall so sold ldie iers rs.. Di Did d th they ey rea ealllly y be beliliev evee in herr o or di did d th they ey tthi hink nk sshe he w was as a com ompl plet etee char ch arla lata tan n wh who o ma mana nage ged d to iinsspi pire re tthe he sol oldi dier ers? s?’) ’) Alll th Al thee Os Ospr prey ey b boo ooks ks a are re b bea eaut utif iful ully ly iillllus ustr trat ated ed, a lilink nk w wit ith h hi hiss fa fath ther er,, Pa Patt Ni Nico colllle, e a boo ookk il illu lust stra ra ato torr from fr om who hom m Da Davi vid d in inhe heri rite ted d hi hiss vi visu sual al ssen ense se butt wh bu who o sa sadl dly y re reti tire red d be befo fore re he co coul uld d il illu lust stra rate te any an y of h his is son on’s ’s w wor ork. k. P Pat at’s ’s A St Stor ory y of A Arm rmou ourr in tthe he P Puf uffi fin se seri ries es w was as a b bes ests tsel elle lerr wh whos osee succ su cces esss he help lped ed p pay ay D Dav avid id’s ’s H Hig ighg hgat atee sc scho hool ol ffee ees. s. Alth Al thou ough gh D Dav avid id d ccou ould ld h hav avee fo follllow owed ed h his is ffat athe her, r, h hee felt fe lt h hee wa wasn sn’’t ’t q qui uite ui t a te ass go g od od,, an and d ‘w ‘who ho wan ants ts tto o be ssec econ on ndd be best st tto o th thei eir ir fa fath ther er?’ ? ?’ Over Ov erhe head ad,, I’ I’m m su urr rrou ou und ded e by mo mode dell ai airc rccra aft off tthe he FFir i st W ir Wor o ld or dW War ar,, an n eear arly ly y and n ttim imeim econs co nsum umin i g en e th hussia iasm sm whi h ch c scu c pp per ered ed som omee off h his is exa xam m ch chan ance an cess at Hig ce ighg hgat hg ate. at e. Thi h s ea earl rly rl y en nth thus u ia us iasm sm hass mat atur u ed a ur and nd,, fu nd fuse sed se d wi with th hh his i is pass pa sssio ion n fo forr th thee Mi M dd ddle lee E Eas a t, lled as e to th ed thee pu publ blic bl icat ic a io at ion n of thee d defi e n efi nit itiv it ivee bo iv book ok o on n Ar A ab MIG I jjet etts, a surp su rpri rp risi risi s ng suc ucce cess ce sss iin n th he Sttat ates e (Vo es Volu lu ume Two is in i prep pr e arrat ep atio ion) io n).. n) Davi Da v d’ d’ss vi visu sual al g gif ifft em emer erge er geed at Hig ighg hg hgat gat ate, e, and d

he has pro roud udly ly kep eptt th thee po postter he de design gned ed for John Jo hn TTav aven ener er’s ’s firrst st p per erfo form rmed ed w wor ork, k, Fe Fest stiv ival al C ed Cr e o, peerf rfor orme or meed in n1 196 962 96 2 in S Stt An Andr drew dr e ’ss Chu ew urc r h, h Frrog ogna nal,l, wit na ith h so solo lo ois istt Jo John hn Pea arc rcee (W WG 19 1957 57 7). ‘II kept ke p g pt get e ti et ting ng tthe he jjun unio iorr an io and d se seni nior o a or art rtt p pri r ze ri zess an and d wass ta wa take ken n se seri riou ousl sly y as an ar artt st stud uden ent, t, w whi hich ch allo owe wed d me m to ge get off ga ame m s.’ Ky Kyffi fin Williams wass a st wa stro rong n influ uen ncee on Da Davi vid, d, a as we welll a ass Al Alan an Palm Pa lmer er – ‘‘a a he hero r o ro off mi mine ne’.’. Davi Da vid’ d s pa d’ pass sssio on fo or hi hist stor o y al or a so beg gan at High Hi ghga gh gate ga te, e, wh when en the a awa ward wa rd of a trrav avel el b bur ursa ur sary sa ry enab en ab ble led d hiim to tra rave vell to Cre r te wit ith h hiis sc scho hool ol frie fr iend nd d, Bi Billll N New ewby by G Gra rant nt.. Th This is b beg egan an a ffas asci cina nati tion on n with wi th tthe he ccul ultu ture re o off Mi Mino noan an G Gre reec re ecee ‘b ‘bec ecau ause se iitt wass co wa colo lour urfu full an and d pr pree-Cl Clas assi sica call Gr Gree eekk an a d th thee godd go ddes esse sess we were re d dep epic icte ted d as tthe hese se rrea ealllly y er erot otic ic figu gure res’ s’.. As he tr trav avel elle led d th thro roug ugh h Gr Gree eece ce,, ho howe weve ver, r, he ‘‘di disc scov over ered ed B Byz yzan anti tine ne a arc rchi hite tect ctur ure, e, a and nd thes th esee wo wond nder erfu full do dome med d ch chur urch ches es a and nd llov ovel ely y wallll pai wa aint ntin ings gs a and nd mos osai aics cs’.. TThe he nex extt ye year ar h hee retu re turn rned ed tto o th thee ne near ar eeas ast, t, acc ccom o pa om pani nied ed b by y anot an othe herr Hi High ghga gate te p pup upil il,, Jo John hn P Phi hill llim imor oree (H (HG G 1956 19 56)) a and nd ttog oget ethe herr th they ey vis isit ited ed TTur urke key y an and d

David in 2006 at Crac de Chevalier Castle, Syria

AND SO BEGAN A FASCINATION WITH THE CULTURE OF MINOAN GREECE ‘BECAUSE IT WAS COLOURFUL AND PRE-CLASSICAL GREEK AND THE GODDESSES WERE DEPICTED AS THESE REALLY EROTIC FIGURES’ Grree eece c . In ce n Isttan nbu bul,l, D Dav avid av id dis isco cove co vere ve reed a pa pass ssio ss ion io n forr Issla fo lami micc ar mi arch ch chit hit itec ectu ec ture tu re and n ccul ultu ul ture tu r whi re hich c ‘‘go ch g t go m hoo me o ke k d. d I ret etur u ne ur ned d la late t r, bac te ackp kpac kp acki ac k ng ki ng or by car, ca r, wan ande deri de ring ri ng g rou o nd cen entr tral tr al Tur urke key ke y an and d do own to Syr yria ia a, Ir Iraq aq,, Ir aq Iran an an, n, Eg Egyp ypt, yp t S t, Sud udan ud an,, No an Nort rth rt h Af A riica a an and nd I de deve veelo velo lope ped pe d this thiss lov th ovee fo forr me m di diev e al IIsl ev slam sl amic am icc civi ci vilililisa vi ssa ati tion o . Wh on When en I cam a e la late teer to wor ter orkk for for th fo t e BB BC in the Ara rabi bicc Seerv bi rvic iccee,, it alll ca ame me ttog oget og ethe et her, he r,

David on a Highgate School Travel Bursary in 1962, sketching Minoan remains at Aghia Triada, Crete

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this fascination with this part of the world.’ After a spell working with the BBC for television news at Alexandra Palace from 1963-67 he joined the BBC Arabic Service at Bush House and worked there until 1971, ‘having a lovely time. I learnt so much. That’s when I learned to write and edit and how to cut ruthlessly, be really economical with language’. But in 1971, feeling he had hit a glass ceiling, he returned to education, studying for a doctorate in Art History at Edinburgh University. A full-time academic post followed at the University at Yarmuk in northern Jordan. His American wife, who by then had begun to bring up a young family of a boy and a girl, landed a post at Loughborough University. So David now turned to writing full time. And the rest, as they say, is history. All one hundred volumes of it.

‘I HATE THE IDEA OF GOING BACK TO THE SORT OF HISTORY THAT IS ABOUT THE BUILDING OF A NATIONAL IDENTITY. IT’S NOT THERE FOR THAT REASON, IT’S TO BUILD UP AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD.’

David with a sixteenth century Spanish helmet formerly belonging to one of the Armada troops As an historian, what does David think should be taught in schools? The answer would stop Michael Gove dead in his tracks. ‘Well, I’m an unreformed multiculturalist, for a start. I hate the idea of going back to the sort of history that is about the building of a national identity. It’s not there for that reason, it’s to build up an understanding of the world. If you need a history lesson to convince you of who you are, then you are really in trouble.’ I sense that for David history is not about the dry and dusty but a way to understand how people tick, to enable us to live peaceably side by side. The fighting, however, can be colourful and exciting, as David’s final treat shows me – some of the armour which his father, a founder member of the Arms and Armour Society, collected. (The larger part of the collection was sold when moving from a flat in Hendon to a house in Mill Hill). The best piece is a helmet from the period of the Spanish Armada, which, as a boy, David had to clean with grease and polish to get a little pocket money. It belonged to one of the troops of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and is beautifully wrought. It’s a reminder of how, for David, history is not just a series of events in the past, but a living reminder of who we are and how we got here.

David in 1976, studying the bronze doors of Trani Cathedral, Apulia, Italy

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Rabbi Lawrence Rigal 1928 – 2010 Rabbi Lawrence Rigal (1942) was a leading figure in the Jewish Liberal Movement, who became a much-loved Minister of the Stepney Settlement. He was a late recruit to the Rabbinate, having trained in industry, worked in retail and as a voluntary youth club leader. Lawrence Rigal was one of three brothers - (he was the middle son – his elder brother is George (1939), his younger, Cedric (1948) – who attended Highgate. Lawrence joined in 1942, when the School was evacuated to Devon but returned to London in 1943 by which time the Blitz has ended, but the V1 ‘Doodlebugs’ had arrived, forcing the young Lawrence to sit his School Certificate Examination in 1944 in the stiflingly hot School basement. In 1946 he was conscripted into the RAF, where he served as a ground wireless mechanic. He regarded his years in the RAF as a waste of time, and only later found that they had been an invaluable training for his work in the Rabbinate. He encountered no anti-Semitism, but some envy when there was a church parade and the order came: ‘Roman Catholics and Jews fall out!’ After demob he went into retail – first with Dolcis, the shoemakers and then Daniel Neale’s – a high-class children’s outfitter in the West End. He and his brother, George, formed the Junior Branch of the NW London Aid Society for the Home for Aged Jews, called the ‘Norwesters’, who took schoolchildren round museums and other places of interest during the school holidays. One of these youngsters was Martin Gilbert (HG 1949), who became a renowned historian.

In his twenties, he renewed his Jewish Studies, and was greatly influenced by a correspondence course run by Dr Abram Spiro. He was asked to form a youth club for the Wembley Congregation, which his parents had joined, and the club became affiliated to the Federation of Liberal and Progressive Jewish Youth Groups – an organisation of which he became chairman. His work with youth groups gave him the idea that he might train for the Rabbinate, and he was ordained in 1964. After three years in Birmingham and seven in South London – where he met his wife, Kay, Lawrence moved to Woodford Synagogue and eventually to Stepney in 1985. His ministry there lasted twenty-four years. He was fully active until he retired and much loved by his congregation. In 2010 he was awarded a Fellowship by the Leo Baeck College. His hobbies included paleontology - he had a large collection of over 300 fossils - photography and computing (he designed three websites). He experimented with wine-making, until a fermenting bottle of elderflower champagne exploded one night, the incident persuading him to turn to safer hobbies! He loved Judaism, but believed it was an ethical platform for being in a world with his fellow brothers and sisters of every creed. He was a Universalist, a generous soul who believed in, and found good in, all of humanity. Lawrence is mourned by many, including his wife, Kay, sons Gideon and Daniel, and brothers, George and Cedric.

attended Westminster from where he won an Exhibition to Oxford to study Jurisprudence. He was elected President of the Union in his last term, an appointment which his tutor correctly predicted would cost him his First. After National Service, during which he served in the ill-fated Suez expedition he wrote an exposé of this military ﬁasco, which, in deﬁance of the Queen’s Regulations, he published in The Spectator.r The enjoyment of seeing his opinions in print lured him from a career at the Bar to become a journalist, working at The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Sunday Times as Whitehall Correspondent. His spell at The Sunday Times was followed by a posting as North America correspondent for The Observer,

although relations with Donald Trelford, the paper’s editor, were strained. Anthony thought Trelford too lightweight for the role. He told the paper’s proprietor, ‘Tiny’ Rowland that one of them would have to go. In the end it was Anthony, who left to become obituaries editor of The Times, a role which suited his detailed knowledge of political history and curiosity about human nature. He became a regular contributor to BBC’s Newsnight, to which his urbane but challenging manner was well-suited. In retirement, he wrote political biographies and a well-received biography of Cardinal Newman. He was appointed CBE in 1997. He married Carol Gaynor, a granddaughter of a Tory MP, but had no children.

Anthony Howard 1934 – 2010

Anthony Howard, who attended Highgate Junior School, was a journalist whose politeness of manner never deterred him from asking the difﬁcult question. His father, the Rev Guy Howard, was Vicar of Highgate. Anthony, after leaving Highgate Junior School,

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The Cholmeleian Society www.ocs.org.uk The Ofﬁcers

Foundation Ofﬁce

President David Newman (QG 1979) 44 Cholmeley Park, London N6 5ER Tel 020 7842 8569 Email david.newman@roggeglobal.com

Director of Sir Roger Cholmeley’s Charity at Highgate Robert Wilne

Deputy President Adrian Grumi (KG 1983) 21a Brownlow Mews, London WC1N 2LA Tel 07802 752 484 Hon. Treasurer Markand Patel 49 Atheneum Road, London N20 9AL Tel 020 8445 9934 Email hypermj@gmail.com

Ex Ofﬁcio Members The Immediate Past President Tony Friend (NG 1967) 19 Prince of Wales Drive, London SW11 4SB Tel 020 7457 2020 Email tony.friend@collegehill.com School Representative Todd Lindsay The Common Room, Highgate School North Road, Highgate, London N6 4AY Tel 020 8340 1524 Email todd.lindsay@highgateschool.org.uk The OC Editor, The Cholmeleian William Kimberley (GH 1963) 89 Wood Vale, London N10 3DL Tel 07887 856 519 Email ocmag@highgateschool.org.uk Chairman of Business Section Adrian Grumi (KG 1983) 21a Brownlow Mews, London WC1N 2LA Tel 07802 752 484 Chairman of Sports Club Andy Savva (EG 1973) 357 Cockfosters Road, Cockfosters Barnet EN4 0JT Email savvjak@hotmail.com School Liaison Jeremy Randall (QG 1963) 27 Brownlow Mews, London WC1N 2LQ Tel 0845 230 0706 Email jr@walpolegroup.com Heads of School Jake Goodman & Sasha Hajnal-Corob

Cholmeleian Society Liaison Ofﬁcer Simon Appleton Development Ofﬁcer Charlie Goldblatt (SG c/2007) Highgate School, North Road, London N6 4AY Tel 020 8347 3549 Email oc@highgateschool.org.uk

Six Elected Members to Retire in 2011 Adam Benson (QG 1991) John Zani (WG 1966) 2012 Richard Brewster (CH 1959) Amirali Kasraie (SG 1995) OC 30 to 50s Representative 2013 Justin Edgar (GH 1993) Legal Section Representative Ruth Khaw (SH 2007) OC Women’s Representative Alex Lushnikov (EG 2001) OC Under 30s Representative Co-opted John Northam (NG 1947) Michael Hammerson (WG 1956) Notes Editor Jeremy Randall (QG 1963) School Liaison Representative Sandy Saunders (MG 1947) OC Over 50s Representative

Cholmeleian Clubs, Sections and Facilities Archivist James Newton Highgate School, North Road, London N6 4AY Tel 020 8340 1524 Email james.newton@highgateschool.org.uk Business Section Adrian Grumi (KG 1983) 21a Brownlow Mews, London WC1N 2LA Tel 07802 752 484 Email adrian@bmortgages.co.uk Membership open to all OCs. Three informal dinners are held each year with an OC guest speaker. OC and non-OC guests welcome.

Cholmeley Lodge 1731 Hon. Sec. Anthony Selkus 1 White Orchards, Totteridge, London N20 8AQ Tel 07836 211 167 Email tony.selkus@btinternet.com Cricket Club Chairman: John Zani (WG1966) 46 Abbots Gardens, London N2 0JH Tel 020 8444 5098 Mobile 07710 271 767 Email jzani@btinternet.com Captain: Ian Sanderson Email iansanderson14@msn.com Fencing Organiser: David Partridge (SH 1959) Tel 020 8883 1594 Workk 020 7354 2774 Email davidpartridge@blueyonder.co.uk Fives Hon. Sec. Niiﬁo Addy (KG 1983) 18 Cranley Gardens, London N10 3AP Tel 020 8883 6033 Mobile 07956 668784 Football Club Chairman: Joe Adams (MG 1991) 29B Victoria Road, New Barnet, Herts EN4 9PH Tel 020 8364 9240 Captain: Adam Benson 104 Morshead Mansions, Morshead Road, London W9 1LG Email adam@mastersfootball.com Friends of Highgate School Society Hon. Sec. Mark Short Highgate School, North Road, London N6 4AY Tel 020 8340 1524 Golﬁng Society Hon. Sec. Robert Phillips (SH 1961) 8 Highwoods, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8RR Tel 01372 375559 Workk 01372 389739 Email robphillips19@btinternet.com Mallinson Sports Centre Bishopswood Road, London N6 4NY Tel 020 8342 7272 Sports Club Chairman: Andy Savva (EG 1977) Email savvjak@hotmail.com Vice Chairman: Alan Bedwell Email aljaguar7@hotmail.com Club Secretary: Nick Franklin Email nfranklin@mwbex.com Venue: OC Sports Club, Hendon Wood Lane, Mill Hill, London NW7 In addition to members of the Cricket, Football and Hockey Clubs, OCs can join as Social Members. Numerous social events held. The Club can be hired for private functions. www.oldcholms.com

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Zephyr Club (Westgate OCs) Hon. Sec. Edward Hagger (WG 1974) 17 Fairﬁeld Road, London E3 2QA Tel 020 8981 6634

The Cholmeleian Editors Simon Appleton Highgate School, North Road, London N6 4AY Tel 020 8340 1524 Email simon.appleton@highgateschool.org.uk William Kimberley (GH 1963) 89 Wood Vale, London N10 3DL Tel 07887 856 519 Email ocmag@highgateschool.org.uk Notes and News Michael Hammerson (WG 1956) 4 Bramalea Close, North Hill, Highgate N6 4QD Tel 020 8341 1437 Email michael@midsummer.demon.co.uk

Overseas Correspondents Australia Co-ordinating Michael Kemp (TL 1952) 9 Coloon Avenue, Harrington NSW 2427 Tel 61 2 6556 1731 Email cmike@idx.com.au NSW Colin Hopper (FG 1957) 53 Parriwi Road, Mosman, NSW 2088 Tel (02) 9969 7435

Hong Kong Laurence James (SH 1984) Ground and First Floor, 58B Nam Sham Village, Sai Kung, New Territories, Hong Kong. Tel 852 9033 5417 Email lozza@netvigator.com

Queensland Ray Thorogood (EG 1955) 2/12 Sunset Boulevard, Surfers Paradise Q4217 Tel 61 7 5538 9112 Email raymt@bigpond.com

Middle East PGH Davies (HG 1966) Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, PO Box 54115, Abu Dhabi, UAE Tel 97150 645872 Email pghdavies@yahoo.co.uk

Victoria Tim Acton (WG 1950) Flat 25 61 Kooyong Road, Armdale Victoria 3143. Tel 61 3 9509 9114 Mobile 0418 310 727 Email timacton@optusnet.com.au

New Zealand David B. Cox (FG 1955) 18 Amante Crescent, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 10 Tel / Fax 09 479 1930

UK Correspondents Cotswolds Dr. Robert Acheson (NG 1962) Clifton College Prep School, Bristol BS7 3HE Tel 0117 3157 502 Fax 0117 3157 504 East Anglia Rev Barrie Slatter (WG 1956) The Rectory, Stratford St Andrew, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1LJ Tel 01728 605 713 Email barrie@pdl-training.com Midlands Cliff Kentish (WG 1944) 11 Vicarage Road, Edgbaston B15 3ES Tel 0121 454 0291 Email ckentish@hotmail.com North East England Roderick Thomson (HG 1950) 12 Grove Road, Menston, Ilkley West Yorkshire LS29 6JD Tel 01943 877 753 North West England Denis Blamey (TL 1950) 9 Pikes Hey Road, Caldy, Wirral Cheshire CH48 1PA Tel 0151 625 5523 Email denis.blamey@tiscali.co.uk Scotland David Arthur (EG 1941) Flat 3 (ﬁrst ﬂoor), 2 The Cedars, Colinton Road, Edinburgh EH 13 OPL Tel 0131 441 7621 Email arthur.candlemas@btinternet.com South West Roger Hayward (NG 1959) 8 Wellesley Way, Churchingford, Taunton TA3 7RB Tel 01823 259 288 Email info@rogershayward.co.uk Wessex Dr Anthony JR Pawley (WG 1956) 20 Cotton Close, Broadstone, Dorset BH18 9AJ Tel 01202 690 257

Greece John Acton (WG 1953) 15 Varnali Road, Nea Erythrea, Athens 14671 Greece Tel 0030 210 322 7932 Fax 0030 210 322 5540 Email epithis@yahoo.com

Western Australia David Thornton (QG 1962) 11 Booker St. Attadale WA 6156 Tel 09 330 5012 Bangladesh Sajed Seraj (SH 1982) 54 Motijheel Commercial Area, Aqua Paints Elite House, Dhaka 1000 Tel 02 9561376 Fax 02 9561 375 Email sajedurseraj@hotmail.com

Portugal David Rubie (MG 1962) Apartado 1081 Vilamoura, 8126-913 Quateira, Algarve, Portugal Email rubie8@btinternet.com Singapore Anthony N. Rawlinson (SH 1962) c/o The Global Value Investment Portfolio Management Pte Ltd. 5 Shenton Way Singapore 068808 Tel 65 6220 5759 Fax 65 6220 5338 Email anthony.rawlinson@globalvalue.com.sg

Brazil John Smallwood (FG 1961) Rua Dr. Shigeo Mori, 1073, Cidade Universitaria Campinas, San Paulo 13084-080 Tel 19 3289 2548 Email jctsmall@terra.com.br

South Africa Port Alfred Andy Simpson (MG 1952) PO Box 2794, Port Alfred, 6170 South Africa Tel / Fax 0027 46624 1477

Canada British Columbia John Peirson (WG 1953) 2586 Lawson Avenue, West Vancouver BC V7V 2E9 Email jpeirson@telus.net

USA New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, States and Mid Western States Tony Toogood (GH 1962) 65 Dandy Drive, Cos Cob, CT 06807 USA Email awtoogood@aol.com

Ontario Dr Denys Reades (SG 1957) 2596 Robin Drive, Missiauga, Ontario ON L5K 2H9 Tel 1 905 855 9018

Washington D.C, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina Peter Tuddenham (QG 1963) 230 Markwood Drive, Potomac Falls VA 20165 USA Tel 1 703 406 2432 Fax 1 703 406 2192 Email peter@coexploration.net

France Ronald S Austin 20 Rue Jean Daudin, 75015 Paris Paris Jonathan Garner (TL) 8 Impasse de la Haute Pierre, 78290 Croissy-sur-Seine Tel (33) 1 3976 0720 Fax (33) 1 3976 5200 Email garner@noos.fr

Northern California John Wurr (GH 1938) 14500 Fruitvale Avenue, Apt. 4205 Saratoga CA 95070 USA Tel 408 741 7602 Email wurr@comcast.net

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Past Masters RSM L N Johnson

RSM Johnson with the 1941 Shooting Team (seated, third from right). Sitting on his left is Geoffrey Palmer, later to achieve fame as an actor. After distinguished service in WW1 and a long career in the Royal Marines, RSM Johnson was appointed as Sergeant Instructor to the Highgate School OTC. When the major part of the school was evacuated to Westward Ho! in 1939 he and all the OTC equipment moved from the fine armoury in the School to very temporary accommodation. The lack of an indoor shooting range was also a blow but Johnson rigged up a rifle range in an old quarry on the outskirts of the village so that shooting training could continue. During the war, cadet training was regarded as very important and almost every boy in the school joined the OTC. Despite the difficulties a full training programme was carried out and a new Signals Section formed. The school was issued with WW1 SMLE rifles, which were probably obsolete in 1939. However, after the Dunkirk evacuation, the Army was so short of even the most basic weapons that the School’s rifles were recalled and replaced by a variety of even more obsolete rifles. Fortunately Johnson was a qualified armourer and took this all in his stride. He also maintained various light machine guns which were used on a patrol boat used to defend Bideford Bay. After one rough winter he found that the barrel on one gun was full of salt and inoperable. Fortunately the Germans did not land there!

On return to Highgate in 1943, and the availability of the indoor riﬂe range, he was able to return to coaching the Shooting Eight, which was his special interest. He arranged for improvements to be made to the target lighting in the range and serious training started. Shooting competitions with other schools were

full-bore shooting and John Boustred, who kindly supplied the photo and who shot for Middlesex for 17 years, was reserve for the England team for two years and was the RAF long range champion in 1953. I imagine that others also continued to enjoy the sport that he so skilfully taught at the school.

After the Dunkirk evacuation of WW2, the Army was so short of even the most basic weapons that the School’s rifles were recalled. Fortunately Johnson was a qualified armourer and took this all in his stride. now possible and Highgate soon reached the very high standard mentioned by Geoffrey Palmer recently. Shooting was also available as a School sport and Johnson took as much trouble over those that were not in the elite eight as he did with the experts. Full-bore shooting resumed with the end of the war and Sharpe and Giles, who were initially trained by Johnson, won the Ashburton Cadet Shield in 1946. The enthusiasm generated by Johnson resulted in an OC Rifle Club being formed and regular evening meetings were held in the School range for many years. Some OCs also continued

While Johnson retired in 1945 to become the Head Porter, I am sure he would have liked to be remembered for his major contributions to both the OTC and the school shooting. Thanks are due to Simon Appleton and his team, John Boustred and also Ross Kessel for their help in writing this note.

Ian Stephenson (WG 1940)

Submissions to the magazine should preferably be sent via email to ocmag@highgateschool.org.uk with appropriate images. If this is not possible please send content to: The Editors The Cholmeleian Highgate School North Road London N6 4AY telephone 020 8347 3549 website www.highgateschool.org.uk