Oct 1956

COMMEMORATION, 1956 The deluge of rain throughout the Friday night and its resumption on the Saturday morning inevitably filled us with foreboding.

Commemoration without the cricket match and the boat races and the social opportunities which go with them must forfeit much of its attraction, and as we trooped out of the Clifton Cinema after the Speech Day Ceremony we were not unreasonably apprehensive.

However, all ended well. The skies cleared; a new wicket was prepared (though doubtless it would not have been approved by Test Match captains)• at 3 o'clock the O.P. XI set about its business of extricating itself from the ignominous position in which it had found ' itself at the close of play the day before; and the large gathering of spectators was able to enjoy a carefree and entertaining game in conditions which, if not ideal, were not unpleasant. Though an untimely shower prevented a finish that might have been exciting, and the C.C.F. concluded the proceedings with its impressive display rather earlier than had been scheduled, none the less we felt that the afternoon had been a success. The Old Peterite Dinner, held for the first time in the School dining hall (an experiment which proved an unqualified success), followed in the evening.

The proceedings at the prize-giving in the Clifton Cinema followed the familiar pattern. The value and enjoyment which we derive from this function must depend largely, of course, on the qualities of our guest speaker, and our belief that the choice of Mr. Hugh Lyon, M.C., formerly Head Master of Rugby and now the Director of the Public Schools' Employment Bureau, would prove admirable was more than justified. Mr. Lyon's was one of the more noteworthy addresses we have had on this occasion. He was welcomed in the now traditional Latin oration, this time delivered by D. M. Walker, the senior Classical scholar, and we would congratulate Walker on the way in which he performed the difficult task of conveying to his audience, the bulk of whom could only follow in the printed English translation, the vigour, dignity, and expressiveness of the original.

Mr. Lyon's address, as we expected, was devoted to the question of careers for boys leaving St. Peter's and schools like it. Rejecting the sordid association of the word "career" with its unattractive derivative "careerist", he contended that a career could and should be a vocation—"a calling in life", he explained, "to which you are meant to devote yourself, your energies, your talents, your tastes; and for every one of you there should be a career which you can make your vocation. Naturally at schools of this type from time immemorial there have been recruits going out to what are perhaps the greatest vocations of all, to the Church, to medicine, to teaching, to the service of your country at home and overseas. But you will perhaps forgive me if I mention another type of vocation, which sometimes is neglected. I have for the past years come, almost for the first time, 6