NEWSLETTER 2008 - Old Brutonian Association
NEWSLETTER 2008 - Old Brutonian Association
NEWSLETTER 2008 - Old Brutonian Association
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION<br />
<strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
It takes only one look at the pictures adorning the<br />
walls of Yeovil photographer Kirsten Cooke’s home, to<br />
tell you that she has an uncommon approach to her<br />
art. Not only are the subjects themselves diverse, but her<br />
style often varies between the different types of<br />
photograph she takes, or the recording medium she uses.<br />
So much so, that it is not necessarily obvious to the viewer<br />
that they have been taken by the same photographer. At<br />
times, her pictures indicate that she is not a photographer<br />
in the traditional sense while, enigmatically, others<br />
suggest that she definitely is.<br />
Intrigued to learn more<br />
about her work, we chat<br />
over coffee and it soon<br />
becomes clear that the<br />
camera itself is only one<br />
part of Kirsten’s story. “I<br />
was a fine artist before I<br />
was a photographer. I<br />
approach everything from<br />
an artistic base, rather<br />
than a technical one,”<br />
explains Kirsten, who was<br />
taught by Mr Cooper at<br />
King’s School, Bruton<br />
before going on to<br />
Goldsmiths to study for her<br />
degree. “I was there at a<br />
time when technology was<br />
very basic and we played<br />
around with translating<br />
photographs onto silk<br />
screens and printing fabric<br />
from them. So I started<br />
using my camera as an<br />
extension of myself, like a<br />
pencil or a paintbrush. I<br />
have always viewed my<br />
camera as a tool and a<br />
means to an end, rather<br />
than just something that<br />
produces images,” she<br />
adds.<br />
A PASSION FOR PHOTOGRAPHY<br />
The following is an edited reprint of an article about Kirsten Cooke (69/71), from Somerset Life in October 2007<br />
Kirsten is from mixed cultural parents, combining a<br />
Danish mother and Australian father, who came from a<br />
large medical family. The first among her siblings to be<br />
born in this country, she was also the first to choose art,<br />
rather than medicine, as a career. Following the birth of<br />
her daughter, Kirsten returned to college to improve her<br />
darkroom skills. She has a particular fascination with<br />
photographing people within their environment and, by<br />
the second year of the five-year course, which led to her<br />
becoming an Associate of the Royal Photographic<br />
Society, found that her skills were in such demand that<br />
photography soon became her career. However, Kirsten<br />
sees herself as a mixed-media artist, first and foremost,<br />
rather than purely a photographer. She will often<br />
combine photographs with card or other materials to<br />
create her finished works, or will present them in an<br />
original way that challenges the viewer’s perception of<br />
the medium. “Just because you’ve taken a photograph, it<br />
doesn’t have to stay as a physical photograph,” she says,<br />
“and because I am very tactile I like to cut and paste<br />
things and play with ideas and give myself some time to<br />
experiment.”<br />
The eclectic mix of artists<br />
whose work she admires<br />
helps to explain Kirsten’s<br />
broad-ranging approach to<br />
her own work. Those<br />
photographers among<br />
them have mainly come to<br />
the medium from an art<br />
base, rather than a<br />
technical one. Her list<br />
includes photographers like<br />
Roger Fenton and Cecil<br />
Beaton, perhaps noted for a<br />
formality of style and<br />
attention to detail in black<br />
and white portraiture, as<br />
well as painters and<br />
sculptors, ranging from<br />
Caravaggio, Rembrandt and<br />
Vermeer, to Kandinsky,<br />
Moore and Hepworth.<br />
Being armed with this<br />
information helps you to<br />
better appreciate Kirsten’s<br />
work; to perhaps<br />
understand a little of what<br />
she is about. Although she<br />
will sometimes use a<br />
digital camera, by far the<br />
majority of Kirsten’s<br />
photographic work is done<br />
with film, which she<br />
prefers, involving her in the darkroom working she enjoys.<br />
The choice of medium she uses, either colour or black<br />
and white film, often has quite a bearing on her finished<br />
work, too. Her black and white photography often has a<br />
measured, classical quality. If taking a portrait, for<br />
instance, she might spend much time talking to the<br />
subject, paying meticulous attention to the details of the<br />
surroundings, before pressing the shutter and getting her<br />
shot, just as the photographers she admires might have<br />
done. “When I take portraits, I like to them to tell a story<br />
2 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
and make a statement on the person at that point in<br />
time,” says Kirsten.<br />
Her approach to colour photography, on the other hand,<br />
often produces results which are more abstract, more<br />
modernist, in nature. “I’m more purist about black and<br />
white photography than I am about colour but, even then,<br />
I have the ability to play about and change things in the<br />
darkroom,” Kirsten tells me, as she shows me a<br />
photograph of coloured melting ice. “With colour, I like to<br />
allow myself time to let my mind wander and to push the<br />
boundaries.” Three large panels hanging on her sitting<br />
room wall help to illustrate the point. Back-lit in the<br />
colours red, white and blue, they feature a series of<br />
abstract subjects that caught her eye. “They are<br />
photographs that have been translated onto acetate, each<br />
with about three photographs layered on them,” she<br />
explains. “Because I’m dyslexic, I tend to gravitate to<br />
letters or numbers when I’m photographing for myself.<br />
These are a combination of shots of the London<br />
underground, the Tate St. Ives and graffiti in Denmark,<br />
which were all put together to make up this triptych.”<br />
Kirsten also loves gardening and has a passion for<br />
flower photography. Four photographs illustrating the<br />
seasons, produced for an exhibition last year, have since<br />
led to commissions to photograph gardens. “I have a thing<br />
about fitting a two-dimensional form into a threedimensional<br />
object,” says Kirsten about her finished<br />
works. This allowed her the chance to use all her mixedmedia<br />
skills to make stunning presentations of her<br />
finished pictures in entirely hand-made albums.<br />
As well as exhibiting a couple of times each year and<br />
lecturing to other photographers around the country,<br />
Kirsten teaches photography part-time at Yeovil College<br />
and has just completed an MA in Fine Art/Photography.<br />
“It was a very exciting and gave me the opportunity for<br />
self-exploration, to translate ideas and to take my<br />
photography to another level” enthuses Kirsten “The thing<br />
about photography is that it’s so diverse. There are so<br />
many ways that you can translate images, so you can still<br />
come up with original ideas and ways of dealing with<br />
things and it’s not exhausted yet.”<br />
To see more of Kirsten’s work, visit her website:<br />
www.kirstencooke.co.uk<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
Faye Johnson (W 97/99) was the first female <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong> to be commissioned at Sandhurst. She is now<br />
a Lieutenant in the E T S (Educational & Training Service),<br />
based at Catterick in North Yorkshire.<br />
In January <strong>2008</strong> she was seconded to Afghanistan for<br />
four months.<br />
LONDON LUNCH 2007<br />
CAPTURED BY THE ‘OFFICIAL’ OBA<br />
PHOTOGRAPHER<br />
The front cover of this newsletter shows some of<br />
the photos taken by Kirsten Cooke MA ARPS (69/71)<br />
See the ‘Somerset Life’ article on the adjacent page.<br />
A beautifully bound 36 page book of photos taken at the<br />
London Lunch 2007 is available for £40 from Kirsten.<br />
Please order by the end of May. She will also be<br />
photographing during the Bruton Weekend 21/22nd June<br />
and at the London Lunch on 7th November <strong>2008</strong> at<br />
Stationers’ Hall. She is available for commissions of<br />
particular groups of OBs at these events as well.<br />
Please contact Kirsten in advance if possible:<br />
18 Parish Mews, Yeovil, Somerset BA21 3AS<br />
T: 01935 415293 E: kirstenicooke@gmail.com<br />
www.kirstencooke.co.uk<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 3
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
The following news is taken from the Calouste<br />
Gulbenkian website. The full interview will be on the<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> website www.oldbrutonians.com<br />
Andrew Barnett (N81/86) has been Director of<br />
the UK Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian<br />
Foundation since September 2007. He is also a<br />
board member of Yorkshire Metropolitan<br />
Housing and a Trustee of Addaction, the UK’s<br />
largest drug and alcohol misuse charity.<br />
Born in New South Wales, Australia, Barnett was<br />
educated at King’s School, Bruton in Somerset, and<br />
St Andrews University. He is a Fellow of the Royal<br />
Society of Arts and an enthusiast for contemporary<br />
abstract and Aboriginal art.<br />
Extracts from an interview by Patrick Butler, Editor of<br />
Society Guardian<br />
“A sense of awe,” says Andrew Barnett simply, when asked<br />
to describe his feelings on taking the helm at the UK<br />
Branch of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. But if he feels<br />
a weight of history and tradition, accumulated during its<br />
51 years of idiosyncratic and often inspired investment in<br />
the arts, education and social change, he is not letting on.<br />
This role, he enthuses, is no burden, but an exciting<br />
opportunity to shape the next phase of one of Britain’s<br />
most renowned philanthropic institutions.<br />
Punches above its weight<br />
Not for nothing do the Foundation’s official historians,<br />
Robert Hewison and John Holden, conclude that it<br />
“punches above its weight”. Despite its relatively modest<br />
spending power (currently around £2m a year), CGF UK<br />
has helped into existence a string of iconic organisations<br />
in social welfare and the arts, from Shelter and the<br />
Samaritans, Community Service Volunteers to the Royal<br />
Shakespeare Company.<br />
Such glories provide a sturdy frame on which to build;<br />
but Barnett, who took over as director of CGF UK in<br />
September 2007, is keenly aware that past successes are<br />
no guarantee of future achievement.<br />
A distinctive voice<br />
Speaking in the boardroom at CGF UK’s headquarters,<br />
Barnett reflects on what he calls his “perfect” job. “It<br />
brings together, in one role, almost everything I have<br />
previously done or taken an interest in. Much of my adult<br />
life has really been dedicated to activities where I hope to<br />
make a difference: from volunteering for the homeless<br />
charity Centrepoint, to supporting and advocating for the<br />
arts, to contributing to the development of public policy.”<br />
But that brief also throws up some stiff challenges. For a<br />
start, the world of policy and innovation is more crowded<br />
than hitherto. There is a plethora of think tanks,<br />
foundations, and lottery funds (not to mention an<br />
interventionist government), all directing resources and<br />
intellectual energy at a wide range of constantly evolving<br />
social issues.<br />
Enriching people’s lives<br />
Barnett has a clear sense of what CGF UK should be about:<br />
enriching and broadening the lives and experiences of<br />
people, particularly the disadvantaged. The Foundation<br />
must be more than just a cheque-writer; it must<br />
experiment with and explore new ideas, evaluate<br />
outcomes, draw lessons from them and disseminate the<br />
findings in ways that engage with and influence policy<br />
makers and the public, and, hopefully, make a lasting<br />
difference.<br />
Communication is essential<br />
Policy communication is what Barnett has spent much of<br />
his career specialising in. He arrived at CGF UK after<br />
almost three years as Director of Policy Development and<br />
Communications at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the<br />
UK’s largest social policy and research and development<br />
4 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
charity. He was previously Director of Communications at<br />
the UK Sports Council and, before that, Head of Public<br />
Affairs at the National Consumer Council. He’s worked in<br />
corporate and public affairs jobs at HSBC, the Arts Council<br />
and the Foyer Federation for Youth. He says: “I’ve never<br />
believed that communications should be dominant – that<br />
approach leads to the sort of spin that is soon discredited<br />
– but I do believe that content and presentation are<br />
important sides of the same coin: it doesn’t matter how<br />
good the product, it’s useless if you can’t persuade<br />
someone to buy it.”<br />
Social change<br />
For the time being he has no plans to change CGF UK’s<br />
three social change funding priorities: older people,<br />
environmental awareness, and financial inclusion. But the<br />
Foundation will be discriminating in what it chooses to<br />
fund and give a clear steer on what it will expect from<br />
successful bidders. “We need to be more focused. We have<br />
been spreading our money very thinly. We need to create<br />
synergy with some of our other strands of work, in arts<br />
and education. Some of our best work has done that, for<br />
example funding arts projects in pupil referral units, and<br />
we need to rediscover that coherence.” Though he adds<br />
that does not mean the Foundation will ignore “wild and<br />
interesting projects” that fail to fit its strategy in an<br />
entirely coherent way. Money will be targeted at<br />
genuinely innovative ideas, he says – the Foundation<br />
simply does not have the resources to finance mainstream<br />
programmes. CGF UK’s aim will be to test change – to<br />
incubate projects at a micro level that have the potential<br />
to grow and be replicated on a wider basis.<br />
Recent projects<br />
Some of the social change projects funded by CGF UK in<br />
the most recent round of grants have exactly this<br />
potential, says Barnett. “And there are some great<br />
organisations and projects out there.” He points to Age<br />
Concern Norfolk’s “Dementia Cafe” project, which will<br />
enable mobile dementia sufferers and carers to access in<br />
one location a range of support services, as an example.<br />
The Foundation has given £15,000 to Creative City for its<br />
Newspaper House project, an interactive installation in<br />
which the public will be encouraged to collect newspapers<br />
they find lying around and, under the auspices of artist<br />
Sumer Erek, construct a house from them. “Mad, perhaps,<br />
but inspired,” says Barnett. “It’s a project with the<br />
potential really to raise awareness about environmental<br />
issues in an inclusive and adventurous way.” Another<br />
scheme backed by CGF UK that intrigues him is a Big Issue<br />
Foundation project to help create a savings scheme for<br />
homeless Big Issue magazine sellers, enabling them to<br />
access basic bank accounts and manage their finances.<br />
“In the case of the Dementia Café, this offers a different<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
way of meeting a demonstrative need – the problems of<br />
social isolation in old age made all the more acute by the<br />
increasing prevalence of dementia as we all live for<br />
longer,” says Barnett.<br />
But the Foundation will not simply wait for likely<br />
schemes to come in. Barnett talks of it being “proactive”,<br />
soliciting ideas and building strategic long-term<br />
partnerships with others.<br />
Proactive and international<br />
CGF UK’s European heritage adds a geographical<br />
dimension to its funding programme which many of its<br />
fellow UK foundations do not have (its eponymous<br />
founder was an Armenian-born British citizen who settled<br />
in Portugal, and the UK Foundation’s parent has its<br />
headquarters in Lisbon). Barnett (who was born in<br />
Australia, educated in Britain and speaks three languages)<br />
points out that many current pressing social issues – such<br />
as the effects of migration – are shared by (and linked to)<br />
other European countries. In time, he says, more social<br />
change projects will be expected to reflect and explore the<br />
globalised aspect of modern society and a growing part of<br />
the organisation’s work will be in acting as an<br />
international ideas exchange.<br />
Atlantic Waves, the international festival of exploratory<br />
music organised by CGF UK in London and now in its 7th<br />
year, exemplifies this ambition. Born of CGF UK’s remit to<br />
promote Anglo-Portuguese relations, the festival has<br />
grown into a truly international exchange of musical<br />
ideas, genres and influences, described by Time Out as<br />
“one of the capital’s most adventurous music strands”.<br />
Excellence in the Arts<br />
Barnett is proud of CGF UK’s well-established arts<br />
programmes. There are big investments in the Tate Britain<br />
Triennial 2009, and the Liverpool Biennial of<br />
Contemporary Art <strong>2008</strong>, for example. “Everyone says the<br />
work we do in the arts is exceptionally good,” he says. He<br />
is genuinely enthused by those arts projects that overlap<br />
with other strands of the Foundation’s work, such as the<br />
artist residency programme in the Galapagos Islands,<br />
which will enable a creative interpretation of social<br />
problems such as migration and ecological damage.<br />
Only the best will do<br />
One of the tests of CGF UK’s continuing success, says<br />
Barnett, will be the numbers of high quality applications<br />
it receives. But the most compelling sign of achievement<br />
will be the legacy it leaves through effecting beneficial<br />
social change. CGF UK must become an exemplar in<br />
everything it does, says Barnett. And in this sense he is<br />
not so much calling for radical reform as connecting to the<br />
organisation’s most fundamental values, as expressed by<br />
Calouste Gulbenkian himself: “Only the best will do.”<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 5
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT<br />
e-mail address: RandJMSullivan@aol.com<br />
Dear <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s,<br />
This <strong>2008</strong> <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong> (OBA) Newsletter is<br />
the first to be edited by Sally Snook (President OBA 99 – 02)<br />
and she is to be congratulated on the quality, content and<br />
presentation of her first edition. It also marks the end of<br />
my 3 year appointment as President and provides an<br />
opportunity to briefly reflect on my time in office, and on<br />
the future.<br />
The OBA <strong>Association</strong> continues to evolve and, as a result<br />
of the Internet, at a faster rate than probably ever before.<br />
There have been a number of developments over the past<br />
few years, which I believe have brought us closer together,<br />
have given us the opportunity to meet more regularly if we<br />
wish to do so, and have given us a closer relationship with<br />
the School itself. We are in good shape and the School,<br />
under the impressive leadership of Nigel Lashbrook,<br />
appears to me, as an observer, to be flourishing and going<br />
from strength to strength.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN WEEKEND AT KING’S<br />
23rd/24th June 2007<br />
The OBA Dinner, now held in the Memorial Hall following<br />
the Annual General Meeting, has been held on a Saturday<br />
evening at the end of June for many years now. Last year,<br />
for the first time, the programme was extended to include a<br />
number of events over the whole weekend, 23rd/24th June<br />
2007, in the hope that it would attract more <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s, with or without their partners, back to King’s.<br />
21st/22nd June <strong>2008</strong><br />
This year an even more ambitious programme has been<br />
planned over the weekend, including dancing at the Dinner,<br />
and is advertised elsewhere. Encouraged by the recent<br />
success of the London Lunch, it is our hope that the OBA<br />
weekend in Bruton in the summer, will also become<br />
established in the next few years as one of the most<br />
popular and well supported events in the OBA calendar. I<br />
do ask you to consider contacting friends from your time at<br />
King’s and joining them back at the School on 21st/22nd<br />
June this year.<br />
THE LONDON LUNCH<br />
7th December 2007 at Ironmongers’ Hall<br />
This remarkable event, supported by <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s , both<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Boys and <strong>Old</strong> Girls, of all ages and particularly the<br />
younger members, is reported on elsewhere. I was<br />
particularly pleased that Ellie Coyle, Head Girl in<br />
2006/2007, attended, with much enthusiasm, representing<br />
the latest intake from the School and it was a great<br />
pleasure to entertain Mrs Suzi McKenzie, Governor, as our<br />
guest.<br />
This has become the flagship and most eagerly awaited<br />
social event of the year and in its way encapsulates all the<br />
pride we have in being <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s.<br />
7th November <strong>2008</strong> at Stationers’ Hall<br />
There is sufficient capacity at this new and spectacular<br />
venue in the City for us to exceed the 200 mark for the first<br />
time. Let’s do it! I am particularly looking forward to sitting<br />
in the main body of the Hall without any responsibility for<br />
the arrangements and without any duties to perform, for<br />
the first time in 10 years, and it promises to be better than<br />
ever! Please note the date – much earlier this year.<br />
DEVELOPMENT OFFICE<br />
Many of you will have met Richard Claas, the School’s first<br />
Development Director, who has a challenging role including<br />
raising funds for a number of refurbishment and new building<br />
projects. It is becoming normal practice, in an increasingly<br />
competitive market, for schools such as ours to seek financial<br />
support for its continuing development from, amongst others,<br />
its alumni. It is left up to us as <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, when<br />
approached, to decide whether we wish to respond to such<br />
appeals according to our interest and our means.<br />
Whilst a spirit of good will and mutual cooperation has<br />
developed between your Committee and the new<br />
Development Office, we remain an entirely separate and<br />
self-governing body. Fund raising, which is so vital for the<br />
future of schools such as ours, with the exception of our<br />
own Charitable Trust, is not one of our responsibilities. We<br />
wish Richard Claas every success.<br />
THE MEMORIAL HALL<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s will soon be receiving “Appeal” literature<br />
from the Development Office for funding for a number of<br />
projects. I was pleased to be given the opportunity to<br />
comment on, and commend to you, the appeal for funding<br />
for the ambitious restoration and rebuilding programme<br />
for the Memorial Hall.<br />
The OBA Committee has been kept fully informed and<br />
many of you will have been asked for your views on the<br />
design of the new gallery. This is a particularly exciting<br />
development . I cannot say when work on this project will<br />
start but it is now within reach.<br />
THE BASIL WRIGHT BUILDING<br />
A stunning new building, which will be the executive hub of<br />
the School, is nearing completion in the area between the<br />
Memorial Green and the railway line, once occupied by the<br />
CCF offices. It will be named in recognition of the<br />
outstanding contribution made to the School and in<br />
memory of my old (New) Housemaster Basil Wright. Not<br />
only will the Headmaster’s office be there but, at Nigel<br />
Lashbrook’s invitation , the office of the OBA as well. We<br />
welcome this move, which puts the administration of the<br />
OBA at the heart of the School, where it belongs.<br />
KING’S SCHOOL BRUTON ALUMNI REUNION<br />
PROGRAMME<br />
You will read on page 39 of the new programme for <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s to be invited back to the School in their year<br />
groups. This programme, encouraged by the Governors and<br />
most strongly supported by the Headmaster, is organised<br />
6 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
y the Development Office.<br />
It was a coincidence that the first of these Reunions, on<br />
Saturday 8th March, included my year. I attended not as<br />
President but as a guest of the School in my own right as a<br />
leaver in 1962. I am pleased to report that it really was an<br />
outstanding occasion, much enjoyed by all, and we could<br />
not have been more warmly received or made to feel more<br />
welcome. It was quite extraordinary to meet<br />
contemporaries, whom I had not seen since I left.<br />
Whenever your time comes to be invited, I do<br />
recommend these Reunions to you and of course your<br />
partners are most welcome to attend with you.<br />
THE APPLE GROWERS SPORTS CLUB<br />
It has been mentioned before, and it remains the view of<br />
your Committee, that one of the most significant and most<br />
welcome developments in recent years to foster and nurture<br />
fellowship between <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, (both on the sports field<br />
and socially), from the day they leave until they are too old<br />
to play, is the Apple Growers Sports Club. As I leave office, I<br />
just wanted to take this opportunity to say how much we<br />
admire their initiative, spirit and sense of fun.<br />
It was at the OBA Briefing to the Leavers at Bruton in May<br />
last year that Adam Nunn, Apple Grower and member of the<br />
OBA Committee, recruited members of the Upper V1 into the<br />
Club. I have since heard that the new intake of rugby players<br />
soundly defeated the old guard (Brian Ashton’s famous sons of<br />
the 90’s) in a match when the more senior Apple Growers were<br />
beginning to run out of wind.<br />
OBA BRIEFING EVENING FOR THE UPPER V1<br />
I reported last year that the OBA Briefing to the Leavers was<br />
to be “ramped up”. Kate and Lizzie Sedgman dashed down<br />
from London on 18th May and gave a power point<br />
presentation to the Upper V1, with Adam Nunn by their<br />
side. I mention this because it is important that those<br />
leaving King’s can identify with, and relate to, young and<br />
successful <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s presenting the image of and<br />
membership of the OBA as being attractive not only to<br />
those of us who have been members for some time, but also<br />
to those who have recently left.<br />
There are plans for an even more stimulating<br />
presentation in May this year.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN GOLF SOCIETY (OBGS)<br />
Another outstanding success story is the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> Golf<br />
Society, which goes from strength to strength under the<br />
leadership of David Graham. We were sorry to lose David<br />
from the OBA Committee earlier this year for business<br />
reasons but are delighted that he will be able to continue<br />
running the OBGS.<br />
OBA COMMITTEE<br />
Since the publication of last year’s Newsletter, in addition to<br />
David Graham, Trevor Albery and Frank Luard have retired<br />
on completion of their 3 years’ service, and James Spinney<br />
has succeeded Colin Hughes as Honorary Treasurer. We<br />
also welcome Kirsten Cooke and Phoebe Glenday.<br />
FUTURE AIMS<br />
This leads me on to two areas where I most strongly believe<br />
we, as <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, can make a significant difference to<br />
the futures of those who have followed us at King’s School,<br />
Bruton.<br />
AFTER SALES SERVICE<br />
It is my view that parents, who now have to pay well over<br />
£20k a year out of taxed income to educate one child at<br />
King’s, have a right to expect more than an outstanding<br />
education and individual care for their boys and girls in<br />
their most formative years at the School and this is where<br />
we can help.<br />
There is much more that we can do to assist the School in<br />
supporting in every way a Careers Day for Leavers on a<br />
scale not attempted before. The aim would be to lift the<br />
horizons of these young people to embrace the whole<br />
spectrum of career opportunities available to them , in<br />
most cases after further education. We now have in our<br />
<strong>Association</strong>, as never before, many successful young <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s in a wide field of professions, and we are in<br />
touch with them. They could be inspiring role models for<br />
our leavers. Furthermore, I am sure that there are now in<br />
place, and largely untapped, <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s in a position to<br />
offer work experience and networking opportunities not<br />
only as a year group leaves the School but, probably more<br />
importantly, when they complete their degree and other<br />
courses.<br />
MARKETING/PR<br />
The School now has for the first time a dedicated Marketing<br />
Manager. This is good news and Mrs Anne Crowcombe is<br />
doing much to promote the School in many ways. We are<br />
in competition with a number of other fine Schools in the<br />
area, the names of which will be well known to you. One<br />
empty bed for 5 years adds up to over £100,000 in lost<br />
revenue over that period. It therefore would be very helpful<br />
if <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s would be kind enough to do all they can<br />
to encourage any parents they might know, who intend<br />
their children to have a private education, to take a look at<br />
King’s School, Bruton.<br />
AND FINALLY<br />
As I leave office my thanks to all those who have served on<br />
the Committee during this time and particularly to David<br />
Hindley. Presidents come and go and I hope David will stay<br />
on forever. He has been a huge support to me and a wise<br />
and trusted friend. I am sure my written English would be<br />
much better if he had joined the staff a year earlier!<br />
Harry Witherby’s contribution to the <strong>Association</strong> knows<br />
no bounds. It is difficult to give him a formal title but he is<br />
involved in so many ways and we could not do without<br />
him. His is a remarkable record of voluntary service to the<br />
School he loves and to all those who have passed through it.<br />
It has been fun.<br />
Richard Sullivan<br />
President , <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong><br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 7
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
LETTER FROM THE HON. SECRETARY<br />
Dear <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s,<br />
You’d think that, after all those years in teaching, I would have become inured to the discomfort of goodbyes: July after<br />
July, one would have to bid farewell to people (pupils or colleagues) who had become a part of one’s daily life and for<br />
whom, in most cases, one had come to feel some regard. However, it never gets any easier. We are now approaching the<br />
end of another Summer Term, and five excellent friends are quitting the immediate Bruton scene. Fortunately, none of<br />
them is moving far away, but…well, it won’t be the same.<br />
Firstly, there is our esteemed President who, you might say, lives only in Cucklington; not exactly the moon, I agree, but,<br />
if you have ever tried to find Cucklington, you will have come gradually to understand the true meaning of the word,<br />
“remote”. Consequently, any contact with Richard usually involves his emerging, like Badger*, from his lair; and, like<br />
Badger, he has been the most affable of colleagues to work with - a laughing Cavalier, a dashing Royalist, witty, urbane,<br />
generous, resourceful and the most accomplished of bon viveurs. Richard has led the OBA not only with distinction but<br />
with enormous good humour – and a twinkle. His unstoppable enthusiasm has kept the OBA sparking at every level, and<br />
we are all going to miss him badly – unless, of course, you can find Cucklington.<br />
The end of the academic year will also see a significant exodus from the Common Room - of four men who have<br />
played an important part in the lives and careers of many <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s. Paul Davies, John Bennett, Colin Juneman and<br />
Jim Roebuck have, between them, given well over a century of service and commitment to the School. Paul joined King’s in<br />
1975 to teach Chemistry and has come to be viewed by his pupils with unerring affection and respect, a fact apparent at<br />
the end of each Christmas Term when Paul offers himself up for cheerful parody in one of Dr Jenkins’s pantomimes. His<br />
appearance on stage as the latest in a long line of slow-speaking, down-trodden menials is always greeted with roars of<br />
applause. Over the years he has maintained regular contact with <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s through the careers service that he has<br />
run for the School with such devotion and with such breadth of knowledge. Paul and Rosemary were intending to move<br />
away – indeed, to France. However, the dwindling value of the pound against the euro has put that plan on hold.<br />
John Bennett took over the English Department from Charlie Blanning (B60/65) in 1977. His obvious respect for the<br />
highest academic standards, his equally obvious love of literature and his skill as a communicator made him an<br />
outstanding teacher. So many of you, who were lucky enough to have been in Blackford under his benign rule, will know<br />
only too well what a gift he had for the myriad skills of housemastering. He and Elizabeth will continue to live in<br />
Sherborne.<br />
Only two years after John, Colin Juneman came to King’s from Stowe to teach Mathematics and eventually to run the<br />
Department. Indeed, Colin’s sharp mind and genial disposition have found him fulfilling several other key roles in the<br />
School. He has been a devoted house tutor in <strong>Old</strong> House where he has taken the keenest interest in his charges of whom<br />
he always speaks with obvious knowledge and (usual) affection. Colin has also held the vital positions of Director of<br />
Studies, exams. czar and most recently President of Common Room. His love of puzzles, conundrums, intellectual games<br />
and awful puns has kept us all on our toes over the years. Happily, he and Jan plan to remain firmly in Bruton.<br />
Jim Roebuck joined the Modern Languages Department in 1989. His skill as a linguist means that he picks up<br />
languages the way most of us pick up litter. In the said Jenkins pantomimes, Jim is always cast as some particularly<br />
dastardly villain, and he plays those parts with unmistakable relish. These piratical poses, however, fool no one: Jim may<br />
have something of the buccaneer about him but anyone who lived in New House while Jim was housemaster will<br />
remember only the conscientious and concerned mentor that he was. In running the 1st XI, Jim has also been closely in<br />
contact with OB cricketers over the years. So it is my hope that large numbers of <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s will be present at the<br />
Bruton Dinner on June 21st to bid a fond farewell to Jim, Colin, John and Paul and to show them in what high regard they<br />
are held. John is already an Honorary <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> but it is the Committee’s intention to invite the AGM to vote Paul,<br />
Colin and Jim also into Honorary Membership.<br />
For every sad last day of the Summer Term there was always a fresh, expectant renewal in September. We welcome,<br />
therefore, John Longman, as our new President, with three new candidates for election, at the AGM, to the Committee:<br />
Robert Berry (P56/60), Ian Stuart (N81/84) and Andrew Harris (P94/99).<br />
My very best wishes, as ever, to you all,<br />
David Hindley<br />
*For those of you unfamiliar with Kenneth Grahame’s book, The Wind in the Willows, Badger is the wise, avuncular figure whom the other animals<br />
seek out when they’re in trouble. He is extremely hospitable and also masterminds the guerrilla attack on Toad Hall to retrieve it from the yobbish,<br />
invading stoats and weasels.<br />
8 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES, APRIL 29, 2007<br />
THE GRAND SWEEP OF THINGS<br />
John Adamson<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
THE PURSUIT OF GLORY: EUROPE, 1648-1815 BY TIM BLANNING (O55/60) Allen Lane £30 pp708<br />
Going for the big picture in European history is always<br />
a hazardous undertaking. The problem is straightforward.<br />
To see the true extent and complexity of the<br />
historical terrain our intrepid historian must gain altitude.<br />
Many are the historical footsloggers who set out on the<br />
vertiginous path, only to lose their way (or their balance).<br />
Others seek to glide on the wings of the big idea — some<br />
modish theory — only to be brought crashing to the ground<br />
by a change in the winds of scholarly fashion. Then, there are<br />
the naturals, those eagles of the historical profession, who<br />
have the acuity of vision to focus on the particular without<br />
ever needing to sacrifice the broader perspective.<br />
Tim Blanning is a such a one. Within the first pages of this<br />
magnificent book, one realises that travel in his company is<br />
going to be bracing. In 708 exhilarating pages, we traverse<br />
some two centuries — from the last days of Charles I of<br />
England through to the end of the Napoleonic wars — and<br />
travel across a continent that extends from the west coast of<br />
Ireland to the Russian steppes.<br />
Appropriately, the book starts, not with some summary of<br />
prevailing historical theories, but by noticing first and<br />
foremost Europe’s networks of communication, its roads and<br />
canals and waterways, which made possible (and as often<br />
impeded) the interaction of peoples and ideas. So bad were<br />
most of Europe’s roads that travel was slow, dangerous and<br />
prodigiously expensive; with the result that all but the elite<br />
led lives “anchored”, in Blanning’s memorable phrase, “in<br />
glutinous immobility”.<br />
Across the Continent, existence was dominated (to a degree<br />
almost unimaginable today) by the caprices of the weather,<br />
disease, and, so almost everyone believed, by the intermittent<br />
irascibility of God. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse<br />
galloped across this landscape with alarming regularity,<br />
endowing death with a “terrible immediacy” in a world where<br />
the average life expectancy was barely 35 to 40 years.<br />
Professional medicine (for the most part, academically<br />
sanctioned quackery) did make real progress during this<br />
period, with the beginning, from the mid 18th-century, of<br />
large-scale inoculation and vaccination for disease. Plague,<br />
too, retreated and all but disappeared (although more<br />
because of changes in the social habits of rats than through<br />
improvements in medical science). But as natural dangers<br />
abated, man-made perils — in the form of warfare — became<br />
ever more destructive; and the final years of Blanning’s<br />
survey culminate, not with the triumph of Reason and the<br />
Enlightenment, but with the carnage of the great nationalist<br />
wars unleashed by the French revolution.<br />
The grand themes are all here: the impact of the<br />
Enlightenment, the rise of nationalism and the nation state,<br />
the shift from the princely courts to a new bourgeoisdominated<br />
“public sphere” as the main locus of cultural<br />
patronage — to name but a few. When it comes to political<br />
power, Blanning discerns a slow but inexorable shift of<br />
influence from the European south — in particular, from the<br />
Great Powers of the 17th century, the Spanish and Turkish<br />
Empires — towards the new empires of the north: Britain,<br />
Prussia, and, by the end of 18th century, Russia. In 1657, the<br />
Russian ruler was such a nonentity in the European<br />
diplomatic circuit that Louis XIV could address a letter to<br />
“Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich”, oblivious to the fact that his<br />
addressee had been dead for 12 years. Nobody was making<br />
this sort of mistake a century later. Yet Blanning resists the<br />
temptation to oversimplify. Instead, he has a shrewd eye for<br />
the paradoxes of the past: the practical curbs that tempered<br />
the most “absolutist” monarch’s absolutism; the irony that<br />
the 18th-century Enlightenment, with its strongly anticlerical<br />
(even antireligious) spin, coincided with a “golden age” in<br />
European monasticism and a series of highly successful<br />
movements of religious revival. What is so often<br />
characterised as the Age of Reason could just as validly be<br />
characterised, Blanning points out, as the “Age of Faith”.<br />
At every stage, this capacity for the Olympian view of<br />
epochal, continent-wide historical change coexists with an<br />
ability to telescope in, with vivid clarity, on the concrete and<br />
the specific: the papal legate in Brussels adding the<br />
gastronomic novelty of the potato to his diet for the first time<br />
in 1587; the discomforts of coach journeys; the astonishingly<br />
high relative cost of bread; the social significance of hunting;<br />
the hazards of 17th-century contraception; the miracles<br />
achieved in 18th-century music.<br />
But perhaps this work’s most winning quality is the sense<br />
one has throughout of being in the company of not only the<br />
most expert but also the most congenial of historical guides,<br />
a man who is himself a perfect product of the European<br />
Enlightenment: humane, rational, sceptical and with an<br />
encyclopedic learning enlivened by a mordant Voltairian wit.<br />
Let the nations rejoice: this history of Europe is a truly<br />
glorious book.<br />
THAT’S PROGRESS<br />
Blanning is a master of illuminating detail. In 1648, people rang<br />
church bells to ward off electrical storms: by 1815, they had<br />
lightning conductors. In 1648, heretics were burnt, by 1815, their<br />
accusers were in the dock instead. But there was less to this<br />
than met the eye. In 1815, most Europeans were still illiterate,<br />
landowning elites still ran everything, states were more<br />
intrusive than ever and armies more destructive. “The fine<br />
houses and clothes of the few were financed by the involuntary<br />
sacrifices of the many.” Progress, then, but at a price.<br />
John Adamson is the author of The Noble Revolt: The<br />
Overthrow of Charles I.<br />
The Pursuit of Glory is now available in Penguin Paperback.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 9
THE BRUTON DINNER<br />
THE BRUTON DINNER 2007<br />
MEMBERS ATTENDING<br />
Guests in italics<br />
HONORARY MEMBERS<br />
Ena Blazier<br />
David Hindley (Hon. Secretary)<br />
Roger Lowe<br />
Janet Lowe<br />
1940<br />
David Hickley (O)<br />
Michael Robinson (P)<br />
Dru Robinson<br />
1941<br />
James Burrell (O) (Past President)<br />
1942<br />
Arnold Stevenson (O)<br />
1944<br />
Edwin Bristow (O)<br />
1945<br />
Graham Lockyer (O)<br />
1947<br />
Stuart Musgrove (O)<br />
1948<br />
Allen Whittaker (P)<br />
Shirley Whittaker<br />
1954<br />
Roger Gallannaugh (O)<br />
(Past President)<br />
Judy Gallannaugh<br />
1955<br />
Graham Godbeer (O)<br />
1956<br />
Colin Hughes (L)<br />
Gill Hughes<br />
David Evans (O)<br />
Helen Evans<br />
1957<br />
John Longman (Vice-President)<br />
Penny Longman<br />
1958<br />
Richard Sullivan (President)<br />
Jan Sullivan<br />
1960<br />
Michael Kyle (L)<br />
Chris Kyle<br />
James Baker<br />
Susan Baker<br />
Peter Phillips (L) (Past President)<br />
Sarah Phillips<br />
1962<br />
Robert Snook (B)<br />
1963<br />
Harry Witherby (B)<br />
1964<br />
Addison Redley<br />
Jennifer Redley<br />
1965<br />
Michael Smith (N)<br />
Stewart Flemming (B)<br />
1967<br />
Mark Pidsley<br />
Lesley-Ann Pidsley<br />
1969<br />
Kirsten Cooke<br />
1972<br />
Murshed Salam (P)<br />
Sally Snook (Past President)<br />
Dominic Wood (O)<br />
1979<br />
Mary Stonham-Ask<br />
Conan Ask<br />
1994<br />
Andrew Harris (P)<br />
1995<br />
Edward White (B)<br />
Camilla Smyllie<br />
John Harris (P)<br />
1997<br />
James Spinney (Hon. Treasurer)<br />
ASSOCIATE MEMBER<br />
Martin Barber<br />
APOLOGIES<br />
Michael Downing (N1947)<br />
Tim Downing<br />
Michael Harvey (P)<br />
Margaret Harvey<br />
GUESTS OF THE ASSOCIATION<br />
Nigel and Jill Lashbrook (Headmaster)<br />
Richard and Katie Fenwick (Headmaster,<br />
Hazlegrove)<br />
Gareth and Jillian Evans (Deputy Headmaster)<br />
Anne and David Crowcombe ( Priory House -<br />
New Honorary Member)<br />
Richard and Denise Hastings (Retiring from<br />
Staff after 37 years)<br />
Malcolm and Rosie Parr (formerly Housemaster<br />
of <strong>Old</strong> House)<br />
Charles and Camilla Oulton (Blackford House)<br />
Robert Harness (Graduate Prize Winner 2007)<br />
Glynn Jenkins (Director of Music)<br />
Jan and Colin Juneman (Assistant Secretary to<br />
the OBA and President of Common Room)<br />
Richard Claas (Development Director)<br />
Nigel and Zanna Wilson-Brown (Chaplain)<br />
Ellie Coyle (Head of School)<br />
Brittany Heal (Deputy Head of School)<br />
Sophie Liddell-Grainger (Captain – Girls’<br />
Hockey)<br />
Robert Trinick (Captain of Rugby)<br />
Lucy Clarke (Captain of Netball)<br />
Scott Gale (Captain – Boys’ Tennis)<br />
MENU<br />
Trio of melon<br />
•<br />
Poached Scottish Salmon<br />
Roasted Rib of Beef<br />
Sliced Breast of Turkey<br />
Tomato and Basil Tartlets<br />
Coleslaw Salad<br />
Caesar Salad<br />
Tabbouleh Greek Salad<br />
Tomato, Red Onion & Herb Salad<br />
Hot Minted New Potatoes<br />
•<br />
Lemon Posset and Ginger Biscuits<br />
Strawberries and Clotted Cream<br />
•<br />
Coffee and Mints<br />
The wines served were a Chilean<br />
Cabernet Sauvignon and a<br />
Chilean Cabernet<br />
10 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
ACCOMMODATION<br />
There are a few places offering bed and breakfast<br />
accommodation within easy walking distance of the<br />
School:<br />
Brue House 01749 813524<br />
Bruton House 01749 813395<br />
Blue Ball Inn 01749 812315<br />
Gants Mill 01749 812393<br />
Within about ten minutes’ drive of the School, bed<br />
and breakfast is available at:<br />
Clanville Manor* 01963 350124<br />
info@clanvillemanor.co.uk<br />
Lower Farm, Shepton Montague<br />
01749 812253<br />
Holbrook House Hotel 01963 824466<br />
enquiries@holbrookhouse.co.uk<br />
The George Hotel<br />
Castle Cary 01963 350761<br />
There is a more comprehensive list on the Bruton<br />
town website: www.brutontown.co.uk and on<br />
www.oldbrutonians.com<br />
*run by <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>, Sally Snook<br />
OBA SUBSCRIPTION RATES<br />
The Rules of the <strong>Association</strong> stipulate that the<br />
current OBA subscription rates should be published<br />
in the Newsletter. The following information is<br />
given to comply with this requirement.<br />
The life subscription rate for those joining the<br />
<strong>Association</strong> on leaving the School or within ten<br />
years thereafter is £252. The life subscription rate<br />
can be changed by the <strong>Association</strong> in general<br />
meeting.<br />
The life subscription for those joining more than<br />
ten years after leaving the School is related to the<br />
life subscription rate for leavers in the year of<br />
joining on a sliding scale laid down in the<br />
<strong>Association</strong>’s Rules.<br />
Associate membership is available to staff at the<br />
School on payment of an annual subscription rate<br />
equal to one-tenth of the life subscription rate for<br />
leavers in the year of joining. After payment of ten<br />
annual subscriptions an associate member<br />
automatically becomes a life member.<br />
THE BRUTON DINNER<br />
NOTICE OF ANNUAL<br />
GENERAL MEETING <strong>2008</strong><br />
The Annual General Meeting of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong><br />
<strong>Association</strong> will be held in the John Davie Room at<br />
King’s School, Bruton on Saturday, 21st June <strong>2008</strong> at<br />
6.00 pm for the following purposes:<br />
1. to receive the accounts and reports of the Committee and of<br />
the Honorary Auditor acting as an independent examiner for<br />
the year ended 31st December, 2007;<br />
2. to receive the accounts of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong><br />
Charitable Trust and the reports of the Trustees and of the<br />
independent examiner for the year ended 31st December<br />
2007;<br />
3. to elect members of the Committee;<br />
4. to elect an Honorary Secretary for the ensuing year;<br />
5. to elect an Honorary Treasurer for the ensuing year;<br />
6. to elect a President for the ensuing three years<br />
7. to elect a Vice President for the ensuing three years<br />
8. to appoint an Honorary Auditor to act as an auditor or<br />
independent examiner as appropriate for the ensuing year;<br />
9. Election of Honorary Members of the Assoociation.<br />
That, upon a proposal by the Committee in accordance with<br />
Article 2(c) of the rules of the <strong>Association</strong>, Mr Paul Davies,<br />
Head of Careers, Mr Colin Juneman, formerly President of<br />
Common Room and Mr Jim Roebuck, formerly Housemaster,<br />
New House, be and hereby are elected Honorary Members.<br />
By order of the Committee<br />
David Hindley (Honorary Secretary)<br />
AGENDA FOR THE <strong>2008</strong> AGM<br />
1. Minutes of the last Meeting<br />
2. Matters Arising<br />
3. President’s Items<br />
4. Hon. Secretary’s Report<br />
5. Hon. Treasurer’s Report<br />
6. The Charitable Trust:<br />
The Vice-President’s Report<br />
7. Officers and Committee<br />
8. Election of Honorary Members<br />
9. A.O.B.<br />
THE LONDON LUNCH <strong>2008</strong><br />
The <strong>2008</strong> London Lunch will be held at Stationers’<br />
Hall on Friday, November 7th. Harry Witherby will<br />
again be organising the event, and nearer the time,<br />
he will contact all those who have attended in<br />
previous years with details of the Lunch and a<br />
booking form. If you know that you are not on<br />
Harry’s list and would like to attend, please email<br />
him at harry@witherby.net .<br />
To update addresses or to inform us of news<br />
please contact:<br />
The O.B.A. Office, King’s School ,<br />
Bruton, Somerset BA10 0ED<br />
Telephone/fax: 01749 813253<br />
e-mail: oba@kingsbruton.com<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 11
THE BRUTON DINNER<br />
AGM AND BRUTON DINNER<br />
MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2007<br />
The Annual General Meeting of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong> was held<br />
in the John Davie Room at King’s School, Bruton at 6 p.m. on Saturday,<br />
June 23rd, 2007. The President, Mr Richard Sullivan was in the chair and<br />
19 members of the <strong>Association</strong> were present. Apologies were received<br />
from Michael Downing (N47/51), Michael Harvey (P41/45), Colin Jones<br />
(Hon. Member), Jamie Reach (L91/95) and Peter Squire (P59/63).<br />
1. The Minutes<br />
The Minutes of the last AGM, held on Saturday, June 24th, 2006,<br />
having been circulated with the Newsletter for 2007, were agreed<br />
and signed as a true record.<br />
2. Matters Arising<br />
There were no matters arising.<br />
3. President’s Items<br />
a. The President thanked the Hon. Secretary for another outstanding<br />
annual Newsletter.<br />
b. The President wished to record the very healthy state of the<br />
<strong>Association</strong>: finances were on a very secure footing, thanks to Colin<br />
Hughes’ careful stewardship; there is an excellent new website,<br />
designed by Justin Dean; plans for refurbishment of the Memorial<br />
Hall, in which the <strong>Association</strong> would be involved, were in hand, and<br />
to that end, the Vice-President had already produced a number of<br />
regimental flags.<br />
4. Hon. Secretary’s Report<br />
a. The Hon. Secretary reported that Schoolblazer Ltd. had now<br />
established the website for sale of King’s school uniform and would<br />
consequently be giving thought to the content and design of the<br />
website promoting and selling OBA regalia. James Wills (B64/68)<br />
was the Committee’s liaison officer for this. Meanwhile, OB items<br />
were available from the School stationery office.<br />
b. With the help of the Development Office, the <strong>Association</strong> had<br />
gathered in a large number of ‘lost’ members over the past year.<br />
c. For the purposes of record, the Hon. Secretary reported that Harry<br />
Witherby (B63/67) was now responsible for the Bruton Dinner as<br />
well as the London Lunch. Harry’s considerable experience of the<br />
catering trade was being deployed for the <strong>Association</strong>’s benefit.<br />
d. Also for purposes of official record, the Hon. Secretary stated that<br />
Sally Snook (72/73) had agreed to succeed him as editor of the<br />
Newsletter, with immediate effect.<br />
5. Hon. Treasurer’s Report<br />
Copies of the full accounts were distributed at the Meeting, as only<br />
abbreviated accounts had appeared in the Newsletter. The Hon.<br />
Treasurer then took the Meeting through the Accounts of the<br />
<strong>Association</strong> and of the Charitable Trust. Adoption of the <strong>Association</strong>’s<br />
accounts and those of the Charitable Trust were proposed by the<br />
Hon. Secretary and seconded by Dominic Wood (O72/77). Both sets of<br />
accounts were unanimously adopted.<br />
6. The Charitable Trust: Vice-President’s Report<br />
a. The Vice-President announced the names of those who had been<br />
awarded the OBA School Prizes for 2007. The OBA Prize for excellence<br />
in GCSE had been awarded to Jamie Sharp (N) and Charles Willis<br />
(B), both of whom had achieved two A grades and seven A*<br />
grades. The OBA Progress Prizes had gone to James Rizzi (B),<br />
Matej Damborsky (O) and Basil Ling (A).<br />
b. Two OBA Graduate Prizes had been awarded in 2007: to Robert<br />
Harness (N97/02) who was awarded a First Class Honours degree<br />
in Mathematics at Nottingham University and to Jeremy<br />
Johnson (L00/02) who was awarded a First Class Honours degree<br />
in Medical Sciences and the History of Medicine at U.C.L.<br />
7. Officers and Committee<br />
a. The Meeting unanimously endorsed the Committee’s<br />
recommendation of two new members: Kirsten Cooke (69/71)<br />
and Phoebe Glenday (P99/04).<br />
b. The President acknowledged the valuable contribution made<br />
over the last four years by the two retiring members of the<br />
Committee: Trevor Albery and Frank Luard.<br />
c. The Hon. Secretary agreed to serve for another year, as did the<br />
Hon. Auditor.<br />
d. The Hon. Treasurer, Colin Hughes, had announced his intention<br />
to retire this year after ten years in office. The President<br />
proposed a vote of thanks to Colin, which was unanimously<br />
supported by the meeting. James Spinney (L97/99) had agreed to<br />
take over as Treasurer; his appointment was proposed by the<br />
President, seconded by the Hon. Secretary and unanimously<br />
agreed by the meeting.<br />
8. Election of an Honorary Member<br />
a. Upon a proposal by the Committee in accordance with 2 (c) of<br />
the rules of the <strong>Association</strong>, Mrs Ann Crowcombe, housemistress<br />
of Priory and formerly housemistress of Arion, and Rob Lowry,<br />
housemaster successively of Priory and Lyon, were unanimously<br />
elected Honorary Members of the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
9. A.O.B.<br />
(a) Roger Gallannaugh (O54/57), in his capacity as a governor of the<br />
School, spoke of the superb leadership offered to the School by<br />
Peter Squire (P59/63), Senior Warden and by the Headmaster. He<br />
felt that the School was in particularly fine order and stressed<br />
the importance with which the School viewed its relations with<br />
the OBA.<br />
(b) Harry Witherby reported that the Development Director had said<br />
earlier in the day that the School was looking to the OBA not<br />
only for possible financial support but also for ideas about the<br />
School’s future. Harry added that OBA regalia could be bought<br />
not only from the School stationery office but also via the OBA<br />
website, in which case the OBA would receive a small<br />
commission.<br />
(c) The President concluded by asking for ideas as to how the<br />
<strong>Association</strong> might attract more members to the Bruton Dinner<br />
and week-end. It was suggested from the floor that the regular<br />
clash with the Glastonbury Festival did not help the<br />
accommodation crisis<br />
The meeting closed at 6.45 p.m.<br />
12 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
THE OBA WEEKEND – 21ST & 22ND JUNE, <strong>2008</strong><br />
The OBA Weekend is almost upon us again; this year it will<br />
be on the 21st and 22nd June. The events and times are set out<br />
below. This year, thanks to the generosity of the Headmaster,<br />
we are offering transport to and from the dinner so that you<br />
will not have to forgo the vino at dinner. We have two buses<br />
available to pick up and deliver back to wherever you are<br />
staying within about 10 miles of Bruton. Obviously, places are<br />
limited and it is very much a case of first come, first served so<br />
please state on the application form which you will find below.<br />
If you don’t want to carve up the newsletter, you may<br />
download the form from my web site<br />
(http://www.witherby.co.uk/oba/dinner<strong>2008</strong>.pdf). There is no<br />
charge for the transport.<br />
You will notice that the dinner is now a dinner and dance!<br />
The King's Bruton Big Band will be playing for us from about<br />
10.00 until midnight. If you haven't yet heard the BBB (and if<br />
you have) you'll be in for a treat. We are lucky to have them as<br />
they are in great demand and about to go on tour in Spain<br />
shortly after our dinner.<br />
In addition to the annual 'Ashes' match against Monkton<br />
Combe on the Saturday, the OBA match against the school will<br />
be on Sunday.<br />
This is traditionally a great opportunity to meet up and we<br />
hope you will get together with as many old friends as possible<br />
and take a table at the dinner. There will be a Retreat by the<br />
KSB Military Band on Abbey at 5pm on Sunday afternoon.<br />
Please fill in the application form and send it to me as soon<br />
as possible with your cheque (in favour of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong><br />
<strong>Association</strong>). Dinner is £35 this year; everything else is provided<br />
free by the school.<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
SATURDAY<br />
11am Morning coffee in the Memorial Hall<br />
11.30am 1st XI Cricket v Monkton Combe for<br />
“The Ashes” on Hyde<br />
1pm Lunch in the Dining Room<br />
4pm Match Tea at the Lyon Pavilion<br />
6pm OBA AGM in the John Davie Room<br />
7pm Drinks in the Millennium Circle<br />
7.45pm OBA Bruton Dinner & Dance in The Memorial Hall<br />
SUNDAY<br />
9.10am Service in St Mary’s Church<br />
10.00am Morning coffee in John Davie Room, followed by<br />
School Tour<br />
11.30am OBA v KSB Cricket on Hyde<br />
1pm Lunch in the Dining Room<br />
2pm Netball Tournament for <strong>Old</strong> Girls, Parents and Pupils<br />
4pm Match Tea at the Lyon Pavilion or in the Dining Room<br />
(depending on whether guests are watching Cricket or Netball)<br />
5pm Military Band Retreat on Abbey<br />
This will be Richard Sullivan's final event as President and I<br />
hope you will all want to be there to give him a rousing send-off.<br />
We shall also be saying goodbye to Paul Davies, John Bennett,<br />
Colin Juneman and Jim Roebuck as they all retire. They have,<br />
between them, 132 years of teaching at King’s, so there must be<br />
many OBs who would like to show their appreciation of all that<br />
they have done in their time at King’s!<br />
See you in June. Harry Witherby<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 13<br />
✁
THE BRUTON DINNER<br />
ALLEN, James (O02/07)<br />
2 Lower Backway, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0AE<br />
ATKINSON, James (N02/07)<br />
Ludwell House, Pitcombe, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0NN<br />
BARNS-GRAHAM, Rebecca (P02/07)<br />
3 Throop Road, Templecombe, Somerset, BA8 0HR<br />
BASINA, Jane (P05/07)<br />
Rionerskiy YA-3l, IRKUTSK, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, 664003<br />
BATT, Tim (B04/07)<br />
Tynemead Byre, Witham Friary, Frome, Somerset, BA11 5HE<br />
BERRY, Lauren (W05/07)<br />
The Beeches, Manor Farm, Cranmore, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 4QL<br />
BIRKENHOLZ, Philipp (A06/07)<br />
Reitzensteinstrasse 9, 82031 GRUNWALD, GERMANY<br />
BOCKELMANN, Saskia (P06/07)<br />
Gerstenlandweg 8, 21379 LUDERSBURG, GERMANY<br />
BORGERS, Luca (L06/07)<br />
Bismarckallee 13, 53173 BONN, GERMANY<br />
BRADLEY, Imogen (P05/07)<br />
Rock Mill, Arrow, Warwickshire, B49 5PJ<br />
BROAD, Liam (O05/07)<br />
39 Cadbury Farm Road, Yatton, Somerset, BS49 4HW<br />
BROADLEY, Callum (L04/07)<br />
1 Sloane Cottage, Church Road, Shedfield, Winchester,<br />
Hampshire, SO32 2HW<br />
CHAN, Ivan (B02/07)<br />
Flat D 13th/F Block B, Sheung Shui DSQ 9 Po Wing Road,<br />
Sheung Shui, NEW TERRITORIES, HONG KONG<br />
CLARKE, Lucy (A & P02/07)<br />
9 Middle Street, Montacute, Yeovil, Somerset, TA15 6UZ<br />
CLARKE, Will (O04/07)<br />
9 Middle Street, Montacute, Yeovil, Somerset, TA15 6UZ<br />
COLE, Sandy (L04/07)<br />
3 Dawney Road, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 4LR<br />
COYLE, Ellie (W02/07)<br />
Blue Lias, 24 Kingsdon, Somerton, Somerset, TA11 7LE<br />
CUTFORTH, Sophie (W05/07)<br />
9 Down Wood Road, Blandford Camp, Blandford Forum,<br />
Dorset, DT11 8AH<br />
CUTFORTH, Alexander (L05/07)<br />
9 Down Wood Road, Blandford Camp, Blandford Forum,<br />
Dorset, DT11 8AH<br />
EIFLER, Alwin (N06/07)<br />
Riedmuhlstrasse 29, 61184 KARBEN, GERMANY<br />
ENGELKEN, Constantin (N06/07)<br />
Am Hasensprung 5, 61462 KONIGSTEIN, GERMANY<br />
FARNON, Tom (O04/07)<br />
Les Villets Farm, Les Villets, Le Gouffre Forest, GUERNSEY,<br />
GY8 0HP, CHANNEL ISLANDS<br />
FECHNER, Finn (L06/07)<br />
Heinersdorterstr. 30, 12209 BERLIN, GERMANY<br />
New Members 2007<br />
FEIST, Max (N05/07)<br />
Dahmsfeldstrasse 64, 44229 DORTMUND, GERMANY<br />
FERGUSON, Sam (N04/07)<br />
Hillside House, Summer Lane, Combe Down, Bath, BA2 7EU<br />
FINK, Patricia (W06/07)<br />
Walsroder Str 52, 29614 SOLTAU, GERMANY<br />
FLINT, Hattie (P02/07)<br />
Beresford House, Ashley Wood Road, Blandford,<br />
Dorset, DT11 8AA<br />
GALE, Scott (O02/07)<br />
Leigh Farmhouse, Leigh Common, Wincanton,<br />
Somerset, BA9 8LE<br />
GENT, Freddie (B02/07)<br />
2 Bulbridge Road, Wilton, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP2 0LZ<br />
GLEISSNER, Julius (O06/07)<br />
Pestalozzistrasse 21, 82041 DEISENHOFEN, GERMANY<br />
GOMEZ, José (O06/07)<br />
Calle Vallter No 8, 28023 MADRID, SPAIN<br />
GROTE, Sebastian (A06/07)<br />
Marmsdorfer Schuetzenweg 34, 21077<br />
HAMBURG, GERMANY<br />
GUNNING, Tom, (O04/07)<br />
Tor View Farm, Galhampton, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7AE<br />
HAIDER, Masroor (L06/07)<br />
PO Box 28913, ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES<br />
HARRINGTON, Josh (B02/07)<br />
Pound Cottage, Dinton, Salisbury,Wiltshire, SP3 5EG<br />
HARRIS, Nicola (P02/07)<br />
Barton Farm, Trent, Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 4SU<br />
HEAL, Brittany (W02/07)<br />
9 York Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP2 7AP<br />
HEINS, Paulina (W06/07)<br />
Rostockersstr. 9, 21614 BUXTEHUDE, GERMANY<br />
HILLIER, Ben (O02/07)<br />
Rectory Farm, Hornblotton, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 6SF<br />
HILLIER, Jim (B02/07)<br />
Rectory Farm, Hornblotton, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 6SF<br />
HOPKINS, Bradley (N03/07)<br />
Flat 6, 14 Cheyne Gardens, London, SW3 5QT<br />
IRONMONGER, Charlie (N02/07)<br />
Taddle Farm, North Chideock, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 6LF<br />
IZOTOVA, Jevgenia (P05/07)<br />
Tedrepere 15, 13516 TALLINN, ESTONIA<br />
KEEFE, Mitchell (O04/07)<br />
Oakhill Manor, Zion Hill, Oakhill, Bath, Somerset, BA3 5AW<br />
KEEPING, James (L05/07)<br />
130 Porthpean Road, St Austell, Cornwall, PL25 4PN<br />
KIMURA, Sosuke (N02/07)<br />
Aichiken Ichinomiyashi, Kitagatatyo kitagata aza,<br />
Nakayashikigo 159, Banchi,493-8001, JAPAN<br />
14 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
LAM, Mark (A05/07)<br />
11/Floor, Flat D, Block One, Flora Garden,7 Chun Fai Road,<br />
Jardine's Lookout, HONG KONG<br />
LAQUEUR, Simon (N03/07)<br />
Breul 43, 48143 MUNSTER, GERMANY<br />
LAUSTE, Charlie (O04/07)<br />
26 Elms Avenue, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset, BH14 8EF<br />
LAWSON, Kit (O02/07)<br />
HQBF GIBRALTAR, Officers Mess, Rooke, BFPO 52<br />
LEUNG, Martin (O02/07)<br />
165 Tin Hau Temple Road, 1/F Room E, North Point, HONG KONG<br />
LIDDELL-GRAINGER, Sophie (W02/07)<br />
34 Church Lane, Bicknoller, Taunton, Somerset, TA4 4EL<br />
LIDDICOAT, Iona (W02/07)<br />
Fern Cottage, Norton Ferris, Kilmington, Warminster,<br />
Wiltshire, BA12 7HR<br />
MacCAW, Alex (N04/07)<br />
The Manor House, Stoke Trister, Wincanton,<br />
Somerset, BA9 9PH<br />
MAHINDI, Winnie (P02/07)<br />
P O Box 70355, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA (UNITED REP.)<br />
MAHONY, Mary-Kate (P05/07)<br />
Chapel Hill Farm Barns, Shearston, North Petherton,<br />
Somerset, TA6 6PL<br />
MAIWALD, Clarissa (W05/07)<br />
Auf der Koppe 17, 46236 BOTTROP, GERMANY<br />
MARCH, Adam (N02/07)<br />
Great Down Cottage, Sunnyhill, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0NW<br />
MASTERS, David (O02/07)<br />
Lower Clapton Farm, Maperton, Wincanton,<br />
Somerset, BA9 8AX<br />
MERRON, Emily (W05/07)<br />
Greenbrook Cottage, Kale Street, Batcombe, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 6AD<br />
MILLS, Alistair (O02/07)<br />
Black Dog Farm, Chapmanslade, Westbury,<br />
Wiltshire, BA13 4AE<br />
MODESTINI, Angelo (O04/07)<br />
c/o Whitehouse Guardianship. 34 Talbot Road,<br />
Bournemouth, BH9 2JT<br />
MORGAN, Matt (L02/07)<br />
Cosgarne House, Sharvells Road, Milford-on-Sea,<br />
Hampshire, SO41 0PE<br />
MORRISON, Rosie (P05/07)<br />
Driftwood, 6 Manor Barton, Chiselborough,<br />
Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, TA14 6TZ<br />
NEUMANN, Fabian (L06/07)<br />
Jenfelderstr. 13, 22045 HAMBURG, GERMANY<br />
ODDY, Jack (N06/07)<br />
17 Abbey Close, Crapstone, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 7PX<br />
OSBORNE, Daniel (L05/07)<br />
85 Nightingale Avenue, Frome, Somerset, BA11 2UW<br />
PARR, Iain (N02/07)<br />
Pear Tree Cottage, Wanstrow, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 4TF<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
PRICE, Tom (B02/07)<br />
Apple Tree Cottage, Huntingford, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 5QQ<br />
REDWOOD, Barnaby (O02/07)<br />
<strong>Old</strong> Down Farm, Embrough, Bath, BA3 4SA<br />
REEVES, David (L05/07)<br />
The <strong>Old</strong> School House, 50 Bishopston, Montacute, TA15 6UU<br />
REGO LORCA, Daniela (P06/07)<br />
Simon Bolivar 18, As Gavias, 15179 OLEIROS (A CORUÑA),<br />
SPAIN<br />
SAIDA, Takashi (A05/07)<br />
2-21-25-1009, Masuizumi, Kanazawa-shi,<br />
ISHIKAWA-KEN, 921-8025, JAPAN<br />
SCHULZ, Elisa (P05/07)<br />
Elisabethstr 14, 52062 AACHEN, GERMANY<br />
SIMPSON, Amy (W05/07)<br />
Westbrook Barns, Leighton Lane, Evercreech, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 6DS<br />
SMITH, Thomas (N03/07)<br />
The <strong>Old</strong> Police House, 17 The Borough ,Downton, Salisbury,<br />
Wiltshire, SP5 3NB<br />
SOCHNEVA, Anastasia (P06/07)<br />
Porechnaya Str. 17/22-405, MOSCOW,<br />
RUSSIAN FEDERATION, 109652<br />
SPANKE, Till (O05/07)<br />
Wilhelmstrasse 6, 45219 ESSEN, GERMANY<br />
SPURRIER, Andrew (N04/07)<br />
2 Elmwood, Rue al'Or, St Peter Port, GUERNSEY, GY1 1QG<br />
STUCKE, Sophie (P05/07)<br />
Steinberg 2, 45133 ESSEN, GERMANY<br />
TRINICK, Rob (O05/07)<br />
Inglenook, 3 Bucklands Drive, Nailsea, Somerset, BS48 4PH<br />
TSANG, Harry (L06/07)<br />
Flat A, 20/F, Block E, Pamela Youde Hospital, Civil Servants<br />
Quarters, Chai Wan, HONG KONG<br />
WATTS, Anna (W02/07)<br />
<strong>Old</strong> House, King's School, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0EF<br />
WESTLEY, Rebecca (W02/07)<br />
1 Junction Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 5SA<br />
WHEELER, Ralph (O02/07)<br />
Manor Farm, Winterborne Abbas, Dorset, DT2 9LR<br />
WHITE, Charles (B02/07)<br />
Monkswell Cottage, Mill Lane, Mere,<br />
Wiltshire, BA12 6DA<br />
WILLIAMS, Katie (W05/07)<br />
Manor Farm, South Barrow, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 7LN<br />
WILLIAMS, Richard (L02/07)<br />
47 Spring Street, Wool, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 6DB<br />
ZAMBELLAS, Alex (L02/07)<br />
Court Farm, Kennels Lane, Glanville Wootton, Sherborne,<br />
Dorset, DT9 5QJ<br />
Honorary Members<br />
Rob LOWRY, Head of Geography 89/95, Housemaster Priory<br />
95/03, and Lyon 03/06<br />
Ann CROWCOMBE, Development Manager from 1994 then<br />
Housemistress of Arion/Priory 97/07<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 15
ACCOUNTS<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION & CHARITABLE<br />
TRUST ABRIDGED REPORTS & ACCOUNTS<br />
The following are abridged reports and accounts of the<br />
<strong>Association</strong> and its charitable trust for the year ended 31 December<br />
2007. The full reports and accounts, which have been examined by<br />
the Honorary Auditor acting as an Independent Examiner, are to be<br />
approved by the Committee and trustees at their next scheduled<br />
meeting. Copies are available from The Honorary Secretary, <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong>, King’s School, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0ED and<br />
will be available at the <strong>Association</strong>’s AGM on 21 June <strong>2008</strong>. Copies<br />
can also be accessed on the OBA website www.oldbrutonians.com.<br />
ABRIDGED REPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE<br />
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007<br />
Objects<br />
The general objects of the <strong>Association</strong> as contained in the Rules<br />
are to promote union amongst <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s and to further the<br />
interests of King’s School, Bruton. In particular the <strong>Association</strong> will<br />
arrange an Annual Dinner at the School, publish an Annual<br />
Newsletter and establish and maintain a Charitable Trust for<br />
charitable purposes connected to the <strong>Association</strong>’s objects.<br />
Committee<br />
At 31 December 2007 the Committee consisted of the Officers:<br />
Richard Sullivan (N 58/62) President until <strong>2008</strong>, John Longman (P<br />
57/61) Vice President until <strong>2008</strong>, David Hindley (Staff 63/00)<br />
Honorary Secretary until <strong>2008</strong>, and James Spinney (L 97/99)<br />
Honorary Treasurer until <strong>2008</strong>, and eight ordinary members:<br />
Hannah Carew-Gibbs (W 96/98) and James Wills (B 64/68) to serve<br />
until <strong>2008</strong>, Lizzie Sedgman (W 97/99) and David Graham (O 60/65)<br />
to serve until 2009, Adam Nunn (B 91/96) and Mary Stonham-Ask<br />
(79/81) to serve until 2010 and Kirsten Cooke (69/71) and Phoebe<br />
Glenday (P99/04) to serve until 2011. John Kai Fleming (B 88/93),<br />
Sports Coordinator, Sally Snook (72/73), Newsletter Editor, Kate<br />
Sedgman (W95/97), Apple Growers and Harry Witherby (B 63/67),<br />
London Lunch Secretary, Newsletter Advertising and Website<br />
Maintenance, and Dinner Secretary, attended committee meetings<br />
by invitation.<br />
Under the current Rules two ordinary members of the Committee<br />
are elected each year for a term of four years. Ordinary members are<br />
not eligible for re-election until the year following that in which they<br />
retire. At the general meeting on 23 June 2007, Trevor Albery (B<br />
83/88) and Frank Luard (P 92/97), who had been members since<br />
2003, retired by rotation and Adam Nunn and Mary Stonham-Ask<br />
were elected to replace them. John M Graves (P 68/73), Honorary<br />
Auditor, was re-elected to serve for a further year.<br />
Membership<br />
92 members joined the <strong>Association</strong> during 2007. The <strong>Association</strong><br />
was notified of the deaths of 19 members during 2007 and at the end<br />
of the year the total membership was 3,855. The active membership<br />
for whom current addresses are known is now 2,720.<br />
Activities<br />
(a) Promotion of union among <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s<br />
The Annual General Meeting and the Bruton Dinner were held on<br />
23 June 2007. 19 members attended the meeting. The Dinner was<br />
held in the Memorial Hall and was attended by 35 members, 18<br />
guests of members and 27 guests of the <strong>Association</strong>. The annual<br />
reunion lunch in London was held in the Ironmongers’ Hall on 7<br />
December 2007 and was attended by 154 members. The reunions in<br />
Bristol continued.<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> teams competed against the School at hockey,<br />
cricket and golf. The Committee maintained contact with the Apple<br />
Growers Sports Club, which is run by <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s principally for<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s.<br />
The forty-ninth annual Newsletter was despatched to members<br />
for whom addresses were known in April <strong>2008</strong>. The Newsletter was<br />
edited by Sally Snook. Harry Witherby was responsible for the<br />
procurement of advertising for the Newsletter and for the<br />
maintenance of the OBA web-site (www.oldbrutonians.com). Over<br />
half of the active membership has registered email addresses with<br />
the site.<br />
(b) Furthering the interests of the School<br />
Richard Sampson (P 51/55), James Burrell (O 41/46) and Michael<br />
Robinson (N/P 40/44) represented <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s on the council of<br />
the Friends of King’s School, Bruton. Roger Gallanaugh (O 54/57) is<br />
the Governors’ representative. Michael Barnfield (N 68/74) is the<br />
current President of the Friends. Three members of the <strong>Association</strong><br />
are currently serving on the Governing Body of the School.<br />
Finance<br />
In the year ended 31 December 2007 the <strong>Association</strong> had<br />
incoming resources of £23,556. Resources expended amounted to<br />
£19,004 and the value of investments depreciated by £6,251. Overall<br />
net assets declined to £138,647. Further details are given in the<br />
abridged accounts below.<br />
Appreciation<br />
The Committee is extremely grateful to those members of the<br />
<strong>Association</strong> who have served as past and present members of the<br />
Committee, the representatives of the <strong>Association</strong> on outside bodies,<br />
the Honorary Auditor, the editor of the Newsletter and the<br />
organisers of the Bruton Dinner, the London Lunch, the regional<br />
reunions and the increasingly varied and numerous sporting<br />
activities. Without the assistance of these members the <strong>Association</strong><br />
would be unable to fulfil its objects.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION<br />
Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 December 2007<br />
2007 2006<br />
Incoming resources £ £<br />
Subscriptions 18,942 12,877<br />
Investment income 4,614 3972<br />
Other - 945<br />
Total incoming resources 23,556 17,794<br />
Resources expended<br />
Newsletter publication 6,649 6,052<br />
Donations 7,614 11,472<br />
Administration 2,675 2,527<br />
Other 2,065 1,260<br />
Total resources expended 19,004 21,311<br />
Net incoming (outgoing) resources 4,551 (3,517)<br />
Gain on investments (6,251) 12,473<br />
Net movement in funds (1,700) 8,956<br />
Fund as at 1 January 140,347 131,391<br />
Fund as at 31 December 138,647 140,347<br />
16 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Balance Sheet at 31 December 2007<br />
2007 2006<br />
Long-term assets £ £<br />
Investments 102,617 108,868<br />
Current assets<br />
Deposits 31,807 56,360<br />
Debtors 950 -<br />
Cash 13,597 107<br />
Total current assets 46,354 56,467<br />
Creditors: amounts under 1 year (3,824) (15,488)<br />
Net current assets/(liabilities) 42,530 40,979<br />
Total assets less current liabilities 145,147 149,847<br />
Creditors: amounts beyond 1 year (6,500) (9,500)<br />
Net assets 138,647 140,347<br />
Fund 138,647 140,347<br />
ABRIDGED REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE CHARITABLE<br />
TRUST FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2007<br />
Trustees<br />
The current trustees are the Officers of the <strong>Association</strong>,<br />
namely Richard Sullivan, John Longman, David Hindley and<br />
James Spinney.<br />
Objects<br />
The objects of the trust are set out in the trust deeds. In<br />
summary they include the relief of poverty amongst former<br />
pupils of King’s School, Bruton and their immediate dependents,<br />
the provision of scholarships to pupils at the School, prizes<br />
based on educational merit to pupils or former pupils and<br />
awards to pupils showing outstanding ability in art, drama,<br />
music, sport and leadership, and such other related charitable<br />
purposes as the trustees unanimously agree.<br />
Activities<br />
During the year the trustees made the following awards to<br />
further the objects of the trust:<br />
(a) No scholarships were awarded during the year as a result of<br />
the extraordinary award made in December 2006, at the<br />
request of the Headmaster. The Trustees intend to make<br />
further awards in <strong>2008</strong>.<br />
(b) five educational prizes of £25 each to pupils at the School<br />
and<br />
A total of £12,500 was paid out in 2007 in respect of<br />
scholarships awarded. The amount committed for future years<br />
stands at £30,500.<br />
Donations<br />
The donations received in respect of 2007 amounted to<br />
£9,026. This include the benefit of any tax relief under Gift Aid.<br />
The trustees gratefully acknowledge these donations.<br />
ACCOUNTS<br />
Accounts<br />
The full commitment for scholarships is included in resources<br />
expended in the year in which the scholarship is awarded. On this<br />
basis net outgoing resources amounted to £1,613 for the year 2007<br />
(2006: £9,543). These amounts are disclosed after making<br />
charitable expenditure of £12,625 in 2007 (2006: £27,025). At 31<br />
December 2007 the net assets were £26,499, of which £14,315 was<br />
attributable to the Unrestricted Fund and £12,184 to the<br />
Permanent Endowment Fund.<br />
Independent Examiner<br />
The trustees gratefully acknowledge the continuing work carried<br />
out by John Graves as Independent Examiner of the trust’s accounts.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION CHARITABLE TRUST<br />
Registered Number: 284570<br />
Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 December 2007<br />
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total<br />
Fund Fund Fund 2007<br />
£ £ £ £<br />
Incoming resources<br />
Donations 8,385 - 641 9,026<br />
Investment income 1,986 - - 1,986<br />
Total incoming resources 10,371 - 641 11,012<br />
Resources expended<br />
Charitable expenditure:<br />
Grants payable 12,625 - - 12,625<br />
Total resources expended 12,625 - - 12,625<br />
Net incoming resources (2,254) - 641 (1,613)<br />
Gain/(loss) on investments (1,574) - (1,236) (2,810)<br />
Net movement in funds (3,468) - (595) (4,423)<br />
Funds as at 1 January 18,143 - 12,779 30,992<br />
Funds as at 31 December 14,315 - 12,184 26,499<br />
Balance Sheet at 31 December 2007<br />
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment Total<br />
Fund Fund Fund 2007<br />
£ £ £ £<br />
Long-term assets<br />
Investments 12,901 - 10,164 23,065<br />
Covenanted receipts 6,500 - - 6,500<br />
Total long-term assets 20,975 - 11,400 29,565<br />
Current assets<br />
Deposits 17,758 1,800 600 20,158<br />
Debtors (under 1 year) 2,957 - 184 3,141<br />
Cash at bank 3,125 - - 3,125<br />
Total current assets 24,200 1,800 784 26,424<br />
Creditors: under 1 year (11,500) (900) - (12,400)<br />
Net current assets 12,340 900 784 14,024<br />
Total assets<br />
less current liabilities<br />
Creditors: amounts<br />
33,315 900 12,184 46,399<br />
beyond 1 year (19,000) (900) - (19,900)<br />
Net assets 14,315 - 12,184 26,499<br />
Funds 14,315 - 12,184 26,499<br />
(Comparative totals for 2006 have been omitted from the above figures due to lack of space)<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 17
THE LONDON LUNCH<br />
Since I retired back to Surrey in 2005, one of the treats of the<br />
end of the year for me has been the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> London<br />
Lunch. Seeing old friends from King’s School, Bruton, and talk of<br />
KSB in the 60s, reminds one of a time when incredibly old<br />
duffers with moustaches and pipes were Prime Minister, when<br />
Queens were royalty, and when career interviews lasted less<br />
than a minute! I think back to my first beer at the New Inn, of<br />
my first motorbike hidden away at Pitcombe and of being<br />
bussed home for those very rare exeats. I really enjoyed the OBA<br />
London Lunches in 2005 and 2006. And in early autumn news of<br />
the sublime 2007 lunch menu arrived…salmon, rack of English<br />
lamb and a pudding fit for a dragon. Wow!<br />
However, since last year’s lunch I have often pondered my<br />
King’s School, Bruton heritage. How is it that, whilst I could<br />
easily have gone to an excellent local grammar school and have<br />
been taught English by William Golding, writer of Lord of the<br />
Flies, I am happy to have been taught English at O’ and A’ levels<br />
by ‘Tubby’ Vallins at KSB!! How many OBs at the London Lunch<br />
actually chose to go to KSB? My parents had served during WW 2<br />
at RAF <strong>Old</strong> Sarum with Reginald Baker the owner of Chas H<br />
Bakers’, the Salisbury “gents’ outfitters”. He had sent his sons<br />
David (Priory 46/51) and Bob (Priory 51/55) to KSB. “Bruton’s a<br />
good school, not too expensive, Mrs Suffolk. I think Thomas<br />
would like it there!!” So I went to Priory House in September<br />
1958, as did my brother John (Priory 60/65) 2 years later. What<br />
luck to be sent to a small independent fee-paying boarding<br />
school!! Well, yes and no!! Like many parents before and since,<br />
sending a child to King’s School, Bruton meant huge financial<br />
sacrifice. We are still very grateful to our parents and<br />
benefactors for the sacrifices that enabled us to benefit from a<br />
great schooling at KSB…..thus the hearty cheers that greeted<br />
every reference to “<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s ” on Friday 7th December<br />
2007 at the Ironmongers’ Hall….<br />
It was on Friday 7th December 2007, a crisp winter’s morning,<br />
that I rendezvoused with John Wood (<strong>Old</strong> 56-59) at Horsley<br />
Station for the 10.48 to Waterloo. There, Jerry Pontin (<strong>Old</strong> 56-60)<br />
joined us…“Nice to see you in your old country rags, Tom!”… for<br />
the ride on the Waterloo & City line - much improved after<br />
recent track maintenance. Then a brisk march was enjoyed to<br />
the Ironmongers’ Hall where 163 OBs assembled under the<br />
watchful gaze of the OBA President, Lt Col Richard Sullivan (New<br />
58-62). Promptly at 13.00 we were marched into the magnificent<br />
Ironmongers’ Hall by our now regular, and almost familiar,<br />
Master of Ceremonies, Robert Young, Beadle of the Girdlers'<br />
Company. At our table were Norman Robson (<strong>Old</strong> 54-59 and a<br />
former Governor), Peter Phillips (Lyon 1960-1965 and a Governor),<br />
Roger Gallanaugh (<strong>Old</strong> 54-57 and a Governor), Perran Newton<br />
(Lyon 60-64), Jim Brenan (<strong>Old</strong> 59-64), Stephen Jenkins (Lyon 56-<br />
61), John Wood (<strong>Old</strong> 56-59), Hugh Diment (New 56-60), Michael<br />
Boyt (56-59), Barry Sullivan (New 56-58), Jerry Pontin (New 56-<br />
60), Tim Sutton (<strong>Old</strong> 56-59), Anton Schooley (<strong>Old</strong>/Blackford 58-<br />
63), Jamie Wood (<strong>Old</strong>/Blackford 58-62), David Statham (<strong>Old</strong> 59-63)<br />
and many others. We kicked off with Grace from the Rev<br />
Nicholas Chubb (<strong>Old</strong> 46-51) and then proceeded to enjoy an<br />
absolutely delicious meal…smoked salmon with asparagus sauce<br />
washed down by a Chilean Isla Negra 2006 Chardonnay, then a<br />
succulent roast rack of English lamb with herb crust and fine<br />
Chilean Isla Negra Cabernet Sauvignon wine. A delightful<br />
pudding, dragon fruit filled with crème brulée, was followed by<br />
coffee, chocolates and Dow’s Master Blend 2001 Vintage Port<br />
THE LONDON LUNCH<br />
REFLECTIONS ON A SUPER OBA LONDON LUNCH – 7TH DECEMBER 2007<br />
(not any old port, Mr President!). Credit must go to Harry<br />
Witherby and the catering management - The Cook and the<br />
Butler Event Company - for this superb lunch…for me the best<br />
yet.<br />
After the Loyal Toast we sang The National Anthem<br />
vigorously. The OBA President Lt Col Richard Sullivan welcomed<br />
the assembled OBs to the lunch and reminded us that it was 115<br />
years since the first OBA dinner had been held in Hanover<br />
Square, London. In the 10 years since the first London Lunch it<br />
had become one of the red-letter days in the OBA calendar, sold<br />
out months in advance to OBs of both sexes and all ages. He<br />
welcomed the senior OB present, Keith Lilly (<strong>Old</strong> 39-42) and the<br />
youngest, Ellie Coyle (Head of School 06-07). On our behalf the<br />
President presented our Master of Ceremonies, Drum Major<br />
Robert Young, formerly Drum Major 1st Battalion Scots Guards<br />
and regular leader of the Massed Bands, Beadle of the Girdlers<br />
Company, with an OBA tie as a mark of our appreciation of the<br />
very major contribution he has made to the style, sense of<br />
occasion and enjoyment of the London Lunch over the past ten<br />
years. Thereafter, the President welcomed Daniel Graham (<strong>Old</strong><br />
84-90) and Sophie Kirke (Wellesley 88-91), for whom love had<br />
blossomed at the 2004 London Lunch, and congratulated them<br />
on their recent marriage in Hampshire. Congratulations were<br />
also in order for the OBA Honorary Treasurer, James Spinney,<br />
who was getting married the day after the lunch. The Harry<br />
Witherby bottle of port, awarded to the OB who had travelled the<br />
furthest to be at the lunch, was awarded to Richard Murison<br />
(Plox/New 44-50) who had travelled from Canberra, Australia.<br />
Other OBA lunches were taking place that day in Sydney, Hong<br />
Kong and San Francisco. Sir John Griffith-Williams (Priory 58-63)<br />
was congratulated on his recent knighthood and appointment as<br />
a High Court Judge. The President also welcomed Justin Dean,<br />
who hosts the excellent OBA website that Harry Witherby<br />
manages, Mrs Suzi McKenzie, a Governor and the mother of<br />
three OBs (one recently returned from Iraq), and Mrs Jill<br />
Lashbrook teacher, wife of the Headmaster and mother of<br />
current <strong>Brutonian</strong>s. Our President asked us to remember all<br />
those OBs serving in the Armed forces, particularly in Iraq and<br />
Afghanistan. In our thoughts too were the families of two<br />
soldiers of the Irish Guards Corps of Drums, whose playing we<br />
had so enjoyed at the 2005 London Lunch. They had been killed<br />
in action in Iraq on 8 August 2007. He welcomed Mrs Jan<br />
Juneman who runs the OBA Office, and Richard Claas, the KSB<br />
Development Director. His vital role is to raise the KSB’s financial<br />
status so that the school can compete at the highest levels.<br />
Finally, he welcomed the Headmaster, Mr Nigel Lashbrook. He<br />
has a huge responsibility, leading 150 staff, and answerable to<br />
parents for the welfare and development of the school’s 340<br />
children. Under his leadership there is a pride and sense of<br />
optimism at Bruton; his is a happy team<br />
After the toast to ”The Guests” Mr Nigel Lashbrook, the<br />
Headmaster, thanked the assembled OBs for the opportunity to<br />
address the annual London Lunch. It has been an incredibly<br />
eventful year for all involved in education. There are many<br />
challenges ahead. It is therefore fortunate that schools such as<br />
King’s continue to value their independence and strive to<br />
provide a genuine all-round education, with emphasis on the<br />
relationships that the pupils build and on the community in<br />
which they live. He was very proud that KSB CCF Corps had been<br />
chosen to represent the national CCF organisation on 11th<br />
November 2007 at the National Service of Remembrance at The<br />
18 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, in the presence of Her Majesty<br />
the Queen, the Royal Family and senior National, Commonwealth<br />
and International representatives.<br />
Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire, Senior Warden (Priory 59-<br />
64), in proposing the toast ‘Floreat Brutonia’, congratulated the<br />
KSB CCF Corps for its performance at the Cenotaph. He also had<br />
been privileged to march past the Cenotaph, as Vice - Chairman<br />
of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, with their<br />
gardeners on 11 November 2007. In recent months he had visited<br />
Kenya in support of the school. He urged all OBs to consider<br />
themselves as ambassadors for King’s School, Bruton to ensure<br />
its survival in the current hostile political climate where its<br />
charitable status is under threat.<br />
After fine entertainment by the ‘New Forest Plonkers’ we<br />
The following members of the <strong>Association</strong> attended the London Lunch<br />
1939 Keith Lilly (O)<br />
1940 Michael Robinson (N/P)<br />
1943 Mike Hooper (P)<br />
1944 John Beauchamp (O)<br />
Tommas Graves (N)<br />
Edward Prance (P)<br />
James Vigar (O)<br />
1945 John Coleman (N)<br />
Geoffrey Jarman (N)<br />
Joe Palmer (N)<br />
Chris Rhys-Jones (O)<br />
Arnold Stevenson (O)<br />
1946 Nicholas Chubb (O)<br />
George Warry (O)<br />
1947 Peter Soutzos (N)<br />
David Thomson (N)<br />
John Webster (N)<br />
1948 Dick Howell (N)<br />
John Hudson (N)<br />
William Kidd (O)<br />
Keith Loney (O)<br />
1949 David Beresford-Jones (O)<br />
Peter Nisbet (N)<br />
1950 Peter Bond (P)<br />
Anthony Kirke (O)<br />
1952 Michael Read (P/L)<br />
1953 Ian Maitland (P)<br />
1954 George Comer (N)<br />
Roger Gallannaugh (O)<br />
Colin Lloyd (P)<br />
Norman Robson (O)<br />
1955 Michael Boyt (L)<br />
Martin Hamblin (P)<br />
1956 Hugh Diment (N)<br />
Stephen Jenkins (L)<br />
Jerry Pontin (N)<br />
William Rind (N)<br />
Barrie Sullivan (N)<br />
Tim Sutton (O)<br />
John Wood (O)<br />
1957 Robert Berry (P)<br />
John Longman (P) (Vice-<br />
President)<br />
Anton Schooley (O)<br />
Peter Warren-Price (P/B)<br />
Robert Willy (L)<br />
1958 Mark Fenwick (N)<br />
Charles Foot (N)<br />
David Statham (O)<br />
Tom Suffolk (P/B)<br />
Richard Sullivan (N) (President)<br />
Edward Waltham (N)<br />
Jamie Wood (O/B)<br />
1959 James Brenan (O)<br />
John Champion (N)<br />
David Graham (O)<br />
Peter Squire (P)<br />
1960 Roger Beach (N)<br />
Jeremy Hall (L)<br />
Perran Newton (L)<br />
Peter Phillips (L)<br />
Charles Pointon-Taylor (N)<br />
Keith Warren-Price (B)<br />
1961 Richard Harris (N)<br />
1962 Aidan Mills-Thomas (N)<br />
1963 Philip Brazier (B)<br />
David Hindley (Hon. Secretary)<br />
Jim Waterman (B)<br />
Harry Witherby B)<br />
1964 Peter Matthews (O)<br />
Addison Redley (B)<br />
1965 Colin Williams (L)<br />
1967 Mark Pidsley (P)<br />
1968 Rob Scott (O)<br />
1969 Kirsten Cooke<br />
1972 Adam Helliker (B)<br />
Sally Snook<br />
Dominic Wood (O)<br />
1973 David Fleming (B)<br />
1975 John Townley (P)<br />
1977 Jan Juneman (Hon. Member)<br />
1979 Jonathan Enderby (B)<br />
Mary Stonham-Ask<br />
1980 Mark Pirie (O)<br />
1981 Jonathan Cox (O)<br />
Ben James (O)<br />
Edward Lazenby (N)<br />
John Miles (N)<br />
1982 Matthew Howell (N)<br />
1984 James Burrage (P)<br />
Luis Da Silva (B)<br />
Daniel Graham (O)<br />
1985 Tony Beadles (HM (85-92)<br />
Ben Newman (P)<br />
Helena Sampson (W)<br />
Duncan Stewart (O)<br />
Mark Waltham (O)<br />
1986 James Lloyd (O)<br />
1987 Toby Fowlston (P)<br />
Tresham Graham (O)<br />
Jolyon Jago (P)<br />
James McNeil (P)<br />
Dan Newman (P)<br />
Tom Robson (O)<br />
THE LONDON LUNCH<br />
were treated to a beautiful rendition of the School Song by Emily<br />
Rowley Jones of the Guildhall School of Music, accompanied by<br />
the KSB Chamber Ensemble conducted by their Director, Dr Glyn<br />
Jenkins. Finally we all sang I Vow to Thee My Country and, finally,<br />
Bread of Heaven (Cwm Rhondda). As requested, we left the<br />
Ironmongers’ Hall by 16.30 after another great OBA London<br />
Lunch - enjoyed hugely by all. The majority repaired to the Slug<br />
& Lettuce (ghastly name for a decent pub) across the road for<br />
further extended refreshment! Tom Suffolk (P/B 58/63)<br />
POSTSCRIPT<br />
Please note that The <strong>2008</strong> OBA London Lunch will take place<br />
much earlier than usual, on Friday 7th November <strong>2008</strong> at the<br />
Stationers’ Hall, London……more details on the website.<br />
www.oldbrutonians.com<br />
Fraser Stewart (O)<br />
James Waltham (O)<br />
Philip Williams (P)<br />
1988 Sophie Graham (W)<br />
Mark Lloyd Davies (L)<br />
Karen Menzel (W)<br />
1989 Don Gibson (L)<br />
Douglas Mc Kenzie (L)<br />
1990 Russell Allen(N)<br />
Edward Beresford-Jones (O)<br />
Henry Burrows (O)<br />
Oliver Fowlston (P)<br />
Matthew Gresham (P)<br />
Tim McCallum (O)<br />
Robin Phillips (O)<br />
James Ricketts (B)<br />
George Robson (O)<br />
James Thomas (L)<br />
1991 Ian Clothier (N)<br />
Luke Lloyd Davies (L)<br />
Andrew Molyneux (N)<br />
Adam Nunn (B)<br />
1992 Oliver East (B)<br />
Marco Laing (N)<br />
Frank Luard (P)<br />
Kevin Pike (L)<br />
Tom Rooke (O)<br />
Duncan Weir (O)<br />
1993 Charlie Campbell (P)<br />
Dominic Haigh (L)<br />
Edward Squire (P)<br />
Richard Stacey (B)<br />
Edward Thomas (L)<br />
1994 Paul Crang (L)<br />
James Knowling (L)<br />
1995 Louisa Crang (W)<br />
Mark Dunn (P)<br />
Matt Green (N)<br />
Sandy McKenzie (L)<br />
Kate Sedgman (W)<br />
1996 Hannah Carew-Gibbs (W)<br />
George Mellery-Pratt (B)<br />
1997 Suzanne Case (W)<br />
Lizzie Sedgman (W)<br />
2005 Ellie Coyle (W)<br />
Guests of the <strong>Association</strong><br />
Suzi McKenzie (Governor)<br />
Nigel Lashbrook (Headmaster)<br />
Jill Lashbrook<br />
Richard Claas (Development Director)<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 19
FRIENDS OF KING’S SCHOOL BRUTON<br />
PLEASE SUPPORT THE FRIENDS<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BANKERS’ ORDER FORM<br />
, <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
, <br />
PPL<br />
Pharmaceutical Packaging (Leeds) Ltd<br />
THIS PAGE IS GENEROUSLY DONATED<br />
TO THE FRIENDS OF KING’S SCHOOL,<br />
BRUTON BY PETER BOND (PRIORY 50-54)<br />
OF PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING (LEEDS) LTD.<br />
20 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
OLD BRUTONIAN INSIGNIA<br />
The cost of <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> items is as follows:<br />
Crested ties in polyester £6.95; Striped ties in<br />
polyester £4.95; Crested ties in pure silk £25.00;<br />
Striped ties in pure silk £17.95; Striped bow-ties in<br />
pure silk £25.00<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> ties and brooches may be obtained<br />
from the School Shop which is open on Monday,<br />
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10.15 - 13.45.<br />
Items may be ordered by post (King’s School, Bruton,<br />
Somerset BA10 0ED), by telephone: 01749 812557, or<br />
through www.oldbrutonians.com.<br />
SOUVENIRS OF THE SCHOOL<br />
ORDERS FOR THE ITEMS BELOW SHOULD BE<br />
SENT TO:<br />
King’s School, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0ED.<br />
Telephone 01749 814201<br />
Items ordered may be collected from the School, or<br />
they can be sent. If you wish to have items sent,<br />
please add p&p as follows:<br />
KSB Remembered £3.50,<br />
Four Hundred Years a School £1,<br />
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants £1,<br />
Golf umbrella £5,<br />
Watercolour prints £4,<br />
Cards 50p. (Overseas p&p will be charged at cost.)<br />
Cheques should be made payable to ‘King’s School,<br />
Bruton’.<br />
The following items are available from the School:<br />
King’s School Bruton Remembered,<br />
by Basil Wright £10;<br />
Four Hundred Years A School,<br />
by Geoffrey Sale £5;<br />
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants,<br />
by Henry Hobhouse £4;<br />
Golf Umbrella £15;<br />
Watercolour Print of <strong>Old</strong> House<br />
by W. S. Blackshaw £5;<br />
Cards 35p each, or 5 for £1.50<br />
The cards are blank inside, so useful for any occasion.<br />
There are 5 different cover photographs –<br />
(A) an aerial view of Bruton<br />
(B) pupils on the River Brue stepping stones<br />
(C) pupils on Abbey<br />
(D) a pupil playing the piano in the John Davie Room<br />
(E) two rugby players in front of Hyde Pavilion<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
OLD BRUTONIAN SURVEYORS’<br />
CHRISTMAS LUNCH<br />
The first formal <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> Surveyors’ Christmas<br />
Lunch was held on Friday 30th November 2007<br />
In attendance were:<br />
Charlie Campbell (P93/98) (CBRE)<br />
Kate Sedgman (W95/97) (CBRE)<br />
James Burrage (P94/99) (DTZ)<br />
James Strevens (N86/91) (Cushman & Wakefield)<br />
Lizzie Sedgman (W97/99) (Cushman & Wakefield)<br />
Marc Rogers (P94/99) (Shelley Sandzer)<br />
Richard Stacey (B93/98) (King Sturge)<br />
Matt Green (P95/00) (King Sturge)<br />
Luke Kemp (B90/95) (Atisreal)<br />
Ed Thomas (L93/98) (Not a surveyor but we let him in anyway!!!)<br />
We spanned about a decade of OBs with representatives<br />
from nearly all Houses although we were missing about<br />
five of the regular attendees who had to be elsewhere<br />
because of work commitments. We are quite keen to build<br />
this into an annual event and increase numbers, as it is a<br />
good opportunity to meet other surveyors, but above all is<br />
great fun and a chance to catch up with friends. The only<br />
other school we know of who do the same is Uppingham<br />
and apparently they have up to 100 delegates at their<br />
property lunch so we have a way to go yet (but as some of<br />
the older attendees noted, it wasn’t so long ago that the<br />
London Lunch started as a relatively small gathering and<br />
now it has evolved into a major event involving over 100<br />
OBs). There are other lunches and drinks throughout the<br />
course of the year so any OBs wanting to do some<br />
property networking please contact Lizzie Sedgman to<br />
meet up with us before the next Christmas lunch.<br />
Lizzie Sedgman, Cushman & Wakefield, London W1A 3BG.<br />
lizzie.sedgman@eur.cushwake.com)<br />
+44 (0) 20 7152 5174 +44 (0) 7793 808 174<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 21
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
22 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
3000<br />
SINGLE<br />
COUNTRY BOOKS<br />
EUROPE & LATIN AMERICA<br />
ALBANIA GREECE POLAND ARGENTINA<br />
AUSTRIA HOLLAND PORTUGAL BRAZIL<br />
BELGIUM HUNGARY RUMANIA CUBA<br />
BULGARIA ICELAND RUSSIA EL SALVADOR<br />
CZECH ITALY SERBIA GUATAMALA<br />
DENMARK L'TENSTEIN SPAIN MEXICO<br />
FINLAND L'BOURG SWEDEN NICARAGUA<br />
FRANCE MNT'NEGRO SWITZ'LAND URUGUAY<br />
GERMANY NORWAY YUGOSLAVIA VENEZUELA<br />
Prefer: Mint Used Both<br />
Pre 1910 1910-45 Post WW2<br />
BRITISH COMMONWEALTH<br />
&<br />
EUROPEAN STAMPS<br />
Huge stocks of top class one country quality selections realistically priced.<br />
Price, Quality and Service are our hallmarks. Appeal to all classes of collector.<br />
Tick countries of interest for 15 day approval in the comfort of your own home.<br />
Michael G. Read (U.D.P.A.)<br />
(Priory/Lyon - 1952-1957)<br />
Poachers Retreat, Common Lane, Kings Langley<br />
Herts, WD4 9HP Phone: 01923 269775<br />
e-mail: nick@readstamps.co.uk<br />
Est. 1975 - 33 Years of Care and Attention<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
COMMONWEALTH<br />
OVER<br />
500,000<br />
STAMPS<br />
ADEN FALKLANDS MALAYA SEYCHELLES<br />
ASCENSION FIJI MALTA SINGAPORE<br />
AUSTRALIA GAMBIA MAURITIUS S.LEONE<br />
BAHAMAS GIBRALTAR N.BORNEO S.AFRICA<br />
BARBADOS GOLD COAST N'FOUNDLAND SW.AFRICA<br />
BRUNEI GT BRITAIN N.ZEALAND S.A. PROVN<br />
CANADA HONG KONG NIGERIA S.A. COLNS<br />
CEYLON INDIA NYASALAND ST. LUCIA<br />
COOK IS. JAMAICA PACIFIC IS. SUDAN<br />
CYPRUS K.U.T. PAPUA TANGANYIKA<br />
EGYPT LABUAN RHODESIA W. INDIES<br />
EIRE LEEWARD IS. SARAWAK ZANZIBAR<br />
Name.............................................................................................<br />
Address.........................................................................................<br />
......................................................................................................<br />
Postcode................................Tel.(Home)................................ OBA<br />
CLANVILLE MANOR<br />
Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast<br />
and Self-Catering holidays, 10 minutes from Bruton.<br />
Quality ensuite B&B (VisitBritain 4 Stars, Silver Award. AA<br />
4 Stars) and Self-catering accommodation (4 Stars grading)<br />
on a farm run by Robert and Sally Snook, both OBs.<br />
B&B from £35.00 per person per night<br />
S/C From £225 - £650 per week<br />
Short breaks available. Credit cards accepted.<br />
See www.clanvillemanor.co.uk for full<br />
details or contact Sally Snook,<br />
Clanville Manor, Castle Cary, BA7 7PJ<br />
Tel: 01963 350124 Fax 01963 350719<br />
e-mail: info@clanvillemanor.co.uk<br />
5% of the cost of your stay will be donated to the OBA<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 23
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong><br />
Golf Society<br />
Our mission statement is clear “to enjoy the company<br />
of like minded <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, to make new or<br />
rekindle old acquaintances, to advance the interests<br />
and reputation of our School in the arena of golf<br />
whilst playing on the finest courses in the land in an<br />
atmosphere of friendship and conviviality”.<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s are already making a huge impact in<br />
the Game. George O’Grady is the Executive Director<br />
of the PGA European Tour whilst Tom Phillips is the<br />
Chief Executive of the Faldo Asia Series. Stuart<br />
Archibald played a sub par round at Royal Troon in<br />
The British Open of 2004 whilst Nick Gammon played<br />
four rounds averaging under eighty from the<br />
tournament tees at Augusta National.<br />
We shall be meeting at the Trevose Golf & Country<br />
Club for a weekend of golf on Friday 25th April and<br />
the OBGS will be playing the KSB Vl at Woking GC on<br />
27th June. We will again be looking for sponsors for<br />
the school team. Our autumn meeting starts at<br />
Woking GC on Friday, 3rd October.<br />
Further details of all aspects of the OBGS may be obtained from<br />
David Graham, Lukyns, Dulwich Common, London SE21 7EU<br />
0208 693 6197 dg@labuk.net<br />
24 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
OLD BRUTONIAN GOLF SOCIETY V KSB<br />
WOKING GOLF CLUB 6TH JULY 2007<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
Dear <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> Golfer,<br />
Thanks to the tremendous financial support of our generous members - a big thank you - we<br />
were able to invite the KSB first six - at no cost to themselves - to a match against the OBGS at Woking<br />
Golf Club on Friday 29th June. Singles in the morning, a hearty lunch with a steady flow of wine,<br />
followed by foursomes.<br />
Mark Charania, sometimes known as "Longman" or to his partners "Wildman" on account of his<br />
long hitting and fine shots out of the rough was, by popular demand, the OBGS Captain. His<br />
preparation and team selection through many hours, nay months, of methodical, time-consuming<br />
analysis left nothing to chance. Nick Gammon, who some believe to be our best player on a handicap<br />
of one, was never in the frame - "just not playing to scratch" - and Billy Gammon (home from the<br />
Antipodes for the match) was given the bird when news filtered down the M4 corridor that he was<br />
being badly led astray in a Clapham establishment on Thursday night by former society playboy,<br />
Fraser Stewart.<br />
Selection was ruthless, but come the day, the Captain knew he had a formidable OBGS side<br />
technically superior, honed for victory.<br />
Every Military historian knows an early blow is vital, and so it was that Tresham Graham was put<br />
out first in the morning singles. Playing off a handicap of seven, he was partnered against KSB<br />
Captain Adam Bell. Predictable smiles were clearly visible amongst our players when the first hole<br />
went our way............but.......... by the end of the sixth, TG was four down, with a final result in KSB's favour<br />
of 5 & 1 - not the start the Microsoft computer had predicted!<br />
A good Captain hides his weakest player second out where David Graham was up against Blackford<br />
head of house Marc Wakeham. With much distracting natter the unexpected happened - one point to<br />
OBGS. Longman went third but, with the course playing too short, the rough a touch heavy, James<br />
Sowerby won 3 & 2.<br />
The heart of the team played at four and five - Duncan Stewart & Daniel Graham. They were not to<br />
disappoint. Duncan, a winner at Woking last year, was never troubled - even against the competitive<br />
Simon Atkinson - and, with some fine driving and handsome putting, put Simon to the sword 2 & 1.<br />
Daniel has been taking lessons. Would he forget which swing to play? But the pro had done his job.<br />
Level at the turn, his victory against Owen Williams 6 & 5 recovered earlier lost pride.<br />
Ian Clothier, a former formidable KSB first six player, was out next but with an unexpected<br />
(thankfully brief) change of weather for the worse and with a "no show" caddy, his game was<br />
naturally disrupted, which brought home John Bayly winner by 3 & 2 - three points to each side after<br />
six matches with two to finish.<br />
Richard Tregarthen, now retired from the Military, was just the man to play seven out. A steady<br />
golfer with a steely temperament against the ever youthful Colin Juneman. Neither golfer gave a<br />
similar version of the game - were they in the same match we wondered? Suffice to say, Colin just<br />
avoided defeat at the fourteenth (much to Richard's annoyance), since this is as good a place as any to<br />
end a match, with the bar beckoning but a yard away !<br />
Our "not so old" favourite Will Hazell was perfectly suited to play anchor - a position he knows well<br />
from tug of war! Half a dozen pills to the good (a bad back, still not recovered from Trevose) gave an<br />
extra spring to his gait but, in spite of these wearing off, managed a commendable half against Jamie<br />
Staib.<br />
Lunch came as a relief - OBGS 4 - 1/2, KSB 3 - 1/2 - and Longman looked quietly pleased.<br />
The afternoon foursomes started behind schedule to nobody's disappointment. The lunch was good,<br />
fine wine flowed as required; even the KSB boys partook of a drink to be sociable - what excellent<br />
ambassadors they are for our School.<br />
Whilst the foursomes’ results are clear, the individual match reports are less so! Suffice to say OBGS<br />
took 2 - 1/2 points to KSB 1 - 1/2, so OBGS pride was maintained with an overall win over KSB 7 v 5.<br />
Finally, thank you to Mark and Adam Bell for making two good "end of day" speeches and to Ian<br />
Clothier for putting together six "goody" packs for the KSB team - well done, most generous and very<br />
thoughtful.<br />
With kind regards<br />
David Graham, O60/65<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 25
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
BIRTHS<br />
HALSTEAD, to Mark (O86/91) and Heidi a daughter Amelie,<br />
sister to Samuel on September 9th, 2007<br />
HOLLAND, to James (O83/88) and Rachel a daughter, Daisy,<br />
sister to Ned in August 2007<br />
JOHNSON, to Timothy (P78/82) and Clare a daughter, Imogen,<br />
a sister to Benedict and Madeleine on April 24th, 2007<br />
WATSON, Mark (O80/85) and Susannah a son, Rufus in<br />
Autumn 2007<br />
WEDDELL (nee BENNETT), to Katherine (W97/99) and Duncan<br />
a son Tom on December 8th, 2007<br />
ENGAGEMENTS<br />
BARSTOW. William (B93/97) to Natalie Green in March <strong>2008</strong><br />
BAVISTER, Richard (B91/96) to Angela Dale in December 2007<br />
BERESFORD-JONES, Edward (O90/95) to Nicola Plaistowe in<br />
April, <strong>2008</strong><br />
GENT, Angus (L81/86) to Tess Stoop (nee Sawyer) in March <strong>2008</strong><br />
LANSDELL, Oliver (P93/97) to Lucy<br />
LLOYD DAVIES, Mark (L88/93) to Alexandra Pennington in<br />
March <strong>2008</strong><br />
PATERSON, Katrina (W89/91) to John Dingley in January 2007<br />
ROGERS, Craig (P88/93) to Jennifer Owen in 2007<br />
SEALY, James (N95/00) to Katie Payne in 2007<br />
WILDBUR, Captain Nicholas (P92/97) to Sophie Lewis in 2007<br />
MARRIAGES<br />
GRAHAM, Daniel (O84/89) to Sophie KIRKE (W88/90) in<br />
November, 2007<br />
HUDSON, Reverend Christopher (L58/62) to Mary Bruton on<br />
29th December 2006 at St. Michael’s, Taunton<br />
HUTCHINGS, Lucy (W93/95) to Tom Hunt in Corfu in<br />
September 2007 at which Charlie NOBLE (P90/95) and George<br />
ROBSON (O90/95) were present<br />
1947<br />
Stuart MUSGROVE, (O47/51) attended<br />
the Memorial Service for Roy Davey at<br />
St Mary’s Church, Bruton in May 2007.<br />
He has been tracing his fellow <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s: The Reverend Peter<br />
CORNWELL (O47/52) formerly Chaplain<br />
at Prior Park College, Bath where he is<br />
semi-retired and Peter BROADWAY<br />
(O47/51) who emigrated to Southern<br />
Rhodesia, as it was then. Stuart also<br />
sees John BEAUCHAM (O44/48) in<br />
Marlborough occasionally.<br />
1950<br />
Richard HOPPER, (N50/54) writes from<br />
New Zealand that after serving in the<br />
British South Africa Police, based in<br />
Rhodesia until 1965, he then emigrated<br />
to New Zealand where he spent the<br />
next twenty years as ‘The Man from the<br />
Pru’ but minus hat and brolly. He<br />
retired at the age of 58 to spend more<br />
time pursuing hobby interests such as<br />
lifetime studies of the histories of the<br />
Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand<br />
Navy. With his wife Lyn he has cycled<br />
around the world.<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS 2007/8<br />
1955<br />
Tim BLANNING, (O55/60, Past<br />
President) is the author of The<br />
Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815,<br />
reviewed by, among others, John<br />
Adamson in The Times in April 2007.<br />
(See page 9)<br />
1956<br />
Paul Barber, (O56/60) whose horse,<br />
See More Business, won the<br />
Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1999, is also<br />
joint owner of Denman who won the<br />
Gold Cup on 14th March <strong>2008</strong>,<br />
beating his two stablemates, Kauto<br />
Star and Neptune Collonges, trained<br />
at Paul Nicholls’ stable in Ditcheat,<br />
just a few miles from Bruton.<br />
Robert T BERRY, (P56/61) worked for<br />
the Ministry of Aviation (now M.o.D.)<br />
for three years after leaving King’s<br />
and was also a member of the<br />
Territorial Army (Royal Artillery). In<br />
1965 he moved to the civil<br />
engineering sector of the<br />
construction industry, with which he<br />
was to remain for the next 40 years.<br />
MIRFIN, Timothy (N87/92) to Clare Engert in August 2007<br />
SPINNEY. James (L97/99) to Zoe Davidson on 8th December, 2007<br />
TRASK, James (L85/90) to Carol in 2002<br />
WHITE, Edward (B95/00) to Camilla Smyllie on 22nd<br />
September 2007, attended by many <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s including<br />
Henry HOBHOUSE (P95/00) who acted as Usher<br />
DEATHS<br />
ARCHER, Geoffrey (O36/40) on November 6th 2006<br />
CLARKE, R John (O53/54) in October 2007<br />
CLEMENT, David (N25/30) on May 20th, 2007<br />
CROFT, Jack (O90/92) in January <strong>2008</strong><br />
DIEPPE, David (L98/03) in August 2007 missing, presumed<br />
dead, whilst travelling in Peru.<br />
GINDER, Henry (O41/45) in July 2007<br />
GUIVER, Benjamin (B91/96) in August 2007<br />
HOGG, Richard (O60/64) in December, 2007<br />
HOLT, Christopher (O51/56) on 26th September 2007<br />
ISGAR, Walter John (P43/46) on 3rd March, <strong>2008</strong><br />
MAUNSELL, R.E. (O28/32) 0n 21st January 2007<br />
PORTER, John (N39/43) on 28th August, 2007<br />
SHAW, Nigel (P46/51) in November 2007<br />
STOKES, Paul (O50/52) on 18th February <strong>2008</strong><br />
WARNOCK, Jocelyn (L62/66) in November 2007<br />
WATSON, Rory (O02/07) on March 5th, <strong>2008</strong> in a road<br />
accident in India<br />
WEBB, Geoffrey (O38/40) in November 2007<br />
WHITELAW, Peter (HH46/O51/54) in October 2007<br />
HONORARY MEMBERS<br />
SMYTH, Anthony (Tony) Staff 62/76 on November 22nd, 2007.<br />
Grandfather to <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s Charles Aspinall (O89/92),<br />
Will Aspinall (O91/96) and Nick Aspinall (O94/97)<br />
TAYLOR, Dr Jack (School Doctor 1948/1986) in August 2007.<br />
In 1968 he joined an international<br />
construction chemical manufacturing<br />
company where, with four senior<br />
management colleagues, a<br />
management buyout of the company<br />
was achieved in 1985.<br />
After returning to the contracting<br />
side of civil engineering in 1992 he is<br />
now the senior business development<br />
manager with the UK’s leading<br />
specialist national contractor. Robert<br />
has represented the construction<br />
industry in various roles including<br />
Chairman of several Trade<br />
<strong>Association</strong>s, British Standards<br />
Committees, The Concrete Society<br />
Council and its regional committees.<br />
Robert and his wife, Bridget, were<br />
married in 1972 and have a daughter,<br />
Helga, and son, Alastair.<br />
David BLESSLEY, (N56/61) called in to<br />
see New House in the summer of<br />
2007 and very kindly presented<br />
Rugby Team photographs from 1926,<br />
1927 and 1928 which had belonged to<br />
his father Walter, a former pupil of<br />
New House 1925/28.<br />
26 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
1957<br />
Richard TAYLOR, (O57/61) writes that<br />
after many years in the traditional wine<br />
trade, starting in 1962, he has more<br />
recently been importing selected<br />
delicatessen foods from Spain and for<br />
the past two years has been operating<br />
his small business from Bigbury in<br />
South Hams. He is also delighted that<br />
the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> London Lunch has<br />
become so successful after helping it to<br />
expand from 25 OBs in 1995 to 160 in<br />
2004.<br />
1958<br />
Richard SULLIVAN, (N58/62) President<br />
of the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> <strong>Association</strong>,<br />
recently retired after eleven years as<br />
Clerk to the Girdlers’ Company, where<br />
several London Lunches have been<br />
hosted.<br />
1961<br />
Timothy FISHER, (N61/65) wrote to<br />
give us his change of address saying he<br />
would be very happy to meet up with<br />
anyone in London; he has been working<br />
with the Foreign Office since 1975.<br />
1962<br />
Trevor TURTON, (P62/66) retired<br />
from the Royal Navy in April 2007,<br />
after nearly forty years service and<br />
has been adapting to the huge<br />
change. In July he successfully<br />
completed the European Computer<br />
Driving Licence course to bring him<br />
up to speed with all things to do with<br />
the computer. He is now keeping his<br />
eyes open for a suitable small job.<br />
1966<br />
Paul CHURCHOUSE, (L66/71) is kept<br />
very busy as the Deputy Head of St<br />
George’s Preparatory School, Windsor<br />
Castle. He keeps in contact with Tim<br />
EWING (B66/70).<br />
1970<br />
Clive COPLAND, (P70/72) was given a<br />
BAFTA Award in 2006 for his work as<br />
Sound Mixer on “Colditz” for Granada<br />
Television. He was also nominated for<br />
a BAFTA three years ago for work on<br />
“Hound of the Baskervilles” for the BBC<br />
for which the Director of Photography<br />
on that production was James<br />
WELLAND (O76/80).<br />
Ian SIMS, (L70/76) is a Chief Inspector<br />
with Surrey Police.<br />
1971<br />
Simon NELSON, (L71/76) retired from<br />
the Surrey Police in August 2006 and is<br />
now building up his business as a<br />
Driving Instructor.<br />
1972<br />
Dominic WOOD, (O72/77) writes that<br />
the Russians import tens of thousands<br />
of pigs every year from Britain in order<br />
to establish disease-free pig farming in<br />
Russia. All of these pigs have to be<br />
rigorously tested to ensure their<br />
immaculate health. Dominic is in<br />
charge of this government programme.<br />
1974<br />
Paul TURNER, (N70/74) is now<br />
Headmaster of an independent school<br />
in Qito, Ecuador, after spending 18 or so<br />
years in Chile. His brother Simon<br />
(P70/72) wrote to give us this news.<br />
1975<br />
Peter LONGBOURNE, (O75/80) runs a<br />
Gardens and Trees business in<br />
Warminster called Ground Control.<br />
1976<br />
Piers BAKER, (B76/81) has written to<br />
say that his lifelong dream has come<br />
true. The world’s premier distributor of<br />
cartoon strips, King Features Syndicate,<br />
is launching his cartoon strip ‘Ollie<br />
Quentin’ in the USA. This means that<br />
readers from Minneapolis, Detroit,<br />
Denver, Ohio and throughout the States<br />
can enjoy some British humour over<br />
their pancakes. As King Features<br />
receives 6000 submissions a year and<br />
only accepts 3 or 4 strips it is a<br />
particularly exciting breakthrough after<br />
14 months of preparation for the<br />
American market. Some of his work can<br />
be seen on pages 42 and 43.<br />
Angus COUTTS, (N76/80) spent a<br />
couple of years working for Robert<br />
Fleming in Foreign Exchange<br />
Settlement in the City before joining<br />
the Metropolitan Police where he<br />
remained for seventeen years. He now<br />
runs a small decorating company and<br />
would be happy to hear from fellow<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s on<br />
Angus@barrcoutts.co.uk<br />
1978<br />
Justin GAU (P78/83) was counsel for<br />
the parochial church council in<br />
September 2007, at a rare church<br />
tribunal to investigate the ‘serious<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
pastoral breakdown… in Trumpington<br />
parish’. The tribunal found that the<br />
Reverend Tom Ambrose, of St Mary and<br />
St Michael in Trumpington, Cambridge<br />
should be sacked.<br />
1980<br />
Kate PANGBOURNE (80/83)<br />
writes: “So much water has gone under<br />
the bridge for me since leaving King's in<br />
1983! 1st degree in Philosophy and<br />
English Literature at University of<br />
Edinburgh resulted in an unspectacular<br />
2.2. A career in conservation with<br />
Scottish Natural Heritage took a decade<br />
to get nowhere, and first marriage<br />
ended (1 son, now 10). Urge to have a<br />
new lease of life as 40 approached<br />
resulted in an MSc with<br />
Commendation in Sustainable Rural<br />
Development, followed by a stint as a<br />
Research Assistant for the Head of the<br />
Geography and Environment<br />
Department at University of Aberdeen.<br />
Another relationship, another son (now<br />
nearly 4), and a PhD in its final year, on<br />
the changing geography of Scottish<br />
transport governance. Anyone<br />
interested in catching up will easily<br />
find me through a Google search!”<br />
1981<br />
Andrew BARNETT, (N81/86) has been<br />
Director of the UK Branch of the<br />
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since<br />
September 2007. (See page 4)<br />
Angus GENT, (L81/86) and his fiancée<br />
Tess (see Engagements) are both<br />
working at King’s College School,<br />
Cambridge where Angus is a<br />
Housemaster.<br />
1982<br />
Tony STACEY, (P80/82) returned to his<br />
Alma Mater in August 2007 to become<br />
the School’s Catering Manager.<br />
1983<br />
James HOLLAND (O83/88) James<br />
published, early in <strong>2008</strong>, his third<br />
substantial volume of the history of the<br />
Second World War. Italy’s Sorrow<br />
recounts the Allied invasion of Italy in<br />
1944-5. It follows Fortress Malta: An Island<br />
Under Siege, 1940-43 and Together We<br />
Stand: North Africa, 1942-44. James has<br />
also written two novels with WW2<br />
themes: The Burning Blue and A Pair of<br />
Silver Wings. Italy’s Sorrow is dedicated to<br />
his daughter, Daisy, who was born to<br />
James and his wife, Rachel, in 2007. [The<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 27
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
Hon. Secretary has read all of James’s<br />
books and wishes to recommend them<br />
to other members of the <strong>Association</strong>.<br />
Those of you who may feel daunted by<br />
the thought of history will find James a<br />
compelling writer, while both the<br />
novels are vividly realised and deeply<br />
moving.]<br />
1984<br />
Jeremy PHILLIPS, (L84/89) has been<br />
made a Director of Blue Max<br />
Schoolwear.<br />
1985<br />
Robert STOCKMAN, (L85/88) won the<br />
top research fellowship award<br />
(funding his Chemistry Organic<br />
Research at Nottingham University for<br />
five years) and has become a Professor.<br />
James TRASK, (L85/90) wrote in<br />
August 2007 to say that he had<br />
married Carol in 2002 and they now<br />
have two daughters aged one and<br />
three. He is working as an Investment<br />
Actuary with Lane Clark & Peacock LLP<br />
and would be very interested in<br />
contacting <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> golfers in the<br />
south-east who would like to join a<br />
charitable society of which James in<br />
the Treasurer. James is happy to<br />
contacted at jtrask65@yahoo.co.uk<br />
1987<br />
Charlie PHILLIPS, (L87/92) has gained<br />
an LL.B. from the College of Law (to add<br />
to his Oxford degree in Egyptology)<br />
and is now on a training contract with<br />
Lewis Silkin in London.<br />
1988<br />
Mark LLOYD DAVIES, (L88/93) was<br />
selected to be Conservative<br />
Parliamentary Candidate for Bristol<br />
South in mid January <strong>2008</strong>. Mark and<br />
his fiancee, Alexandra Pennington, (see<br />
Engagements) plan to marry in early<br />
September <strong>2008</strong> in Balham.<br />
Mark would be particularly to keen to<br />
hear from any <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s in the<br />
Bristol area who might be interested in<br />
lending a hand in the build up to a<br />
General Election.<br />
His mobile number is 07725 765 404.<br />
1989<br />
Ben McLEOD, (O89/94) writes that he<br />
is kept busy as the general manager<br />
for three restaurants in St Andrews<br />
and enjoying the challenge of being<br />
involved in design, planning and<br />
realisation of these projects. He had<br />
met up with James CARTER (N89/94).<br />
1991<br />
David JONES, (O91/96) spent the<br />
summer of 2007 touring with the<br />
Festival Players, an all-male group who<br />
perform at over 50 locations around<br />
the country from Balmoral to Truro.<br />
David played Beatrice in As You Like It<br />
at such venues as the National Trust’s<br />
Hill of Tarvit House, Cupar in Fife,<br />
Montacute House, Somerset and<br />
Stourhead in Wiltshire, (the latter sadly<br />
rained off). In the <strong>2008</strong> season David<br />
will be playing Benedick in Much Ado<br />
about Nothing.<br />
1992<br />
Oliver EAST, (B92/97) was in Bordeaux<br />
in February where the BBC were<br />
making a documentary about his firm.<br />
Olly keeps in touch with Duncan WEIR<br />
(O92/97), Kevin PIKE (L92/97) and Tim<br />
SHIPSEY (B91/96).<br />
Andrew LOWE, (L92/97) has won a<br />
grant from the Canadian Arts Council<br />
to spend the summer of <strong>2008</strong> touring<br />
Canada in a play.<br />
1993<br />
Lucy HUNT, nee HUTCHINGS<br />
(W93/95) wrote with news of her<br />
recent wedding (see Marriages) and to<br />
say that she is running her own web<br />
and branding consultancy, Venture<br />
Styling and publishes The Chic Girl’s<br />
Guide. When she and Tom are not in<br />
London they spend a lot of time with<br />
family in Dorset, Somerset and Corfu.<br />
Lucy is Godparent to Tania and Charlie<br />
NOBLE’s (P90/95) son William, as is<br />
George ROBSON (O90/95), all of whom<br />
were at Lucy’s wedding.<br />
1995<br />
Peter LOVELL, (B95/00) is currently<br />
working in Bristol as an engineer. He<br />
writes to say that a few months ago he<br />
won a competition in The Sunday<br />
Times organised by The Royal<br />
Geographical Society and Land Rover<br />
to promote a broader appreciation of<br />
geography. Peter’s team proposed<br />
driving around the world on the 50th<br />
parallel (50 degrees North) studying<br />
the social effects of different climatic<br />
zones at the same latitude. Their<br />
findings will then be compared<br />
directly with those of life in Britain<br />
(also on the 50th parallel). Part of their<br />
bid was to involve schools within the<br />
United Kingdom by giving talks about<br />
the trip, their findings and any other<br />
items of interest that arise from the<br />
expedition.<br />
Edward WHITE (B 95-00) is now<br />
European General Manager of the<br />
Australian company Digga, based in<br />
Andover. He was married in<br />
September 2007. (See announcements)<br />
1996<br />
James EDWARDS, (O96/01) is taking<br />
up an appointment as A.D.C. in Iraq<br />
from March <strong>2008</strong>.<br />
1997<br />
Frank TICKNER, (P97/02) was awarded<br />
a First in English and French at<br />
Birmingham University in June 2007.<br />
He is now working in London and<br />
continues his running achievements.<br />
Charlie WHITE (B 97-02) spent a year<br />
as a para-legal at Freshfields in London,<br />
and is currently studying for his Legal<br />
Practice Course in London. He will start<br />
his training contract with Edwin Coe in<br />
September.<br />
1998<br />
Philip COLE, (O98/03) was awarded a<br />
First in Physiotherapy at the University<br />
of Wales in 2007 and was working at<br />
Yeovil District Hospital before<br />
obtaining a post as physiotherapist to<br />
a football team.<br />
1999<br />
Vincenzo CAPAZZOLI, (A99/04) has<br />
been studying Modern History and<br />
Politics at Southampton University for<br />
the past three years during which time<br />
he became Chairman of the University<br />
Conservative <strong>Association</strong>. At the end<br />
of this tenure he was asked to stand as<br />
a Conservative candidate for the<br />
Portswood ward of Southampton.<br />
William WINBORN, (A99/04) wrote<br />
in the summer of 2007 that he had<br />
achieved a First in his exams (two<br />
thirds of the entire master’s degree)<br />
and was due to start a year long<br />
research project on solar cells.<br />
2003<br />
Sophie HUTCHINGS, (P03/05) is<br />
studying for a B.Sc. Hons in Property<br />
Agency and Marketing at the Royal<br />
Agricultural College, Cirencester.<br />
28 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
GROUP CAPTAIN<br />
ANTHONY JOHN<br />
MANDER SMYTH<br />
OBE DFC and BAR BSc<br />
(Staff 62/76)<br />
1915 - 2007<br />
This is an edited version of the<br />
address given by his son-in-law<br />
Richard Aspinall<br />
Tony was born in Wolverhampton in 1915 and educated<br />
at Charterhouse and Imperial College where he graduated<br />
with a degree in chemistry. After a short career working<br />
for Manders Paints (the family firm) he took a<br />
commission in the RAF in 1937 and remained there until<br />
he retired in 1960 with the rank of Group Captain, having<br />
been CO at RAF Hong Kong. At the time he received the<br />
promotion he was the youngest Group Captain in the RAF.<br />
His next career was as a chemistry teacher at St John’s,<br />
Leatherhead and, from 1962, at King’s Bruton where he<br />
became head of science and retired 20 years later.<br />
He married Elizabeth, known as Ibby, in 1949 and they<br />
produced three beautiful daughters Vicky, Juliet and Alex.<br />
These few sentences abbreviate a life that was full of<br />
incident and spectacular achievement.<br />
He was, really, an action man long before that term was<br />
applied to a child’s toy. Early pictures of the young Tony<br />
show a slight wiry man with a confident, even cocky,<br />
stare at the camera and a tangle of red hair on top of a<br />
beaky, freckly face.<br />
He did everything with enormous enthusiasm.<br />
As a teenager he cycled in a group across Europe from<br />
Germany to Spain, later he walked 400 miles across Tibet<br />
and, of course, he was a noted climber and mountaineer<br />
who led two major expeditions climbing in the Himalayas<br />
and Borneo, which were filmed and shown on general<br />
release. He climbed in many places in Britain and the Alps<br />
and, if not climbing, would take long walks. He helped<br />
start the RAF mountaineering association, which is still<br />
going strong today, 59 years later.<br />
All his life he was a keen traveller and enjoyed<br />
planning these trips weeks in advance. He crossed Russia<br />
on the trans-Siberian railway, journeyed around Persia<br />
and spent two periods in kibbutzim in Israel.<br />
Above all he was blessed with good luck. He flew many<br />
sorties in The Blenheim bomber, which was antiquated<br />
and too slow and he survived several near-misses. One of<br />
these was a mission to intercept a Japanese fleet fresh<br />
from Pearl Harbour, on its way apparently to invade<br />
Ceylon. His flight were given the wrong map reference<br />
and never made contact but a later flight led by another<br />
officer found the ships and lost most of its aircraft. Later,<br />
in Burma he flew Tiger Moth biplanes behind enemy lines<br />
to establish a means of evacuating casualties, which<br />
eventually saved more than 500 men. There can be few<br />
people who flew over 100 sorties in war, who climbed<br />
dangerous peaks and who survived so untouched.<br />
Reading his logbooks I have discovered at least 10 aircraft<br />
crashes (or prangs) that he had, including 5 when flying<br />
OBITUARIES<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
the Tiger Moths onto small improvised landing strips in<br />
Borneo. His final prang was when, taking off in Hong<br />
Kong, his Vampire fighter jet careered off the runway and<br />
took out a line of trucks. Tony, of course, was unscathed.<br />
I suspect he was a good teacher as he was used to<br />
dealing with subordinates from his time in the RAF. After<br />
some initial problems he settled down well into the life of<br />
a public-school master. He particularly enjoyed making<br />
bangs in the labs and would delight in making explosive<br />
mixtures of chemicals . He also once threw a large lump<br />
of potassium into the swimming pool hoping it would<br />
explode. Unfortunately it split into myriads of much<br />
smaller pieces that fizzed angrily but didn’t blow up. He<br />
also took part in many other school extra-curricular<br />
activities including the CCF , model railways and climbing.<br />
He also started the sixth form club to promote sensible<br />
use of alcohol in the young.<br />
He organized annual ski-ing trips to Saas Fee taking<br />
groups of the boys. The family would come as well and<br />
the poor girls were expected to wear as much of their<br />
winter clothing as possible in order to save on baggage.<br />
This would also have included the heavy ski boots of the<br />
time. Considering that the girls were aware of, and trying<br />
to attract, the school boys, this was not a popular parental<br />
edict.<br />
One of his other big hobbies was bee-keeping, which he<br />
began when in Lincolnshire. He seemed totally<br />
impervious to stings and didn’t understand why the<br />
King’s boys he recruited to help him were not quite as<br />
enthusiastic as he was. The BBC (Bruton Beekeepers<br />
Corporation) became quite a large enterprise with up to<br />
30 hives scattered in various local farms and gardens in<br />
the area.<br />
His most long-lasting hobby was the pub. All his life, if<br />
he was near a pub, he would try to visit either before<br />
lunch or supper and sometimes both. I well remember my<br />
first contact with him when I came down to meet the<br />
family for the first time as Vicky’s boyfriend and how, as<br />
soon as the introductions were over, he whipped me off to<br />
The Blue Ball for a pre-prandial pint. He never said “no” to<br />
an offer to visit the pub and was happy in any company<br />
there.<br />
From my point of view, the welcome given to me by<br />
him and Ibby was complete and generous. They were<br />
terrific hosts, loving to entertain and throw parties. To<br />
some extent he accepted me as the son he never had and<br />
treated me as such. Although there was a 36 year gap and<br />
I was still fairly fresh from school myself, I soon got used<br />
to calling him Tony and considered him a sort of older<br />
brother. We played squash, which he always won, and<br />
golf, which I always won, though I have to say he was<br />
wont to cheat a little.<br />
He was blessed with a marvellous, and long-suffering<br />
wife in Ibby who died in 2000 and who probably realized<br />
that it was better to let him do his expeditions than to try<br />
and cage him. For her part she, like Tony, took a full part in<br />
the Bruton community and had many friends in the area<br />
to keep her occupied in his absences. They were both<br />
heavily involved in the parochial church council and he<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 29
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
helped organize the building and finance of the Jubilee<br />
pavilion.<br />
Tony was no saint. He had a temper, which would flare<br />
and then be forgotten within the hour but he was an<br />
unfailingly courteous man. He loved a joke, particularly a<br />
dirty one, but was also a poet and an author of a two-part<br />
autobiography. He learnt at least five other languages<br />
including Russian and Hebrew.<br />
He was interested in religion all his life and had toyed<br />
with several but was particularly drawn to Judaism and<br />
visited Israel several times. In his latter years he<br />
converted to Judaism and made regular monthly visits to<br />
the Liberal Progressive synagogue in Bristol.<br />
All in all this was a driven man, exceptionally brave in<br />
war, who worked hard and played hard. His energy and<br />
physical demands on his body are illustrated by the fact<br />
that he wore out 4 knee joints, 2 natural and 2 synthetic<br />
and was probably halfway through their replacements.<br />
He was a superb organizer and someone who would get<br />
things done. He certainly never expected to die and had<br />
planned soon to do a car trip to Scotland sleeping in the<br />
car in his Himalayan sleeping bag. He even planned a<br />
holiday to South Africa in <strong>2008</strong> and when told he might<br />
have to give up driving threatened to get himself a pushbike.<br />
He died quietly without fuss after 92 full years and<br />
we will miss him.<br />
RA 01/12/07<br />
DAVID CLEMENT (N25/30)<br />
22nd March 1911 - 20th May 2007<br />
David Clement will be remembered as a gentleman<br />
and a man very much ahead of his time. He was a<br />
passionate advocate of organic farming for many decades<br />
before it became an accepted part of modern agriculture.<br />
He was inspired by the teachings of the Austrian<br />
scientist and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, who lectured<br />
and wrote about many subjects including agriculture<br />
and education. David was, for most of his life, an active<br />
supporter of Steiner’s educational practices. Without his<br />
generous support, both financial and moral, many<br />
organizations such as the Park Attwood Clinic, Soil<br />
<strong>Association</strong>, the Bio Dynamic Agricultural <strong>Association</strong>,<br />
Sunfield Children’s Home and Elmfield School would<br />
have been the poorer. David was respected by all who<br />
came into contact with him; he had an extraordinary<br />
interest in everyone he met and was exceptionally<br />
broadminded. He had the knack of making every person<br />
he met feel that they and their views were important.<br />
This interest in people, both old friends and new<br />
acquaintances, continued right up to his death.<br />
David was born on 22nd March 1911 in Staines, Surrey.<br />
The younger of two boys, he was educated at Clifton<br />
College, Braidlea and King’s School, Bruton. It was while<br />
he was at Bruton that David discovered the radical, new<br />
philosophy of Rudolf Steiner called “Anthroposophy”,<br />
which means “the consciousness of one’s humanity”. It is<br />
not a religion, but a universal study of spiritual science<br />
encompassing a great many areas of life. The spirit of the<br />
teachings of Anthroposophy was the guiding principle by<br />
which he lived for the rest of his life.<br />
In 1930, David went to Pembroke College, Oxford to<br />
read History. At this time, he got to know a number of<br />
eminent anthroposophists including Ita Wegman, Fried<br />
Geuter and Michael Wilson, who would become very<br />
important in his life. They had recently set up Sunfield, a<br />
home for children with special needs based in Selly Oak,<br />
Birmingham. In 1932 he abandoned his studies and joined<br />
Geuter and Wilson.<br />
David’s involvement was particularly helpful when, in<br />
1933, Sunfield moved from Birmingham to the small<br />
village of Clent in Worcestershire. A distinct advantage of<br />
the new premises was that there was a small farm<br />
included which meant that they could put into practice<br />
some of Steiner’s ideas on farming known as “bio<br />
dynamic” agriculture. He later acquired Broome Farm on<br />
behalf of Sunfield. In 1934 Michael Wilson and he<br />
established Sunfield as a charity. David’s initial<br />
responsibility as a director was to run the business side of<br />
Sunfield, but he turned his hand to anything that was<br />
needed. He remained a trustee until his death.<br />
As time went by, David became more and more<br />
interested in farming. So in 1940, he and his new wife<br />
Hilla -the eldest daughter of Fried Geuter - moved into<br />
Broome Farm.<br />
David joined the National Farmers’ Union and became<br />
chairman of the local branch twice during the war and<br />
once again afterwards. He also joined and became<br />
chairman of the West Midlands Short-Horn Cattle<br />
Breeders’ <strong>Association</strong> and was a member of Hagley and<br />
Halesowen Farmers Club.<br />
After the war had ended David reduced his involvement<br />
with Sunfield, concentrating on farming and raising his<br />
growing family. He continued farming for the next fortytwo<br />
years, until September 1987. During this time, David<br />
chaired the Bio Dynamic Agricultural <strong>Association</strong> and<br />
assisted in the founding of British Organic Farmers, which<br />
later merged with the Soil <strong>Association</strong>. His interest in<br />
Broome was such that he became a Parish Councillor and<br />
remained so for forty years.<br />
Until his death David was also a Director of Elmfield<br />
School which he helped to found in order to educate<br />
children according to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, and<br />
which continues to flourish in Stourbridge.<br />
David Clement, a truly gentle man, died peacefully at<br />
home on 20th May 2007, aged 96 with his family present.<br />
He is survived by his four children, eleven grandchildren,<br />
and four great grandchildren.<br />
MAJOR BOB<br />
MAUNSELL MC & BAR<br />
30th January 1915 -<br />
21st January 2007<br />
“Robbie” was born on 30th<br />
January 1915 in St Vincent, Cape<br />
Verde Islands, where his father,<br />
Roland, worked for Cable &<br />
Wireless. The family home was in<br />
Porthcurno, Cornwall, from which beach 13 separate cables<br />
still disappear under the sea, originally the only link<br />
between the UK and the rest of the world. At the local<br />
30 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
church of St Levan, in the spring of this year, the close<br />
family intend to lay Robbie’s & his beloved wife Lib’s<br />
ashes to rest, next to the graves of his father and great<br />
grandfather.<br />
He went to school at King’s, Bruton, in Somerset, where<br />
a claim to fame was that he played the triangle in the<br />
school orchestra! He was far more interested in sport<br />
than academics, particularly hockey and cricket. In those<br />
days, he played for the Cornish Choughs, with his father<br />
“Rolly”, all around Cornwall, and had fond and amusing<br />
memories. On one occasion, returning from an away<br />
match, Rolly managed to drive his car into the back of a<br />
bus. The policeman who attended the scene knew Rolly<br />
well and, sensing a bit of a storm brewing, told him to<br />
“drive on out of it, Rolly – I shall sort this out for thee”.<br />
In 1934, he joined the then Royal Tank Corps, and was<br />
serving, when war was imminent, with 6 RTR in Cairo.<br />
Along with many fellow “regulars”, he went to war with<br />
a TA regiment. His was to be the 2nd Royal<br />
Gloucestershire Hussars, which, equipped with (relatively<br />
modern) Crusader tanks, embarked for the western<br />
desert on 15th August 1941. In April 1942, he was<br />
mentioned in despatches, and on 6th June 1942, at Sidi<br />
Muftah, he was awarded the Military Cross. An extract<br />
of his citation for this latter award reads as follows:<br />
…the squadron, of which Captain Maunsell was<br />
Second-in-Command, attacked enemy guns in<br />
position…the Squadron Leader’s tank advanced about 400<br />
yards, only to be knocked out. The whole attack was<br />
halted, and it was impossible to advance in the face of<br />
such heavy fire. Captain Maunsell… dashed forward in<br />
his own tank, discharged smoke to give cover, and<br />
successfully collected the crew of the disabled tank. The<br />
whole operation was executed under very heavy fire<br />
from close range.<br />
Within 5 months of being posted back to the 5th Royal<br />
Tank Regiment, on 23rd March 1943, as he was using his<br />
binoculars from just above his Commander’s hatch, a<br />
piece of airburst shrapnel pierced his hand (missing his<br />
unprotected head by inches). He was posted WIA, and<br />
evacuated rearwards. When he was in the field hospital,<br />
Matron appointed him “OIC Ward”. He recalled often<br />
how his fellow inmates, some “appallingly wounded”,<br />
managed to persuade him to “hold off Matron” while<br />
they attended a party in a nearby New Zealand ward. All<br />
would have been fine, had one of the wheelchair-bound<br />
party-goers not found his way into a nearby fountain!<br />
When the doctors had finished with him, some 6<br />
weeks later, he was sent to a convalescent posting as 2i/c<br />
of a tank training depot in Cairo. He described how,<br />
looking up from the tedious task of “re-writing the camp<br />
Fire Orders”, he saw through the window a re-supply<br />
truck belonging to 5 RTR, driven by a Sergeant who was<br />
well known to him. He was soon on his way back to his<br />
Regiment, having first driven around to the Officers’ Mess<br />
to collect his kit. On the lengthy return journey, he saw<br />
CO 5 RTR in his staff car, being driven in the opposite<br />
direction. The CO (“Fearless” Jim Hutton, and much-loved<br />
by his men) had been sacked by the new Commander of<br />
22nd Armd Bde, Brigadier Hinde for extending by one day<br />
the well-earned Regimental R&R period on the beach! An<br />
incredulous Robbie Maunsell drove on. His Divisional<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
Commander, Pip Roberts, subsequently silenced the critics<br />
of Robbie’s premature voluntary RTU, by informing them<br />
that he had returned to his Regiment, where he belonged,<br />
and was needed.<br />
For the remainder of 1943, he organised the move of<br />
the Fifth into Italy. After 3 months’ operations there, they<br />
were ordered back to the UK to prepare for the D Day<br />
landings. He went across the channel on 7th June 1944<br />
and, by 10th July 1945, had reached Hamburg. The story<br />
goes that, when the tanks were halted in Hamburg, he<br />
ordered RHQ Troop to park up immediately outside a<br />
seriously grand restaurant known as the Streits Hotel.<br />
Having asked for the place to be cleared of German<br />
locals, he encouraged the soldiers in, sat them down in<br />
the opulence of the dining room, and demanded food for<br />
all, declaring that Hitler would foot the bill.<br />
Food was also demanded for a dog, which belonged to<br />
one of his fellow officers. The dog promptly ate for<br />
England, with the inevitable conclusion, at which point<br />
the Head Chef was summoned to explain why his food<br />
had made the dog so sick! For the Fifth, the war was over.<br />
For his efforts in the European campaign, he was<br />
awarded a bar to his MC, a citation extract for which<br />
follows:<br />
…he has taken part in every action that the Regiment has<br />
fought…his conduct in action has been an example of coolness<br />
and supreme bravery. Often, when a squadron was in action, and<br />
in trouble, he would ask to go forward and, on several occasions,<br />
was able to influence the action by his personal courage in<br />
taking the lead in his own tank, no matter what the danger. At<br />
night, after a hard day’s fighting, his cheerful energy was<br />
phenomenal, and he would be found tirelessly organising and<br />
attending to the smallest details. When at the end of a difficult<br />
and depressing battle, his influence was tremendous. There is no<br />
doubt that his leadership and ability have, throughout (the<br />
campaign), been of the highest order…<br />
Surprisingly, perhaps, he remained in the Army, after<br />
the war, for a further 3 decades. Although his peacetime<br />
career was punctuated by 2 years back on active service<br />
in Korea (as Sqn Comd with 1RTR 1951-53), which was very<br />
hard on his wife and their very young family, he<br />
subsequently relished passing on the benefits of his<br />
extensive experience to such as the Royal Armoured<br />
Corps Gunnery and Tactical Schools, his own 5 RTR as 2i/c<br />
again back in Barce (1955-56), as Training Major with the<br />
North Somerset Yeomanry / 44th RTR, and, for 7 years, at<br />
the Royal Military College of Science. He finally retired to<br />
Milford-on-Sea in 1977, where Lib and he enjoyed the<br />
peace of the garden, family visits, sport, and the<br />
camaraderie of kindred spirits.<br />
He was a fine hockey player, captaining BAOR in 1948,<br />
49 & 50, and Dorset in 1953, 54 & 55. He played cricket for<br />
the Somerset Stragglers & the RAC, and was an ardent<br />
supporter of all Ironsides activities. Above all, he was<br />
living proof that a sense of humour will get you through<br />
most of what life can throw at you.<br />
His family and friends consider it fortunate indeed<br />
that the German shrapnel did not, more accurately, find<br />
its mark in March 1943………..he died in Yeovil District<br />
Hospital on 21st January 2007, 10 days short of his 92nd<br />
birthday.<br />
Eyre Maunsell<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 31
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
DR JACK TAYLOR (HON. OB)<br />
(SCHOOL DOCTOR 48/86)<br />
26th July, 1913 – 3rd August, 2007<br />
Jack and Grace Taylor arrived<br />
to take over the medical practice<br />
in Bruton just a few months prior<br />
to the start of Nye Bevan’s<br />
National Health Service in 1948.<br />
Although a firm believer in the<br />
NHS, Dr Taylor had a number of<br />
teething problems to sort out in the initial stages. He<br />
and Grace worked tirelessly to establish trust and<br />
goodwill in the area. Time off was a luxury commodity.<br />
Despite this, in the 1950’s, Jack travelled by train up to<br />
London on his day off to attend General Practitioner<br />
Seminars at the Tavistock Clinic, run by Dr Michael<br />
Balint. As a result of these seminars, Dr Balint was able<br />
to write a ‘GP classic’ – ‘The Doctor, The Patient and his<br />
Illness’.<br />
In the late fifties and sixties, Jack Taylor had a series<br />
of trainee assistants who each lived and worked within<br />
the practice, based, for a year, in the High Street at<br />
Hamilton House. They gained huge experience from this<br />
and were able to give Dr Taylor some valuable assistance<br />
during their closing months.<br />
In 1971, I was fortunate to join Jack Taylor in the<br />
practice. I soon realised that I had joined up with a very<br />
committed doctor and an excellent clinician. He was<br />
very conscientious and would, on occasions, check a<br />
patient in the late evening before retiring to bed if he<br />
was worried about them.<br />
He had designed several manual systems for use in<br />
the practice, which would compare very favourably with<br />
various computer systems in use today!<br />
He was medical officer to King’s School from his<br />
arrival in Bruton until 1986 – nigh on forty years. He<br />
always had a great love of the School and took keen<br />
interest in the boys old and new – girls came later!<br />
Jack Taylor also took a keen interest in Bruton outside<br />
his work. He was a keen supporter of the Youth Club<br />
over many years. Likewise, he was a leading figure in the<br />
Bruton Trust over an even longer time.<br />
He will always be remembered as an exceptional<br />
physician. Behind a somewhat brusque manner at times<br />
there was a committed man, dedicated to the practice of<br />
good medicine and to the service of the local and wider<br />
communities.<br />
Michael Genton (Hon. OB)<br />
PETER WHITELAW (O51/54)<br />
(1937-2007)<br />
Peter Whitelaw, who died in October 2007 was born on<br />
July 26th, 1937 in Bruton.<br />
His father, Hamish Whitelaw, was the local doctor and<br />
his mother, Sheila, managed the practice. Dr Whitelaw<br />
joined the RAMC at the outbreak of the Second World<br />
War and served abroad until 1945 so Peter saw very little<br />
of his father in those years.<br />
On his return to Bruton after the war it was<br />
discovered that Dr Whitelaw was terminally ill so the<br />
practice was sold to Dr Taylor just before the<br />
introduction of the National Health Service. The<br />
Whitelaw family moved to live with grandparents,<br />
where Hamish died.<br />
Peter remained at the preparatory school and joined<br />
King’s School in 1951. Three years later he left to do<br />
National Service in the RASC. He subsequently settled<br />
in London, at first working for the Caledonian Insurance<br />
Company and later for the Headquarters of the Royal<br />
Mail. He remained there, a loyal and hard-working<br />
member until his retirement.<br />
After his mother’s death in 1961 Peter joined the<br />
Roman Catholic Church. His Church and the<br />
Conservative Party were his principal interests, coupled<br />
with his fondness for his schools and the friendships he<br />
had made in Somerset. Peter attended the <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong><br />
Dinners regularly and some of the recently introduced<br />
London Lunches.<br />
Peter was a most loyal <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> and his quiet<br />
presence will be missed.<br />
CHRISTOPHER CRUTTWELL (O 45/50)<br />
(Christopher Cruttwell died on July 4th, 2006, a fact that<br />
was recorded in last year’s Newsletter. It was intended<br />
that the following words, spoken by his daughter,<br />
Elizabeth Marsden, at the funeral, should also have<br />
appeared. However, by an oversight of the Hon. Secretary,<br />
that did not happen. He offers his apologies for that<br />
oversight, and the words now appear with Mrs Marsden’s<br />
permission.)<br />
Dad was a whiz in the kitchen, and he never minded<br />
catering for all our friends too. Whenever we told him a<br />
friend was coming to stay, his first question would<br />
always be: “How many potatoes will they want?” One<br />
Friday, Stephen and his girlfriend, Claire, were coming<br />
down from Preston for the weekend. When Stephen<br />
gave Dad a ring from somewhere on the motorway to<br />
report on their progress, Dad mentioned he was cooking<br />
salmon. Ah – a slight problem, as Claire does not eat fish.<br />
When they arrived an hour later, there was salmon for<br />
Dad and Stephen and a nice bottle of wine – and steak<br />
and a bottle of red for Claire.<br />
Despite his love of good food, Dad was always a very<br />
fit individual. He played hockey at Epsom Hockey Club<br />
right up until his 59th birthday, when an imminent hip<br />
replacement prevented him from making it his 60th. His<br />
love of hockey, of course, led to the love of a hockey<br />
player, and it was at Wallington Hockey Club where Dad<br />
and Mum met.<br />
One of the many advantages of having Dad as a<br />
father was his incredible, encyclopaedic knowledge of<br />
just about everything, particularly classical music. It<br />
never ceased to amaze us how when he heard a piece, he<br />
could name the composer, the name and number of the<br />
work and the key it was written in. When we played<br />
Trivial Pursuit, however, he did come a bit unstuck on<br />
the popular culture questions!<br />
He was a man with many interests. He was an active<br />
32 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
supporter of the alumni societies at his school in Bruton,<br />
Somerset and St John’s College, Oxford, where he<br />
attended a gaudy only last month. He was a committed<br />
churchgoer and also enjoyed the regular meetings of<br />
Probus. And, of course, no speech about Dad would be<br />
complete without a mention of his lifelong passion for<br />
philately. He has displayed stamps and covers all over<br />
the world, winning numerous awards, and was a<br />
recognised expert in his field. He was proud to become a<br />
member of the Royal Philatelic Society, and this hobby<br />
introduced him to many friends who have helped him<br />
through the difficult time with the illness and death of<br />
our mother, Pat. It is fitting that he spent his last<br />
moments in his study, with his stamps.<br />
There are so many things I will remember. Dad eyeing<br />
up the juicy morsel left on your plate when he’d finished<br />
all of his off. Dad sitting in front of the TV with the<br />
athletics on, with the cricket on the radio, reading the<br />
newspaper and still being able to tell you what was<br />
going on. Dad grinning from ear to ear, looking very<br />
pleased with himself, when he got more points than the<br />
contestants on University Challenge. Not to forget the<br />
blasts and exclamations drifting out of the computer<br />
room which roughly translated as “Please come and help<br />
me. I’m having a bit of trouble!”<br />
BEN CHARLES GUIVER<br />
(B91/96)<br />
(1977-2007)<br />
Ben died in a drowning accident<br />
at the end of August 2007. This<br />
tribute was given at a Memorial<br />
Service held for Ben in October<br />
2007, by Stephen Mizelas, who<br />
met Ben at University in 1998.<br />
Ben was Best Man at Stephen’s<br />
wedding just two weeks before<br />
the tragic accident.<br />
Ben…Benji…Bunj…Benny Boy…Binyamin…McGuiver.<br />
Benjamin Charles Guiver was known by many names,<br />
by many people from all walks of life and backgrounds.<br />
But they all shared one thing in common – a deep love<br />
and affection for a young man who lit up a room<br />
whenever he entered.<br />
Ten years ago to this month – I think to this day – I<br />
arrived for my first day of university in Canterbury. I<br />
met a young Australian, coolly pulling on a<br />
Marlborough light outside the student dorms. He was<br />
wearing a blue Oxford shirt, rolled up to the elbows,<br />
crushed chinos and a battered old pair of desert boots<br />
which looked like they could tell a thousand stories. It<br />
transpired that this friendly Australian was, in fact, not<br />
one of our Southern-hemispherian cousins but did<br />
indeed have a thousand stories to tell. Ben, having just<br />
spent his gap year in Oz, might as well have been<br />
wearing a cork-rimmed hat and carrying a boomerang<br />
for his love of the country.<br />
He was the first person I met at university, and it<br />
turned out to be the start of an illustrious friendship. He<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
was confident, friendly and funny and already eyeing up<br />
a young blonde teacher. He fashioned a gold ear-ring<br />
that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a pirate. His<br />
swashbuckling attitude to life grabbed my attention<br />
immediately and allowed us to appear in a number of<br />
sea adventures over the next ten years.<br />
By the end of the freshers’ week, Ben was known all<br />
over the university campus, be it for his legendary<br />
partying skills or his debonair lifestyle. Ben went to<br />
more Sports Team Socials than the players themselves,<br />
but not once did we ever see him pick up a ball or<br />
venture into a muddy field – no. No one ever mentioned<br />
it, though.<br />
You see, Ben, not unlike Paris Hilton or one of the<br />
lesser-known royals, was an ‘It’ boy – famous and<br />
notorious around the inner city gates of Canterbury, but<br />
no one really knew what he was famous for! I suppose<br />
he was famous for being famous! For being Ben!<br />
Well, I can tell you. It was Ben’s ability to make you<br />
feel at ease within seconds of meeting him, his ability to<br />
make you laugh, his skill as a raconteur…..painstaking<br />
detail and tangents that would stray into last orders but<br />
still keep you riveted and entertained for hours. His gift<br />
was generosity and time: he loved to talk and discuss, be<br />
it about the merits of Christ Church’s finest “totty” or the<br />
best Led Zeppelin lyrics and riffs.<br />
Being the film students we were, we collaborated on<br />
several so-called pieces of art, one of which involved<br />
getting two attractive sisters to prance naked down<br />
Margate beach in winter….it was for art’s sake….honest!<br />
To persuade them, it took only Ben’s charm plus a small<br />
hip flask of whisky and Ben as reluctant volunteer of<br />
intermittent blanket-holdings and rub-downs between<br />
takes. Incidentally, we got a First for that one!<br />
Only two months ago, Ben was my best man at my<br />
wedding to Louise. A best, best man. He looked after us<br />
the whole night, lugging around luggage and presents,<br />
looking attentively after elderly members of our family,<br />
chatting up the bridesmaids and other young women,<br />
be they single or not…..trying to dance the Gay Gordons<br />
and stepping on more toes than was acceptable. He gave<br />
a wonderful speech or, as he would have called it, “Public<br />
Speaking”, toasting Louise and myself to a long and<br />
prosperous future.<br />
As always, he made everyone laugh and kept at bay<br />
the potential, mutinous, hungry mass, vying for their<br />
first course. Among the many, various anecdotes he told<br />
was a story about a young Stephen and Ben, which<br />
perfectly exemplified our relationship – a typical night<br />
out or, in this case, night in….<br />
It involves me being hungry and Ben being the perfect<br />
host. Being the dirty students that they were at Sturry<br />
Lane, Ben’s kitchen resembled a science experiment<br />
rather than a place of the finest haute cuisine. Despite<br />
this, I rustled up a ham sandwich.<br />
I settled down to enjoy my man-wich and continued<br />
to watch TV again – well, we were Radio, Film and TV<br />
students, after all, and this was homework! Ben asks me,<br />
as I am brushing the crumbs off my sweater, what I have<br />
been munching on. I tell him it’s the ham. No, not the<br />
ham, Stephen…that’s been sitting there for over three<br />
months!<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 33
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
I tell you what, says Ben mischievously, that’s going to<br />
make you very sick, young man….your Mum’s not going<br />
to be very happy when she finds out what her good<br />
Jewish boy has been feasting on….on the Sabbath<br />
Day…You know what, I’ll make you an emetic. “A what?” I<br />
say. You, see, Ben’s Mum, having once been a nurse, told<br />
Ben how to purge young potential food poisoning<br />
victims.<br />
This concoction involves four tablespoons of English<br />
mustard, a pint of warm water, six tablespoons of salt<br />
and will apparently cure any ailment. Ben passed me<br />
the pint, an evil twinkle in his eye. I, gullible and<br />
desperate, accepted…….Let’s just say, it was very messy,<br />
but I was cured and saved from the hazards of eating<br />
three-month-old ham….Ben laughed at me all the way to<br />
the bathroom, and back and forth and back and<br />
forth…Thanks, Ben! I can still hear him laughing.<br />
I think, if you all close your eyes and imagine Ben, you<br />
will be able to think of his big, smiling face, a big,<br />
booming voice, oversized Ralph Lauren shirts, rolled up<br />
to the elbow, a tendency to dress like a Dad, a penchant<br />
for wearing very, very shiny shoes with jeans and a big,<br />
firm handgrip that could cripple a bear.<br />
I know for a fact that Ben would be kicking himself<br />
about what happened – us all sitting here for him. He<br />
would have hated all the fuss. He would instead want<br />
you to remember all the good times you shared, to<br />
perhaps order the more expensive wine on the wine list<br />
– ignore the house red – go for the second most<br />
expensive wine on the list, then have the starter and<br />
pudding; to not hit the sack when everyone starts to<br />
waver; to enjoy yourself as much as you can when you<br />
have it. Ben lived for the moment.<br />
But there was more to Ben. He was a great listener…a<br />
great sympathiser…and wouldn’t shy way from telling<br />
you how it was, even if you didn’t want to hear it. If he<br />
didn’t like something, he would say so. Ben was not to<br />
be budged on anything – strong….stubborn as a mule,<br />
some might say.<br />
He had a real sense of justice and couldn’t stand the<br />
atrocities that happen around the world. He loved<br />
animals, great and small. I even remember in Thailand<br />
how this dishevelled, homeless dog followed him around<br />
for eight whole days on the island of Koh Chang, almost<br />
undoubtedly being given the remains of Ben’s Thai fish<br />
cakes. Not even I was allowed those leftovers!<br />
At any social gathering, he was the friend you could<br />
whisk around to anyone, to everyone who hadn’t met<br />
him: your Mum, old aunties, friends. You wanted<br />
everyone to meet him. You wanted to share him with<br />
others because you knew he would charm them like he<br />
charmed you. You were proud to be associated with him.<br />
People say that others judge you by the people that you<br />
surround yourself with. In my case – and our case – he<br />
was the richest of them all!<br />
I knew Ben for ten years - some here more, some less<br />
– but he will always be remembered, always missed, as<br />
the ultimate charmer, the joie de vivre of any party, a<br />
loving son, brother, nephew, cousin, friend and my best<br />
buddy!<br />
To Ben…you old black dog….<br />
DAVID DIEPPE (L98/03)<br />
(1985-2007)<br />
This is an edited version of a<br />
tribute to David written by his<br />
father Charles for the <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong> Newsletter. The full<br />
version will be available on the<br />
website www.oldbrutonians.com<br />
shortly.<br />
David as a young man had two<br />
philosophies for life:<br />
“If you want to know what’s<br />
round the corner - go find out” and “You cannot talk<br />
knowledgably on any subject without first hand<br />
experience” -<br />
David lived them both.<br />
He loved the outdoor life and the wonders of the<br />
natural world. From a very early age he kept a variety<br />
of fish and animals – nearly all in his bedroom, which at<br />
times looked more like a zoo, and throughout this phase<br />
of his life he was always learning. Why does this frog<br />
act in this way? Why do they shout all night keeping<br />
the household awake? It was always a delight to go<br />
into his room and hear about some new fact that he had<br />
found out about one or other of his “pets”.<br />
Alongside the animals there was gymnastics. This<br />
was a very serious business. David needed to do the<br />
best he could, and it was gymnastics that probably<br />
taught him to look after his body, and gave him the<br />
ability to cut off from everything and concentrate on<br />
what he was doing which stood him in good stead for<br />
the rest of his life.<br />
At King’s he joined in all the major activities. He was<br />
an active member of the C.C.F., joined in all the camps<br />
and went on several “survival” exercises. He played<br />
Rugby for the second fifteen, hockey, tennis, and even<br />
dabbled in athletics. At Hazlegrove he discovered he<br />
could sing and joined the choir. This was to lead to his<br />
great love and interest in all forms of music. His<br />
collection of CDs is very diverse with the classics, Jazz,<br />
Soul, R&B, and opera, to name but a few.<br />
Academically, David showed an aptitude for<br />
Languages, and enjoyed History, Science subjects and<br />
English. It was at King’s that his thirst for adventure<br />
began in earnest. All three of the Ten Tors challenges<br />
were tackled and completed successfully.<br />
It was at this time two important things happened:<br />
he began to develop a sense of diplomacy, which was to<br />
show itself on many different occasions in the future<br />
and he also began to show a concern for people and<br />
skills for leadership.<br />
David gained an Army bursary to Nottingham<br />
University, and had a place at Sandhurst that he could<br />
take up when he had completed his University course.<br />
He was extremely patriotic and proud of the chance he<br />
was to have in defending his Queen and Country.<br />
At home he was growing into a sensitive and<br />
confident young man - full of fun and mischief. He took<br />
it upon himself to “landscape” the garden. New<br />
flowerbeds appeared with “woodland” and “marshland”<br />
34 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
areas. A huge pond was dug and a “patio” appeared.<br />
David loved the garden.<br />
By now he was looking to go on a gap year between<br />
school and University, which meant funds. He worked<br />
for six months as a Silver Service waiter at a local hotel –<br />
weddings a speciality. He amassed enough money to<br />
go on Safari in Africa for a month. Two days after he<br />
arrived there came the cry for further funding – “I’m<br />
staying for two months!”<br />
He went bungee jumping, sand boarding, parachute<br />
jumping; he tickled lions, teased crocodiles and made<br />
some great friends. It all fuelled his thirst for adventure.<br />
On his return came the great bits –listening to his<br />
“travelogue” as he unloaded everything in the kitchen<br />
over his 90th cup of tea. David took tea intravenously;<br />
and if there was chocolate cake to go with it, he was in<br />
paradise. The travelogues which we all looked forward<br />
to were detailed, witty, and full of wonderful little<br />
anecdotes, but you only ever heard them once because<br />
after he had told you he would be off - planning the next<br />
trip!<br />
Then came the start of his time at Nottingham<br />
University. David had chosen to study German, Russian<br />
and Modern European History. His first year involved<br />
learning to live in halls, finding time to eat, and getting<br />
projects completed in time. He also began what were to<br />
become strong friendships amongst his colleagues. His<br />
Army Bursary also meant he had to join UOTC and he<br />
spent most of his week-ends cold, wet and muddy<br />
somewhere in the UK! He enjoyed it immensely!<br />
It was at UOTC that David met Helen – his girl friend.<br />
At home we got quite used to having our weekend<br />
shattered when David and Helen suddenly appeared,<br />
having forgotten everything!<br />
In the family there was a new addition to the<br />
extended family, and David proudly took on the role of<br />
uncle. He went to see his niece and nephew whenever<br />
he could and loved to tease them, and spoilt them<br />
rotten. Only a few days before he went off to Ecuador,<br />
at a family get together to celebrate David’s being in the<br />
UK for more than a day, he learnt that he was to become<br />
uncle to two new arrivals, due at the end of the year. He<br />
was delighted, and was looking forward to many more<br />
hours of teasing.<br />
The next fund raising escapade involved more outdoor<br />
life, working on our local Pick Your Own Farm. Again he<br />
got wet, cold and muddy, but this time a bit of suntan<br />
was added to make it more enjoyable. This was for his<br />
biggest adventure yet – The Marathon des Sables.<br />
The Marathon des Sables was something he had seen<br />
on Blue Peter as a young boy and decided to do it one<br />
day! Everyone tried to tell him he was too young, but<br />
the challenge was there – nothing would put him off.<br />
So off he went! 731 runners started the five day<br />
marathon across the Moroccan desert. Only 585 runners<br />
finished the 151 miles in six days, and he managed to run<br />
to the finish!– David did remarkably well finishing in<br />
the first 200 which, given he was one of the youngest,<br />
was a fantastic achievement. The photographs of the<br />
blisters on his feet had to be seen to be believed!<br />
German and Russian were the two languages David<br />
chose for University along with Modern European<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
History. He found Russian extremely difficult, but<br />
enjoyed German.<br />
The first half of the “year abroad” with the University<br />
was in Germany. Most of the corresponding with home<br />
was done over the telephone. He spent each weekend<br />
travelling as much as he could to see everything. He still<br />
managed to keep up his fitness regime, running every<br />
evening. He discovered that Germans don’t run for<br />
exercise, they walk. Picture a sunny evening. Fit<br />
English lad runs by the river and round the town. All<br />
the dogs on their sedate German walks began to chase<br />
him – the Germans learned how to run! On subsequent<br />
evenings, all dogs were put securely on their leads at the<br />
first sight of him! He ended his time there with a great<br />
love of the German language! He was becoming a true<br />
linguist.<br />
In Russia (St. Petersburg) it was easier to correspond<br />
by email. Some of the emails are superb giving a<br />
fascinating picture of David’s view of life in Russia.<br />
Helen was also studying Languages at Nottingham,<br />
and was spending part of her time in Ecuador. Never<br />
one to miss an opportunity, David decided to visit Helen<br />
before they both returned to Nottingham for their final<br />
year. The idea of going to South America and not<br />
exploring was too much for David, so he signed up for a<br />
trip along the Inca Trail and along the coasts of Peru and<br />
Ecuador. The plan was to stay with Helen for 10 days,<br />
then go on the trip and to meet up again with Helen<br />
and travel back to England together. So off he went!<br />
From the emails we got back David was having the<br />
time of his life “doing something I want to do and not<br />
something I’m obliged to do”, revelling in the<br />
magnificent countryside, in awe of the wildlife –<br />
particularly the Condors.<br />
David always wanted to explore round the next<br />
corner, wanting to see and investigate as much as he<br />
could whilst he had the opportunity. We heard from two<br />
of his fellow travellers on his trip to Peru that he had<br />
said that he wanted to visit every country in the world.<br />
Sadly, it is believed that this thirst for adventure led to<br />
the tragic accident in Puerto Inca, Peru on 7th August<br />
2007. Puerto Inca is a campsite set in a very remote<br />
small bay on the edge of the desert. David went off, by<br />
himself, just before sunset to either take a few more<br />
photos, or get a closer look at some of the birds or sea<br />
lions that abound in the bay. He cannot have been<br />
more than a few 100m from the rest of the group and,<br />
almost within sight of them, when somehow he slipped<br />
down the rocks into the waves that were pounding the<br />
rocky headland. Once in the water he would not have<br />
stood a chance: there are strong currents along the<br />
coast; the sea was high after a recent storm and the<br />
water cold.<br />
Despite extensive searching by a professional Search<br />
and Rescue team over a period of six days, nothing has<br />
been found and there is no evidence as to exactly what<br />
happened.<br />
The family held a “celebration” of David’s life at St<br />
James’ Church, Shaftesbury on 5th December 2007. The<br />
service was very well attended, by family, school, UOTC<br />
and Army friends as well as his University friends.<br />
David will be sorely missed.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 35
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
CHANGES OF<br />
ADDRESS <strong>2008</strong><br />
1939<br />
BROWN, Kenneth (N39/43)<br />
27 Ailesbury Way, Burbage,<br />
Marlborough,Wiltshire, SN8 3TD<br />
1943<br />
FIRTH, Ralph (O43/46)<br />
Gumnut Grove, Waterford Estate, MURRAY<br />
BRIDGE SA 5253, AUSTRALIA<br />
1944<br />
BRENT, Donald (N44/47)<br />
1 Digby Court, 1 Falcon Drive, Mudeford,<br />
Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 4AZ<br />
1947<br />
HITCHEN, Dennis (O47/49)<br />
15 Henry Street, LAWSON NSW 2783,<br />
AUSTRALIA<br />
WILLIAMS, Michael (P47/50)<br />
334 Pirates Bight, NAPLES FL 34103, UNITED<br />
STATES OF AMERICA<br />
1949<br />
RYALL, Bertram (P49/51)<br />
The Higher Farm, Rimpton,Yeovil, Somerset,<br />
BA22 8AD<br />
1954<br />
GRIFFITHS, David (L54/60)<br />
4/56 Bower Street, MANLY NSW 2095,<br />
AUSTRALIA<br />
1955<br />
COE, Peter (N55/59)<br />
Brookside Cottage, Pound Lane, Yarlington,<br />
Somerset, BA9 8DG<br />
1956<br />
HARRIMAN, Bruce (P56/59)<br />
Unit 2, 22 Montgomery Avenue, Main Beach,<br />
Gold Coast QLD,4217, AUSTRALIA<br />
SCARDTHOMAS, Geoffrey (P56/60)<br />
10 Hawthorn Close, Colden Common,<br />
Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1UX<br />
1957<br />
TAYLOR, Richard, (O57/61),<br />
13 Bigbury Court, Bigbury, Nr Kingsbridge,<br />
Devon, TQ7 4AP<br />
TODD, Nicholas (O5760)<br />
48 Charles Street, Annan,<br />
Dumfriesshire, DT12 5AH<br />
1958<br />
FARROW, Peter (N58/61)<br />
15 Tivoli Street, Tivoli, Cheltenham,<br />
Gloucestershire, GL50 2UW<br />
JOHNSON, Ian (O58/63)<br />
Farthing Cottage, 71 St Andrew Street,<br />
Tiverton, Devon, EX16 6PL<br />
1960<br />
BLANNING, Charlie (B60/65)<br />
Withymoor, Withypool, Minehead, Somerset,<br />
TA24 7RD<br />
HILL, Marcus (O60/65)<br />
Ochiltree House, Upper High Street,<br />
Castle Cary, Somerset, BA7 7AR<br />
NEWTON, Perran (L60/63)<br />
The <strong>Old</strong> Forge, Hurcott, Somerton,<br />
Somerset, TA11 6AA,<br />
1961<br />
FISHER, Tim (N61/65)<br />
3 Kilderkin Drive, Horndean,<br />
Hampshire, PO8 0FF<br />
HARRIS, Richard, (N61/66)<br />
16 Ringshall Gardens, Bramley, Tadley,<br />
Hampshire, RG26 5BW<br />
1962<br />
EADEN, Peter (N62/65)<br />
Lost Farm, Offton, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP8 4RW<br />
1963<br />
BRAZIER, Philip (B63/66)<br />
St Georges, 10 Lakewood Road, Chandlers<br />
Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 1ES<br />
RUDD, Peter, (N63/67)<br />
14 Springfield Road, Ilfracombe,<br />
Devon, EX34 9JW<br />
WATERMAN, James (B63/67)<br />
4 Katterns Close, St Catherine's Hill,<br />
Christchurch, Dorset, BH23 2NS<br />
1964<br />
HALL, Michael (P64/67)<br />
5 Lavers Oak, Martock, Somerset, TA12 6HG<br />
1965<br />
TATE, Jonathan (B65/70) Dovecote Farm, High<br />
Woolaston, Lydney, Glos GL15 6PX<br />
1966<br />
SIMS, Norton (N66/70)<br />
113 Nether Street, North Finchley,<br />
London, N12 8AB<br />
1967<br />
FARMER, Richard (P67/72)<br />
Lower Foxley Cottage, 5 Oughtrington Lane,<br />
Lymm, Cheshire, WA13 0RE<br />
NIXON, David (B67/71)<br />
1453 Crespi Drive, San José CA 95129,<br />
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />
PIDSLEY, Mark (P67/72)<br />
Bays, Captains Row, Lymington,<br />
Hampshire, SO41 9RR<br />
1968<br />
SCOTT, Will (O68/72)<br />
The Penthouse, 41 Creek Road, Hampton<br />
Court, Surrey, KT8 9BE<br />
1969<br />
COLLINS, David (O69/72)<br />
1078 Churchill Avenue, OAKVILLE<br />
ON L6H 2A6, CANADA<br />
SIMS, Colin (N69/72)<br />
Woodlands Farm, Shiplate Road, Loxton,<br />
Axbridge, Somerset, BS26 2XA<br />
1970<br />
SIMS, Ian (L70/76)<br />
Ranch House, 7 Brandy Bottom, Cricket Hill<br />
Lane, Yateley, Hampshire, GU46 6BE<br />
TURNER, Paul (N70/74)<br />
Miravalle 4, Calle O, Lote 352, Dept 2,<br />
Cumbayá, Quito, ECUADOR<br />
WATKIN, Jonathan (L70/73)<br />
PO Box 28773, Gloucester Road Post Office,<br />
Wanchai, HONG KONG<br />
1971<br />
SCHOOLING, John (P71/76)<br />
8 St Thomas Road, Grove Park, Chiswick,<br />
London, W4 3LD<br />
1972<br />
HUNTER, Nick (O72/77)<br />
41 William Hunt Mansions, 4 Somerville<br />
Avenue, London, SW13 8HT<br />
SAGE, David (B72/77)<br />
Yew Tree Farmhouse, Wraxall, Shepton<br />
Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6RQ<br />
1973<br />
ROBERTS, Jonathan (O73/75)<br />
13 Stuart Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 2SZ<br />
1974<br />
CLEMENTS, Andrew (B74/79)<br />
Kingfisher, Weeke Hill, Dartmouth, TQ6 9DB<br />
1975<br />
REID, Ian (N75/80)<br />
Midfield, 53 Wolsey Road, Moor Park,<br />
Northwood, Middlesex, HA6 2ER<br />
1976<br />
COUTTS, Angus (N76/80)<br />
120 Ember Lane, Esher, Kent, KT10 8EJ<br />
MATTHEWS, Gerrard (P76/81)<br />
Higher Sandford Farm, Sandford Orcas,<br />
Sherborne, Dorset, DT9 4RP<br />
1978<br />
LOUDON, Robert (L78/83)<br />
66 Petley Road, London, W6 9ST<br />
MAXWELL, Simon (P78/83)<br />
2 New Cottages, Upend, Newmarket, Suffolk,<br />
CB8 9PJ<br />
1979<br />
WINTERBOURNE, Guy (B79/84)<br />
Simshill, Ropers Lane, Wrington, North<br />
Somerset, BS40 5RR<br />
1980<br />
ENDERBY, William (O80/84)<br />
Priory Barn, Post Office Lane, Flax Bourton,<br />
Bristol, BS48 4QE<br />
TROUNSON, Richard (L80/83)<br />
Flat 2, The Maltings, Market Place,<br />
Warminster, Wiltshire, BA12 9AW<br />
1981<br />
HILL, Timothy (N81/84)<br />
11 Kithill, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 8HX<br />
IUEL, Christian (P81/84)<br />
Soendergarde 55, Hyllinge, 4700 NAESTVED,<br />
DENMARK<br />
WYATT, Rupert (L81/84)<br />
Chester Gate, Badgers Hill, Virginia Water,<br />
Surrey, GU25 4SA<br />
YOUNG, John (N81/83)<br />
23 Fernside Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 2NN<br />
1982<br />
HITCHES, Petri (N82/84)<br />
Optex Security Sp. Z.o.o., Bitwy Warszawskiej<br />
1920 r7b, 02-366 WARSAW, POLAND<br />
MYRES, Charles (P82/87)<br />
26A Tavistock 2, 10A Tregunter Path,<br />
Mid-Levels, HONG KONG<br />
1983<br />
SAMPSON, Rebecca (W83/85)<br />
140 St Andrews Crescent, Windsor, Berkshire,<br />
SL4 4EN<br />
WARWICK-SMITH, Alastair (O83/88)<br />
Queen's View, Queen Katherine Road,<br />
Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 3RZ<br />
1985<br />
DANDO, Paul (B85/90)<br />
101 Clock House Road, Beckenham,<br />
Kent, BR3 4JU<br />
SAMPSON, Helena (W85/87)<br />
82 Mortlake Road, Kew, London, TW9 4AS<br />
TRASK, James (L85/90)<br />
Brendon House, 10 Orchehill Avenue, Gerrards<br />
Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 8PX<br />
1986<br />
D'ALBERTANSON, Simon (O86/88)<br />
Banana Falls, 188 Pinhoe Road, Exeter, Devon,<br />
EX4 7HH<br />
OULTON, Alex (N86/91)<br />
Apt 3103,World City Towers, Konan 4-6-8,<br />
Minato-Ku, TOKYO, 108-0075, JAPAN<br />
36 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
ZLATTINGER, André (P86/89)<br />
Owlsbury Farm, Little Horsted,<br />
East Sussex, TN22 5TJ<br />
1987<br />
FOWLSTON, Toby (P87/92)<br />
70 Santos Road, London, SW18 1NT<br />
JENKINSON, Samuel (L87/92)<br />
7 Sedgefield Way, Chippenham, Wiltshire,<br />
SN14 0YW<br />
STEWART, Fraser (O87/92)<br />
40 Wolsey Drive, Kingston-upon-Thames,<br />
Surrey, KT2 5DN<br />
WALTHAM, James (O87/92)<br />
Rosemary Cottage, Naunton, Cheltenham,<br />
Gloucestershire, GL54 3AA<br />
1988<br />
HAIGH, Dominic (L88/93)<br />
Flat 3, 10 Queen Street, Cirencester,<br />
Gloucestershire, GL7 1HD<br />
HOSKINS, Paul (B88/93)<br />
33 Balls Bridge Gardens, Shelbourne Road,<br />
Dublin,4, IRELAND<br />
LLOYD DAVIES, Mark (L88/93)<br />
Flat 1, 359A West Barnes Lane, Motspur Park,<br />
London, KT3 6JF<br />
OULTON, Rupert (N88/93)<br />
3112 Etcheverry Hall, M.C. 1740, BERKELEY CA<br />
94720-1740, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />
1989<br />
FOWLSTON, Oliver (P89/94)<br />
38 Laceys Lane, Exning, Newmarket, CB8 7HL<br />
MATTHEWS (née JENKINS), Samantha<br />
(W89/91)<br />
8 Ellerton Way, Wrecclesham, Farnham,<br />
Surrey, GU10 4NZ<br />
MCKENZIE, Douglas (L89/94)<br />
2 Culsac Road, Surbiton, Surrey, KT6 7ST<br />
MICHAELIDES, Nicholas (P89/94)<br />
P.O. Box 64277, NAIROBI, 00620, KENYA<br />
POINTON-TAYLOR, Samuel (N89/94)<br />
Flat 1, Browns Court, Station Road, Gerrards<br />
Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 8ES<br />
1990<br />
OULTON, Edward (N90/95)<br />
33 Magazine Gap Road, HONG KONG<br />
PHILLIPS, Robin (O90/95)<br />
14 Wellington Road, Wimbledon Park, London,<br />
SW19 8EQ<br />
ROBSON, George (O90/95)<br />
Flat 9, 38 Carlton Drive, Putney,<br />
London, SW15 2BH<br />
1991<br />
BEAZLEY, Nicholas (O91/96)<br />
1 Granary Close, East Grafton, Marlborough,<br />
Wiltshire, SN8 3UA<br />
BROWN, Leonard (O91/96)<br />
c/o Valley View, Cowpits Lane, Ringwood,<br />
Hampshire, BH24 3JX<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION SPORTS<br />
John-Kai Fleming reports that there was no cricket<br />
played, as the OBA are still considering the viability<br />
of competing in a new national competition since<br />
the termination of the Brewers’ Cup. Unfortunately,<br />
the cricket match against the school was cancelled<br />
due to a shortage of players, but for <strong>2008</strong> the date for<br />
this fixture has been returned to 22nd June, the <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong> weekend, in Bruton.<br />
DUDDRIDGE (née THOMPSON), Kathryn<br />
(W91/93)<br />
31 Fermoy Road, Southend, Essex, SS1 3HA<br />
NUNN, Adam (B91/96)<br />
7a Tresillian Road, Brockley, London, SE4 1YE<br />
TANSLEY (née WEBB), Hannah, (W91/93)<br />
Le Formentor, 27 Avenue Princesse Grace,<br />
MONACO 98000, MONACO<br />
1992<br />
DAVIS, Paul (N92/97)<br />
38 Leopold Walk, Cottenham, Cambridge,<br />
CB24 8XS<br />
KEAN, Richard (B92/97)<br />
19 Twyford Close, Bournemouth,<br />
Dorset, BH8 0PQ<br />
MEYER, Sam (L92/97)<br />
12 Garston Close, Est Meon, Petersfield,<br />
Hampshire, GU32 1PS<br />
PIKE, Kevin (L92/97)<br />
Pettywell, 4 Oxford Street, Aldbourne,<br />
Wiltshire, SN8 2DQ<br />
ROOKE, Thomas (O92/97)<br />
53a Cambray Road, Balham,<br />
London, SW12 0DX<br />
WILLIAMS Alan (B92/97)<br />
Top Flat,7 Peverell Park Road, Plymouth,<br />
Devon, PL3 4LR<br />
1993<br />
COHEN, Elizabeth (W93/95)<br />
18 Omega Maltings, Star Street, Ware,<br />
Hertfordshire, SG12 7AB<br />
HASTINGS, Robert (N93/98)<br />
Wilson House Flat, Bloxham School, Bloxham,<br />
Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX15 4BE<br />
LANSDELL, Oliver (P93/97)<br />
54 Rylett Road, London, W12 9SU<br />
1994<br />
JONES, Nicola (W94/96)<br />
c/o Longstraw Barn, 10 Ickham Court Farm,<br />
The Street, Ickham, Kent, CT3 1QQ<br />
PRITCHARD, Andrew (N94/99)<br />
11 Chalfont Court, Colindeep Lane, Colindale,<br />
London, NW9 6DY<br />
1995<br />
HISCOX, Matthew (L95/00)<br />
1 Collett Avenue, Shepton Mallet, Somerset,<br />
BA4 5PL<br />
PLUNTKE, Andreas (P95/97)<br />
6229 E Joan de Arc Ave, SCOTTSDALE AZ<br />
85254, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<br />
TILLBROOK, Martin (P95/00)<br />
11 Southwold Spur, Langley, Slough, SL3 8XX<br />
1996<br />
CAREW-GIBBS, William (B96/01)<br />
23 Burnham's Close, Andover,, SP10 4NJ<br />
CAREW-GIBBS, Hannah (W96/98)<br />
14 Latchmere Road, Battersea,<br />
London, SW11 2DX<br />
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
DAVIS, Christopher (L96/00)<br />
8 Brutasche Terrace, Street,<br />
Somerset, BA16 0BD<br />
KERTON, Matthew (N96/01)<br />
Lab W203, Biosciences, University of<br />
Birmingham, Edgbaston,<br />
Birmingham, B15 2TT<br />
OVLAND, Mark (P96/01)<br />
Bank House, High Street, Keinton Mandeville,<br />
Somerton, Somerset, TA11 6ED<br />
STOCKLE, Christina (W96/96)<br />
Memmingerstr.53, 72762 REUTLINGEN,<br />
GERMANY<br />
1997<br />
FERBER, Philippa (W97/99)<br />
Schorlemerstr. 5, 40645 DUESSELDORF,<br />
GERMANY<br />
SEDGMAN, Lizzie (W97/99)<br />
25A Ringford Road, Putney, London, SW18 1RP<br />
1998<br />
HEWITT-STUBBS, Nicola (A98/03)<br />
Unit 1, 4-6 Weemala Street, Chevron Island,<br />
GOLD COAST QLD 4217, AUSTRALIA<br />
1999<br />
BAILLON, Max (O99/04)<br />
Myrtle House, Westcombe, Shepton Mallet,<br />
Somerset, BA4 6ER<br />
PIDSLEY, Matthew (L99/03)<br />
Bays, Captains Row, Lymington, Hampshire,<br />
SO41 9RR<br />
2000<br />
BEACH, Roger (N00/05)<br />
P O Box HM 1760, Hamilton, HM HX,<br />
BERMUDA<br />
SPURRIER, Richard (N00/05)<br />
2 Elmwood, Rue al'Or, St Peter Port,<br />
GUERNSEY, GY1 1QG, CHANNEL ISLANDS<br />
2001<br />
ATKINSON, Emma (W01/03)<br />
c/o 6a Bruelands, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0HX<br />
BARTHOLOMEW, Jack (O01/06)<br />
Rosieres House, 25 Swinton Avenue,<br />
Bovington, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 6LD<br />
MCCONNACHIE, Benjamin (B01/04)<br />
HQ MND (SE) J7 SSR, 10 (1A) Div Mitt, OP TELIC<br />
10, BFPO 641<br />
2002<br />
SPURRIER, Peter (L02/05)<br />
2 Elmwood, Rue al'Or, St Peter Port,<br />
GUERNSEY, GY1 1QG, CHANNEL ISLANDS<br />
2003<br />
HOPKINS, Piers (L03/05)<br />
Flat 6, 14 Cheyne Gardens, London, SW3 5QT<br />
SAGE, Henry (B03/06)<br />
Yew Tree Farmhouse, Wraxall, Shepton<br />
Mallet, Somerset, BA4 6RQ<br />
THE VETERANS HOCKEY<br />
The Veterans Hockey team lost 2-4 to the school 2nd XI.<br />
The players were as follows:<br />
Chris Norman (‘83)*, Colin Coutts (‘75), David Harris<br />
(‘56), James Butcher (‘83)*, Jamie Edwards (‘01), John<br />
Enderby (‘83)*, Nick Price (‘97), Robin Gainher (‘83)*,<br />
Rory Edwards (‘01), Simon Maxwell (‘83)* – captain,<br />
Tom Taylor (‘85), Will Enderby (‘84)*<br />
* Members of 1st XI School Hockey team in 1983.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 37
THE SCHOOL<br />
HEADMASTER'S LETTER<br />
Dear <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s,<br />
The end of the Easter term <strong>2008</strong> will sadly be remembered by many of the current generation of<br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s, and more recent <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s, as a time when the school was shaken by the loss of a well<br />
loved member of the extended King’s family – I use the expression “King’s family” as one which has been so<br />
often expressed to me with pride by parents, ex-parents, <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s and staff throughout my time as<br />
Headmaster. Never was the word “family” so apt than at the Thanksgiving Service for Rory Watson (ex -<br />
<strong>Old</strong> House), who tragically lost his life in a road traffic accident while enjoying his gap year in India. Rory<br />
was a wonderfully gregarious young man who was always the “life and soul of the party”. Having left<br />
King’s last summer he had meticulously planned the experience of a lifetime in India before returning to<br />
start university next autumn. The “King’s family” filled St Mary’s to the brim in what was a very uplifting<br />
service for one who had lived his short life to the full. It would be fair to say that all of us took great<br />
comfort from the mutual support given to so many by so many at such a difficult time – this school of ours<br />
really is a very special community which is for life not merely our school days.<br />
After such gap year tragedies – and we all, sadly, have read about other young men and women whose<br />
lives have ended while away on their gap years – questions are asked about precautions, risk assessments<br />
and the like. As an educationalist you won’t be surprised to hear me say that we live in an overly cautious<br />
society when it comes to risk taking for young people – far too many who should know better confuse risk<br />
assessment (a sensible thing to do) with risk aversion (a wholly negative and damaging concept). One only<br />
has to look a the number of young children who are driven to school these days compared to twenty years<br />
ago, when walking a mile or so to school was part of our daily lives. I understand why parents are so<br />
cautious (I am one after all!) but are our children better off because of our reluctance to take risks?<br />
Personally, I see little benefit and in fact I see it as a challenge for all schools to educate boys and girls to<br />
take balanced risks – in fact, how can we educate them properly if we don’t do so? The media has been full,<br />
in recent months, of the risks of social networking on the Internet. So is the answer to try and stop young<br />
people having access to the Internet? Of course not! At a boarding school like King’s we are able to monitor<br />
Internet activity (and the pupils are fully aware of this), and indeed certain types of website are blocked.<br />
However, our chief objective must be to ensure that the current generation of <strong>Brutonian</strong>s is educated about<br />
the dangers so that they can make their own risk assessments – not to do so would be to leave them very<br />
exposed after they have left the sanctuary of King’s.<br />
On the theme of educating the next generation of risk takers, it has been a pleasure to see our own gap<br />
year scheme grow so rapidly and create such enthusiasm amongst our sixth formers during the last two<br />
years. Just over a couple of years ago the Chaplain, Nigel Wilson-Brown, approached me with the idea that<br />
we should be doing something a little more proactive about the growing number of sixth formers who<br />
were actively looking for gap year projects. The Chaplain had previously travelled to India to visit a quite<br />
remarkable orphanage in the heart of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The orphanage, The Indian<br />
Christian Mission Centre, had opened in 1989 with 12 orphans but has now grown to be a home for over<br />
2000 youngsters. Money for the orphanage has, for a number of years, been supplied by the charity,<br />
“Shining Faces of India” but we wanted to go a step further and send actual physical help as well as money.<br />
A number of sixth formers now plan to spend a few months of their gap year working in the orphanage<br />
and the first official group will go out during the next academic year. A number of <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s visited<br />
the orphanage last year. All came back feeling that their lives had been changed and all were extremely<br />
grateful to have had a chance to give back some of the privilege that we all enjoy at King’s. There is<br />
however a little more to the “King’s Gap Year Project” – in preparation for their actual gap year the sixth<br />
formers are taught how to fundraise properly, and then spend a week of their summer holidays between<br />
the lower and upper sixth form taking part in a fund raising challenge. Last summer eight members of the<br />
current upper sixth (and four staff) climbed Mt Toubkal, the highest peak in northern Africa. Each student<br />
is on target to raise the £2,500 that has been set for individuals – this will pay for their return trip to India<br />
and allow them to take some money to the orphanage. This coming summer the next group of King’s<br />
students (eighteen of the current lower 6th) will take on the demanding challenge of trekking across the<br />
Sinai Desert.<br />
So, you can see that the concept of risk is alive and kicking at King’s – I think Rory would have approved!<br />
Nigel Lashbrook<br />
38 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
KING’S BRUTON’S NEW ALUMNI<br />
REUNION PROGRAMME<br />
Following the success of the School’s very first alumni<br />
reunion day on Saturday 8 March, King’s is delighted<br />
to announce that further events are planned in <strong>2008</strong><br />
for 10 May and 20 September. <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s will have, or<br />
will be receiving, letters with details of these events,<br />
which are planned around year groups celebrating<br />
significant anniversaries of leaving the School. As Richard<br />
Claas, the School’s Development Director and organiser of<br />
the new programme, says:<br />
“We wanted to complement the <strong>Association</strong>’s social<br />
calendar by organising events specifically designed to<br />
bring <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s from the same year group together<br />
on a regular basis. In <strong>2008</strong>, we are inviting all former<br />
pupils whose year of leaving ends in a ‘3’ or an ‘8’, and in<br />
another five years’ time, these groups will be given the<br />
opportunity to get together at the School all over again.”<br />
Mindful of the fact that many <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s will have<br />
made close friendships with individuals in other years<br />
while they were at school, and to ensure that those who<br />
left King’s at different points in their school career, but<br />
joined at the same time, have a chance to meet up too, the<br />
School is also inviting back to each event year groups two<br />
years either side of the anniversary years.<br />
The outline programme for the reunion days is as<br />
follows:<br />
10.30am Arrival in the Memorial Hall for refreshments<br />
and the first opportunity of the day to meet up<br />
with old friends, to the accompaniment of the<br />
School’s musicians.<br />
11.00am Tours of the School by current King’s pupils,<br />
including a visit back to your old King’s House.<br />
12.00pm A special service for <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s in St<br />
Mary’s Church, Bruton, led by the Chaplain,<br />
THE SCHOOL<br />
Nigel Wilson-Brown.<br />
12.30pm Return to the Memorial Hall.<br />
12.45pm Welcome back by the Headmaster, Nigel<br />
Lashbrook.<br />
1.00pm Buffet luncheon with wine and other<br />
refreshments.<br />
1.50pm Singing together the School Song, Carmen<br />
Brutoniense.<br />
2.00pm Year group photographs on the Memorial<br />
Green.<br />
On each afternoon, there will be a full programme of<br />
sport to watch and enjoy followed by one of King’s<br />
celebrated match teas. The cost of the day for all parts of<br />
your visit is £20. Accompanying partners and spouses are<br />
welcomed free of charge as guests of the School.<br />
Looking ahead to 2009, the School intends to organise<br />
events for <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s whose year of leaving the<br />
School ends in a ‘4’ or a ‘9’. Alumni from these years<br />
interested in organising a reunion should contact Richard<br />
at their earliest opportunity on 01749 814274 or by email<br />
at rc@kingsbruton.com.<br />
FIRST TELEPHONE AFFINITY<br />
CAMPAIGN FOR KING’S BRUTON<br />
The School will be running its very first telephone<br />
affinity campaign this summer from 4 August to 24<br />
August. Current Sixth Formers and recent leavers will<br />
make contact with <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s to share their<br />
experiences of being at the School, help them to trace lost<br />
friends, update <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s on what’s new at King’s<br />
and invite them to make a gift that will benefit the School<br />
and its pupils.<br />
“Establishing contact by telephone is much better than<br />
relying solely on communications by print or email to<br />
build a community:” says Richard Claas, the School’s<br />
Development Director, “the telephone affinity will develop<br />
further the bonds between the School and <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s<br />
and strengthen support for King’s development.”<br />
The campaign will also provide an opportunity to<br />
ensure that the details the School and <strong>Association</strong> hold for<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s are correct and up to date. As Richard<br />
continues, “Learning more about the paths its former<br />
pupils have chosen to follow significantly enriches a<br />
school and enhances its profile in the outside world. At a<br />
time when the competitive pressures on schools have<br />
never been more intense, demonstrating our former<br />
pupils’ successes can have a very positive impact on our<br />
recruitment of new pupils in the future.”<br />
Further information about the campaign will be sent to<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s during the course of the summer.<br />
Importantly, <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s will be given the opportunity<br />
to opt out of receiving a call if they would prefer not to<br />
participate in the campaign.<br />
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s who would be interested in being part<br />
of the calling team should contact Richard Claas directly<br />
on 01749 814274 or by email at rc@kingsbruton.com. <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s who would like to offer work experience days<br />
at their places of employment as rewards for the callers<br />
are also invited to contact Richard directly.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 39
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS <strong>2008</strong><br />
Through no fault of his, David Graham has had to<br />
take early retirement from the Committee.<br />
Consequently we shall need to elect three new members<br />
to the Committee at the AGM in June instead of the<br />
usual two. The Committee intends to propose Robert<br />
Berry (P57/60), Andrew Harris (P94/99) and Ian Stuart<br />
(N81/84) for election.<br />
Robert, who was a Music Scholar at School, worked<br />
for the Ministry of Aviation after leaving and became a<br />
member of the Territorial Army. In 1965 he moved to the<br />
civil engineering sector of the construction industry<br />
with which he remained associated for the next forty<br />
years. [Further details of Robert’s career appear in the<br />
News of <strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong>s section on page 26.]<br />
On leaving School, where he was a leading actor,<br />
rugby player and a School Prefect, Andrew went to St<br />
Andrews to read Classical Studies. He is currently living<br />
in Blackheath where he is heavily involved in playing<br />
for, and helping to run, the amateur sides at Blackheath<br />
Rugby Club; an annual fixture has been organised<br />
between the club and the Apple Growers, creating<br />
divided loyalties for Andrew, his brother, John and Alex<br />
Royal. Outside of rugby, Andrew enjoys exploring “this<br />
wonderful country of ours”, travelling to his house in<br />
Normandy, reading history, skiing and being involved in<br />
a small dining club. He also enjoys returning to the<br />
family home in the West Country to “sup a proper pint<br />
of cider and the odd glass of claret”. He works for a<br />
financial p.r. firm located near the Bank of England.<br />
Ian will be stepping into David Graham’s shoes in<br />
more senses than one: not only will he be joining the<br />
Committee in David’s place but he will also be proposed<br />
by the Committee as the next Vice-President, to succeed<br />
John Longman when he takes over from Richard<br />
Sullivan as President. At School, Ian was captain of<br />
rugby and cricket, Head of New House and Head of<br />
School and a playing member of MCC. On leaving King’s,<br />
he went to Exeter University where he took a B.Ed. in<br />
Physical Education, English and Drama and played for<br />
British Universities Cricket. Between 1992 and 1997, he<br />
was the Cricket Professional at Winchester, becoming, in<br />
1997, Winchester College Enterprise Manager, bringing<br />
together and expanding the commercial activities on<br />
site. In 2000 he joined the International Cricket Council<br />
as European Development Manager, responsible for<br />
managing the development of cricket in thirty European<br />
nations as part of the ICC’s global development<br />
programme. He has been an ECB coach and for some<br />
years ran OBA cricket. He currently teaches English and<br />
PE at Kings’ School, Winchester and has recently<br />
qualified as a rugby referee and Level 2 coach. He<br />
continues to work as an England and Wales staff coach,<br />
responsible for the delivery of coach education courses<br />
on behalf of the Hampshire Cricket Board’s development<br />
programme. He is married to Amanda and they have<br />
one daughter, Emily-Kate.<br />
THE APPLE GROWERS SPORTS CLUB<br />
Last season finished well for the Growers with a good<br />
win against the Hampshire Hogs in the cricket, before the<br />
new rugby season got under way. A tough opening<br />
fixture against the recent <strong>Old</strong> Boys of the last three years<br />
saw the Growers defeated by a strong physical and much<br />
fitter opposition. We hope that some of them may come<br />
and play for the Growers in future. Two fantastic victories<br />
over The Hornets and North Dorset followed and at the<br />
time of writing there is one more match to play against<br />
Combe Down. Special thanks to the RAF for two new<br />
strips this season. The club are desperate for some young<br />
blood to join the rugby team. Anyone looking to play<br />
some social rugby a couple times a year please get in<br />
contact. Early this year saw the first mixed hockey fixture<br />
against Buckhorn Weston organised by Rory Edwards. A<br />
win for the Growers but, more importantly, a great<br />
atmosphere during the match will ensure that this is an<br />
annual fixture.<br />
The Growers have their first golf event at Broome<br />
Manor Golf Club in Swindon in May to look forward to<br />
and a rugby and hockey tour to Prague in September.<br />
Please get involved. All details are on the club website<br />
www.applegrowers.co.uk We welcome new members.<br />
2007 CRICKET<br />
Hampshire Hogs CC WON<br />
2007/<strong>2008</strong> MIXED HOCKEY<br />
Buckhorn Weston HC WON 2-0<br />
2007/<strong>2008</strong> RUGBY<br />
Recent KSB Leavers LOST 20-36<br />
The Hornets (Milton Abbey OB’s) WON 5-17<br />
Rosslyn Park FC 4ths DREW 12-12<br />
North Dorset RFC 2nds WON 21-36<br />
Combe Down RFC 2nds WON 12-28<br />
<strong>2008</strong> CRICKET<br />
The Blues CC 15/06/08<br />
Hampshire Hogs CC 30/08/08<br />
John Tremlett (N36/41) recently found this photograph,<br />
taken on his 620 Brownie camera. The uniforms were WW1<br />
vintage with cap badges of the Dorsetshire Regiment. He<br />
also remembers that, as Drum Major in 1941, during a parade<br />
to raise funds for the war effort, he was trying to show off<br />
and the stick flew out of his hand, landing on the road in<br />
front of him. He wonders whether the stick still exists and, if<br />
so, whether there is still a dent in the head of it!<br />
40 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
<strong>Old</strong> <strong>Brutonian</strong> Girls’ hockey team<br />
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
The Hon. Secretary, in his letter on page 8, has paid personal tributes to Colin Juneman, Jim Roebuck, Paul Davies<br />
and John Bennett, pictured above. They all retire at the end of the Summer Term. We hope that many <strong>Old</strong><br />
<strong>Brutonian</strong>s will join us at the Bruton Dinner Dance in the Memorial Hall on Saturday June 21st to wish all of them<br />
well in their retirement.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 41
NEWS OF OLD BRUTONIANS<br />
AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP<br />
“Ollie and Quentin” is a buddy strip about the unlikely<br />
friendship between a Seagull called Ollie and a Lugworm<br />
called Quentin despite the obvious food chain disparity<br />
that suggests Ollie should be more interested in Quentin as<br />
a snack than as a friend.<br />
The strip follows their adventures as they learn about<br />
each other and treat us to their bird’s eye and worm’s eye<br />
view of our world. Their daily antics often end in disaster<br />
especially for thumb-sized Quentin who has a knack for<br />
being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s been<br />
squashed, stretched, swallowed, chewed, inflated, frozen,<br />
even used as a bar of soap but our plucky little hero takes it<br />
all in his stride, never letting his small size deter him from<br />
having fun with his feathered cohort.<br />
I have wanted to be a strip cartoonist all my life. My<br />
grandfather was a children’s book illustrator and my father is<br />
a very good cartoonist himself. I remember, as a ten year old,<br />
setting myself cartoon examinations to help improve my<br />
own drawing skills. To me, getting paid for drawing funny<br />
pictures every day seemed like the best job in the world.<br />
After five great years at King’s, an exciting year in Egypt on<br />
voluntary service (where I survived a plane crash) and a year at<br />
art school I became a graphic designer producing artwork for<br />
kids lolly wrappers. (You can still see a lot of my work in bins<br />
outside newsagents). But graphic design wasn’t cartooning, so<br />
in 2000 I decided to pursue my real passion and started<br />
promoting myself as a cartoonist. I now illustrate children’s<br />
schoolbooks for clients such as Oxford University Press.<br />
My cartoon strip started life as a feature for the RNLI’s<br />
quarterly kids club magazine about a lifeboat man and a<br />
seagull. It then ran in a handful of weekly regional papers<br />
around the UK and Ireland. After five years of weekly strips I<br />
felt I was ready to approach the big syndicates in the USA<br />
with the new daily strip that you see here about a seagull<br />
and a lugworm. Quentin the Lugworm (named after my<br />
brother) was created as an homage to all the poor lugworms<br />
I used as bait whilst sea fishing in my youth.<br />
The only way to get a cartoon strip into a lot of<br />
newspapers is through one of the big five American<br />
syndicates but, as they receive 6000 submissions a year and<br />
only sign up three or four, I knew the odds were heavily<br />
stacked against me. I sent off my submission of 36 strips in<br />
the summer of 2006 and forgot all about it.<br />
Then on October 16th 2006 (yes, I remember the day) I<br />
received a phone call from King Features Syndicate in New<br />
York saying they were interested in seeing more samples of<br />
“Ollie and Quentin” with a view to offering me a syndication<br />
contract. The most exciting phone call of my career. King<br />
Features is the world’s premier distributor of cartoon strips<br />
and a worldwide leader in merchandising and licensing. If I<br />
had one aim in life it was to be syndicated and if I could<br />
chose one syndicate it would be King Features. I’d done it!<br />
In September 2007 I went to New York to meet the sales<br />
force who would be taking my feature out on the road and in<br />
January this year “Ollie and Quentin” launched in about 30<br />
newspapers across the States. It now appears in newspapers<br />
in South Africa, Canada, the UK and Jamaica with new sales<br />
every month. My aim is to get to 100+ newspapers which<br />
would mean I could give up my other work and do the strip<br />
full time.<br />
You can see more samples of “Ollie and Quentin” at<br />
www.ollieandquentin.com Piers Baker (B76/81)<br />
© Piers Baker. Distributed by King Features Syndicate Inc. World rights reserved.<br />
42 OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>
OBA <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong><br />
THE OLD BRUTONIAN GOLF SOCIETY 2007 SPRING MEETING<br />
Trevose G & C C was once again the<br />
venue for our Spring meeting and we<br />
are indeed very lucky to have the<br />
Gammon family as our hosts since they<br />
give us a wonderful course to play on,<br />
excellent accommodation at extremely<br />
reasonable rates, extra golf for a song,<br />
good dining and a welcome second to<br />
none. Our thanks to Peter, Carolyn, Nick<br />
and Fi Gammon - thank heavens you<br />
and Chris went to a good school, Nick!<br />
The entire duration of our "long week<br />
end" was bathed in sunshine, with very little wind and<br />
temperatures to match (or better) the highest in Europe at the<br />
time. The sensible played in shorts - giving those "parts" their<br />
first "airing" of the year; the rest sweated in long trousers but<br />
a short sleeved shirt was definitely in order<br />
These excellent conditions allowed many of us to have five<br />
days of great golf with some playing two rounds on a number<br />
of days - the ever youthful Colin Juneman being at the<br />
forefront marshalling the troops! The turnout was<br />
reasonable (keeping in mind some of our younger university<br />
participants were busy preparing for their finals) at twenty -<br />
and we were very pleased to welcome Colin Hughes (former<br />
Head Boy and fine rugger player) and Jack Newton (son of<br />
Perran) to their first meeting.<br />
In spite of the good playing conditions one or two of our<br />
members did struggle in the morning singles (mutters of<br />
"terribly hot", "forgot my pith helmet", "not a caddy in sight"<br />
were heard) with Jack Newton and David Whitty (Blackstone)<br />
leading the underperformers ! Not far behind was the ever<br />
generous Will Hazell (back problem caused by the weight of<br />
his wallet), Chris Ledger (claiming age - whenever was that an<br />
excuse), Malcolm Head (much improved<br />
on last year), very surprisingly Colin<br />
Juneman (should he really be head of<br />
golf at KSB - of course he should), the<br />
ever cheerful Perran Newton, School<br />
Governors Peter Phillips and Peter<br />
Squire, industrialist Barny Beddow,<br />
from the fast lane Ian Clothier, hot premeeting<br />
favourite Tresham Graham<br />
and our longest "any direction" hitter<br />
Mark Charania ! But..... in the end..... it<br />
always comes down to<br />
excellence.....with Tony Beadles (much respected former HM)<br />
in 3rd place, Nick Gammon (with home advantage) in 2nd<br />
place and on the winners podium soon to be married (that<br />
will be his game gone) Daniel Graham.<br />
The afternoon fourballs were no more relaxing and with a<br />
point or two to prove (and age long since forgotten) Chris<br />
Ledger and Nick Gammon came home winners on 44 points<br />
with not so close runners up Barny Beddow and Daniel<br />
Graham in second on 39 points. The rest of the field returned<br />
respectable scores, although the pairing of two Long Sutton<br />
members did disappoint!<br />
Now, no one would ever have been able to recall the results<br />
without the enormous help and professionalism of Martin<br />
Hamblin who, with great input from his wife Sheila, checks<br />
and marks the cards, announcing the results quicker than<br />
Harry Witherby is contracted to at the London Olympics<br />
(Harry has the contract to list all the results within 30 seconds<br />
of their announcement.)<br />
So, a big thank you to Martin and Sheila, on behalf of all of<br />
us, for keeping us in check and giving, so willingly, a great deal<br />
of your time.<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 43
EDITOR: SALLY SNOOK. COVER PICTURES: KIRSTEN COOKE<br />
© DESIGN & ARTWORK: GRAPHIC EXAMPLES, SHERBORNE.<br />
The committee of the <strong>Association</strong><br />
THE COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATION 2007<br />
PRESIDENT<br />
Richard Sullivan (N58/62)<br />
VICE-PRESIDENT<br />
John Longman (P57/61)<br />
HONORARY SECRETARY<br />
David Hindley (Staff 63/00)<br />
HONORARY TREASURER<br />
James Spinney (L97/99)<br />
Hannah Carew-Gibbs (W96/98),<br />
Adam Nunn (B91/96), Lizzie Sedgman (W97/99),<br />
Mary Stonham-Ask(79/81), James Wills (B64/68)<br />
Kirsten Cooke (69/71), Phoebe Glenday (P99/04)<br />
By invitation:<br />
Harry Witherby (B63/67), John-Kai Fleming (B88/93),<br />
Kate Sedgman (W95/97), Sally Snook (72/73)<br />
OLD BRUTONIAN ASSOCIATION <strong>NEWSLETTER</strong> <strong>2008</strong>