Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 7 8<br />
When my father was in the airforce<br />
during the Second World War, she left her<br />
comfortable house in Grange Park and<br />
moved to live with him in one room near<br />
Turnhouse Airfield, Edinburgh. Whilst<br />
she was there she got a job at what she<br />
thought was a garden landscaping firm.<br />
As it happened it was a turf accountants!<br />
Later she sailed to Belfast and went to live<br />
in the wilds of Fermanagh near a little<br />
village of Ballinamalid. Her intrepid spirit<br />
came to the fore when the flying bombs<br />
rained down on London. My father had<br />
been posted to Ceylon, where he was<br />
based for over two years in his job as an<br />
operations mapper. The real worry was<br />
that he would be sent to Burma, but<br />
thankfully the nearest he got to it, was<br />
Calcutta. So I was put in a folding pram,<br />
plus one suitcase and a couple of brown<br />
paper parcels, and off we went to stay with<br />
various friends and relatives all over the<br />
country.<br />
Having been a stalwart support for my<br />
Father in all his years of enthusiasm about<br />
cricket and athletics, at the age of ninety<br />
she became his carer for nearly two years.<br />
But she had always plenty of stamina and<br />
had worked till sixty as a secretary at the<br />
local Barclays Bank. However, it was<br />
lovely having her living down the road for<br />
four years being beautifully cared for by<br />
the staff at Boulters Lock Home. I shall<br />
miss her terribly and it will take a long<br />
time not to think 'I must tell Mum that'.<br />
But her pithy common sense still<br />
automatically bubbled to the surface<br />
almost to her last few days . As she said<br />
herself, “All in all a long and happy life!”<br />
Gill Curry<br />
A very full obituary of JACK MARTIN<br />
appears in The Old Stationer Number 68 –<br />
Winter 2008/2009, having celebrated seventy<br />
years of marriage to Bess. Bess was a great<br />
suppoprter of Jack and she was ever present at<br />
the Old Stationers Cricket Club matches<br />
particularly at Barnet when Bess with others,<br />
prepared the teas for the teams during the<br />
afternoon. Ed.<br />
JoSHuA BEADoN BA Hons.<br />
1979-1984 Caxton House<br />
The Linhay<br />
BRAMPFORD SPEKE<br />
Exeter, Devon<br />
EX5 5DR<br />
The Linhay<br />
Brampford Speke, Exeter<br />
Devon EX5 5DR<br />
July 2013<br />
Dear Geraint,<br />
Thank you so much for your letter, it was<br />
lovely to hear from you. I am pleased to be<br />
able to tell you that I have completed my<br />
OSA membership form and passed it on<br />
to Gordon Rose who is processing it as I<br />
type. I have already received a copy of the<br />
magazine, which is most efficient.<br />
I imagine that I would be one of the<br />
youngest members of the OSA, and of<br />
course very few people to keep it going! I<br />
still consider it a travesty that such a<br />
respected school, and one so steeped in<br />
history should be closed. It was a great,<br />
but sad honour to sound the Last Post on<br />
the school steps all those years ago.<br />
To memories then. My time at Stationers'<br />
was generally a happy one. I had moved<br />
from rural Suffolk to South Tottenbam<br />
just a few days before I started my first<br />
year - quite a culture shock I can tell you.<br />
I was a member of Caxton house and<br />
starred in September 1979, finishing with<br />
the completion of my '0' levels. I know<br />
that technically my last year was as a<br />
student of the newly formed Langham<br />
school, but I had noth ing to do with it at<br />
all and consider myself a Stationer through<br />
and through.<br />
My first year form teacher was Dick<br />
Farrow who successfully managed to put<br />
the fear of God into us on that first day. I<br />
have been trying to remember the names<br />
of the other teachers, but as it is nearly 30<br />
years I'm struggling a bit. Here goes:<br />
Art - Miss Prior; RE - Young; Geography<br />
- Davies, Pritchard, Farrow and a younger<br />
female teacher too who accompanied us to<br />
Malham, Miss Burrows; History - Miss<br />
Johannes, Hudson; french - Zarb, German<br />
- Rumney, Music - Miss Dungate, Levy;<br />
English - Davis, Qgashi, Maths - Murray,<br />
Mrs & Mrs Court; Chemistry - Fitch,<br />
Physics - Grant, Leeming, Murray;<br />
Biology - Dr. Khokar, PE - Hubbard,<br />
Steele. RD Baynes himself took us for one<br />
lesson a week during the first year, but<br />
what he taught us I couldn't tell you now!<br />
NEW MEMBERS<br />
Being musical, I naturally joined the<br />
school choir and sang in the annual Carol<br />
service at Crouch End. Much grander was<br />
the yearly visit to Stationers' Hall for a<br />
slap up luncheon (the same every year -<br />
sausages, beans and mash) before being<br />
given 50p and walking the short distance<br />
to St. Paul's Cathedral to sing in St. faith's<br />
Chapel sited in the bowels of the great<br />
building. I surprised my two sons by being<br />
able to quite clearly remember the school<br />
song!<br />
"old boys and new boys we're proud to be<br />
Stationers', Bolt Court and Hornsey have<br />
taught us our trade".<br />
I point-blank refused to go to Langham for<br />
my A levels, so went to Woodhouse Sixth<br />
Form College in Barnet instead. In truth I<br />
hated it there and decided to leave fulltime<br />
education without completing my A<br />
levels. My mother was most upset by this<br />
decision, but I have no regrets. With the<br />
cessation of my schooling however, my<br />
scholarship to the Guildhall School of<br />
Music ceased - which I do now regret. In<br />
1986, my mother remarried (having<br />
divorced my father back in 1981) and<br />
bought a small pub in Mid Wales (in the<br />
village of Cilmery, just west of Builth<br />
Wells, Powys). I decided that it would be an<br />
exciting new adventure and went with<br />
them.<br />
It was here in Wales that I met Anne who<br />
subsequently became my wife. We married<br />
in 1992 and moved to Exeter to allow me<br />
to study Graphic Design at Exeter School<br />
of Art and Design. I specialised in<br />
typography and graduated with a first<br />
class bonours in 1995. After a few years<br />
working in the design industry, I went<br />
back to university and completed a postgraduate<br />
teaching certificate and started<br />
lecturing in typography and graphic<br />
communication at the Art Institute at<br />
Bournemouth and at my former college in<br />
Exeter.<br />
For many reasons I became steadily<br />
disillusioned with Higher Education<br />
teaching and in January 2000 I started my<br />
own graphic design agency (www.<br />
toucandesign.co.uk). It has grown over the<br />
years. Anne and I run it together (Anne<br />
gave up her legal career to join the business<br />
in 2003) and we now employ a dozen<br />
people.<br />
We have two boys. Jacob (17) is studying<br />
for his A levels and is keen to pursue a<br />
career in medicine and Oliver (13) who at<br />
the moment fancies being a barrister! We<br />
52
Change language