The OL Club Review
News from OLs In this edition we hear from Tim Horne, who was awarded the First Sea Lord’s Greenwich Hospital Prize in The Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours, and Nigel Payne, recently awarded an MBE for service to racing and equine charities. We catch up with two OLs in the theatre industry; a mid-70s Head’s House reunion; and take a look at the photographic artwork of Jim Naughten. To quote the Naval Secretary ‘This Prize is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated consistently high levels of excellence, over and above that which might reasonably be expected, in the performance of their duties in support of the Naval Service ...’. For over 11 years, I single-handedly produced and maintained the everchanging, biannual 10-year look ahead for the 30–35,000 people the Navy needed; a total that included over 800 different rank and specialisation types. The information came from a range of sources into a resource that drove every major personnel process to underpin operational capability. For example, it was used for workforce modelling, determining recruiting targets and promotion numbers. I also devised and maintained huge linked databases on people, jobs and pay which could be used to provide objective evidence, trends, advice and proof of likely success on a wide range of HR issues and policies. Getting the prize did make me wonder how I had ended up in a data analyst niche that no one else wanted. It really started at Lancing with my liking of Mathematics. I was strongly encouraged by David Lutwyche and Bob Williams who enabled me to get two Mathematics A Levels and pass the Cambridge entrance exam; I read Mathematics at St Catharine’s. I subsequently served in the
Royal Navy for 44 years, the last 18 of which were spent ever deeper within the workforce area. Until eyesight prevented a return to sea, my earlier career had been spent doing things like navigating a Destroyer and running ships’ operations rooms including weapon firings. The ingrained logic of maths, including reasoned thought processes and scrutiny, was always valuable and, in the end, enabled me to deal with the complexity of my final job. As an aside, I also developed my ability to caricature at Lancing encouraged by Tom Griffiths in the art school when it was underneath the chapel. Throughout much of my Naval career I produced hundreds of caricatures; most were gladly received. Some of my Lancing ones appeared in the College magazine, others were too scurrilous. They used to be Blu Tacked to the walls of my ‘pitt’, which was occasionally visited by members of the Common Room wishing to have a laugh at their colleagues and, sometimes, themselves. However, my biggest joke, at a Master’s expense, was probably not a caricature but the very large spider I built, rigged and operated as it went up and down over Ian Beer’s head in Great School as he gave his Head Master’s Summer 1975 End of Year address. TIM HORNE Gibbs’ 1970–1975
Ian Beer, as caricatured by Tim Horne.
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THE QUAD
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ADVENT 2021
