Kingswood Association News 2015

Hello and Welcome...

To the latest packed edition of your Association magazine

We hope you will approve of the modest re-vamp of the look and layout of the magazine - comments welcome!

The new all-photographic front cover includes a picture of the 1994 leavers’ 20 year reunion, which took place at the School last summer. Anyone wanting to organise a year group (or sports team or whatever!) gathering will find all the support they need is available to them in the shape of the Association Office. As well as that, Angela or Michele - or often John Lewis - will be there, camera in hand, to record the event. Thank you to them for the large choice of photos that are available every year for publication in this magazine. Thanks also to Julian Lindsay (1969-75) who couldn’t stop himself from pausing on the way into Bath and taking the black and white shot of the stone stile on the Upper. How many pupils have climbed over that across the years to access the playing fields?

Thanks are also due to all our contributors who send in newsworthy material, write reports on events and sometimes contribute controversial letters to the Editor. John Lewis (again!) keeps a steady flow of news pieces

coming into the office. Jo Raisbeck (1992-99) continues to be instrumental in gathering the information that becomes ‘Family News’ (Page 29) and Tim Lindsay, when requested, can produce 500-1000 amusing and illuminating words with astonishing speed. All this information is carefully curated by the Association Office before making its way to the Editor and into the latest edition of your magazine. The final component is the patience and creative work of Sam Dabbs-Cotton at Studio 74 who brings together the design and layout elementanother big ‘thank you’!

Finally, thanks are due, of course, to our School which supports and contributes to all these efforts. The Association aims to provide an informative, welcoming and supportive community for former pupils and it is wonderful that the Headmaster and Governors fully understand and encourage this endeavour. We hope you will feel that Kingswood Association News plays a part in this work.

Keep in touch!

The Editorial Team

The Kingswood Association, Kingswood School, Lansdown, Bath BA1 5RG T. 01225 734283 (School) | F. 01225 734205 | E. association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

www.kingswood.bath.sch.uk/senior/index.php/old-kingswoodians

PRESIDENT: Tim Lindsay CHAIRMAN: Nick Turner

JAPAN: Chris Dixon (1975-84)

E. dixonyan@gol.com

2-13-3 Matsugaoka, Tokorozawa-shi

Saitama-ken, 359-1132, Japan

KENYA: Louise (Lulu) Keeble (1999-2001)

E. kenyachef@gmail.com

AUSTRALIA: Mark McConnell (1985-89)

E. mark@mima.com.au

9 Raleigh Crescent, St Ives, New South Wales, 2075 Australia

CANADA (W): John P Romeril (1945-49)

E. romeriljma@shaw.ca

9957 Swiftsure Place, Sidney

B.C. V8L 4E3 Canada

FRANCE (N): Bob Kirtley (1954-61)

T. +33 (0)2 47 95 87 30

2 Chemin de la Poissonniere, Cinais

CHINON 37500, France

HONG KONG: Anna Lam (1994-99)

E. anna@flm.com.hk

T. +852 9844 9405

ITALY: Mary Campbell-Bianchini (1975-77)

E. maryhamcam3@gmail.com

Via Zoppega 22, 37032 Monteforte D’Alpone, Italy

PO Box 24296, Nairobi, Kenya

PAKISTAN: Tony Hurt (1971-79)

E. jpahurt@gmail.com | T. 512 539-0394 (US no)

Karachi American School, KDA Scheme #1

Amir Khusro Road, Karachi, Pakistan 75350

SLOVAKIA: John H Baron (1959-62)

E. johnbaron@nextra.sk | Skype. johnbaron1

T. / F. +421 2 55566741 | M. +421 905 986758

Krizna 26, 811 07 Bratislava

Slovak, Republic Slovakia

UGANDA: Paul Okello Aliker (1982-84)

E. poaliker@yahoo.com

PO Box 4299, 14 Bukoto Street, Kampala, Uganda

UNITED STATES: Colin Mably (1954-60)

E. cmably@aol.com | M. 301 404 8718

T. 301 934 2374 | F. 301 934 0580

10369 Andrea Lane, La Plata

MARYLAND 20646 United States

From the President

I think it’s traditional for your President to try and give you a brief but hopefully not unamusing review of the Association’s year at this point. And we have had an active and successful 12 months since we last communicated by way of this excellent magazine.

We’ve had four well attended and wonderfully catered ‘MJSDs’; various regional lunches, including an idyllic day at Clare College Cambridge in the summer; a President’s event in London, a 23-33s drinks event hosted by the Headmaster in London; and, of course, a very enjoyable and popular Association Day, where a re-booted Old Boys’ Rugby team, brought back into being by Executive Committee member Chester Lewis and his old team mate Rhys Redman (with some willing financial assistance from the Association and great support from the School) thrashed the old boys of an ancient enemy on the Upper – after, it has to be said, a little judicious redistribution of talent when the other side turned up short of players.

But never mind all that. I’d actually like to use this space for something else. Which is to ask you, old Kingswoodians, what kind of Association you would like? It is, after all, yours.

Let me give you some context. The Association exists to promote ‘friendship, fellowship and fun’ amongst Kingswood’s old boys and girls; to support the school and the board of governors; to liaise

and work with other school-related organisations, like the parent group, Friends of Kingswood; to disseminate relevant news and views on the website and in the magazine; to mark and mourn the passing of old boys and girls; to husband bequests and to support school projects with money where and when we can.

The KA Executive Committee is the main discussion body and decision maker. But the Association gets significant support from the school, both financially and in terms of management expertise and input from the Development Office. Not to mention generous use of the school’s spaces, catering and other amenities and facilities. The Association is in a pretty good place – largely (sparing their blushes) through the energy, vision and good offices of past Chairman Jeremy Wimpress and Presidents, Sarah BeresfordSmith and Robert Sandry. Jeremy, Sarah and Robert brought enormous drive and determination to the cause. Many of the good things that have happened over the last few years wouldn’t have, without them. Indeed, as an example, the magazine you’re reading this in was put together almost single-handedly by JW.

But could the Association serve us all, as Old Kingswoodians, better still? And if so, how? I’m writing in mid-January, and by the time you read this we will have had a full discussion of alumni organisation best practice in the Executive Committee; and adopted a plan to take the Association on to the next stage.

We will have discussed funding models, structures and governance, asking ourselves whether a modern alumni organization needs professional management in order to succeed.

We will have asked ourselves what we want the Association to deliver in terms of events, services and other ‘products’.

Do we want, for instance, to take Chester and Rhys’ inspirational example and develop a full range of alumni teams, perhaps even regionally?

Do we want to improve the ability of our digital platforms to link-up old school friends and different alumni generations?

Do we want to take advantage of the kindness and experience of generations of successful Old Kingswoodians and provide a mentoring and advice service for sixth formers and old boys and girls embarking on their careers?

Do we want, in short, an active, vibrant Kingswood-based alumni community that involves and serves all Old Kingswoodian generations, from the time they leave the school to the time they consider what to leave the school?

The Association is in a pretty good place – largely (sparing their blushes) through the energy, vision and good offices of past Chairman Jeremy Wimpress and Presidents, Sarah Beresford-Smith and Robert Sandry.

It’s very much up to you. And here’s how you can contribute.

Write and tell us what you think. All views will be gratefully received and considered.

Stand for election to the Executive Committee at the AGM next September. Without in any way denigrating the existing Committee members, who are generous with their time and energy, we’d love to welcome some younger members; and in particular MORE WOMEN please.

More than that, come to the events themselves and bring your friends. You’ll be amazed how evocative a return visit can be.

I now need to say ‘thank you’ to some people.

Many thanks to Nick Turner, who selflessly filled a chairman-shaped hole in the organisation with zest and great good humour.

And to the rest of the Executive Committee, for their time, wit and wisdom.

‘Thanks to the indefatigable Angela Dudley-Warde, the KS Development Director who, out of her generosity and enthusiasm, gives more time than the Headmaster would ideally like to the Association.

And to Michele Greene, who does most of the actual work and makes the rest of us look vaguely, but undeservedly, competent.

Thanks once again to Jeremy Wimpress for his thoughtfulness, support and hard work.

A thousand thanks to Sharon Traylor and the Catering Department for rising to every challenge and providing meals that are off-the-scale delicious - and that’s without even comparing them to 40 years ago.

And many thanks to Simon Morris for his good humour, support and goodwill towards the Association and for his willingness to travel long distances for the cause.

We hope to see you at an event soon.

Tim Lindsay (1969-74) President, The Kingswood Association

DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE?

We have lost touch with many of this generation and would like to be able to invite all of them to this special occasion. If you know the whereabouts of any of the names below, we would be very grateful if you could help us get in contact with them.

if you have any information that may help, please would you contact Wendy (association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk ) or call 01225 734330.

Thank you

CLASS

oF ’63

Julian H Allen

Andrew Armitage

Hugh S Baker

John W Chamberlayne

Wing T Cheong

Robert J Hughes

Michael B Jordan

Michael Raffael

John M G Smith

Timothy L Smith

Kajonsukdi

Watanangura

Anthony P Welch

Michael S Wright

CLASS oF ’64

Timothy J Archer

John W Douglas

Rufus A Fawehinmi

Kenneth J Johnson

Ian S Lawrence

Robert G Meadley

John A Merriman

Peter I Moody

Roy W Moss

Michael P C Roberts

Michael R Sleep

James W Snell

Michael K Ward

Richard J R Watts

CLASS oF ’65

Roger D Axford

Graham P Burton

David R Davies

Roger M Gosling

Paul Hugman

John B Jackson

John C Kissack

Geoffrey R D Lewis

Andrew S Mitchell

Robert P Mole

Jonathan P Morley

Jeremy P Norfolk

William J Paddon

David A G Piper

Timothy Rayner

John S Taylor

Nigel A Walder

David Walton

John M T Watkins

Robin C Wilson

CLASS oF ’66

Roger M Brown

Edwin K L Cheng

John H Ford

Mark Hancock

Douglas M Harvey

John R Jackson

Ka Kon Kwan

Brian G Lannigan

Nicholas E J Mason

Anthony W Mok

Peter S Moore

John K Parsons

Alan C Scott

Anthony C Standley

Robin M S Stoby

Richard Upright

Kingswood school are organising a 50th Anniversary Reunion for Old Kingswoodians from the classes of 1963, 1964, 1965 & 1966.

Dear Old Kingswoodians

It is with great pleasure that I accept your Editor’s kind invitation to write a few words for this quite excellent edition of KAN.

What a fine reflection it is of the Association; lively, informative and accessible, it tells the story of a thriving Association which is achieving a great deal for its members, whilst openly seeking guidance on how it might best shape its future. Like Association, like School!

I much enjoy the opportunities your President offers me to update members of the Association on the School’s current activities at events both in the UK and abroad. Recently I have focused on ‘the first seven years’, a reflection on how the School has sought to develop since I first became involved in this very special place in 2008. We have grown in terms of pupil numbers to respond to the considerable interest in the School both within Bath and further afield, and most encouragingly this has included a growing interest in boarding, such an important aspect both of our history and of the ethos of the School in the current century. Academic results have improved significantly – most importantly, we are recognised as a school which adds outstanding all-round value to individual pupils. Sport has received a special focus and sees both boys and girls achieving great team and individual successes on an increasingly challenging circuit; this has been achieved whilst maintaining excellence in our traditional strengths such as music and drama. Strong links are being developed with local state schools, links with overseas schools have been strengthened and widened, and more broadly we have sought ways to be more closely involved in our local community and to widen access to the School.

In January 2015 we were visited by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, who concluded as follows:

‘Kingswood is a highly successful school which achieves excellence in all aspects of its provision. It meets its principal aims which relate to producing a happy, caring and disciplined environment in which pupils can realise their academic potential and learn the value of living in a community. This is because standards of pastoral care and pupils’ achievements are excellent. The high quality care is built upon excellent relationships between pupils and staff and helps the School ‘to foster healthy personal relations and to create a positive, caring and supportive community’, one of its aims. Pupils respond to this by developing a strong sense of moral purpose, a respect for the belief of others, and a willingness to help those less fortunate than themselves.’

Such a summary was both welcome and reassuring, capturing in inspection language the essence of the School and, pleasingly, supported by the following equally pertinent statement:

‘The spiritual development of the pupils is excellent. They have a keen awareness of their spiritual lives and appreciate the regular assemblies, which are wide-ranging but firmly rooted in the School’s Christian ethos.’

One of the facets of a Kingswood education which was praised by inspectors and which sits right at the centre of our educational ethos is our desire to open minds, to encourage creative thinking and problem solving, and to stimulate debate. We believe such

qualities will not only serve our pupils well in their professional lives beyond school, but will also enable them to make a real difference in wider aspects of their lives. These are also qualities we value in those whose advice we seek on future developments and it is worth noting that the current Chair of Governors and the Chairman of the Finance and Estates Committee are both former pupils.

It has been an immense privilege to share in some important commemorative events this past year, not least the splendid service at Uppingham School which marked the 75th anniversary of Kingswood’s exile there in 1939. It was also particularly poignant to be at St George’s Church in Ypres, where a plaque donated by the Kingswood Association was dedicated to members of the School who lost their lives in World War 1. Such events are important for schools; young people benefit hugely from an understanding of their roots and this can have a profound impact on them as they look towards their lives beyond school.

Some nine years ago, encouraged by my former boss and mentor, Chris Tongue (OK), I tentatively put forward my name for consideration to become the next Headmaster of Kingswood. I was well briefed on the unique nature of the School, but even so have been astonished in the intervening years to discover such depth to the Kingswood ethos. When Chris died tragically in September, I was privileged to be invited to give a eulogy at his memorial service, and in so doing I was never far from considering what a profound impact his own schooling at Kingswood under A B Sackett had had on his life. This personal connection to Old Kingswoodians is hugely significant to me and reminds me of my responsibility to serve our current students in a way which encourages them to frame their own ambitions in the context of their values and specifically the values of a humane, tolerant and open-minded society.

As we take the School forward, I shall continue to seek ever stronger relationships with the members of your Association and I thank you all for your continued support of our wonderful School.

With my very best wishes

Simon Morris

2014 LEAVERS

LEAVERs’ DEsTINATIONs 2014

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

Jessica Adetu Gap Year

Maxwell Aiken Economics & Psychology University of st Andrews

Harry Alcott Gap Year

Daniel Banan Gap Year

Zachary Barber English

University of Bristol

Alexander Biggs Philosophy & Theology University of Edinburgh

Alistair Blackburn Politics & International Relations

University of southampton

Robert Blackburn Mechanical Engineering University of Portsmouth

Matthew Bolland Class. Civilisation & the Hist. & Philosophy of sci. University of Leeds

Anna Bools Physics with Australian study

Emily Bristow Gap Year

James Brock Gap Year

University of Exeter

Tristan Brown Business & Management Durham University

Thomas Butterfield Law with French Law University of Birmingham

Arabella Caddick International Equine & Ag. Management

Olivia Chan Architecture

Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

Oxford Brookes University

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

William Davies General Engineering

Meghan Duncan social science

Barnaby Eliot Gap Year

Christopher

Falconer Art & Design

Leonardo Fini Modern Language & Business Management

Josephine Fraser Management

Joshua Fry Television & Film set Design

Durham University

Cardiff University

University of Dundee

University of Manchester

University of Leeds

University of south Wales

Joshua Gammie Gap Year; Medical Engineering University of Leeds

sarina Ganapathy Gap Year; Dentistry

Isabelle Gardiner-smith History & Music

Newcastle University

Royal Holloway, Univ. of London

stanya Gardner Forensic science University of south Wales

Kieran Gibson Gap Year

seumas Grant Gap Year; Agriculture

Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

Rachel Greenslade History & French University of Chester

Matthew Griffiths History

University of Leeds

Chieh-Yu (Jerry)

Chou Computer science with Bus. Management

Poppy Clark Gap Year

Queen Mary, Univ. of London

Anna Connolly History, Literature & Culture of the Americas University of Warwick

Thomas Connolly Art Foundation

Evangeline Cronchey Gap Year

John Crowther Gap Year

Ringo Dai Accounting & Finance Cardiff University

Georgia Grinter Art Foundation

Jenner

Gudge-Brooke Gap Year

Prabhat Gurung Business Information systems

saugat Gurung Biological sciences

Nicholas Haller Gap Year

Thomas Hardman Gap Year

George Harper Film & Literature

Cardiff University

swansea University

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

Robert Harris Gap Year; Media Production Coventry University

Angus Hawking Gap Year

samuel Haysom Biochemistry

Natasha Hemmings English

University of York

University of Exeter

Oliver Hill Business Management University of Birmingham

Pui Yu (Peonie) Ho Aerospace Engineering

Jennifer Holden Mathematics

sean Ingham Gap Year

Jessica Jeffery Gap Year; Management with IT

Alexander Johnson Gap Year

Alexander (sasha)

Kryukov Gap Year

Lara Lawman History & History of Art

Antonia Leckie Gap Year; Biology

Joel Lees-Massey Gap Year

Emma Lewis Journalism, Media & Cultural studies

Cecilia Mabey Gap Year

Orion Mathews Gap Year

Barnaby Matthews History

Amelia Maughan Competitive sport

Benjamin Mayall sport & Exercise science

Connor McAlpine sport & Exercise science

Queen Mary, Univ. of London

Cardiff University

University of Reading

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

Charles Ofili Engineering (Electronic & Electrical) UCL, Univ. of London

Orla O’sullivan Business Management University of Edinburgh

Benjamin Papuca sport Management Loughborough University

Adam Parker Real Estate Management Oxford Brookes University

Charles Pope Physics & Philosophy Oxford University

Hannah Potter Law with European study University of Exeter

Emily Priest Gap Year

Lian Randle Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology, UsA

Ursula Rifat Law

Jonathan Roberts Gap Year

Cardiff University

sophie Roberts Gap Year; History & spanish University of Leeds

Alexander Robinson Gap Year

University of Edinburgh

University of Nottingham

Cardiff University

University of Leeds

Loughborough University

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Aoife McCarthy Gap Year; Modern Languages UCL, Univ. of London

Georgia McKibbin Gap Year

James Mercer Vocational Training

Harry Merrill Gap Year

William Metcalf Political science

Hoi Ching (Nickel)

Mok Economics

Annabel Moss Dental surgery

Oliver Norman Gap Year

Pearson May Chartered Accountants

University of Birmingham

Durham University

Plymouth University

Oliver Robley Gap Year

Jennifer Robson Gap Year; Business & Management

Timothy Rouse Philosophy

Oscar Ryan Gap Year

University of Reading

Cardiff University

Hugh schofield Mathematics Durham University

Matthew scott Gap Year

Emily seagrove Art Foundation

Charlie seymour Computer science

University of Cambridge

Alec shute Mathematics Imperial College, Univ. of London

Luke stockley Natural sciences

Durham University

Chak Heng (Andrew) Tang Accountancy & Finance University of Hong Kong

Eleanor Tullberg Gap Year

Harry Waring Medicine Cardiff University

Danielle Whealy Biological sciences

Jacob Whitehead Criminology & Forensic studies

Charlotte Williams Zoology

King (Jackie) Wong Forensic science

Elizabeth Wootten Gap Year

POsT A LEVEL APPLICANTs

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

Angus Batterham Medicine University of Leicester

Daisy Bendrey Architecture University for the Creative Arts

William Blackmore International Business Management Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester

Charles Caddick surveying London south Bank University

Elise Gauntlett Business & Management Bath spa University

William Goodwin Natural sciences University of Cambridge

sally Hargrave Modern European Languages & History Durham University

Alexandra Hill Psychology / sociology Oxford Brookes University

Harry Penrhyn-Jones English Literature / Film & Television studies University of Glasgow

Hannah Lemoine Fashion Buying & Merchandising Manchester Metropolitan University

Oxford University

University of Portsmouth

University of Nottingham

University of Central Lancashire

LEAVER COURSE INSTITUTION

Jasmin

Lindsay-Rusher Interior Design University of the Arts, London

Rose Llewellyn Business & Retail Management University of surrey

Callum Lloyd-James Digital Media Arts University of surrey

Monika Mangarova Economics with International Relations Plymouth University

Alexander Papuca Business Enterprise Development University of Portsmouth

Jessica Portman International Fashion Promotion Manchester Metropolitan University

Kriti Rana English Coventry University

Alexander simons Economics Royal Holloway, Univ. of London

Jamie Williams Mechanical Engineering swansea University

From the Chairman

It’s been another busy year for the Association with some very enjoyable events and many opportunities for us to share in ‘friendship, fellowship and fun’.

I thought I would just give you a quick reminder of our activities since the last AGM.

Another successful lunch in Exeter last September, kindly organised again by Colin Lomax.

A new event in November for the younger generation of Old Kingswoodians. The Headmaster met with a group of ’2333’ year olds in London to catch up with them, post gap year, University and many into their first jobs.

In April another edition of our magazine, Kingswood Association News, was published thanks to the dedication and hard work of Jeremy Wimpress. We are delighted that Jeremy has been persuaded to remain as Editor of KAN for another year and extremely grateful to him for his key role on the Executive.

A lunch in Cambridge in March, saw 30 members enjoying a very sunny day at Clare College. A very interesting and lively discussion took place after the meal with the Headmaster happily fielding many questions on the style of education and life at Kingswood today.

In May, the South West lunch in the Pavilion was another enjoyable occasion and one of great celebration as we heard news of the School’s achievements in the Rosslyn Park Rugby Sevens.

Another new event in London with the President’s Summer lunch taking place at the Lansdowne Club in June when Tim Lindsay gave some very interesting ‘reflections’ on his time here!

And of course, not forgetting the ever popular MJSD suppers which were well supported throughout the year. I would strongly encourage any of you who have not yet made it (for what is a superb two course ‘Kingswood Catering’ meal on a Friday evening, in the Dining Hall) to please come and join us.

Theatre Seating

Away from events, the Association has provided a plaque for the Chapel in St. George’s Church, Ypres to remember the Kingswood Fallen of WWI. This was unveiled by the Headmaster during his visit with the Year 9 pupils to the Battlefields in July.

The Association has also been the major donor to the Kingswood Theatre Seating project and this will be recognised later this term with named seats in the auditorium and an engraved plaque in the foyer. .

During the summer term many of our Association members were contacted through the 2014 Telethon Campaign and I understand from Angela Dudley-Warde, the Marketing & Development Director, that individual Association members have pledged over £80,000 to support the John Wesley Bursary Fund during the next 3 years.

All of these activities run smoothly thanks to the continued help and support of the team in the Association Office and I am sure you would all wish me to thank Angela Dudley-Warde, Senara Derrick and Michele Greene for all they continue to do on our behalf.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest in the Association – long may this continue.

Nick Turner (1976-81)

Kingswood Association Chairman

(Report given at the AGM on Association Day, September 2014)

PLEAsE NOTE

Association Day 2015

will be held on

Saturday 5th September 2015

The Association has also been the major donor to the Kingswood

project...

Kingswood Visitors

We are always delighted to welcome back old Kingswoodians.

“Great to be back!”

Rachel Wong (2010-2012)visited on 22 May 2014

“A lot of great memories here. Thanks!” Keith Leung (2001-08) - visited on 12 June 2014

Michael Pearce (1973-83)visited on 17 June 2014

“A lot of good memories. Good to see the school is still going strong. Thanks.” Mark Morgan (1976-83) - visited on 8 May 2014

“Good to have a look around.” Lydia (2001-09) and Tom Honey (1999-2006) - visited on 28 April 2014

“Lovely to see the school after 11 years away.” Tim Johns (1996-2003) - visited on 19 March 2014

Sir David Wilson (1941-50)visited on 27th February 2014

Jane Tranter (1979-81) with family - visited on 12 March 2014

“Great

15 August 2014

“Cannot express my feelings in words!! Just too good.” Dinesh (Jim) Singapuri (1971-74) with Mike Gratton (1965-73) Simon Llewellyn (1972-74) - visited on 4 September 2014

“Really nice to be back, good memories.” Michael

- visited on 15 July 2014

In his old study

“Back after 36 years - a bucketful of memories. Gratifying to see School is flourishing. Thank you to all the lovely staff.” Nigel Shaddick (1973-78)visited on 18 September 2014

“Very good to see around after an interval of 47 years.” Donald Taylor (1961-67) - visited on 10 Sept 2014

“Thank you for the tour. So much has changed for the better.”

Paul

visited on 10 November 2014

John Coggan (Staff 1966-89) - visited on 14 July 2014

Riley (2002-08)

to be back.” Michael Soane (1959-61) - visited on 4 July 2014

David Bott (1951-58)visited on

Nini Yu (1993-1998) - visited on 28 October 2014

Andrew Clarke (1972-80)visited on 10 November 2014

Mayuko Otomo (2008-10) with Craig Woodgate - visited on 24 September 2014

Roebuck (1949-57)

Cambridge did us proud, as Cambridge so often does; a bright spring day, a mass of daffodils and winter aconites on The Backs, Clare College positively radiating centuries of style.

We foregathered in the Old Combination Room to mingle, and to drain a glass of bubbly whose vintage might well have reflected that of those foregathered; the twenty years from 1949 to 1969 were represented by twenty two leavers with nothing better to do on a Saturday lunchtime, whereas the forty five years from 1969 to 2014 yielded only four souls. Smart name tabs were attached to lapels, resulting in a general geriatric myopia as we tried to match the fading memory of the boy in shorts with the solid, balding reality before us.

Across the Court we ambled, chatting amiably, towards our waiting tables and an unexpected Latin Grace, this at the behest of the Lady Clare who founded the college a while back - every meal must be preceded by one such, or all her money goes to Caius. Fortunately, we Methodists can put up with any amount of such knavish Popery in the sure and certain knowledge of a decent meal to follow.

Barbecue Pork Fillet, Glazed Pork Belly with honey and Grain Mustard, Potato and Red Onion Compression, Carrot Purèe, Glazed Apples and Cider Jus were laid reverently before us, and after the first unctuously porky mouthful, many of those gathered together sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the god of their choice for making them not Jewish but Methodish.

Pudding came and went, as puddings are wont to do, to a general murmur of consensus that it was all far too good for undergraduates, and the meeting moved to the main business of the day.

It should be placed on record that the Head’s speech managed to combine a thoroughly commendable brevity with an impressive welter of facts, astonishing figures and dramatic descriptions of the old place and some of the new bits; the resolve to revisit was strong.

But the sun was sinking slowly in the West, as was the congregation; we lurched out into the late afternoon, clutching our woolly wyverns, and promised to do it all again next year.

Roger May (KS 1958-62)

I was delighted to receive an invitation to the 23-33 event this year, especially as I hadn’t been able to make it for the first one in November 2013 when I was invited by my old friend Alex CP’s Mum.

It was a wonderful evening catching up with so many of my old friends and classmates from the Leavers of 2006. We do keep in touch with each other through Facebook and all the usual social media, but there is nothing quite like meeting up in person. The bonus was having this reunion in London where so many of us now live and work and this event was particularly special for me as it was hosted by my longtime classmate from Kingswood Prep SchoolSophie Graham-Wood (1992-2006) at her wonderful family owned restaurant Café Du Marché in Smithfield.

There was a fantastic turn out, great fun to share a cheeky glass or two with some of our special teachers, notably Miss Wright and the legend of the Dixon, Sandy Burgon to name but two. It also gave us a chance to meet the Headmaster, Simon Morris, who was really welcoming and who I very much enjoyed meeting. It was a lovely evening and I look forward to catching up with many more of our era at the next reunion.

Joanna Murphy (1994-2006)

Roger & Susan May with Angela Dudley-Warde Caroline Morris & Tim Lindsay

Headmaster & Jo Murphy

The legendary Sandy Burgon

Debbie Jenner and the girls

A busy dining hall for the first MJSD of 2014 with the added attraction of guest speaker Richard Mainwaring, KS Head of Music. After a splendid meal and the usual hubbub of conversation and laughter Richard took to the dining hall stage. With the help of a big TV screen he talked us through his ‘other life’ as an occasional contributor and presenter on TV, notably ‘The One Show’ on BBC. Included in his most entertaining talk was the challenge, at short notice, of providing 14 Kingswood pianists to play Beethoven’s 14th Piano Sonata live on the programme. Mr Mainwaring and Kingswood of course delivered on the challenge.

Subsequently it was announced that Richard was leaving Kingswood having been on the staff for more than a decade. He intends to pursue the television work and we wish him all the very best with that aim.

The June gathering for MJSD was slightly smaller in number than in previous years (a number of ‘regulars’ were otherwise engaged at Glastonbury Festival), but nonetheless a very enjoyable occasion in the Pavilion. It was a good opportunity to pull all the tables together in the middle of the room and enjoy everyone’s company in a true ‘fellowship and fun’ way. During the evening the Development Director, Angela Dudley-Warde, also made a very special announcement about the appointment of the new Chairman of Governors which had been confirmed earlier that day; everyone was delighted to congratulate Tim Westbrook and especially pleased to be able to celebrate the news with him during the evening.

Another memorable evening of festivity with friends old and new at the MJSD ‘Christmas’ supper on Friday 5th December, when 47 guests enjoyed a delicious buffet supper and a Christmasthemed quiz. Special thanks to KS parents Jill and David Tuffrey for putting together such challenging and amusing questions. It was very fitting that an organisation that truly brings people together, was able to facilitate the surprise bringing together of father and son, Robin and Harry Dudley-Warde who had not seen each other for 2 years and who very much enjoyed and appreciated the spirit of reunion that the Association holds so dear. A most convivial evening for many members and their guests with everyone looking forward to returning to the School Dining Hall for the 2015 series of MJSD dinners. MJSD:

Jeremy Wimpress (1969-76)

Robin Lewis & Ray Lansley

Richard Mainwaring with Tim Lindsay

Sue Costeloe & Joyce Allison

Mary Ede & Barney Redman

John Lewis & Michele Green

A sunny day in mid May saw the annual South West Lunch in the splendid Sports Pavilion on the Upper at the school. Over 30 Old Kingswoodians, their guests, other members of The Association and members of staff gathered to sample the excellent Kingswood catering and meet up with old friends. Some seventy years divided the leaving years from the oldest to the youngest attendee!

On this occasion we were delighted to welcome the current Head Boy and Captain of the Rugby 1st XV (Jack

Crowther) as well as another leading light of the recent highly successful 1st XV, Oscar Ryan. Jack and Oscar took us through a presentation highlighting not only the success of the Autumn Term rugby fixtures (undefeated until the last match!) but also the excellent campaign in the annual Rosslyn Park Sevens Tournament where the school got through to the quarter finals, including beating the ultimate winners along the way. It was good to see the strength of sport within the school, not just in rugby but also across the full range of girls’ and boys’ sports.

Old Kingswoodians were also pleased to hear a report from the Headmaster, Mr Simon Morris, who briefly updated us on recent events and developments within the school, including a new Humanities teaching block and a soon to be finished new boarding house for Hall House. For some Old Kingswoodians the current size of the school may sound somewhat daunting but Mr Morris was keen to assure everyone that the school remains very loyal to its roots and that the culture that has been embedded in the school over the years remains fundamental to its whole way of life.

“Safely back in Bath” Dick Trafford (1936–44) recalled was what he and his brother had written to their parents on returning to Kingswood after holidays; a recollection Dick shared with us in his vote of thanks to Colin Lomax (195663) for the excellent lunch Colin once again hosted for Association members at the Exeter Golf & Country Club.

The 22 of us gathered for the event were also, in a sense, “safely back in Bath” as Robert Sandry (1956–65, former President of the Association and now School Governor) took us through an encouraging record of recent achievements and developments taking place at the School. The very positive sporting and academic results which Robert presented left us in no doubt that Kingswood is, indeed, a very “safe” place to be.

Dick also recounted a completely chance encounter in Hong Kong in 1949 with John Stanfield (1931-39) who, as the Senior British Army Officer in China, had signed the Official Surrender Document on behalf of the British Army in Peking in 1945. Nearer to home, round the lunch table, there were also chance coincidences. I found myself next to John Cox (1949-59) and we discovered our fathers both preached at the same time and in the same (Bournemouth) circuit in the 1940s. ‘Nick’ Saunders (1944-52) sat next to Dawn Cutland (Colin’s guest); it turned out that Dawn’s late

husband (Martin Cutland 1944–50) was a contemporary of Nick’s at Kingswood and that Nick and Dawn now live within a stone’s throw of each other. So as well as reconnecting with Bath, these events provide wonderful surprise opportunities to connect with Old Kingswoodians. “Connections@ Kingswood” live!

What is never a surprise, though, are the values of a Kingswood education continuing in a modern and changing world - witness among other things, the continued success of the Association Development Fund and the 1748 Bursaries and, in Bath, a rewarding academic and social exchange with Oldfield School.

Seven years on from the first Exeter lunch numbers were up, average age down, with a good gender balance; Juliet Dines (née Saunders, 1977-79) and Louise Knightly (née Andrew, 1979-83) admirably embodied all these testimonies to a flourishing Association. Next year’s meeting is on October 16 – a date not to be missed for South West members.

Tony Deyes (1954–63)

Dick Trafford (1936-44), Charles (Nick) Saunders (1944-52) & Richard Guy (1947-55)

Colin & Rosemary Lomax Exeter Lunch Hosts

Robert Sandry (1956-65)

On Thursday June 5th last year some 35 Old Kingswoodians and friends of the school gathered at the elegant Lansdowne Club for lunch. The Club, which was founded in 1935 with the then thoroughly modern notion of admitting female as well as gentlemen members, is a stone’s throw from Berkeley Square and is famed for both its Art Deco interior and, as we were to discover, its food. Very cheeringly there was a splendid spread of ages and eras, with 20-somethings through to 70-somethings mixing, reminiscing and telling stories.

Now for some reason this event is called the President’s Lunch. As usual I had nothing whatsoever to do with organising it (see below) but was asked to make a speech. I happily remembered some highlights from my time at Kingwood, starting at the end of the 60’s and ending in 1974. And it was particularly pleasing to see my ex-brother-inlaw Gary Turnbull and a several of his good friends turn up, reasonably en masse. These events are always vastly enlivened when a ‘friendship group’, as I believe they are called in the current jargon, organise to come together.

The Headmaster gave us a succinct and interesting state-of-the-school speech. I think a lot of us sat there wondering how the school’s sport (amongst many other aspects of school life) has undergone such a transformation. With some honourable exceptions (hockey, cross-country) our team sports performances were...er...patchy back in the day.

Although lunch is more or less outlawed in the modern business environment (and believe me this old adman can vividly remember when it wasn’t...) no one seemed particularly keen to bring proceedings to an end. So we had the happy sight of groups of old friends sharing a glass or two and chatting on into the afternoon. Very nice.

I mentioned that I never have to organise these events. That’s because the inestimable Angela and the indefatigable Michele do everything, gawd bless ‘em. Thanks both. Already looking forward to this year.

Tim Lindsay, President

Whilst in Russia, it was very good to catch up with Peter de Groot (1978-80) for dinner who was delighted to add Association cufflinks to his collection of KS merchandise. They went very well with his tie presented by the Headmaster in 2013.

Peter also enjoyed meeting two of the current parents during the evening who were very interested in hearing about his time at Kingswood. His excellent rapport with the younger daughter of Mr & Mrs Ovchinnikov (son Vladmir, Year 8) was a very positive contribution to the dinner whilst we chatted about their son’s progress!

A Fair Distance from Kenya!

When our Marketing Director, Angela Dudley-Warde asked me to accompany her on her next trip to Hong Kong, it only took me a second to whip out my diary and check that I would be free. A destination I have for many years wanted to travel to and certainly not one of my usual travel paths which largely takes me home to Kenya twice a year. What an amazing opportunity! To visit a new country, to be able to help in promoting Kingswood to many new families, but more importantly to catch up with so many of ‘my Middle boys’ –delightful young men who I had the pleasure and privilege of looking after during my time as a Senior Housemaster.

We were first met by Jacky Tsang (1996-2001) at our hotel and over the following few days, I was royally hosted by Keith Leung (2001-2008) and Jason Hui (1998-2005). It was good to catch up with many other former Kingswood students including Wilson Lee (1992-1999), Jack Yeung (1990-1999, Head of Upper), Albert Lam (1991-1999), Anna Lam (1994-1999), April Kwok (2010-2011), Bonnie Chan (1991-1998) and Francis Tang (1994-1998). One of the real highlights was a visit to Toby Chow’s (1997-2002) world famous restaurant which was a fantastic experience. The hospitality of Johnny and Laura Tsang (Jacky’s parents) was remarkable and meant that our Kingswood Reception and the presentation to new parents went very smoothly - all held at the prestigious Hong Kong Football Club - a venue I particularly enjoyed visiting. During the

Reception it was very good to be able to update current parents on the progress their children were making, some who had only joined Kingswood a few weeks previously, but a special moment for me was to meet up with fellow squash player, Gordon Lee (1978-1982) who was ‘No.2’ in the School team when I was ‘No.1’ all those years ago! Our competitive streaks were fondly remembered.

My thanks to Mrs DW for inviting me to take part, but my sincere appreciation to the generous hospitality and care from so many very special people. To be greeted with such warmth and a feeling of great friendship was quite overwhelming and I very much look forward to another visit in the not too distant future when perhaps I can persuade Mrs O to come and join us too!

Once again, we were most grateful to Pakpoom Valliusta (1972-78) for hosting another splendid reunion event for us, this time at the Bangkok Polo Club. Our ‘oldest’ Thai student, Charoen Chinalai (1951-55) returned with his brother Charoon (1953-58) who attended for the first time. Charoen was also a great help to me at the recruitment event, meeting and talking with many prospective families who were fascinated by his tales of Kingswood from many years ago!

Pupils from the 1950s were joined by subsequent generations right up to ‘J’ Vinijtrongjit who left in 2005.

Angela Dudley-Warde Director of Marketing & Development

Gordon Opie (1976-81) Housemaster (1998-2009) and Kingswood Deputy Head (2009 to date)

HARRY’s TRAVEL REPORT: Thanks to the Gary Best Travel scholarship, I spent much of 2014 in India and Indonesia to donate my time to the Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH).

A small organisation suffering from frequent funding shortages and working out of modest premises in some of Asia’s poorest communities, FMCH has nonetheless made a significant and measurable impact on the lives of thousands of children. FMCH prevents and treats malnutrition, working with mothers to help their children reach their full developmental potential, both physically and intellectually.

I was in Mumbai from November to April, working for FMCH India. In India, an astonishing 43% of children under 6 are malnourished, and the country has the highest rate of babies dying on their first day of life.

a ‘Pregnancy Club’ curriculum, which gives local pregnant women vital ante-and-post-natal skills and knowledge they need to ensure their new babies develop safely and healthily. I helped with the long process of transferring our database on the children we serve from paper files to a new, much more efficient electronic system. I helped at various fundraising events, and I also wrote, shot and edited a promotional video that FMCH has used to raise a significant amount of money to continue its work. In general, I observed and made such contributions as I could to the immense work of FMCH’s permanent staff, both at the committee level and by the amazing local women on the frontline, led by Piya Mukherjee.

In May, I travelled to Jakarta to spend a couple of weeks making myself useful to FMCH’s original establishment in Indonesia: the Yayasan Balita Sehat - ‘foundation for healthy under-fives’ - founded in 2001 by British nurses Barbara Jayson and Rosie Penrhyn Jones, my mother. Facing different problems in Jakarta, their focus is somewhat broader. As well as working on malnutrition, FMCH Indonesia runs a small pre-school for children up to five and provides skills-training for women. With only two weeks to spend in the city, I couldn’t make quite so much of a personal impact there as I had done in Mumbai, but I was privileged to be close to the tremendous work of the local staff led by Ibu Febri Wardi. Seeing and reporting the success of the different strategies has proved useful for developing the strategies of each branch.

There is a significant gender-bias problem, with girls often being severely neglected. Illiteracy is common, and mothers often do not have education about how to care for the health of their young children even by such basic skills as breastfeeding. Visibly stunted and underweight, babies suffering from ‘SAM’, severe acute malnutrition, are at immediate risk of death from the next bout of infection. I helped in a range of functions with various projects. I used my English skills to help develop and formalise the language for

Winning the Gary Best Scholarship allowed me to travel to India and Indonesia, and I’m enormously grateful to Kingswood and to Mr Best for the opportunity to travel and work for an organisation that I grew up with and for which I have a very deep affection. Thank you!

Harry Penrhyn Jones (2008-2013)

FMCH: www.fmch-uk.org | www.fmch-indonesia.org | www.fmch-india.org

FMCH India and FMCH Indonesia can be found on Facebook Promotional Video for FMCH India: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn0Wpqroxwk UK Registered Charity No. 1117795

KRITI’s

TRAVEL REPORT: Namaste, my name is Kriti Rana and whilst I was completing my A2 Level at sixth Form (2013), I decided to make the life changing decision of taking a gap year in Nepal.

I initially went to Nepal to visit and donate money to a foundation (that is very close to my heart) Aamako Ghar and to also teach English in underprivileged schools. In order to assist in this endeavour I applied to the Gary Best Travel Scholarship. I got my grades to go to higher education to do my dream course of English Literature. But before attending University I would be embarking on a journey to Nepal that changed my life!

After settling into my new lifestyle in Nepal, it was soon time for me to start my work. Beginning by visiting Aamako Ghar situated in Soaltee Mode, Kathmandu. During my final year at school, my house (Fonthill) had decided to fund-raise for a new charity –I proposed Aamako Ghar and that was adopted as our charity.

I left school with £850 the girls’ and I had raised for Aamako Ghar. It was lovely to be able to give the donation to Mrs Shrestha as my friends and I from Kingswood had worked very hard to raise the money. When I reached Aamako Ghar I was amazed to see the shelter first hand. Starting from when I walked into the living room, I was absolutely astonished to see every wall in that room hoarded with certificates and banners and badges of thanksgiving for the founder Dil Shova Shrestha. I could not actually believe I was meeting Dil Shova Shrestha for the first time in my life. After hearing about her work, through my parents, she was my inspiration to finish school and go on my gap year. I wasn’t star struck per se, more in awe of her presence, she told me personally all her struggles and how she wanted to create a warm and loving home for all the otherwise homeless residents of her shelter.

After a photo session, Dil Ama personally thanking me; she gave me a tour of her home and the shelter. I was shocked because it was so cramped with around six to seven adults living and

sleeping in a small room. I met every resident of the shelter and they all decided that each one of them wanted to give me their blessings. That was most definitely one of my favourite memories of my gap year - I was both humbled and touched. I was able to stay in Aamako Ghar and help with volunteering around the house which included helping with the cooking, cleaning up around the house and keeping the elderly residents in the house happy and giving them company! It was definitely amazing hearing all their stories and them giving me lovely life lessons and advice.

I then went to Limgha High School which is the same school my father used to go to when he was young. The high school was now much larger, had more teachers and over double the amount of students. I started by teaching Class 4 who were welcoming and friendly. All the children had such big hearts and it was lovely to see them so focused on their dreams at such a young age.

During my six months in Nepal not only did I get to see all the natural beauty that my country has to offer, but I had amazing experiences. I was able to learn new things every single day from different obstacles that came with every week. I was able to come back to the UK with a head filled with beautiful memories of the people I’d met. I definitely grew more as a person and the most important lesson I took back from my trip was to never forget your roots, because it is these roots that keep you grounded and teach you what is really important in life. I used to be guilty of this and I think other children (who aren’t originally from Britain) that have had the privilege to have been brought up in the UK, often make the mistake of forgetting their roots. I am lucky that I have such culturally orientated parents and the opportunity of this trip has definitely changed my life. I highly recommend a gap year if you want to make new experiences in life.

I’d like to thank the Gary Best Travel Scholarship for giving me the opportunity to make my gap year happen! I will never forget this amazing experience for the rest of my life!

Kriti Rana (2006-2013)

Kingswood 1st XI v The Headmaster’s XI

The Upper, July 1st 2014

N. Mackenzie bowls to A. Mackenzie on debut - K.S. v HM’s XI - 1st July 2014

Undefeated, KS 300-8 (50 overs) Matt Scott 120 n.o.

L-R: Neil Mackenzie, Al Mackenzie Dom Mackenzie, Will Mackenzie

THE HEADMASTER’S XI 2014

L-R Standing: Neil Mackenzie, Sam Morris, Nick Gerrish, Max Gauntlett, Euan Gordon Nick Prettejohn, Will Mackenzie, Rhys Redman

L-R Seated: Jack Crowther, Mr Simon Morris (Headmaster), Mr Mark Brearey (Headmaster KPS)

Tea clearly more important than hanging a ‘3’ up the ladder!

1ST XI CRICKET TEAM 2014

L-R Back: Lucas Reeman, Owen Waters, Dominic Mackenzie, Osh Devlin-Cook, Miles Thompson, Mr J Brown

L-R Front: Felix Barnard-Weston, Kieran Gibson, Matt Scott (C), Tim Rouse, Hywel Jones, Cam Walker

Curtains up on Theatre Refurb

In the last edition of the magazine we profiled Neil Francis, the Kingswood Theatre Manager, and covered the need for some updating of the premises after 20 years of extensive usage.

The Theatre Appeal, endorsed by Association members Jonathan Lynn (1954-61), Jane Tranter (1979-81) and Oscar Batterham (1997-2011) as well as other members of the Kingswood community, was a great success.

Through a lot of hard work, by the Development Director and members of the Development Council, the necessary funds were raised and much of the renovation work, including installation of the new seating, was able to take place during the long summer holiday. Additionally, it is a great pleasure to report that the Executive Committee of the Kingswood Association unanimously agreed to support the Appeal. The Kingswood Association (that’s you!) was the major donor for this project giving £30,000 towards a total target of £100,000. This donation has been recognised by a plaque in the foyer area of the Theatre.

Since this successful renovation the Theatre has returned to its normal role as a much used ‘heartbeat’ of School life. A special gala concert also took place in December to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original opening of the Theatre. With the comfortable new seating in place audiences can sit back and look forward to many more years of wonderful Music and Drama at Kingswood.

Jeremy Wimpress (1969-76)

Since this successful renovation the Theatre has returned to its normal role as a much used ‘heartbeat’ of School life.

Kingswood Remembers -100 Years On

Everybody entering the school Chapel passes, in the entrance area, the plaques that record the war dead of Kingswood from the past to the present.

Every year, at the School’s Remembrance Service, the Headmaster and the President of the Kingswood Association read out, to the whole School gathered on the Chapel lawn, the names of our fallen. As the names are read, sixth formers

step forward to plant a cross for each of those named. 100 years on, as the world reflects on the events of the Great War it seems timely to reproduce here the list of Kingswood pupils and staff who lost their lives in that dreadful conflict.

ROLL OF HONOUR

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”

Memorial Plaque at Ypres

On the first day of their summer holidays, 57 pupils and 6 staff, including the Headmaster, set off for their annual visit to the Battlefields. This year the visit had even more significance than usual.

The representative group from Kingswood attended a special service on Thursday 10th July 2014 during which the Headmaster unveiled a special plaque in the Chapel at St George’s Church, Ypres to commemorate the dedication of 115 former pupils and 6 members of staff who gave their lives during the Great War 1914-1918. The plaque has been kindly donated by the Kingswood Association.

The plaque cites 1914-1919 (rather than 1918) for two main reasons. Firstly, this dating is consistent with the memorial in the Chapel, which also commemorates Old Boys and staff lost 1914-1919. Secondly, we do not have records for two of the KS casualties (no accurate date of death) and it is quite possible that one or both of them died in 1919 as a result of injuries sustained before the armistice.

Peter MacDonald

(Head of History & Politics, Staff 2003-present)

What Are You Doing Now?

1940s

Winston Backus (1931-40) We are grateful to Dr Backus’ wife, Myrtle, who has written from Canada with an update on her husband.

Winston was a medical practitioner until 1992 when he retired. In 1996 he became a member of the Regional Health authority and served in that capacity until 1998 when he developed Age related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in both eyes and could no longer see to read or drive, although he still has peripheral vision in both eyes. He wears 2 hearing aids which make for some interesting conversations as he doesn’t always understand what is said the first time. Winston has been volunteering for the Canadian Institute for the Blind for 15 years as a facilitator for the local visually impaired support group and as a speaker for various groups – 15 in all. He is able to speak for 30-45 minutes without repeating himself and without notes which is quite a feat! He listens to audiobooks as his main entertainment and uses a computer with a 27” screen and a large print keyboard. He volunteers with our church taking non-perishable items contributed by the congregation to the food bank on a monthly basis. Once a month, at home, he hosts a men’s discussion group from the church. During the winter he shovels the snow from our driveway but did have some help this winter when he had a total knee replacement – he has made a good recovery and doesn’t even need a cane for walking. This is a second marriage for both of us so together we have 8 children, 20 grandchildren and 22 greatgrandchildren. We host family dinners at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving and usually have 25-30 in for a meal. I am planning a 95th birthday for Winston –we’ll have to hire a hall and a caterer.

1950s

(Where the bikes came from I have no idea). Of course, we did more than just swim; we dived from the stone bridges and had to show we had got to the bottom by bringing up a stone. The Avon is a major river and is deep; the thought that we might get tangled up in a submerged branch never entered our heads! We discovered the Weir Gardens that at one time had been a favourite picnic spot, with tables and refreshments served. When we found it though, the whole area was dilapidated and abandoned - except for the weir itself. First, we just walked across it. The river was fast flowing and about knee deep over the weir. Then - of course - we had to find more excitement and found iron rings deep in the thick moss on top of the weir. There never seemed to be anybody around, which was just as well because the best thrill was to grasp a ring, then lie on your back and let the water push you down into the moss and flow over you. Finally you had to use the free hand to find the NEXT ring (they were about 5 ft. apart). I really believe that I held the record for holding my breath - at which point you had let go with one hand, turn onto your knees and stand BEFORE letting go of the other one! It was great fun and there were no teachers or parents to ‘have a granny fit’. Several years ago now on one of our trips to visit a family friend in that part of England, I kept on talking about the Weir Gardens and so one day we drove to Bath to find the spot. It took a long time; the Weir Gardens were more dilapidated than in the 1950s. But I found the weir; there was a dead tree half over it and the place looked deserted and forlorn. I did not wade out along its still mossy top to see if the rings were still there, but in my heart, I’m sure they are!

Peter Humphrey English MBE (1952–1958) After leaving Kingswood Peter read Civil Engineering at Imperial College, London and then was employed by Taylor Woodrow for 35 years before working as a consultant in construction management until 1997. The contractual arrangement that employed the McAlpine-Laing JV as Construction Manager for the New Millennium Experience Company was down to Peter. Once Tony Blair confirmed that the Dome would proceed he transferred to become the “man”

responsible for civil engineering and Dome site activities. Interestingly the Civil Engineering designers were Buro Happold at Camden Lock, Bath, one of whose partners was Rod Madonald, who it is understood, was a KS Governor at one time – what a small world! Peter was awarded his Honour in 2000 and his responsibility for ensuring the delivery of the Millennium Dome project on time was justly recognised. Peter has maintained his contacts with Kingswood, attending London Association lunches and informal lunches in Cambridge over the years. All his friends and his school contemporaries are delighted belatedly to learn of his Honour.

1960s

Bernard Darby (1957-60) I am a bit too old to continue all the interests I have been able to enjoy, earlier in my life, however I still enjoy travelling, and my wife and I are off to the northern part of India for a self-driving tour up into the Himalayas at the end of June. Having stopped riding to hounds some 10 years ago due to a broken neck, I now enjoy travelling in one of the three old motor cars I own. We have taken cars to New Zealand, and across to Vancouver for a 5000 mile tour through British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska, as well as touring much of Europe. I still enjoy music, it is very much part of my life, although I no longer sing. Some years ago I did make a contribution to the new organ in the chapel. As far as working, well if you have your own business you never really retire, I am still in the office every day. Not that I need to as I have the most excellent PA who keeps me on my toes.

Bob Kirtley (1954-61) Bob and his wife, Helen, have been living in Cinais, France for 12 years. They are both involved in the local community; their chickens provide their hamlet with eggs and they have a donkey and a dog to keep them on their toes and give them regular exercise. Bob would be delighted to meet up with anyone who finds themselves in the Chinon area. Bob’s only job was an oldfashioned schoolmaster at Eastbourne College where he ran the athletics and

John Glanville (1950-54) John writes with memories of summer afternoons in Bath.

In June and early July, we biked down to the city of Bath to swim in the river Avon.

team-managed county sides. He actively discouraged his two sons from taking athletics seriously so they turned, with some success, to cricket – James (Sussex and England) and David (Cardiff CC). Between retirement and going to France he spent a fun year as Mayor of Eastbourne (Lib/Dem).

been the lay chaplain to Milton Abbey School for the past two years, and am now teaching part-time at Sherborne Prep School! In addition to that, I act as a rather grandly-styled educational consultant to two international agencies, which is great fun, as it involves jetting off to various locations around the world from time to time. For the past seven years I have been involved with setting up the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, which has been very rewarding. It is now thriving and I feel very proud to have been part of it. (www. afghanistannationalinstituteofmusic.org)

Mary Campbell-Bianchini (1975-77)

Paul Cheater (1962-70) Greetings from deepest Dorset, where I have just been reading, with great pleasure as always, the 2014 edition of the Association News. Apart from sending a personal update, I thought you might like to know that former assistant music master from the 1960s, Roger Pope, was recently awarded the MBE for services to music. Roger was at KS from 1965 to 1968 and was inspirational to me in the short time he was at the school, providing me with the foundations I needed for the most wonderful involvement with, and love of, music that has stayed with me ever since. He left KS to be the musical adviser for Hertfordshire, from where he went on to be the Warden of Trinity College of Music for many years. He retired from the college, but was soon recalled, to be Head of Student Services! I believe he really has retired now, and is living in Lincolnshire. My own news is that my wife Diana and I retired from Summer Fields School in Oxford after 18 very enjoyable years and ‘retired’ to our lovely home in West Dorset. Retirement hasn’t really happened, though, because I have

Although my husband Gianni and I are still in Italy and would welcome any contacts from Kingswoodians visiting our area, all three of our children are now studying in Edinburgh and we are often there in the summer. In fact we met up with Dave Lane (1969-76) again this summer who gave us news of Nick Lund (1969-76). Dave, based at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, is busy with robotics. As our youngsters have all flown the nest we are now planning a trip to New Zealand with a stop off in Australia, in Feb 2015. We hope to meet up with some fellow Old Kingswoodians while we are away. I studied biology with Dr Black and Robin Lewis as teachers. One of my fellow pupils in biology lessons was Larry Ang (1972-77) from Singapore. It would be nice to get in touch with him again as we will probably stop in Singapore on our way to NZ. Mum (Sheena Campbell) was born there. As for myself, I still teach English, mostly to adults, but also do some translation work as well as occasional interpreting. Our daughter Emily is studying languages and when we took her to Tours, at the beginning of September, to start her year abroad we took a slight detour on our way from Edinburgh back to Italy and stopped in Arromanches to see the remains of the Mulberry harbour. I remember Dad (Laurie Campbell) told us about the planning of the harbour and the plans left, accidentally on purpose in the waste basket, when the admiralty left KS after the war. “Jock” also gave the same history lesson to our children - his grandchildren - when he took them to KS one summer holiday about 6 or 7 years ago and showed them the plans and the original Mulberry tree - inspiration for the name of the harbour. I was only a pupil at KS for 2 years but it was a strong element in

my life all the time Dad was Headmaster (1970-87). It was very supportive to see KS people at Mum’s funeral in January 2014. Steve Wigley, who gave the tribute to Mum, Andy Wigley, Chris Day, Chris Stafford, Jeremy Wimpress, Mary Ede, Nick Thorne, Gordon opie, John and Patsy Lewis, and Debbie (Arbourne). Apologies if I have omitted anyone else from KS present. I still keep in touch with the Wigley family, Steve studied English in the same classes as me, with teachers Ray Wilkinson, Andy Smith (‘Précis’), and French with John Coggan who contacted me in 2011 when he was working at Pavia University. I also keep in touch with Sheila Dunkinson (née Jones 1975-78) after meeting again at Dad’s memorial service in 2012. And Celia Barsby (née Woodward 1976-78). One of my nephews Chris Campbell, also an Old Kingswoodian, has just opened a coffee shop in Brighton (making excellent coffee!!) and plays in a band called DrDr. His sister, my niece Katy Quantick (née Campbell, 2001-06), got married at the end of November 2013 and now lives in Cardiff. My younger brother Andrew Campbell (1972-78) lives in Leicestershire and runs his own business. Facebook allows me to “keep in touch” with ian Falconer, David Falconer, George Au and Mark Wareing. The current president Tim Lindsay may remember me from his time at KS, but we were also at St Andrews school Turi in Kenya at the same time (long before Chris Stafford was Head). I am a few years younger than Tim, but I was in the same year group at KS as his sister Diana.

Tony Hurt (1971-79) After many years of teaching in the United States, and now that our children are grown up, my wife and I moved to Pakistan where we are teaching at Karachi American School, a US State Department school. I am a high school history and geography teacher and the Head of Social Studies. I enjoyed reading the interview with John Lewis in the last magazine - the photograph of Kingswood orienteers from the late 1970’s (including myself!) brought back some fond memories of orienteering, Ten Tors and other outdoor adventure experiences at Kingswood.

Michael Wakelin (1974-79) I thought you might be interested in an unusual reunion of old School House members who came together at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, as VIP guests of the

Roger Pope with his MBE

Coexist Foundation, to hear the inaugural Cambridge Coexist Annual Theology Lecture given by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on October 11th 2014. All of us were there in one kind of official capacity or another and after the drinks reception we lined up in dormitory bed order for this photo.

1980s

Edwin Roberts-Morehen (1976-80)

I have gone back to university again – lucky me! I am studying English Language and Linguistics for a BA degree at the University of Bedfordshire – Luton Campus. Quite different to my first time when I was a student nurse. A lot more reading for starters and grammar… ugh…lots of it! Just to clear up any ambiguity when I was at KS I was just ‘plain old’ Edwin Roberts.

awareness during general anaesthesia (AAGA). The study was commissioned by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. This is the biggest ever study on this topic and has taken 3 years to complete.

1990s

oliver Wright (1982-91) Having previously worked for The Times, Oliver moved to The Independent in 2008 and is currently their Whitehall Editor.

Jordan Lam (1990-92) Jordan currently has a commercial role in a chemical company. He was sorry to hear that Roger Austin had passed away and remembers him as, ‘a great teacher and a good friend after school – Mr Austin talked to us even during the weekend and often bought Chinese take-away and had dinner with us’.

Matthew R H Evans (1976-82)

Matthew wrote to let the Association Office know that he would not be able to attend September’s Association Day. He had a very good reason though, he is currently serving as the 382nd Mayor of the City of Newport.

Tim Cook (1974-81) Professor Tim Cook, Consultant Anaesthetist at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, has co-authored a study about accidental

Martin Lloyd-Williams (1978-83)

The Rev Martin Lloyd-Williams is leaving Bath after almost 18 years at St Michael’s in Broad Street. Martin will be taking up the position of Archdeacon for Brighton, Hove and Lewes. He and his family will be much missed, St Michael’s has become a thriving, seven day a week community centre. Martin also fulfilled roles as chaplain to the police, Bath Rugby and King Edward’s Junior School.

Zhakova (1994-97) After leaving Kingswood in 1997 I returned back to Moscow, achieved Russian secondary education and entered Russian Economic Academy in 1999 following double diploma programme. Out of 5 years of education I spent 18 months in Paris studying and completing an internship there. Thus, in 2004, I received both Russian and French higher education, specialising in international business. I’ve been working mostly in the premium cosmetics sector, starting at L’Oreal headquarters in Paris (while staying in

From left to right; Rob Fenn (1972-79), Mark Hammond (1972-79), Neil Harbury (1975-79), Richard Sharples (1972-79), Simon Topping (1971-79) and Michael Wakelin (1971-79).

Elena

Rev Martin Lloyd-Williams

Elena Zhakova

Tim Cook

Matthew Evans

Oliver Wright

France), then, after returning to Russia, moving on to Clarins, where I worked as Clarins Brand Manager. Since 2009 I work for Russian affiliate of Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido, as Senior Marketing and Trade Marketing Manager, responsible for Russia and CIS countries. I got married on December 22nd, 2012, and on 25th September 2014 I gave birth to our son.

2000s

Philip Gooden (Staff 1972-2001)

In September 2014 Philip’s latest book, ‘The Word at War: World War II in 100 Phrases’ was published by A & C Black. With co-author, Peter Lewis, Philip explores 100 phrases spawned and popularised in the period leading up to and during the Second World War. These familiar phrases are investigated, explained and, in the case of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, debunked as something that was considered at the time to be deeply patronising. Wartime speeches, service slang, national stereotypes, food and drink and codewords are all scrutinised in this entertaining and informative book.

Tim Johns (1996-2003) Tim is currently working as a producer and reporter for The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2. Tim recently returned to Kingswood and spoke to pupils about the art of gathering news stories.

Charlie Harman (2003-08) Charlie is the drummer of Will and the People. At the time of writing, Charlie and his band are playing at India’s biggest Gourmet World Music Festival called Sulafest which will be attended by 10,000 festival goers. This particular tour has been arranged by one of their Dutch fans and, as part of his charity that he runs for Indian children who are either orphaned or infected with the HIV virus, he has asked Will and the People to go out to India to play a few

shows. This follows a similar tour in 2014 which was a huge success! The Dutch have taken Will and the People to their hearts and most teenagers in Holland will have jumped up and down to their best known hit “Lion in the Morning Sun” which was Holland’s top summer record in 2013 and reached No. 2 in the Dutch charts. Will and the People have already played in many parts of the world sharing their infectious, feel-good music and message of love and peace. They have toured in; Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Germany, Italy, Holland and, of course, the UK, from St Andrew’s University in Scotland to the top of The Monument in London! Charlie (drums/vocals) is now 22 years of age and was privileged to be at Kingswood, along with his two brothers Oli and Sam, from the age of 12 until 16 years of age, leaving after he successfully completed his GCSEs. He always had a passion for music, in particular the drums and was one of many pupils fortunate enough to enjoy Mr Mainwaring’s influence and infectious energy throughout his music life at Kingwood. Richard Mainwaring even managed to encourage Charlie to join the Senior Choir which culminated in a performance of Carmina Burana, along with a full orchestra, which was just out of this world and a very proud and overwhelming experience for us all. He had regular drum lessons at Kingswood for years which were the highlight of his week of course! Charlie left Kingswood to concentrate on his music career by first attending Bath College and then he progressed on to studying at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He met the other members of the band, Will, his brother Jamie and Jim whilst volunteering at Glastonbury Festival 4.5 years ago and the band have never looked back since! Will and the People are going from strength to strength and are very soon to release their third album which they hope will take off in America this year so watch this space!

Gary Best (Headmaster 1987-2008)

Former Headmaster, Gary Best, has just had his fourth crime novel published. ‘The Barchester Murders’ is a kind of prequel to Anthony Trollope’s ‘The Warden’. The novel features Trollope investigating a series of crimes in which he is a suspect and that may have been committed by characters he later uses in ‘The Warden’. ‘The Barchester Murders’ is published in paperback by Buried River Press, an imprint of Robert Hale.

2010s

Thomas Drew (2004-11)

Leaving Kingswood with a gap year in mind, I worked for Hall and Woodhouse until Jan 2012 in order to earn enough money to fund my travels. During my 6 months away I had time to think and experience life; I visited the killing fields of Cambodia, stayed in the British High Commissioners’ home in Australia and experienced every sort of life in between. On return to the UK I was still uncertain as to the route I should take in life and decided that University was not the right option for me at this time as I still didn’t know what I wanted to achieve in life. I took a job in sales in Fitness First and took the opportunity to talk to people and discuss options. After a successful year in sales I decided that perhaps business finance was my strength and joined London and Country taking a Certificate in Education for Mortgage and Protection advice. Having achieved this qualification I also joined my mother’s company ‘Aquae Sulis Guardians’ as Finance Director and helped to advise International students on subject choices and life at a private British boarding school. I aim to continue in the world of finance and help to build my mother’s company into a successful family business providing first class services to our International clients and schools alike. My time at Kingswood served me well; teaching me to respect other cultures and, doing the work I do now, I feel privileged to give something back to a place that has been one of the most formative in my life so far.

Charlie Harman

Tim Johns

Uppingham Anniversary

The exile of Kingswood to Uppingham during World War II is a key part of our history. To celebrate the 75th anniversary the Headmaster, Chaplain, Deputy Head Academic, Head Girl and Boy, accompanied by a group of former pupils and guests, were invited to return to the school that had offered Kingswood sanctuary.

The words below are taken from the address given by the Uppingham Chaplain at the 75th Anniversary Service on 14th September 2014.

On 3rd September 1939, Europe found itself declaring the war they had said could never happen. Little more than a week later – exactly 75 years ago this week - a party of masters and senior boys from Kingswood arrived in Uppingham, an advance party for the whole school. And on 21st September 1939, both schools began a new term, and the difficult experiment of living as two schools, each retaining its separate identity, but sharing most things in common. Although nobody knew it at the time, it was an experiment that was to last 6½ years, until Kingswood was finally able to return home.

Imagine the Headmaster of Kingswood, A. B. Sackett, opening a letter on Christmas Eve 1938, as those first shadows of war began to loom over England. From that letter (which must quite have ruined his Christmas) he learned that, on the outbreak of war, his entire school site would be taken over by the Admiralty for military use. Kingswood (he was instructed) must make immediate plans to find alternative accommodation. To make things more difficult, Mr Sackett was forbidden to make the news public; and, in fact, most of Kingswood only found out that they could not return to Bath two weeks before the beginning of the school year. You can probably picture the face of one holidaying Master as he received the curt telegram: “Return Bath at once. Remove all personal belongings. No residence provided.”

At the Uppingham end of things, there was also lot of lastminute confusion. The Headmaster here, John Wolfenden, had made it known around the network of boarding-schools that Uppingham was willing to help schools that now found themselves homeless. Such an arrangement would benefit Uppingham, whose numbers (and thus finances) were suffering under the threat of war; but the letters show that Wolfenden was also utterly genuine in his desire to help.

And so it was that, 75 years ago this week, Kingswood’s staff and prefects were packing 27 railway wagons full of possessions and heading for a school that many of them had never heard of. Meanwhile, Uppingham’s Head and Housemasters were sweating feverishly as they tried to work out how they could make space for 278 boys they had never met.

For many days, it must have been practicalities which dominated Sackett and Wolfenden’s thoughts. Packing and unpacking; sending endless letters to boys’ parents; reworking timetables, concert and match fixtures. The Uppingham school archives ‘Kingswood’ file is dominated by short memos from Wolfenden on such mundane matters, which give little hint of the drama that was going on. And there were plenty of minor crises to occupy the mind: having to dig air-raid shelters in the garden of every boarding house; and then the unexpected appearance of Camden High School for Girls, who should have been evacuated to Bedford but were sent to Uppingham by mistake, and whose redoubtable headmistress spent a week trying to bully Wolfenden into taking responsibility for them.

The organisational challenges were clearly huge. But planning and hard work would overcome those, and it is my guess that

I would like to thank everybody who helped arrange the event on 14 September. It was a great success, and I’m sure I was not the only one to find it quite moving.

John Urmson (1936-44)

they were not what disturbed the two headmasters’ sleep. The more challenging task was always going to be the human one, of finding ways in which two schools could live side-by-side without conflict. How could some kind of community be forged from two groups of strangers?

It was not a foregone conclusion that we would be celebrating this anniversary today. Some other schools who found themselves sharing a site during those wartime years had such unhappy experiences that they preferred to forget them as quickly as possible. There was always the risk that it could have been like this for Kingswood and Uppingham. They were very different types of school. As one former Kingswood boy put it in a letter:

Uppingham seemed to me to be the old Public School of strong upper-middle class attitudes and behaviour. Kingswood was lower in class, much less money, and quite different ideas on how life was conducted. … I saw the Uppingham pupils as a different breed I neither envied nor wanted to copy.

There was a lot of happy reminiscing at Uppingham last Sunday. The school chapel was full to overflowing (800 Uppingham pupils plus staff, plus our party of 30 or so). We were generously entertained to lunch. The two KS youngsters, Jack and Jessie were a credit to the School and to themselves. They mixed well and with confidence. It was a commemoration of 75 unique years. I was glad to be part of it.

Michael Franklin (1943-51)

There were other cultural differences too. Uppinghamians in those days tended to value rugby well above lessons; and Kingswood boys were taken aback by the strictness of Uppingham discipline, where the School Pollies used whips to keep order on the touchlines. Kingswood was also amused and horrified in equal measure by the practice of fagging, and the rule which forbade Uppingham boys to close a toilet door when using it.

If those seem like small differences from a distance of 75 years, then try and imagine what it is like to share a street, or a Common Room, or a study with someone who could have been from a different background and a different class, and lived by a different

set of school rules to you. But this was what had to happen in Brooklands and Fircroft, School House, West Deyne and Lorne, Meadhurst, Farleigh, Constables and the Lodge – in all of which, Kingswood boys shared studies with boys from Uppingham.

It would be a lie to pretend there were no tensions at all. One ripple broke the smooth surface when Kingswood boys watching a match began to applaud the team from Rugby School, rather than the team from Uppingham. On another occasion, Mr Wolfenden gave in to Mr Sackett’s pressure to give the schools a half-day holiday (as was Kingswood’s tradition, but not Uppingham’s). Half the Uppingham pupils returned drunk from the local pubs, and Wolfenden was not amused. The reaction of the Uppingham Chaplain when some proudly teetotal Kingswood boys topped up his half-drunk bottle of sherry with Worcester sauce is not recorded.

In concluding, perhaps we should think about what we are wanting to celebrate by this anniversary. An interesting event from the past, certainly; the renewal of an historical link between two fine schools, of course. But if events and historical links are to be worth remembering, then I suggest they should have some deeper meaning – something to say to us now.

Whatever the surface differences, the thing that motivated our two schools then and now, was a faith that beneath the day-to-day problems, a greater work was going on, of shaping one another as individuals and communities in the likeness of Christ. As the years roll on, and the memories of wartime fade, may we at least not forget that.

The Revd Dr James Saunders

An Uppingham Fact; Kingswood is, of course, an HMC school and it was another Uppingham invitation that set in motion the organisation that has become today’s Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference. In 1869 the Uppingham Head, Edward Thring, invited 60 fellow Headmasters to join him at Uppingham to consider the foundation of a ‘school society and Annual Conference’. Today, over 208,000 pupils are taught in HMC schools in the UK and Ireland.

Uppingham School Chaplain

Anniversary group

Friendship, Fellowship & Fun

The accompanying photographs bear witness to an enjoyable and well-attended Association Day last september. The school looked immaculate. Mike Wilkinson conducted his last Association Day service in the Chapel - thanks Mike.

The new(ish) Humanities Block and refurbished Theatre were inspected (not so the new Hall Boarding House, which wasn’t quite ready). The First XV satisfyingly thrashed KES 57-5 on the Upper in the morning, with the girls Hockey Firsts also winning against 2-1 against

a strong Queen’s College Taunton side, but away, unfortunately for us. Lunch in the Dining Hall was delicious as usual, prompting many a ‘not in my day’ comment.

We had an excellent state-of-the-nation address from the Headmaster, assuring us all was well with the School, followed by a lively and good-humouredly conducted Association AGM, guided by our new chairman Nick Turner. Thanks for stepping in Nick; stand-up’s loss was the law’s gain.

There followed the first old boys rugby match this century (investigations reveal that the last one was in 1997, but readers may know better?). Association Executive Committee member Chester Lewis and his old team mate Rhys Redman had the idea, scored some impressive kit from the Association, put together a terrific squad and proceeded to demolish the opposition in a style as satisfying as the morning’s victory.

The overworked catering department then casually produced a superb barbecue for the team, their WAGS and other guests and the cash bar did brisk business. Oh yes - it was Rhys Redman’s 21st that very day. Bath braced itself and celebrations, we are told, went on long into the night.

Tim Lindsay (1969-74) President

Lunch in the Dining Hall was delicious as usual, prompting many a ‘not in my day’ comment.

Ten Year Reunion Class of 2004

Old Kingswoodians RFC

Old Boy’s rugby is back…and it means business!

After a number of years when no team of former pupils graced the Upper’s rugby pitches something needed to be done. Association Executive member Chester Lewis (2010-12) and his friend Rhys Redman (2010-12) had the idea and the drive to get Old Boy’s rugby up and (literally) running.

The next big adventure will be an appearance at the Cronk Cunis National U21 Rugby Festival. This takes place on Monday 31st August 2015 at Richmond Athletic Association. This annual one day festival was founded in conjunction with the RFU to provide competitive rugby for Old Boy’s XVs from around the country. The event is a prestigious, highly popular and successful occasion and we understand Kingswood will be the first school from Bath to appear at this gathering which has now been running for nearly 20 years. The publicity for Cronk Cunis promises lots of fun, excellent rugby, bars and sizzling barbecues – it goes without saying that Rhys, Chester and their teammates would be delighted to have your support on the day. After that, of course, plans are well under way for another fixture on the afternoon of Association Day in September. Another occasion not to be missed!

Jeremy Wimpress (1969-76)

With support from the School and a spanking new kit, funded by the Association, what started as a chance conversation has developed into a new and already thriving Old Boy’s rugby club. Several fixtures have taken place and more are planned as this endeavour takes off.

The debut for the new team was on 21st August 2014, away against Oldfield Old Boys. Unfortunately, Ed King (2007-11) suffered a broken leg which resulted in a shortened match being played. Nonetheless Chester and Rhys’ men recorded a debut victory with a score of 0-7. A few days later there was another, satisfying, 46-0 win over Old Edwardians in a match played at Bathampton. Then came Association Day and a comfortable victory over a team assembled from various Bath schools and including a few of our own! The Association Day match took place on the 1st XV pitch on the Upper and attracted a crowd of more than 200.

Such has been the success of the launch of this team that more than 30 Old Kingswoodians have already pulled on the new kit to represent the club. There is great interest and, with the standard of School rugby so high, a great future in prospect. Certainly worth noting that in Rugby World magazine Kingswood’s 1st XV were given the December Team of the Month award in recognition of their unbeaten season and significant points tally against some very good schools.

As Rhys says, “it is an exciting time to be part of the Kingswood Association and with this new team we really feel we are well on the way to something special.”

Marriages: Congratulations to the happy couples

JOHN & SALLY YEO

saturday 19th April 2014 was a bright, sunny day. The school grounds looked immaculate and the cherry blossom was in full bloom. It was also the day that John Yeo (1968-73) married sally Douglas. Chaplain Mike Wilkinson took the service and the Chapel was packed with 150 family and friends. Dr Keith Thomas played the organ and the singing of the hymns raised the roof. sally was attended by five bridesmaids, the best man was Trevor Lethaby and the readings were given by sally’s sister and John’s brother, David Yeo (1964-69). The day was made extra special by the re-uniting of ‘Class of ‘73’ members; Martyn Perkins, David Bullied and the groom. Kingswood catering, under the leadership of sharon Traylor, excelled itself putting on a wonderful reception in the dining hall. Music for the evening party was provided by Flatland Boogie Band and a memorable day was enjoyed by all.

Births: Congratulations to the proud parents

31 Mar 2013 a son, Charlie, brother for Freddie to Rachel (née Nicklin) & Chris Day

28 May 2013 a son, Felix George Montague to Sarah (née Cox) & George Styles

28 Aug 2013 a daughter, Bay Ottilie, sister for Lois to Dan Haines & Tamara Huggett Haines

27 Oct 2013 a son, Lars James, brother for Tor to Evadne (née Hobday) & Mike Janeke

01 Nov 2013 a daughter, Beatrice Katharine Mary, sister for Edward to Helen (née Walters) & Patrick Rogers

04 Nov 2013 a daughter, Daisy Faith, sister for Tabitha to Ed & Miriam Wright

25 Nov 2013 a daughter, Aura Joanie Grace, sister for Mia & Sol to Bella Grant & Darren Owen

01 Dec 2013 a son, Thomas to Alexandra (née Chapman) & David Edwards

20 Jan 2014 a daughter, Lily to Sarah (née Bickenson) & Raj Gataora

Feb 2014 a son, Busby Earnest to Gypsy (née Ringham) & Richard Beer

01 Mar 2014 a daughter, Zara, sister for Adam & Lachlan to Jo (née Kelly) & Murray Raisbeck

06 Mar 2014 a daughter, Florence, sister for Zac to Charlotte (née Pushman) & Matt Ruxton

24 Mar 2014 a son, Joseph, brother for Maxi to Anna (née Bergmann) & James Edmund

16 May 2014 a son, Lutz, brother for Ruth & Anna to Barbara (née Beckmann) & Benjamin Kirchhoff

23 May 2014 a daughter Martha, sister for Ruby to Shona (née Wilkinson) & Rob Brunt

02 Jun 2014 a daughter, Hetty (Harriet), sister for George & Mollie to Ruth (née Wilkinson) & Jo Jefferson

13 Oct 2014 a daughter, Isobel Marie to Charlotte (née Kerley) & Peter Harvey

05 Dec 2014 a son, Samuel, sister for Evie to Victoria (née Fitchett) & Michael Pilkington

17 Dec 2014 a son, Max Christopher Chevalier, brother for Arabella to Natasha (née Alderson) and Sam McArthur

2014 a son, Kweku, brother to Mia & Araba to Tarsha & Sam Quarm

09 Jan 2015 a daughter Eloise May, a sister for Max to Vanessa & Guillaume Cosby

27 Jan 2015 a son, Theo Stanley to Chrissy (née Bergmann) & Simon Blythin

Jon Noonan married Beth stallman on 22 August 2014 in Ravello, Italy

JON & BETH NOONAN NATALIE BRICE (NÉE FARMER)

Isla simpson, Karen Noonan, Gypsy, Emma Nicholson and Rosie Curling

GYPSY BEER (NÉE) RINGHAM

Eloise May

Zara with Adam & Lachlan

Busby Earnest

Joseph Edmund

Lutz

Charlotte, Matt & Flossie

Hetty

Kate Pettifer married Alan Thompson at st Paul’s Cathedral, London on 17 January 2015.

Gary Best Travel Scholarship Heap Trophy Awards

The 2014 scholarship of £300 is awarded to ANTONIA LECKIE

In recognition of her forthcoming trip to the Taita region of Southern Kenya, to work in a new primary school in Latika. She will redecorate classrooms, painting Wesley’s words on the wall as a life motto. She also wants to spend two months establishing an integrated system of bees and chilli plants. This will hopefully stop the danger of elephants passing through the children’s play area, therefore enabling them to play outside. Local wisdom indicates that these measures are an effective natural way to keep the elephants at bay; the chilli and honey can then be harvested and sold. This will benefit the 25 pupils currently at the school, future classes and have a ripple effect on the wider community.

The strength of sport at Kingswood School is based around the principle of everyone contributing to the best of their ability. It is with this in mind that the Kingswood Association felt that it was particularly pertinent to present a prize which recognised two students who encapsulated the philosophy of competing enthusiastically at whatever sport and for whichever team they were asked to play in without it necessarily being at the top level. (Jo Heap, the donator of the trophies, was himself a sportsman who played wholeheartedly though not always at the top level.). As you would expect at Kingswood there were several contenders for these awards:

The 2014 scholarship of £300 is awarded to MISS SARINA GANAPATHY

To help fund her volunteer placement with All Hands Volunteers. This is a disaster relief organisation which sets up projects in countries where natural disasters have occurred. They provide people in need with volunteers who donate their time clearing up debris, salvaging possessions, safely deconstructing homes and building new ones. Sarina will most certainly make a positive impact on a community in need of help.

On the boys’ side, Barney Eliot, Oliver Robley and Adam Parker would all have been very worthy recipients but in the end the award went to a contributor in all three terms at various levels and who plays with a skilful enthusiasm and commitment. This year the Heap trophy goes to Ben Mayall.

For the girls’ there were also worthy considerations for Jenny Robson and Rachel Greenslade, but in the end the award went to another leading player within the year group and someone who has been determined and reliable throughout the year, always willing to play wholeheartedly for whichever team she was selected; the winner of the Heap trophy for Girls goes to Sophie Roberts.

The Dikran A. Knadjian Award for Medicine

In Memory of Dikran A Knadjan Head Boy (Ks 1964-70)

Awarded to Harry Waring on 4th July 2014

1928-33

Utrick Henry Alexander, who has died aged 97, was a decorated soldier, a distinguished lawyer, a judge, a pioneering farmer and a former president of Kent County Cricket Club.

Having lived in the Canterbury area since 1950, he was also a partner of law firm Furley Page and a treasurer of Kent University.

Dr Alexander, known as Sandy, was born in 1916 at Kuling - a hill station in eastern China where his father had been a Methodist minister. He trained as a solicitor in London between 1933 and 1939 and became fully qualified by the time he was 23.

His legal career was interrupted by the war, in which he served with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders until 1942.

He was promoted to staff officer and was first secretary to the planning committee for the invasion of Sicily, working alongside Generals Harold Alexander, George Patton and Viscount Montgomery.

At the end of the war, having risen to the rank of Major, Dr Alexander joined the military government in Austria, where he became a circuit judge. His war contribution is reflected by his award of an MBE and a Croix de Guerre with Palms in 1944.

After his return to England, he married Meg in 1950 and they moved to Canterbury, where Dr Alexander joined Furley Page.

He was appointed senior partner, a role he fulfilled until 1987.

He also pioneered farming cooperatives in Kent and advised numerous landowners in east Kent and beyond.

His military life continued in 1950 with his appointment as a Captain in east Kent’s Territorial Army regiment The Buffs. He went on to become a Colonel, commanding the 4th Battalion. In 1964 he became a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Kent and he was vice-chairman of governors at the former St Augustine’s Hospital in Chartham.

Passionate about cricket, he was made president of Kent County Cricket Club and could often be found in his box in the Les Ames Stand at Canterbury’s St Lawrence Ground.

He also had strong links to Kent University, becoming a member of its council in 1974, and then its treasurer in 1977, a post which he occupied for 15 years.

Dr Alexander, who had been living in Littleboume, was also chairman of the university’s Durrell lnstitute of Conservation and Ecology, which he had helped found. In 1982, he received an honorary doctorate. He died on July 11 after a short illness and is survived by daughter Fiona, stepson Utrick, and stepgrandchildren Imogen and Joanna.

Peter Hawkes, the senior partner at Furley Page in St Margaret’s Street, said: “It is not an exaggeration to say that from the 1950s right up to his death Sandy was firmly at the heart of Canterbury community life and will be much missed by the very many people whose lives he touched.”

A memorial service took place in the Crypt at Canterbury Cathedral on Wednesday, August 27 2014.

This obituary was originally published in The Kentish Gazette and reproduced here with their kind permission.

V M Black passed away on 20th June 2014. He had come to Prior’s Court in 1953 and for twenty years had charge of Mathematics there. Many pupils look back with gratitude to the thorough grounding Vic gave them in this important subject. He was an exacting teacher, thorough and painstaking himself, he always expected an intelligent response from those he taught. His thoroughness earned him the respect of his pupils as well as their gratitude.

His contribution to all other areas gave steadiness and stability to the School. Vic was always a keen supporter of games at Prior’s Court and encouraged and coached the younger ones with enthusiasm and skill.

For many years Vic was a Samaritan working from their centre in Reading. Many members of staff also found Vic a ready listener when they were confronted by problems. His advice was always thoughtful and helpful.

Vic and Betty had retired to York in 1985 and pursued their interests in theatre and the arts as well as their liking for travel.

Adapted from a tribute written by Dick Burton (PC Staff 1959-88)

Vic was a very faithful and hardworking member of the Prior’s Court staff and cheerfully undertook whatever was asked of him. After his retirement he returned to his roots in York and remained very active for some years. He was an enthusiastic and well-informed guide in York Minster, amongst various other activities. He stayed in close touch with his former colleagues until his death.

Bill Mountford (1938-46, PC Staff 1946-50, 1965-85 and KA General Secretary 1985-90)

1941-49

Michael Butcher was born on 25th May 1931 and died on 25th August 2013.

On leaving Kingswood Michael joined the engineering company of Babcock

UTRICK HENRY ALEXANDER

MICHAEL N BUTCHER B.Sc., M.I.Mech E.

VIC BLACK PC Staff 1953-85

& Wilcox and worked in their Research Department in Renfrew until he retired. He was deeply committed to the Methodist Church - serving in numerous positions at local, circuit and district levels - and to cricket!

He leaves a wife, Jean, a son and two daughters.

JOHN EVRATT DICKINSON

1925-2013

John Evratt Dickinson was born in Bath on Friday 13th March 1925. He was the only child of Evratt George Dickinson, pharmacist, and Irene Dickinson. He had two half-brothers, Peter and Tony, by his mother’s previous marriage.

In 1936 he started at Kingswood at the junior school as a day boy before going on to the main school in 1938. By all accounts he was at the time something of an unruly “Just William” character. His father, when meeting the then headmaster, Mr Sackett, apparently asked of him, “If you can only teach him one thing, I want you to teach him the word: OBEY”.

His time in Bath was curtailed when Kingswood moved to Uppingham in 1939 for the duration to make way for the Admiralty. In 1941 he joined 686 Squadron (Kingswood) Air Training Corps, having had his first taste of flying with Alan Cobham’s famous Flying Circus in the early 1930’s. He was an enthusiastic cadet and was also a keen sportsman and rugby player. His brother Peter was well known and regularly played rugby for Bath and Somerset during the

1930s, before he left for India to work in the pharmaceutical sector. Flying and rugby were to become John’s two main passions and he would reminisce fondly of his time at KS and Uppingham.

On 25th April 1942 he was at home during the Easter holidays when Bath was hit by the infamous “Baedeker” bombing raids. He recalled how, late in the evening, the sirens had gone. He painted a very graphic picture of how he watched the bombers coming in over the south of the city, diving down and dropping their bombs as they headed for Lansdown. One stick of incendiaries straddled his parents’ house while a high explosive bomb fell in the next door garden and sucked out the windows.

He left Kingswood in the summer of 1943 and applied to join the RAF. After completing initial aircrew training at Perth in Scotland he reported to the aircrew reception centre at Heaton Park in Manchester. Due to the lack of facilities in the UK during the war many recruits were sent overseas for aircrew training, either to the USA, Canada or Rhodesia. However, there were, by then, thousands of recruits waiting to be posted overseas. As a result of this backlog he was sent to RAF Blyton in Lincolnshire, where the cadets helped out in the control tower or bombing up Halifax bombers.

Eventually he was sent for training in the USA, sailing on the troopship Aquitania to New York. The ship had to continually zig zag across the Atlantic, changing course every 19 minutes to avoid the U boats. On arrival in New York the cadets embarked on a train to Moncton in Canada where they were interviewed and sent to one of six RAF training schools in North America. As he had relatives living in California John was posted to No 4 British Flying Training School at Falcon Field, Mesa, Arizona, this being the nearest to California, so that he could visit his relatives when on leave.

He started his flying training in late 1944, graduating as a Pilot Officer and gaining his wings on the 16th June 1945. He shipped back to the UK on the Queen Mary and was at RAF Locking outside Weston-Super-Mare, doing jungle survival training, when the war ceased. By then there was no need for more pilots and so he enlisted in the RAF Regiment. He passed out from 21 Officer Cadet Training Unit at RAF Grantham

in May 1946, where he received his commission as a Flying Officer. He was subsequently posted to 2777 Squadron RAF Regiment, 84 Group, based at Celle in West Germany. During this time he commanded a squadron of Humber armoured vehicles operating from RAF Gatow in Berlin. The base was surrounded on three sides by the Russian sector, which made for an interesting time as tensions were rising prior to the Berlin airlift. From Gatow they would patrol the British sector of Berlin up to the Brandenburg Gate.

In 1947 he returned to the UK and was demobbed but later joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and took charge as Officer Commanding 93 Squadron (Bath) ATC from 1951 to 1955. While with 93 Squadron he started the squadron’s band, which has gone on to achieve notable success, a fact which gave him great pleasure. He retained his pilot’s rating and continued to fly with the RAF Volunteer Reserve until 1954 when he made his last flight in a Hastings transport aircraft flying out to Egypt and back. He resigned his commission from the RAF as a Flight Lieutenant in 1955. He maintained his passion for sport, playing rugby for Bath during this period. Although he never quite made the first team he remained a lifelong Bath Rugby supporter.

After being demobbed he returned to Bath to work in the family pharmacy. It was originally planned that his elder brother Peter would take on this role but following his death in Italy in 1944, while serving with the army, John stepped into the breach to support the family.

In 1950 he married Barbara Lamerton with whom he had two sons, Peter Dickinson (KS 1966-72) and Christopher Dickinson (KS 1971-1977). He eventually took over the running of the family pharmacy from his father and continued there until retiring in 1989 to West Wales with his wife. He remained living there after she passed away in 2001, until health problems forced a move to Cardiff in early 2011 to be nearer family.

John Dickinson passed away at his home on the 23rd December 2013; as his friends in the RAF Falcon Field Association would note: log book closed, left the circuit.

Peter Dickinson

1945-50

John Driver was born in Nottingham where his father was a University lecturer in Chemistry. Various family relocations during the War disrupted his early education but in 1945 he became a pupil at Kingswood School, where he remained until he went up to Oxford in 1950.

At Merton College he obtained a degree in Classical Chinese, although during this time he developed his lifelong interest in Tibetan studies. In the late fifties he travelled to the Himalayas to carry out fieldwork for doctoral research on the Guhyagarbha Tantra. He lived with his family in Kalimpong, a hill-station near Darjeeling, where he studied with many of the legendary Tibetan Lamas of the last century who had recently fled Tibet.

Upon his return to England, John continued his researches at St Anthony’s (1961-65) during which time he supported Tibetan visitors to Oxford. He was later a motivating force in establishing the Tibetan Buddhist community and the Monastery at Samye Ling in Dumfriesshire. Ironically the only trip he ever made to Tibet was in 1991, with a group of Lamas and distinguished academics, to re-consecrate the original monastery of Samye Ling which the Chinese had consented to partially renovate.

John made lasting contributions to Tibetan studies. He created a descriptive catalogue of Tibetan manuscripts and block books at the Bodleian which, according to the late Michael Aris, laid the foundation for modern Tibetan studies at Oxford. He also translated two great classics; Tibet: Land of Snows by Guiseppe Tucci (Italian to English) and Tibetan Civilisation by Rolf Stein (French

to English), in each case ensuring the accuracy of quoted Tibetan and Sanskrit texts by direct reference to the originals.

John’s interest in Tibet continued after a change of career to computer consultancy and a move with his family to London. He was part of the Stock Exchange team developing “Talisman”, the first computerised share-dealing system. In 1997 he became an independent computer consultant, working for the British Library defining international cataloguing conventions and facilitating technical compatibility with the Library of Congress. This arrangement enabled further travels to Nepal, India, Bhutan and, of course, Tibet. Throughout his life John pursued his scholarly interests in a diverse range of subjects from the arts of the ancients via music, chess, genealogy and history to the latest developments in information technology. Above all, he continued to be fascinated by language in all its forms.

John passed away on 29th May 2014 having sustained a long and difficult illness with great fortitude. His family have been overwhelmed by the warmth of the tributes received from people around the world, expressing their memories of John as a kind, gentle, very reserved man of great learning. Twice divorced, he is survived by his second and third wives and six of his seven children.

It is with great sorrow that Kingswood has heard of the death of Keith Duchars, after a lengthy illness.

Keith came to Kingswood as a boy in 1946, leaving in 1953 for Westminster College, having enjoyed his time here, and broken many sporting records: his Sprint Hurdle record remained unbroken for nearly 60 years! He played at first team level in Hockey, Tennis, and Rugby: 1st XV for 4 years, captaining an unbeaten side in 1952, and played for England Schoolboys.

After a spell of National Service as a pilot in the RAF - where he was once ordered by his CO to fly a ‘training mission’ to his home in the Isle of Man to collect his rugby boots so he could play the following day! - he taught at Bedford Modern School, and took evening classes in Bedford Gaol.

IMAGE: John Driver (on the right) and his younger brother, Nicholas (sporting a broken arm) when they were both at Kingswood.

Back at Kingswood in 1964 as Art Master and Housemaster in Hall House (under Frank Tongue), Keith soon improved the status of the Art Dept, moving it to the Ferens, and adding Ceramics and Art History to its activities. He took over Hall House for 5 years, but moved to Westwood on the sudden death of Phil Arnold. Keith set about a transformation of Westwood: it became much more an extension of his own home. He and Jackie treated –as far as possible - the 90 boy boarders as part of their family: allowing them to watch weekend films after normal ‘Lights Out’; recording important TV sport to show after Prep, with a break for Cocoa!; Bonfires (with baked potatoes etc afterwards, followed by Tom & Jerry films); house camps; house plays (house staff and prefects were expected to help Keith paint the sets: he would draw outlines on each flat, and we would go round painting by numbers, with Jackie bringing round refreshments through the night, leaving Keith to do the arty bits when we were finally allowed to go to bed – about 4am); concerts (in which Keith would invariably sing a song including the name of every boy in the house: except one night he had lost his voice, so mimed one of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words!); canal cruises (boys who fell in were not allowed to be fished out until KD had taken a photo!); and Sunday night table tennis doubles competitions all became regular features of WW life.

JOHN EDMUND STAPLETON DRIVER

Mrs Ann R Driver

The building of the Sports Hall enabled the Art Dept to move again, this time back to what had been the Gymnasium. Keith was instrumental in its design, allowing many more varieties of artistic activities, and giving him free reign for his inspirational teaching ability. He inaugurated his famous biennial History of Art weeks to Florence, which were so popular with 6th formers, staff and parents.

Sport continued to be important; he ran the first teams in several sports, until an enthusiastic tackle from a boy he had just been coaching brought his sporting days to an end with a serious knee injury.

The happy life for the Duchars family was soon to come to an end, with the diagnosis of Jackie’s cancer: she had been a loyal supporter and partner in all Keith had achieved at Westwood, and a wonderful friend to those who knew her. They moved out of Westwood, but Jackie died soon afterwards.

Keith retired from full-time teaching at 60, but remained as part-time teacher of History of Art: a subject very dear to his heart, he was very disappointed when it was dropped from the Kingswood curriculum. He gave many lectures in the area, and was well-known for his entertaining and instructive weekend workshops.

Keith married Finola in 1992, but sadly contracted Encephalitis: so his retirement, and their time together, was a time of mixed fortunes. His sons Matthew and Gregory run their own companies in the USA, and Dan is a much respected freelance photographer in London. Finola retired from her post as PA to the Bursar at Kingswood when Keith needed full-time care, and they recently moved to the Marlborough area where Finola’s daughter Victoria née Fitchett (also KS) is about to give birth to her second child. Keith was much loved in his care home, known for his colourful clothes, good sense of humour and extremely courteous manner. Following another stroke, Keith died on Sunday 30th November.

A true friend, he will be very much missed by those who knew him. His contribution to Kingswood cannot be overstated.

Marcus Sealy (Staff 1970 to present)

1945-50

Paul Graham died on 4th April 2008. Until shortly before his death, Paul was corresponding regularly with John Job (1945-51) from Echirolles in France, where he was living with his second wife, Paulette. His letters suddenly and inexplicably dried up, though he had reported a problem with prostate cancer. Up to recently, it has proved impossible for John to find out what has happened, but another close friend and KS contemporary Peter Greaves (1945-50), who is in touch with one of Paul’s sons provided this information.

An outgoing man of great energy and enthusiasm, he was an Upper House master with John Ede and coached rugby with his usual brio. He had a practical bent for his Mathematics, from card models of complex polyhedra to impressive feats of rope and timber engineering on the Lower for Speech Days.

He ran an outdoor activities group called the Crew which went caving, camping and climbing. With the support of Martha, an ageing long wheel-base Land Rover they walked the length of the Pennine Way (when it had just opened in 1965), visited the Dingle peninsula of Ireland and crossed the Scottish Highlands from coast to coast. One former pupil recalls that, “Alan provided me a lifeline to adventure, acceptance and companionship”.

Alan’s enthusiasms encompassed music, playing the french horn and, if memory serves, organising madrigal singing. This was unusually popular for an arcane musical pastime since it was a joint venture with the Royal School at a time when the boys of Kingswood had little official contact with girls.

Alan was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and died, aged 77 on 13th January 2015. The photograph, taken four months before he died, shows Alan offering support to the Ice Bucket Challengers who, through Facebook, raised so much for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

John Shrewsbury (1964-70)

Paul came to the school on an exhibition from a prep school in Surrey. After a good academic and sporting career at Kingswood he proceeded to Cambridge University where he also did well.

Rev Dr John Job (1945-51)

1945-54

“There’s plenty of room in the air, Sir: use it!” Thus did my old classmate Geoff Hindley encourage us to hit out in our games of tennis-ball cricket on the asphalt surface of the old ‘Patch’ in the early 1950s. For even in those days, and long before the nightmare decadence of ‘T20’ and the like, Geoff was running a one-man campaign for what he called “Brighter Cricket”. He [said he] was quoting the prolific Lancashire batsman Ernest Tyldesley (d.1962), who had used this slogan, when coaching young players, in order to foster judicious use of the lofted drive in pursuit of quick runs.

Unfortunately for Geoff, however, serious KS cricketers such as 1st XI batsmen were soon banned by our genially orthodox coach - the mathematician Frank (‘Bong’) Tongue - from taking part, lest these seductively entertaining soft-ball conditions should corrupt our classic stroke-play. How prophetic was Bong’s embargo, in the light of what has happened to the modern game in the quest for saleable sensationalism!

ALAN EDWARD GENT

Staff 1963-69

G.P. (PAUL) GRAHAM

GEOFF HINDLEY

So Geoff did not make his name as a cricketer. His cheerful ebullience and penchant for the unconventional masked, or perhaps energised, a serious artistic intellect that duly won him a History Exhibition at Oxford’s University College. I knew him also, of course, as a musician: and a historic photograph of John Sykes’s 1953 School Orchestra in the old Moulton Hall (now the J. Heap Library) shows him playing trombone at the back of the band. In addition, I expect he sang in the Chapel choir where a few of us kept our falsetto range going after the voice had broken, so as to help the junior boys with the harmony of the alto line (no girls then, of course). And yet I fancy that it was something of a surprise to me to find him persevering with this at Oxford as a soloist at a time when the art of countertenor - or male alto? - singing was still somewhat recherché (but was being revived by Alfred Deller and his group). I certainly recall playing for him when he was practising for such a role in a College performance of one of the Bach Passions. Others know better than I do how he went on to lead Musica Reservata and generally to give such a boost to the ‘early music’ movement and to enrich other areas of musicology. Not to mention his many later books on mediaeval history. Our paths diverged after Oxford and regrettably we fell out of touch. So it was many years before I ‘met him’ again, as it were, on the bookshelves of a musical friend. For by then Geoff had made it big time as Editor of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Music; and, spotting a copy on the shelf, I was able both to rejoice in his success and to impress my friend by claiming the acquaintance. Kingswood should be proud of his achievement - as I am, to have known the man himself.

Neil M. Cheshire (1945-54)

Paul Hiscock was born on the 5th May 1927 and died peacefully with his family present on October 10th 2013 at the age of 86.

Paul was at Kingswood between 1941 and 1945 but, of course, was not at Bath but at the evacuated Kingswood at Uppingham. After he finished at Kingswood he joined up for National Service on VE day (much to his annoyance he always said). He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery and spent some time in Germany guarding a camp of Poles, who were to be repatriated, and arranging for artillery pieces to be sent home. The impression was that he did not enjoy his time there. Eventually the army sent him to St Peter’s, Oxford to study Maths where he took up rowing. The annual boat race always found him cheering on Oxford. He was discharged from the army in 1948, but maintained a keen interest in Military History.

Paul then joined the family drapers business, Pettits of Kensington, eventually becoming managing director until the shop had to close in 1978, brought down by the postal strike. He then retired and travelled extensively with his wife Sheila. He is survived by his brother Robin(KS 1943-47), his sons Jonathan and Simon (both of whom went to Kingswood in Bath) and his three grandchildren.

John Holroyd was one of those people who make you feel better for having known them because he was so cheerful and enthusiastic, so loyal and supportive, and yet also so full of common sense and wisdom. John was always decisive and firm when occasion required it but equally he was an unfailing friend to anyone in need of support and a tireless worker for good causes. There was always in his company new ideas to explore and new questions to be asked. One of his friends aptly described him as ‘the most educated and informed person you were ever likely to meet’. He read avidly on a wide range of topics and he was happy to share his interest in everything from architecture, poetry and current affairs to music, beekeeping and collecting watercolours. He loved the past yet relished planning for the future and he had the gift of distinguishing between what matters and what does not. Above all else, John had an unquenchable determination to enjoy life and, although he recognized all the problems life can bring, there was always a twinkle in his eye and a chuckle on his lips. Those who knew and loved him miss that most.

No one can fully appreciate John without grasping the Christian faith that underpinned everything he did. His father was a Methodist minister and so his childhood was spent in various places across the south of England. However, the Holroyd family for generations had worked in the woollen industries of Yorkshire and childhood visits to his grandparents, aunts and uncles were formative experiences in understanding the importance of living within a community and of the role of faith in serving others. So too was his life at Prior’s Court and Kingswood, which he greatly enjoyed. His contemporaries at school marked him out as a future leader.

After National Service as a subaltern with the Wiltshire Regiment – part of it in active service in Cyprus – he went as a history scholar to Worcester College, Oxford. Like many of his generation, he felt called to use the education he had been given in the service of people. He therefore became a civil servant, joining the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. He was appointed as a Private Secretary to Christopher Soames and so was involved in the negotiations concerning Britain’s potential joining of the European Common Market. Later he served for three years as the Ministry’s Regional Controller in Leeds. In the late 70s he became Chair of the Civil

Jonathan Hiscock (1970-75)

PAUL HISCOCK

JOHN HEPWORTH HOLROYD

Service Selection Board, which presided over selecting the fast stream into the services from universities and other sources, and, from 1985, he worked in the Cabinet Office. He won a reputation as being someone who could put a nervous candidate at ease and who was a shrewd judge of character. From 1989 to 1993 he was First Civil Service Commissioner and therefore responsible for advising on the appointment of all the top civil servants and heads of agencies, as well as being in charge of ensuring that all civil service appointments were made as effectively and impartially as possible. He was a key figure in steering the changes that were made in the structure of the civil service in the 1990s.

During his early working career John worshipped at Hinde Street Methodist Church and was a Methodist lay preacher. It was there he met his wife Judith, who at that time was a nurse, though she later made a career with the auction house Phillips. They married in 1963 and had two children, Stephen and Sarah. No one hearing John speak of his family could doubt his love for them. When the family moved to St Albans they decided to worship at its Cathedral, which was renowned for its ecumenical approach. John soon became a very popular lay reader and later, because of St Albans original status as an abbey, a trustee for the community of Benedictine monks. He also became a member of the cathedral and abbey church’s Fabric Advisory Committee and helped fund raise for a new Chapter House, which opened in 1982 and provided core new facilities for the congregation and visitors. It is today seen as a powerful symbol of the cathedral’s role in the local community and a tangible expression of the Ministry of Welcome. In the 1980s his advice was increasingly sought on clerical appointments because of the personnel skills he had learnt in the Civil Service. He became the first ever lay chair of the Church of England’s selection process for clergy, advising the Church on its procedures and finding some amusement in training the selectors, who were often distinguished Vice Chancellors, judges, and headteachers. He also undertook staff appraisals in some dioceses and was appointed a Visitor to Lincoln Theological College until its closure in 1995.

Although John became a staunch advocate for maintaining the established status of the Church of England, he never forgot his nonconformist roots and he matched his work for St Albans and the Church

with a deep commitment to his old school. He became a governor of Kingswood and, when Laurie Campbell retired, was on the panel that masterminded the selection of the new headmaster. He was a wonderful governor to work with because he loved the school and all the Christian values that it stood for yet was also very forward-looking. He recognized that schools require a combination of continuity and change if they are to flourish. Despite his demanding public role, he gave unstintingly of his time as Treasurer of Governors. In that capacity he helped the school see through massive changes in the 1990s. He was one of the central figures in encouraging the redevelopment of the academic areas of the senior school, restructuring and modernizing its boarding houses, and improving the facilities for sport, music, and art, including the building of a new Theatre in 1994 and the creation of the Music School in 2000. He was also a key governor in ensuring the return of the junior section of the school back to Bath by the building of the new Kingswood Prep School in the Summerhill estate and the later creation of High Vinnals, which replaced the boarding at Prior’s Court in Newbury. All in all he served the school unstintingly for twenty years.

In 1993 John decided, out of love for the Church, to take a nominal demotion and work in No 10 Downing Street as the Prime Minister’s Appointments Secretary and Ecclesiastical Secretary to the Lord Chancellor. In this capacity he served first John Major and then Tony Blair. His main role was overseeing all senior ecclesiastical appointments in the Church of England - bishops, deans, and crown-appointed canons. It was a natural fit for his interests and he became a much trusted figure in church circles, even though he was not afraid of challenging the establishment when he thought that necessary. On one occasion he recommended Tony Blair should reject both the names which had been put forward for a certain diocesan bishopric, much to the surprise of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

John was also in charge of all crown appointments, including the poet laureate, the astronomer royal and many regius professors. He took a particular interest in the appointment of Lord-Lieutenants, travelling far and wide to sound out local opinion on prospective candidates suitable to become the Queen’s personal representatives in each county or region,

encouraging men and women with a wide and varied experience to volunteer for the unpaid role. He realised how important it was that an ancient office should be kept relevant and it is widely recognised that his contribution to modernising the appointment and operation of the Lord Lieutenancy was enormous.

For his service to the country John was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Not long after John retired in 1999, he and Judith decided to move to Gloucester and they quickly made a new life for themselves there. Over the next few years John’s wider interests were not entirely forgotten. For example, he was chair of Wells Cathedral Council for seven years and was invited to become Adviser to the Lord Lieutenant’s Association. In the latter capacity he helped revise its Handbook and his gentle and wise advice, coupled with his deep-rooted integrity, made him countless friends. However, Gloucester was given the bulk of his time. He served the Cathedral both as a lay reader and as a member of its Fabric Advisory Committee. He became a Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire (following taking on that role first in Herefordshire), taking especial delight in attending ceremonies where people acquired British citizenship. He had always loved singing, having been for many years a member of the Royal Choral Society in London and the St Alban’s Bach Choir, and he sang in the Gloucester Choral Society and the prestigious Three Choirs Festival, becoming a fundraiser for the latter. Above all, he devoted the same energy that he had shown at Kingswood to helping the King’s School in Gloucester. He joined its governing body in 2002 and became its first ever lay Chair of Governors, serving the school with distinction in that capacity from 2009 to 2012. To the end of his life he remained particularly interested in the education of young people.

When John preached for the last time in Gloucester Cathedral he knew that he had cancer and that his life was coming to a close and he used that opportunity to express his gratitude not to the Caesar who had employed him as a civil servant but to the God he loved and for whom he had so consciously lived his life.

When John Wesley created Kingswood he hoped that it would produce people who would become ambassadors of the

values of Christ. There is no doubt that in John Holroyd the School had such an ambassador. As his son said at John’s funeral: ‘He lived his life with a sense of service where the outcomes for others were what mattered most: a vocation in life to be a force for good’.

Gary Best (Headmaster 1987-2008)

Noel Jones was born in December 1936 and died in November 2014.

Philip Kedward (1949-54)

NOEL OWEN JONES

1949-54

Noel Jones, who died on 17th November, was a pupil at Kingswood in the Lower House during the Sackett era. He achieved success in the field of athletics, running for the School in many cross-country events and competitions.

On leaving School he chose medicine as a career, following his parents who were both GPs. He studied at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, qualifying in the early sixties. After a training period at provincial hospitals he became an anaesthetist at Worcester Royal Infirmary.

He had a keen interest in field sports and became an accomplished shot, well known on many shoots in the area. He also trained springer spaniels up to field trial standard and became a judge in this highly competitive sport. In 2010 he was elected President of the English and Welsh Springer Spaniel Society.

Noel had two daughters, Nicky and Pippa, who survive him.

1951-56

I was a contemporary of David at KS and stayed in touch with him over 65 years until his sudden death in September. I didn’t find out until much later on that David had contracted polio as a child and had been unable to walk for several months. Partly as a consequence of this, he came to KS on a scholarship from his local council. This earlier illness did not seem to cramp his style, though he showed no interest in competitive sports. David took to school life with enormous enthusiasm and took good advantage of the wide range of opportunities that KS offered. Outside the classroom he founded a jazz band, in which he played the trombone with great vigour, and he also played chess, painted and became interested in photography. Whole Holidays were spent in trying (often successfully) to reach Slimbridge and meet Peter Scott. Additionally David won a flying scholarship from the RAF, which meant that he could train on Tiger Moths at Bristol, wearing a Biggles helmet! And he stood as Conservative candidate in the School’s mock hustings before the general election of 1955 (nobody else would) and, after an inspired rant, won with a large majority. It must have been this breadth of interest that helped him to get a scholarship to read history at Oxford. Possibly it was also a tribute to the talent that A. B. Sackett, our headmaster, had for spotting ability.

David left KS in 1956, one of the last years when National Service was obligatory.

His flying experience must have helped him to get pilot training in the RAF, where his time was spent mainly in Canada. Before he came home David worked for a time as a private detective, rode a motorbike to Panama along the incomplete Trans-America Highway and then returned to England on a freighter. An early example of his love of adventure.

David’s time at Oxford was largely recreational. He didn’t take his studies seriously and claimed to have attended only one lecture in his three years there. His time was spent getting to know the opposite sex, flying in the University Air Squadron and playing in a jazz band. Most importantly, Oxford was where he met Judy Lawson. David left with a multitude of friends, many memories and a third-class degree.

After Oxford David was recruited by the BBC as a Current Affairs trainee (one of only two) based in London. Judy and David were married in 1962, and lived in a minute flat in Chapel Market. It wasn’t long before the BBC sent David to Plymouth, where he spent four years as a reporter on Spotlight South West. He never lost his affection for the area, particularly Dartmoor and the sea. It was there that Judy introduced him to sailing, which soon took over from flying as his main recreational interest.

In 1967 David and Judy moved back to the London area. His subsequent career in the BBC, as a reporter working on Nationwide, Twenty Four Hours, Newsnight, Panorama and Business Matters, has been covered in obituaries in the national press (Times, Guardian and Telegraph), where his reports from overseas and his encounters with Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe and his interview with the King of Thailand were rightly given prominence. These visits were not without danger. Work in war zones was obviously problematic, but David and his team suffered other inconveniences as well. On one occasion they were imprisoned for a week in Zimbabwe. When a reporter from the local paper in Berkshire contacted Judy to tell her the news and ask for a comment, the answer was, ‘At least I know where he is.’

I was living in Nepal and then Thailand during the time that David was working for Panorama. In 1975 he came, with Judy and the family, to Kathmandu, where he filmed the coronation of King

DAVID LOMAX

Birendra. I remember on the day before the coronation watching the camera crew filming the elephants being painted for their role in the coronation procession. This was followed by an evening spent in our kitchen making large yellow rosettes, completely fake, which the camera crew used to bluff their way through the crowds. This was typical of David but it was also typical that he used his visit as an opportunity to comment on social conditions in Nepal and on the gulf between the lavishness of the coronation ceremony and the poverty elsewhere in the country.

A few years later, David was with us in Thailand, making a film about the Thai monarchy. He arrived bearing a gift of honey from his own hives for Queen Sirikit (David also gave honey to Idi Amin). The film he made, Soul of a Nation, not only shows the formality of the Thai court but also gives a rare glimpse of the intimacy behind the facade. The film, at the time of writing, can be seen on YouTube, though unfortunately the commentary on this version is not spoken by David.

After 22 years, the BBC, as part of an internal reorganisation, made David redundant. Using his redundancy money to buy a 35-foot yacht, Cloud Walker, he and Judy and the family promptly sailed to the Caribbean. He sent a postcard from every port there thanking his former boss for the gift of the boat. He continued to work for the BBC as a freelance reporter until 2004. His reputation for taking on difficult assignments stood him in good stead and he often was used to interview business tycoons. In 1986 he was named Business Journalist of the Year, surprising because he cared little about finance. The freedom of not being tied to a contract gave David the opportunity to take on work he wanted to do and have summers off sailing, in particular in Norway, with which he had a long association (and a Norwegian son-in-law). In 1991 he and Judy were members of a crew sailing the 75-foot replica Viking ship Gaia (now in the Sandefiord museum south of Oslo) from Norway to Newfoundland to mark the thousandth anniversary of Leif Erikksen’s voyage (again, see pictures on YouTube). This was followed, throughout the years, by further voyages on Cloud Walker across the Atlantic and to Greenland, Iceland, the Faroes and Norway. David was particularly proud of having accomplished a highly difficult circumnavigation of Spitzbergen. Never

the Mediterranean though; David always avoided that! In 1986 Judy and David were elected members of the Royal Cruising Club, where he became ViceCommodore while Judy wrote the Pilot Book to the coasts of Norway.

In 2003 David and Judy moved to Dartmoor, where they bought and renovated a Devon longhouse that had fallen on hard times. There they developed a successful bed-andbreakfast and self-catering business as well as having a house always ready for family and friends (see www.lowerblackaton.com). Judy still welcomes visitors! More time for the grandchildren, for photography, for singing with the Widecombe singers and for chess with the Dartmoor Chess Club. Not to mention sailing, which David continued to enjoy despite a series of debilitating illnesses. After ‘the best summer ever’ sailing from Tromsō in Norway to Oslo, David died on 5 September after a short illness.

David led an unconventional life. He had little respect for authority coupled with a naturally inquisitive nature, a combination that proved invaluable in his journalistic career. Added to this were a zest for living, great generosity, an interest in people from all walks of life, and a streak of individualism which caused him to be loved and admired by all who knew him. A family man, he took great pleasure in the achievements of his five children, two foster daughters and eleven grandchildren - he was able to teach the older ones to sail and to play chess. He talked to me once about his school days. He was grateful for the start that he had had at Kingswood – he felt that the school was farsighted enough to allow him the freedom to develop his personality and skills in a way that stood him in good stead throughout his life.

David arrived at his funeral to the sounds of the triumphal march from Aida. The church at Widecombe in the Moor was packed, both with locals and with the many who had found their way there from all corners of the country. It was an occasion full of both joy and sadness. At the end we all sang the Hallelujah Chorus. What a way to go out! Afterwards Judy said that, when asked why she had married David, her simple answer was: ‘He was the most exciting man that I had ever met.’ We knew exactly what she meant.

David Waterhouse (1947-56)

ANTHONY DAVID MARTIN

1952-1961

David was born in Whitchurch, Cardiff on 30th June 1942. His father, Rev Sidney John Martin, was a Methodist Minister and his mother, Margaret Florence Mary Martin, was a Maths teacher.

In 1952 he started at Prior’s Court, sent there by his mother who had not trusted the local school to get him through the eleven plus, which he subsequently passed. He told nobody, except myself a few days before he died, that he had been very unhappy there.

In 1954 he moved to Kingswood where he was very happy, enjoying sport, particularly cricket, and making friends. He tried for a place at Oxbridge, reading History, but didn’t quite manage it, leaving School when he was 19. He went to Liverpool University where he studied History and then to Sheffield where he did a year of teacher training. At university he played sport including rock climbing.

After college he went to Antigua with Voluntary Service Overseas and taught in a school there – this was a very enjoyable posting which he would often talk about. Before coming back to the UK he toured North America with a friend.

On his return he obtained a post teaching History at Wennington School near Wetherby in Yorkshire. The school had been founded by a group of Quakers and David acquired a deep knowledge of Quakers from his time there.

Between 1969 and 1990 he taught History at Mexborough School, a large Comprehensive. Increasingly, partly as a result of boundary changes, he felt that the children were not interested in serious learning and he became unhappy in his work. Seeking alternative employment, he applied to become a Tax Inspector. After training he started working in the South Yorkshire area and continued in this role until 2002 – he was very proud of this achievement.

While at Wennington he met and, in 1972, married Janet Elizabeth Wainwright who was the domestic science teacher. They had two children; Elizabeth born in 1973 and Richard in 1975. The family lived in

the village of Ackworth, near Wakefield and David played a major role in the life of the village.

From 2002 he and Janet enjoyed a very comfortable retirement, travelling extensively especially to New Zealand. In November 2010, however, Janet was diagnosed with cancer of the bowel and died in early August 2011. In November 2011 David became ill and was also diagnosed with cancer of the bowel in March 2012. He died on 27th June 2012 having received exceptional care from his children.

My brother lived a very normal good life and was a value to society. In spite of sibling rivalries I doubt that we ever really quarrelled. As adults we lived far apart, only meeting up for Christmas and family occasions. When he died I found I was exceptionally unhappy, probably because I had never married and had a family myself. My family had always been my parents and my brother and on his death I told people that I felt an orphan.

Michael John Martin (1951-57)

destroyed by bombs. Peter was to follow him in this aspect of his career, becoming a Master himself in 1980. There was also a younger brother John, who was briefly in the Fleet Air Arm, and a Freeman of the Saddlers. He died unexpectedly in his bed aged 26.

Peter Northall-Laurie had a public school and university education; however as a member of the O.T.C he joined the Army prior to being called up before completing the course, and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He started in Coast Artillery at Littlehampton and Cromer, waiting for the German invasion, then transferred to a medium Artillery Regiment training for our invasion. On 29th June 1944 it landed at Arromanches and engaged the enemy on 2nd July in the region of Caen, where casualties were incurred before the Germans retreated. The regiment supported the general advance of the British Army, and at Arnheim the regiment was engaged, supporting the airborne troops before they had to retreat. They then advanced on Hamburg, which surrendered to the British. Peter remembers visiting a concentration camp called Neuengamme, which is now a tourist attraction. Then he went to India with the Indian Army, fortunately Japan surrendered so he did no fighting.

As Master of the Saddlers’ Company he had an eventful year with his wife, Joy, supporting him. During his year the Lord Mayor was Paul Newall, the Alderman for Walbrook Ward. The Saddlers’ Company had a float in the Lord Mayor’s procession, and of course they both went to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in the Guildhall as they did every year when he was a Councillor of the Corporation of London.

At the Horse Show in Wembley the M.C. suggested that the public would rather see a pretty girl present the prize rather than an old man in a dinner jacket! So, Joy obliged and he stayed in the Royal Box. At Badminton he had the honour of presenting the Saddlers’ prize – a saddle – via the Queen to Mark Phillips with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Beaufort in attendance.

Another high point was the evening when the Duke of Edinburgh dined with the Saddlers’ Company and in his witty speech he compared “genes” with “Jeans”!

Peter Dudley Northall-Laurie was born in April 1920 to Cicely and Dudley Northall-Laurie and spent his early years in Hampstead. His father was skilled in colour photography, a Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, and also an expert in water analysis. During the war he was in the Admiralty helping on projects such as desalinating sea water for life boats and countering magnetic mines. He was the master of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers in 1942 when the Hall was

On demobilisation he began a long involvement with the City of London when he went to work for a Discount Bank. He went to Night School to qualify as an Associate of the Institute of Bankers, and a Chartered Secretary. He retired from the Bank as Company Secretary in 1980. His family had been in public service and business in the City for many years – notably Sir Peter Laurie and Sir John Laurie were both Lord Mayors in 1852 and 1942 respectively. Peter NorthallLaurie continued this tradition, and represented the Ward of Walbrook for many years and served on many committees, only resigning as Councillor for Walbrook when he was 78, due to ill health. He served as a Governor of Alleyns School, Dulwich and as a member and Chairman of Central Markets. He was Saddlers’ representative on the Court of the City University and the City and Guilds Institute. As well as being a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers, he was also a Past President of the United Wards Club of the City of London and Chairman of Walbrook Ward Club.

He was very happily married to Joy Woodward, by Special Licence in the Queen’s Chapel of The Savoy, in 1966. Joy obtained a degree at the University of London, and then had an eventful career working for the BBC, being promoted eventually to be a Senior Administrator, having organised a grading system for their 3,000 secretaries. She retired in 1977 owing to ill health. They lived most of their married life in an apartment on the river at Bray, near Maidenhead. Like Peter, she was a member of the Walbrook Ward Club, United Wards’ Club, Guild of Freemen, whilst being a Council Member of the English National Ballet. She suffered from ill health which eventually confined her to a wheelchair. She died peacefully in hospital in 2006.

Decorations: Peter Northall-Laurie received the usual campaign medals, plus a ‘mention’ for the European Campaign. On the 50th Anniversary of VE Day he made a visit to Normandy, where the Mayor of Cherbourg presented all veterans with a medal “for liberating Normandy”. He was an Officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John at Jerusalem with medal.

P D NORTHALL-LAURIE ACIB FCIS CC 1934-38

This obituary is taken from words which Peter NorthallLaurie had himself prepared.

DENNIS PATIENT 1945-51

Dennis was born on 27th May 1932 in Coimbatore in Southern India. His mother, Margaret Bligh, was a teacher and had gone to work there with the London Missionary Society. His father, Thomas, worked for T Stanes & Co a tea and coffee producer. Dennis’ brother, Alan, was born on 3rd October 1930. Tragically, Thomas died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 35. So Margaret came back to Buckinghamshire, with her two young sons, to live with her mother.

The Company helped to pay for Dennis and Alan’s schooling, their secondary education being at Kingswood Methodist School in Bath. Dennis was very proud of his school. From there came his love of sport; particularly tennis, athletics, rugby, cross-country and chess.

After A-Levels he went to Westminster Medical School. The pre-clinical course was at King’s College and it was there that he met Marjorie during the first week. Dennis gained his MB and BS degrees in 1957 and later added qualifications in obstetrics and anaesthetics.

Marjorie and Dennis were married on 7th April 1958 and after house jobs in London and Guildford, Dennis, because he was a pacifist, began to look for alternatives to National Service.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was advertising for doctors to work in mission hospitals in South Africa. He and Marjorie decided to go there on a three year contract. In spite of contracting measles soon after arriving, Dennis quickly decided that this was his vocation.

Thus started the most interesting and challenging professional life that a young doctor could wish for, with experience in medicine, all branches of surgery, obstetrics, anaesthetics, paediatrics and orthopaedics. Tuberculosis was widespread and once a week there was a twenty mile drive to visit a leper hospital on the coast.

Operations on head injuries from machetes and knobkerries, following the Pondo’s frequent fights after too much beer, were regularly on the theatre list.

At the baby clinics Dennis used to throw away the feeding bottles and scold the Pondo mothers for not breast feeding.

Dennis and Marjorie’s first son, Christopher, was born in 1960. Stephen was born sixteen months later. At the end of the three year contract Dennis tried general practice in Lincolnshire but found it rather tame and was soon on the look-out for work back in South Africa.

This time, with Lesley on the way in 1964, they went to Jane Furze mission hospital in Sekhukhuniland, which was then an African reserve in the Transvaal. Working there for two years he added experience of eye diseases to the work he had already done.

The next move, now with three children, was back to Holy Cross hospital where he was Superintendent. When the children were of school age, not wanting to send them to boarding school, the family moved to Mbabane, Swaziland where the variety of work was the same but in an urban environment. Timothy was born and the family was complete.

The last move in South Africa was to a Roman Catholic mission hospital 25 miles from Durban in Natal. The decision to return to England was a difficult one for Dennis. The boys, however, were eligible for South African National Service and Marjorie and Dennis wanted the children to experience a life away from apartheid in South Africa.

In 1978 he joined a practice in Tadworth, Surrey where he worked until retirement in 1995.

Tennis, walking, gardening and singing in choirs continued to be his favourite leisure pursuits. On his 60th birthday he told Marjorie that he would like to buy a house in France and so began a very happy 18 years of going to and from LeBancarel in the Aveyron. In 1996 they moved from the family home in Reigate to Stockbridge.

Dennis had a great gift for large scale organisation and he generously offered these skills to the community. He organised walking trips in France for groups of friends from Winchester. For their golden wedding anniversary he planned a 50 mile sponsored walk fro the two of them in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières and Marie Curie Cancer Relief. He helped as both a driver and assistant for the Joy Ride team of volunteers, providing essential transport to Andover three times a week. In addition

his overseeing of the house to house collection for 15 years during Christian Aid week will not be forgotten.

His children and grandchildren were a source of great pride and joy to him. His generosity led to many happy family celebrations including taking the whole family to his beloved South Africa over Christmas 2012.

Pulmonary fibrosis was first diagnosed in 2010, he continued to play tennis until June 2013 but serious walking became a problem. When he finally had to have oxygen at home and a portable cylinder when out he carried on bravely without complaining.

Dennis will be greatly missed, not only by his family, but also in the community and by his wide circle of friends.

REV DAVID A SANDERS

1946-54

DAVID Sanders was born in Prestwich, Manchester, on December 17, 1934, into a Methodist ministerial family.

He, too, became in time a Methodist minister, following his father, grandfather and two uncles, in a heritage he valued. Sadly, David was killed in a road accident in August, when a lorry drove into the back of the car he was driving.

For his earliest years he lived on the mission field in West Africa, taken there by his parents, the Rev Percival and Ethel Sanders. Later, with the family back in English work, David went to Kingswood School, which he followed by two years of National Service in Germany and then Balliol College, Oxford.

During his school days a life-threatening attack of osteomyelitis left him with one leg held for a year in plaster, then in a calliper, but, responding to the challenge, he learned first to walk again, then to take up cross-country running, with a notable degree of success that saw him represent both regiment and university.

Encouraged to consider local preaching, he shared in his first service on his 17th birthday - and David has been welcomed back to that chapel of Bourne, Heath Hayes, for his 50th and 60th anniversaries. Following Oxford, he became a lay pastor in the Frome circuit, which later (to use David’s own words) ‘had the audacity to recommend him for the ministry’.

He trained at Didsbury and, after his marriage to Betty, whom he met in Frome, they went together to his first appointment in Brayford, North Devon.

He was ordained in 1966 - ordained as minister, David would remind you, not as that curious “presbyter” - and then David and Betty moved north and were in several circuits in and around Manchester. The rebuilding of the Aspinall church dates from their period in that circuit.

David always valued the opportunity to preach and to minister as pastor. Folk who turned to him in trouble found him always caring, ready to listen, to give his time and to help.

He nurtured possible local preachers and, with encouragement and support, urged more than one to be ready to stretch their service and consider whether they were called to ministry. He tried, too, to involve the church in wider community questions, at election time hosting a televised allparty debate, for instance. His concern about social issues led him further into the political scene and he stood as a Liberal candidate for Parliament.

He was keen always to widen rather than narrow down the interests he pursued; he felt it a healthier approach. In earlier days he built a kayak, and then a Ford Special car. Taking the newly built car across Europe, he tackled the Col of the Grand St Bemard: many were the stops to photograph the view - and to allow a boiling radiator to cool down! For David inactivity was rarely an option: “sitting down” as supernumeniry kept him rather at full stretch.

He enjoyed theological study, to the point that, despite his list of degrees, he was still

planning to work for a doctorate; after all, he rather expected to live to 103!

He loved singing and classical music; he turned to lecturing in economics and property valuation, and he engaged in charitable fundraising for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.

Running parallel with some of these came more preaching and circuit work, in Stockton Heath, in Oswestry, in Buxton as supernumerary and this last year in Atherton and Hindley, where people have spoken so kindly and genuinely about what they felt he had done for them. Others have described his warmth and his optimism despite setbacks: “He was a lovely man” has been a recurrent phrase in their tributes. “He seemed to come through smiling, trying to do his best for people and showing his love for his family.”

David’s eldest son, Andrew, died tragically some 10 years ago, but from his second marriage, to Sue, the “tribe of David” includes Paul, Holly, Bethany, not forgetting their half-brother, Daniel. There are three grandchildren.

We remember David as “one of Mr Wesley’s preachers”, a much-valued brother, friend and father, and one to whom his ministry and his family were especially dear. He had a secure Christian faith to carry him through. On the day he died we know that he set off on that journey looking cheerful and that he was travelling in hope. The ending must have been swift. We thank God for his life and that he was not held in long-term suffering. He died in the 79th year of his life and the 50th year of his ministry.

MS, JH and others

Originally published in the Methodist Recorder and reproduced here with their kind permission.

1954-62

My brother Chris tragically died aged 71 on 22 September 2014 from myeloma, the cancer that originates in the bone marrow. He was born on 2 April 1943 at Uppingham, where our parents had

been exiled with the school during the war. Back in Bath at the family home, Emaney (which will be remembered by generations of Kingswood boys), there was much cricket in the back garden. After Bath High School, where Chris was one of a small number of boys, he joined Kingswood in 1954, in Westwood and then School House. Following in the footsteps of his father (an opening bat and leg spinner) and his grandfather (wicket keeper) he was a keen cricketer and captained the 1st XI, also playing for the first XV at rugby and occasionally the first XI hockey. Being from a musical family (our mother was a trained pianist and our father sang opera in the Bath Opera Group) he learnt piano and double bass. Music accompanied him at concerts and in the background for the rest of his life. Chris became deputy head prefect, and in 1962 went up to Jesus College, Cambridge to read Engineering and there he was an outstanding sportsman, playing cricket, rugby and hockey for the College. On one occasion he played cricket for the University team. He had early shown a zest for life tempered with a deep humanity and a quiet but strong sense of humour that found him at ease in almost any company. As a student he hitched across Europe to spend a month helping to build houses for refugees.

From Cambridge he went to Uganda in 1965 for a Dip Ed and then to Kagumo, Kenya, where he spent two years teaching. He was a member of the Kenya Kongonis Cricket Club and supported the East African Cricket Foundation. In one match he made 143 not out against a touring Warwickshire XI. Chris supported the Kongonis’ annual tours in Sussex, playing 118 matches in all, many as captain, making a total of 2,788 runs, including three centuries and twenty-one fifties. One fellow Kongoni remembers that ‘he made a monumental impact on the club and the people around it.’

CHRISTOPHER HUGH TONGUE

His next teaching post was at Felsted School from 1968, teaching Maths and Mechanics, and he became an assistant housemaster. Even after his successes on the cricket field at a high level, for some years he greatly enjoyed the conviviality of an annual cricket tour with old school friends around the villages of Cornwall, one year taking the skipper around in his latest toy, a briefly adopted Lotus Europa of which he was sheepishly proud.

In January 1975 he made a teacher exchange with Bishops (Diocesan College) Cape Town and it was there he met his future wife Chelsia where both were singing in the Cape Town Philharmonia Choir for Handel’s Messiah under David Willcocks. After marrying in South Africa they returned to Felsted in 1977, where he coached rugby and cricket - Derek Pringle was one of his players and they stayed in touch. From 1980 he became a respected housemaster of Manor House. Their two sons Craig and Giles were born there.

His first headmastership came in 1984 at Keil School, Dumbarton, where in eight years he doubled the number of pupils and modernised the school.

In January 1993 he became Headmaster of St John’s School, Leatherhead. Numbers were down and the governors had considered closing the school but Chris set about rebuilding it, quickly gaining the support of parents and the respect of staff and pupils. He has been described as someone ‘who will go down in the history of the school as one of the great headmasters.’ Chris had our father Frank Tongue’s ability to coax the best out of the less able, and his headships were influenced by the great A.B.Sackett at Kingswood, particularly in his ability to appoint outstanding staff.

Chris was chairman of HMC’s professional development sub-committee and he did appraisals for them into his retirement, helping to appoint, mentor and appraise other headmasters. After he retired from St John’s in 2004 Chris joined CfA (Charity and Fundraising Appointments). One of his colleagues there describes his ‘complete integrity, innate courtesy and kindness to everyone and completely misplaced humility about his own strengths.’ When he was about to retire he took up golf: moving to Fulham he joined Wimbledon Common Golf Club and was appointed Captain of the WAGGS (Wimbledon Aged Golfers), Captain of the Club and then Chairman in a very short space of time.

Chris and Chelsia finally retired to Dartmoor in 2014, and on leaving London he was awarded honorary membership of the Wimbledon club, an honour given to few. They had bought and renovated a traditional Dartmoor longhouse at Horndon, some four hundred yards away from The Elephant’s Nest, a pub boasting its own cricket team. He was only in the house three weeks before he died in hospital at Plymouth. His funeral was at St Mary’s Church, Mary Tavy, where six family members carried the coffin. A memorial service was later held at St John’s, Leatherhead, to a packed chapel. Tributes from his many friends and colleagues mention his dedication, warmth, generosity, wisdom and inspiration. Chris supported a number of educational trusts. He leaves his wife Chelsia and two sons, Craig and Giles.

1945-51

David L.M. Vinson joined KS at Uppingham in September 1945 and was a member of Upper House.

A son of the manse, he was a lifelong Methodist, becoming a local preacher and continuing in this work almost until he died. His teaching career culminated in the headship of a secondary school in Brimington near Chesterfield.

In retirement he worked as a lay pastor where he and his wife Kathleen, with whom he had two sons, Andrew and Jonathan, belonged, at Greenhill Church in South Sheffield. David and Kathleen saw their Golden Wedding, but David soon afterwards began a four-year battle with a kind of leukaemia which proved resistant to treatment and he died on May 10, 2012 in his eightieth year.

John Lewis (1947-56, Staff 1972-97)

1949-54

As a son of the Manse, he moved around the country with his parents at regular intervals and, following his father’s death in 1944 when John was only 7, his mother settled in York. Here John remained until he went to Kingswood School in 1949.

In 1954 aged 17, he went to the University of Leeds to study Medicine and qualified with honours in 1959. Among other awards he won the surgical prize, which caused much mirth to his sons later when watching him trying to carve the Sunday joint. Instead he decided he would follow a career in general medicine. Following house officer posts in Leeds and York, he became a Registrar on the Professorial Unit at Leeds General Infirmary. It was about this time he began the use of green ink in his fountain pen for which he was well known throughout his career.

John then became Tutor in Medicine at Leeds University and it was during this time that he met Diana, his future wife, who was a fourth year medical student. While still a student John qualified as a Methodist Lay Preacher and regularly conducted services for the next 40 years. He also had the honour of preaching at a service in York Minster to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the British Diabetic Association (now Diabetes UK).

John and Diana married in 1966 in Cheshire and initially lived in Leeds, where their first two sons, James (KS 1980-1987) and Philip (KS 1981-88), were born in 1968 and 1970 respectively. Later in 1970 John became a Consultant Physician at Dewsbury and their youngest son, William (KS 1983-1990), was born there in 1971.

John continued to work in Dewsbury until his retirement in 1997 having gained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in 1981. He wrote several papers for medical journals.

John and Diana loved travelling. When the children were still at school, holidays were usually spent travelling around Europe

John was born on 7th March 1937 in Hexham, Northumberland where his father was a Methodist Minister.

JOHN HOMER WETHERILL

Alan Tongue (1950-58)

DAVID VINSON

with their caravan, going to France, Italy, Germany and Austria at various times. On one occasion this caused chaos in the centre of Heidelberg when he took a wrong turning into an underground car park and had to turn around on the entry slope. Once the children were older, much to their dismay, their holidays became more and more exotic as they went to Russia, Madagascar, the Amazon, Canada, Ecuador, Australia, India (among many others) quite often on a cruise which they thoroughly enjoyed. Together they visited every continent except Antarctica.

John was definitely not a lover of technology; all his reports and accounts were hand-written although he did manage to work an electric typewriter. One year he was given a mobile phone for Christmas and it was rarely used.

He had an interest in medical history and wrote the only known history of the old York Medical School. He was also an avid reader and student of Charles Dickens.

John was rarely seen without a shirt and tie, whether he was going out or at home and would even put a tie on to go to the refuse tip just in case he saw someone he knew. John loved trains, especially steam trains, and at one time he had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of timetables.

When at School, John’s only sporting prowess was cross-country running, cut short by a retinal detachment after a sledging accident when he was 16 years old. However, when his sons all began orienteering for the School & County, he & his wife became involved too and for several years helped with catering for team events such as the Scottish 6-day event. On one occasion, the whole team of 15 KS orienteers stayed overnight at their house in Yorkshire, occupying most of the downstairs rooms.

John always spoke with fondness of his time at Kingswood and regularly attended Kingswood Association dinners in Yorkshire, Bath and also in London. John passed away on 25th August 2013 after a short illness.

James Wetherill (1980-87)

A farmer who campaigned for farming and conservation to coexist side-by-side has died aged 94.

John Willmer OBE was a recognised expert in ecology, conservation and alternative energy and managed his family home - Friars Court, near Clanfield - as a model of how a modern farm could combine the three.

The 650-acre site boasts clean energy projects, including solar panels and a wind turbine, as well as being one of Natural England’s “higher level stewardship” sites - where a strict agreement to adhere to good conservation practices exists.

He first converted the farm to its present model with his wife in 1989, in a radical step which saw them sell off their entire herd of 60 dairy cows.

John Willmer was born at Friars Court on November 11, 1920, to parents Richard and Mary (née Honour). He was the eldest brother to three sisters, Joan, Molly and Ruth. As a boy he was a pupil at Kingswood School, after which he went to Bradford to learn the workings of the wool trade.

He returned to Friars Court at the outbreak of the Second World War to produce food and join the Home Guard. He had tried to enlist in the Royal Air Force with a few of his friends, but because of his “reserved occupation”one considered essential to the domestic war effort - was not allowed to.

Within the year all his friends were killed in action, which drew Mr Willmer closer to the Methodist church and also farming. He became a preacher in 1949 and preached for more than 65 years. His sermons often included observations on nature.

He was known as a progressive farmer and became county chairman of the Oxfordshire branch of the National

Farmers’ Union, as well as chairman of Oxfordshire Young Farmers.

He also joined the board of West Oxfordshire Technical College and was on the governing body of Westminster College, Oxford, the West Oxfordshire Further Education College and a longserving member of Clanfield Parish Council.

Mr Willmer met his wife, Frances, in 1963 during a stay at the Acland Hospital in Oxford. He was the patient, she his nurse.

They married on February 8, 1964 and had three children, Carol in 1966, Mary in 1967 and Charles in 1970.

Tragedy struck in 1975 when Mary died of leukaemia. Another bitter blow followed a decade later when Carol was killed in a cycling accident while travelling in Australia. Mr Willmer’s response was to establish a memorial trust in their names which aids different charities around Oxfordshire.

Mr Willmer was also known for his talks relating to wildlife and conservation.

In 1989, following a difficult few years in farming, he and his wife decided to develop this interest into a new business and sold their dairy herd, converting their farm outbuildings into a small tearoom and visitor centre.

Mr Willmer would then take groups on educational tours, explaining how farming and conservation could co-exist, before Mrs Willmer would serve her home-baked teas.

As this led him into the areas of ecology, conservation and alternative energy, he became an acknowledged expert in the field and was awarded an OBE in 1989 for his work.

Two years later he was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Mr Willmer ran his family home, Friars Court, his entire life, even after being diagnosed with a heart condition at 90.

He died peacefully at home, in the room in which he was born, on August 11. He is survived by sisters, Ruth and Molly and son Charles. His wife died in 1997.

A ceremony celebrating his life was held at St Mary’s Church, Bampton.

Those who remember John will know that he was born without properly formed arms and legs but with a wonderful temperament capable of turning potential barriers into clear opportunities. Encouraged by John Lewis, John was 1st XI cricket scorer from the age of 13 and a keen (and very capable!) orienteer. Many will recall an enthusiastic Junior Quad footballer as well.

After Cambridge, a successful legal career and his own business consultancy John has just launched his own charity and we are delighted to reproduce here an extract from his blog on the day he returned to Kingswood.

Friday 25th April 2014

This was scheduled to be the finale but due to half term and the Easter holidays, it became the 38th out of the 50 swims. But no less enjoyable for all that; in fact it was an outstanding day at my old school.

Unfortunately, due to a road accident on the top of Lansdown, we arrived 10 minutes late. I walked into the theatre (one of the many buildings built since my day) to be greeted by Gordon Opie, one of the Deputy Heads, with, “Thank goodness, John has arrived, as I have run out of things to say!” So I was straight on. It was a thrill to be back and in front of the banked ranks of the Senior School; what I couldn’t see was that a video link was beaming me to a screen in the Chapel, where the rest of the school were assembled. This was truly a first for me.

The next novelty was hearing a school orchestra playing well to accompany an excellent young male voice. Music wasn’t quite so good in my day. It was a joy to be treated to “You raise me up!”

Gordon a fellow old boy, though three years younger than me, was wonderfully welcoming. I had been a good friend of his dear sister, Bridget, when at school, so it was a real pleasure to be hosted by him throughout the day. My tour of the school included Gordon’s study, up a staircase I rarely used; the staff common

John Willis –Power2Inspire

John Willis (1973-78) returned to Kingswood as part of the 50:50:100 challenge he was undertaking for his charity. This saw John successfully swim 1000m at 50 schools in 50 pools in 100 days.

room, a sanctuary I was not as a boy, permitted to enter; and the delightful, airy, marvellously decorated new teaching block, behind the still-standing Ferens building, where I was taught.

In the common room I met Mary Patterson (whom I knew as Mary O’Bryan when she was at school two years ahead of me), who is back at Kingswood teaching. It was lovely to see her. Later I met Richard Garforth, who taught me chemistry and is now the oldest teacher on the staff; and John Barrett, who was Chaplain in my day, subsequently Headmaster at the Leys in Cambridge and now a Kingswood Governor. John and his wife, Sally, were back in Bath for the Methodist School’s conference, he being president of the full global Methodist Council. He did comment that it was ironic to meet in Bath since we live in adjacent villages in Cambridgeshire!

The swim itself was extraordinary. Music played, the atmosphere was electric and the pool was surrounded by pupils. Thank you Kingswood for making it so memorable!

John Willis (1973-78)

The swim itself was extraordinary... Thank you Kingswood for making it so memorable!

Valete

ALEXANDER

BEAUCHAMP

BURNS

BUTCHER

BYWATER

CLOSE

CUTHBERTSON

DEAKIN

DUCHARS

GENT

GIBSON

NOYCE

ROWE

Michael Bishop’s immense contribution to Kingswood drama is to be recognised by the permanent display, in the J O Heap Library (Moulton Hall to many), of his model of the stage set he created for a production of The Tempest. The set was one of more than 50 created by Michael for Junior and Senior Literary plays over the years and the model will be accompanied by a citation recording Michael’s great input to drama at Kingswood. This seemed like a good time to talk to Michael about the past and present. Michael and his wife Philippa were kind enough to invite Jeremy Wimpress and Angela Dudley-Warde round for coffee and a catch-up.

JDW: As both a pupil and teacher at Kingswood for so many years did you feel it was a case of ‘boys will be boys’ (and ‘girls will be girls’) or were there significant changes over the generations?

AMB: Oh, I think they were a very different lot in 1950. Far fewer distractions.

JDW: John Ede wrote in your retirement tribute that you were Head of Middle House at a time when ‘social pressures from outside on teenagers made Housemastering a more difficult job than it was before or after’. Is that how you recall things?

AMB: There were problems. Terrible worries about the length of hair which made life pretty difficult for Housemasters. One boy told me he would rather cut off his hands than have his hair cut!

JDW: With your experience as both a pupil and a teacher, which was preferable?

AMB: Oh my goodness! An impossible question – so different. Both! My experience as a pupil was a bit odd because I spent two years over the road at the Prep School and then, of course, we were whisked away and spent all the rest of my time in Uppingham.

JDW: Yes, it seems to me, from afar, that at no time during the evacuation did Kingswood lose its own identity.

Michael Bishop (‘AMB’)

(1937-45, staff 1950-87, school Archivist 1987-2000, Chairman of the Kingswood Association 1993-95)

AMB: It didn’t actually. That was largely down to Sackett and Wolfenden, they got on very well – real buddies. Uppingham as a school was very imaginative, they handed over their gym as our dining hall and various Kingswood Houses were billeted in Uppingham houses and one or two private houses. For lessons we were given the whole of the ground floor of the large teaching building and various other places around the campus.

JDW: Moving on to Classics, when I came to Kingswood you were Head of a Department of four teachers – one more than English if I remember correctly. Obviously, things have gone the other way since then. Too far the other way do you think?

AMB: Oh yes, I think so. It’s a great pity that Greek has, I think, vanished completely from the syllabus. In 1950 the Fourth Classical was 24 boys studying both Latin and Greek so, yes, I think that it is a bit of a loss.

JDW: Do you think there will ever be a resurgence of Classics?

AMB: I think I’ll ‘pass’ on that one. Classics is just so different now, the language side seems so much less important.

JDW: Coming to drama, the record shows you were responsible for 22 Junior Literary and 2 Senior Lit productions plus set design and creation for more than 30 other productions.

For several years now I have been making a model of Bath in about 1800. I spend some time at that most days...

You made models of all sets you designed so this is a real passion for drama and all its components.

AMB: Yes, it was absolutely a passion. Indeed it is an enduring passion and I’m still making models now.

Do you have a message for all the non-games players out there?

AMB: Not cheeky at all. Absolutely true, a non-games player. Don’t feel inferior would be my message. There are plenty of ways to be involved. I made up for it particularly by looking after the ATC (Air Training Corps). Instead of playing on the games field I would drill, every week, about 80 boys. I also looked after Public Work, works in the School grounds. The answer is get involved and don’t feel weighed down.

JDW: Can I ask you about the Wesley Centre? You were the prime mover in setting this up with support from John Lewis and David Brown.

JDW: And you will have seen some very good actors come through Kingswood.

AMB: Jonathan Lynn of course. Alan Watson (now Lord Watson of Richmond) was Cymbeline, Tim Currie was one of my actors and Mark Heap who was also in Middle House. I remember Nicholas Le Prevost very well but I can’t recall him in one of my productions.

JDW: Others will have been inspired to become involved in other aspects of drama and production?

AMB: I suppose so and not just in theatrical careers. One of my set builders, Peter Hunter, went on to become a very distinguished architect.

JDW: The current President of the Kingswood Association, Tim Lindsay, often speaks fondly of the time he spent with you down at Summerhill.

AMB: Summerhill was used as an overflow House. Philippa and I had pupils down there, from all Houses, who, it was felt, were better suited to a life away from Main School. Those who were, perhaps, a little different.

(Worth noting perhaps that the memory of those times with the ‘Main School misfits’ brings a big smile to Philippa Bishop’s face).

A nice little anecdote is that I once played Tim Lindsay’s father’s wife in a production of Galsworthy’s ‘Strife’. Before that I played Mrs Noah in a play called ‘Noah’ by André Obey.

JDW: Now what may possibly be a cheeky question.

AMB: That’s right. I was very lucky when we began the Wesley Centre because there were two Middle House dayrooms placed at my disposal. We were very fortunate because the pulpit that John Wesley had preached from in his Bristol Chapel came into the possession of Kingswood. That pulpit is now in the gallery in the dining hall and the Wesley Centre itself is in the Posnett Gallery.

JDW: What keeps you busy now?

AMB: For several years now I have been making a model of Bath in about 1800. I spend some time at that most days. I also made a model of the old Guildhall in Bath that now reposes in the City Archivist’s office. I have also been a contributor to Bath History.

Interview: Jeremy Wimpress

Photographs: Angela Dudley-Warde

Trek for Hope...

on the Great Wall of China - October 27th to 31st, 2014

a part with good paving and repaired side walls, but a mere 800 steps up and 800 down was all too facile as we were soon to realise.

As an aside I was amazed at how well the group integrated and everyone watched out for falls or minor ailments etc. Conviviality was the order of the day and this made the whole ‘escapade’ more enjoyable and, dare I say, more bearable. The food was another issue, we sat at tables of 10 with a rotating glass disc in the centre on which were placed 10 dishes to help yourself; maybe those of you who dine in Chinese restaurants will readily recognise this format, but it was novel to many of us, as were the dishes!! I have to confess I never mastered chopsticks, but didn’t go hungry.

When I left Kingswood in 1957 I was not faced with a physical challenge by going into the forces on National Service, as I went to Nottingham University and not Oxbridge. Nor in the intervening years had I had a severe challenge. It was not until my wife, Iris, died at very short notice of pancreatic cancer and I switched my charity giving that a challenge was forthcoming. All donors to Pancreatic Cancer UK were issued with a challenge in September 2013 (only 2 months after Iris had died) to ‘Trek for Hope’ on the Great Wall of China. The survival rate for pancreatic cancer was 3% fifty years ago and is still 3% today. So a sponsored trek was proposed with the aim of raising £30,000.

I bought trekking boots, clothing, rucksack, the lot; trained extensively, in particular doing some fell walking in the Lake District, well aware that at 76 this was going to be exhausting. My son Andrew also volunteered to trek. We were offered a training day in London at the end of August with a training video and it soon became apparent that trekking was more akin to mountaineering than fell walking. To boot the trek was often on parts of the wall that were not reconstructed and vertigo might be an issue - it was! Incidentally, one of the most difficult parts of the preparation was getting a China Visa!

Nevertheless 28 of us assembled in the cavernous terminal 5 at Heathrow on Saturday lunchtime in late October. All had lost a wife, husband, mother, father, brother, etc. so we all had a bond in common. One of the Pancreatic Cancer UK staff, Hannah, was also with us. The flight was overnight of course, we arrived to go through the ‘Foreigner’ passport control in Beijing and were heat scanned for Ebola. Soon we were met by our Charity Challenge guide, Jo, who we’d briefly seen in London and two excellent Chinese guides, Michael and Tony.

What followed was a mad whirl. Most days we were on a coach for an hour or more to trek on different parts of the wall with unpronounceable names. None were more than about 40 miles from Beijing. The day of arrival we had a trial walk on the wall,

The first full day of the trek was to climb 800 metres upwards, but the wall was mostly in reasonable shape and not particularly vertiginous, I surprised myself to be the first to the top by lunchtime. But alas, I was last down the other side as the last 200 steps were 18” deep and the slope was 60°! I ignominiously came down on my bottom! Whilst the sun shone, the air was not clear and the views somewhat limited, the main view was this endless stretch of wall in either direction.

Day 2 was to a National Park, replete with several waterfalls, but the rock was granite and the steps seemed endless again. The final ascent was through a part not open to the public and a scramble up several hundred feet though quite dense undergrowth. I was too shattered to do the descent on a vertiginous unrepaired wall, but did educate the second guide of new English phrases on the easier way down.

We learnt at the end that the target of £30k had been wildly exceeded and it stood at £98.5k and rising.

I should mention that the lodges were quite varied, from one to three stars by English standards, though their rating was more generous. We were always made to feel welcome, particularly on the second and third evening (our only 2 night stay) which was a family business. Our final night before getting to a Holiday Inn in Beijing was at a place curiously called Fairyland, where we had a lounge area in which our trekkers had a go at Karaoke - too loud for the older friends there!

The third day was advertised as not for those with vertigo; not an issue when I was 30, but had developed over the years. I managed to get up about 300 steps to start on the wall but the sight of a level piece of rough ground 4ft wide with a 20 foot drop either side was too daunting. Later several of the others had found further stretches quite ‘petrifying’. On these days we would only see about half a dozen other walkers, all of European demeanour. The Chinese don’t do any exercise beyond retirement at 60; at 76, our guides were astounded, this did my ego no end of good!

Our third accommodation was quite superior at the rapidly developing Jinshanling holiday resort and after dinner we were treated to a traditional Chinese paper tearing demonstration, goodness knows how that art is learnt! On the morrow, Day 4, we set off on the first of many World Heritage Sites and seemed to walk uphill 75% of the time and needed 2 breaks before lunch. I had a Chinese lady assisting me on the stretches where the steps were so high that I had to go up on my knees. I didn’t look to see how inelegantly the others tackled those staircases. After lunch we were relieved to learn there was an easy way down - but that was a 2,000 step staircase, almost continuous. Golly was I glad to get to the bottom and buy a rather milky tea.

Day 5, setting off from Fairyland took us to the only popular site, Mutianyu, where we had to climb 1,100 steep steps to get on the wall. There were so many children there it was almost impossible to get elbow room. But then after half a mile of undulating wall I was faced with approx. 100 steps up a 60° slope that my energy levels finally took their toll. Alas I missed the group photo at the very top; fortunately that day’s trek was to retrace the steps back for a SUBWAY lunch. (I was told that Beijing has over 200 McDonalds and 200 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets, the young Chinese are Western orientated.) Those who made it to the top were kind enough to bring down the medal for me too. My son had integrated into his age group and left me with the golden oldies, well, the mid-50s to 64.

Thus ended the trek but what China had to offer was next on the agenda. In that evening we had a restaurant meal, visited both an Acrobat Theatre and a massage parlour, the latter all very salubrious. Saturday was a sightseeing day, starting with the Temple of Heaven, a silk factory, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the covered market. I had been commissioned

to buy a Mah Jong set whilst in China and I was spoilt for choice. (I have volunteered to facilitate a U3A Mah Jong group back here.) The final night before most of the group flew home was a celebration dinner, to my surprise everyone got a small cup and mine was inscribed ‘Mountain Goat’, from Day I suspect.

Sunday the small group staying on bid farewell to the Trek Only travellers, including my son. I then took a taxi to see the museum I try to visit in any capital city, namely the National Geology Museum, where due to my age I was let in free! This was a fantastic display of mainly Chinese minerals with superb description in English, under the Mandarin. The visit ended in a whirl, sleeper train to Xi’an, a visit to the Terracotta Army site amongst others and an ideal place to buy family presents, with a flight back to Beijing. Finally back to Blighty, flying over such exotic place as Ulan Bator, north of Moscow and south of St Petersburg; to be met at Terminal 5 by my son and whisked off to Norfolk for some family TLC.

We learnt at the end that the target of £30k had been wildly exceeded and it stood at £98.5k and rising. My own observation was that we climbed about 12,000 steps up and as many down. Once home I turned my acquired aversion to stone staircases into my latest neologism ~ PETROSCALOPHOBIA!

Paul Roebuck (1949-57)

From: Peter Lewis (1967-76)

Subject: 1970s Canal Cruises

Dear Editor

Yes, I did one of those, although I can’t be sure which year. Might have been 1973?

I do recall, after a few days instruction, being left at the helm of this huge 60ft behemoth, whilst RJL went to make a cup of tea. The weather was “inclement” and the side-wind was something of a challenge – but one which we’d learned to cope with.

Then the “cut” went under a motorway bridge…suddenly sheltering the bow from the wind whilst leaving the stern exposed. Avoiding contact with the bank in these circumstances was beyond my level of skill at the helm – and as fate would have it, the jarring impact duly occurred just as the tea-maker started pouring from the kettle.

My failure to warn those below, and the resulting scalded hand, earned me some rare stern words from RJL.

Peter Lewis

Have Your Say...

The Editor values receiving personal news from members and also newspaper cuttings (including obituaries) which have been spotted by readers. Please send to The Editor, Kingswood Association, Kingswood school, Bath, BA1 5RG or email association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

From: Martin Rushton (1966-74)

Subject: ida Prins-Buttle

Dear Editor

Thanks are due to Peter Clulow for his article on Kingswood Hymns in KAN 10. Might I draw attention to Ida Prins-Buttle (KS staff, possibly peripatetic, in the early 1970s)? She had at least one hymn tune included in “Hymns and Songs” (1969). A formidable lady, when virtually all other staff were male, she managed to inspire in me a love of music theory and got me through Grade V.

Martin Rushton

EDiToR’S NoTE: Mrs Prins-Buttle joined the visiting Music staff at Kingswood in 1955 becoming a full-time member of staff in 1958. She left Kingswood in 1970. Ida Prins-Buttle was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of 1992 in recognition of her services to arthritis care and the community in Bath. She passed away in March 1993.

From: Roger Sheriff (1960-67)

Subject: The new Humanities Building

Dear Editor

As an Old Boy I very much welcome the Kingswood Association News. I love to learn the news of the school but I have to write to add perhaps a sourer note. How could the school have allowed the drab design for the new Humanities Building as shown in the New Horizon paper that came with the April 2014 edition?

Set alongside the beautiful Ferens this new building is so completely out of context with the design of the older buildings at the school. Like a lot of post war architecture the new building lacks any kind of character and once its newness has worn off its plain walls will quickly get stained and it will be revealed as lacking imagination and an eyesore, particularly the roof line. I am astonished at this choice. How could KS take such a wrecking ball to the otherwise breath-taking features of my old School?

Sorry, but it is just awful. Those entrusted with approving the design seem to have no concept of the School’s history which as an Old Boy is so much part of the pride of being a former pupil.

Regards

Roger Sheriff

EDiToR’S NoTE:

The Development Director has replied on behalf of the School. Generally, (and without wishing to stifle debate!) the building has been well received, most particularly it has proved popular with the staff and pupils who now occupy it.

On page 44 of this magazine John Willis, writing about his visit to the School, describes the building as ‘delightful, airy (and) marvellously decorated’.

From: David Sawyer (1936-45)

Subject: Chaplain Davies and the KCGs

Dear Editor

In my letter which you published in the March 2013 Association News I had cause to mention Chaplain Rupert Davies. Survivors of his era (and successors) might be interested to know that his scholarship was recently noted at a rather august occasion.

As a guest (only) I was invited to be present at the Installation in Westminster Abbey of some new Knights Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, now in its 289th year. It was the utmost in English ceremonial; the arrival of the Sovereign, preceded by a dramatic fanfare and followed by a long procession, was accompanied at full blast by the singing of the great German hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of creation (64 in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book).

At the foot of the page in the Order of Service were tributes to the author, Joachim Neander, and the translators Catherine Winkworth 1827-1878 and Rupert Davies 1909-94. Could this really, really be the very Rupert Davies, Chaplain at KS, I wondered throughout the ceremony? The dates fitted my time at Kingswood. Yes, it was, as a Google search producing an obituary from The Independent confirmed. The MHB only gives credit to translation by Catherine

Winkworth and others, Davies‘ contribution being assigned to anonymity. Perhaps this was due to what then must have been his tender age of 23-4, pre-Chaplain and, one should not forget, preChairman of the School’s Governors.

What a tribute to the memory of this scholarly man. I thought it might be added to the School’s archives of past staff and provoke my generation to reminiscence of the founder of the Chapel Committee, to say nothing of his memorable assertion in a preface to a Chapel New Testament reading, “Paul, however, was wrong!”

With kind regards,

David Sawyer

From: David Bott (1951-59)

Subject: Graham Heywood

Dear Editor

It was with great sadness that I read of the death of Graham Heywood in the Association Magazine.

Graham was my senior by two years - he was completing his third year in the 1st XV as I commenced my first. As you can imagine I was awestruck to be actually playing with my heroes but was accepted and supported by all.

Graham was an outstanding sportsman and formed a formidable centre partnership with the Captain, H.R. Kedward. He was a lean balanced runner, deceptively fast, with a forward lean to his body whilst carrying the ball in both hands, rather in the style of Richard Sharpe of Blundells School and England, so that opposing players were never sure when he would attack or pass.

Below is one of the few photographs I have from my KS days, which shows Graham in the sevens team captained by Kedward prior to going to the Roehampton sevens tournament. (He is centre back row, standing next to the man mountain David Waterhouse. Kedward is front left.)

I didn’t know Graham post KS but remember him as a lovely chap. His family are right to be proud of him.

With kind regards,

David Bott

Kingswood Rugby Seven

Kingswood Association Executive Committee 2014-2015

Elected Members of the Executive Committee (Max 12)

President: Tim Lindsay (1974)

Chairman: Nick Turner (1981)

Treasurer: Charles Gerrish (1969)

Headmaster: Simon Morris (2008 to date)

KA liaison with the Governing Body: Robert Sandry (1965)

Treasurer of the Trust: John Ellis (1966)

Former President: Sarah Beresford-Smith (1986)

Director of Marketing & Development: Angela Dudley-Warde (ex-officio) (1999 to date)

Stephen Maling (1979) Fiona Morris (1982) Tim Westbrook (1965)

Robert Forster (1975) Chester Lewis (2012) John Lewis (1956) Jeremy Wimpress (1976)

Robin Lewis (Staff 1975-92) David Hunter (1993)

KINGSWOOD ASSOCIATION MERCHANDISE

To oRDER ANY oF THE iTEMS, PLEASE CoNTACT THE ASSoCiATioN oFFiCE AT KiNGSWooD SCHooL. Telephone 01225 734283 or email association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk (Please note, prices do not include postage and packaging)

Lapel Pin

Silver or Gold Cufflinks

Kingswood in Focus Magazine

7

The School magazine, Kingswood in Focus, is available to all members through the website (www.kingswood.bath.sch.uk). There the magazine can be read online or downloaded if you would prefer. If you would like a printed copy of the magazine then these are also available by contacting the School Development Office who will be happy to add your name to the mailing list.

E. development@kingswood.sch.bath.uk | T. 01225 735283

KINGSWOOD: Tributes II

Tributes to those staff whose service to the school extended to twenty-four years or more.

This volume is a reprint of published tributes to 46 long serving KS staff, teaching and non-teaching, who retired between 1950 and 2012. (It is a companion volume to KINGSWOOD: A Tribute*)

£16.00 (+ £2.00 p&p)

To order your copy telephone 01225 734283 or email association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

Kingswood Association Coming Events 2015

50TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION

saturday 27th June 2015

A special event for the Leavers of 1963-1966 at Kingswood, to celebrate 50 years since leaving. Responses to invitations should be directed to the Association Office as soon as possible

MJSD DINING CLUB

7.00pm for 7.30pm

A warm invitation to all in the Kingswood Community to come for supper in the School Dining Hall.

Fri 12th June | Fri 4th september | Fri 4th December

‘Friendship, Fellowship and Fun’

T. 01225 734283 | E. association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

SOUTH WEST LUNCH

saturday 16th May 2015

The Kingswood Sports Pavilion Upper Playing Fields Bookings being taken through the Association Office

SCOTTISH REUNION, EDINBURGH

saturday 23rd May 2015

A special Northern event lunch Details from the Association Office

THE PRESIDENT’S SUMMER LUNCH

Thursday 4th June 2015 12.00pm - 3.00pm

Once again a warm invitation is extended from the Association President, Mr Tim Lindsay to join him for lunch in London at the Lansdowne Club

For details phone 01225 734283 or email association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

THE KINGSWOOD CHALLENGE GOLF DAY & DINNER

Friday 12th June 2015

Cumberwell Park, Bradford-on-Avon Wiltshire BA15 2PQ

Our Annual Golf Day, with the opportunity this year to win a brand new trophy – The Simmond’s Cup. Full details on the School website & new Horizons Newsletter.

Bookings being taken in the Development Office T. 01225 734283 | E. Development@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

THE HEADMASTER’S XI

Tuesday 30th June 2015

Join us for cricket on the Upper with lunch and tea in the Pavilion

Monday 31st August 2015

Richmond Athletic Ground

The Old Kingswoodian team will be entering for the first time this year.

ASSOCIATION

DAY AT KINGSWOOD SCHOOL

saturday 5th september 2015

Coffee | AGM | Lunch | Tours Sport | Tea | Service | Supper

Old Boys’ Rugby with refreshments available in the Pavilion For further information phone 01225 734283 or email association@kingswood.bath.sch.uk

EXETER LUNCH

Friday 16th October 2015

12.15pm for 1.00pm

Exeter Golf & Country Club EX2 7AE

For further information please contact Colin Lomax on 01392 877140

THE HEADMASTER’S 23-33 LONDON EVENT

saturday 28th November 2015

Drinks and Canapes at Café du Marché, London

Contact the Association Office for details

To find out more about former friends and to get the latest news items visit our website www.kingswood.bath.sch.uk/senior/index.php/old-kingswoodians

From there log on to Connections @ Kingswood and search on names, dates, locations and even universities attended to find your friends.

CRONK CUNIS NATIONAL OLD BOYS’ RUGBY