OSAmag80
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 0<br />
founder member and very much involved<br />
in setting up the club.<br />
He was also much involved in the running<br />
of both clubs, cricket probably more than<br />
football, as he organised and participated in<br />
tours especially the Football Club Easter<br />
Tour and the Cricket Club visits to Broad<br />
Halfpenny Down - the birth place of cricket<br />
- a rare privilege to gain that fixture, and<br />
regular tours to Norfolk. He was also the<br />
skipper of the Football 3rd XI and the<br />
Cricket 2nd XI. A habit that Peter also<br />
initiated was to watch, or even umpire, the<br />
school cricket matches to keep an eye on<br />
potential talent that maybe persuaded to<br />
join the Old Boys when they left the school.<br />
In those days the former pupils organisation<br />
was known as the Stationers Old Boys<br />
Association (SOBA) and the football and<br />
cricket clubs were separate organisations.<br />
In 1963 it was decided to re-organise the<br />
constitution, re-name it as the Old<br />
Stationers Association and amalgamate the<br />
football and cricket clubs with it to make it<br />
fit for the second half of the 20th century.<br />
Peter again was very much the driving<br />
force to bring this into effect. The football<br />
club continues to exist and operates under<br />
the same name but recruiting its players<br />
from different sources. The cricket club<br />
unfortunately closed in 1994 mainly due to<br />
circumstances beyond their control but the<br />
Association with its social activities<br />
continues to thrive In 1964 Peter was<br />
elected President of the Association at the<br />
relatively young age of 37.<br />
Peter devoted a great deal of time and<br />
energy to the running of the sports clubs<br />
being involved in the multitude of tasks<br />
that lead to the smooth running of these<br />
organisations. That contribution also<br />
continued long after his physical<br />
participation in the matches had ceased. I<br />
think that his efforts, especially in<br />
connection with the new constitution, can<br />
be regarded as his legacy to fellow Old<br />
Stationers as I am sure it is a contributory<br />
factor in that the Football Club now over<br />
100 years old still fields 5 XIs each week<br />
and the Association, 30 years after the<br />
school was closed, has over 500 members.<br />
Recitation of composite verse of School<br />
Song.<br />
Thank you Peter for all that you have done<br />
for your fellow Old Stationers.<br />
May you rest in peace.<br />
Leslie Lane<br />
BRIAN SIMPSON<br />
1943 – 2014<br />
Brian Frederick Simpson, more commonly<br />
‘Sim’, was born in Wood Green and started<br />
at Stationers’ at the same time as me in<br />
1954. We had little in common in our<br />
schooldays, save Major Halls’ CCF where<br />
he outranked me, as sergeant, and<br />
outgunned me on the rifle range, and it<br />
was to be many years before our paths<br />
crossed, literally, again.<br />
It was in 1978, when we were crossing in<br />
opposite directions the car park which<br />
separated the main offices of Broxbourne<br />
Council at that time from its satellite<br />
buildings, that we recognised each other 19<br />
years after leaving the School. Brian had just<br />
joined my Authority’s Solicitor’s Department<br />
as Senior Legal Executive so we agreed to<br />
have a pint together at lunchtime. It quickly<br />
became apparent that we had many shared<br />
interests, not least sport and freemasonry,<br />
and thus began a firm friendship which<br />
spanned the next 36 years.<br />
On leaving School, Brian began legal<br />
training at Royds Rawlston before moving<br />
to the London Borough of Haringey’s<br />
Legal Department. Some years later, he<br />
broke away from the legal profession for a<br />
while to join Abbey Life, dealing with life<br />
assurance, and then the London Borough<br />
of Hackney as a Rent Assessment Officer,<br />
until taking up the post with Broxbourne<br />
Council. In 1982 he moved into private<br />
practice and, in 1988, joined Breeze &<br />
Wyles, Solicitors, in Hertford, where he<br />
remained until retirement in 2009.<br />
In private life, Brian took a keen interest in<br />
music, playing guitar in a skiffle group<br />
whilst still at school and later forming a<br />
band, Patents Pending. He also enjoyed the<br />
theatre and acting, becoming a member of<br />
Group12 Amateur Dramatic Society,<br />
performing at the Intimate Theatre in<br />
Palmers Green as well as other venues. By<br />
all accounts, he was an assured actor capable<br />
of masking the odd fluffed line but, on one<br />
occasion, he brought the house down by<br />
inadvertently changing Kipling’s famous<br />
verse to “tho I’ve beaten you and flayed you;<br />
by the livin’ Gawd that made you; I’m a<br />
better man than you are, Gunga Din!” It<br />
was at Group12 that another member of<br />
the Society took his eye and he began<br />
courting Angie, leading to their marriage<br />
on 14th August 1976. Their first house was<br />
in Broxbourne, later moving to Hertford<br />
Heath, and he played squash at Broxbourne<br />
Sports Club, although his sons, Ben and<br />
Tom, recall him spending rather more time<br />
in the bar, and he organised the Club’s<br />
Bonfire Night fireworks displays and New<br />
Year’s Eve celebrations for a number of<br />
years. Another passion was golf and we<br />
always enjoyed a round together at<br />
Essendon or Brickendon Grange.<br />
His interest in freemasonry began when<br />
his father initiated him into his Army and<br />
Navy Lodge in 1974 and he became its<br />
Master in 1984 and again in 2004. In<br />
Hertfordshire, he was a founder member<br />
of the Guy Marsden Halsey Lodge in<br />
1990, and its Master in 1992. In 1991 he<br />
was exalted into the Royal Arch and, in<br />
1994, he was a founder member of the<br />
Guy Marsden Halsey Chapter and its 1st<br />
Principal in 1998. He received London<br />
Honours in 1996 and was a Provincial<br />
Officer in both Craft and Chapter.<br />
Brian was a member of the Toastmasters<br />
and Master of Ceremonies Federation and<br />
its President in 1998. For many years he<br />
has been Toastmaster at our Annual<br />
Dinner at Stationers’ Hall, resplendent in<br />
his red jacket and OSA bow-tie and the<br />
epitome of efficiency in guiding<br />
proceedings along. He was, of course, an<br />
OSA member and regular attender at our<br />
‘Intake Year of 1954’ reunions.<br />
In 1995, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins<br />
Lymphoma, which he successfully overcame<br />
although an overdose during radiotherapy<br />
left him with scarring to his neck.<br />
In retirement, Brian was able to lavish<br />
plenty of time on grandson Freddie, buying<br />
him a set of golf clubs when he was six,<br />
arranging lessons for him and taking him<br />
to the driving range for practice, trying out<br />
go-karting at Rye House, ‘helping’ him put<br />
46