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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 8 29th July 2013 alex.flemming@websmartware.com Hi Geraint In your article 'Far as you roam' you speak of Ray Parsell. He and I along with Mike Kahn attended South Harringay Primary before coming to Stationers' in 1964. Tim Grollman, to my knowledge came from a Muswell Hill School and Graham Hawkins definitely came from Rokesley. Ray Parsell lived in Endymion Road overlooking the then so-called American Gardens of Finsbury Park up the road from Harringay Stadium. Greetings to Ray from me. Later in the day. Having thought about it for a while I believe Tim Grollmann came from Tetherdown Primary School. Also Gail tells me you thought I was the first member of the School to go to UEA (University of East Anglia) First of all, I went in the same year and together with Geoff Aanonson. However, some four years earlier his brother, John Aanonson, 1960-1967, had also gone to UEA to read Chemistry. He must have been the first one from our school to go there. Kind regards Alex Flemming Dear Geraint 6140 Topsail Road Lady Lake, FL 32159 bobpatten89@hotmail.com July 31st 2013 Until I read his obituary in the most recent issue of The Old Stationer, I did not know that Doug Smith had died in Antigua in December 2012. By coincidence, I visited that island a few weeks later and I attach a photograph of me demonstrating my defective batting technique. In the background stands Antigua's new test match venue, the Sir Vivian Richard's Stadium. I first played cricket with Doug before either of us began attending Stationers'. Even at that early age, he was a remarkable fast bowler. In the same issue, our President asks whether anyone can claim to have been a younger OSA President than you. I can, because I was only 34 when I became president in March 1972. Yet, at the time, I saw my youth as a dubious distinction. OSA Presidents should possess a certain gravitas that can only come with age. They should be at least 50. Rather than lobby for CoRRESPoNDENCE a rule change, I dealt with the issue by proposing a vice president, who was more than twice my age. He was Eric Coulson, who was very active in the OSFC in the 1920s. He was 74 when he became president the following year, and certainly possessed heaps of gravitas. Finally, I was thrilled to read that Dave Metcalfe has just been honoured with a knighthood. Clearly his performance in academia has been more effective than his performance in the Barnet mud, where long ago he and I (in our role as midfield dynamos) tried and failed to propel the OSFC 5th XI to glory. With kind regards Bob Patten (1948-1953) Dear Geraint Bob Patten 20 Barossa Valley Way LYNDOCH, SA 5351 AUSTRALIA 7th August 2013 Life here in the Barossa Valley is very pleasant surrounded by miles of vineyards and wineries. The vineyards change colour as the seasons pass; all very nice. At the moment it is winter, with the night temperature getting to minus two, but with the day temperature just below twenty. 14th August 2013 Thank you for The Old Stationer No. 77. Also I am still a corporate member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and have been since 1951. However, I am no longer a Justice of the Peace after 43 years. The Attorney General in his wisdom required Justices over 85 years to re-apply, so that was the final straw, so I resigned. I am still the Librarian at the National Motor Museum at Birdwood and have been for twenty years. In that time I created a Library System on the computer. This was based on the system used by the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire. In that time I have entered 10,852 books in the system. Now they have a working system not just a random ccollection of books. Peter Stopford 65 Cranhams Lane, Cirencester Gloucestershire, GL7 1UL Dear Geraint It was very good of you to call and visit me recently, it was nice to be able to recount my days at Stationers' which I remember with great affection. Over the years I have lost many of my school friends but the magazine keeps me in touch with people and events. It is vastly different to the few pages of S.O.B.A. that used to be attached to the old school magazine. A great improvement! I am pleased to be able to tell you that my health is slowly improving after my heart attack. I still have to take it easy and hope that before long I will be back to normal. I think that it is a great tribute to the traditions of the school that it should carry on after its closure many years ago. Once again thank you for coming to see me. Yours sincerely Owen C. Rowe 1930-1938 Owen Rowe is one of our oldest Old Stationers. There are only three who started at Stationers' before him. Dear Geraint 16th June 2013 erkeithy@aol.com As with Sir D Metcalf don't we have to call Dave S “Sir Dave” on account of his Papal Knighthood!!! I am still in practice as a barrister – I span 6 decades, called to the Bar in 1969! I believe I am the only Old Stationer ever to practise as a barrister but I would be very happy to be told I am wrong! Still travelling – if by that you meant had I given up driving! I'll have you know my driving skills are legendary! Going to Jersey for a week next month. It's a very small island so I'm bound to bump into the odd OS! Do you know of any OS who lives there? 18
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 8 Yes indeed my brother was a contemporary of Chas Cruden and Frank Abbott (and many others who fortunately are still with us). So he was 1953-1958 though his attendances in the last term of that last year were very few and far between! Gus was his form master in that last year and I was regularly summoned to his form room to explain my brother's absence. I always managed to give an explanation which exculpated myself but didn't put my brother in it! Good practice for my later career! He was actually spending his time at a musical instrument shop in Charing Cross Road managed by our maternal uncle Keith (Butchart) who was a thoroughly bad influence according to our Mum! Fortunately our Dad found him a proper job with a film producer from which he gravitated to record producing with Pye then went to Polydor where he ran their German operation in Hamburg for many years. He moved into music publishing some time in the late seventies or early eighties spending a decade with Chrysalis. He is still very active in the business – he is one of only 3 people who has attended the MIDEM Festival [qv] every year since its inception 51 years ago! Dave Vicary (a recent new member) and I do indeed meet two or three times a year in company with my oldest friend, that other Professor - Mike Heath – who has been retired from his Chair in 16th Century French Literature at King's College for a decade and he has never looked back! The youngest of Mike's three sons (or perhaps more accurately his daughter in law) has just produced his first grandchild. Mine – the first of seven and counting came 16 years ago this August 14th – 9 months before my darling Sonya died. At least she got to see one of them. With best wishes and kindest regards Keith Knight July 6th 2013 Kraismandd@aol.com I joined the school in 1939/40 and was among the Wisbech evacuees. I well remember the emotional parent's farewell at Harringay Station. We were met at Harecroft Road railway station, Wisbech by a thin man with a florid complexion. He was pushing a cycle and was in charge of billeting. He introduced himself as Mr Galleymore and said I was very fortunate because my billet was located in Leverington, a pleasant village within cycling distance of Wisbech. I would be staying with two other boys in a large house owned by a leading member of the community. I cannot remember the names of the other Stationers – perhaps they can help! I phoned my parents after a couple of weeks because I disliked the housekeeper and as a result, was transferred to the home of Shell petrol lorry driver Baden Thurston and his wife Florence in Clarence Road, Wisbech. This wonderful couple came to regard me as an adopted son. Their humble home was spotless and meal time was plentiful and mouthwatering. They became honorary members of my family – Uncle Ben and Auntie Flo. A few weeks ago I returned to Wisbech with my son, Mark and granddaughter, Talia because I wanted them to see where I spent some of the happiest years of my childhood. I pointed out my bedroom window and showed them the outhouse where the tin bath was located. Baths were pretty cold in winter. After the fish and chip lunch at a restaurant on the Nene quay, which was called Fitt's in our day, we walked to St. Peters Church Hall where I had appeared in school plays. I recall singing a duet with Ken Williams...the song, Oh No John, went something like this: “On yonder hill there stands a maiden...” I believe Ken was dressed as the maiden! Last stop on our tour of the town was Wisbech Grammar School . I informed my son that it was at this school that a Maths master called Taffy Hemstead used to give me numerous detentions. I was a rubbish mathematician. After leaving this great school, I worked on a local newspaper and later served in the RAF at Air Headquarters British Air Forces of Occupation in Germany. I was later posted to RAF Fighter Command, a few minutes from the home my wife and I have occupied for 53 years. I owe a great debt to my old school and the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers because I took account of their history when embarking on a career in journalism. My first Fleet Street post was at Reuters news agency and I went on to become news editor of the Sunday People. I was asked to retire when I reached 68, but newspapers still publish my work 16 years later. Maurice Krais Caxton House Hi Geraint 2nd August 2013 perring32@btinternet.com Last Sunday we came home from spending a week at our favourite hotel just outside Hawes to find the latest O.S. Mag. waiting for us on the door mat. Very interested to read your latest 'Far as you Roam' as only as recently as last Saturday we had spent a fair part of the morrning on a seat under a tree on Bainbridge Green only a few yards from the cafe. Marvellous spot to watch the traffic coming over the bridge into the village whilst enjoying freshly baked cakes and coffee. Of special interest were hundreds of cyclists out to ride the route of next year's Tour de France. You also mentioned Piece Hall in Halifax. I first heard of the Piece Hall in a television series in 1970 made by the late Ian Nairn. Nairn was a journalist with special interest in architecture and one of the angry young men of the 1950s. Although little known today to the general public his writing has influenced many of today's architectural writers and critics. He passionately believed that modern architectural design, especially in the expanding suburbs, was leading to a uniform blandness and a loss of spirit of place which was being hastened by the urge of the post war planners to tear down old buildings and destroy town centres so as to 'modernise'. He made a series of TV programmes - 'Nairn's Travels' in which he highlighted much of the destruction that was taking place. In particular he went to the Piece Hall which the pictures showed as derelict with the centre area piled high with rubbish much of which was being burnt. His programme brought to national attention that the building was listed for demolition in the near future and through this programme gave impetus to the campaign then being waged to save it. We paid our first visit to the building shortly after it was restored and reopened when there was a large Saturday market, complete with local brass band, and the place was full of life. Trust you are still in good health as are we. I am hoping to get up to London in December to attend the Christmas Lunch at the Hall. From Hereford we just get two trains each way a day that use the Cotswold Line. It means leaving home at 7.00am and catching a train from Ledbury, changing at Worcester, which is the only direct service that will get me down before midday. If I miss that it means taking a 19
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