OF News

1950s

His Honour Anthony Cleary OBE

His Honour Anthony Cleary (né Beardmore) (CW 1959–1964) was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Birthday honours list for services to family law.

1960s

In April 2022, Jeff Todd (Gl 1964–1969) retired after owning and operating a mobile x-ray company for 32 years.

Charlie Jeffrey (Ki 1965–1969) joined the Tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl as part of the One Ocean Expedition from Grand Canary to Curacao in October 2021; 4006 nautical miles in 31 days, under sail except for three hours, entering port. Charlie writes: “I joined the ship in Las Palmas with 105 ‘medseilers’ after we passed strict Covid–19 protocol. Life onboard was very active, assigned a hammock in a banjer with 40 other crew, on Blue watch from 08–12 and 20–midnight each day. Regular tasks included Bow watch, fire watch and man overboard watch, in addition to one hour on helm (steering), and don’t forget a shift helping the Galley staff at mealtimes.

“On watch we worked setting the sails in all weathers, sanding and varnishing woodwork and polishing all the Brass in the last weeks.

“It was not all work! Off watch we had time to relax on deck, learn 12 sailors’ knots, sing shanty songs, learn how to make sailors knives with sheath, sew cotton bags, navigate by the stars (sexton), watch a movie once a week on deck when the film was projected onto one of the sails.

“Learnings: We were 105 persons aged from 13 to 83 years who joined as fellow sailors, many had no experience of sailing, living in close quarters for 30 days, and working as a team. The younger members were somewhat shocked the first days as there was no mobile coverage and no internet! With no landfall across the Atlantic, just following the trade winds.

“For myself it was fascinating to observe the interaction between an international group of sailors, so I have signed up to the leg across the Indian ocean from Jakarta to Mauritius in November.”

The Tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl joined by Charlie Jeffrey

Professor Neil Jackson (Gl 1965–1969) is generously supporting a new annual award for OF Architecture students. Named in honour of the Edinburgh Architect who designed Fettes College, The David Bryce Award will be awarded annually by Professor Jackson to the OF applicant who presents the best digital portfolio of design work and transcript of marks at the end of their first year of an RIBA Part 1 accredited course. A written reference from a studio tutor who sees the student on a regular basis is also required.

Professor Jackson is Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. He has published many books on architecture including Japan and the West: An Architectural Dialogue (2019), Pierre Koenig: A View from the Archive (2019), and the award-winning Craig Ellwood (2002). He is a chartered architect (RIBA), a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and, until 2021, a Trustee and President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. He has met with Lower Sixth formers thinking about studying architecture in person at Fettes and, during the pandemic, on Zoom and is a great source of advice and encouragement for them. It is wonderful therefore that he is providing further encouragement to budding OF architects at an early stage in their studies.

The first award was made in person by Professor Jackson to Eilidh Townend (CE 2017–2019), last September, fittingly, at the V&A Dundee. We are extremely grateful to Professor Jackson for his continued support.

Professor Neil Jackson and Eilidh Townend

1970s

Iain Stewart (Mo 1971–1976) published his first book Knights of the Air, Book 1: Rage! in November 2021. It is a historical novel that is faithful to the history of WW1 air aces and begins by following the lead character from East Africa (where Iain was also based when at Fettes). Fellow OF Alastair Reid (Mo 1970–1975) said about the book “I can't recommend the book more highly for its twists, unexpected narrative, excitement and close regard to the history and conditions of the time.”

In December 2020, Antony Wong (Ca 1974–1979) was awarded the Freedom of the City of London for 36 years of contribution to the City of London.

Allan Jardine (SH 1976–1980) published his first book Never Mind the Bagpipes: A Piper’s Tale in June 2021. The book is a true story of the trials and tribulations of a young boy struggling with the pipes and oversize kilts, before mastering this iconic musical instrument. It is a humorous look at Scottish culture, illustrated with cartoons and features a good few chapters set in Fettes College. Michelle McManus, presenter of ‘Our Lives’ on BBC Radio Scotland said “It’s an incredible collection of stories and I hope everyone gets a chance to pick up this book.”

Allan Jardine’s first book: Never Mind the Bagpipes: A Piper’s Tale

On 31 December 2021 it was announced that the Queen had appointed The Rt Hon Tony C Blair, PC (Ki-Ar 1966–1971) a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG).

The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.

Appointments are at the sovereign’s sole discretion and are usually in recognition of a national contribution, for public service, or for personal service to the sovereign. Membership of the order is limited to the sovereign, the Prince of Wales, and no more than 24 living members, or Companions. The order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies (e.g., members of the British royal family and foreign monarchs).

The ceremony took place on 13th June 2022.

Sir Tony Blair at Garter Day: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

1980s

Victor Tsien (Ca 1985–1989), Gillem Tulloch (Ca 1984–1989) and Kwong Yu Lam (Ca 1985–1989) met up at the Royal Hong Kong Yaught Club in Hong Kong on 7th October 2021. Carringtonians together again.

Victor Tsien, Gillem Tulloch and Kwong Yu Lam

1990s

Adam Gordon (JS-Ki 1988–1992) achieved a career high in April this year when Candidate.ID, the recruitment technology company he founded in 2017 was acquired by iCIMS, Inc, a US-based HR software giant. Industry analyst Madeline Laurano hailed the move, describing Candidate.ID as, “One of the most exciting companies in talent acquisition.”

Lorne Balfe (JS-Gl 1987–1995) has produced the score for Top Gun: Maverick working alongside Harold Faltermeyer, Hans Zimmer and Lady Gaga.

Stephen Cheong (Ki 1995–1999)’s second son, August William Guici Cheong, was born this year on 24th April 2021.

Victoria Baldie (née Morrison) (CW 1989–1992) has recently raised over £11,000 for Pancreatic Cancer in memory of her mother who died in April 2021. She ran the Edinburgh marathon with fellow CW buddy, Sarah Mayo (JS-CW 1986–1994) at the end of May.

Victoria Baldie (née Morrison) and Sarah Mayo

2000s

Alistair Paul (Ki 2000–2005) is delighted to announce that he got married to Katherine Paul (née Badenoch) in April this year. OFs Andrew Shearer-Collie (Ki 2000–2005), Jamie Kelly (Ki 2000–2005) and Bobby Stewart (Ki 2000–2005) attended the wedding celebrations which were held in London at St John’s Wood Church followed by Hawksmoor Guildhall.

Alistair Paul with OFs Andrew Shearer-Collie, Jamie Kelly and Bobby Stewart at his wedding

Charlotte Purchase (née Preston) (Ar 2006–2008) and her husband Jack welcomed their first child Imogen Florence Purchase in September 2021. First grandchild for Nigel Preston (Gl 1969–1974) and great-great-niece for George Preston (SH-CW 1944–1950, Staff 1955–1991).

Daughter of Charlotte Purchase (née Preston) and great-great-niece of George Preston

Alex Starritt (Mo 2001–2004) has won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his latest novel, We Germans. This story of German soldiers in the Second World War is Alex’s second novel and was the 2021 Winner in Fiction. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize recognises the power of the written word to promote peace. The prize is awarded to books that have led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. We got in touch with Alex shortly after hearing the news to pass on our congratulations and to hear his thoughts on winning this special award:

“This wonderful prize strikes a deep chord for me and is something I profoundly believe in. I often think about how, in the First World War, practically none of those fighting knew anything at all about their supposed enemies. Most had never travelled outside their county, let alone to other countries. My hunch is that the more people understand about each other, the higher the bar that generals and jingoists have to get over to convince the public that the French or the Germans or the Chinese or whoever are inherently baddies. So I actually think that EasyJet deserves a Nobel peace prize – cheap air travel has done more for international understanding than a thousand wellmeaning projects. But the other part of understanding each other is knowing something about each other’s cultures – so watching Netflix shows with subtitles and reading books that give a glimpse outside the national box we were born into.”

Alex Starritt’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize winning novel, We Germans

Andrew Shearer-Collie (Ki 2000–2005) tells us that his son, Logan Shearer-Collie was born on Dec 8, 2020 in New York City.

Velocity C Airey (Inv-Ar 2000–2009) has been awarded the highly coveted Sword of Honour at The Sovereign’s Parade. We received the news on behalf of the Commandant of The Royal Military Academy who wished to inform Fettes College that our former student Velocity was awarded the best cadet of the intake. They wrote “The Sword of Honour was awarded to Senior Under Officer Velocity Charlotte Airey. Considered by the Commandant to be the Best Cadet in the Army Commissioning Course 203, she is to commission into The Royal Lancers.”

The Sovereign’s Parade took place on Friday 6th August with Boris Johnson representing Her Majesty the Queen.

At Fettes, Velocity was an active member of the CCF participating in the Fettes College CCF 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008 and was awarded a University Army Scholarship with admission to Sandhurst in the same year.

Velocity C Airey

Urosh Teodorovich (KI 2001–2008) and Venetia Sheppard were married in London in early November 2021. The church service was held at the Orthodox Cathedral of the Divine Wisdom in Bayswater with the wedding reception at the Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park. OF attendees included Roderick Dirkzwager (Ki 2001–2008), Roshni Best (CW 2001–2008), Adam Cuthbert (Ki 2003–2008), Daniel Park (Inv-Gl 2002–2008), Bill Chater (Inv-Gl 2002–2008), and Sue Yin Yong (Ar 2005–2008).

Urosh Teodorovich and his wife Venetia on their wedding day

We were very grateful to Adventurer and Old Fettesian Mark Agnew (Gl 2005–2009) who was our Keynote Speaker at Careers Day. Mark also recently recorded a podcast with us: Fettes Talks Adventure with OF Mark Agnew. Mark Agnew is an adventurer and a journalist. At 30 years old Mark has already had two endeavours at rowing the Atlantic. Mark is now attempting the ‘last great first’, the Northwest Passage. Rowing 2,500 miles over two months as a crew of eight from the Atlantic to the Pacific, an adventure scheduled for July 2022 that has just been postponed to 2023 due to the favourability of the ice. We talked to Mark on the Fettes Community Podcast, find us on your usual podcast provider and listen in.

Mark Agnew

2010s

Elliot Graves (Gl 2007–2012) wrote to us with an update: “A little update from my life as I progress through my career as a Director specialising in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality productions. Recently I was nominated for two Emmys for Micro Monsters with David Attenborough – a cutting edge mini-series that revealed the world of bugs in ways never done before using VR for Meta. Also this year the iPhone and iPad AR app Museum Alive with David Attenborough on which I was the Creative Director became a finalist at Apple’s Design Awards. Since then I’ve launched another landmark film, David Attenborough’s First Life, for Meta Quest VR and even featured in the National Geographic documentary, Back to Titanic, in which we dove in manned submarines to RMS for the first time in 15 years as a technical supervisor.”

Felicity Clifford (Ar 2008–2010) has recently been promoted at STV from production journalist to multimedia reporter based in Dundee.

“In my previous role I worked behind the scenes filming and interviewing experts on the pandemic, and I was part of the production team for the Holyrood elections in May working with the politics team preparing for the elections and STVs election programmes.

“My new role sees me reporting on camera on all the major stories in Tayside and Fife.

“This is a really exciting opportunity for me to take as reporting is something I’ve always wanted to do. I really love speaking to people and listening to their stories, a skill I learned at Fettes during my outside service where I would take a sweetie trolley around a care home.

“The part of my new role I’m most looking forward to is telling the stories of people and working with the disabled community to get voices heard on issues and better representation in the media.”

Andrew Blair (Inv-Ca 2003–2010) volunteered with charity Bridges to Prosperity (through his company Balfour Beatty) to build a 78m long footbridge in rural Rwanda for a community of 10,500 people. This was 16m above the Rubyiro River, where sadly people have died trying to cross. The bridge build was a tough experience, competing with steep access to the site and tropical rain downpours, and all undertaken by hand tools, but was completed safely and on time – just before the local mayor arrived and the singing and dancing started!

Andrew Blair helped build this 78m long footbridge in rural Rwanda

Sophie Cullis (CE 2012–2017) graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York with a high distinction (4.0 GPA) in the Master of Arts (MA) in European History and Politics. She ws awarded a rare A+ (98%<) in her MA Thesis titled, Adoption or Adaptation? An Analysis of the 2020 Anti-Racist Movements in France and Great Britain in the Context of the US BLM Movement. Sophie has now commenced the PGDL / Law Conversion having been awarded the Jules Thorn Scholarship from The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (Inn of Court) and a Career Commitment Scholarship from BPP.

Jake Wightman (Gl 2008–2012) has been putting in some world class performances. On 9th January, Jake clocked 7:50.97 for 3000m indoors, making him just one of four Britons to have broken 1:45 for 800m and 8:00 for 3000m. The others are: Seb Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett. On 5th June Jake won the 1500m at the Wanda Diamond League in Rabat with a time of 3:32.62. On 16th June Jake became the fastest Scot to complete a mile with a time of 3:50.30, a Scottish record that has been unbroken for 40 years.

Jake Wightman

Harry Paterson (PS-Gl 2011–2019) made his international debut for Scotland 7s at the Singapore International 7s competition in April 2022. He made his second appearance at the Vancouver International 7s the following week.

Harry Paterson in the Scotland 7s squad

Tom Banatvala (Gl 2015–2020) played in the U20 Scotland XV against England U20 on 4th February 2022.

Tom Banatvala in the Scotland U20 XV

Melissa Wilson (CW 2009–2011), elite athlete, along with Hannah Mills, brought together Olympic and Paralympic athletes from over 40 different countries in a video to World Leaders for COP26 encouraging them to race like athletes, adopting ambitious action in the face of climate change. Melissa also came in to Fettes in March to talk to the Third Form as a keynote speaker to kick off their Project Week on Oceans.

Former Staff

The Revd Dr David Weekes (Staff 1974–1994) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and published another book, John Buchan’s Faith Experience in His Life.

Mark Peel (Staff 1983–2007) has been shortlisted for the Sports Book Awards for his biography of Douglas Jardine, Never Surrender. The synopsis is noted below: “Never Surrender: The Life of Douglas Jardine is the enthralling story of England’s most controversial cricket captain, forever associated with bodyline bowling on MCC’s tour to Australia in 1932/33. Despite his privileged upbringing and amateur status, Jardine’s steely personality and win-at-all-costs ethos was more akin to the professional game. Confronted with the run-making genius of Australia’s Don Bradman in 1932/33, Jardine resorted to a form of intimidatory bowling that helped England regain the Ashes, but his tactics shocked Australia and brought relations between the two countries to the point of collapse. To restore harmony, Jardine was disowned by the MCC cricket establishment and shunned thereafter, but now – in a more modern, competitive age – his reputation has undergone a rehabilitation, not least in Australia. Drawing on fresh material, awardwinning cricket author Mark Peel reappraises an outstanding leader whose care for those he valued knew no bounds.” Mark Peel’s Sports Book Award shortlisted biography of Douglas Jardine, Never Surrender.

Mark Peel’s Sports Book Award shortlisted biography of Douglas Jardine, Never Surrender.

We always love to hear about your news, achievements and memories from your time at Fettes.

Please share these with us throughout the year on the Fettes Community Portal feed (fettescommunity.org/feed) or by emailing ofa@fettes.com.

To keep up to date with the news from your fellow OFs, visit the Fettes Community Portal (www.fettescommunity.org) or follow us on Twitter @OldFettesians and @fettescommunity.

This October we will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of Carrington House. We have planned to mark the occasion with an event on Sunday 2nd October which all Carringtonians are welcome to. To further celebrate this occasion, we would love to hear your memories and highlights from your time in Carrington. Please email your stories or photos to ofa@fettes.com.