ZIPSER special edition The History of Scamp Club
the first ten years March 2019
The first ten Presidents: Curtis Crowley. Rose Blackman. Hazel Webb. Ibrahim Chughtai, Joe Smith, Iona Todd, Tom Edwards, Ben Barr, Tom McCarthy and Lucy Giles. Club Record: Tuesday 1 March 2016: 23 in attendance. Current Membership of the Club ( 2019 ): 55. The Early Years
Scamp Club was formed in 2010 and is named after the dog of its first President, Curtis Crowley. Initially a lunchtime Classical Greek club, increased appeal and membership caused the club to evolve into one of the School’s most esoteric weekly gatherings, the one true rival to the prestigious Byron Society. Although not as old in foundation as the latter (1998 ), nor as esoteric in its creation as the Cactus Club ( 2003 and 2005 ), nevertheless Scamp Club has a pedigree of which to be proud.
Seen by many as the natural successor to the famous Lone Pine Club immortalised in the novels of Malcolm Saville, and bearing strong Swallows and Amazons tendencies, the club revelled in its sense of adventure, the opportunities provided to budding lecturers who pursued their passions and the wide range of topics presented. No week was the same. That first season included talks on the Spartan Scytale, codes in the plays of William Shakespeare, Kim Philby’s secret war, Sherlock Holmes and the tale of the Dancing Men, and a four-part lecture series on conspiracy theories. In July 2010 the Club undertook its first field trip, to Bletchley Park.
Over the past ten years the staple of the club has been its inspirational Tuesday talks, enhanced by annual visits to the School’s field study centre at Lovaton ( solving the “Mystery of the Man with the Hollow Leg” at Tavistock Pannier Market became a regular event ), plus film trips which have included the Imitation Game and Spectre. The manager of the Screen Cinema in Winchester has been warmly welcoming.
Bletchley Park has become very much our second home. Indeed, its CEO, Lt Colonel Ian Standen, has been interviewed by Scamp Club for the School magazine. Located in the town of Bletchley in Buckinghamshire, it is ninety minutes away from Southampton by road. During World War II, Bletchley Park was the site of the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment, the Government Code and Cypher School where ciphers and codes of several Axis countries were decrypted, most importantly the ciphers generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines. It also housed Station X, a secret radio intercept station. The high-level intelligence produced at Bletchley Park, codenamed Ultra, provided crucial assistance to the Allied war effort. It has been said that Ultra shortened the war "by no fewer than two years and probably by four years". The Government Code and Cypher School ( GC&CS ) moved to Bletchley Park on 15 August 1939. Some 9,000 people were working at Bletchley Park at the height of the code-breaking efforts in January 1945. Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to the Bletchley staff as "My geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled."
GCCS was renamed the "Government Communications Headquarters" in June 1946. GCHQ currently occupies the
“doughnut” site on the edge of Cheltenham. We have spent a number of absorbing days there. We remember fondly Joe Smith for winning the Alan Turing Challenge for cracking the code in 12 exciting minutes. Alex Chapman did remarkably well too in identifying John Cairncross as the member of the Ring of Five who worked at Bletchley during the war. 2012 to 2013 So the leadership of the Club moves on. From Curtis Crowley’s foundation in 2010, through the golden years of Rose Blackman’s inspired direction when the membership blossomed at 40, to our current head who has widened the range of our interests in an educationally broadening way. Hazel Webb has weaved an exciting blend of lectures, visits and explorations during 2012 and 2013.
Philippa White entertained us with her investigation on the development of computer games from space invaders to cold war warriors, Hazel herself along with Tabitha Sparks treated a rapt audience to their “storybook” involving the adventures of Mizte, Rose Blackman explored conspiracy theories and Louise McCann
presented a compelling case for the accurate decipherment of runic codes. David Veres and Curtis Crowley delved into problems set out in Linguistic Olympiad papers. Harry Hazelgrove returned to the Sherlock Holmes theme with a masterly treatment of the real Mycroft Holmes, brother of the esteemed detective and toiler in the shadows of the corridors of power at Westminster.
Our trips this year took the form of a return to Bletchley Park, a place much loved by members of the Club, and to the Science Museum in London. Special exhibitions on Alan Turing at both institutions inspired us to put together a small project on this mathematical genius. “Codebreaker� is an exhibition developed by the Science Museum to celebrate the centenary of the birth of this pioneering British figure. Alan Turing is most widely known for his critical involvement in the codebreaking at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. But Alan Turing was not just a codebreaker. This British mathematician was also a philosopher and computing pioneer who grappled with the fundamental problems of life itself. His ideas have helped shape the modern world, including early computer
programming and even the seeds of artificial intelligence. The exhibition told the story of Turing and his most important ideas. At Bletchley we were pleased to visit his office. Seeing one of the Enigma Machines, including the rare 'Abwehr G312', was undoubtedly another highlight of a busy day out. We even tried to discover the map to the genius mathematician's silver, supposedly buried in or near Bletchley Park, but the horn sounding on the coach ready to take us back to Southampton cut short our quest. For another time‌
The year was rounded off by Tom Edwards who gave a bravura performance in his lecture on aerodynamics. Much fun was had in designing the best flying object, identifiable or in some cases not! A good deal of planning went into our final event of the year: SCANDAL ’63: THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROFUMO AFFAIR 30 April until 15 September 2013, National Portrait Gallery, London, Room 32. In journalistic history, the case of Ivanov, Keeler, Profumo and Ward is very important. For the first time the British press did not hold back from reporting on a matter which potentially concerned national security and involved some leading public
figures. Lord Denning’s official report is a masterpiece of legal procedure. 2014 to 2017 Presidents Ibrahim Chughtai, Joe Smith, Iona Todd, Tom Edwards and Ben Barr not only increased membership of the club but also developed our profile at Open Evenings. Club membership came from all year groups and the move to the Dining Hall for Clubs and Societies on Open Evenings gave us the opportunity to expand and to be more daring. Few will forget the quizzes, re-enactments and presentations on those public evenings.
These years also saw our involvement in the CyberCenturion Challenge. Our greatest success was achieving the Bronze Medal in this national event in 2014. Fittingly, the final was held at Bletchley Park. In the following years we have not made it through to the finals, though our girls’ team missed out in 2017 by only ten points. Highlights of these years included: glorious, themed weekends at Lovaton – Hound of the Baskervilles, Silver Blaze and the “Greatest
Adventure� - Transdimentional Lizard People by Henry Marden, Thinking Outside the Box by Lucy Giles, Batpeople by Iona Todd, Star Wars by Seb Sheath and Vaughan Clements, X Files by Hamish Traill, Area 51 by Edward Sheppard, Mystery Mine by Lucy Giles again, Space by Harry Radford and Harry Stembridge and Time Travel by Cam Jesney. 2017 to 2018 Our annual venture to Dartmoor was stopped in 2018 by the heavy falls of snow which blanketed the UK in the early days of March. Instead Scamp Club members found the best armchair in their respective houses, put another log on the fire and settled to some serious study of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
A splendid range of students yet again graced CL3 over the course of these years to present lectures on topics both pet and universal. September was the month of the Cyber Security Challenge as teams were formed and practices undertaken in preparation for the three rounds which took place during the winter months. Ethan Celinski, Blake Margason, Tom McCarthy and Natalie Thompson led
our four teams admirably, with the Thompson team narrowly missing out on the finals in London. Blake Margason and Harry Radford gave us an entertaining talk on “Survival”, both in the wild and from nuclear attack. Lucy Giles timed her splendidly illustrated and rather cuddly lecture on “Paddington” perfectly to coincide with the cinema release of the second film in the series. Then in President Tom McCarthy wrapped matters up for the term with the annual quiz in which everyone was a winner.
“Unlikely Events and Coincidences” started the new year. This was the first lecture to the group by Jamie McManus. This was very well received, and Jamie would be back on the podium later in the year. In February Callum Jacob presented “Sorcerers”, a lively account that touched on the world of Harry Potter and the realm of magic generally. Then followed in March the gripping tale of “Smuggling in Rye”, a Pirates of the Caribbean romp through dastardly yet romantic escapades led by Colin McCann. Colin led the talk not the escapades.
The Summer Term of 2018 heralded the delights of Jamie McManus’ “Mysteries of the Pyramids”, a well planned and compelling presentation on Pharoahs, mazes and aliens, the thrilling “Inspirational People” by a returning Lucy Giles and Max Bouras’ glorious, prize-winning appraisal of the famous “Terracotta Warriors”. The academic year was rounded off by an animal tale, “Racoons”, by Jack Lovett and Ben Mundy. What intriguing creatures they turned out to be. The former not the latter.
Tom McCarthy guided the fortunes of Scamp Club with great style and energy. Not only did members readily come forward at Tom’s call to pass on their passions in a series of glorious, illustrated lectures but a great many of them made their debuts before an audience at the same time. Attendance each Tuesday filled the classroom. We thank all who come to support and to present, often on more than one occasion, talks on a breadth of topics.
2019 to 2020 Tom McCarthy and Lucy Giles have taken us forward towards the next decade. Great Detectives, Unsolved Mysteries, Military Aviation, JK Rowling (a digniora winner from Max Bouras ), The Crimes of Grindelwald, Fans, Flags and Fashion, plus Jamie McManus’ Aliens to believe or not to believe, have been performed in CL3 this year. The club also teamed up with The Union on 11 December to explore the Mystery of the Empty Tomb.
The field trip for Spring 2019 is a further return to Bletchley. This History has been compiled from the Log Book of the Club and from the impressive memories of members. Pictures from club talks over the years are scattered throughout‌