Message from the Chairman

Summer greetings to you all and of course, especially, fellow OLs.

It has been a time of great change in The OL Club Committee with four leavers and four new arrivals confirmed at this year’s AGM, which was held at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge on Thursday 11 May. Those leaving the Committee after many years’ service were Rob Walker, Priscilla Stevens, Rob Black and Anthony Phillips. I am very grateful to them all but must particularly mention Anthony Phillips who has been involved, in one form or the other, with the Committee for over 25 years. It is an extraordinary feat of devotion to The OL Club cause and certainly one I have no intention of matching!

Newcomers to the Committee are Michael Brainerd, Paige Taylor, Matt Butti and Frankie Tudball, all outstanding young OLs who will help the Club, in its work, enormously. It is not an accident that there is quite a generational difference between the outgoing committee members and those just joining. I think this is a good thing and hope that in the appointment of a new Chair and Secretary, in due course, that this trend continues as well as a better gender balance (at the moment only a third of the committee is female which, in a genuinely co-educational school, is not ideal but is something which will be addressed).

Does this mean that the Club will only, or mainly, be focused on younger OLs? Absolutely not. Some of the most regular and popular OL events at the moment are those that solely cater for our older members such as the Over 60s lunches and the Oldest OLs Day and these will continue with gusto as long as there is still demand for them and, currently, there certainly is as you will see from photos below of the most recent, soldout Over 60s lunch at the Athenaeum Club. My immense thanks to Christopher Silvester, a good friend, who delivered a wonderful after-lunch speech to us all at that particular event.