The Newsletter of Homerton College, Cambridge & The Homerton Roll

Cathedral. Details will be included in
the Branch letter which members will
receive soon.
Margaret Blott (née Davies)
1949–1951
Newcastle upon Tyne Branch
The North East Homerton Association meets
in the Spring and Autumn of each year.
husband, Ron, for being our hosts at our
social meetings which take place in their
lovely country Manor House in the village of
Toot Baldon, near Oxford. At each meeting
there, we gather at coffee-time for a time
of welcoming each other and exchanging
news. We then enjoy a planned activity – for
instance, welcoming a speaker, and this is
followed by enjoying a “bring-and-share”
lunch, very much supplemented generously
by Sonia and Ron.
Top Kate Pretty cut the cake before toasting
the College
Bottom Homertonians from 1947 through to
2010 attended the Charter Reception
particularly as we have the opportunity to
attend a ballet class.
All within reach of London are welcome to
join us. Please make contact if you’d like to
hear about our activities. We keep everyone
in touch by e-mail so please make sure we
always have a current e-mail address. If you
have ideas for outings, venues, activities or
speakers then we would also be delighted
to hear from you.
Erica Hirsch (née Straw)
1965–1968
&
Jean Carnall (née Barrie)
1966–1969
Manchester Homertonians
We are looking forward to this year’s annual
luncheon to be held on Saturday, 9th April.
This will also celebrate the granting of the
Royal Charter, and thanks to publicity put
out by College there have been inquiries
from prospective new members. We are
delighted that Dr Pretty will be our guest
of honour.
In 2010 we did not hold a Come-if-you-can
event, mainly because we changed the
date of our luncheon from January to April,
but this year we plan a tour of Manchester
In the Spring of 2010 we were delighted to
receive a visit from Dr Ian Morrison, Keeper
of the Roll, who gave us a fascinating insight
into the arrival of the Royal Charter. Mrs Mary
Dowse invited us to meet at her beautiful
home for coffee and cakes and so provide a
venue where we thrilled to hear Ian’s news
of Homerton. We lunched at the Badger Inn,
Ponteland.
In September 2010 another member of our
group, Mrs Avril Forrest (1957–1960) invited
us to her fascinating home. Here we were
again indebted to a former Homertonian,
Mrs Frances Somers, née Womack, (1958–
1960) who gave us a tremendous insight into
her role as a member of the Independent
monitoring board of H.M. Prison, Frankland.
We also enjoyed a super lunch consisting of
savoury and sweet dishes brought by our
members. Our next projected visit will be to
Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland in April
2011. This magnificent building is reopening
to the public after major restoration. Mrs
Madeleine Gair (née Kingersley, 1959–1961)
is arranging a private guided tour.
We enjoy our visits and the companionship
and friendship which is evident in all our
activities. We have recently welcomed two
new members and would be delighted to
receive others.
Elise Wylie (née Wood)
1958 –1960
Oxford Branch
As in previous years, the members of the
Oxford Group have very much enjoyed
our events together. As before, we have
been very pleased to welcome friends to
our meetings and also visitors from other
branches. We are very grateful to our
member, Sonia Hewitt (1944–1946) and her
In March 2010, we were delighted to
welcome our speaker, Dr Peter Warner,
who gave us an excellent update on all
happenings at Homerton and he caused
us all to have happy memories of the
very many parts of the College which he
described to us, in terms of current activities
and also in terms of how they now look due
to their upkeep over the years.
In July, we had planned a visit to Abingdon
to visit many places of interest, including
the very interesting Almshouses there.
Unfortunately, due to difficulties which
several of our members happened to have at
that time, we had to cancel that visit, but we
are looking forward to including it in one of
our programmes in the future.
In October, we were privileged to have
an extremely interesting tour of parts of
the famous Bodleian Library in Oxford, led
by Peter, the husband of our member,
Christine Jackson.
Our last meeting was a purely social one
at Sonia’s home in Toot Baldon, where we
spent the time sharing with each other
our recollections of our happy memories
of our time at Homerton and our activities
since then, and then planning our possible
programme for next year.
So, it has again been a good year for us. If
you would like to visit us – or join our group
– we will be very pleased to welcome you.
Please contact either, Mrs Sonia Hewitt, (at
the Manor House, Toot Baldon, Oxford OX44
9NG; Tel: 01865 343398), or Dr Dorothy Evans,
(Flat 8, Diamond Court, 153 Banbury Road,
Summertown, Oxford OX2 7AA;
Tel: 01865 515341)
Dr Dorothy Evans
1945–1947
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Homertonian