Presidential Profile

Stuart W. Cummings (1965-69)

President 2020-21

following year. On arriving in Glasgow in 1973 to continue his studies, he joined Clarkston RFC, and ended his rugby days in 1998 after eight 52

Former Pupils’ Section seasons with the Brussels British Rugby Football Club. For more than fifteen years Stuart played for the Exiles in the annual Aberdeen Select vs. Aberdeen Exiles match on Boxing Day, captaining the side on three occasions.

A keen hillwalker, Stuart climbed his first Munro early on the morning of the longest day in 1976 to watch the sun rise from the summit of Ben Lomond. Over the next 35 years, despite the challenge of living most of his time in Brussels, Stuart continued his Munro odyssey, ‘compleating’ his final Munro, Stob Coire Sgreamhach, in Glencoe in 2011 in the company or more than fifty family members, friends and fellow hillwalkers.

Stuart is married to Catriona, a retired conference interpreter. She is a founder member of the Brussels Shakespeare Society and has acted in, directed and produced many plays during a 40-year involvement in Brussels amateur dramatics. Stuart and Catriona have two sons. Alistair works in marketing for a shipping insurance company in London and Andrew, who led a life of global adventure for many years including two years teaching primary schoolchildren in Cambodia, and who is currently studying electronic music production in Bristol.

Stuart has also been the driving force behind the very successful reunions of the ‘Class of 1969’ which started in 1999 and culminated in the 50th reunion in 2019. The reunion dinner on that occasion was held at the Royal Northern University Club and was attended by more than 50 former pupils and five former teachers.

Last year, together with four other ‘69ers, John Curran, David Smith, Philip Turberville and Nigel Watt, he co-authored a book, The ‘In’famous Five, with the subtitle, ‘Tales and Tributes from Five of the Class of 1969 at Aberdeen Grammar School’. The book recounts the authors’ memories of growing up in Aberdeen, their professional and sporting careers, and the lives of their antecedents in war and in peacetime while also reflecting on the bond that ties the authors together – the privilege of an Aberdeen Grammar School education. The book has recently been published on the AGSFP platform.

In retirement, Stuart and Catriona continue to live in Brussels and have recently both become Belgian citizens. Stuart enjoys writing odes, cooking, particularly Indian cuisine, and has built a reputation as a proficient quizmaster, running quizzes, both in person and more recently online, to support UNICEF and other charitable organisations in Brussels.

Centre Reports

Canada

At the beginning of 2020 preparations were underway to hold the 28th Canada Centre Reunion weekend in Ottawa in early September. With the onset of the pandemic plans for that gathering had to be cancelled and preparations for events beyond 2020 were also put on hold until the pandemic waned and travel regulations within Canada and cross-border with the USA returned to normal.

At the time of writing (June 2021) unrestricted travel has yet to be reinstated, although there are hopes that this will happen during the summer. With that prospect in mind we are exploring the possibility of organising regional one day gatherings in the regions where we customarily meet in September. We will then look forward to arranging a full reunion weekend in 2022. We will use the input we receive from forthcoming 2021 gatherings when planning the 2022 reunion and making a decision on its location.

In the absence of an annual reunion as the main event for the Canada Centre we have kept our membership up-to-date on FP matters by issuing three newsletters since the 2020 Magazine was published. In one of these we acknowledged the gift to the School of drafting tables and ancillary equipment by the family of Canadian FP George Porter Fowlie (19131916). We have also embraced the new FP Club website as a means of providing regular communication to our members and have committed to posting our newsletters there so that all members of the Club can read about our activities. Because of the vast geographical expanse of North America chance encounters between FPs are rare, so we are conscious of the opportunities our newsletters provide to inform fellow FPs of the many ways Canadian FPs have contributed to the growth and development of Canada.

Finally, we look forward to a post-pandemic world where we can gather together in person and toast the School and the Club.

Edinburgh

Last year’s Centre Report was compiled by long standing Centre Secretary James Rust who sadly died after a short illness in August 2020. Past Parent Club President, and former classmate of James, Gary Allan, composed an eloquent and touching obituary for inclusion in last year’s Magazine.

Former Pupils’ Section

The Centre has now been inactive for three years which, apart from World War 2, has been the only such period since its inception in 1932. Other Centres, notably London and Glasgow, have gone through a similar experience but have been resuscitated.

There is a willingness within the committee to facilitate social gatherings of FPs which will command sufficient support from the local membership and, to this end, FPs are respectfully invited to be in touch with the acting Hon Secretary (contact details below) with views on what type of gathering might be of interest to them, or indeed to indicate that they have no interest in such.

At present, there is no Annual Dinner of the Centre planned for 2021, but it is hoped to organise an informal get-together in the autumn similar to the one which had to be cancelled at short notice in March 2020.

In the absence of a formal AGM, which is traditionally held during the Annual Dinner, Nigel Watt continues as the Edinburgh Centre President and is also acting Honorary Secretary and Treasurer.

Any Former Pupil who is in the Edinburgh area, defined as the geographical boundary south of the River Tay and east of Stirling all the way south to the English border, or has recently arrived there and has not received any communication from the Centre, is invited to get in touch with Nigel G M Watt, 10 Ware Road, North Berwick, East Lothian EH39 4BN -Tel. 01620 890305, Mobile 07802404056, ngmwatt77@gmail.com

Glasgow

The Glasgow Centre has a small committee whose members meet about three times a year to catch up with relevant news from our members, news of the parent FP Club, Curling match details and make arrangements for the annual Dinner. We would be interested in having some social events to bring more AGSPs together and would be interested in any ideas. Our annual Dinner is an occasion to invite the FP Presidents from Edinburgh, York and London, as well as the Branch Presidents in Glasgow of the Aberdeen High School FPs and Gordonians to attend and for the Parent Club President to introduce themselves to the Glasgow Centre. Head Teacher, Alison Murison, attends and continues the practice of bringing one of the current senior Pupils to give an up-to-date report on the School. On occasions we have had guest speakers for the Dinners, this depending on our circulation of friends and acquaintances at the time. Many famous

and infamous characters have attended the Dinners, with Buff Hardie and Steve Robertson entertaining the 111 members and guests back in 2002. Unfortunately the numbers have been decreasing in recent years with fewer Former Pupils attending.

Looking back through our history it is important to recognise the value of our education at Aberdeen Grammar School and to reminisce the ‘good old days’ and rekindle old friendships. Some Year Groups have been involved in reunions and hopefully we will continue to encourage these events to take place all over the world.

The Centre fell into abeyance for a number of years in the seventies but thanks to two stalwarts in Basil Emslie and Andrew McLaren it was revived again at a General Meeting and Annual Dinner in November 1983 and dinners have continued since then until the Covid pandemic ruled them out.

Presidents of the Centre since 1981 have been Basil Emslie 1981-84, Andrew McLaren 1985-89, Peter Cairns 1990-92, Ian Ferguson 1993, Gary Allan 199496, David Reid 1997-99, David Allan 2000-03, Malcolm Daniel 2004-06, Stefan Colling 2007-10 and Malcolm Gauld from 2011.

London

In light of the ongoing Covid restrictions activities for the London Centre have been focussed primarily on getting the new Club website up and running. Currently there are around 100 FPs ‘tagged’ to the London Centre and the functionality of the new site will make communications with our group much easier going forward. We did experiment with an online ‘Zoom’ meeting of London members in April with twelve members present, and we were joined by the new FP President, Stuart Cummings, who provided a very informative update on the activities of the School and the FP Club.

In June a history of the London Centre was published on the AGSFP.com website and I would like to thank Nigel Watt, the Edinburgh Centre Secretary, for all his help in pulling this together from his archive of School Magazines. It was fascinating to learn how active the London Centre has been over its 112 year history and to see the pictures of packed function rooms. Let us hope that we can get back to having some further outings for our members before too long!