Old Pauline News
Autumn/Winter 2017
T H E S T PA U L’ S S C H O O L A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E
PLUS Sir Michael Codron CBE The man who brought Pinter and Orton to the West End stage
INTERVIEW
Nick Hopkins
Head of Investigations at The Guardian
Felix Bauer-Schlichtegroll Creating virtual worlds for the games industry Charlie & Ben Fraser Freeing the entrepreneurial spirit of refugees
Contents 5 Briefings
A round-up of Old Pauline news, including Mark Rosenblatt (left, 1990-95) who is directing Waiting For Godot in Bristol and Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis at the Vaudeville Theatre, London
9
Old Pauline News & Profiles
10
Making the fantastical come to life. The conceptual art of Felix BauerSchlichtegroll (2005-10).
21
Charlie (2007-12) & Ben Fraser (2009-14) are changing our perceptions about refugees.
Et cetera
Sir Michael Codron CBE (1946-48) The producer who changed the course of post-war theatre in Britain.
Sacha Deshmukh (1987-92) is Chair of Trustees for the charity War Child
18
22
Interview
Head of Investigations at The Guardian, Nick Hopkins (1981-85) recalls the start of his career and the thrill of breaking the Edward Snowden story that won The Guardian a Pulitzer Prize. 2 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
Old Pauline Club People, events and reunions
Editorial
30 36
Obituaries
Old Pauline sports All the action from the Clubs
41 42
Diary dates
Past Times & Crossword
Editor and designer Simon Bishop All correspondence to: The Editor c/o The Old Pauline Club, St Paul’s School, Lonsdale Road, London SW13 9JT Copy for the spring/summer issue of the Old Pauline News, to be published in May 2018, should reach the Editor no later than 19 March 2018. Contact: opcadmin@stpaulsschool.org.uk
Contact us Telephone: 020 8746 5390 Email: opcadmin@stpaulsschool.org.uk Web: opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk
Advertising in Old Pauline News For our current rates please contact the Editor, Simon Bishop: opceditor@stpaulsschool.org.uk
@oldpaulines Old Pauline Club
David Ambler (2011-16) and Arthur Doyle (2010-15) rowing for Harvard
Old Pauline Network
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 3
Frank Drake
I enjoyed meeting retiring SPS Head of Art, Nigel Hunter, at the Apposition Dinner held at Mercers' Hall earlier this year. Art, a subject I was keen on during my own time at School, seemed, back then, to have been considered something rather rarefied, not a subject broad enough in itself to command a mention in the thin careers advice on offer. A boy not knowing what to do then was simply told to join a bank. How exciting, then, to see how attitudes and opportunities have changed within a few decades. During the preparation of this issue, Nigel's name came up a number of times, mentioned by Old Paulines who had been inspired by his department to develop the courage of their convictions and dare to experiment. OPs now feature in every field of creative endeavour – from Felix Bauer-Schlichtegroll's extraordinary designs for computer games, Raphael Iruzun Martins's bold architectural plans for London's airports to Nick Palmer's productions for film and television. In this issue, we are also delighted to feature producer Sir Michael Codron CBE, who transformed British theatre when he brought the works of Pinter, Orton, Tom Stoppard and John Mortimer to an electrified West End in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Simon Bishop (1962-65)
Insuring you for generations From historic buildings to fine art and wine collections, precious jewellery to classic cars, Lycetts will ensure that your most treasured possessions are properly protected. • 60 years’ experience sourcing tailored cover for historic houses, estates and rural businesses • Discreet and efficient private broking and wealth management services • All available profits go to charity • We know your world
Please contact Jonathan Lloyd at your convenience to discuss your requirements: 020 7398 1670 oldpauline@lycetts.co.uk www.lycetts.co.uk Lycetts is a trading name of Lycett, Browne-Swinburne & Douglass Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Lycetts is a trading name of Lycetts Financial Services Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Proud to protect your countryside. Your estate. Your farm. Your rural business. Your country pursuits. Your passions.
Briefings Karl Marx on the raz
Actor Rory Kinnear (1991-96) stars as Marx in a new comedy, Young Marx, written by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. The performance will be broadcast live to cinemas around the country from The Bridge Theatre, London on 7 December. The National Theatre production is directed by Nicholas Hytner and reunites the creative team behind Broadway and West End hit comedy One Man, Two Guvnors. Kinnear is also starring alongside Mathew Baynton and Tom Basden in the new BBC2 period medical comedy Quacks. Set in 1840s England, the show features the three stars as a surgeon (Kinnear), an anaesthetist (Basden) and a psychiatrist (Baynton).
Baton rounds
Conductor Robin Ticciati (1996-2001) has been enjoying international success this year with performances of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with the Deutche Symphonie Orchester Berlin at the Philharmonie Berlin, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, Beethoven’s 7th Symphony with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in City Halls, Glasgow, and the opera La Clemenza di Tito with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at this summer’s festival at Glyndebourne.
Hail Fellow
Richard Rathbone (1956-61), Professor Emeritus in history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, has been elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. The Learned Society of Wales currently has over
opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk l 020 8746 5390
400 Fellows, distinguished men and women from all branches of learning. Election to fellowship is a public recognition of academic excellence. The Society harnesses the expertise of the Fellowship to help promote awareness of how the sciences and the arts, humanities and social sciences benefit society. Fellows assist the Society in its work by serving on its various committees and working groups and by representing us nationally and internationally. See: richardrathbone.org
Keeping it Real
John East (1960-65) became Singles World Champion in the Over 70s category at the 2017 World Masters Real Tennis Amateur Championships held in Hobart, Australia in January this year. Australia Over-70s beat both Great Britain and the USA by 2 rubbers to 1 to reclaim the Danby Trophy. John also represented Great Britain, with Simon De Halpert. They beat the USA, also by the margin of 2-1, to finish in second place.
New Blair doc for Gay-Rees? Representatives of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair are rumoured to have met with James GayRees (1980-85), film producer of Amy, Senna and Supersonic. According to The Telegraph, members of Blair’s staff met producer James Gay-Rees, whose production company, On the Corner, was behind the Amy Winehouse film which won the Oscar for the Best Documentary in 2016. James is currently in production on Maradona, a feature documentary on the life and career of the football player Diego Maradona, directed by Asif Kapadia. On The Corner is a new independent production company set up by awardwinning filmmakers Asif Kapadia, David Morrissey, Jolyon Symonds and James Gay-Rees to produce original, high quality drama and documentaries.
Letters & Emails
Thick and thin
As you may be aware, the present striped OP tie only dates back to 1930, when it was produced by TM Lewins in the West End. The original OP tie was a traditional, wide diagonal-striped black, white and red tie, which must have dated back to the 19th century. After The Great War, this design was seen as being too close to then Imperial German flag, as well as being rather too easily available to the public, so a new tie design was commissioned. I observe that Winchester College now produces both a thin-striped (city) and a wider, traditional-striped version of its old boys' tie. As times have moved on, may I suggest the original Old Pauline tie now be resurrected as an adjunct to the existing version? John M Dunkin FRICS (1964-69)
School fees When I was at St Paul’s in the mid-Fifties, I came across the bill for the term which had been sent to my father. It read: Tuition £30 (crossed out as I was a scholar). Extras (lunch etc) £15. Being a scholar was not unusual; there were 153 of us, about a quarter of the school. Fees now are £7,827 a term and a scholarship only pays £20. Of course the value of money has changed, but I can still remember what I spent as a student in the early sixties. £15 would then buy 300 litres of petrol or 30 kilos of steak. In today’s money, my attendance at St Paul’s cost my father about £1,000 a year. To put this further into perspective, in a summer vacation job as a milkman I earned the basic weekly wage of £12. Experienced milkmen made this up to £20 with the commission on sales of dairy products from their van. In the fifties a milkman could afford to send his bright son to St Paul’s. What has happened since then? John Crooks (1952-57)
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 5
Briefings/My St Paul's a performance of JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at All Saints’ Church, Tilford, for the Tilford Bach Society, on 18 November.
Cronk-Cunis National U21 XVs Rugby Festival Crafting the News
Over the last year Mark Lobel (1992-97) has been a News and Political Correspondent for the BBC on TV, radio and online, following on from his reporting as a BBC Foreign Correspondent in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Since June, he has reported on the EU Referendum, the General Election and the terror attacks in Westminster and London Bridge as well as the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower (above).
Sweet music
Adrian Butterfield (1978-83) will be performing a programme of Haydn Op.20 No.5, Mozart K.387 and Beethoven Op.59 No.3 with The Revolutionary Drawing Room for Cambridge Early Music at the Howard Theatre, Downing College, Cambridge, on 28 October at 7.30pm. He will be conducting the Pegasus Choir and the London Handel Orchestra in
My St Paul’s… The section devoted to your personal experiences (good and bad!) at St Paul's. Send yours to opceditor@stpaulsschool.org.uk Contributions may be edited for space considerations.
Bright Spark
My introduction to the Wimshurst electrostatic generator was in a physics lesson with ‘Little Willy’. This machine has two discs, like 78rpm records on this demonstration model, with thin metal sectors near the rim like the petals of a large flower, facing the other disc. When the operating handle is turned these discs rotate in opposite directions and the charge is picked up by wire brushes and conducted to electrodes on top of the machine. Before demonstrating it Little Willy said: ‘This machine has Leyden jars (an old fashioned form of electrical capacitor, to store charge) and can give you a nasty
Tim Cunis, celebrating with daughter Emma in 2014 (above), says that he is now “de-mob happy”. Having run his ’Recruit or Die’ rugby festival for 20 years, he saw it become the biggest one-day festival for adults in the UK. Tim is delighted that the RFU has agreed to continue his legacy. It aims to get elusive students back into playing rugby for their clubs when they graduate. Held at Richmond, the Cup was retained by Hampton in 2017.
shock if you don’t discharge them with this metal rod and insulated handle’. He touched it between the electrodes to show us and turned the handle, giving a lively spark of several inches between the electrodes, before starting to explain how it works: ‘A residual charge on this sector’, pointing with his finger, ‘induces an opposite......’ There was the sharp crack of a spark and he staggered back. After a moment he said sheepishly: ‘You see what I mean, don’t you!’.
A Wimshurst electrostatic generator
6 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
Stage and screen
Mark Rosenblatt (1990-95) recently returned from Japan where he directed the Japanese premiere of Martin Crimp’s The Country. Up until the new year, Mark is directing Animal Wisdom at the Bushwick Starr in New York by Obie Award- winning composer/performer Heather Christian, Waiting For Godot at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol and a new adaptation by Frank McGuinness of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, for Classic Spring’s Oscar Wilde Season. Mark has also co-written the screenplay adaptation of Robert Holman’s play Making Noise Quietly which Dominic Dromgoole, former Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe, directed as his first feature film and which is now in postproduction.
Mark Rosenblatt
My next encounter with the Wimshurst machine, a giant version with discs of thirty inches or so, which I imagine someone had left to the School. It was in a large glass case with electrodes sticking out of the top and could give a spark of a foot or more (the breakdown potential of dry air is about thirty thousand volts per cm giving an idea of the voltage generated). At Apposition I was detailed to demonstrate this thing to visiting parents. It was put on a bench in a ground floor physics lab and I turned the handle from the opposite side of the bench. There was quite a lot of interest and one man stood looking at the spark for a while before, to my horror, he flipped a cigarette into his mouth and leaned forward to light it in the spark! I knew what would happen, but my spluttered warning came too late and I had no chance of arresting the momentum of those discs with the small handle. When his nose got nearer to one electrode than the other one the spark transferred to the end of his nose! He jumped back and to my relief walked away. I had wondered if it would give him heart failure. Hugh MacBride (1949-54)
opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk l 020 8746 5390
Patrick Neate (centre) with the cast of Babel
Towering performance
In July this year SPASM, a company of Pauline and Paulina L8ths, performed a new production based on the script Babel, a meditation on language in contemporary Britain written by author Patrick Neate (1984-89), in the Lyric Studio in Hammersmith. After developing the piece – which is a combination of spoken word, dance,
Memories of Crowthorne
I joined St Paul’s aged 12 in January 1940 and was appropriately placed in Classical Special, separated by curtain from the Common Room. I made little progress in Greek but heard too much of our neighbours’ miseries, marooned far from their Hammersmith comfort zone. Highlight of my time was a lecture on sex in ‘42 at Wellington. Attended by the entire school, emphasis was that masturbation was medically and mentally harmless. The gigantic sigh of relief that followed was probably heard in Broadmoor. Another high moment was the fellow late arrival of an Eighth former at the School entrance, clad in tail coat, gumboots and corduroys. Asked why the fancy dress, he replied he was visiting our ‘High Man’ for the last time – to be officially expelled. John ‘Archie’ Pitt (1940-43)
Early footie at SPS
I have just read on the School football webpage that the sport ‘was introduced to St Paul’s in 1990’. I wonder if they are aware of events some 30 years earlier! In 1959 or 1960, I was one of the
music, physical theatre and complex sound-scapes – over the summer term the company transferred to the Lyric for a week and performed to large and very appreciative audiences. The author came to the first performance and met the cast afterwards, telling them he was ‘blown away’ by their performances. He particularly praised the professionalism of the company.
founding members (with Chris Musk) of Real Sao Paulo Football Club, a collection of football-loving Paulines who were determined to play the game despite quite strong official disapproval. Before compulsory weekly rugby games at Osterley, some of us would kick a football around for half an hour or so. This harmless practice was eventually banned, so we honed our skills as best we could with a rugby ball. Our club developed a regular fixture list, and enlisted the moral support of Brian Glanville, football correspondent of the Sunday Times, who reported on our memorable victory over Westminster School. Best of all, the Football Association generously gave us a set of England reserve strip (minus the badges), which meant that we were always smartly turned out. We achieved some notoriety when we played Lancing College, a soccer school, who beat us quite easily. Thanks to St Paul’s prohibiting members of the 1st XV playing for us, we were forced to field a weakened team, but did include a mid-fielder ‘friend’, Keith Bell, who had actually played professionally
The production was Edward Williams’ last as Director of Drama; but there was a certain symmetry in the fact that Patrick and his brother Vince had both been in Edward’s first production at St Paul’s, The Rivals in 1985. After four nights at the Lyric Theatre in July, the show was repeated for two performances in the Samuel Pepys Theatre, in early September.
for Rochdale. The Lancing coach was at one point heard to remark loudly ‘THAT’s no Pauline!’ after a fine piece of delicate Bellian skill. Despite the fact that we were playing as Real Sao Paulo in the red reserve shirts of England, Lancing complained to High Master Anthony Gilkes that we were representing St Paul’s under false pretences. I was summoned to Gilkes’ office and interviewed, and feared the worst. A day later, I was called back to see Gilkes, who told me that he was satisfied that we had not pretended to represent the School, that he had communicated his conclusion to the headmaster of Lancing, and that was an end of it. We had one or two really excellent players, and the regulars included ‘Nobby’ Clarke, Tim Barnett, Dick Hardy, Andy Gregory, Lawrence BenNathan, David Seres, David Thomas, and David Karmel. Not long after I left, I cheered on a team, now officially representing St Paul’s, and with a master in charge, appearing in one of the Public Schools competitions, and acquitting itself quite well. Eric Kellerman (1957-62)
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 7
Old Pauline profiles
Sir Michael Codron CBE Sir Michael Codron (1946-48) is a British theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard. He was awarded a Laurence Olivier Award for Lifetime Achievement, and owns the Aldwych Theatre in London's West End. He was interviewed by author and journalist, Jasper Rees.
W
ould the history of post-war theatre look different without the influence of St Paul’s School? Michael Codron (1946-48) began his career as a producer 60 years ago when he brought a promising undergraduate revue down from Cambridge. Share My Lettuce, written by Bamber Gascoigne and starring Kenneth Williams and a young Maggie Smith, opened at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1957. The course of British drama might have been very different had it flopped. Sir Michael, knighted in 2014, has staged around 200 productions. Long before the National Theatre and fringe venues, Codron took a punt on new writing. His discoveries included Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party and John Mortimer’s early works. He introduced Joe Orton to a scandalised West End with Entertaining Mr Sloane, and began a long association with Tom Stoppard with The Real Inspector Hound. He attributes his enthusiasm for theatre to his two years in the Sixth Form at St Paul’s just after the war. “I think St Paul’s was the making of me,” he says. He had been evacuated to a school in Leicester where David Attenborough was Head Boy. “We were all madly in love with him. He was an extremely glamorous Captain of School.” Codron’s father, from a family of Sephardi Jews in Rhodes who emigrated to England in the twenties, took his son to an interview with the High Master,
Sir Michael in his office at the Aldwych Theatre
Walter Oakeshott, in 1946. “I was taken on and found it a really progressive and exciting atmosphere to be in. The fact that I’m doing what I’m doing now is entirely due to our history master, Mr Whitting. He obviously took quite a shine to me. I found the atmosphere very civilised. There was an international group of people there. A German refugee, and a very nice guy whose father was the maître d’ of the Savoy. We also had the King’s Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith to go and visit.” His involvement in theatre initially involved acting. “I started writing skits and bossing people around and arranging shows. I remember playing Christopher Wren with my friend Michael Oliver playing Pepys: two boys from north London pretending to be these 18th-century Old Paulines. We did a rather laboured sketch. As we came off a pimply ginger-haired boy came on and convulsed the whole school. Jonathan Miller (1947-53), even then, was brilliant. And I thought, ‘no I don’t want to be a performer.’”
The fact that I’m doing what I’m doing now is entirely due to our history master, Mr Whitting Miller was younger but they came up against each other in the Chesterton Society. “I didn’t know then that Chesterton was a raging anti-Semite. I was quite big news in the Chesterton. I proposed a motion which said, ‘Woolworth’s has done more for humanity than Shakespeare.’ Jonathan Miller opposed it. I can’t remember who won.” In fact, Kate Bassett’s excellent biography of Miller suggests Codron switched sides to support the Bard. He went up to Oxford to study History at Worcester College (having “failed miserably” in an interview with the famously chilly Hugh Trevor-Roper at Christ Church). The St Paul’s connection “stood me in good stead because the
president of OUDS was Alan Cooke, who had been Captain of School and recommended me. That’s how I started.” Later he was hauled up before the College Provost to be dressed down for prioritising Theatre over History. “I said, ‘I’m sorry but can I please have the use of your garden for a party for the Experimental Theatre Company?’ I’m now a Fellow of the College.” You might expect a producer with so much success behind him to be flamboyant.
I proposed a motion which said, ‘Woolworth’s has done more for humanity than Shakespeare.’ Jonathan Miller opposed it Sir Michael, extremely spry at 87, is a quiet figure who sits behind a splendid desk in his office at the top of the Aldwych Theatre, which he still programmes on behalf of its American owners. “I get scoffed at for this because I say I’m retired and I virtually am.” His most recent show was Mr Foote’s Other Leg, which he commissioned Ian Kelly to adapt from his own biography of Samuel Foote, the 18th-century actor-manager who once had been sent down from Worcester College for tying a string to the Provost’s cow. “It turned out not to have a lot of luck behind it. If the wind isn’t behind you, whatever you do, you’re baulked.” Seventy years on Sir Michael remains “extremely fond” of his two years at St Paul’s. “But can I have a moan? I looked back on the reasons why that Waterhouse building was pulled down in 1968 and I don’t think they’re valid enough really. It’s a shame the only remains of the old school, apart from the old High Master’s house, now St Paul’s Hotel, is the perimeter wall. Every time I pass that wall I think of what tremendous times I had there.” l
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 9
Old Pauline profiles
Creating Virtual Worlds F
Felix Bauer-Schlichtegroll (2005-10) is a concept artist and illustrator who specialises in design and visual development. Currently working at EA Criterion Games, he creates digital world environments working across a range of visual styles. He has enjoyed producing work for clients around the world including 2K, I-O Interactive, Bethesda and Rare Studios.
elix is stationed at the UK headquarters of EA Criterion Games at Guildford and has been developing their Star Wars Battlefront 2 game since last February. He is also working on concepts for a new internal IP (Intellectual Property) game that he hopes will gain as much notoriety as Grand Theft Auto or Star Wars. This will potentially launch in the autumn, with a mouth-watering initial budget of around £200 million. The games industry has long overtaken the film industry in terms of investment. As a concept artist, Felix’s has to problem solve the requirements of a game. Starting with basic thumbnail drawings and line drawings, he works principally in Photoshop using a digital pen display and tablet. As each visual gets approval it will go forward to be rendered with more detail as it progresses. Different artists will employ many different techniques at this stage. Both Felix’s parents have drawing skills. His mother, who is Chinese, was taught with a strong emphasis on observation at school, where calligraphy was part of the standard syllabus. His father, who is in banking, enjoys painting from the imagination. From an early age, Felix says he always enjoyed drawing and arts and
10 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
crafts as a hobby. Originally embarking on a natural sciences degree at UCL, with advice from St Paul's art teacher, Nigel Hunter, he re-applied via UCAS to Bournemouth University to study Computer Animation Arts. He says that without Nigel he probably wouldn’t be doing what he does now. During his course Felix was inspired by Singaporean artist Feng Zhu who has a wide range of YouTube tutorials online. Nowadays, he says, artists Jamie Jones and Craig Mullens are the ones to watch.
with advice from Nigel Hunter he re-applied via UCAS to Bournemouth University to study Computer Animation Arts Felix began his career two years ago at a small studio called Opus Artz, where he got the opportunity to contribute towards big titles such as Tom Clancy’s The Division, which broke the industry record for biggest first-week launch for a new game franchise, generating an estimated £255 million globally, Hitman 3, Mafia 3, XCOM 2 and the recently
announced Elder Scrolls: Legends. Felix was subsequently talent-spotted and recruited by EA Criterion. At the time of this interview, Felix was applying for his motorcycle licence, and was eyeing up a number of options, in particular the Yamaha Tracer 700, to help with his daily commute from Acton. He enjoys the camaraderie at EA, the company gym and the occasional table tennis tournaments. Originally inspired by the film Avatar, Felix harbours dreams of producing his own feature animation one day. l
For more information: www.felixbauer.co.uk
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 11
Old Pauline profiles
For the Love of Film
Nick Palmer (1978-82) is an established film Art Director and production designer. He has been recently commissioned to design a new television series of eight one-hour programmes based on Das Boot, produced by Bavaria Films. Nick has been nominated twice by the Art Directors Guild for the Excellence in Production Design Award.
L
ooking back at his time at St Paul’s, Nick describes his A-level Art class as being quite anarchic. “David Wakefield was trying very hard to raise the Art department profile, but we didn’t really help him at all, it was fairly lawless. It took me a little while, having gone through Art at school, to decide that a creative arts career was really where I was going to go. At St Paul’s at that time, you were considered something of an oddity to be doing Art at all.” Nick later went on to Kingston University to study furniture and product design, but harboured an interest in film. His design work started to be noticed and he had pieces featured in Blueprint magazine and had interest from Creative Review, but was earning no money. “Art School didn’t teach you any of that. My father thought I should be doing an evening class in accountancy.” Nick was going to apply to study furniture design at the RCA. At that time the college was announcing that they were establishing a film school that would specialise in other aspects of the industry besides film direction. “I immediately crossed out ‘furniture’ and thought I’ll have a go!” At the RCA Nick found working in creative teams most instructive. Now working as an independent designer, Nick will head up and supervise two teams
when he embarks upon a new project; one involving drafting and set construction and another that will focus on set decoration, graphics and props. “The progression from Art Director to Production Designer can be difficult. Being an Art Director is more about your technical ability, managing construction for instance. I once found myself forced by circumstances to take over the role of designer. I then decided I’d like to stay in that role. But it took a while before I had built up enough examples of work to show at interviews, rather than my CV as an Art Director. Now I have enough credits that people will say, 'Oh yes, I’ve seen that.' I try to do a variety of projects as there is a danger you can get pigeon holed, it’s not always that easy though, it’s probably
At St Paul’s at that time, you were considered something of an oddity to be doing Art at all no coincidence I was considered and then offered Das Boot having previously designed sets for a submarine movie.” Among many other collaborations, Nick has worked with Woody Allen and David Cronenberg. “Cronenberg was amazing. I always loved his films when I was a student. He’s almost completely nocturnal, happy to work all night and sleep through the day. He was delighted when we had to shoot nights! He was always interested in everybody’s opinions, even the caterer’s or driver’s. Working with Allen for Scoop however, was probably one of the most Jude Law (centre) on the set of Black Sea
12 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
surreal moments of my life.” Of favourite projects, Nick mentions the interior of the submarine for the production of Black Sea, the disaster thriller film directed by Kevin Macdonald, starring Jude Law, which he says came together really well on a reasonably modest budget. “I couldn’t have asked any more of my Art Director or props team.” He also mentions his designs for Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution, which was broadcast on Boxing Day last year. “It can be difficult to sustain quality throughout a period piece on a budget for television. But in this particular case there’s very little in the first episode I would have done differently.” Nick was supervising Art Director for Mamma Mia. He says it was memorable for two reasons. Half of it was shot at Pinewood Studios which became very political with personality clashes needing careful management. “We then all went off to Greece. I can’t really describe that as a job! I was paid to live on the islands of Skopelos and Skiathos for 11 weeks. The producer had built in a lot of contingency so we had plenty of time to get sets ready, so lots of opportunities for swimming when checking on progress! It was the second time I’d worked on something with Meryl Streep, (Nick was also Art Director for The Hours) who likes to take methodology to the extreme. She was almost in character before we started filming.” But life can be more demanding. For the Channel 4 Black Mirror series, written by Charlie Brooker, Nick was given just six weeks to complete the designs for the Emmy-award winning San Junipero episode, followed by a short two and a half week shoot in the UK and South Africa. l
New mindset for refugees Abed Oubari
Graduates from TERN's First Flight programme with co-founders Ben (centre) and Charlie (far left)
Charlie Fraser (2007-12) and his brother Ben (2009-14) are working to give refugees seeking a new life in the UK a platform on which to build new business opportunities and make a positive contribution to their new home.
T
Our aim is to help refugees help themselves by becoming self-sufficient through their own enterprise six or seven other countries, we will be able to create several hundred case studies in a relatively short amount of time. That will give us extra weight of evidence when we go to investors or to government to shape policy in future.” Indeed, the power of refugee entrepreneurship is already becoming increasingly apparent, with an estimated 1,600 businesses started by Syrian refugees in Turkey in 2015 alone. Charlie and Ben hit on the idea of setting up TERN while they were together on the Greek island of Kos last year, which was badly affected by the refugee crisis. Ben explored how refugee integration
was being managed in the UK and came across an organisation called Techfugees, who were organizing hackathons between many different stakeholders to find durable solutions to refugee-related issues. Through them he met the like-minded Fred who had experience supporting refugee entrepreneurs in East Africa. Together they pitched the idea of TERN to global management consultants, Oliver Wyman, which chimed with the company’s commitment to support refugees. Oliver Wyman offered TERN two months of pro bono consultancy to help launch the project – an initial pilot scheme involving three refugee entrepreneurs, at which point Charlie also joined the management of the charity. This was later followed by a first full programme of 15 entrepreneurs and mentors that started in February. Charlie and Ben are supported by their father, Simon Fraser (1971-75), a former Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, who sits on the TERN advisory board.
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 13
▲
he narrative around refugees in the UK has been largely negative, with a populist press often in full cry. Many refugees have the skills to make significant contributions to the national economy and culture, but are often shackled as much by the perceptions they face upon arrival as by the distance from their previous support networks. Charlie and Ben co-founded the social enterprise TERN, The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network, which is now running its second ‘Business Incubator’ scheme this autumn, with 26 refugees in total now engaged with the programme. TERN helps refugees realise their ambitions to start and grow new businesses by providing expert advice and filling any specific knowledge gaps with mentororing and contextual market knowledge. It also assists those who require access to business networks and investment. Charlie comments, “Our aim is to help refugees help themselves by becoming self-sufficient through their own enterprise. It’s a surprisingly positive space to be involved in. It’s not all doom and gloom. We believe it is possible to enact very effective community inclusion.” Across Europe Charlie says there is a coalition of organisations engaging in so-called second-stage inclusion. TERN is part of that. “Once you get a person into a country, once you get them off the streets, what happens next? There are three key potential avenues of engagement: entrepreneurship, employment and education, which the coalition seeks to accelerate. We think it will take about five or six years to build up sufficient data to prove the success of refugee entrepreneurial activity, but working in collaboration with
▲
Old Pauline profiles He, with others, is also helping TERN build contacts with major financial players, allowing the system to flourish and eventually be able to provide its own business loans to refugees. Looking to work in partnership with other established and sympathetic organisations, TERN adapted its model to support employment as well as entrepreneurship. In January they linked up with Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, who were keen to engage with the refugee situation in the UK and Europe. Employment via Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Entrepreneurs Academy offers financial security to refugees, whilst simultaneously affording them the
TERN adapted its model to support employment as well as entrepreneurship opportunity to hatch and develop their own business plans. There have been notable success stories already. Ahmad Makhzoum, in the UK for only 18 months since arriving from Aleppo, already has ambitions to set up a social club and restaurant where people can come together to share Syrian food, culture, dance and music. He has started by launching the Aleppo Supper Club, through which he will incrementally grow his own brand. Gulwali Passarlay, now a successful activist and author with a degree in Politics from University of Manchester, original arrived in the country as a terrified 13-year-old Afghani refugee in the back of a refrigeration truck transporting bananas. Both Gulwali and Ahmad now act as ambassadors for TERN, helping to achieve the organisation’s long-term goal which is to change the term ‘refugee entrepreneur’ from what appears to be a contradiction in terms, to a recognised norm. TERN is always looking to collaborate with existing organisations to improve its methodology and offer more services to aspiring refugees. They would like to hear from you if you can offer any expert advice, mentor or offer other professional support. Potential volunteers and interns are welcome to get in touch – indeed two Old Paulines have already volunteered with the organization! New positions will be flagged on the website. l For more information: www.wearetern.org www.facebook.com/alepposupperclublondon www.facebook.com/refugeeentrepreneurship techfugees.com
Turning London's
Born to Brazilian parents who met whilst studying in the UK, Raphael Iruzun Martins (200712) is a final year Architecture Student at the Architectural Association (AA) in London with a special interest in urban planning. He is currently working on ideas for an autonomous transportation system, the Automated London Exchange (ALE), that could link all of London’s six airports. If implemented, the plan could radically challenge the need for either a third runway being built at Heathrow, or for the potential destruction of a world-class wetland region in the Thames Estuary.
O
riginally inspired by a talk at which Boris Johnson’s plans for a new airport were hotly debated, Raphael felt driven to explore novel ways of accessing all of London’s existing airports, in order to come up with a more sustainable and ecological solution to the increasing demands of air passenger traffic in the capital. “There is an automated passenger pod transport system at Terminal 5 at Heathrow already. Using a similar system, you could connect all of London’s six airports, with their combined total of seven runways. We have to think differently if London is to compete with the emerging ‘super-hubs’ around the world. Even with a third runway at Heathrow, it would still not be able to compete with the likes of Beijing, where they are building the world’s largest airport with four runways and can expand to seven.” Raphael has been gaining practical experience at Avanti Architects over the summer, at a time when architects have had to review their fire safety specifications in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Raphael cites the relatively new type of designand-build contract, in which architects
14 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
Even with a third runway at Heathrow, it would still not be able to compete with the likes of Beijing are allowed to specify for a project but are not allowed to interact with contractors. This effectively allows contractors to make money-cutting decisions later that can compromise the safety of a project by prioritising profit. The Grenfell inquiry will potentially have ramifications for this working relationship, but Raphael is concerned that the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has less influence with government than powerful contractors. “While working at Arup I learnt how to identify trends and drivers of change. You don’t predict the future, you look at things that are affecting the future and respond to them. Often people will say that the answer to most of our problems is technology. But I have been taught how to consider S.T.E.E.P. categories – that is the Social, Technical, Economic, Environmental and Political aspects to any problem. Only when you think of all these in a holistic fashion can you really achieve good results which respond to their particular context.
airports into a super hub Looking back to his time at St Paul’s, Raphael thanks his art teacher, Ian Tiley, for mentioning the AA to him. The school didn’t appear in the UCAS system so he had no idea it existed. this career path from a similar lack of awareness. Both Raphael’s parents are pianists, and Raphael can also play. While he was at St Paul’s, he performed in the annual piano concerts given in Wathen Hall. Nowadays, Raphael loves going to concerts at the Barbican, not just for the music, but also to enjoy the Brutalist concrete! Looking ahead, Raphael aims to be active in consulting as well as in architectural design. He is as interested in the politics and ethics of design, as in the shaping of new buildings. He continues to be on the look out for imaginative and inspirational use of public space, such as Margaret Island, a 24-hour accessible park that sits in the middle of the Danube, part of the city of Budapest, which he visited recently. Raphael names the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, the man behind the modernist designs for Brasilia, as being an important influence. “He was a man who dared to be different.” l For more information visit: raphaeliruzunmartins.com automatedlondonexchange.com
By comparison, in Berlin for instance, there is the Baugruppen – groups of residents that provide their own developments, for which the central government awards financial incentives. It means that they get to commission their own architect, build something for themselves and as a result get better housing for less money – an exciting proposition. There is one example of something like this happening in London, called the Camden Highline. Modelled
on the success of the High Line in Lower Manhattan, local London residents have successfully crowd-funded to convert an abandoned elevated railway line between Camden and King's Cross to become a public open space and park.” Looking back to his time at St Paul’s, Raphael thanks his art teacher, Ian Tiley, for mentioning the AA to him. The school didn’t appear in the UCAS system so he had no idea it existed. Raphael is concerned that others could miss out on OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 15
Old Pauline profiles
A Life in Politics, Law and Music The Old Pauline News was delighted to hear from Stephen StoutKerr (1937-39), better known while at School as Solomon Stoutzker. The son of a Cantor of international repute, Stephen, now aged 95, has had a fascinating and colourful career as a successful Barrister in Criminal Law, a composer, a Conservative politician, a journalist and teacher – one of his pupils being Sir Jonathan Miller CBE (1947-53).
S
tephen has spent many years in the United States where he was awarded the Freedom of Miami and Dade County, Florida. In his time there he has met many leading American political figures, Stephen when standing including Lyndon Johnson and as Conservative Harry Truman. Stephen also Councillor for East Finchley in the 1960s experienced an extraordinary two years in South Africa while on a one-man fact-finding mission into At School, Stephen policing, prisons and crime during the remembers parading Apartheid regime. Stephen shared many memories with with the School OTC the Old Pauline Club, sadly too numerous and being inspected by to include here. But highlights included acting as host for the 1960 American Bar Guards Officers Convention in London, where Stephen met US Senator Claude Pepper, “the most distinguished Senator in the United States,” Before the election, Margaret Thatcher, also known as ‘Red Pepper’. Pepper was whom Stephen got to know very well, responsible for the ‘lend-lease’ programme was then Joint Parliamentary Secretary that ensured that vital military equipment of the Ministry of Pensions and National was delivered to the UK during the earlier Insurance. She gave a speech in Stephen’s part of WWII. Stephen later sat on the constituency, in which she said of benefits: Federal Court in Boston. He remembers ‘Anyone in need should not fear to apply; meeting the then Secretary of State, there is not even a form to be completed... William Rogers, and Adlai Stevenson II, people don’t even have to go to the offices, United States Ambassador to the United we will go to them.’ “Mrs Thatcher’s Nations, twice the Democrat candidate for speech…” concluded Stephen at the time, President of the United States. “…showed that the Conservative Party had Back in the UK, Stephen served on the a conscience.” Middlesex County Council and stood as After St Paul’s, Stephen attended the a Conservative parliamentary candidate London Academy of Music and Dramatic for Bethnal Green and Hackney South Art where he studied composition and during the General Election of 1964. organ. Subsequently he was awarded a
16 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
Leverhulme scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Stephen later abandoned drama for the bar. Stephen’s brother, Ian Stoutzker CBE OBE, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music and is a past Vice President of the Royal College of Music. Ian is Founder Chairman of the charity Live Music Now, which he established with Yehudi Menuhin. The charity sends professionally trained young musicians out into the community to perform for senior citizens and children with special educational needs across the UK. The Royal Welsh College of Music named its concert hall after Dora Stoutzker, Ian and Stephen’s mother, following a generous donation by Ian. During the early part of WWII, one of Stephen’s friends joined the RAF and was chosen to fly alongside legendary air ace Wing Commander Stanford-Tuck DSO, DFC and two bars, of 257 Squadron, only to be shot down over the North Sea. The tragedy inspired Stephen to compose a piece in his memory. His composition was broadcast in a BBC Remembrance Programme, alongside other compositions by Eric Coates (famous for writing By The Sleepy Lagoon, the signature music for the Shipping Forecast), Sir Edward Elgar and Sir Charles Stanford. Stephen subsequently composed marches for the Irish Guards and the Royal Air Force. At School, Stephen remembers parading with the School OTC and being inspected by Guards Officers. Before the Second World War, he had attached himself as a cadet to the 131st Infantry Brigade. Failing a medical, he later joined the Home Guard and was issued with an American rifle that he says, “couldn’t shoot, but looked good”! Stephen is now enjoying his retirement in the leafy New York suburb of Scarsdale where he enjoys his collection of fine art paintings, his very large ultra HD television, tuning in to digital radio from around the world and his computer. He is currently writing his autobiography which will also include a history of the Central Synagogue in London from 1870 until it was bombed in 1941. l
Getting Your Timing Right Pattie Boyd
Alan Rind (1954-59) oversees a property company in Florida as well as his old family business in London. Over the last decade Alan has devoted more of his time to charity projects.
A
lan began his life in the property world inauspiciously, leaving a course in Estate Management early. “I was never a good student!” His parents ran a plc which was founded in the 1950s, his mother being the first female MD of a plc in England. “My father once told me, in jest, ‘You’re not coming into this business, make your mistakes elsewhere!’ A very wise man, my father!” Alan eventually ‘cut his teeth’ at Donaldson & Sons and then Michael Laurie and Partners in St James’s Place. “I learned a huge amount from Elliot Bernerd, an established, successful and well thought-of property guru in the 1960s and 70s.” Alan later moved to the plc following the death of his father. “The Real Estate industry can be challenging. If you get your timing right, you’re a hero. If you get your timing wrong, you can go from hero to zero quite swiftly! It’s a dangerous business to be in if you are too highly leveraged.” Alan describes surviving the crash of 1973 and he says, “A number people went down. Friends, acquaintances went bust. Public companies were failing. Dennis Healey, then Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, had put a freeze on rents, causing property companies to lose their cashflow thus creating a near meltdown of the banks as one result. We were fortunate to survive.” Alan was by then running the family trust. Thanks to a combination of timing and good luck, Alan had managed to avoid some of the pitfalls of the UK property crashes of the 1970s and 1980s, expanding operations to the US, where funds were invested, mainly in medical office buildings in Florida. Ten years ago, Alan met Major General Sir Michael Hobbs KCVO, Governor of the Military Knights of Windsor, who introduced him to the community that is centred upon St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Alan was invited to join the Bray Fellowship, under the patronage of the Duke of Edinburgh, which was intent on restoring those parts of Windsor that belonged to the church. “I knew something
The Real Estate industry can be challenging. If you get your timing right you're a hero…. . . about office blocks, but a 14th century chapel? I was out of my depth! We trod carefully for about five or six years and the considerable sum of £10 million was raised along the way. The Deanery, the Canons’ Cloister and the Dean’s Cloister have been restored as a result of the activities of Bray under the leadership of the Rt Revd David Conner, KCVO, The Dean of Windsor.” For his support, Alan was invited by the Dean of Windsor to become a Trustee of the College of St George at Windsor. It being a Christian institution and being part of the Church of England, Alan felt he should seek advice from the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who advised him to accept the offer without hesitation. Alan has since assisted with the refurbishment of the Bray Chantry adjacent to and part of St George’s Chapel. He was also asked to assist with the partial redesign of offices for the Royal Foundation in Kensington. He was instrumental in moving the Riding for the Disabled Children, Newbury Group, to provide a riding centre for disabled children at the 600-acre farm in Berkshire which
belongs to his family’s trust. It entailed supporting HRH Princess Anne, in her role as President of the Riding for the Disabled Association. Alan was also co-opted onto the committee that planned the replacement for the old Sea Cadet sail training ship, the TS Royalist. “£4.5 million was raised in a year, the ship was built and Princess Anne came to launch the ship. I really enjoy my work with charities and I am spending more time on this now that my ambitions for the property business have reached something of a plateau.” Alan enjoyed his time at School, when Anthony Gilkes, nicknamed ‘Trickle’, was High Master. “A fair man, a kind and diffident man who treated me well. He was known as ‘Trickle’ because, according to some sources, he always had a bead of moisture at the end of his nose! I have kept in touch with a number of OPs over the years, including Anthony Conway (195459) who now lives in Geneva, M J P Marks CVO CBE (1955-58), Bernard Rix (195762), Robert Winston (1954-59), Galen Weston (1954-59), Tim Cunis (1955-60) and Geoff Cameron (1954-59), who I meet at Windsor from time to time.” As a final word, Alan quotes Steve Jobs, Founder and CEO of Apple Inc: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is good. And the only way to do good work is to love what you do.” l
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 17
Interview
Nick Hopkins Nick Hopkins is one of the UK’s most experienced and respected reporters. Now Head of Investigations at The Guardian, Nick previously worked for the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme, Newsnight, as Investigations Editor. He was part of the team that broke the Edward Snowden revelations story that earned The Guardian a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Why did you choose journalism as a career? I didn’t know what I wanted to do after university. I looked at all kinds of careers – and I didn’t get encouraging looks back. Then, I was offered a two week trial at my local paper, the Surrey Comet. It seemed
18 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
(1981-85)
like a lot of fun and the newsroom was full of odd characters – including an exFleet Street showbiz correspondent and an elderly Welsh subeditor, who had a limp and a very sharp tongue. At the end of the fortnight, another reporter was fired and I was offered his job. It didn’t look or feel like work – which is just as well, because my starting salary was £6k. Did St Paul's provide any early inspiration? Not really, to be honest. Before I left St Paul’s, I went to see John Allport, who was then a careers advisor. He told me to take a gap year and stop worrying. What was the first story you covered? It was about an obscure Japanese lager which had a ring pull that had injured a number of swans and ducks on the banks of the River Thames in Richmond.
My editor told me to “vary my route home”
used to getting their news for free online. Meanwhile, news seems to have entered a twilight zone. Newsrooms everywhere are being stretched out of shape by the pace of developments – and the pressures of trying to report and explain events that have been surprising and relentless. It would appear that investigative journalism has never been under greater threat. Do you ever fear for its survival? Investigative journalism is expensive and difficult, and it can be punishing on journalists/readers/viewers too. But, I do think there is a demand for it. In fact, I think most media organisations realise this is something they need to invest in to survive.
What other journalists or writers have been influential? I learned the do’s and don’ts from people around me at all the places I have worked. I had a very old-school training – I moved from local papers to an evening paper (the Express & Star, Wolverhampton); and then on to the nationals. Journalists have a reputation for being super competitive, but they can be generous too. In the early days, I was saved as often as I was buried by rivals on other papers. I’d say The Guardian writer Nick Davies has set the bar in terms of combining the ability to find stories – and then write about them beautifully. Most reporters can do one or the other – only a rare few can do both. How would you describe the current journalistic landscape in the UK? A real mess! The Guardian, for instance, is still competing with all its traditional media rivals. And a lot of new ones too. The advertising model that sustained the industry when I started is dissolving. And we have a generation of people who are
Is ‘fake news’ a new phenomenon? In some ways it’s not new at all. Some tabloid newspapers have served it up (for a willing readership) for years. People paid money to read stories such as: ‘Freddie Starr ate my hamster’. And ‘World War 2 Bomber Found on the Moon’. We laughed along with it. But nobody’s laughing now. Fake news is at a different and more sophisticated level. It’s become a potent weapon, particularly for certain states, and certain political movements, which have strangely aligned interests, and are pushing out fake news on an industrial scale. It has also become the favourite reply for anyone who doesn’t like what is said or written about them. From Donald Trump to Aung San Suu Kyi. You were part of the Pulitzer Prizewinning team that broke the Edward Snowden revelations in The Guardian. Can you tell us what breaking a story of that magnitude felt like and what it meant personally to you? It was a hot summer, working in an airless room, on ‘clean’ computers, off-grid, under 24-hour guard, in great secrecy, trying to make sense of a surveillance world that we hardly knew existed, while being threatened with prosecution. We were told by British civil servants that every major spy agency in the world had teams surveilling The Guardian’s offices. My editor told me to “vary my route home”. It was a joke, sort of. It was a once in a lifetime project and it was thrilling.
How does working for television differ from the press? TV is far more collaborative. I worked with a fantastic producer at Newsnight, Jake Morris. We were part of close team on the programme. Being from a print background made life difficult for my colleagues. I’d come up with stories, and Jake would look at me and say: “That’s all very well – but where are the pictures? I can’t make TV out of that...” Very often, he did. But TV journalism is definitely not print journalism with moving pictures. Is media too embedded in, or financially dependent on the corporate world to act as an effective watchdog? I think most media organisations put the story first – if it’s good enough. There is a greater danger now, I think. The financial squeeze has killed off a lot of local newspapers, and cut the number of reporters in other newsrooms. So it’s more difficult for journalists to have the time to get out and about and talk to people, to get a feel for what’s going on, to understand what people are worried about. Is what we have traditionally considered to be mainstream media changing? Print media has actually been remarkably resilient, but it’s hard to imagine we will have the number of newspapers in another ten years. The Independent has moved online. It won’t be the last. The process of change is taking longer than a lot of people thought – but we are edging ever closer to a tipping point. Personally, I am still very fond of a newspaper. I like the feel of it – and the knowledge that some smart editors have spent a number of hours working out the hierarchy of news on any given day, so I don’t have to. I’m happy to pay for news. My children don’t understand that concept at all. Time for anything else in your life? I have been trying to learn the drums for 30 years – and parenting for 16. Other things that have been a big part of my life include – in no particular order – Suffolk, vintage motorbikes, the Stone Roses and a local boxing club, All Stars, on the Harrow Road in north west London. l
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 19
WE’VE CHANGED...GREAT NEW FACILITIES NOW OPEN! •
•
New stylish & luxurious changing rooms Upgraded studios
•
New functional training studio
•
New café bar conservatory & outdoor terrace
Become part of a great club - call now to find out more!
NO JOINING FEE & REDUCED MEMBERSHIP FEES FOR OLD PAULINES*
*Terms and conditions apply.
Call now, or come in for a chat.
020 8398 7108 OLD PAULINE SPRING/SUMMER • Thames St 20 Nicholas RoadNEWS Ditton • 2017 KT7 0PW
Et cetera
Working to give every child a childhood Sacha Deshmukh (1987-92) has considerable executive and board-level experience in the voluntary sector. He’s also run his own business and led one of the country’s largest marketing and PR businesses. Currently Chair of Trustees for War Child, Sacha gives his personal reasons for working with the charity.
I
was lucky enough to be born in Britain and have what was probably one of the most comfortable childhoods anyone could hope for. Not least of which was my time at St Paul’s (1987-92). But one generation earlier, my family lived at the heart of the largest refugee movement that the world has ever seen; when my father (who at the time was aged 8) and his family lost their home and had to up and move across a sub-continent at the time of the Indian partition. So, knowing that my father was just a child when he experienced one of the largest conflicts of the 20th century has meant that understanding the impact of war and conflict on children is something about which I have always had a passion. But, what I for years did not realise is that in the world of international relations, and even within the world of international aid, the impact of war on children (arguably some of the most vulnerable of people affected by war) is alarmingly neglected by most of the major actors. I bet most Old Paulines would not be too surprised to hear that more than 50% of those affected by war are children. But I would also bet that most would be surprised (in fact pretty horrified) to find out that only 5% of humanitarian funding is spent protecting or educating them. That is why I got involved in War Child, a charity that I have chaired since 2013. War Child delivers a unique part of the international humanitarian mix. We are the only charity focused on child protection, psycho-social support and education, for children around the world in conflict situations or in areas of displacement from war. Through my work I have had the privilege of meeting children, and
War Child supports children on the front lines of some of the world's harshest conflicts, such as here in Mosul, Iraq
the impact of war and conflict on children is something about which I have always had a passion families, in places as far flung as Bangui in Central African Republic, to the Zaatari and Emirati refugee camps adjacent to the Jordanian/Syrian border. And so I have been able to see first hand the effects on children who have experienced some of the worst traumas imaginable, but also how those children can be aided to recover a childhood through deep and intense support. I have felt more humbled than ever, remembering my schooling in leafy Barnes, when I have heard about the long-term impact on children’s prospects that comes from even short disruptions in education. That has further driven my passion for the schooling that War Child provides in countries where the school system has collapsed, or in refugee locations where the host community simply can’t cope with the large numbers of extra children who now need schooling. War Child was founded back in the early 1990s, when I was just ending my time at St Paul’s. The focus when it was founded was helping children affected by the conflict going on at the time in the former Yugoslavia. Sadly, since then, the numbers of children affected by conflict have only increased. Now War Child is active across continents, needing to expand its work in some of the harshest
conflict areas, such as areas of Iraq being liberated from Daesh (so called Islamic State) control, in Yemen and across the central African region. We are fortunate to have incredible support from some high profile advocates, in particular our Global Ambassadors Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford. But the reality is that our ability to deliver is built upon support that we receive from thousands of individuals who realise the privilege most of us enjoy in our lives and want to help the most vulnerable facing the effects of war. I know another Old Pauline (who wants to remain anonymous) whose grandparents were lost in the Second World War in the Holocaust, and who is one of our major supporters. I am enormously grateful every day to him, and every other supporter, without whose contributions we would not be able to deliver. I am sometimes asked, “What’s it really like in a War Child school?” The answer, when you look beyond the obvious difference in location from a school like St Paul’s is that it’s surprisingly similar to what we would all remember from our time in Barnes. Kids playing, amazing teachers, bustling classes, football played with the passion of the Premiership, drama with occasional amazing acting. It’s a piece of normality, delivered to children in the most abnormal situations. But then, isn’t a normal childhood what all children deserve? l For more information visit www.warchild.org.uk l Please contact the editor at opceditor@stpaulsschool.org.uk if you would like to contribute to Et cetera.
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 21
Obituaries Name
(at SPS)
John C D Alexander Bruce J L Bennett David (Tim) Blaiklock (Head of Maths at Colet Court) George L Brown (St Paul’s School Doctor) Peter S Bryson Alan D E Cameron Derek Charman John C P Coode Christopher J N Cotton Thomas C Dann John H C Dolby Charles M E Eugster Christopher P Fendius Jeremy J Forty Geoffrey H Freeman Martin Froy Andrew V Gillespie John P Horder Brian L (Louis) Jankel Very Rev Robert (Bob) M C Jeffery Adam M Johns Lars W R Macfarlane Alexander C Maroudas David K Martin Michael J Mellon John A Menon E Osmund (Os) R Reynolds Eric H Richardson Chris I Schaefer Norman Shouler Hugh S Spensley Geoffrey P Stevens David Sylvester John B Thompson CBE The Rev John H (Hugh) Walker Julian P G Wathen, MBE (Chair of Governors 1995-2005) Keith L Watson Laurence M Webber Richard L West
1946-51 1948-53 1963-71
1932-2017 1935-2017 DoD 2017
1966-95 1929-2017 1949-52 1951-56 1935-41 1939-41 1950-55 1945-51 1941-46 1933-38 1959-64 1947-51 1940-45 1940-44 1947-52 1950-55 1954-58 1948-53 1956-61 1957-60 1973-77 1956-60 1946-51 1940-43 1946-51 1926-29 1987-92 1932-35 1937-40 1945-49 1957-62 1941-46 1948-52 HLM
1935-2016 1938-2017 1922-2016 1925-2016 1937-2017 1932-2017 1928-2014 1919-2017 1945-2016 1932-2016 1928-2017 1926-2017 1933-2017 1936-2017 1942-2016 1935-2016 1942-2017 1943-2017 1961-2016 1942-2017 1933-2017 1926-2016 1933-2017 1912-2017 1974-2016 1918-2017 1924-2016 1932-2017 1944-2016 1928-2017 1934-2017 1923-2017
1943-46 1949-54 1949-54
1929-2017 1936-2017 DoB 1935
Viera Ghods Section editor vg@stpaulsschool.org.uk l Because of space constraints in the magazine, obituaries are abridged for print publication. More comprehensive versions, if available, will be placed on the Old Pauline Club website at: opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk/pages/obituaries * Indicates obituaries also appeared in the national broadsheet newspapers. ** Indicates longer obituaries also appearing on the OPC website: opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk/pages/obituaries
30 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
John C D Alexander (1946-51) **
Bruce J L Bennett (1948-53)
John Charles Durham Alexander died on 9 January 2017 aged 84. John maintained a lifelong contact with St Paul’s where his interests and passions were first developed. His greatest passion was rowing and the River Thames. He stroked the 1st VIII to victory in the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley in 1950. And in the subsequent year to a remarkable 8th place in the Tideway Head of the River. From The Pauline that year: “The highest praise is due to Alexander, the stroke, Captain and in every way the leader of the crew: throughout the season’s racing and training his judgment and rhythm were rarely at fault.” After St Paul’s, John joined the Army as a Royal Engineer and went up to Jesus College, Cambridge where he studied Engineering, was spare man for the Boat Race, won the Colquhoun Sculls and met his wife, Jennifer, whilst Scottish dancing. John enjoyed keeping in touch with school friends, including Tony Martin, Tom Knott and Gavin Sorrell. Gavin was also at Cambridge and best man at his wedding in 1956. He was posted to Germany with the Army where his son was born, and later attended the Technical Command and Staff Course at the Royal Military College of Science in Shrivenham, where coincidentally his son is now Operations Director. John was known for being very knowledgeable and could hold his own in any intellectual discussion, underpinned by extensive reading. After the Army he had a second career as a statistician working in the Treasury. On retirement he pursued a mathematics degree with Birkbeck College. John and his family lived on the River Thames at Sunbury, and later moved to Notting Hill where he enjoyed the cosmopolitan atmosphere, cycling to work through London’s parks, and the ease of getting to the best art exhibitions, theatre productions and concerts. John is survived by his wife, Jennifer, children Mark and Maud, and four Mark Alexander, son grandchildren.
Bruce was born in London in 1935, but at the outbreak of World War II the family moved to Chinnor in Oxfordshire and, with his father away, aged 7 he was sent to Abingdon School as a boarder. It was there that he showed his first theatrical tendencies, writing a play for the school theatrical society that he couldn’t see performed because it was past his bed time! In late 1945 the family moved back to London. Bruce represented St Paul’s at rugby but his main sport was boxing, achieving First Colours. At 16 he played Julius Caesar in the School’s production and also featured in other productions, including G&S’s The Gondoliers. Bruce knew at 14 that he wanted to be an actor. Whilst doing his National Service at Catterick in the Royal Signals he ran the camp theatre. He then went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1956 to 1958, having earned a scholarship. Over the years he performed with many repertory companies, from Bexhill to Perth. He was part of Caryl Jenner’s English Children’s Theatre. Bruce toured several times, including with Rupert Davies in Home at Seven. He appeared in the West End with Maggie Smith in Peter Shaffer’s Lettice and Lovage, with Nigel Hawthorne in William Nicholson’s Shadowlands and with Alan Rickman in Tango at the End of Winter. He also understudied Warren Mitchell in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. Bruce’s TV credits included The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Bill, Keeping Up Appearances and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. He served on both the main and London committees of Equity for many years and was on the committee of the Green Room. Bruce never married, but he adored his four grand-nephews. They, his loving family and several of his acting colleagues, a couple of whom were at RADA with him, celebrated his life at Beckenham Crematorium. “He bowed out gracefully with the curtain slowly coming down.”
Rodney Bennett, brother
opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk l 020 8746 5390
Peter S Bryson (1949-52) Peter was born in Richmond, Surrey, eldest son of Harold and Catherine Bryson. He attended St Paul’s aged 13 and enjoyed rowing and boxing. In his memoirs he is quoted as saying “School encouraged a respect for intellectual rigour and a wide humanist range of curiosity. I recall nearly all my masters at St Paul’s and especially their adverse comments on my work which inspire me to greater efforts today”. He enjoyed being an Old Pauline and took great pride in the achievements of his fellow alumni. After leaving school he completed his National Service in West Africa with the Middlesex regiment, where he was affectionaly known as ‘Lieutenant BoingBoing’ after repeatedly telling them about his father’s bomb experience during the Blitz. He gained a degree in Time and Motion studies and held several posts before working in Rossendale, Lancashire where he met his wife Margaret. He then worked for some time with what is now KPMG, before moving to Hull in 1972 to work as Production Manager for Humbrol, where he stayed until he retired. While working in Hull he also spent a lot of his spare time volunteering as a caseworker for SSAFA before becoming Chairman of the Hull area. He and Margaret both sang with the Hull Choral Union and he took on many roles on their committee. He was passionate about his life in Richmond and all London that had to offer but in time became an ‘honorary Yorkshire man’, writing letters to The Times on a regular basis and watching the cricket as a member of Yorkshire at Headingly. He leaves behind two children and five Kate Power, daughter grandchildren.
Derek Charman
John C P Coode
Derek was born on 29 May 1922 at Barclays Bank House, Hayes, Middlesex, where his father, Edwin Henry Charman, was Manager. His mother, Ada Doris Whitehead, came from a family of school teachers. Derek followed his brother, Michael, to St Paul’s in 1935. A Foundation Scholar, he was in the History 8th Form, and played cricket, tennis and rugby for H Club. In 1939 he won the A M Cook Prize, having dashed off his essay on a wet afternoon to the chagrin of his hardworking friend and fellow competitor, John Webb. However, John came first in the Saburov Prize, leaving Derek with 2nd Prize. Derek won a scholarship in 1941 to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took a wartime degree. In 1942 he joined the Army, training at Sandhurst before becoming 2nd Lieutenant in a tank regiment. He took part in the ‘D’ Day landings on D+3, ending up in occupied Germany. On leave from there, he read Tolstoy’s War and Peace on the journey. He returned to Oxford in 1946 and took an honours degree in Modern History. He was County Archivist for East Suffolk and Ipswich, 1950-70, being seconded to help set up the National Archives of Nigeria, 1954-55, and of Kenya, 1963-65. He was the British Steel Corporation’s Archivist, 1970-80. In 1981 he established his international consultancy in Records and Archives Management, Derek Charman and Associates. Derek’s great passion was golf; first playing as a schoolboy at the Leicestershire Golf Club, afterwards writing its centenary history in 1990. He enjoyed photography, gardening and bird watching. A lifelong Anglican, he actively supported the Church. He married twice and had a son and daughter by his first Jill Charman, niece marriage.
In the 91 years that John lived he was universally known and recognised as a wonderful gentleman and a recognised war veteran – landing in Normandy beaches on D Day 1+1 on 7 June 1944. He landed as a member of the Hampshire Regiment and was later sent as a replacement to the 1st Battalion, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. He was a proud and loyal member of the London Branch for more than 30 years. A very special occasion was when John, accompanied by his wife Nicola, was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by the French Military Attaché at his Regimental lunch in the Victory Services Club in November 2015, in front of over eighty Association members and their friends. In 1993, John married Nicola and together they embarked on a remarkable journey of travelling, making friends all over the world these years can only be described as a very special love story; true friends and great partners to each other. John was a loved son, uncle and friend to so many people, ready with sound advice and telling the many stories he entertained everyone with – his pet sayings were endearing and remembered with fondness by all. In the many tributes to John, there was only joy in having known him. Throughout John’s life he was a true sportsman playing and excelling at golf, cricket, bowls and snooker, and he always had the latest news on the sports scene. I am sure that the members of Old Pauline Club will be able to add to the story of how John brought joy and happiness to so many. At John’s funeral, his dear friend Sister Margaret offered the following quotation which celebrated John’s life. “… grieve not that I have died, but rejoice that I have lived …”
(1939-41)
(1935-41)
Nicola Coode, wife
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 31
Obituaries Christopher J N Cotton (1950-55) **
John H C Dolby (1941-46)**
Jeremy J Forty (1947-51)
Chris was born in Birmingham in 1937. His mother was a Londoner, his father, Freddie, a geography teacher, came from Derbyshire. In 1950 the family moved south. Chris won a scholarship to St Paul’s, always treasuring his silver fish. He especially enjoyed the School’s music (playing the violin in the orchestra), theatre, debating society and the Scouts. Having won an exhibition to Imperial College to study engineering he turned down a place at Cambridge. After gaining full membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Chris returned to Imperial College to study Hydrology, later becoming hydrologist for Kent in 1963. For 20 years he masterminded demand forecasting, tidal and river floods and defences, advising farmers and industries and predicting the need for new reservoirs. He trained in management techniques, becoming the Assistant Director of Resource Planning at the newly created Southern Water authority, covering Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. His experience and temperament made him the ideal person to guide his enthusiastic young staff. For the final 15 years of his working life he became an independent Water Consultant, working in Thailand, Burma, China, Cyprus and Samoa, all wonderful experiences in other cultures. Throughout his life he took great interest in community matters, chairing the local National Trust committee for 20 years. Chris never stopped solving practical or cerebral problems. He built a swimming pool, he loved caravanning and enjoyed annual reunions with OPs, R J Winkworth and L Webber. Chris especially valued attending the EVL at School two years ago. He enjoyed playing golf, skiing and tennis, gardening and dabbling in yoga. Only in his last year were his activities reduced. Brave and philosophical, he passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his wife Heather (married 57 years), daughters Alison and Sarah and son Christian. He leaves six grandchildren.
John Horace Curtis Dolby was born in Chepstow, on the 30 October 1928 to Captain Allen Walter Dolby and Winifred Lotus Curtis. A younger brother, Robert, was to follow five years later. His father was a career Army Officer in The Royal Berkshire Regiment, whilst his mother grew up around considerable wealth and privilege. John went first to Colet Court, and then St Paul’s. With his father passing away in 1943, his mother was left to bring up and educate two young boys with little or no income. Despite this, John finished school to begin a short period in the Royal Berkshire Regiment. By the late 1950s and now with The Inchcape Company, he was posted to Bahrain, beginning a lifelong fascination with the Middle East. He married Anthea ‘on leave’ in London and returned to Iran, where together they set up home in Tehran. Anthea returned to London for the birth of both of the children; first Caroline in 1960, and Timothy in 1964. John was essentially a social being. He made friends easily and so established a sizeable reputation for putting together the right people in the building industry; firstly with Bovis and then later with VAT Watkins. But alongside his work, he should be defined by and remembered for his personality: he was an intelligent, urbane and erudite man, quick-witted and with a great sense of humour. He was also a voracious reader with an extensive knowledge of history. He was a Liveryman with The Worshipful Company of Drapers and a Member of The City Livery Club. He very much enjoyed attending the St Paul’s Masonic Lodge. John passed away peacefully in Whitchurch, Oxon on 22 December 2014. He is survived by his wife Anthea, son Timothy and daughter Caroline. A great traveller – probably an adventurer like his forbearers – John loved hot climates and was happiest in the sun.
Jeremy John Forty passed away following a brief battle with cancer, aged 84, in Rye East Sussex on 4 October 2016. Jeremy was born with twin sister Jane Jeanette on 30 May 1932 (died 4 Aug 2008). They arrived as loved additions into a family including his elder sister Anne Francis Lindsey (née Forty), his mother Doris Marcon Forty (née Francis), and father Francis John Forty, who was at that time Civil Engineer in the Borough of Ealing, later to be City Engineer to the Corporation of London. Jeremy attended St Paul’s from 1946 to 1951 and was a fully committed student in academic work, the arts and sport at the School. After his graduation with an MA in ‘Greats’ from Pembroke College, Oxford, (following in his grandfather’s footsteps) he joined HM Forces for National Service as 2nd Lieut in RASC (Tank Transporters) based in Germany. His career as an HR professional with various major corporations spanned from 1958 to 1992 when he continued his work as a freelance HR Consultant, based initially in Banchory, Scotland, and then Craven Arms, Shropshire, until retirement. Jeremy married Anne Harvey in 1974, who sadly passed away suffering a brain tumour in June 2004. They had no children. A devout Christian scholar, Jeremy supported his local church in Herefordshire, and ultimately the Church of St Mary in Udimore where he was buried on 4 November 2016, near his last home during retirement in Northiam, East Sussex. He was a wholly loving, honourable and generous man supporting family members spiritually and financially, and subscribing and working for multiple charitable functions caring for ex-servicemen and those countering animal cruelty. Jeremy and Anne kept and loved a wonderful family of dogs during their time together. He is fondly remembered and missed by Jed Hoile, nephew friends and family.
Heather Cotton, wife
Tim and Caroline Dolby, son and daughter
32 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk l 020 8746 5390
Geoffrey H Freeman (1940-45)
Brian L (Louis) Jankel (1954-58)
Very Rev Robert (Bob) M C Jeffery (1948-53) ** *
Dr Geoff Freeman, who attended St Paul’s from 19401945, passed away in March 2017 peacefully at home, aged 88 years. He was a noted statistician, specialising in agronomy and experimental design, serving a term as the President of the International Biometrics Society and publishing over a hundred papers. Geoff was born in London, winning a scholarship to St Paul’s in 1940. Shortly afterwards, he was evacuated with the School to Crowthorne. Science lessons were in nearby Wellington College, to which the pupils cycled: according to family legend, Geoff ’s mother regarded the corduroy trousers the boys were permitted to wear for this as the “beginning of the end” for sartorial elegance. He went up to Oxford just as WWII was ending, attending Queen’s College and graduating in Mathematics, with a diploma in Statistics. Much of his working life was in agricultural and horticultural research centres, starting in the East Malling Research Station in Kent. Here he gained a PhD, and married his wife, Shiela. In 1960, Geoff took his new bride to Africa, where he worked on tropical agriculture and forestry. In 1969 they returned to the UK with their four young children – two boys and two girls. Here, Geoff took up a post as Head of the Statistics Department at the National Vegetable Research Station in Warwickshire. Following his early retirement he worked at Warwick University as Head of its Statistical Consultancy Unit. During this time, he was also President of the International Biometrics Society and continued active research in statistics. Geoff served not just his professional community, but also his local one. He was involved in local politics for over 30 years, including a term as the first Liberal Democrat Chairman of Stratford District Council. Geoff is survived by Shiela, his wife of 58 years, as well as by his four children and Clive Freeman, son seven grandchildren.
After leaving St Paul’s, Brian put his middle name, Louis, first, after a beloved grandfather. The other, he recalled, always had a threepenny bit in his waistcoat pocket when he was small enough to have to climb to reach it. Louis grew to be a big man with a huge heart: he loved his family, friends, his narrowboat Madam, the River Thames, fine food, wine and whisky, good (non-fiction!) books and classical music – preferably by the London Symphony Orchestra which he sponsored for many years. In his last year with ‘duty’ at Thames Ditton he enjoyed the rugby almost as much as reminiscing with contemporaries. In his late 30s, Louis beat non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and decided to retire early enough to spend time doing what he chose. Consequently, he closed his career in retail and IT management consultancy in his mid-50s to spend more time aboard Madam. We mused about whether ‘Madam’ was his wife or mistress. An ambition realised was the trip from Surrey to Yorkshire. Mostly we cruised the River Thames. If the Grand Prix was on, Louis invariably found a mooring with a good signal. We frequently shared a trip from Hampton Court to Limehouse with family and friends. While skilfully steering the tidal Thames, Louis regaled stories ranging from the lesser known antics of Royals past, to his own when rowing or drinking in Chiswick. But he didn’t stop at “messing about on the river” and worked tirelessly on committees: fighting for the waterways’ safety and security; increased conservation; fair employment for lock-keepers and better facilities for boaters. The many letters of condolences included one from the Environment Agency expressing gratitude for his contribution and integrity, although they’d sometimes found him ‘challenging’. He would have liked that. He relished, and took pride in, being a renegade. What everybody agreed on was that Louis was always generous and larger than life.
The Very Reverend Robert Martin Colquhoun Jeffery was born in Uxbridge on 30 April 1935, son of Norman and Gwennyth Jeffery. His father worked for the Inland Revenue and was a leader in the Scout movement. Bob attended St Paul’s where the Chaplain, Christopher Heath, sowed early seeds regarding ordination. After National Service in the RAF, he studied for a BD and the AKC at King’s College, London. Jeffery was ordained deacon at Durham in 1959, priest in 1960. In 1964, he was appointed assistant to David Paton at Church House which broadened his knowledge of the churches in Britain, and their leading personalities. Ruth Tinling was a colleague on the Council staff – they married in 1968. After seven years as Vicar of St Andrew’s, Headington, Oxford, he was appointed by Kenneth Skelton, Bishop of Lichfield, as his Diocesan Missioner and then Archdeacon of Salop. He was also Vicar of Tong in Shropshire. From 1987 to 1996, Jeffery was Dean of Worcester, where he saw through the Cathedral’s major restoration programme. A deep shadow fell over his last year at Worcester with the sudden death of Ruth. In 1996 he was appointed Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1999, he was awarded a DD by the University of Birmingham. Bob retired in 2002, staying in Oxford and continuing his ministry. He wrote innumerable fine obituaries for leading newspapers and completed a new translation of The Imitation of Christ (Penguin 2013). Bob was a model Anglican clergyman. His pastoral heart, ever-developing spirituality, broad and liberal theology, and gifts as preacher and writer never obstructed his parental concerns, for he was also a loving and proud father to his gifted family, Graham, Hilary, Philippa and Charlie, and their children. He will be sorely missed by them and by his many friends.
Georgina Frank-Jankel, wife
Canon Dr Daniel O’Connor
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 33
Obituaries Michael J Mellon (1946-51)
John A Menon (1940-43)
Eric H Richardson (1926-29)
A man with a strong social conscience, Michael’s main passions in life were for music, in which he excelled as an administrator, sponsor and impresario, his lifelong love of rugby and his entrepreneurial activities, which included turning food waste into viable products for which he won a New Zealand Food Science Award. He was especially proud of launching a pure blackcurrant juice for Barker’s that became a worldwide success. Michael was an enthusiastic supporter of the 1981 ‘Halt All Racist Tours’ movement and the 1998 ‘Hikoi of Hope’, a nationwide march for social and economic justice in New Zealand. Conscripted into the British Army at 18, Michael became Adjutant HQ British Commonwealth Force in Korea 1953-4 in charge of Regimental Police. After the war, he worked for Dodwell, Japan, for nine years, introducing new products and training Japanese staff, becoming fluent in classical Japanese. He also promoted the game of rugby and helped to set up Rugby 7s in the country. Michael later moved to Hong Kong to work for Swires and Coca Cola. Active in the auxiliary police, he took great joy at being rammed by the Red Guard in the Harbour Tug. Michael also started a choir at the Anglican Cathedral, founded a light opera company and stage managed many productions. As an impresario, he organised concerts by Vladimir Ashkenazy, The Swingle Singers and Engelbert Humperdinck. Michael helped to set up the first rugby club in Kowloon and was part of the planning group for what is now the Hong Kong Sevens. He also set up hockey teams that played all over Asia and became an international rugby referee. Michael moved to New Zealand and became a popular Senior Lecturer in International Trade and Marketing at Lincoln and Canterbury Universities. He later left academia because of his entrepreneurial interests. Michael was the most enthusiastic person I have ever known with a real passion for life. He never stopped learning new things Pat Mellon, wife and meeting new people.
After St Paul’s, John Menon went on to study medicine. He qualified at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1949. He was also a Captain in the Parachute Field Ambulance. In 1954, he married Mary, a paediatric nurse, and they started a new life in Sarawak, Borneo, where he was appointed divisional medical officer and surgeon. They lived in Borneo for 12 years and their three daughters were born there during that time. In 1965, John returned to the UK and joined his sister in their father’s north London GP practice, also in the Opthalmology department of Barnet General Hospital. In 1973, John joined the contact lens department at Moorfields Hospital and became president of the Medical Contact Lens Association in 1982, writing many papers on contact lenses during that time. In 1986, he retired from general practice and moved from north London to become a sheep farmer in Brecon, Wales, which he did for 15 years. John learnt to speak Welsh and served on many local farming and national parks committees. John was an avid reader but sadly suffered from macular degeneration during his last years, which made him unable to read; instead he spent many happy hours listening to talking books. John passed away peacefully at home on 10 December 2016 with his family around him. Sadly, his wife Mary, who had suffered with dementia for five years, passed away two months later. They are survived by their three daughters, two living in Wales, one in New Zealand, and six grandchildren.
Eric Richardson died in Johannesburg surrounded by his family. He is survived by two sons, Christopher and Michael and a daughter, Deborah. Eric graduated with an MA from Queen’s College, Oxford, and competed his theology degree at Cambridge. He was ordained at the Parish Church of St Mary, Stoke Newington, in 1936 and after a short curacy he emigrated to South Africa to join his beloved Betty Ross. He became an assistant priest at St Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg. War was declared and Eric received special permission to marry Betty at the age of 28. Anglican policy at the time was that priests could only marry at the age of 30. Eric became Chaplain of the Imperial Light Horse Regiment serving in North Africa and Italy. After the war he returned to his wife and four year old son, who he had not yet seen, and was posted to the rural parish of Ermelo. He spent a great deal of his time travelling, as the parish was the size of Wales. He then moved to Vanderbijlpark and finally to Orange Grove in Johannesburg. In 1960, he changed direction and was appointed Headmaster of St George’s Home for Boys, a post he was to fulfil for the next 20 years. He would probably regard this as the greatest work of his life. He acquired a degree in Social Work through UNISA during his time at the Home. He also joined Marriage Guidance in Johannesburg and counseled and helped many couples. He was also known for his radio talks on the SABC. In 1967 he became a Canon of the Cathedral and an Archdeacon of Johannesburg South in 1977. After his retirement from St George’s Home in 1980, he became the Chaplain of St Peter’s School and finally retired in the late 1980s. Eric died one month short of his 105th birthday. His wisdom, compassion and loving counsel will be greatly missed.
Jane Cope, daughter
34 OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017
Deborah Kevany, daughter
opclub.stpaulsschool.org.uk l 020 8746 5390
Hugh S Spensley (1937-40) Hugh Schofield Spensley was born in Ealing on 26 February 1924. He attended prep school at Ovingdean where he developed a love of the outdoors and sport. Hugh started collecting minerals, a lifelong passion in which he developed considerable expertise. In 1937, he joined his brother Philip at St Paul’s. War broke out and the School was evacuated to Crowthorne. After a while, Hugh wanted to return to London and so left St Paul’s to complete his education at home. He volunteered as a stretcher bearer as he hoped to become a doctor. At 18, he joined the Royal Navy, and was commissioned in the RNVR. His active service ranged from the Arctic (Russian Convoy protection) to the Mediterranean (two of the Italian D-Days) then the Far East and was back in time for the D-Day landings in Normandy. His love of the Senior Service caused him to continue in the Reserve for nearly 30 years. After the war, Hugh decided that embarking on Medicine now seemed impossible. After a couple of years in London and feeling that he had missed out on university, he enrolled on a classical civilisation course at the University of Grenoble. On returning to England, Hugh went into personnel management. He started his career in large companies including RHM, before creating his own practice advising smaller companies. He also sat on industrial tribunal boards and was an advisor to the Institute of Certified Accountants. Hugh worked as a volunteer guide at St Albans Abbey. He had a great passion for travel, notching up more than 120 countries from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Hugh married Nora MacLaren Smith in 1953 and they set up home in Radlett, Hertfordshire, where they remained for some 35 years. When Nora died in 1990, Hugh moved to Henley-on-Thames. Five years later he married Rosemary Elizabeth Taylor who survives him along with a daughter and a son from his first Graham Spensley, son marriage.
David Sylvester (1957-62)
Rev John H (Hugh) Walker (1948-52) David was an only child, born in London to Renée and Lee. He lived in central and north London all his life and had happy memories of the family homes in Golders Green
and Finchley. He was educated at Arnold House and St Paul’s. After school, he began a law degree at the University of London, which he never completed, disappointing his solicitor father who hoped he would take over the family firm. Instead, he worked in the caring professions, initially as a youth leader at Brady Club, a Jewish youth club in the East End of London. Later he trained as a social worker, focusing on geriatric patients. He was employed by Olympia & York in Canary Wharf, before finally working for many years as a synagogue administrator until retirement. He was conscientious and meticulous in all that he did. David was very involved with his synagogue, where he married Susan Landau in 1977. They had two sons, Alexander (born in 1980) and Raphael (born in 1982). David appreciated his home comforts and spending time with his family and his cat. Classical music was his great passion. He developed an immense knowledge and leaves a large collection in various formats, from 78s to MP3s, all carefully catalogued. He was open-minded about music and enjoyed learning about new composers and artists, but his favourites were Lieder, especially by Schubert. He enjoyed attending concerts locally and in central London. David died suddenly and unexpectedly in December 2016, at the age of 72, nine days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He had decided, like his parents, to be cremated, choosing where he wanted his ashes buried – in the Garden of Rest in Hoop Lane, Golders Green. The inscription on his gravestone sums him up in three words from the book of Psalms: “Gracious, kind and righteous”.
Sylvester family
Born in Wolverhampton, Hugh attended Colet Court and St Paul’s as did his younger brothers, Roger (d.2012), (David) Guy (1952-58) and Christopher (1958-62). After National Service at Catterick he read Divinity at King’s College, London and was awarded the McCaul (Hebrew) Junior Prize and the Wordsworth (Latin) Prize, both in 1957, on graduation. He trained for the ministry at Warminster Theological College, and was ordained deacon at Chelmsford Cathedral in 1958 and was priested there the following year. His curacy was spent at St Albans, Westcliff-on-Sea, and he was appointed Vicar of St Alban’s, Ilford, Essex, after just three years. It was here that he met his wife Joan, a local teacher. In 1982, he was appointed Rector of St Peter and St Paul, Dymchurch, Kent. Hugh was a scholar all his life. A well-qualified man (BD, AKC, PGCE, MA (Educ), MTh), he held top teaching posts at schools in Essex and Kent. He was Head of Religious Education at Woodford County High School for Girls and at Folkestone Technical High School. He was also a part-time teacher at St Edmund’s School, Canterbury. Following his retirement, he carried out a respected ministry as associate or assistant priest at local churches, including at St Peter’s, Folkestone, St Peter & St Paul, Charlton, Dover and St Martin of Tours, Guston. In 2009, he commemorated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood. He was married for over 51 years, and leaves his widow Joan, and a daughter Kathryn, with a son-in-law Jeremy, and two grandchildren, Emma and Richard. His hobbies included a love of trams (how he enjoyed visiting the National Tramway Museum in Derbyshire), modelmaking and gardening. After some years of ill health, he died in hospital in Canterbury, with his wife and daughter at his side. At the committal service, Fr Peter Sherred from St Mary in Castro, described Hugh as a “quiet, sensitive, highly intelligent and wise priest, Kathryn Hall, daughter a friend to many.”
OLD PAULINE NEWS AUTUMN/WINTER 2017 35
We welcome all enquiries regarding the purchase, sale or valuation of fine jewellery & watches 15% discount code: ‘OEA’ ref Damian Scott (NJTJ 1987)
Est. 1509