Club Office-Bearers 2021-22

Club Consuls

Australia – JIM W. HOWISON (1937-50), 98A Hull Road, West Pennant Hills, New South Wales 2125, Australia, E-mail: howison@tech2u.com.au Tel. 00 61-2-9875-1296

Australia – Dr. FORBES J. SMITH (1945-57), 242 Main Creek Road, Main Ridge, Victoria, 3928, Australia E-mail: forbessmith@alphalink.com.au Tel. 0061-3-5989-6234

Canada – GORDON B. SINGER (1949-50), 2421 Erlton Street SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2S 2V9 E-mail: singsing@shaw.ca ; Tel. 00 1-403-266-6448

Canada – DAVID R. AULD (1947-61), 2187 Lafayette Street, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8S 2P2 E-mail: davidauld@shaw.ca ; Tel. 001-250-595-0616

Corsica – IAIN WARES (1941-52), Via G.M. Angioy 34, Cagliari 09124, Sardinia, Italy. Tel. 0039-070-652508

Hong Kong – MARSHALL H. BYRES (1960-69), 2A Hatton House, 15 Kotewall Road, Hong Kong E-mail: marshall.byres@hk.ev.com ; Tel. 00852-2846-9878

Ireland – ANDREW M.M. STEVEN (1936-50), 5 Beechhill Avenue, Saintfield Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT8 6NS. Tel. 028-9070-2315.

United States – MICHAEL G. KING (1951-60), 1640 Williamsburg Way, Eugene, Oregon 97401-7836 USA E-mail: michaelking806@comcast.net Tel. 1-541-344-8931

Annual General Meeting

The One-hundred and seventeenth Annual General Meeting of the Club was held on Monday 29 March 2021 with Mr Alan Campbell, the Vice-President, in the Chair. By necessity, in view of the then prevailing Covid restrictions, the meeting was held remotely by Zoom. The Chairman reported as follows:

“This has indeed been a year like no other. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and restrictions have affected each and every aspect of life. Our AGM in March 2020 could not take place. We were right at the beginning of the first lockdown and Zoom was not, at that point, widely available. Members of the FP Club were kept up to date by way of email. Alan Marr, our President, was probably most affected by the restrictions as travel and attendance at events

which are the normal part of a Presidential year were all impossible. Alan will be reporting to this meeting as the demitting President and will outline an initiative he was unable to implement but which he will set about achieving when restrictions are lifted.

Aberdeen Grammar School, like every other, has had the most traumatic and interrupted year in its 700-year history. Our admiration and support go to the Head Teacher, staff and pupils as they face uncharted waters. All activities, such as our recently inaugurated Luther Kitson Smith golf initiative, have had to be suspended for the time being.

The Covid 19 lockdown brought fundamental changes in everyone’s routine. An unexpected but very welcome initiative was a decision by five of the class which left School in 1969 to compile a volume of their family histories, their time at AGS and their lives subsequently. Remarkably, this they have achieved in less than a year. A superb book of about 500 pages with many photographs relevant to the history of North East Scotland and changing times has been published privately.

The camaraderie of the School and the debt due to dedicated and inspirational teachers are recurring themes. The front cover of this handsome volume is a photo of the Staff in 1947. A copy was given to the School, and one to the FP Club. A full appreciation of this unique addition to our history will appear on our website very soon. The five authors are John Curran, Stuart Cummings (our President Elect at the time of writing this), David Smith, Philip Turberville and Nigel Watt.

The issue of the marketing of 86 Queen’s Road and 1 Bayview Road has been on the agenda for a number of years. Back in December 2017 all members of the FP Club were advised that the decision to market our Club Centre property at the beginning of 2018 had been taken after a great deal of heart-searching and exploration of alternative methods of achieving financial sustainability.

At that point, over three years ago, it was commented that times were very different from those days of fifty years ago when the Club Centre was first opened as our social club and a focus for our sports and other sections. Such social clubs have, for a good number of years, found it increasingly difficult to break even in the conditions which have prevailed over the last decade or so. Indeed it has only been through inspired leadership and a close eye on income and expenditure that the Club Centre has survived. It should be noted, however, that the Club Centre has been unable to make payments to the parent Club and the financial burden has been borne by the FP Club membership generally. Very significant payments have been made by the FP Club to the Centre over the last twelve years or so and ‘rent’ payments to the parent Club and to the Amenities Fund for use in the school have been deferred. Consequently FP Club finances have been unable to cope and interest-free loans amounting to some £80,000 have been received from generous FPs to tide over the FP Club pending a sale; 44