oa bulletin - autumn 2009 edition

Old Albanian Club

December2009

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DIARY DATESAnnual General Meeting – Tuesday 8th December 2009

School Carol Service – Tuesday 15th December 2009OA Dinner at Woollams – Friday 19th March 2010

Frank Kilvington 1924-2009 Obituary on Page 24

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OA BULLETIN DECEMBER 2009

Nick Chappin – EditorAndy Chappin – Design & ProductionRoger Cook – MembershipMike Highstead – Gazette

Printing - Herts & Beds Printing01923 234959

OA CLUB www.oldalbanianclub.com

President Stephen Burgess01727 867868

[email protected] David Buxton

01727 [email protected]

Treasurer Brian Sullman01582 460317

Membership Secretary Roger Cook01727 836877

[email protected] SPORTS www.oasport.comRUGBYPresident Adrian Tominey


Chairman Rory Davis01727 843538

[email protected] Bryan Short


Secretary Peter Lipscomb01727 760466

[email protected] Chairman Brian Clark


Junior Chairman Chris Branagan07810 180013

[email protected] Saints Chairwoman Tasha Saint-Smith


FOOTBALL www.oasoccer.co.ukClub President & Manager Simon Bates

07720 383600 / 01442 240247Treasurer & Club Secretary David Hughes

07890 831315 / 01727 [email protected]

Sponsorship Secretary David Burrows07841 431614

CRICKET www.oacc.org.ukPresident Aln PhilpottChairman Andrew McCree

07890 831315 / 01727 [email protected]

Treasurer Denis [email protected]

Fixture Secretary Julian [email protected]

TENNISMembership Enquiries Sue Barnes


Coaching Enquiries Diana Wilkinson07767 237474

[email protected] & Pistol Andrew Wilkie

01727 856857Angling Geoff Cannon

01582 792512Golf Peter Dredge


OA LODGEJohn Williams 01438 715679

[email protected]

SCHOOL WEB SITEwww.st-albans.herts.sch.uk

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Editorial

Frank incensedAs many of you will already beaware, former headmaster FrankKilvington passed away in Octoberfollowing a long illness, and may Ibegin by expressing my condolencesto his family on behalf of all OABulletin readers. An obituary byFrank’s former colleague and currentschool archivist Mike Highsteadappears on page 24.

Frank Kilvington joined us in 1964from Westminster School. Thelegendary WT Marsh wasa tough act to follow, butas Bob Dylan wassinging in that year, “thetimes they are a-changin’” – and StAlbans School had tochange with them. Asthe monochromatic post-war austerity of the 1950sgave way to the colourfuland vibrant 1960s, thenew Head took the morerelaxed attitudes todress, hairstyles andbehaviour in hisconsiderable stride. Ijoined the school in 1968 and one ofmy abiding memories of MrKilvington is his dramatic entry toassemblies in the New School Hall onTuesdays and Thursdays: a crash ofthe door, a single long-legged boundup the steps to the stage in a mannerreminiscent of John Cleese, and abrisk nod to the pianist to strike upthe first hymn.

Apart from the occasional Latinlesson, I’m pleased to say that I had

very little personal contact with theHeadmaster; in those days hisconsiderable presence loomed largeonly in disciplinary matters.However, during one particularlychaotic fourth form chemistry lessonwith Frank Carter I was close enoughto catch the draught from a sweepingforehand to the back of DickParrack’s head. Thankfully, I wasn’tpresent to witness the subsequentseries of sweeping cane lashesadministered to Dick’s posterior. Idon’t recall the exact content of the

lesson – with FrankCarter it could have beenanything frommanufacturing dynamiteto creating arudimentary atomicbomb – but I do knowthat it featured smallchunks of metal which,as one or two classmateshad discovered, made asatisfying clatter on theglass cucumber frames inthe Bishop’s garden nextdoor when lobbed fromthe upstairs window ofthe chemistry lab.

In an entrance even more dramaticthan a morning assembly, the door tothe lab suddenly crashed open andthe Headmaster’s booming voiceenquired rather forcibly as to whowas responsible for upsetting theBishop’s gardener (who apparentlyhad been under the glass frames atthe time). None of the culprits ownedup, and Dick (who I believe wasinnocent) took one for the team. Ashe put up a hesitant hand, the

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A crash of the

door, a single long-

legged bound up

the steps to the

stage in a manner

reminiscent of

John Cleese

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rapidly advancing Mr Kilvingtondelivered a powerful, whippingforehand passing shot to the back ofDick’s head (with just a hint oftopspin) before ushering him for anappointment with the cane. Not veryPC by today’s standards, perhaps, butan effective deterrent nonetheless:there was a sudden waft of methanein the room that I’m sure didn’toriginate in any test tube.

So apart from this near miss and abrief handshake when receiving afirst year art prize, our paths didn’treally cross on a day-to-day basis. Ofcourse, although we didn’t appreciateit at the time, Frank Kilvington’stime was devoted to meeting thechallenges of a rapidly changingpolitical, social and educationalenvironment, and the strength of theSchool today is a lasting memorial to

his superb efforts.Fittingly, in this issue the current

Headmaster Andrew Grant reportson another outstandingly successfulyear for the School, and OAPresident Stephen Burgess bidsfarewell after a rewarding term ofoffice. Like the School in the 1960s,the Old Albanian Club is facing freshchallenges in remaining relevant tosuccessive generations of leavers,and great strides have been made intandem with the SchoolDevelopment Office in opening upnew channels of communicationwith former pupils. Because, in theimmortal words of Bob Dylan: “youbetter start swimmin’ or you’ll sinklike a stone, for the times they are a-changin’.”

Nick Chappin (75)Editor

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Notes for buddingauthorsSubject matterAbsolutely anything you think would be ofinterest to fellow OAs, from anecdotes andrecollections of your schooldays to the eventsand experiences over the intervening years. Yourcontribution can be in any form, from a letter orarticle to a snippet of news or a simple photocaption, and can be submitted electronically viae-mail or in hard copy format by post to theaddress below.

LengthThere is no limit to length, but as a guide a pagein the Bulletin is around 450 words. Please note

that we reserve the right to edit the text asappropriate.

PhotosPhotographs on any subject are always welcome.They can be submitted either digitally (preferablyin JPG format) or in hard copy format to theaddress below. Once scanned, the originals will bereturned to the sender. Both colour and black andwhite photos are acceptable, as the Bulletin isprinted in mono but appears online in full colour.

AddressPlease send your contributions to:Nick Chappin, EditorPost: 18 The Pleasance, Harpenden, Herts AL5 3NAEmail: [email protected]

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President’s Notes

Making great progress■ Stephen Burgess delivers his last notes asPresident of the Old Albanian Club, andlooks back on a rewarding term of office

A reviewIt is nearly three years since I becamePresident of your club. It has been arewarding period, as I think we have madegreat progress in improving communicationwithin the club and I believe we arecontinuing to make progress with furtherdevelopments.

The improved communication is reflected,in my view, with much improvedattendance at club events, most notably atthe Dinner and the London Drinks Partyheld at the East India Club inNovember. The latter event hadattracted a small but loyalattendance of 40-50 but now hasexpanded to over 120 people andthe early indication is for anexcellent attendance for thisyear’s gathering. The age groupis wide from 18 to over 80 andthe gathering is a very livelyone with many people going onfor supper afterwards. All I cansay is keep coming – the EastIndia Club can cope with over200. The dinner has some wayto go and we are looking at keepingspeeches shorter. Over 130 attended inMarch. The capacity at Woollams is around140. Let us challenge this capacity. We mayhave to consider another dinner, some havesuggested in London.

Our Committee is gratified by such anupturn but with much better records andthe professionalism provided by Kate LeSueur at the Development Office we feel we

can do more. We have decided to appointregional and overseas representatives witha view to keeping OAs in touch with other

former pupils at local level. Wehope this may lead to localdinners and social occasions.At present we have had ninevolunteers to act as localrepresentatives includingFrance, Canada, USA, Ireland,Scotland and New Zealand!

One of my concerns has beento get new blood on to thecommittee. Many of thecommittee have been connectedwith the sports clubs and havestayed in touch with OAmatters through these

connections. All the sports clubs are ineffect open clubs. If they had not gone openthey may have ceased to exist. This hashappened with other former pupilassociations. As it is we have thrivingsports clubs providing great sport for StAlbans and the area as well as for OAs. Iam proud of this, but as such the clubs areall independent. The OA Club should notdivorce itself from the sports clubs.

All the sports

clubs are in effect

open clubs. If they

had not gone open

they may have

ceased to exist

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Woollams is a very valuable asset as wasBeech Bottom before its sale.

However, I and your committee havetaken the view that we must put moreemphasis on those OAs outside the sports

clubs in the future. We welcome furtherideas for events from you.

My thanksI am nearing the end of my stint as

The whole HOG: your President astride a Harley-Davidson

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President and would like through thesenotes to thank the committee for their workover the last three years. I particularlythank Dave Buxton, the HonorarySecretary; Brian Sullman, your excellentand long-serving treasurer; Roger Cook,who was able to hand over the core of theOA records to the School; Phil Talbot, therepresentative from the school whoprovided such thoughtful advice; and KateLe Sueur, who has become such animportant link in the Development Officeand on your committee.

Some thoughts on givingThe picture accompanyingthese notes was taken inCalifornia, where I took myfamily for a holiday recentlyand where my son-in-law hireda Harley Davidson with abigger engine capacity than mycar! We rented a house near thelocal high school in LagunaBeach. Now Laguna Beach is alovely and very well-off town,but all the local schools arepublic and there are no privateschools nearby. The school isexcellent; the pupils seemed very wellmannered and there was a strong localidentity. I watched a school football game, afriendly, where there seemed to be close to athousand spectators in the two stands. Theschool’s facilities included tennis,swimming, an all-weather running trackand a theatre, and were all available for useby residents of the town. I am aware that inInglewood or Watts some 30 miles awaythings would be different.

I personally like schools to have a stronglocal identity and an open approach –sometimes difficult in this country. I know

that St Albans School works very hard tokeep strong local rolls and connections withthe community. Why do I mention this?Well, the development office was set up toraise money for the school in the future andto improve connections with those whoattended the school in the past and who willleave in future years. In the past when theschool has raised money for new buildingsthe OAs have provided a high proportion ofsums raised and they will be very importantin the future. Your old school has tocompete with other fine schools such asHaberdashers and Merchant Taylors and

has to provide excellentfacilities such as those enjoyedby local state schools, two ofwhich, Beaumont and Verulam,have excellent new sports halls.As you may know, the schoolalso plans to build a new sportshall as well as improvingdrama facilities. It also hopes toprovide more bursaries andscholarships and may berequired to do so as a result ofthe most recent Charities Act.A number of OAs have recentlymade donations to the school

and I hope that in the future, wheneconomic circumstances improve and adevelopment campaign is launched, thatyou will be able to give generously to yourold school and I would like to think that ingiving we shall be able to reinforce the localidentity of St Albans School.

As President I have been able to meetmany OAs, sixth formers and recentgraduates from the school. It has beenenjoyable and enlightening and I wish youall the best for the future.

Stephen Burgess President, Old Albanian Club

As you may know,

the school also

plans to build a

new sports hall as

well as improving

drama facilities

‘An outstandingeducational experience’■ An outstanding inspection report, record Alevel and GCSE results, superb sportingachievement and the largest School Roll ever:Headmaster Andrew Grant reports onanother highly successful year

A week or so before the Alevel results came out, wereceived the final reportfollowing the Inspectioncarried out in

May by a team from theIndependent SchoolsInspectorate, which is to theindependent sector whatOfSTED is to the state sectorand reports on standards to theDepartment for ChildrenSchools and Families.

I am delighted to say that theoverarching headline finding isthat: “The school provides anoutstanding educationalexperience which is successfulin promoting pupils’ linguistic,mathematical, scientific, human, social andphysical development.”

Furthermore, within that overall contextof an outstanding education, a number ofindividual aspects of School life were alsofound to be outstanding in themselves. TheSpiritual, Moral, Social and CulturalDevelopment of Pupils, the Pastoral Care,Welfare, Health and Safety of Pupils and theQuality of Links with Parents and theCommunity all received this accolade.

There were only two recommendations,neither of which one can really quarrelwith, largely because they amount to a

counsel of perfection and are things towardswhich we are already striving in any case.They are firstly, that we should achievegreater consistency across and withindepartments, especially with regard tomarking, and secondly that we shouldensure that all staff challenge the most ablepupils in lessons.

The first of these is a fair cop and wouldbe so in any school I have ever inspected,but it is true to say that most schools,including this one, can always improve inthis regard. As far as the second isconcerned, it needs to be born in mind that

the lesson observation onwhich the inspectors basedtheir judgement took place at atime when perforce, every classwas within a week or so ofexaminations. The majority oflessons were therefore heavilygeared towards revision andreinforcement of what wasalready known – or shouldhave been. I would have beenquite worried if our ablestpupils were finding things toochallenging at that stage and Ihave a suspicion that the

inspectors might have received a differentimpression at a different time of the year.

So we won’t cavil at being advised to dowhat we’re already determined to do but,without complacency, will not be unhappyto be judged on our examination results.This year’s have been available on the website for some time.

It’s not unusual, apparently, for theexperience of an inspection to take aschool’s collective eye off the ball and forexamination results to suffer in aninspection year. That has manifestly nothappened. Our A level results, with over

In the Fourth Form,

all fifteen of the

fast-tracked pupils

entered early for

GCSE French

achieved an A*

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Headmaster’s Notes

91% A and B grades and over 64% at A,were a record in all measures and that 57students, or 45% of the year group, achievedGrade A in three or more subjects, was littleshort of extraordinary. A number of peoplesurpassed all expectations, and Icongratulate all our students very warmlyon their exceptional achievements, which,according to The Times, were in the topdozen for co-educational sixth forms in thewhole country.

If you have had the slightest exposure tonewspapers, radio or television thissummer, you cannot but be aware of howintense the competition for universityplaces has become and how important it isto achieve those top grades so it is pleasingto report that the overwhelming majority ofour own candidates made their firm offersand will be going to the university of theirchoice.

The GCSE results were, if anything, evenmore pleasing, with a record 87.7% of A*/A

grades. A* grades accounted for over 51% ofall results, marking an improvement,worthy of Usain Bolt, of around 7% on lastyear’s figures, which already put us amongthe top schools in the country. 59 boys –well over half the year group – achieved A*or A grades in every one of their exams and16 boys achieved more than 10 A* grades.Among this latter group, 4 pupils gained 11A*s and nothing lower.

In the Fourth Form, all fifteen of the fast-tracked pupils entered early for GCSEFrench achieved an A* while of the gradesin Mathematics, taken by the entire yeargroup, a record 59% were at A* and acumulative 90% at A grade, only marginallydown on their immediate predecessors.

Mastering, with an heroic effort, my well-known contempt for league tables, I notethat, in August, in addition to The Times asmentioned above, all other newspapersranked us in the top 50 at A level. At GCSE,The Independent, using points scores, ranks

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us 7th in the country; using the percentageof A*/A grades, The Times puts us 7thamong boys schools and The Telegraph hadus in 22nd place overall.

The net result of all this is that theSchool Roll has reached a record 780, which,at least in our case, gives the lie to thestories much cherished by certain sectionsof the press this year about the recessioncausing meltdown in the independentsector.

The holiday has been busy in otherrespects, too.

Whilst England was wresting back theAshes, our own cricketers couldlook back on a triumphantcricket season, which saw aclean sweep at all age levels inthe District Cup competitionswith wins for U12, U13, U14 andU15 teams and the County Cupin addition for the U13s. Therewas a highly successful U14Dorset tour and an overall 77%win rate for the School.

The First XI finished anexcellent season winning 82%of their games, topping theSchoolsSport Web Site league(as did the U12s) and retaining the BedfordModern Twenty/20 tournament duringwhich Chris Dobson set a new school recordfor the fastest ever 50 against Highgate offjust 18 balls and being declared batsman ofthe tournament.

In tennis, we enjoyed success in theCounty Schools Championships with ourfirst pair of Jamie Dillon and Ben Careywinning the U18 Men’s for St Albans Schoolfor the third consecutive year.

Our U14’s squad of Harry Hamer, AlexTerry, Toby Sweeney and Nial Parkashplayed an all St Albans School final, in the

same tournament, with Harry and Alexwinning the U14’s trophy for the secondtime for St Albans, whilst our Ladies teamof Amy Scott and Bethan Griffith made it tothe semi final of the competition and HelenBlacket and Sophie Hyde made it through tothe final of the plate.

Not to be outdone, the U15 athletics teamwon their half of the County league and theDistrict Championships. In the CountyLeague, the U13 team finished second by avery small margin and when all the boys’year groups’ points were added up wefinished third overall.

The rugby squads then putsummer pastimes behind themand, having seen off an OAchallenge by the tourists of2005, whose superiority inweight and strength was offsetby an inferiority in pace andmobility, they set off on tour toNew Zealand, Fiji and the CookIslands returning in undefeatedtriumph with seven wins and adraw from their eight matches.This clearly stood them in goodstead in our season-opening StAlbans School/Saracens

Tournament at Woollams, in which wefought our way through to the final, beatingthe mighty Tonbridge on the way, only tolose narrowly to an excellent Bedford side.However, with so many experienced FirstXV players moving on from the UpperSixth, the 2009 season may prove somethingof a transition year.

The pre-season cross country camp at PenArthur was the largest we have ever takenwith 36 runners, including OA stars of thepast, braving the traditional late AugustWelsh weather. Despite that, the week wasa great success with our runners gaining

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The pre-season

cross country camp

at Pen Arthur was

the largest we have

ever taken with

36 runners

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valuable fitness ahead of their first races.The CCF had a very busy summer: nine

Sixth Formers spent the first part of theirsummer holiday on the Cadet LeadershipCourse, one of the Frimley Park NationalCadet Training Centre’s most prestigiousevents. Our cadets impressed their mentors,with Gareth Gibson named best cadet of hiscourse. At the summer camp at Wathgill inYorkshire, activities were constrained bythe weather, but Under Officer MatthewGledhill nevertheless led his troops to aconvincing victory in the Drill competition,

taking the Shield ahead of 36 othercontingents at the camp. The cadets also didwell on the assault course, finishing third,and the orienteering, where they finishedsecond earning congratulations from theCamp Commandant. Following this success,eighteen cadets went off to Tulloch, nearFort William in Scotland, for the annualAdventure Training Expedition. Highlightsincluded climbing Ben Nevis, ice climbingand white water rafting. The boys alsovisited the Lochaber Highland Games,where Robert Lilley was crowned LochaberU18 haggis throwing champion.

The RAF section were guests of RAFLeeming along with several other schoolRAF sections and enjoyed a week of variedactivities as part of the RAF station.Leeming is home to the navigation schoolfor fast jet pilots with a large number ofHawk trainers based there, as well as amountain rescue team and a cloak anddagger “signals unit”. The cadets were ableto glide in the Vigilant, fly in the Tutor andshoot on the range, as well as hone theirleadership skills in various command taskexercises.

Two Duke of Edinburgh’s expeditiongroups (comprising 12 students) successfullycompleted their qualifying venture in thePyrenees on a demanding route, a new areaof exploration for St Albans School, sharedin part by a mountain stage of the Tour deFrance.

The group expected tough climbing andspectacular scenery but perhaps not snowin mid-July. All these students should, indue course, complete the remaining sectionsof the Award and receive their certificate atSt James’s Palace.

Phil Talbot has retired after 28 years atthe School, and an immensely distinguishedcareer as Head of Sixth Form, a role which


Three Happy Warriors: the CCF from an earlier age.Pictured from left to right, P. J Riley, M Groome andJ Hancock (all OA 1946 vintage)

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morphed into that of Senior Tutor. Duringhis 22 years in the post, he took the wholeprocess of university applications and SixthForm guidance to new levels of expertiseenvied by other schools and I calculate thatthere must be upwards of 3,000 Sixth Formleavers who have cause to begrateful for his advice andguidance to see them on to thenext stage of their careers. Itwas good to see so many OAscome along to raise a glass ofPimm’s with him at Woollamson Founders’ Day.

Finally, one of the mostsignificant retirements was thatof Chairman of Governors IanJennings, after 17 years as aGovernor; eight of them asChairman. Under hisstewardship of the GoverningBody the School has gone fromstrength to strength and it is anappropriate tribute that his Chairmanshipshould come to a close in the year of suchan outstanding inspection report and recordexamination grades. His extraordinarilygenerous parting gift to the School of itsfirst Music Technology Studio will benefit

many pupils directly in the years to come,even as all continue to benefit in lessobvious ways from his hard work and longservice to the School on the GoverningBoard.

The new Chairman, Stephen Eames, alsoan OA, will be well known tomany of you and has justperformed his first publicfunction in his new role, atPrize Giving, where the Guestof Honour was OA CharlesCrawford CMG; formerly HerMajesty’s Ambassador toSarajevo, Belgrade and finallyWarsaw.

As I write, we are welcomingNick Barnes’s 1966contemporaries to a reunion atthe School and I am delightedthat these reunions are now anannual autumn tradition.

I look forward to seeingmany of you over the course of the term, atthe London Drinks Party at the East IndiaClub; on Remembrance Day or at the CarolService, if not before.

Andrew GrantHeadmaster

One of the most

significant

retirements was

that of Chairman of

Governors Ian

Jennings, after 17

years as a Governor

Grand Charity■ OA Lodge Assistant Secretary JohnWilliams reports on a year of changefor the OA Lodge, and a magnificentcontribution of nearly £52,000 to theHertfordshire 2009 Festival in supportof the Grand Charity

The Lodge year commenced at theInstallation meeting in May when thenew Master of the Lodge, MartinStraus, was installed in the Chair bythe outgoing Master, RogerShrimplin. Martin, who is a joiningmember of the Lodge, was elected toserve as Master in 2010 because ourSenior Warden Chris Whiteside verysensibly decided to step aside - forthe moment at least. Chris isstanding for Parliament as theConservative candidate in theCopeland constituency in WestCumbria where he now resides.Martin is very much involved withthe wine trade and the Lodge islooking forward to some fine winesduring his year in the chair!Following his installation, the newMaster appointed the Lodge Officersfor the ensuing year. The OA Lodgeis one of the strongest inHertfordshire and this year therewere some significant changes. AlanSmith was appointed Secretary, withJohn Williams stepping down aftereight years to become AssistantSecretary. Dick Knifton relinquishedthe role of Charity Steward to DonCarnell and was appointed Directorof Ceremonies. Nigel WoodSmith wasappointed Almoner following manyyears of unstinting service by

Richard Wedgbury. And also aftereight years, Jo Giffen stepped downfrom his role as Director ofCeremonies to become Assistant DC.

During the Lodge Installationmeeting a cheque for £7,700 waspresented to the Assistant ProvincialGrand Master, Brian Tierney, byCharity Steward Don Carnell, takingthe Lodge’s overall contribution inaid of the 2009 Festival in support ofthe Grand Charity to a magnificent£51,229, almost – but not quite - thelargest donation from anyHertfordshire Lodge. The Lodge waswell represented at the FestivalBanquet, held in London in June andattended by over 500 – includingPresident of the Grand Charity,Grahame Elliott and the Pro GrandMaster, Peter Lowndes – where itwas announced that despite thefinancial crisis at the end of our sixyear effort, Hertfordshire had raiseda total of £3,300,000 for the GrandCharity.

As it was announced thatHertfordshire’s 2009 Festival hadraised £3.3 million, the charityrevealed that several non-Masoniccharities across England and Waleswill benefit from generous grantstotalling almost £2 million. Thegrants have been awarded toworthwhile causes in the areas ofmedical research, youthopportunities and vulnerable peopleand include £500,000 for adult andchildren’s hospice services and£192,000 for the air ambulanceservices. Complementing fundsraised by masons in their local areas,the Grand Charity has been making

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TEregular donations to hospices since1984. During this time over £7.5million has been donated across thenation. These grants will helphospices including those inHertfordshire - in Berkhamsted,Watford, St Albans, Welwyn GardenCity, Letchworth and Barnet - tocontinue providing free physical,emotional, social and spiritual care topatients and their families.

The largest individual grant of£250,000 was awarded for research atMoorfields Eye Hospital into ocularscarring, which can cause blindness.It will fund the Freemasons’ GrandCharity Senior Research Scientistand Senior Research Technician.Other charities supported include:Barnardo’s which is set to receive£45,000 for a vocational skillsinstructor who will help supportyoung people with learning andbehavioural difficulties during theirtraining; The Alzheimer’s Society’sCarers’ Programme - which deliverstraining to the thousands of familymembers who are the principal carerfor a loved one with dementia - wasawarded £50,000; and Lifelites willreceive £150,000 towards its workproviding IT equipment for educationand entertainment to children’shospices across the country.

Aided and abetted by his fatherand fellow Lodge member GeorgeGiffen, this year our former Directorof Ceremonies Jo Giffen has takensome time out to raise money forcharity to celebrate the centenary ofhis family firm – the specialistelectrical installation, maintenanceand engineering company with a

history dating back to 1909 –www.giffengroup.co.uk/. To mark thiscentenary, Company Chairman Jodecided to take part in the FastnetYacht race in aid of the CancerTreatment and Research Trust(CTRT) Appeal, based at MountVernon Hospital. After 10 months’

Cowes: Ready for the off!

Rounding Gurnard Point

Jo Giffen - on the home straight!

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training and preparation: CompetentCrew; Day Skipper Theory; DaySkipper Practical; Race-trainingweekend; 2-day ISAF sea-survivalcourse; 3 Qualifying Races – TheMyth of Malham; Cowes-Dinard-StMalo and the RORC Channel Race,finally the day came for the start ofthe Rolex Fastnet Race.

To date Jo has raised amagnificent £20,041.00 for the CTRTAppeal. Jo Giffen’s Fundraising Pagewill be open for further donationsuntil August 2010:www.justgiving.com/jogiffenfastnet

At the September meeting of theLodge, the brethren stood in silenttribute to the memory of twodistinguished Past Masters of theLodge. Stuart Alexander Ogilvie (OA1928) died on July, aged 97 years andRaymond Hughes, MBE (OA 1931)died on 14th August, aged 95 years.

Stuart, who during his professionallife was a Consulting MechanicalEngineer, was initiated into theLodge in September 1946 andinstalled as Master in 1960. In 1967 hereceived his first appointment inHertfordshire as Provincial GrandPursuivant and subsequentlyreceived a number of promotions, thelast being in 1995. He was electedTreasurer of the Lodge in 1972 andserved with distinction until 1982.Throughout his life Stuart waspassionately fond of cricket andgardening.

Ray Hughes was born in Hornseyin 1914. After his father wasdemobbed from the Navy, the familymoved to Woodstock Road, St Albanswhere his grandparents kept a shop

at No 1 Approach Road, off LondonRoad. He attended Hatfield RoadSchool from which he – and most ofhis class – gained scholarships to StAlbans School. His best friend wasTerry Newell (father of Mike Newellof ‘Four Weddings and a Funeralfame’). Ray became a choirboy in theAbbey and learnt to play the organ,becoming ‘unofficial’ organist in theAbbey for a period after his teacher,the then Organist died suddenly.After finishing school Ray went intoinsurance in the City for 10 years,specialising in fire damage. On theoutbreak of war he dearly wanted –and applied – to join the RAF, butwith his experience he was drafted tojoin the Fire Service - in which heremained following the end ofhostilities, eventually rising tobecome the Deputy Chief Fire Officerfor the County of Hertfordshire,receiving the MBE on his retirement.Ray was initiated into the Lodge inApril 1953 and first appointed LodgeOrganist two years later in May 1955.Having subsequently passed throughthe usual offices he was installed asMaster by his predecessor IvanHopkins, in 1966. In 1968 he wasagain appointed Lodge Organist, anoffice he held with distinction untilthe mid-1990s. In 1973 he received hisfirst provincial appointment inHertfordshire as Provincial GrandOrganist and subsequently received anumber of promotions, the last beingin 1996. Over the years Ray hasplayed the organ not only for the OldAlbanian Lodge, but for many otherLodges, and has also been theorganist for St John’s Church in

Harpenden, St Francis in WelwynGarden City and latterly All Saints,Datchworth.

Ray was always proud that whenat School and as a member of theOTC he had been privileged to takepart in the feu-de-Joie,the salute fired tocelebrate the laying ofthe Keystone of the new1st Form block inSeptember, 1928. Thelaying of the Keystoneof the EntranceArchway of the NewBuildings took place,with full Masonic honours, onMonday, September 24th 1928, theceremony being performed by MrCharles Keyser, MA, JP, FSA,Provincial Grand Master. Althoughthe laying of foundation stones,including a previous one at theSchool, had frequently been made theoccasion of Masonic ceremonial, thiswas the first time that a Keystone-laying ceremony had been accordedthat honour. The close of theceremony was signified by the firingof a feu-de-joie by the OTC, and thesinging of the National Anthem. Fulldetails of the Key Stone ceremonycan be found in history section of theLodge website at: www.oa-lodge.co.uk

In September Romeland Lodgehosted the International Gathering ofLodges named for St Alban. This, asit name suggests, is an Internationalevent in September or October ofeach year at various locationsthroughout the world. Each year anymoney raised at the ‘Gathering’ isforwarded to St Albans Abbey to

assist in the restoration work beingcarried out. A number of Lodgesbased in St Albans are affiliatedincluding: St Albans Lodge; The OldAlbanian; the Old Verulamians;Verulam; Romeland; and Halsey. St

Albans Lodge hostedthe ‘Gathering’ about 10years ago at The RoyalMasonic Girls School inRickmansworth, so thisyear Romland Lodgetook on the task oforganising the event.The guests stayed in StAlbans and a

programme of events was organisedcovering the whole weekend. Therewas a Masonic Meeting at AshwellHouse on Saturday 5thSeptemberwhich was attended by the DeputyProvincial Grand Master forHertfordshire, Alan Atkinson. Whilethe men were at the meeting theladies were taken by coach toWaddesdon Manor where theyenjoyed a tour of the house andgardens and a buffet lunch.

On the Saturday evening abanquet was held at the hotel and onSunday morning over 50 masons andtheir wives attended a service at theAbbey attended by the Sub Dean, the

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Ray Hughes at the organ

The magnificent Waddesdon Manor nearAylesbury

Rev Canon Stephen Lake. Thephotograph shows the presentation ofa cheque for £800 from the Chairmanof the International ‘Gathering’ JohnClyburn from New Jersey USA – andRussell Combs from PhiladelphiaUSA handing over aframed picture of StAlban to Canon Lake.The InternationalGathering of LodgesNamed for St Albanswebsite can be found at:www.stalbanslodges.org

The Lodge meetsonly five times a yearon the secondSaturdays in January, March, Mayand September and the first Saturdayin November. All those connected

with the School, including fathers ofpast or present pupils are welcome toapply for membership, for whichpurpose the first approach should beto any Lodge member, the AssistantSecretary as below; or Nigel

WoodSmith, Alan Smithor Mark Pedroz at theSchool. Members ofother Lodges, be theyOAs, parents of past orpresent pupils, staff orGovernors areencouraged to visit theLodge whenever theywish, and the AssistantSecretary will be

delighted to hear from them. TheLodge website address is:www.oa-lodge.co.uk

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The presentation atthe Abbey

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Welcome back■ School Development Manager KateLe Sueur reports on a busy summer ofreunions, and highlights some of themain social events coming up over thenext few months.

It has been a pleasure, as always, towelcome so many OAs back to theSchool and the OA Club at our recentevents.

Two sunny days in July sawleavers from the 1950s gather fortheir Founders’ Day ‘Gaudy’,preceded by a drinks party on theprevious evening at Woollams, kindlyhosted by the OA Club. We welcomed

87 OAs in total, many of whomhadn’t visited the School since theday they left. Similarly, 39 OAs fromthe year group who started in 1959gathered for a two-day reunion on17th-18th September which marked 50years to the day since their first dayat School.

Other events included the Serviceof Remembrance and a book launchreception for the recently publishedbook St Albans School at War 1939-1945 on Friday 6th November, towhich ‘wartime’ OAs travelled fromacross the country and overseas. Wehope that he London Drinks Party atthe East India Club will build on lastyear’s record numbers, and have

Development Officer’s Notes

The Class of 1966 at recent Jubilee Reunion – 50 years to the day since their first day atSchool, 17th September 1959

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booked the large ‘Smoking Room’ atthe club in anticipation. If youhaven’t received your invitation tothis, please let me know.

For years we have had todisappoint many OAs who haveasked for tickets for the School CarolService, as the Abbey fills up tocapacity with boys and parents. Toremedy this, we are holding a secondSchool Carol Service this year, with alarge seating allocation for OAs. Thiswill be an evening service, bycandlelight, with carols sung by theSchool Choir, and will be followed bymince pies and mulled wine in theSchool Hall. This will be held onTuesday 15th December at 7.30pm,and I do hope that many of you willbe able to join us for this specialevent. Tickets will soon be availablefrom the Development Office.

And finally…. thank you to thoseOAs who have already become

supporters of the St Albans SchoolFoundation – we have beenextremely heartened by the interestand generosity shown by OldAlbanians since it was launchedearlier this year. The Foundation hasbeen established to renew thetradition of benefaction to the School,with the aim of allowing the mosttalented and deserving young peopleto benefit from a St Albans Schooleducation, regardless of theirparents’ ability to pay the fees.

If you would like furtherinformation on any of the eventsmentioned above, or about the StAlbans School Foundation, pleasedon’t hesitate to contact me.

Kate Le SueurSchool Development Manager

Tel: 01727 814 391

Annual GeneralMeeting■ David Buxton, Secretary of theOld Albanian Club, wishes to invitesmembers to the 117th AGM of theOld Albanian Club, to be held in the‘948’ room at Woollams on the 8thDecember starting at 20:00

This is ‘your’ club and is not just asporting club. There is much effortgoing on in how we run the cluband how we can provide benefits toall the membership. So we inviteall members to attend and indeed

welcome those who would like tojoin the Committee and share somein of the duties, some of whichwere outlines in the circular by thePresident, Steven Burgess.

Agenda ApologiesMinutes of the previous meetingPresidents Review of 2009DevelopmentsSports Clubs reportsBulletin and Website reportAnnual AccountsElection of OfficersA.O.B.

[email protected]

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Index-linked■ Missed a Bulletin article?Membership Secretary Roger Cookinvites readers to consult the indexhe’s compiled of the letters, articlesand death notices that have appearedin the Bulletin over the last five years– see page 45

OA historyAs I reported in the last issue, theOA history is being updated toinclude Nigel Cartwright’s history ofthe rugby club. By the time you readthis, it should be on the web site.

Waifs & straysA list of Waifs and Strays from 1995onwards can be found on facing page.

Bulletin contentsI have produced a contents list of thelast five years’ issues of the OABulletin. It includes only letters andarticles contributed by OAs andreports of deaths. It can be found atthe back of this Bulletin.

OA tiesI still have a stock of OA ties (silk @£12.50 bow-tie @ £15, post free).

Roger CookMembership Secretary

1 Pondwicks

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Telephone:

01727 836877

Cooking Pastry Strips: Ian McMillin, James Swinstead, Robert Garnier and David Page makingpastry strips to cook on an open fire. Probably c. 1943 or 1944

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1995 P. Baroni1995 Jamie O. Chalmers1995 Sean E. Hancock1995 Nicholas J. H. Harding1995 Bradley A. Hart1995 Daniel L. Jerrard1995 Norman Johnston1995 Thomas A. Perchard1995 M. J. Rinberg1995 Andrew J. Robinson1995 Stephen P. Robinson1995 Alastair D Shipp1995 Alistair Walter1996 Edward J. O. M. Almeida1996 Scot L. Baker1996 Harriet Bradley1996 David J. H. Carden1996 Daniel J. Carroll1996 Sarah E. Catton1996 Andrew S. P. Charlwood1996 Daniel J. Davies1996 Natalia Edwards1996 Robert F. Fleck1996 Wesley J. Fogel1996 Adam D. Leveson1996 Tony J. McBride1996 Adam P. J. McCann1996 Adam M. Osper1996 Samuel L. Potter1996 Jalal U. S. Saad1996 Matthew J. Timmis1996 Matthew B. N. Trudgill1996 Ben B. White1997 Andrew Davis1997 Hiren M. Davis1997 Stuart Day1997 Christopher J. Harnetty1997 Gavin Khalin1997 Dean C. Morgan1997 Tony Morris1997 Dean M. Smith1997 Alex Wood1997 Christopher J. Wright1998 Iain J. Buchanan1998 Sean N. Carroll1998 James R. Colebrook1998 Natasha Laurier1998 Joseph M. Leveson1998 Samuel A. Michaelides1998 Clinton B. Mitchell1998 Robert J. Nevill1998 Luisa Newman

1998 Yuya Nishida1998 Thomas G. Perrin1998 Craig E. Prescott1998 Michael J. Rawlings1998 Wing-Guy Tang1998 James W. Targett1998 Sophie Waters1999 Peter H. Embling1999 William A. J. Fletcher1999 Daniel R. Gilson1999 Daniel Graves1999 Anan K. Mallick1999 Krishan Ramyead1999 Benjamin T. Rodney2000 Andrew Chandraraj2000 Daniel J. Egerton2000 Andrew M. Fine2000 Robert J. Garber2000 Jonathan Grossman2000 Benjamin J. Hibberd2000 Christopher J. Hudson2000 Timothy A. Leek2000 Robert Lerner2000 Nicholas C. Marks2000 Holly C. Ripper2000 Alexander Schilling2000 Kim A. Simmonds2001 Jonathan N. Bateman2001 Jenny E. Brooke2001 Edward Lowe2001 Andrew Malkin2001 Erol Mehmet2001 Thomas Mobbs2001 Oliver Overton-Morgan2001 Samuel Thimbleby2002 Matthew I Davis2002 Richard J. Gibson2002 Graham Heap2002 David A Hine2002 Thomas E Korn2002 Jonathan Newell2002 Michael P. Wright2003 Marc D Dobber2003 Christopher J. Elwick2003 Andrew W Fyvie-Rae2003 Ashley S Guy2003 Alexander Lesseps2003 George K. Mobbs2003 Callum M. Redfern2003 Fiaz Siddiqui2003 Cameron J Spowart2003 Denny Wong

2004 James J Goldman2004 Joshua S Green2004 James M Gundry2004 Nicholas A Hepburn2004 Sophie Knight2004 Daniel N Korn2004 Frederick J. Motson2004 James Noorani2004 Mark A Rundle2004 Christopher J. Taylor2004 Gemma N. Wolff2005 Adil L Khan2005 Christopher Stephens2005 Rory G. Young2006 Cem Aytacli2006 Colin Hockings2006 Orion Modebe2006 Oluwabusayo B Taiwo2007 James O. Barker2007 Daniel J Cornell2007 Jonathan C. Simmonds2007 David L. Wilson

Waifs & StraysIf you know the current whereaboutsof the following, please let Kate orme know

Telelephone:01727 814 391E-mail:[email protected]

● Professor J (Jack) Goody (38)writes to say that he has just had his90th birthday and his brotherRichard Goody (39) came over fromthe USA for the celebration. Richardhas been elected to an HonoraryFellowship at St John’s College,Cambridge.

● Brian Donne (40) left school to jointhe banking fraternity where heworked for eight years. He thenentered Fitzwilliam and CheshuntColleges, Cambridge in 1951 andcompleted his post-graduate degreein Theology in 1953. In that year, hisbook Christ Ascended: A study in thesignificance of the Ascension of JesusChrist in the New testament waspublished by Paternoster Press. In2007, Scottish Academy Press,Edinburgh republished the book forinclusion on the Internet. ProfessorStanton, Lady Margaret’s Professor ofDivinity at Cambridge, suggested itsrepublication and wrote a foreword.It is recommended to clergy andteachers and can be found at the webaddress at the bottom of the page.

● Nicholas Tarling (41) went fromschool to Christ’s College, Cambridgewhere he was awarded a Ph.D. Hemoved to the University ofQueensland and whilst there hewrote three books relating to theMalay world. 1965 saw him as theAssociate Professor of History at theUniversity of Auckland where in 1968he became a full-time professor. Hewas President of both the New

Zealand Asian Society and theAssociation of Teachers of NewZealand. He was appointed to theQueen Elizabeth the Second ArtsCouncil, Chairmanship of theSymphonia of Auckland andDirectorship of Opera New Zealand.He was awarded Litt.D. by bothCambridge and AucklandUniversities and was made a Memberof the New Zealand Order of Merit.

● Robin Ollington (47) adds to hismany publications in his latest bookSt Albans School at War 1939-45,which is available from the SchoolDevelopment Office (see page 27).

● Stephen Hawking (59) has added tohis many accolades by being awardedthe Presidential Medal of Freedom,the USA’s highest civilian award. Hereceived the medal from PresidentObama, who said: “from hiswheelchair he has led us on ajourney to the farthest and strangestreaches of the Cosmos. In so doing,he has stirred our imagination andshowed us the power of the humanspirit.”

● Richard Lupton went from Schoolto Sandhurst and was thencommissioned into the GreenJackets. He served in NorthernIreland and has now left the army.Richard is not well yet has becomeinvolved in ‘Help for Heroes’, acharity for the benefit of soldiers whohave been wounded or injured. InMay he took part in the ‘Band of

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www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/sap/pdfbooks/ChristAscended.pdf

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Brothers’ bike ride around the WW2battlefields of France, personallyraising around £4,000 of the £500,000generated by the event. In less thantwo years, ‘Help for Heroes’ hasraised nearly £23 million, and youcan find a report of the bike ride atwww.helpforheroes.org.uk

BirthsIt is a great pleasure to announcethat Stephanie, wife of Justin Pollard(86), gave birth to their seconddaughter, Felicity Aelith, on 29thSeptember 2009.

DeathsIt is regret that the following deathsare announced:

● Frank Kilvington, Headmaster ofSt Albans School from 1964-1984, diedon Sunday 11th October after a longillness.�An obituary by MikeHighstead appears overleaf.

● Stuart Ogilvie (28), a Past Masterof the OA Lodge, died on 15th July2009, aged 97. His daughter Jill wroteto say how proud he was to haveattended the school, that he had keptall his school reports and wore hisOA tie with pride. He gave his sportscolours to his granddaughter.

● Raymond Hughes MBE (31),another Past Master of the OA Lodge,died on 14th August 2009, aged 95years.

● Rev. James Pollard (32) died earlierthis year. Jim Pollard was a man ofgreat faith and achievement. Regular

readers of the OA Bulletin will haveread, over the years, much aboutthese achievements as they weremade. He was a devoted family manand the death of his wife Rita was adevastating blow for him. He was anenthusiastic and generousgrandfather and very proud of hisgrandchildren. Jim won a scholarshipto the school and became headChorister from 1936-7. He went on tobe appointed Assistant Organist atWesley’s Chapel, City Road, London.After school he worked for theNational Provincial Bank and thenjoined the Royal Engineers in 1944,being invalided out in 1947. Hesubsequently took theologicaltraining and had many and variedministries after which he began along association with Merseyside.Thereafter he worked for the LeprosyMission in the North West until 1990.From the 1960s to 2002 he was theReligious Services Producer of RadioMerseyside, and his success wasrewarded when he was received bythe Queen Mother in 2000 when hepresented her with a CD of thebroadcast he had made to celebrateher 100th birthday. He also enjoyedthe Royal Maundy Service inLiverpool Cathedral and meeting theQueen to present her with hiscollection of Bishops’ signatures.This is but a snapshot of his life: thefull obituaries are in the Archive forthose who wish to read them.

● Richard L Beckett (41) died on 11thAugust 2009 following a long periodof ill health.

● Derek C M Giddings (47) died on8th June 2009.

● Dr. Anthony Harrison-Barbet (55)died peacefully on 29th May 2009aged 70. After enjoying five veryhappy years at the school from 1950-55 he went on to the universities ofDublin (Trinity) (MA), Gottingen(DAAD Stipendiat), Oxford(Magdalen) and Sussex (D.Phil). Hisachievements include Housemasterat Westbourne School, Chichester,and Founder and Director ofVerulam Tutorials, the VerulamInstitute and the Verulam Society.

From 1988 to 1994 he was a teacherat Bandon Grammar School, andfrom 1998-9 lecturer in ContinentalPhilosophy at Trinity, Dublin and in1989 Honorary Visiting Fellow atUniversity College, Cork. Hisdaughter Cliona tells us that healways followed developments at theschool over the years and proudlybelonged to the Old Albanian Club.

A full obituary can be found atwww.philosophos.com in the‘Philosophy Lovers Gallery’, and afascinating account of his time atschool, extracted from hisautobiography, appears on page 28.

● John Nicholas Lawson died on 30thOctober at home with his family,aged 77. He always kept in touchwith school news via the Alumnimagazine and had happy memoriesof his time there where he wasencouraged to follow his interest andskill in art. This culminated in a longcareer as a stained glass artist - firstat Faithcraft in St Albans, and then

more than 30 years as the chiefdesigner for the London StudiosGoddard & Gibbs. He leaveshundreds of windows both here andabroad (including WestminsterAbbey).

After being born and brought up inSt Albans he then lived in LeverstockGreen for the next 48 years with hiswife Frances, and three children.

ObituaryFrank Kilvington 1924-2009Headmaster 1964 to 1984

Frank Kilvington was born in WestHartlepool in 1924 and died on the11th October 2009 and between thesetwo dates a remarkable life was todevelop.

He began his education atRosebank Preparatory School whencehe was awarded a scholarship toRepton where it became apparentthat he was a very gifted student – hehad passed his School Certificatewhen aged twelve.

From there he went to CorpusChristi College, Oxford, to readGreats but, as with many young menat that time, he spent only sixmonths at university before goinginto the forces – in his case into theRNVR as a Sub-Lieutenant. After hisinitial training he joined a Lease-Lend Destroyer, HMS Kilchrenan,and spent the next two years huntingU-boats off the West African coast.

Towards the end of the war, beinga good German and French speaker,he was posted to Hamburg to join theNaval Control Commission for twoyears. Before he left he asked to meet

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his Repton Headmaster, MichaelClarke, who invited him to lunchtogether with his daughter Jane.There began his first love and he andJane began a correspondence duringthe two years he spent in Germany.On his return he resumed his studiesat Oxford and graduated with anHonours Degree in Greats in 1948.

That year saw him appointed toWestminster School as AssistantMaster and Housemaster of a DayboyHouse. He and Jane were marriedsoon after, in 1949, whilst she wasstill a medical student at theMiddlesex Hospital. During the midfifties Sally and John were born andin 1957 Frank was given a BoardingHouse, Rigauds, where he stayed asHousemaster until he leftWestminster in 1964 to come to StAlbans.

He was particularly interested inSt Albans because it was a DirectGrant School; his application wassuccessful and he becameHeadmaster in 1964 and here beganhis second love – the School, allwithin it and all it stood for.

The 1960s and early 70s saw muchchange and many challenges in theworld of education, some externallyimposed and others internaldevelopments. 1968 saw the openingof the New Hall and the expansion ofDrama and Music. Later followed thebuilding of the Technical Centre, theconversion of part of School Housefor use as a Sixth Form Centre andthe Old Hall modification to allow ahall to be established at first floorlevel, this later to become the SchoolLibrary. During the same period he

created new posts in the School –Heads of Sixth Form and MiddleSchool and Professional Tutor beingamongst these. This restructuring ledprogressively to the changing way inwhich the School was managed.

During this time competition fromother schools was becoming greater,the curriculum was expanding andthe catchment area growing; thesechanges were taken in his stride. Hemade sure that the School spreadmore widely into the community andsome more Friday afternoonactivities were introduced into whathad once been the preserve of theCCF. These included the DEAS andSocial Services, both of which in partinvolved boys going into hospitalsand the homes of elderly people togive assistance. There were manyfirsts during this period, not leastamong them was his vision insupporting the acquisition andexpansion of Pen Arthur, the FieldCentre, and its inclusion in theformal curriculum allowing First

Frank Kilvington with wife Jane

Form boys to visit during theSummer Terms. All of these changestook place in a relatively short periodof time and required a lot ofattention to be given to them. Butthere was more to come.

In 1977 the Direct Grant wasabolished by the Government of thetime and, although this was replacedby the Assisted Places Scheme in1980 by an incoming Government of adifferent colour, the School was notconfident that it would last and,indeed, it was scrapped after afurther change of Government in1997. Even though the date could nothave been foreseen in Frank’s time,the decision not to take up manyplaces in the Scheme proved to be awise one. The inexorable route toindependence had begun.

Something else was happening aswell. The more rigid discipline of the‘50s and early ‘60s was giving way toa more relaxed approach. Changes instyles of dress, haircuts and generalbehaviour were evident but Franktook these in his stride, as he hadthose other changes mentionedpreviously. Because he valued theindividual and always looked for thebest in everyone he kept his Schoolin good spirit, his manner beingbenign and encouraging, and thisearned him wide respect from boysand staff alike as the great number ofletters received by Jane testify.

The restructuring of the Schooland so many changing social andpolitical attitudes all took placeduring his time, but his energy andgeneral aura of calm never left him,and he saw the School through these

changes with confidence and success.This did not, however, see him losingsight of the need to keep onpromoting the School in the widercommunity. To this end he becameactive in a number in local spheres.The Achaeological and ArchitecturalSociety made him their Secretary andPresident, he joined the Rotary Club,was a Trustee of Kentish’sEducational Foundation, Chairmanof the Marriage Guidance Council,and later of the CAB, and a frequentvisitor to our catchment schools.Added to these was the involvementof the school with Heathlands Schoolfor the Deaf and the Youth TrainingScheme. Amid all this activity he stillfound time to make extensiveresearches into the school’s historyleading to the publishing of his bookA Short History of St Albans Schooland also resulting in theaccumulation of a large variety ofdocuments now in the SchoolArchive.

On his retirement he had moretime to spend on his birdwatching,

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Frank Kilvington

about which he was very keen andknowledgeable, and also to spendtime working in the Abbey Archivewhich he did for ten years. Afterthat he assisted researchers atLondon University by translatinginto English many Ancient Greekand Medieval Latin texts. This hecontinued doing until he was eighty.He and Jane, members of the familyand some friends were able tocelebrate their Diamond WeddingAnniversary in August this year.

He left a rich legacy. How luckywe were to have such a scholar, sucha gentle man and such a gentlemanas our Headmaster. He will last longand affectionately in the memories ofthose who were with him during histwenty years at St Albans School.

Mike Highstead

The MuseumMany items keep coming into themuseum and all are very welcome.Recently, J A J Walker (43) has givenus 98 copies of The Albanian, and aDaily Mail article on TommyHampson and his Olympic goldmedal for us to copy. In addition, hedonated a remarkable collection ofdocuments relating to his entry tothe school – rising times, breakfast,prep times etc – and copies of the1934-35 athletic events and results.

The museum develops slowly butsurely and it is thanks to NigelWood-Smith, who has joined me as a‘developer’, that we now have fulldisplay cabinets – although not intheir final form – and that we aregetting a lot of ‘OA family tracings’done.

St Albans Schoolat WarPloughing, stretcher bearing, potatopicking, water purifying, harvesting,fundraising, home guarding, aircraftspotting, trench digging, hedgelaying, panzer stopping, firewatching… not shown in theprospectus, but all part of a wartimeeducation at St Albans School.

This fascinating book collectsmemories from 50 ‘Old Albanians’and also pupils evacuated to StAlbans from Hastings GrammarSchool. It tells the story of thoseyears when for the first time in itslong history, the School became partof the ‘Home Front’ with the threatof air raids and invasion. Educationcontinued, however, punctuated withthe odd alarm, episodes of humour,total disregard for health and safetyand, of course, the sadness ofsacrifice.

Copies can be obtained from the

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Development Office at a cost of £15.00+ £2 postage and packaging, bycontacting Kate Le Sueur on 01727814 391 or:[email protected]

Carols on CD■ A CD of the 1958 School CarolService has been produced by JohnEllerton (64), and is on sale to OAs for£10.00 via the Development Office

The recording was originally made ona reel-to-reel tape recorder (borrowedfrom the Modern Languagesdepartment) positioned in the organloft with a microphone hung from animprovised boom in the Chancel.Whilst some of the tracks are sadlydeficient in quality due tobackground noise and limitations ofthe recording equipment, other trackssurprise with their power andprecision. Above all, there is nomistaking the authentic sound andatmosphere of the School and Abbeyin the late 1950s.

School blazer,anyone?Emrhys Barrell (66) is looking for anold School Blazer, of the stripedvariety. Does anyone have a spare intheir loft which they would bewilling to sell? If so, please get intouch via the Development Office.

St Albans School inthe 1950s■ Excerpts from the theautobiography of Dr Anthony WaltonHarrison-Barbet recording his time atSt Albans School

In the 1950s, St Albans School was inthe top rank of English schools andhas remained so to the present day.Indeed the ’fifties were to be vintageyears – though hardly through anycontribution I may have made. Ayear or two ahead of me was ColinRenfrew, destined to become one of

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Brain Teaser■ Frank Deamer has sent us another fiendish brain teaserAnswer on page 44

The vicar is outside church as the curate, who has been taking theservice, comes out. “How many today?” he asks the verger. “Only three,”replies the verger, who continues “and the product of our ages in wholeyears, is 87837.” Intrigued, the vicar tries to calculate the individual agesof the congregation but is unable to do so. When he tells the verger this,the latter says “Oh, no! Well, you know my age, and I am the oldest ofthe four of us.”

How old are they all?

Britain’s top archaeologists, DisneyProfessor at Cambridge and Master ofJesus College (and now LordKaimsthorn). A couple of years belowme was Stephen Hawking, now aworld-famous cosmologist, author ofA Brief History of Time and LucasianProfessor of Mathematics atCambridge (a Chair once occupied byNewton). Between such twin peaksmy own achievements were to berelatively insignificant. But I was toflourish in that environment –described in Gribben and White’sbook about Hawking as “perfect forcultivating natural talent”.

Early in 1950, full of apprehension,I arrived in School House to face W TMarsh, OBE, MA a former classicalscholar of Queen’s College,Cambridge, and one of the school’smost outstanding headmasters ofrecent times, perhaps even since therefoundation. The interview tookplace in his study in School Houseearly in 1950. Fortunately, myanswers to a few general knowledgeand algebra questions must havesatisfied him that I had sufficientnous to be able to cope with therigours of the school curriculum, forI was duly offered a place. In hisletter to my father dated 1st Marchhe wrote: “I hope your young manwill be happy and successful with us.I discovered that he had plenty ofquick wits about him but that he isnot overfond of games, and he saidhe liked being a boarder which is agreat point towards happiness!” Ientered St Albans School at thebeginning of the summer term. And,looking back, although I could not

have appreciated it at the time, I seemy six years as a boarder in SchoolHouse as a happy, stable, andenormously influential period of mylife.

I was quite content with the dailyroutine. We were called by theMatron at 7.30, breakfast was ateight, and then after bed-making andtidying up it was off to school forAssembly at nine. Hymns were sunglustily by the six hundred or socrammed into the Hall and aroundthe gallery, and the School Prayer(dating back to the refoundation) wasread by a prefect. In the presence ofthe Headmaster this was generally astressful experience for the reader; ifany mistake was made he would berequired to start over from thebeginning. Several times a week themorning assembly was held in theCathedral, thus giving us theopportunity to hear some splendidorgan music – I remember inparticular Bach’s Toccata and Fugue(not to everybody’s taste of course).

The school uniform was basic –grey suits (short trousers initially: wewere allowed ‘longs’ in, I think, theSecond or Third Form) and themulticoloured school tie. In thesummer we could wear a similarlystriped blazer (blue and black withthinner red and yellow lines).Boarders could also wear boaterswith a striped boater band. Today itwould be considered pretentious, butI loved having one perched on myhead when I went down to theBelmont field to swim or play cricket.

Our dormitories (euphemisticallynamed after hotels – Ritz, Savoy,

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Dorchester) were tolerable, albeitbare and almost unheated. The brickwalls were painted light and darkgreen, and the beds were comfortableenough. We could read or chatbefore lights out. One year a few ofus got hooked on crystal sets, whichwe made in matchboxes. The aerialwas attached to the bedsprings, theearth to the water pipe. (This musthave been about the time thatHawking, a day-boy, was building hisown computer. That’s a measure ofthe difference!).

As for games, there was alwayssomething going on. There were twoor three afternoons a week scheduledfor Rugby football in the winter andspring terms, and for athletics,cricket, tennis, or swimming in thesummer. Throughout the year therewas also PT in the Hall. Additionallywe had the opportunity for basketballin the upper playground, and therewere occasional cross-country runs.(In my first year many of thesegames sessions were in fact spentstone-picking on the new King HarryLane field.) I lived up toexpectations, participating fully butshowing no great competence. Thiswas arguably a handicap in theHouse where considerable emphasiswas laid on sporting prowess. Therewas always great rivalry incompetitions between the various‘houses’. Teams from School House,urged on by Marsh, and fromWoollams, generally emergedvictorious against the day-boys.

School House was of course noholiday camp. The formidable WTMran a tight ship – as one would

expect of a former Royal NavyLieutenant-Commander (a nicknamefor him commonly used in the schoolduring the ‘forties was “Stoker Bill”).Described by many Old Boys asabsolutely terrifying, he terrified myparents too. In my second year itbecame evident to some of the staffthat I was myopic. Marsh rang myparents. “Marsh here. The boy can’tsee; come and get him”, he barkedperemptorily down the telephone.They did so, and were relieved to findI had not been struck blind. After Ihad been fitted with spectacles by mylocal optician, my father rang Marshto inquire whether I might stay theweekend at home. “What! No, hemust return at once”, was theuncompromising reply.

Life in the House for the most partwas thus not uncongenial. But wedid of course operate within adisciplined framework. And much ofthe responsibility for maintaining‘law and order’ was devolved to thehouse prefects. While the use of thecane was confined to WTM (rarely)and the housemasters (morefrequently), many of the prefectswere quite expert in applying theback of a hairbrush to pyjamacovered buttocks. There was alsosome ‘fagging’, but this was not onthe scale of anything that occurred inschools such as Eton, Harrow, orWinchester. The duties of the juniorswere confined to such menial tasksas washing the seniors’ Rugby kit inthe footbaths of the changing roomnext to the JCR, and occasionallypreparing tea and toast. On thewhole, however, provided we toed the

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line, we were generally fortunatewith the housemasters and matronsresponsible for our well-being. JohnWillé in particular comes to mind. Hewas an outstanding maths teacher inthe school and totally committed tohis responsibilities in School House,ably assisted by O C Buck.

I settled quickly enough intoschool life, but my first term was noteasy. Forms were streamed (A, B,and C). I was placed in 1A. However,being only just eleven I was wellbelow the average age of the classand found it a bit of struggle to keeppace. At the end of that summer termI was thirtieth out of thirty-three inthe examinations. It was thereforedecided – sensibly – that I shouldremain in the First Form for anotheryear. From then on all went well.

When the time came for me to takethe GCE in 1955, in Form 5A, I waswell enough prepared and passed inboth Elementary and AdditionalMaths, as well as in Chemistry,Physics, English Language, EnglishLiterature, French, and Geography –in fact in all the subjects I had satfor. Much of my success was due tothe teaching staff. Over the yearssince the First Form I had passedthrough many hands. But as far asspecific preparation for O levels wasconcerned a few masters deservespecific mention. Geoffrey Pryke wasoutstanding for physics andchemistry. He had himself been a boyat the school and returned to teachafter he had taken his degree. Wewere fortunate too in having P RHeather for English. He was theauthor of several text-books and

instilled in us a sound grasp ofgrammar and a sensitivity tovocabulary. J R Stephenson taughtFrench excellently. I also was given asound grounding in Latin by A JColes, though I did not sit the O levelexamination at this stage. Westgarth-Walker was our geography master.(He frequently delighted inreminding us of the cold baths andcross-country runs he hadexperienced as a boy at Sedbergh.)

Unfortunately, my academic futurewas not to be decided at St Albans.Shortly before the end of theChristmas term Dad told me that Iwould be leaving. His financialcircumstances made it no longerpossible for him to pay the schoolfees. Instead I now found myselfsaying goodbye to staff and fellowpupils, bidding farewell to theancient Abbey Gateway and toSchool House, and in the spring termstarting at a new school at a crucialstage in my school career.

The original article is alsoavailable to download from the OAwebsite, www.OAConnect.co.uk, or acopy can be obtained by post fromKate Le Sueur in the DevelopmentOffice.

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Please send all items for inclusion in the Gazette to:Mike Highstead,33 Cornwall Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 4TQ

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Who are they?■ Ian Murray thinks he’s identifiedthe mystery pupils featured on thefront cover of the last Bulletin

I am nearly certain that the pupils onthe front picture are Poovan Naidoo,and Philip Dale. They are both in thepicture on p16, along with GEP, and,far right, Wayne Dumpleton, a cross-country star. Perhaps Nigel Wood-Smith knows more certainly.

Athletic support■ David Phillips adds further insightsto some of the recent recollections ofschool athletics in the 1950s

Recent recollections of athletics inthe 1950s included a suggestion thatthe arrival of the Cambridge ‘blue’, JM K Finley, to teach at the school

was entirely a personal decision bythe headmaster, W T Marsh, and Iam sure this was so. Finley had wonthe Oxford v Cambridge 100 yards in1950 and the 220 yards in 1952, andthough he was never quite ofinternational standard he wasn’t faroff – he ranked 9th fastest at 220yards in Britain in the latter year.Despite this background I don’t recallhim playing any significant role incoaching the athletics team. Hecertainly turned up from time to timeat the King Harry sports field in aCambridge tracksuit and did somestarting practice, which some of usthought was a shade pretentious, butit was John Willé who was the coach,and he performed the function in anagreeably affable manner.

It might surprise those who recallthe headmaster’s somewhat fulsomegirth that he was an excellent athletehimself in his youth. He won the

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Sports Day 1954: R. E. Pahl winning the long jump with a new School record of 21ft 0in

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Cambridge University three miles in1921 in a time of 14min 52sec and TheTimes reported: “W T Marsh createda surprise by beating W R Seagrovein the three miles, the time being thebest since 1904”. Seagrove was a veryreputable athlete indeed who hadplaced 6th in the Olympic Games5,000 metres in 1920. At the Inter-Varsity match a fortnight laterMarsh was defeated by EvelynMontague, of Oxford, in a slightlyslower time, and though this mighthave been a disappointment to him itwas certainly no disgrace. Montaguewas another who competed in theOlympic Games and, coincidentally,also had a 6th place, in thesteeplechase of 1924. He later becamethe athletics correspondent of theManchester Guardian.

W T Marsh also ran in the Inter-Varsity cross-country matches of1920, when he was 4th, and 1921,when he was 3rd and captainedCambridge to a one-point victory. No

doubt he took some satisfaction inthe 1950s when Old Albanians atCambridge won both the three milestrack race and the cross-countryevent against Oxford. John Knopf seta record of 14min 12.2sec in the threemiles in 1954. Then Mike Palmer, themost accomplished of all OldAlbanian athletes, won the cross-country in three successive years,1956-57-58. Not only that but on thelast of those occasions the Oxfordman who came in 2nd was PaddyMontague, nephew of W T Marsh’sconqueror of 37 years before.

Rock on■ Still rocking: John Foster (83) hasblown the cobwebs off his guitar andis gigging again with local St Albansparty covers band ‘Juan More’

When I was a firmly mediocre(mediocria firma?) student at theschool (76-83) I spent my spare time –

The JuanMore line-up, withJohn Fosteron the farright of thepicture

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largely during lessons – trying tomaster how to draw the AC/DC logoon my rough book cover (at the timeof publication I will have relived theexperience of seeing them live at thenew Wembley stadium, 30 years afterseeing them at the old one!) – nevermanaging to get it quite right, andday-dreaming about rocking the freeworld.

The band I was in at that time,with fellow alumni MatthewWarburton, William Dean and CharlieLefeber – never had a fully adoptedname (rather harshly being dubbed“the John Foster ego-trip” by NigelRoper) and we had our only publicperformance, which was at the schoolmusic competition, under the name‘the Steaming Beatroots’, with NeilMacEwan joining us as guest vocalist.

Our version of Black Sabbath’s‘Paranoid’ got us precisely nowhere,and we split, being too apathetic anddisinterested even to have musicaldifferences.

In the era of the re-formed band ithas occurred to me that we mightenjoy a resurgence on the ‘retro’ tidecurrently bringing the likes of SimpleMinds, Take That and The Nolans (!)back into our lives, but I realise thatin order to have a resurgence therehas to have been a surgence(?),which in our case was sadly lacking.

After leaving school I was in aband called Ideal Dave and theSuperbs, with ex-Habs andCambridge University cricket captainDave Price and two ex-St Columbans– and we enjoyed a short, but highlyenjoyable stint playing at variousuniversities and parties. Anyone who

has one of the 200 copies of ourcassette album ‘Bounce Down’ issitting on a highly prized item(completely worthless of course!).ID&tS scattered to the four winds(Australia, Japan, Chalfont St Peter)and I got married and had three kids,effectively moth-balling my guitar forthe next 14 years!

28 years after ‘Paranoid’, I amenjoying a mid-life (crisis) revisitationof those early, heady days, having forthe last six years been in a partycovers band called ‘Juan More’ –playing parties, weddings, summerballs and the like. We have even, on anumber of occasions, played at themagnificent Woollams clubhouse!

No AC/DC in the set, but plenty ofother classics from 60s right throughto the present day – with one songremaining from the ‘Beatroots’ days –a version of Comfortably Numb toindulge the class of ’79 in somedepressive Pink Floyd nostalgia!

For those interested in a musicaltrip down memory lane, we can beseen playing locally at pubs in andaround St Albans – so if you fancy anevening out with some live music,come on down! For more info onJuan More, and to hear a few demoMP3s, we have a webpage onwww.lemonrock.com/juanmore.

Making headlines■ St Albans schoolboy pranks makethe national press in this cutting fromthe Daily Mail of Tuesday 12th March1957, sent to us by Ian K Watson (53)

I was sorting out old papers the other

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day and came across the presscutting below. It reminded me ofDavid Gambling’s article on page 39of the latest OA Bulletin. Typicallybanal journalistic embellishment tocall Froggy “Monsewer” and Percy“Stinks”.

In the second paragraph on page 33the writer gives the impression thatSchool House boarders also stayed onthe corner of Belmont Hill. That was,of course, a seventh house called“Woollams”. ‘Dad’ Reid washousemaster, a very nice man.Woollams was closed in the early1950s; I was there from 1944-46.

These reminiscences are great funfor me as I now dwell in ‘OldFartdom’. There’s a picture of myelder brother Hugh on page 51(School House 1944-49).

More on Williams■ Regular correspondent Anthony JLane (48) adds some further details tothe Wikipedia profile of literary giant,OA Charles Williams.

In a recent issue of the OA Bulletin,School Development Officer Kate leSueur introduced us to a mostdistinguished OA – “a literary giant”as he’s described – Charles Williams,1886-1945.

His output in different genres wasindeed amazing. To the Wikipediaentry which provided thisinformation I would just add that hewas noted too as something of anauthority on Dante’s Divine Comedy,on account of his book The Figure ofBeatrice.

Although I was familiar withCharles Williams, even being able to

claim that I’ve read two or three ofhis books and knew of his C SLewis/J R R Tolkien connectionthrough the Oxford literary circleknown as the ‘Inklings’, I had notpreviously heard that he’d attractedthe notice of T S Eliot and W HAuden, or that he was devoted toKierkegaard.

This means that I can nowconfidently claim that the “Williams”mentioned along with the names ofLewis and Kierkegaard in Auden’spoem A Thanksgiving must indeedbe our Charles – giving him, Isuppose, a kind of immortality.

In that poem Auden records theinfluence that had affected him onhis way through life, expressinggratitude to those who had helpedhim back to Christianity – CharlesWilliams among them, apparently.

Life after death■ Philip Watling (89) writes of a life-changing experience in hisautobiography

I attended the school between 1987and 1989 to do my A levels, beforegoing to the University of Londonuntil 1992. I then took ajob in South Londonuntil 1994 when I washit by a car. I have toldthis tale to one or twopeople at the school andthe library may haveobtained a copy of myautobiography. I evenpopped into the schoollast year, as I visited the

Abbey with my local Headway group,but there was no one there withwhom I could chat about my book.

In September last year I met anAmerican Teacher of English as aForeign Language. I visited Chinajust before Christmas to be with herand we returned to England inFebruary, as an engaged couple afterI proposed at midnight on ChineseNew Year’s Day – in Beijing!

Flight of a Lifetime (excerpt)After university I got my dream job, workingwith horses. All was going well until December1994 when my life changed forever. Crossingthe road on the way to work, I was hit by acar... I ‘died’! Since being hit by that car I wentthrough a period of great change and learntmany things; I had experiences I did notunderstand and saw things mankind maybeshould not see. I started writing these thingsdown. I will never preach to anyone, but whatstarted as an autobiography about my life, mydeath and my resurrection has evolved into atruly inspirational book, designed to motivatereaders to better themselves and help others.

Flight of a Lifetime (see webaddress above right) is a very goodread; it will make the reader laughand cry at the same time. In spite of

its theme, it is not amiserable book – Iwrote about my deathand made it funny!

I urge you to read thebook and be inspired;better yourself andthink about how youractions affect the world.It will cheer you upand, though it may not

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Author Philip Watling

change the world, it may makepeople’s perception of the worldchange. If enough people read it wemay all end up getting along andstop fighting – a book to end allwars?

Available on Amazon, Flight of aLifetime has the ISBN Number 978 184748 307 2, and the cover price is£7.99.

Calling the roll■ Frank Armour sends us somerecollections of his wartime classmates– and wonders how many are stillwith us

I write to thank you for sending me asurprise copy of the bumper copy ofthe OA Bulletin for June 2009. I thinkthe 55 pages are an all-time record,are they not!

I can still call the roll for Form 3AUpper – although I can’t recall whichyear it was in the thirties. Was it 1935or 1936? I remember that when warbroke out in 1939 it became the FifthForm, I think.

I can affirm that Dick Fookes (the

boarder) was killed in the war, aswere two or three others, mostly inNorth Africa in about 1942-43. I wascalled up in 1942, and after 12 monthsof radio training in Birmingham (sixmonths) and Bolton (four months) wewere sent out to India by troopship.It took three or four months fromLiverpool to Bombay, via the SuezCanal. After about three months‘leave’ there we went on to Calcuttato work on wireless maintenance,until the Japanese suddenlysurrendered. The very next morningwe were flown to Bangkok, where wefound hundreds of the POWs waitingfor us after their three or four yearsin the Burmese jungles as theirprison!

In Form 3 Upper I sat next to DickBeckett, of course. Dick was also stillwith us earlier this year when I had abrief contact by letter, although I’velost his address. I wonder how manyof that 24 or 25 still survive now? Imet John May one dark night inCalcutta in the forties!

I will not bore you with 20 or so ofthe names I can still recall!

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Philip in theTrauma Unit,The RoyalLondonHospital,December1994

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flight-of-a-Lifetime/7620224075?ref=ts

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Looking good■ Robin Farrar sends a brief reporton a strong opening to the seasonfor the club

After stumbling in their openinggame against Hertford, OARFC havemoved up the gears winning the nextthree fixtures on the trot in therevamped National Three Londonand South East League.

A fine 10-6 victory at Woollamsagainst a strong Bracknell outfit hasbeen the pick of performances to datewith a powerful contribution fromthe pack as illustrated by the actionshot below (by David Buxton).

OAs’ mission is to improve uponthe fifth place achieved in 2008/9 and,with their increased strength indepth, are fancied to compete

for honours.Regular success is also being

achieved across the other four seniormen’s teams, the Second XV havingestablished an awesome reputationfor big wins.

The Women’s sides have bothmade a sound start to the new seasonwhile the Mini and Junior sectionswith in excess of 600 members goesfrom strength to strength.

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The First XV in action against Bracknell. Above: OA Saints at the Garden Party lunch

Rugby

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Season with Dill ■ Richard Morgan looks back on asuccessful summer under returningcaptain Graham Dill

OACC has had a pretty goodsummer. In the Saturday SaracensHerts Cricket Leagues our 1st XI hadtheir highest position for a few years,finishing 12th out of 20 in Division 2,winning 8, losing 8 and drawing 3.Graham Dill returned to us from hisspell playing Home Counties Leaguewith Radlett to captain the 1sts andhis leadership was effective inimproving all-round performances.Our West Indian fast bowling all-rounder, Kwesi Roy, was with usagain and made telling contributions.Mainstays in the batting were Dill,Alf Rehman, Jon Smithers andSimon Gray. Bowling honours wereshared around and we occasionallyhad to rely on veterans Perry Halland Tom Preest. Dan Foster had agood first season in the 1st XI,successfully switching to slow leftarm from seam-up.

The 2nd XI had a poor season,being relegated down into Division 6,

and the 3rds and 4ths, in Divisions 11and 12 respectively, each finishedreasonably comfortably in the bottomhalf of those Divisions without toomany relegation worries.

On Sunday our two sides playingin the Chess Valley League hadmixed seasons, but it was good to seeseveral father-son pairs turning outin the Sunday 2nds. 12-year oldRichard Thrale was a star, top-scoring in one game with 40.

Andrew McCree is taking a restfrom Committee and is standingdown as Chairman. His battingaverage in the 2nds this season wasstill over 50, so we hope he will carryon playing, though.

We integrated another club thisseason into OACC. The Cavaliersfrom Harpenden became the OACavaliers and run as an autonomouspart of OACC running a Sunday sideand making best use of Woollams.

We’re always keen to hear fromthose who want to join us, at anylevel of skill or athleticism! Pleasecontact Richard [email protected] orAlf Rehman [email protected]

Richard Morgan

Cricket

Major successes■ Don Carnell reports on an excitingyear for the OA Golf Society undernew secretary Peter Dredge

Under the new secretary PeterDredge, 2009 has been an excitingand interesting year for the OA Golfsociety.

The first event, our annual golfmatch against Mid Herts Golf Club inMay, saw 16 OAs take on the mightof Mid Herts in a stableford pairscompetition. The result was a win forour hosts by 5½ to 2½, our onlywinners being Captain RickDraykard and Gareth Burger. It wasgood to have a master playing for thesociety.

Two weeks later the Captain’saway day was held at Gog Magog golfclub through the good offices of OAJohn Smith. The 30 members playedin a three ball competition with thewinners being Mike Lamprell, DerekIngham and Bill Catling and secondplace going to Tony Redford, Tony(Birdie) Draykard and GrahamHutson.

In June, 30 members fought it outfor the OA Cup (for genuine OAs)and the Dockree Trophy (for theantelopes i.e. non-OA societymembers) at Dunstable Downs. TheOA Cup went to Ross Murray oncount back from Graham Tate bothon 36 points with Jim Putterill thirdwith 35pts.

Our annual match against OldCholmeleians was held on Friday21st August at Mid Herts where 12OAs took on the best that OCs could

muster. For the first time in thisencounter the OAs triumphed by 4to 2.

Fresh from that success an OAteam of Stuart Watson, Ross Murray,Kevin O’Donaghue, Tony Clarke,Peter Dew and our secretary PeterDredge entered the Old Boys InterSchools Festival at Highgate. Thiswas a foursomes competition with allto score. Against teams from 11 otherschools the OAs again triumphed.Well done to them.

In early September Peter Dredgeorganised an away couple of days atThorpeness. This was the firstovernight trip for some time and itwas good to see 16 members makingthe journey to this Suffolk golfcourse. Consequently this event wasa great success with good weatherand keenly fought competition and Iam sure will be repeated next year.The winners on the first day wereDon Carnell and Bede Fox (anantelope) and on the second day ateam of Captain Rick Draykard,Colin Spur and Lewis Hawke.

Thanks to our Secretary, PeterDredge, it has been an exciting yearas well as a successful one for the OAGolf Society. He has providedsomething for everyone who aspiresto swing a golf club at whateverstandard and at many differentcourses. New members are alwayswelcome and if you would like to bekept informed of future events pleasecontact Peter on 01582 834572 oremail to [email protected]

Happy swinging.Don Carnell

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Game on■ OA Angling Society Secretary GeoffCannon reports on another successfulsummer of game fishing across theBritish Isles

Summer 2009 saw again the usualactivities of the Angling Club.

Following the end of the coarsefishing season, the game seasoncommenced starting with a troutfishing weekend in Norfolk andSuffolk followed by outings to thePiddle in Dorset, the Wye inDerbyshire and the loughs and riversin both north and south Ireland.

We also had a sea fishingexpedition from Poole in very roughweather and had to return to Pooleharbour where Adrian (again) caughta 5lb bass, the largest bass caught inthe harbour this year to date.

Now that the autumn and winteris approaching, the trout seasoncomes to a close and our thoughtswill again turn to our autumn visit toNorfolk.

Once again, any Old Albanian whois interested in joining our merryband, please do not hesitate tocontact Geoff Cannon.

Geoff CannonHonorary Secretary, OA Angling Club

Angling

The OA rugby squad that won the Herts 7s held at Woollams

Stepping up theladder■ Membership Secretary Sue Barnesreports on a highly season for OATennis, and invites players of all agesand levels to join the club

After their sixth season of competingin the Watford District League, theOA Tennis Club has are proud toannounce that they have gainedpromotion in all three of theirdivisions. The Men’s, Ladies andMixed A teams all won theirdivisions this season and will nowplay in Div, 3, Div 4 and Div 3respectively. It is now up to our newMixed B team to get off the ladder!So many congratulations to allmembers who have played for any ofthe teams.

The OA Tennis Club is situated atthe Old Albanian Grounds on theHarpenden Road. The tennismembers are privileged to play on

four fantastic astroturf courts, setwithin the magnificent grounds ofWoollams. We are a relatively smallbut friendly tennis club with roughly100 members, but we are lookingforward to increasing ourmembership. The current membersare made up of a combination ofJuniors, Coaching, Social and teammembers. We are fortunate to havetwo LTA trained coaches at the Cluband we will be pleased to welcome allnew players, whether they bebeginners, Juniors, Seniors and ofcourse, those who would beinterested to play in our successfulteams.

At the moment we are applying forfloodlights, which would make itpossible to play during the evenings,all the year round.

If you would like more informationon joining OA Tennis, please contactSue Barnes on 07970 301345 or athome in the evenings on 01727 868857.

Sue BarnesMembership Secretary

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The OA 1stV1 MixedTennisTeam, L toR: AnthonyDrexler,Matt Humeand JonnyBarnett;Tara Murray,Margi Edgeand SueBarnes

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Missing targets■ Club Captain Andrew Wilkiereports on a rollercoaster small boreseason – and the mysterious case ofthe targets that were lost in the post!

With results of an A and two Bs itlooks like we managed to pass theyear’s shooting test with heads heldhigh. The ‘results’ I refer to are thosefor three club members who havebeen selected to shoot for theHertfordshire County Reserves, ‘A’and ‘B’ Teams over the coming2009/10 winter season. The threeselected are Andy Moore, MorayMcMillin and yours truly. Here’slooking forward to a successfulwinter shoot.

The summer small bore seasonwas something of roller coaster. Ourteam average from the winter 2008/09season put us at the top of division 4,so in theory we were well placed andthe team to beat; but disaster struckfrom the off! For the first time that Ican remember in over forty yearsshooting our targets were ‘lost in thepost’ and failed to reach thedivisional scorer. So the net result forround one was ‘null point’, putting usfirmly in last place. By round twothings had improved and we foundourselves in third position where westayed until round five when weslipped into fourth, where we held onuntil round eight. Then it all changedand we leapt into second placefollowing round nine when the teamsin second and third place at roundeight lost their matches and failed toscore any points. Then, to everyone’s

surprise we beat the leading team inround 10 to snatch 1st place at thelast opportunity; an excellent result.

All we have to do now is beat ouraverage in the handicapped shoot offagainst the other divisional winnersand who knows we might lift thecounty trophy. Watch this space…

Full bore this summer has notproduced the results we would like toshout about. It does seem thatdespite a good showing we are upagainst teams from schools that havestrength in depth and internationalexperience to call on. That sort ofbackground takes nurture and yearsto evolve so we have some way to goand we haven’t really taken the firststep as yet.

Our final shoot of the year againstthe Old Alleynians took place atBisley on 3rd October in cold andwindy conditions. The result was awin for the Alleynians 360.22 to our354.19.

The annual dinner was held in theNorth London Rifle Club, CommitteeRoom. The wine and tales of shootingexploits flowed well and wereenjoyed by all. Many thanks to theAlleynians for making thearrangements at short notice afterour own club was found to have beenbooked for a wedding reception.

I am delighted to record that OwenSimmons found his way down to therange the other night to see if hecould remember what it was allabout. Seems that it’s like riding abike, and he does, so we look forwardto our President’s return tocompetitive shooting, possibly nextsummer.

Shooting

Hon Secretary O L Simmons2, Honeymead,WelwynAL6 0EG01438 840674

Hon Treasurer A Q S Moore69, LongFallow, StAlbansAL2 3ED01727 830344

Captain A W B Wilkie5, BatchwoodDrive, StAlbansAL3 5RZ01727 856857

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We start our Winter 2009/10 HertsSmall Bore Rifle League campaignback in division four. I shall makesure we don’t suffer from a secondlightning strike and with a numberof things going our way here’s to apositive start to the season.

If you would like to join us andshow us what you can do we can be

found at the school range on Mondaynights during term time; but you willhave to make contact before joiningus as we have to work our wayaround the school securityprovisions.

Good shooting.Andrew Wilkie

Hon Captain

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Brain Teaser SolutionThe answer is 3, 19, and 23 (the only factors of 87837 are 3, 19, 23 and 67. Theverger must therefore be 67).

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June 2009

● DEATHS:Kenneth Baycock (32)*, Jack Richardson (36), DavidHartley (38)*, Jim Pollard (41), Brian Banting (42), JohnChurch (44)*, Desmond Harper (48), Gerald Batty (49),Roger Euinton (55)*, Kenneth Langley (41)*, JamesDeekes (43)**Obituary● ARTICLES:26 School carols – John Ellerton28 Wheeler dealer – Steve Burgess30 History boy – Nick Tarling30 House music – Tony Fothergill31 A literary giant – Kate le Sueur32 Pet hate – Brian Davidson32 Sporting behaviour – The Berts36 More master memories (1) – The Berts38 More master memories (2) – David Gambling39 More master memories (3) – Guy Chapman40 No oil painting – Ken Garrett42 Underground attraction – John Hartley44 Finding a niche – Yann Lovelock46 Black books & blazers – Gavin Rowe50 A sword dancer remembers – Neville Gibbs

November 2008

● DEATHS:Donald Green, Kenneth Langley (41), Peter Saunders (44),John Sait (40s)*, Bill Groom (50), Alan Torry (53), JohnDaykin*, Michael Gaubert**Obituary● ARTICLES:19 50 year reunion20 Class of 88 – Justin Davidson21 Golden Daze – Nick Corble22 Mystery banker24 Hot stuff – Friendly Fires25 The Green Man – Maurice Cain26 Singapore Sailing – Chris Sykes27 Law unto himself – Michael Jones29 Old Masters – the Berts35 The triathlon experience – Jeremy Newby-Ricci36 60 years on – Brian Evans37 Remembering the fallen – Frank Amour

June 2008

● DEATHS:Richard Thrale*, Bryan Straker (46), George Cooper,

Peter van Horne (39), Alan Hawes, Peter D Smith*Obituary● ARTICLES:21 Starter for 1021 Memories of Pen Arthur – David Camplin

& Pat Taylor24 Centenary celebrations – Noel Cassidy28 Old Hall memories – Cliff Pope29 The persuaders – Angus Kinnear et al30 Brain teasers – Frank Deamer31 Forceps delivery – Robin Ollington32 Juggling work and life – Peter Knight33 In loving memory – Chris Dunkerley34 Lane honoured – Anthony Lane

November 2007

● DEATHS:Owen Buck (staff), Stanley Reece (32), Frank Drakard(35), Dick Taylor (43), Richard Stephenson (56), JBrehaut, Malcolm Garfield (70), David Cavenagh (79)*Obituary● ARTICLES:24 Jubilee day for class of 57 – Andrew Barnes26 A time for renewal or reminiscence – Tony Quance28 St Albans Old Albanians or zombies – Stephen

Burgess30 Life under the flag – Nick Hallet32 Miles back – Donald Green33 Warship week 1941 – Malcolm Mitchell34 Birds of a feather – Mike Harvey36 With and without engines – Tony Wadley

May 2007

● DEATHS:Lancelot Baenzinger (30s), Len Moody (37)*, RobertJudges (40), Anthony Holdham (40), Donald Plenderleith(41)*, John Timbers (50s)*, Anthony James (staff), PipMitchell (staff)*Obituary● ARTICLES:21 The class of 82 – Mike Peters21 Wight side of the law – Ian Pratt22 Where are they now – Stephen Burgess23 Early dinner – Brian Moody24 Acting the fool – Martin Evans25 Owers indepted – Colin Owers26 A gentle jibe – Stan Armstrong27 The summer of 37 – Cyril Mobbs28 Getting on – Dave Varty

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33 Out of Africa – Chris Smith35 Old Bangers – Alan Bridgman

October 2006

● DEATHS:Oliver Hunter(38), Len Druce (36), Dickie Deekes (40),David Freeman (55), Peter Andrew (staff), RogerCockbain*, Cliff Lavin (76)**Obituary● ARTICLES:24 Furlong marker – O M A Butler24 Memory lane revisited – Anthony Land27 Organ pipes and radio valves – Rupert Thorogood

May 2006

● DEATHS:Nicholas James, Alan Richmond (46)*, Michael Walker(48), Robert Padmore (80)**Obituary● ARTICLES:20 Cambridge in America – Colin Smith20 Six of the best – Patricia Buxton22 Flora marathon – Mike Harvey

October 2005

● DEATHS:Maurice Wiggs, Peter Evan, John Turner, Paddy Croker,Ralph Hines, Charlie Alliston, R Farquarson (50)**Obituary● ARTICLES:20 Getting connected – Mark Freeman20 Long live reconnection – Arthur Lewis21 Monty’s boy – Raymond Hughes21 Let’s hear it for WTM = Mike Walker22 Widening horizons – Anthony Lane

May 2005

● DEATHS:Leslie Hider (27)*, Peter Newbold, Sir Chbarles Pereira(31), Robert Blowers (33), Robert Plenderleith (35)*,Anthony Dorman (46)*, Michael Maloney (51), JohnRooley (57)*Obituary● ARTICLES:23 Reverend recognised24 The class of 97 – Davinia Ankerson25 Our man in Basra – Calvin Mann31 Chinese whispers – Ben Robson32 Old flames – David Buxton32 Road to Damascus – Tom Martin33 Morning prayers – Michael Millard35 Aces of rhythm – Trevor Forecast37 Athletic support – Bob Phillips

November 2004

● DEATHS:Bob Hunter (25), Gordon Penhey (28), Henry Farr (29),John Leggett (36), David Ashton-Davies (40s), John Bebb(46), B J N Newby-Galliers (38), Paul Newman (70), BillFernie (staff)● ARTICLES:26 Sir Thomas Spencer Wells – Robin Ollington27 Sixty years on – Os Butler28 Coming Home – Roger Seymour29 Our man in Basra – Calvin Mann34 Kong and little kong – John Hartley34 Face value – Geoffrey Munns35 Total recall – Miichael Thorp36 Fellow travellers – Rupert Thorogood37 Beery and happy – John Billington38 Memory lane – Anthony Lane40 Let’s band together – Trevor Tyson

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Documents

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westminster school

secretary julian

oa club

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oa dinner

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